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The Way to Divine Knowledge

* The Dialogues between Humanus, Academicus, Rusticus, and Theophilus.

o The First Dialogue

o The Second Dialogue

o The Third Dialogue

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This electronic copy of William Law's Way to Divine Knowledge has been typed

by Warner White ([email protected], [email protected],

[email protected])from the 1974 Georg Olms Verlag (Hildesheim New York)

edition of The Works of the Reverend William Law. All of the works of

William Law dated from 1737 and on have also been typed up and are being

made available electronically. Notations have been added at the beginning of

each paragraph containing the abbreviated title (in this case "Way") and the

paragraph number to facilitate reference without depending upon a particular

pagination. The same has been done for the remaining works in the corpus

beginning with A Demonstration of theÖErrors ofÖa Late Book (etc.), 1737

(except for the final Letters to a Lady Inclined to enter into the Communion

of the Church of Rome (1779)). There is no copyright notice on the title

pages (or backs of the title pages) of the volumes from which these have

been typed; so presumably they are in the public domain and may be freely

circulated and used.

6/6/95

The Way to Divine Knowledge

being several

Dialogues between

Humanus, Academicus, Rusticus, and Theophilus

As preparatory to a new edition of the works

of Jacob Behmen; and the right use of them

by William Law, A.M.

London

Printed for W. Innys, and J. Richardson, in Pater-noster Row

1752

The Dialogues between Humanus, Academicus, Rusticus, and Theophilus.

The First Dialogue

[Way-1-1] Humanus. Oh! Theophilus, I must yield, and it is with great

pleasure that I now enter into conversation with you. You have taken from me

all power of cavilling and disputing. I have no opinions that I choose to

maintain, but have the utmost desire of entering further into this field of

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light, which you have so clearly opened to my view. I shall not trouble you

with the relation of what has passed in my soul, nor what struggles I have

had, with that variety of heathenish notions which have had their turn in my

mind. It is better to tell you, that they are dead and buried, or rather

consumed to nothing by that new light, which you have opened in so many

great points, that I was quite a stranger to before. To reject all that you

have said concerning the fall of angels, the original of this world, the

creation and fall of man, and the necessity of a redemption, as great as

that of the gospel, is impossible; nothing can do it, or stand out against

it, but the most willful and blind obstinacy.

[Way-1-2] But these great points cannot be received in any true degree,

without seeing the vain contention of all those, who either defend or oppose

the gospel without any true and real knowledge of them. The one contend for,

and the other oppose, not the gospel, but a system of empty words, and

historical facts, branched into forms and modes of dividing one church from

another; whereas the gospel is no history of any absent, distant, or foreign

thing, but is a manifestation of an essential, inherent, real life and death

in every son of Adam; grounded on the certainty of his first angelical

nature, on the certainty of his real fall from that into an animal earthly

life of impure, bestial flesh and blood, and on the certainty of an inward

redemption from it, by the divine nature given again into him. These three

great points, with all the doctrines, duties, and consequences, that are

essentially contained in, or flow from them, are the gospel of Jesus Christ,

to which, by your means, I am become a convert. I am now, dear Theophilus,

strongly drawn two different ways. First, I am all hunger and thirst after

this new light, a glimpse of which has already raised me, as it were, from

the dead; and I am in the utmost impatience to hear more and more of this

divine philosophy, which, I so plainly see, opens all the mysteries both of

nature and grace from the beginning to the end of time. What I have heard

from you, when I was obliged to be silent, and what I have since found and

felt by much reading the Appeal, and that Dialogue, obliges me to speak in

this ardent manner. They have awakened something in me which I never felt

before, something much deeper than my reason, and over which I have no

power; it glows in my soul, like a fire, or hunger, which nothing can

satisfy, but a further view of those great truths, which I this day expect

from your opening to us the mysteries of heaven revealed to that wonderful

man, Jacob Behmen.

[Way-1-3] On the other hand, I find in myself a vehement impulse to turn

preacher amongst my former infidel brethren; which impulse I know not how to

resist: For being just converted myself, I seem to know, and feel the true

place, from whence conversion is to arise in others; and by the reluctance

which I have felt in my passage from one side to the other, I seem also to

know the true ground on which infidelity supports itself. And he only is

able to declare with spirit and power any truths, or bear a faithful

testimony of the reality of them, who preaches nothing but what he has first

seen, and felt, and found to be true, by a living sensibility and true

experience of their reality and power in his own soul. All other preaching,

whether from art, hearsay, books, or education, is, at best, but playing

with words, and mere trifling with sacred things. Being thus divided in

myself, I hope to have your direction.

[Way-1-4] Theophilus. Dear Humanus, my heart embraces you with great joy,

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and I am much pleased with what you say of yourself. This hunger of your

soul is all that I wish for; it is the fire of God, the opening of eternity,

the beginning of your redemption, the awakener of the angelic life, the root

of an omnipotent faith, and the true seeker of all that is lost. For all

these things, and much more, are the blessed powers which will soon break

forth, and show themselves to be the true workings of this celestial fire,

that has begun to glow within you.

[Way-1-5] Your business is now to give way to this heavenly working of the

Spirit of God in your soul, and turn from everything either within you, or

without you, that may hinder the farther awakening of all that is holy and

heavenly within you. For within you is that heavenly angel that died in

paradise, and died no other death, than that of being hid a while from your

sight and sensibility.

[Way-1-6] For be assured of this, as a certain truth, that corrupt, fallen,

and earthly as human nature is, there is nevertheless in the soul of every

man, the fire, and light, and love of God, though lodged in a state of

hiddenness, inactivity, and death, till something or other, human or divine,

Moses and the prophets, Christ or his apostles, discover its life within us.

[Way-1-7] For the soul of every man is the breath and life of the triune

God, and as such a partaker of the divine nature; but all this divinity is

unfelt, because overpowered by the workings of flesh and blood, till such

time as distress, or grace, or both, give flesh and blood a shock, open the

long shut-up eyes, and force a man to find something in himself, that sense

and reason, whilst at quiet were not aware of. Wonder not therefore at this

conflict in your soul, that you are eager after more light, and impatient to

communicate that which you have. For you must be thus driven; and both these

desires are only two witnesses to this truth, that a heaven-born spirit is

come to life in you.

[Way-1-8] Only remember this; look well to the ground on which you stand,

keep a watchful eye upon every working of nature, and take care that nothing

human, earthly, private, or selfish, mix with this heavenly fire: that is,

see that your mind be free, universal, impartial, without regard to here or

there, this or that, but loving all goodness, practicing every virtue, for

itself, on its own account, because it is so much of God; neither coveting

light, nor longing to communicate it to others, but merely and solely for

this reason, that the will of God may be done, and the goodness of God

brought to life both in you and them. For there is no goodness but God's;

and his goodness is not alive, or fruitful in you, but so far, and in such

degree, as the good that you mean, and do, is done in and by that Spirit, by

which God himself is good. For as there is but one that is good, so there

is, and can be but one goodness. And therefore it is, that we are called not

to an human, worldly, prudential, partial goodness, suitable to our selfish

reason, and natural tempers, but to be perfect, as our Father in heaven is

perfect. And the full reason is expressed in the words; for if our Father is

in heaven, we must be there too in spirit and life, or we are not his

children; if heaven is that for which we are made, and that which we have

lost, it is not any human goodness, but a heavenly birth and Spirit of God's

own goodness, working in us, as it does in God, that can make us the

heavenly children of our Father in heaven. You must love the light of God,

as God loves it; you must desire that others may enjoy it, as God desires

it. Now God is a free, universal, impartial love, loving and doing every

kind of good, for its own sake, because that is the highest and most perfect

working of life; and because everything else but goodness, for its own sake,

is imperfect, and a degree of evil, misery, and death. And no creature can

come out of its imperfection, misery, and death, but by the pure, free,

unmixed goodness of God, being born in it. Though you had outwardly all

virtues, and seemed doing all that the saints of God have done, yet unless

the same Spirit, by which God himself is good, brought forth your goodness,

all would be only an earthly labor, that could have no communication with

heaven.

[Way-1-9] Therefore, my friend, set out right, and be assured of this truth,

that nature, and self, and every particular view, must be totally renounced;

or else, be your zeal what it will, ever so pleasing to yourself, or

astonishing to the world, you are not working with God.

[Way-1-10] Here now you have the test of truth, by which you may always

know, whether it be the Spirit of God, and the love of God, that drives you.

If your zeal is after this pure, free, universal goodness of God, then of a

truth the Spirit of God breatheth in you; but if you feel not the love of

this pure, free, universal goodness, and yet think that you love God, you

deceive yourself; for there is no other true love of God, but the loving

that, which God is.

[Way-1-11] But if you please, Humanus, pray tell me, in what manner you

would attempt to make converts to Christianity.

[Way-1-12] Humanus. I would not take the method generally practiced by the

modern defenders of Christianity. I would not attempt to show from reason

and antiquity, the necessity and reasonableness of a divine revelation in

general, or of the Mosaic and Christian in particular. Nor enlarge upon the

arguments for the credibility of the gospel- history, the reasonableness of

its creeds, institutions, and usages; or the duty of man to receive things

above, but not contrary to, his reason. I would avoid all this, because it

is wandering from the true point in question, and only helping the Deist to

oppose the gospel with a show of argument, which he must necessarily want,

was the gospel left to stand upon its own bottom.

[Way-1-13] And, on the other hand, should the Deist yield up such a cause as

this, and change sides, he could only be said to have changed his opinion

about facts, without any more altering or bettering his state in God, than

if he had only altered his opinion about things in dispute amongst the

ancient philosophers.

[Way-1-14] For since the fall of man, implying a real change from his first

state, or a total death to his first created life, since the necessity of a

new birth of that lost life, by the life of God again restored to, or born

in the soul, are two points, quite overlooked by those who defend the truth

and reasonableness of the Christian scheme, it may be truly said, that the

only ground, and the whole nature of the gospel is quite dropped and given

up by those who thus defend it.

[Way-1-15] For the gospel has but one ground, or reason, and that is the

fall of man, it has but one nature, and that is to help man again to all

that he had lost.

[Way-1-16] How unreasonable would it be, to offer the Christian redemption

to glorious angels in heaven? Could anything be more inconsistent with their

heavenly, unfallen state? Yet just so unreasonable would it be to offer it

to man unfallen from his first created state--for man standing in that first

perfection of life, which God breathed into him, and in that very outward

state, or world, into which God himself brought him, wants no more

redemption, than the most glorious angels do; and to preach to such a man,

in order to be reconciled to God, the necessity of dying to himself, and the

world he is in, would be as contrary to all sense and reason, as to preach

to angels the necessity of dying to themselves, their divine life and the

kingdom of heaven, for which God had created them.

[Way-1-17] Thus does it appear, that the fall of man, into the life of this

earthly world, is the sole ground of his wanting the redemption, which the

gospel offers.

[Way-1-18] Hence it is that the gospel has only one simple proposal of

certain life, or certain death to man; of life, if he will take the means of

entering into the kingdom of God, of death if he chooses to take up his rest

in the kingdom of this world. This is the simple nature, and sole drift of

the gospel; it means no more, than making known to man, that this world, and

the life of it, is his fall, and separation from God, and happiness, both

here and hereafter: and that to be saved or restored to God and happiness,

can only be obtained, by renouncing all love, and adherence to the things of

this world. Look at all the precepts, threatenings and doctrines of the

gospel, they mean nothing, but to drive all earthly-mindedness and carnal

affections out of the soul, to call man from the life, spirit and goods of

this world, to a life of hope, and faith, and trust, and love and desire of

a new birth from heaven.

[Way-1-19] To embrace the gospel is to enter with all our hearts into its

terms of dying to all that is earthly both within us, and without us; and on

the other hand to place our faith, and hope, and trust, and satisfaction in

the things of this world, is to reject the gospel with our whole heart,

spirit and strength, as much as any infidel can do, notwithstanding we made

ever so many verbal assents and consents to everything that is recorded in

the New Testament.

[Way-1-20] This therefore is the one true essential distinction between the

Christian and the infidel. The infidel is a man of this world, wholly

devoted to it, his hope and faith are set upon it; for where our heart is,

there, and only there is our hope and faith. He has only such virtues, such

goodness, and such a religion, as entirely suits with the interest of flesh

and blood, and keeps the soul happy in the lust of the flesh, the lust of

the eyes, and the pride of life: this, and this alone, is infidelity, a

total separation from God, and a removal of all faith, and hope from him,

into the life of this world. It matters not, whether this infidel be a

professor of the gospel, a disciple of Zoroaster, a follower of Plato, a

Jew, a Turk, or an opposer of the gospel-history: this difference of

opinions or professions alters not the matter, it is the love of the world

instead of God, that constitutes the whole nature of the infidel.

[Way-1-21] On the other hand, the Christian renounces the world, as his

horrid prison; he dies to the will of flesh and blood, because it is

darkness, corruption, and separation from God; he turns from all that is

earthly, animal, and temporal, and stands in a continual tendency of faith,

and hope, and prayer to God, to have a better nature, a better life and

spirit born again into him from above.

[Way-1-22] Where this faith is, there is the Christian, the new creature in

Christ, born of the Word and Spirit of God; neither time nor place, nor any

outward condition of birth, and life, can hinder his entrance into the

kingdom of God.

[Way-1-23] But where this faith is not, there is the true, complete infidel,

the man of the earth, the unredeemed, the rejector of the gospel, the son of

perdition, that is dead in trespasses and sins, without Christ, an alien

from the commonwealth of Israel, a stranger from the covenants of promise,

having no hope, and without God in the world.

[Way-1-24] Here therefore I fix my true ground of converting men to

Christianity; and how miserably, may I say, do they err, who place

Christianity and infidelity in anything else, but in the heart either

devoted to this world, or devoted to God!

[Way-1-25] He therefore that opens a field of controversy to the Deist,

about revelation in general, of the history of facts, creeds, and doctrines

of churches, not only leads him from the merits of the gospel, but brings

him into a field of battle, where he may stand his ground as long as he

pleases. This I can truly say from my own experience, who have been 20 years

in this dust of debate; and have always found that the more books there were

written in this way of defending the gospel, the more I was furnished with

new objections to it, and the less apprehensive of any danger from my not

receiving it.

[Way-1-26] For I had frequently a consciousness rising up within me, that

the debate was equally vain on both sides, doing no more real good to the

one than to the other, not being able to imagine, that a set of scholastic,

logical opinions about history, facts, doctrines, and institutions of the

church, or a set of logical objections against them, were of any

significancy toward making the soul of man either an eternal angel of

heaven, or an eternal devil of hell. And therefore it was, that I was often

tempted rather to think, there was neither heaven, nor hell, than to believe

that such a variety of churches, and systems of opinion, all condemning, and

all condemned by one another, were to find the heaven of God opened to

receive them, but he who was equally led by opinion to reject them all, was

doomed to hell. But you, sir (and how can I thank you for it?) have put a

full end to all this vain strife of opinions floating in the brain; you have

dispersed the clouds that surrounded my bewildered mind; you have brought me

home to myself, where I find heaven and hell, life and death, salvation and

damnation at strife within me; you have shown me the infinite worth of

Christianity, and the dreadful nature of infidelity, not by helping me to a

new opinion, for my reason to maintain, but by proving to me this great and

decisive truth, that Christianity is neither more nor less, than the

goodness of the divine life, light and love, living and working in my soul;

and that infidelity in its whole nature, is purely and solely the heart of

man living in, governed by, and contented with the evil workings of the

earthly life, spirit and nature.

[Way-1-27] This is the infidelity that you have forced me to fly from, and

renounce, and that is the Christianity, to which I am converted with all the

strength of my heart and spirit. Away then with all the fictions and

workings of reason, either for, or against Christianity! They are only the

wanton sport of the mind, whilst ignorant of God, and insensible of its own

nature and condition. Death and life are the only things in question; life

is God, living and working in the soul; death is the soul living and working

according to the sense and reason of bestial flesh and blood. Both this

life, and this death are of their own growth, growing from their own seed

within us, not as busy reason talks or directs, but as our heart turns

either to the one or the other.

[Way-1-28] But, dear Theophilus, I must now tell you that I want to make

haste in this new road you have put me in. Time is short, I am afraid of

leaving the world, before I have left all worldly tempers, and before the

first holy and heavenly birth be quickened, and brought to life in me.

[Way-1-29] An angel my first father was created, and therefore nothing but

the angel belongs to man, and nothing but the angel can enter into heaven.

Angelic goodness, therefore, is the one thing that man must look up into God

for, because it is the one goodness that he has lost. Everything else, flesh

and blood, earth and all earthly tempers, everything that had its rise from

the fall of Adam, must be renounced, and given up to death, that the first

angelic glory of the life of God in man may be again found in him.

[Way-1-30] Theophilus. Indeed, Humanus, you have made great haste already;

for all the haste that we can make, consists in a total dying to all the

tempers and passions which we have received from the spirit of this world,

by our fall into it. And the more watchfully, earnestly, and constantly, we

do this, the more haste we make to our lost country, and heavenly glory.

[Way-1-31] It is no extravagance, or overstraining the matter, when we say,

that our goodness must be angelic; for no goodness less than that, can be

divine and heavenly, or help us to a life in heaven. It is often said, that

we are poor, infirm men, and not angels; and therefore must be content with

the poverty and infirmity of human virtues. That we are poor, infirm men, is

undeniable; but this is the one infallible reason, why a virtue that is

according to our nature, or of its own growth, can do us no good. We were

not created poor and infirm men by God, but have lost him, are separated

from him; full of misery, because we have changed our first state, and

brought all this poverty, corruption, and infirmity, upon ourselves. And

therefore, as this infirmity is from ourselves, so we must intend nothing

less, or short of the total removal of it, nor think that we have our proper

goodness, till we stand in that degree of it, in which God created us. For,

be assured of this great truth, that nothing in us can be the delight of

God, but that very creature, which he created. All therefore must be parted

with, that God hath not created and brought to life in us. And no goodness

but that of an angel, can overcome the evil that is in us, or do the will of

God on earth, as it is done in heaven, which is the only goodness in and for

which God created us.

[Way-1-32] Academicus. Pray, Theophilus, give me leave to say, that I should

think it better, not to insist so much upon the word "angelic," when you

speak of the goodness, that ought to be ours. For it seems to me too liable

to objection. We have not the high faculties, and exalted powers, of angels;

and therefore our goodness cannot rise up to an equality with theirs.

[Way-1-33] Rusticus. Pray, Academicus, give me leave also to say, that if

your learning did not lead you to mind words, more than things, you could

not have fallen into this critical scruple. For our call to angelic goodness

does not suppose or require any high stretch, or refined elevation, of our

intellectual faculties and powers. A shepherd watching over his flock, a

poor slave digging in the mines, may each of them, though so employed to the

end of their lives, stand before God in a degree of goodness truly angelic.

On the other hand, you may spend all your time in high speculations, writing

and preaching upon Christian perfection, composing seraphic hymns of

heavenly matters, with a strength of thought and genius that delights both

yourself and others, and yet, so doing to the day of your death, have only a

goodness like that of eating and drinking that which most pleases your

palate.

[Way-1-34] Would you know the true nature of angelic goodness, see how the

Spirit of Christ speaks, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy

heart, soul, and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. I came into the

world not to do my own will, not to seek my own glory or honor, not to have

a kingdom in this world, but to promote the kingdom of God, and do the will

of my Father in heaven. My meat and drink is to do the will of him that sent

me. When thou makest a feast, call not thy rich friends and acquaintance,

but the poor, the lame, and blind, &c. Whether you eat or drink, or whatever

you do, do all to the glory and praise of God. Thus speaks the Spirit of

Christ; and he that in this Spirit thus lives, is an angel, whether he be in

heaven, or enclosed in flesh and blood. And all of us are in the way of

attaining to this angelic goodness, as soon as we hate the selfish tempers

of our own earthly life, and earnestly long, in the spirit of prayer, to

have the life of God brought forth in us. Now this goodness we must have, or

we have none at all; for there is but one God, one good, and one goodness;

and it is rightly called angelic, because nothing is capable of it, but the

heavenly angelic nature; nor can it have any existence in man, till the

workings of our earthly nature are overcome, and brought into subjection to

that Spirit, which is not of man, but from heaven. For flesh and blood in

all its workings can work only for itself; darkness can only be dark, it has

no other nature; coldness can only be cold; earth can only be earthly; and

the works of light can only proceed from light. Flesh and blood, or that

life which is only from the stars and elements of this world, can only work

as the stars and elements work, only for time, and a corruptible life; it

can only be bestial, and serve the end of a bestial life; it is insensible

and incapable of divine virtue, and is, and can be of no higher a nature in

a man, than in a beast, and must have the same end in both. It is quite

incapable of entering into the kingdom of God; and only for this reason,

because it is absolutely incapable of having any true and heavenly goodness.

It has then only its proper goodness, when it has lost its power of acting,

and is governed by a spirit superior to it; whilst it lives and rules, it

can only live to itself; is nothing but an earthly own will, own love, own

honor, own interest, never rising higher, doing better, or coming any nearer

to goodness, than its own pride or covetousness, envy or wrath, can carry

it. For these tempers, with all their lesser subdivisions, are the

atmosphere that sets bounds to the breath of the earthly life; they are

essential to it, and as inseparable from it, as hardness and darkness are

inseparable from a rock of stone. So long as the stony rock lasts, so long

is it hard and dark. And so long as earthly flesh and blood lives and acts,

it can only live and act for itself; it can seek, love, like, or do no

manner of thing, but as its own will, own love, own interest, is some way or

other felt, and found in it. Would you know the true ground and reason of

this? It is because no life can go out of, or farther than itself; nor can

it will anything, but what its own life is. This is absolutely true of every

life, whether it be divine, earthly, or hellish; it can seek, love, and

delight in nothing, but that which is according to its own life.

[Way-1-35] See here, Academicus, the folly of your quarrelling with the word

"angelic," since the thing itself, angelic goodness, is absolutely

necessary; it is the goodness of our first creation, and must be the

goodness of our redemption. The falling from it has brought forth all the

evils that we are surrounded with, and nothing can deliver us from the death

of our fallen state, but a true and full resurrection of all that purity and

goodness, which was living in the first creation of man. To be content with

our infirmities, is to be content with our separation from God; and not to

aspire after the one angelic goodness, is to be carnally-minded, which we

are told is death, that is, death to the one divine life.

[Way-1-36] A virtue that is only according to the state of this earthly

life, is a virtue of art, and human contrivance, a fiction of behavior,

modelled according to rule and custom, or education, that can go no deeper,

nor rise higher, nor reach farther, than the sense and reason, and interests

of flesh and blood, can carry it. But this can have no communication with

God and heaven, because it is not born of them, but is a lower, separate

state of life, that at best can only bring forth a civility of outward

manners, little better than such a new birth as may be had from a

dancing-master. But the goodness which we want, and which we were created to

have, is the one holy blessed life of God, and Christ, and heaven, living in

the soul. For from eternity to eternity, there never was, or ever can be,

any other heavenly goodness in any creature, but the life, and Spirit, and

Word of God, speaking, living, and breathing in it.

[Way-1-37] Bid the anatomist, that can skillfully dissect an human body,

that can tell you the names, nature, and offices of most of its parts, that

can show you how they all conspire to give life, strength, and motion, to

the living machine: bid him, I say, put life into the dead carcase.

[Way-1-38] Now learned reason, when pretending to be a master of morality,

is just as powerful as this very anatomist. It can skillfully dissect a dead

system of morality, can separate all its parts, tell you the names, nature,

distinctions, and connections, of most kinds of good and evil. But when this

is done, learned reason, with all its dictates, distinctions, and

definitions, can do just as much good to the soul, that has lost its

goodness, as the anatomist can do to the carcase, that has lost its life.

[Way-1-39] It is wonderfully astonishing, that you men of learning seldom

come thus far, as to see, and feel this glaring truth, that goodness must be

a living thing; but, blinded with the empty sounds of words in variety of

languages, are as content and happy with a religion of nature delineated, or

book of axioms, maxims, and deductions, mathematically placed one after

another, as if you had really found the tree of life. Whereas, in truth, all

this is no better than the reading a lecture upon the use of the heart,

liver, and lungs, to a dead carcase: for the life of goodness can no more be

raised, or brought into the soul, by this art of reasoning, than life can be

brought into the carcase, by a discourse upon the heart, live, and lungs,

made over it.

[Way-1-40] Oh! Academicus, forget your scholarship, give up your art and

criticism, be a plain man, and then the first rudiments of sense may teach

you, that there, and there only, can goodness be, where it comes forth as a

birth of life, and is the free natural work and fruit of that which lives

within us. For till goodness thus comes from a life within us, we have in

truth none at all. For reason, with all its doctrine, discipline, and rules,

can only help us to be so good, so changed, and amended, as a wild beast may

be, that by restraints and methods is taught to put on a sort of tameness,

though its wild nature is all the time only restrained, and in a readiness

to break forth again as occasion shall offer.

[Way-1-41] Thus far the masters of morality and human discipline may go;

they may tame and reform the outward man, clothe him with the appearance of

many images of virtue, which will, some or all of them, be put off, just as

time, occasion, and flesh and blood, require it. For the goodness of a

living creature must be its own life; it must arise up in it as its own

love, or any passion doth; just as the fierceness of the tiger, and the

meekness of the lamb, are the birth of their own life. And if goodness is

not our natural birth from our natural parents, we must of all necessity be

born again from a principle above nature, or no goodness can be living in

us. Now since goodness is a life, we have a twofold proof, that no goodness

can be living in us, till we are born again of the Word and Spirit of God:

for nature, as well as scripture, assures us, that God is originally the one

good, and the one life; and therefore no good life can possibly be in us,

but by the Word, life, and Spirit, of God having a birth in us. And from

this birth alone it is, that the free, genuine works of goodness flow forth

with the freedom of the divine life, wherewith the Spirit of God has made us

free; loving and doing all manner of good, merely for goodness-sake;

virtuous in all kind of virtue, purely for virtue-sake: then we are the

natural true children of our heavenly Father, and do the works of heaven

with a cheerful and willing mind. Then it is, that we are good in the manner

as God is good, because it is his goodness that is born in us; we are

perfect as he is perfect, we love as he loves, are patient as he is patient,

we give as he gives, we forgive as he forgives, and resist evil only with

good as he does.

[Way-1-42] This, Academicus, is angelic goodness; and is the goodness of

those who are born again of the Word, and become new creatures in the Spirit

of Christ. This goodness our first father lost, when he chose to have the

eyes of flesh and blood, and the spirit of this world, opened in him; and

therefore our redeemer, who well knew what we had lost, and must have again,

has taught us in our daily prayer, to ask for angelic goodness in these

words, viz., "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in

heaven." But I have done, and I think you must have done, with your learned

scruple about the word "angelic." And now, Theophilus, if you please, return

to your subject with Humanus.

[Way-1-43] Theophilus. Let me then tell you, Humanus, that I much approve of

the way that you intend to proceed in. You are come directly to the truth

and heart of the matter, and have hit upon the one only method of putting

Deism to a full stand, by reducing Christianity to this one single great

point, which so evidently contains the whole ground and nature of it.

[Way-1-44] Now this one great point consists of two essential parts; 1st,

the fall of man from a divine angelic life into an earthly, bestial,

corruptible, miserable life of this world. 2dly, the redemption of man, or

his regaining his first angelic perfection, by a new birth of the divine

nature, by the Word and Spirit of God. Stand steadily upon this true

Christian ground; and then you will not only stand safely yourself, but you

will have left the Deist no ground to stand upon. For here all the labored

volumes of infidelity, with which these last ages have swarmed, are at once

rendered useless, and cannot put so much as a little finger into this

debate. Consult all, from Hobbes to the Moral Philosopher, and you consult

in vain; their works are as dead as themselves, and unable to give forth one

word against this Christianity. They had a much easier task upon their

hands; for nothing can be easier than for reason to object, and continue

objecting, to the extraordinary matters of the Old and New Testament. I

don't mention this as an accusation of the Deists, or to charge them with

the crafty contrivance of placing the merits of the cause where it is not.

No, the learning of the Christian world must bear the blame of the fruitless

disputes: the demonstrators of the truth and reasonableness of Christianity

have betrayed their own cause, and left true Christianity unmentioned in

their defenses of it. What a reasonableness of Christianity have some great

names helped us to? Just as useful, and good to our fallen souls, as the

reasonableness of consenting to the death of Pharaoh and his host in the Red

Sea. But you, my friend, being rightly converted to Christianity, that began

before the scriptures were written, and is as old as the creation and fall

of man; keep close to its true and real ground; and, instead of showing the

reasonableness of believing a long history of things, show the absolute

necessity of man's dying to his present life, in order to have a better from

God. This is the Christianity that began with the fall, and has been

preached ever since to every son of fallen man, in every corner of the

world; and by the same preacher that tells every man, that he ought to be

better than he is. For was not man fallen from a better state than that he

is now in, he could no more be ashamed or offended at anything that his

nature prompts him to do, than the ox is ashamed at breaking into a good

pasture. Every man, therefore, from the beginning of the world, has had

Christianity and the gospel written and preached within him; as it contains

the fall of man, and his want of being raised to a better state. But as we

see, that the truth and reality of his fall, and the truth and reality of

his redemption by a real birth from above, can be lost, nay disowned,

amongst those that are daily reading and expounding the scriptures; so it is

no wonder that the same should have happened to those, who had no scriptures

to read. Justly therefore, Humanus, are churches and creeds, doctrines above

and contrary to reason, miracles of the Old and New Testament, and all

historical facts and matters, which are so great an harvest to the Deists;

justly, I say, are they removed by you out of the debate; and the one great

point above-mentioned only insisted upon, as the whole of the matter. For

this one point gained, all is gained; and, till this point is cleared up,

all the rest is but a debate about nothing.

[Way-1-45] For if man is fallen from a divine life, no one need be told,

that he can only be redeemed or saved from his fall by having the same

divine life born in him again, or a second time. Nothing therefore touches

the truth of the debate betwixt the Christian and the infidel, but that

which proves with certainty, that man has, or has not, lost a divine life.

[Way-1-46] If he is thus fallen, has died this death to a divine life; then

the nature and necessity of the Christian new-birth sufficiently proves

itself. But if it can be proved, that he is not thus fallen, but stands in

that state and degree of life in which God created him; the Deists have

reason enough to reject the Christian scheme of redemption.

[Way-1-47] Strange it is therefore beyond expression, that every man,

whether Christian or infidel, should not see, that here lies the whole of

the matter; or that any learned defender of Christianity should think of

beginning anywhere, or in anything, but where the redemption itself begins;

or imagine there can be the least ground to propose a redemption to man,

till he shows why, and from what, he is to be redeemed. Stranger is it

still, if you consider, that Christians have nothing to excuse their

wandering from this one great point, since both the Testaments bear so open

a witness to it. "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely

die," says the Old Testament. "Except a man be born again from above, of the

Word and Spirit of God, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven," says

the New Testament.

[Way-1-48] Thus do these two Testaments begin with the most open

declarations of these two things; viz., the death of man to his first

created life; 2ndly, his redemption only and solely by a real birth of the

divine life, received again from above. What excuse therefore can be made

for those who read the scripture, and yet overlook that very one point; not

only so plainly declared, but which, in itself, is the one only ground and

foundation upon which all the scripture stands? For had not man died,

neither Moses, nor the prophets, had ever been in being. For man not fallen,

but abiding in his first created perfection of life, had been as free from

any outward law, as the light is from darkness. The keeping his own nature

had been the keeping, and doing, and seeing, and knowing all that God

required of him. So that neither law nor prophecy have any ground or reason,

but because man is dead to his first life.

[Way-1-49] But seeing man is dead to his first life, and living only in an

earthly bestial world, under the power and slavery of the evil motions and

tempers of gross flesh and blood; therefore Moses must come with his law, to

set sin before him, and give him precepts of resisting and dying to all the

lusts of this new earthly life, which he is fallen into: therefore, to seek

for any other learning in or from Moses, than that of learning to resist and

die to the tempers and passions of this earthly life, is knowing nothing

right of Moses, nor of ourselves.

[Way-1-50] Next after Moses came the prophets, or the spirit of prophecy,

with its far-seeing sight, and declaration of glories to come. Now the

ground of prophecy is this, it is because man is to be restored to his first

glorious state; and therefore the spirit of prophecy comes forth from God to

awaken hope and faith, expectation and desire in man; because these are the

only powers that can draw him out of the mire of the earthly life, in which

he sticks, and carry him up to his first heavenly state again. Nothing

therefore is to be sought for in or from the prophets, but the increase of

our hope, faith, and desire of the new birth of that glorious life which we

have lost, and they foretold was to be had again.

[Way-1-51] Thus, my friend, you see the importance of this one point; Moses

and the prophets have no ground or reason but this, that man has lost his

divine life; and that this same divine life is to be born again in him. Now

seeing this is the ground and reason of the scriptures, therefore is it the

one unerrring key to the right use of them. They have only this one intent,

to make man know, resist, and abhor the working of his fallen earthly

nature; and to turn the faith, hope, and longing desire of his heart to God:

and therefore we are only to read them with this view, and to learn this one

lesson from them. Whatever therefore occurs, that cannot be turned to this

general end, but relates to only some temporal, occasional, or private

matter, is of no more importance to us, than the cloak and parchments which

St. Paul speaks of.

[Way-1-52] How many hundred barns must there be, to hold all the learned

volumes, that had never been written, had man looked upon the scriptures as

having no other view or end, but to teach him to renounce the tempers of his

fallen earthly nature, and live unto God in faith and prayer; to be born

again of the divine nature! But this one end being overlooked by learned

reason, Hebrew and Syriac, Arabic, Greek, and Latin, have been called in, to

torture the scriptures into a chaos of confused opinions, that has covered

the Christian world with darkness, and lost the only good that was to be had

from the written Word of God. Whereas, standing upon the ground on which you

stand, with only this one great point at heart, the scriptures are a plain,

easy, and certain instruction; and no honest unlearned heart stands in need

of any commentator to help him to all the benefit that can be had from

scripture, or secure him from any hurtful error.

[Way-1-53] Humanus. Indeed, Theophilus, my own experience can bear a full

testimony to the truth of all that you have said. For upon my reading now

the New Testament, with this key in my hand; viz., of man thus fallen, and

thus called to a new birth from heaven; everything I read in it has spirit

and life, and overflows my soul with such an unction, and sensibility of

sweet doctrine, as I am not able to express. For whilst I consider it only

as written to drive all earthly tempers and passions out of the soul, and

inflame the heart with love and desire of the grace, the spirit, and the

light and life of the heavenly nature, I can say, as the Jewish officers

did, never man spoke like Christ and his apostles.

[Way-1-54] Why was the Son of God made man? It was because man was to be

made again a divine creature. Why did man want such a savior? It was because

he was become earthly, mortal, gross flesh and blood. Now take Christ in

this light, and consider man in this state, and then all that is said in the

gospel stands in the fullest light.

[Way-1-55] Thus, "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I

will refresh you." How poor, how mean, and uncertain a sense is there in

this, till you know, that man has lost his divine nature, and is fallen into

a world that is all labor, burden, and misery! But as soon as this is known,

then how easy, how plain, is the full and highest sense of these words,

"Come unto me, all that labor, are weary and heavy laden, and I will refresh

you!" I will bring to life that first happy state which you have lost. This

is the note, the paraphrase, the expositor, the key to the true sense of

every doctrine of Christ; which, though variously expressed to awaken the

heart, is only one and the same thing. Thus, "Blessed are they that mourn,

for they shall be comforted." But why so? Because he that is troubled at the

corruption, vanity, and impurity of his fallen earthly state, has the

comfort of the heavenly life ready for him. Again, "Blessed are they that

hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." How plain

and great is the sense here, as soon as we know, that Christ is our

righteousness; and that the righteous life of Christ in the soul, is that

life which our first father lost! Therefore, to hunger and thirst after this

righteousness, is the one way to be filled with that divine life, that we

had lost. Again, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. And out

of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." What can the Latin or Greek

critic do here? Nothing at all. He will only try to make some excuse for the

strangeness of the phrase. But when these words are read by one who knows

that he, and all mankind, have lost the divine nature, he tastes and feels

the glad tidings which they bring; and is in love with these sweet sounds,

which promise such an overflowing return of heaven into his soul. Again, "I

beseech you," says the apostle, "as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from

fleshly lusts, which war against the soul," &c. The critic looks into his

books to see how Latin and Greek authors have used the words "stranger" and

"pilgrim," and so some sense or other is given to the apostle; but the

Christian, who knows, that man, wandering out of paradise, a colony of

heaven, was taken captive by the stars and elements, to live in labor and

toil, in sickness and pain, in hunger and thirst, in heat and cold amongst

the beasts of the field; where evil spirits, like roaring lions, seek to

devour him; he only knows in what truth and reality man is a poor stranger

and distressed pilgrim upon earth. Again, "To the poor," saith Christ, "the

gospel is preached." The critic only considers the several kinds of worldly

poverty. But the Christian, who knows that the real great poverty of man

consists in his having lost the riches and greatness of his first life,

knows, that to this poor man the gospel is preached, because he only, who is

sensible of this poverty, can hear and receive it. For to man, insensible of

his fallen state, the glad tidings of the gospel are but like news from

fairy land; and the cross of Christ can only be a stumbling-block and

foolishness to him, whether he be a Christian, a Jew, or a Greek. Thus does

it appear, that all the doctrines and sayings of Christ and his apostles are

full of a comfortable, divine, and exalted sense, or mere empty words, just

as the fall of man from a divine life is either owned or disowned. But I

have done.

[Way-1-56] Theophilus. Thus far then, Humanus, we are agreed, that the fall

of man into the life and state of this world, is the whole ground of his

redemption; and that a real birth of Christ in the soul, is the whole nature

of it. Let me now only ask you, how you would endeavor to convince a man of

his fallen state?

[Way-1-57] Humanus. I would not begin with the account that Moses gives of

it, for several reasons; but chiefly for these two: first, because the fall

is not an historical matter; nor would a mere historical knowledge of it be

of any use, or do any real good to him. Secondly, because Moses's account is

not the proof of the fall, and therefore not to be appealed to as such.

[Way-1-58] Moses is the first historian of natural death, and has recorded

the death of the first man, and of many others who were born of him: but the

proof that man is mortal lies not in Moses's history of the death of the

first man, but in the known nature of man, and the world from which he has

his life. Again, we do not want Moses to assure us, that there was a first

man; that he had something from heaven, and something from the earth in him;

and must have come into the world in another manner than all those who have

descended from him. For every man is himself the infallible proof of this;

Moses is only the historian that has recorded the when, and where, and how

this first man came into the world, and what was his name. But the proof and

certainty of the fact, that such a first man there must have been, lies not

in Moses's account, but stands proved to every man from his own nature and

state in this world.

[Way-1-59] Thus it is with the fall; we have no more occasion to go to

Moses, to prove that man and the world are in a fallen state, than to prove

that man is a poor, miserable, weak, vain, distressed, corrupt, depraved,

selfish, self-tormenting, perishing creature, and that the world is a sad

mixture of false goods, and real evils; a mere scene of all sorts of trials,

vexations, and miseries; all arising from the frame, and nature, and

condition both of man and the world. This is the full infallible proof of

the fall of man; which is not a thing learnt from any history, but shows

itself everywhere, and every day, with such clearness as we see the sun.

Moses is not the prover of the fact, that man is fallen; but is the recorder

of the when and how, and the manner in which the fall happened.

[Way-1-60] My first attempt therefore, upon any man, to convince him of the

fall, as the ground of the redemption, should be an attempt to do that for

him, which affliction, disappointments, sickness, pain, and the approach of

death, have a natural tendency to do; viz., to convince him of the vanity,

poverty, and misery of his life and condition in this world. For as this is

the true proof of the fallen state of man, so man can only be convinced of

it, by having this proof truly set before him. I would therefore appeal at

first to nothing but his own nature and condition in the world; and show him

how unreasonable, nay, impossible, it is, that a God, who has nothing in

himself but infinite goodness and infinite happiness, should bring forth a

race of intelligent creatures, that have neither natural goodness, nor

natural happiness. The inspired saints of God say thus, "Man that is born of

a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery." Again, "Man

walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain." Now if what is

here truly said of mankind, could be truly said of any order of the beasts

and animals of the field, who could defend the goodness of God in bringing

such creatures into such a state of life? Now though the Deist rejects the

scriptures, considered as a volume of divine revelation, yet everything that

he outwardly sees, and inwardly feels, demonstrates this capital truth of

scripture, that man is in this poor and miserable state of life. And

therefore, everything that we know of God, and everything that we know of

man, is a daily irresistible proof, that man is in a fallen state. Look at

the human infant just come out of the womb, you can hardly bear the sight;

it is a picture of such deformity, nakedness, weakness, and helpless

distress, as is not to be seen amongst the home- born animals of this world:

the chicken has its birth from no sin, and therefore it comes forth in

beauty; it runs and pecks as soon as its shell is broken: the pig and the

calf go both to play, as soon as the dam is delivered of them; they are

pleased with themselves, and please the eye that beholds their frolic state

and beauteous clothing; whilst the new-born babe of a woman, that is to have

an upright form, that is to view the heavens, and worship the God that made

them, lies for months in gross ignorance, weakness, and impurity; as sad a

spectacle when he first begins to breathe the life of this world, as when in

the agonies of death he breathes his last.

[Way-1-61] What is all this, but the strongest proof, that man is the only

creature that belongs not to this world, but is fallen into it through sin?

And therefore his birth, in such distress, bears all the marks of shame and

weakness. Had he been originally of this world, it is necessary to suppose,

that this world had done the highest honor to its highest creature; and that

he had begun his life in greater perfection than any other animal, and

brought with him a more beautiful clothing than the finest lilies of the

field have. But, to go on: when the human infant is set upon his legs, and

begins to act for himself, he soon becomes a more pitiable object than when

crying in the cradle. The strength of his life is a mere strength of wild

passions; his reason is craft, and selfish subtlety; he loves and hates only

as flesh and blood prompt him, jails and gibbets cannot keep him from theft

and murder. If he is rich, he is tormented with pride and ambition; if poor,

with murmuring and discontent: be he which he will, sooner or later,

disordered passions, disappointed lusts, fruitless labor, pains and sickness

will tear him from this world in such travail as his mother felt, when she

brought forth the sinful animal.

[Way-1-62] Now all this evil and misery are purely the natural and necessary

effect of his birth in the bestial flesh and blood of this world, and there

is nothing in his natural state that can put a stop to it; he must be evil

and miserable so long as he has only the life of this world in him.

Therefore the absolute certainty of the fall, and the absolute necessity of

a new birth, are truths, independently of scripture, plain to a

demonstration. Thus, God is in himself infinite goodness, and infinite

happiness; but man, in his present earthly birth and life, can neither have

goodness or happiness, therefore his present state of life could not be

brought forth by a God who is all goodness and happiness. Thus every man,

that believes in a creator infinitely perfect, is under a necessity of

believing the whole ground of Christian redemption, namely, that man hath

some way or other lost that perfection of life which he had at first from

his creator.

[Way-1-63] But the Christian has yet an additional proof of his matter,

because the scriptures, which with him are infallible, so frequently and

openly bear witness to it.

[Way-1-64] Thus, "Let us make man in our image; according to our own

likeness." How great, how divine, is this beginning of man? How can there be

any evil or misery, any vanity or weakness, in a creature so brought forth?

But now what is become of this man? For if you look at man just coming out

of the womb, the pitiable object above described, what can be so absurd, as

to call this birth, his creation in the likeness and after the image of God?

Now what is said of the first man, is not spoken of one person, but of the

human nature; for the first man was only the first instance of that which

mankind were to be. He had no perfection peculiar to himself, but that of

being the first man; and had he stood, all that came from him, had come to

life as he did, in the same strength and glory of perfection, and not been

born of a bestial womb, like the wild ass's colt. Again, set the following

text against Moses's perfection of the first image of God, "Man that is born

of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery."

[Way-1-65] Is not this a full proof, that the first created life of man is

quite dead, and that an earthly life of misery is risen up instead of it?

Again, the apostle saith, "The natural man knoweth not the things of God;

they are foolishness unto him." Can this natural man, the man of earthly

flesh and blood, that can have no acquaintance with, or knowledge of God, to

whom the "things of God are foolishness"; can this be the man first created

in the image and likeness of God? What can be more absurd than such a

thought? Or what excuse can be made for that learning which cannot see from

so plain a scripture, that human nature, now, is not that human nature,

which it was at first created, but is dead to that first life, which it had

in the image and likeness of God, or the things of God could not possibly be

foolishness to it? But I will end this matter with these borrowed words, "We

were no more created to be in the sorrows, burdens, and anguish of an

earthly life, than the angels were created to be in the wrath and darkness

of hell. It is as contrary to the will and goodness of God towards us, that

we are out of paradise, as it is contradictory to the designs and goodness

of God towards the angels, that some of them are out of heaven, prisoners of

darkness.

[Way-1-66] "The grossness, impurity, sickness, pain, and corruption of our

bodies, is brought upon us by ourselves, in the same manner as the hideous,

serpentine, form of the devils are brought upon them. How absurd, and even

blasphemous would it be, to say with the scripture and the church, "that we

are children of wrath, and born in sin," if we had that nature, which God at

first gave us? What a reproach upon God, to say, that this world is a valley

of misery, a shadow of death, full of disorders, snares, evils, and

temptations, if this was an original creation, or that state of things for

which God created us? Is it not as consistent with the goodness and

perfection of God, to speak of the misery and disorder that unfallen holy

angels find above, and of the vanity, emptiness, and sorrow of their

heavenly state, as to speak of the misery of men, and the sorrows of this

world, if men and the world were in that order, in which God at first had

placed them? If God could make any place poor and vain, and create any

beings into a state of vanity and vexation of spirit, he might do so in all

places, and to all beings."* {*Serious Answer to Dr.Trapp on the Sin, &c. of

being Righteous overmuch, p. 35.}

[Way-1-67] Theophilus. You have put the fall, Humanus, upon its right proof,

and shown great judgment in your intended method of converting anyone to the

belief of it. You have set the whole matter in so just a light, that I have

nothing that I would add to it.

[Way-1-68] Humanus. Give me leave, gentlemen, just to put in a word or two

concerning another plain indication, that man has lost that life and nature,

in which he was first created. Reason has been my god, and is the vain idol

of modern Deism, and modern Christianity; and yet human ignorance,

infirmity, and mortality; they all began together; they are inseparable;

they generate and are generated from one another; they are the life of each

other; and they must live and die together, and all bear the same witness to

the fallen state of man. For no creature can come from the hands of God into

a state of any ignorance of anything, that is fit and proper to be known by

it. This is as impossible as for God to have an envious, or evil will. Now

all right and natural knowledge, in whatever creature it is, is sensible,

intuitive, and its own evidence. But opinion, reasoning, or doubting (for

they are all but one thing) can only then begin when the creature has lost

its first right and natural state, and is got somewhere, and become

somewhat, that it cannot tell what to make of. Then begins doubting, from

thence reasoning, from thence debating; and this is the high birth of our

magnified reason, as nobly born, as groping is, which has its beginning in

and from darkness, or the loss of light. Hence we have a full proof, that

man has lost his first natural state in which God created him. For

reasoning, doubt, and perplexity in any creature, is the effect of some

fall, or departure from its first state of nature, and shows, that it wants,

and is seeking, something that its nature would have, but knows not how to

come at it. The beasts seek not after truth; a plain proof, that it has no

relation to them; has no suitableness to their nature, nor ever belonged to

them. Man is in quest of it, in perplexity about it, cannot come at it;

takes lies to be truth, and truth to be lies; a plain proof, both that he

has it not, and yet has had it, was created in it, and for it; for nothing

can seek for anything, but that which is lost, and is wanted; nor could it

form the least idea of it, but because it has belonged to it, and ought to

be his.

[Way-1-69] The beasts have no ignorance of anything, that concerns them; but

have all the sensible, intuitive knowledge of everything that is the good of

their nature. But man left to his reason is all over ignorance, doubt,

conjecture, and perlexity in matters of the highest moment, about what he

himself is, what is his chief good, where he is to seek it, and how to

obtain it. For to ask your reason, how God is your God, how you are in him,

and from him, what he is in himself, and what he is in you, is but like

asking your hands to feel out the thickness, or the thinness, of the light.

To ask your reason, whether the soul of man is immortal in its nature, is to

as good purpose, is going no father out of the way, than if you was to ask

your eyes to show you, where extension begins, and where it ends. To ask

your reason, whether man has anything of God, or the divine nature in him,

is just as suitable to the nature and power of your reason, as if you was to

ask your nose, whether this or that sweet, aromatic smell in the garden, has

any heavenly power mixed with, and opening itself in it.

[Way-1-70] Reason, therefore, is so far from being able to help man to that

knowledge, which his nature and condition wants, that it can only help his

ignorance to increase and fructify in doubts, fictions, and absurd debates.

And the thing cannot be otherwise; man must walk in a vain shadow, so long

as reason is his oracle. For nothing can act suitably to nature, find its

true state in nature, or answer the end of its creation by the power of

reason; because reason is not the life, the power, or former of nature; and

therefore has no more power over nature, than over the powers and principles

of vegetation, either in the body of man, or any other creature. He

therefore who turns to his reason, as the true power and light of his

nature, betrays the same ignorance of the whole nature, power, and office of

reason, as if he was to try to smell with his eyes, or see with his nose.

For as each of these senses has only its one work or power, which it cannot

alter, or exceed; so reason has only its one work or power, which it cannot

alter, or exceed; and that one work is, to be a bare observer and comparer

of things that manifest themselves to it by the senses. This is as much its

one only power, as seeing is the one only power of the eyes. When therefore

reason takes upon it to determine on things not manifested to it by the

senses, as to judge about divine new birth, a divine light, and divine

faith; or how the soul wants, or does not want God, &c. it is then as much

out of its place and office, as the eye that takes upon it to smell; and its

true name and nature is, whim, humor, caprice, conjecture, opinion, fancy,

and every other species of blindness, and passion.

[Way-1-71] Now suppose man to come thus into the world, with this chief

difference from other creatures; that he is at a loss to find out what he

is, how he is to live, and what he is to seek, as his chief happiness; what

he is to own of a God, of providence, religion, &c. Suppose him to have

faculties that put him upon this search, and no faculties, that can satisfy

his inquiry; and what can you suppose more miserable to himself, or more

unworthy of a good creator? Therefore, if you will not suppose a God, that

has been good to all creatures, and given every animal its proper light of

nature, except man, you must be forced to own, that man has certainly lost

the true light and perfection of his nature, which God at first gave him.

[Way-1-72] But I believe Academicus wants to say something, and therefore I

have done.

[Way-1-73] Academicus. I was only going to say, that every attribute of God,

everything that sense and reason force us to see, and know, and feel, both

of ourselves, and the world, join with the letter and spirit of all

scripture in attesting, that man has certainly had a divine life, to which

he has certainly died. But yet I must own it is very difficult to conceive,

how a creature brought forth in so high perfection, in such enjoyment of the

life, light, and Spirit of God, could either deceive himself, or be deceived

by another.

[Way-1-74] Theophilus. All that we want to know, my friend, is the certainty

of the fact, and this is of the greatest moment to us: for this is it, that

takes us from the herd of earthly animals, and lays the foundation of

religion, and divine virtue. For had not a divine life at first been in us,

we should be now at the same distance from all true virtue and goodness, and

as incapable of forming the least thought or desire of it, as other animals;

and should have nothing to do, but to look to ourselves, live to our earthly

nature, and make the most of this world. For this is the only wisdom and

goodness, that an earthly nature is capable of, whether it be a man, or a

fox. The certainty therefore of the fact, of our first divine birth, is all;

nothing more need be inquired after. For on this ground stands all our

comfort; hence it is, that, in faith and hope, we can look up to God as our

Father, to heaven as our native country, and have the honor to be accounted

only as strangers and pilgrims upon earth.

[Way-1-75] But however, to remove your difficulty, I shall give you a little

sketch of the possibility of man's falling, although created in the

perfection abovementioned.

[Way-1-76] Now supposing God to have brought a new intelligent creature into

a new world, all the attributes of God oblige us to suppose this creature to

be created in a perfect state both inwardly and outwardly. As intelligent,

it must partake of the divine understanding; as living, it must have a

degree of the divine life in it; as good, it must have a birth of the divine

goodness in it; as an offspring of divine love, it must have a divine

happiness, for the enjoyment of which the love of God created it. Now there

is but one possible way, for this intelligent creature, thus endowed, to

fall from, or lose the happiness of its first created state. It cannot

knowingly choose misery, or the loss of its happiness: therefore it can only

fall by such an ignorance, or power of falling as is consistent with its

perfect state. Now this power lay wholly in the newness of its life: it only

began to find itself an intelligent being; and yet had a power of looking

with the eyes of its understanding either inwards, or outwards; upwards, or

downwards. It had a power of acquiescing and rejoicing in that, which it

found itself to be, and adoring that power and goodness which had brought it

into the possession of such a nature: and it had a power of wandering into

conjectures, and reasons about that, which it was not. Now as a free,

intelligent creature, it could not be without this power of thus turning its

intelligent eye; and yet, as a beginning creature, that had no experience,

this power could not be free from a possibility of wandering; and therefore

its power of wandering was not a defect, but a necessary part of its first

perfect state. Now in this possibility of wandering with its intelligent

eye, looking where it ought not, and entering into conjectures about that,

which it was not, may be clearly seen the possibility of its falling from a

state of high perfection.

[Way-1-77] This is the one only possible way for a good, intelligent, new

creature to lose its happiness. And I think it may justly be affirmed, that

the Mosaic account of the fall of man is exactly this very case; namely, how

the eye of his new unexperienced understanding, beginning to cast a

wandering look into that, which he was not, was by an unsuspected subtlety,

or serpent, drawn into a reasoning and conjecturing about a certain good and

evil, which were no part of his own created state.

[Way-1-78] Which inquiry, being given into, ended in the real knowledge of

this good and evil, the sensibility of which became an immediate death to

his first divine life, destroyed the angelic image in the likeness of God,

and set a gross, earthly, naked, ashamed, frighted, wretched animal of

bestial flesh and blood in its place, the only animal to which this new

knowledge of good and evil could belong.

[Way-1-79] Supposing therefore the fall of man, which is a fact attested,

and proved by everything we know of God, ourselves, and the world; the

Mosaic account of it has every mark of truth, sobriety, and justness, as

being a plain and easy description of the one only way, by which a creature

so endowed could change or lose its first happy state.

[Way-1-80] Academicus. Truly, Theophilus, you have given a most natural and

full solution of my difficulty, by which, I suppose, you mean as well to

explain the fall of angels, as of men. But, sir, if that pride, to which

their fall is charged, must have stolen upon them, in that same unsuspected

way, in which the longing after the tree of good and evil insinuated itself

into man; viz., from a wandering look into that, which they were not,

occasioned by the newness of their untried life, in which they had but just

began to be; suffer me then, to ask, why the fallen angels were not, at

first, the immediate objects of divine mercy and goodness? Why they are to

be forever prisoners of a never-ending hell? Or, are you of the opinion,

that angels, as well as men, will be at last brought back to their first

state?

[Way-1-81] Theophilus. Your questions, Academicus, seem to have too much of

curiosity in them: but, as I hope you will not give way to this temper, so I

will, for once, comply with your demands.

[Way-1-82] The fall of angels must be supposed to have been as soon after

their creation, as that of Adam. Had they stood any time in their

new-created state, they had been in one and the same impossibility of

falling, as the angels that are now in heaven. For no pure, intelligent,

good, and holy created being, can possibly lose this divine state of

perfection, but through the first use of its untried state and powers. The

manner of Adam's falling into the life of this world plainly shows the

manner how the angels fell into hell, namely, at first only by looking and

conjecturing with their intelligent eye into that, which they were not,

which was not opened in them, but was hid in God. This looking went on till

it became a lust and strong longing after that somewhat; just as it had done

in Adam, who so gazed upon the earthly good and evil, till it opened itself

in him. Adam looked only at that which was creaturely, and in a life below

him; and therefore only that lower, creaturely, bestial life was brought

forth in him. But the angel turning his wandering look into that height and

depth which was not creaturely, but hid in God; namely, into the might and

strength of eternity, that he might know how the creaturely life was kindled

by it; and thinking himself by his exalted nature, to be as near to this

great power, and as capable of entering into it, as Adam thought himself

near to, and capable of knowing the good and evil of the earthly life; and

as Adam thought to be like God in this new knowledge; so the angel imagined

to be like God, could he enter into this knowledge, how the might of God

kindled the creaturely life, for then he himself should have the power of

creating or kindling the creaturely life; and as Adam's imagination brought

forth a lust and longing, which could not be stopped, till the earthly

knowledge, and earthly life, had opened itself in him; so the angel's

imagination begot such a lust and longing to know the ground and original of

life, as would not be stopped till the ground and original of life, namely,

that depth of darkness and fire, in and from which every creaturely life

must begin, was totally opened in him, and he as much swallowed up by hell,

as Adam was by the earthly life. Thus you may see, how the same aspiring

imagination (but with regard to different matters) rising in the same

manner, and from the same cause, in both these creatures, and working itself

up into a lust and longing, brought the one from heaven into hell, and the

other from paradise into a bestial world.

[Way-1-83] Now as the lust of Adam, when it had obtained its desire, opened

all the properties and tempers of the bestial life in him; so the lust of

the angel, when it got what it wanted; viz., the ground and original of the

creaturely life, which is darkness and fire; immediately opened all the

dreadful properties of darkness and fire in him, which at once swallowed up

or extinguished the angelic nature. Hence wrath, hatred, pride, envy,

malice, and every enmity to light and love, are the one only life of the

fallen angel; and he can will and act nothing else, but as these properties

of darkness and fire drive him.

[Way-1-84] To ask therefore, why the fallen angels continue in their state,

is to ask, why darkness is not made to be light? For the root and ground of

nature is unchangeable; it keeps its own nature, or it could not be the

ground; it must stand always in its own place, and be only the ground and

root; it cannot rise higher than the root, no more than the root of the tree

can be its branches and fruit. The angels, therefore, being fallen into the

ground and root of nature, have only the working life of the ground and root

of nature in them; and therefore seem to be as unchangeable, and incapable

of having any other, as the root itself is.

[Way-1-85] To ask therefore, why the fallen angels were not helped by the

mercy and goodness of God, as fallen man was; is like asking, why the

refreshing dew of heaven does not do that to flint, which it does to the

vegetable plant? For as the nature of the flint is too hard, and too much

compacted, to receive any alteration from the sweet softness of refreshing

water; so the fallen angel, like the flint, being shut up in the wrathful

working of its own hard darkness and fire, the goodness of God can have no

entrance into it.

[Way-1-86] For what are we to understand by the mercy and goodness of God?

His mercy is his patience. And his goodness, is his light, and Word, and

Holy Spirit. Now every creature has the benefit of divine patience; but no

creature can have his goodness, but that which is capable of receiving his

light, and Holy Spirit.

[Way-1-87] And his light, and Holy Spirit, cannot enter into a creature, as

an external, additional thing, that may be given to it, whether it will, or

not, but must be brought forth as a birth in it. For the light, and Spirit

of God can be nowhere, but as a birth, whether it be in God, or the

creature. And therefore the goodness of God can be imparted to no creature,

but that which is capable of a birth of the light and Spirit of God, or, in

the words of scripture, unless it be "born of the Word and Spirit of God."

[Way-1-88] This therefore you may rest upon, as a certain truth, that the

one only reason, why the fallen angels have as yet had nothing of the Spirit

or light of God breathed into, or born in them, is, because they are as yet

utterly incapable of such a birth, or of being helped by the divine

goodness. For as flame cannot communicate itself to flint, nor the Spirit of

God to a beast; because the flint stands in the utmost contrariety to flame,

and the beast in a total incapacity of holiness; so the fallen angel is in

its working life altogether incapable of receiving the Spirit and life of

God into it. Were it not thus, angels had been helped, as early as man: for

the goodness, or the light and Spirit of God loses no time, but stands

always in the same fullness of communication of itself to every creature

that is capable of receiving it.

[Way-1-89] And therefore it is, that fallen man was immediately helped,

because he fell only into earthly flesh and blood, in which the light of

this world is kindled, which light has something of heaven in it, and was

kindled by the light of heaven.

[Way-1-90] And therefore the goodness of God, or his light, and Holy Spirit,

could come to man's assistance in the light of this life, and therein begin

a covenant of redemption with him. For in this light of his life, which is a

ray of heaven, the inspoken Word in paradise could enter, and have communion

with it, and make itself to be a beginning of salvation to all those, who by

faith and hope should lay hold of it, and endeavor after a new birth from

it. Thus stands the ground and reason why men, and not angels, were

immediately helped at their fall.

[Way-1-91] As to your last question, whether I believe the final restoration

of all the fallen angels; I shall only say, that neither ancient nor modern

writers, on either side of the question, have touched the true merits of the

cause, or spoke to that point on which the decision of the matter wholly

rests.

[Way-1-92] For it can neither be sufficiently affirmed, nor sufficiently

denied, by any arguments drawn either from the divine attributes, or texts

of scripture; for they cannot come up to the point in question. But the true

ground and merit of the cause lies solely in the possibility of the thing,

which no one has attempted to prove, nor perhaps is anyone able to do it;

namely, to show from a true ground, that the diabolical nature is possible

to be altered. Darkness can by no omnipotence be made to be light; it can

only be suppressed, or overcome by it, or forced to be hid under it, as

heaven hides or overcomes hell; but still the darkness has its first nature,

never to be changed.

[Way-1-93] Now if anyone can show, that the devils are not essentially evil,

as darkness is essentially dark, but have only such an accidental difference

from goodness, as ice has from water, or a flint from transparent glass;

then their restoration is possible, and they will infallibly have all their

evil removed out of them by the goodness of God.

[Way-1-94] But unless it could be shown from a true ground in nature, that

the fallen angels must have something of the heavenly life in them, though

shut up in a thousand times harder death, than fire is in the dark flint, no

length of time, or anything else, can produce any alteration, or cessation

of their evil nature.

[Way-1-95] For time cannot alter the nature or essence of things; it only

suffers that to come to pass which is possible, and consistent with the

nature of things. No length of time can make a circle to have, or give

forth, the properties of a right line.

[Way-1-96] Now if the fallen angels have nothing heavenly in them, but stand

in as full a contrariety to all that is heavenly, as the circle does to the

properties of the right line; then goodness is as impossible to be ever

awakened in them, as in a beast. The beast must always be what it was at

first; and for this reason, because nothing but the bestial nature is in it:

if therefore the fallen angel is totally hellish, as the beast is bestial,

it must always be what it is.

[Way-1-97] But we have launched far enough in a deep that does not belong

unto us; and which cannot be sufficiently affirmed or denied but from the

known possibility, or the known impossibility, of the thing, which does not

yet appear. If it is possible, I am heartily glad of it; and am also sure

enough, that it will then come to pass in its own time. For if he could not

be thought to be a good man, who did not do all that he could to make

sinners become holy and happy in goodness, we may be sure enough that the

boundless goodness of God, will set no bounds to itself, but remove every

misery from every creature that is capable of it. But let me now return to

Humanus, and ask him, that, supposing he could not convince a man of the

certainty of his fallen state, how he would farther proceed with him.

[Way-1-98] Humanus. Truly, Theophilus, I would proceed no farther at all;

and for this good reason, because I should then have nothing to proceed

upon. Did I certainly know of an infallible remedy for every disorder of the

eyes, only to be had by going to China for it, I should not attempt to

persuade a man, who believed his eyes to be sound and good, to leave all

that he had, and go to China for this infallible remedy for bad eyes.

[Way-1-99] Now to press a man to deny himself, and leave all that he hath in

the enjoyments of flesh and blood, in order to be reconciled to God, who

believes himself to be in the same good state, in which God created him,

seems to be as wild a project, as to desire him who is well pleased with the

goodness of his sight, to go to the Indies to be helped to see.

[Way-1-100] And indeed I very well know, from former experience, that all

discourse about the reasonableness of Christianity, the doctrine of the

cross, the exceeding love of God in giving so great a savior, with many more

things of the like nature, were mere empty sounds, heard with the greatest

indifference, and incapable of raising the least seriousness in me, merely

because I had not the least notion or suspicion of the truth and greatness

of my fallen state, and therefore was not the man who had any fitness to be

affected with these matters. And thence it was that Christ said, "Come unto

me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you"; as

plain as if he had said, No one else can come to me, nor anyone else be

refreshed by me.

[Way-1-101] Here therefore, in my humble opinion, should all begin, who

would propagate Christianity, or make true converts to it, and here stop, as

Christ did. It is only the weary, and heavy laden, that are fitted to be

converts, or refreshed; and therefore we can no way help a man to be a

Christian, or fit him to be refreshed by Christ, but by bringing him into a

full sensibility of the evil, and burden, and vanity of his natural state,

till some good providence awakens him out of it; and not make proposals to

him of the reasonableness of believing the Holy Trinity, the incarnation of

the Son of God, and the necessity of his sufferings and death, &c. for this

method is full as absurd, as to enter into solemn debate with a confessed

atheist, about the reasonableness of worshiping God in spirit and truth;

for, as the excellence of a God is the only ground of proving that he ought

to be worshiped in spirit and truth, so the certainty and belief of our

fallen state is the only ground of showing the reasonableness of the

mysteries of redemption. And he that disowns the fall of man from a divine

life, has all the same reasons for rejecting the mysteries of our salvation,

as the atheist has to reject the doctrines of a spiritual worship of God.

Therefore, to expose the mysteries of our salvation to the wrangle of a

debate with an unbeliever of the fall of man, which mysteries have no other

ground to stand upon, is not only helping him to an easy triumph over you,

but is the most likely method to prevent his ever becoming a Christian. For

seeing how easily he can ridicule mysteries, which, to him in his present

state, can have no reasonableness in them, he is put into the most likely

way of living and dying in a hardened contempt of them. Whereas if you stick

close to the one true ground of Christianity, and only proceed as that

proceeds, and make the unbeliever no offers of any other Christianity, but

that which is to begin with the acknowledged sensibility of the fall of

human nature from its first divine life; you stop where you ought to stop,

and rob him of all power and pretense of meddling with the other mysteries

of salvation.

[Way-1-102] The one business then upon his hands, if he will hold out

against you, must be to deny his reason and senses, and maintain, in spite

of both, that man is not fallen, but is by nature holy, just, good, and

happy both in body and soul; and that mankind, and the world they are in,

have all that goodness and happiness, which they could be supposed to have

from an infinitely good and happy God; and who can will nothing in the

creature but goodness and happiness. Here you bring the Deist to his proper

work, and all the contradiction to sense and reason will lie on his side:

you set Christianity upon its true ground; and whoever thus defends it, as

it ought to be defended, not only does justice to the Christian cause, but

acts the most kind and friendly part towards those who oppose it merely

through a misunderstanding of its true ground and nature; which I will

venture to say is the case of all the sober well-meaning Deists. For Deism

has no natural foundation, or ground of its own, to stand upon; it does not

grow from any root or strength within itself, but is what it is merely from

the bad state of Christendom, and the miserable use that heathenish

learning, and worldly policy, have made of the gospel. If it (Deism) seems

to itself to be strong and well-grounded, it is merely because it can so

easily object to church-doctrines, and scholastic opinions: if it seems to

itself to be good it is because it can so easily lay open the evils which

Christians and churches bring upon one another: if it seems to itself to be

highly rational, its reason is, because it is free from that number of

absurdities and contradictions which Christian churches lay to the charge of

one another. Lastly, if it keeps off all fearful forebodings of the

consequences of not receiving the gospel, it is because it so plainly sees,

that Christians say, "Hail, master," kiss the gospel, and then break every

part of it.

[Way-1-103] This is the true height, and depth, and total strength of Deism

or infidelity; it never had any other support in myself but this; nor did I

ever converse with a Deist, who carried the matter higher or farther than

this, to support the cause. Hence it is, that you made so speedy a convert

of me, by showing me such a Christianity as I never heard of before; and

stripped of everything that gave me power to oppose it. Had you proceeded in

the way practiced by most defenders of the gospel, you had left me just as

you found me, if not more confirmed in my old way. But as you have justly

removed all controversy about doctrines from the merits of the cause, and

shown that it all lies in this one short, plain, and decisive point, namely

the fall of man; a fall proved and demonstrated to all my senses and reason,

by every height and depth of nature, by every kind of misery, evil, and sin

in the world, by everything we know of God, ourselves, and the world we live

in; the ground and foundation of Christianity is undeniable, and no one can

be too speedy a convert to the belief of it. And as you have also shown,

that the whole nature of the gospel redemption means nothing but the one,

true, and only possible way of delivering man from his miserable state in

this world; Christianity is shown to be the most intelligible and desirable

thing that the heart of man can think of. And thus, contrary to all

expectation, the tables are quite turned; Deism can no longer be founded on

argument, and Christianity is as self- evident as our senses: all learning

on both sides, either for or against it, is insignificant; Christianity

stands upon a bottom quite superior to it, and may be the sure possession of

every plain man, who has sense enough to know whether he is happy or

unhappy, good or evil. For this natural knowledge, if adhered to, is every

man's sure guide to that one salvation preached by the gospel. Which gospel

stands in no more need of learning and critical art now, than it did when

Christ was preaching it upon earth. How absurd would it have been for any

critics in Greek and Hebrew, to have followed Christ and his apostles, as

necessary explainers of their hard words, which called for nothing in the

hearers but penitent hearts turned to God; and declared, that they only "who

were of God, could hear the Word of God!" How strange, that Christ should

choose only illiterate men to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, if

only great scholars could rightly understand what they said! Again,

supposing learned men to have only the true fitness to understand the word

of scripture, and that the plain man is to receive it from them, how must he

know which are the scholars that have the right knowledge? From whence is he

to have this information? For no one need be told, that ever since learning

has borne rule in the church, learned doctors have contradicted and

condemned one another in every essential point of the Christian doctrine.

Thousands of learned men tell the illiterate, they are lost in this or that

church; and thousands of learned men tell them, they are lost, if they leave

it.

[Way-1-104] If therefore Christianity is in the hands of scholars, how must

the plain man come at it? Must he, though unable to understand scripture,

for want of learning, tell which learned man is in the right, and which is

not? If so, the unlearned man has much the greatest ability, since he is to

do that for scholars, which they cannot do for themselves.

[Way-1-105] But the truth of the matter is this; Christian redemption is

God's mercy to all mankind; but it could not be so, if every fallen man, as

such, had not some fitness and capacity to lay hold of it. It must have no

dependence upon times and places, or the ages and several conditions of the

world, or any outward circumstance of life; as the first man partook of it,

so must the last; the learned linguist, and the blind, the deaf and dumb,

have but one and the same common way of finding life in it. And he that

writes large commentaries upon the whole Bible, must be saved by something

full as different from book knowledge, as they were, who lived when there

was neither book nor any alphabet in the world.

[Way-1-106] For this salvation, which is God's mercy to the fallen soul of

man, merely as fallen, must be something that meets every man; and which

every man, as fallen, has something that directs him to turn to it. For as

the fall of man is the reason of this mercy, so the fall must be the guide

to it; the want must show the thing that is wanted. And therefore the

manifestation of this one salvation, or mercy to man, must have a nature

suitable, not to this or that great reader of history, or able critic in

Hebrew roots and Greek phrases, but suitable to the common state and

condition of every son of Adam. It must be something as grounded in human

nature, as the fall itself is, which wants no art to make it known; but to

which the common nature of man is the only guide in one man, as well as

another. Now this something, which is thus obvious to every man, and which

opens the way to Christian redemption in every soul, is a sense of the

vanity and misery of this world; and a prayer of faith and hope to God, to

be raised to a better state.

[Way-1-107] Now in this sensibility, which every man's own nature leads him

into, lies the whole of man's salvation; here the mercy of God and the

misery of man are met together; here the fall and the redemption kiss each

other. This is the Christianity which is as old as the fall; which alone

saved the first man, and can alone save the last. This is it on which hang

all the law and the prophets, and which fulfills them both; for they have

only this end, to turn man from the lusts of this life, to a desire, and

faith, and hope of a better. Thus does the whole of Christian redemption,

considered on the part of man, stand in this degree of nearness and

plainness to all mankind; it is as simple and plain as the feeling our own

evil and misery, and as natural as the desire of being saved and delivered

from it.

[Way-1-108] This is the Christianity which every man must first be made

sensible of, not from hearsay, but as a growth or degree of life within

himself, before he can have any fitness, or the least pretense to judge or

speak a word about the further mysteries of the gospel. But here I stop.

[Way-1-109] Theophilus. Well, Humanus, I have now pushed the matter with

you, as far as I intended; and you have given me full proof of the truth and

solidity of your own conversion, and your ability to do good amongst your

old brethren. You must now enter the lists with them; not to charge them

with ignorance, ill will, or profaneness of spirit, but only to try, in the

spirit of love and meekness, to undeceive them, in the manner you have been

undeceived; and to show them, that Christianity is by no means that thing,

which you and they have so long disliked.

[Way-1-110] Nothing can be more right than your resolution not to enter into

debate about the gospel doctrines, or propose the reasonableness of them to

anyone, till he owns himself sensibly convinced of the forementioned fall of

man; and stands in a full desire to be saved, or delivered from it. And if

that time never comes, you must leave him, as in the same incapacity to hear

or judge of the doctrines of the Holy Trinity, in the incarnation of the Son

of God, the operation of the Holy Spirit, as Epicurus would be. For every

man that cleaves to this world, that is in love with it, and its earthly

enjoyments, is a disciple of Epicurus, and sticks in the same mire of

atheism, as he did, whether he be a modern Deist, a Popish or Protestant

Christian, an Arian, or an orthodox teacher. For all these distinctions are

without any difference, if this world has the possession and government of

his heart. For the whole of the matter lies solely in this, whether heaven,

or earth, hath the heart and government of man. Nothing divides the

worshipers of the true God from idolaters but this: where earth possesses

and rules the heart, there all are of one and the same religion, and worship

one and the same god, however they may be distinguished by sect or party.

[Way-1-111] And wherever the heart is weary of the evil and vanity of the

earthly life, and looking up to God for an heavenly nature, there all are

one of the true religion, and worshipers of the true God, however distant

they may be from one another, as to time or place. But enough has been said

of this matter.

[Way-1-112] Let me now only, before we break up, observe to you the true

ground and nature of gospel Christianity: I call it so by way of distinction

from that original universal Christianity, which began with Adam; was the

religion of the patriarchs, of Moses and the prophets, and of every penitent

man in every part of the world, that had faith and hope towards God, to be

delivered from the evil of this world.

[Way-1-113] But when the Son of God had taken a birth in and from the human

nature, had finished all the wonders that belonged to our redemption, and

was sat down at the right hand of God in heaven, then a heavenly kingdom was

set up on earth, and the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, or was given to

the flock of Christ in such a degree of birth and life, as never was, nor

could be given to the human nature, till Christ, the redeemer of the human

nature, was glorified. But when the humanity of Christ, our second Adam, was

glorified, and became all heavenly, then the heavenly life, the comfort, and

power, and presence of the Holy Spirit, was the gift which he gave to his

brethren, his friends and followers, which he had left upon earth.

[Way-1-114] The Holy Ghost descended in the shape of cloven tongues of fire

on the heads of those, that were to begin and open the new powers of a

divine life set up amongst men. This was the beginning and manifestation of

the whole nature and power of gospel Christianity, a thing as different from

what was Christianity before, as the possession of the thing hoped for is

different from hope, or deliverance different from the desire or expectation

of it. Hence the apostles were new men, entered into a new kingdom come down

from heaven, enlightened with new light, inflamed with new love, and

preached not any absent or distant thing, but Jesus Christ, as the wisdom

and power of God, felt and found within them, and as a power of God ready to

be communicated in the same manner, as a new birth from above, to all that

would repent and believe in him. It was to this change of nature, of life,

and spirit, to this certain immediate deliverance from the power of sin, to

be possessed and governed by gifts and graces of an heavenly life, that men

were then called to, as true Christianity. And the preachers of it bore

witness, not to a thing that they had heard, but to a power of salvation, a

renewal of nature, a birth of heaven, a sanctification of spirit, which they

themselves had received. Gospel Christianity then stood upon its own true

ground; it appeared to be what it was. And what was it? Why, it was an

awakened divine life set up amongst men; itself was its own proof; it

appealed to its proper judge, to the heart and conscience of man, which was

alone capable of being touched with these offers of a new life.

[Way-1-115] Hence it was, that sinners of all sorts, that felt the burden of

their evil natures, were in a state of fitness to receive these glad

tidings. Whilst the rigid Pharisee, the orthodox priest, and the rational

heathen, though at enmity with one another, and each proud of his own

distinction, yet all agreed in rejecting and abhorring a spiritual savior,

that was to save them from their carnal selves, and the vanity of their own

rational selfish virtues. But when, after a while, Christianity had lost its

first glory, appeared no longer as a divine life awakened amongst men, and

itself was no longer its own proof of the power and Spirit of God manifested

in it; then heathenish learning, and temporal power, was from age to age

forced to be called the glory and prosperity of the church of Christ;

although in the Revelation of St. John, its figure is that of a scarlet

whore riding upon the beast.

[Way-1-116] Here therefore, my friend, you are to place the true distinction

of gospel Christianity from all that went before it, or that is come up

after it. It is purely and solely a divine life awakened, and set up amongst

men, as the effect and fruit of Christ's glorification in heaven; and has no

other promise from him but that of his Holy Spirit, to be with it, as its

light, its guide, its strength, its comfort, and protection, to the end of

the world. Therefore as gospel Christians, we belong to the new covenant of

the Holy Spirit, which is the kingdom of God come down from heaven on the

day of Pentecost; and therefore it is, that there is no possibility of

seeing or entering into this new kingdom, but by being born again of the

Spirit. The apostles and disciples of Christ, though they had been baptized

with water, had followed Christ, heard his doctrines, and done wonders in

his name; yet as then, stood only near to the kingdom of God, and preached

it to be at hand. They had only seen and known Christ according to the

flesh; had followed him with great zeal, but with little and very low

knowledge either of him or his kingdom; and therefore it was, that they were

commanded to stand still, and not act as his ministers in his new glorified

state, till they were endued with power from on high: which power they then

received, when the Holy Ghost with his cloven tongues of fire came down upon

them, by which they became illuminated instruments, that were to diffuse the

light of an heavenly kingdom over all the world. From that day began gospel

Christianity, with its true distinction from everything that was before it;

which was the ministration of the Spirit; and the ministers of it called the

world to nothing but gifts and graces of the same Spirit, to look for

nothing but spiritual blessings, to trust, and hope, and pray for nothing

but the power of that Spirit, which was to be the one life and ruling Spirit

of this newly opened kingdom of God. No one could join himself to them or

have any part with them but by dying to the wisdom and light of the flesh,

that he might live by the Spirit, through faith in Jesus Christ, who had

thus called him to his kingdom and glory. Now this Christianity is its own

proof; it can be proved from nothing but itself; it wants neither miracles,

nor outward witness; but, like the sun, is only its own discoverer.

[Way-1-117] He that adheres only to the history of the facts, doctrines, and

institutions of the gospel, without being born of its Spirit, is only such a

Christian, and is no nearer to Christ, than the Jew, who carnally adhered to

the letter of the law. They both stand in the same distance from gospel

Christianity.

[Way-1-118] It is in vain therefore for the modern Christian, to appeal to

antiquity, to history, and ancient churches, to prove that he belongs to

Christ; for he can only belong to him, by having the power of Christ, and

the Spirit of God living and dwelling in his renewed inward man.

[Way-1-119] But a learned Christianity, supported and governed by reason,

dispute, and criticism, that is forced to appeal to canons, and councils,and

ancient usages, to defend itself, has lost its place, stands upon a

fictitious ground, and shows, that it cannot appeal to itself, to its own

works, which alone are the certain and only proofs either of a true, or a

false Christianity.

[Way-1-120] For the truth of Christianity is the Spirit of God living and

working in it; and where this Spirit is not the life of it, there the

outward form is but like the outward carcase of a departed soul.

[Way-1-121] For the spiritual life is as much its own proof, as the natural

life, and needs no outward, or foreign thing to bear witness to it. But if

you please, gentlemen, we will end for this time, and refer what remains to

the afternoon.

The End of the First Dialogue

The Way to Divine Knowledge--continued

The Second Dialogue

[Way-2-1] Academicus. I must take the liberty, gentlemen, of speaking first

this afternoon; for though I have been much pleased with what passed betwixt

Humanus and Theophilus in the morning, yet I must own to you all, that I was

quite disappointed; for I came in full expectation of hearing everything,

that I wish, and want to know, concerning Jacob Behmen, and his works. For

though I have been reading, for more than two years, some one or other of

his books, with the utmost attention, and I everywhere find the greatest

truths of the gospel most fundamentally asserted, yet presently I am led

into such depths, as I know not where I am, and talked to in such new,

intricate, and unintelligible language, as seems quite impossible to be

comprehended. Sometimes I almost suspect, that the author understood not

himself: for I think, if I knew any truths, though ever so deep or uncommon;

yet, if I understand them plainly myself, I could set them before others in

the same plainness, that they appeared to me.

[Way-2-2] All my acquaintance have the same complaint that I here make; but

some hope, and others say, that if you live to publish any of his books, you

will remove most of his strange and unintelligible words; and give us notes

and explications of such as you don't alter. Surely a kind of commentary

upon him, would reconcile many to the reading of him, who, in the state he

is in, cannot have patience to puzzle their heads about him.

[Way-2-3] Rusticus. Oh this impatient scholar! How many troubles do I

escape, through the want of his learning? How much better does my old

neighbor John the shepherd proceed? In winter evenings, when he comes out of

the field, his own eyes being bad, the old woman his wife puts on her

spectacles, and reads about an hour to him, sometimes out of the scriptures,

and sometimes out of Jacob Behmen; for he has had two or three of his books

some years. I sat by one evening, when my old dame, reading Jacob, had much

ado to get on: "John," said I, "do you understand all this?" "Ah," says he,

"God bless the heart of the dear man, I sometimes understand but little of

him; and mayhap Betty does not always read right; but that little which I

often do understand, does me so much good, that I love him where I don't

understand him."

[Way-2-4] "John," said I, "shall I bring a man to you, that knows the

meaning of all of Jacob's hard words, and can make all his high matters as

plain to you, as the plainest things in the world?" "No, no," replied John,

"I don't want such a man, to make a talking about Jacob's words; I had

rather have but a little of his own, as it comes from him, than twenty times

as much at second-hand. Madam, the squire's wife, of our town, hearing how

Betty and I loved the scriptures, brought us, one day, a huge expounding

book upon the New Testament; and told us, that we should understand the

scripture a deal better, by reading it in that book, than the Testament

alone. The next Lord's Day, when two or three neighbors, according to

custom, came to sit with us in the evening; 'Betty,' said I,'bring out

madam's great book, and read the fifth chapter of St. Matthew.' When she had

done that, I bid her read the fifteenth chapter of the first Epistle to the

Corinthians. The next morning, said I to Betty, 'Carry his expounding book

again to my mistress, and tell her, that the words of Christ, and his

apostles, are best by themselves, and just as they left them.'

[Way-2-5] "And, as I was that morning going to my sheep, thought I to

myself, this great expounding book seems to have done just as much good to

this little book of the Testament, by being added to it, and mixed with it,

as a gallon of water would do to a little cup of true wine, by being added

to it, or mixed with it. The wine indeed would be all there; but its fine

taste, and cordial spirit, which it had, when drank by itself, would be all

lost and drowned in the coldness and deadness of the water.

[Way-2-6] "When my Betty used to read this, or some such words of Christ,

'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'; she

used to stop a little, that my heart might have time to be affected with

them, to love the blessed thing there spoken of, and lift up itself to God

in desire of it. But this great book takes this good work from my heart; and

only calls upon my mind, to behold the many parts which the text may be

split into, and the many meanings, some better and some worse, some higher

and some lower, that every part has, and may be taken in, by some doctor of

some church or other. Therefore, Rusticus, I sent the great book to madam

again; and am, for the same reason, utterly against hearing your expounder

of Jacob Behmen. If Jacob has more truths than other folks, he is the best

able to tell me what they are; and if he has some matters too high for me, I

don't desire any lesser man to make them lower.

[Way-2-7] "When he, like an Elijah, in his fiery chariot, is caught up into

such heights, and sees and relates such things, as I cannot yet comprehend;

I love and reverence him for having been where I never was; and seeing such

things as he cannot make me to see: just as I love and reverence St. Paul

for having been caught up into the third heaven, and hearing and seeing

things not possible to be uttered in human words.

[Way-2-8] "As I have but one end in hearing the scriptures read to me, to

fill me with the love of God, and every kind of goodness; so every part of

scripture, whether plain or mysterious, does me the same good, is alike good

to me, and kindles the same heavenly flame in my soul. Thus these plain

words, 'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart; and ye shall find

rest unto your souls'; give me, without any expounder of their meaning, such

an aversion and dislike of all vanity and pride, fill me with such sweet

contentment in every lowliness of life, that I long to be the servant of

every human creature. On the other hand, these lofty words of scripture,

'Behold, a throne was set in heaven; and he that sat thereon, was, to look

upon, like a jasper-stone; and there was a rainbow round about the throne;

and four-and-twenty seats; and upon the seats, four-and-twenty elders in

white raiment, and crowns of gold upon their heads: and out of the throne

proceeded lightnings, and thunders, and voices: and before the throne were

seven lamps of fire, which are the seven spirits of God: and before the

throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the

throne, and round about it, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind:

and the first beast was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a

face as a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle: and the four beasts

had each of them six wings, and were full of eyes; and they rest not day and

night, saying, Holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty, which was, and is, and is

to come. And when these beasts give glory, and honor, and thanks, to him

that sat on the throne, the four-and-twenty elders fall down before him that

sat on the throne, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou are

worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor, for thou hast created all

things,' &c.* {*Revelations, iv. ver. 2 &c.}

[Way-2-9] "Now these lofty and mysterious words, instead of puzzling my

head, lay hold of my heart, which, all inflamed with them, rises up with the

eyes and wings of the beasts in their song of praise and honor; and bows

down with the elders that worship the high and mighty Lord of heaven and

earth. And thus I want no Hebrew or Greek scholar to tell me this or that,

what are the seven spirits of God, why four kinds of beasts, why neither

more nor less than six wings, who were the elders, and why twenty-four; but

the whole matter, as if a glance of the majesty of heaven had just passed by

me, strikes my heart with such good transports of wonder and joy, as makes

me all longing and desire to be one of those, who are always singing the

praises and wonders of the majesty of God. And thus, Rusticus, all that the

scriptures give me to drink, whether high or low, is equally a cup of

blessing to me, and equally helps forward the growth of heaven in my soul.

[Way-2-10] "Bring not therefore your cunning man, that has skill in words,

to me; for words are but words; and though they be spoken even by the

messengers of God, as angels, or prophets, or apostles; when they do their

best, they can only do, as John the Baptist did, bear witness to the light:

but the light itself, which can only give light to the soul, is God himself.

And therefore not he that can best speak with the tongues of men and angels,

but he that most loves God, that is, that most loves the goodness of the

divine nature; he has most of God, and the light of God within him."

[Way-2-11] Thus ended honest old John the shepherd. And now, Academicus, if

your learned curiosity could be as much affected with what he has said, as

my ignorant simplicity is, you would drop all that you had said, as the

effect of such impatience as is much fitter to bring darkness than light

into your soul. You own, that, in the works of Behmen, the greatest points

of Christianity are most fundamentally opened. And how can you be more

self-condemned, than by desiring more?

[Way-2-12] But the truth is, you have only heard these fundamental matters;

you have only received them as good notions; are content with the hearsay of

them; and are therefore impatient to have more of this hearsay knowledge,

that you may become more learned in high matters, and more able to talk

about the ground and depth of Christian doctrines. You know, as well as I

can tell you, that this is your joy in Jacob Behmen; and thence it is, that

you have no patience, when you can't come at his meaning, so as to add it to

your number of notions. And thus you forget how often he tells you, and how

fundamentally he proves to you, that this notional knowledge, the treasure

of human reason, is the very builder of Babel. Whilst you are under the

guidance of our own Babylonian reason, you can have no good either from the

scriptures, or the writings of Jacob Behmen; but will be hunting after notes

and commentaries to help you to notions which only delude your mind with the

empty shadows of knowledge. Would you know the truths of Jacob Behmen, you

must see that you stand where he stood; you must begin where he began, and

seek only, as he tells you he did, the heart of God, that he might be saved

from the wrath of sin and Satan; and then it was, that the light of God

broke in upon him. But you, full of the power of your own reason, want to

stand upon the top of his ladder, without the trouble of beginning at the

bottom, and going up step by step. But I believe you had rather have

Theophilus speak than me; and therefore I shall now leave you to him.

[Way-2-13] Theophilus. Truly, Academicus, I am much of the same mind with

honest Rusticus, though perhaps I might not have spoken it so bluntly as he

has done. You seem to be in the same error, that most of my learned friends

are in, with regard to Jacob Behmen, who, though they greatly admire him,

yet, of all people, receive the least true benefit from him. They have been

trained up in dispute and controversy, accustomed to determine everything by

the light of their own reason, and know no other guide to truth. And

therefore, till, sooner or later, they come to know the falseness of this

guide, they can have no entrance into the region of divine light; but must

be forced to take their part, not of truth, but of some such system of

opinions, as their birth and education has placed them in. Thus, a learned

Papist has one creed, and the learned Protestant has another; not because

truth and light has helped him to it; but because birth and education have

given to the one popish, to the other Protestant eyes. For reason, which is

the eye or light of both, finds as much to its purpose, and as many good

tools to work with, in popish, as in Protestant opinions. Learning and

criticism are an open field to both, and he only has the greatest harvest,

who is best skilled in reaping.

[Way-2-14] Academicus. I perceive then, that I must renounce all my learning

and reason, if I am to understand Jacob Behmen. I cannot say, that I am

resolved to purchase it at so great a price. I hope the knowledge to be had

from the scriptures, will be sufficient for me, without his deep matters. I

did not expect to find you so great an enemy to learning.

[Way-2-15] Theophilus. Dear Academicus, be not so uneasy; I am no more an

enemy to learning, than I am to that art which builds mills to grind our

corn, and houses for ourselves to dwell in. I esteem the liberal arts and

sciences as the noblest of human things; I desire no man to dislike or

renounce his skill in ancient or modern languages; his knowledge of medals,

pictures, paintings, history, geography, or chronology; I have no more

dislike of these things in themselves, than of the art of throwing silk, or

making lace. But then all these things are to stand in their proper places,

and everyone kept within its own sphere.

[Way-2-16] Now all this circle of science and arts, whether liberal or

mechanic, belongs solely to the natural man; they are the work of his

natural powers and faculties; and the most wicked, sensual, unjust person,

who regards neither God, nor man, may yet be one of the ablest proficients

in any or all of them. But now Christian redemption is quite of another

nature; it has no affinity to any of these arts or sciences; it belongs not

to the outward natural man, but is purely for the sake of an inward,

heavenly nature, that was lost, or put to death, in paradise, and buried

under the flesh and blood of the earthly, natural man. It breathes a spark

of life into this inward, hidden, or lost man; by which it feels and finds

itself, and rises up in new awakened desires after its lost Father, and

native country.

[Way-2-17] This is Christian redemption; on the one side, it is the heavenly

divine life offering itself again to the inward man, that had lost it. On

the other side, it is the hope, the faith, and desire of this inward man,

hungering, and thirsting, stretching after, and calling upon this divine and

heavenly life.

[Way-2-18] Now, whether this awakened, new man breathes forth his faith and

hope towards this divine life, in Hebrew, Greek, or English sounds, or in no

one of them, can be of no significancy: a man that can do it only in one, or

in all these languages, is neither farther from, nor nearer to, this

redeeming life of God. Or can you think, that the heavenly life must more

willingly enter into, and open itself in, a man that has many languages,

than in him, who knows only one? Or, that a man, who can make high Dutch,

Welsh, or Greek grammars, must have a stronger faith, a more lively hope,

and a more continual thirst after God, than he who can but poorly spell in

his mother tongue? But now, if this is too absurd to be supposed; then, my

friend, without the least injury done, or the least enmity shown, to

learning, science, reason, and criticism, you must place them just where I

have done, amongst the things and ornaments of this earthly life, and such

things as, in their own nature, are as easy to be had, and as highly

enjoyed, by men that despise all goodness, as by those who fear God, and

eschew evil.

[Way-2-19] And therefore, sir, no truths concerning the divine and heavenly

life are to be brought for trial before this learned bar, where both jury

and judges are born and bred, live and move and have their being, in another

world, which have no more power of feeling the divine life, than an eagle's

eyes can look into the kingdom of God. If you, my friend, having read many

old Greek and Latin books, should intend to publish Homer, or Caesar's

Commentaries, with critical notes, I should have nothing to object to your

ability; you might be as well qualified by such means for such a work, as

one man is to make baskets, or another traps to catch flies. But if, because

of this skill in old Greek and Latin, you should seem to yourself, or

others, to be well qualified to write notes upon the spirit and meaning of

the words of Christ, I should tell you, that your undertaking was quite

unnatural, and as impossible to be free from error, as when a blind man

undertakes to set forth the beauty of different colors.

[Way-2-20] For the doctrines of redemption belong no more to the natural

man, than the beauty of colors to him, that never saw the light. And from

this unnatural procedure it is, that the scriptures are as useful to the

Socinian or Arian, the papist or the Protestant; and they can as easily, by

the light of reason, charge one another with absurdities, and confute each

other's opinion, as two blind men can quarrel and reject each other's

notions of red and green.

[Way-2-21] Jesus Christ is the light of that heavenly man that died in

paradise; and therefore nothing in man, but that awakened seed of life, that

died in paradise, can have the least sensibility or capacity for receiving

the redeeming power of Jesus Christ. But light and life have no dependence

upon words or phrases; they both can only proceed from a birth, whether it

be the light and life of God, or the light and life of this world. How

absurd would it be, to suppose, that a man, naturally blind, must be taught

grammar or logic, to fit him for the reception of the light of the sun, and

the knowledge of colors? Yet not less absurd, than to think, that skill in

Hebrew and Greek words can open the light of God and heaven in the soul. If

you now, Academicus, can set this matter in a juster light, I am ready to

hear you.

[Way-2-22] Academicus. Standing upon the ground, that you, Theophilus, stand

upon, all that you have said of reason, science, historical knowledge, or

critical skill in words, is unanswerable. For what can all these things

avail, if redemption is purely a birth of the divine nature, light, and

Spirit of God, offered to fallen man; which birth can only be received by

the faith, hope, and desire of that inward man, which is divine in us? For

nothing else can have any hunger or thirst after the divine nature, but that

which is itself born of it.

[Way-2-23] Now this true ground of the Christian redemption gives the

greatest glory to God and comfort to man. It explains the fact, why plain

and simple souls, having their inward man kindled into love, hope, and faith

in God, are capable of the highest divine illumination; whilst learned

students, full of art and science, can live and die without the least true

knowledge of God and Christ, and slaves to all the lusts of the flesh. For

thus, this redemption belongs only to one sort of people, and yet is common

to all. It is equally near, and equally open, to every son of man. There is

no difference between learned and unlearned, between Jew or Greek, male or

female, Scythian or barbarian, bond or free; but the same Lord is God over

all, and equally nigh to all that call upon him. It is told us, as the glory

of the divine goodness, that "it giveth fodder to the cattle; and feedeth

the young ravens that cry unto it." What cattle? Surely not only to the

cattle of Jacob; or only to the young ravens that cry in the land of Judah.

Yet this would be much more consistent with the goodness of the one

universal God, than to hold, that only the sons of Jacob, or the children of

the circumcision, were in the covenant of God's redemption.

[Way-2-24] But now, though this one ground of Christian redemption stands in

the highest degree of plainness from scripture, and is absolutely certain

from the very nature of the thing; yet, till I met with honest Rusticus, I

never conversed with any man, or read any book, that gave me the least hint

of it. When I had taken my degrees, I consulted several great divines, to

put me in a method of studying divinity. Had I said to them, "Sirs what must

I do to be saved?" they would have prescribed hellebore to me, or directed

me to the physician as a vapored enthusiast. And yet I am now fully

satisfied, that this one question ought to be the sole enquiry of him, who

desires to be a true divine. And was our savior himself on earth, who surely

could do more for me, than all the libraries in the world; yet I need have

asked no more divinity-knowledge of him, than is contained in the one

question.

[Way-2-25] It would take up near half a day, to tell you the work which my

learned friends have cut out for me. One told me, that Hebrew words are all;

that they must be read without points; and then the Old Testament is an

opened book. He recommended to me a cart load of lexicons, critics, and

commentators, upon the Hebrew Bible. Another tells me, the Greek Bible is

the best; that it corrects the Hebrew in many places; and refers me to a

large number of books learnedly writ in defense of it. Another tells me,

that church history is the main matter; that I must begin with the first

fathers, and follow them through every age of the church, not forgetting to

take the lives of the Roman emperors along with me, as striking great light

into the state of the church in their times. Then I must have recourse to

all the councils held, and the canons made, in every age which would enable

me to see with my own eyes the great corruptions of the Council of Trent.

Another, who is not very fond of ancient matters, but wholly bent upon

rational Christianity, tells me, I need go no higher than the reformation;

that Calvin and Cranmer were very great men; that Chillingworth and Locke

ought always to lie upon my table; that I must get an entire set of those

learned volumes wrote against popery in King James's reign; and also be well

versed in all the discourses which Mr. Boyle's and Lady Moyer's lectures

have produced: and then, says he, you will be a match for our greatest

enemies, which are the popish priests, and modern Deists. My tutor is very

liturgical; he desires me, of all things to get all the collections that I

can of the ancient liturgies, and all the authors that treat of such

matters; who, he says, are very learned, and very numerous. He has been many

years making observations upon them, and is now clear, as to the time, when

certain little particles got entrance into the liturgies, and others were by

degrees dropped. He has a friend abroad, in search of ancient manuscript

liturgies; for, by the bye, said he, at parting, I have some suspicion that

our sacrament of the Lord's Supper is essentially defective, for want of

having a little water in the wine, &c. Another learned friend tells me, the

Clementine Constitutions is the book of books; and that all that lies loose

and scattered in the New Testament, stands there in its true order and form;

and though he won't say, that Dr. Clarke and Mr. Whiston are in the right;

yet it might be useful to me to read all the Arian and Socinian writers,

provided I stood upon my guard, and did it with caution. The last person I

consulted, advised me to get all the histories of the rise and progress of

heresies, and of the lives and characters of heretics. These histories, he

said, contract the matter; bring truth and error close in view; and I should

find all that collected in a few pages, which would have cost me some years

to have got together. He also desired me to be well versed in all the

casuistical writers, and chief schoolmen; for they debate matters to the

bottom; dissect every virtue, and every vice, into its many degrees and

parts; and show, how near they can come to one another without touching. And

this knowledge, he said, might be useful to me, when I came to be a parish

priest.

[Way-2-26] Following the advice of all these counselors, as well as I could,

I lighted my candle early in the morning, and put it out late at night. In

this labor I had been sweating for some years, till Rusticus, at my first

acquaintance with him, seeing my way of life, said to me, "Had you lived

about seventeen hundred years ago, you had stood just in the same place as I

stand now. I cannot read; and therefore," says he, "all these hundreds of

thousands of disputing books, and doctrine books, which these seventeen

hundred years have produced, stand not in my way; they are the same thing to

me, as if they had never been. And had you lived at the time mentioned, you

had just escaped them all, as I do now; because, though you are a very good

reader, there was then none of them to be read.

[Way-2-27] "Could you therefore, be content to be one of the primitive

Christians, who were as good as any that have been since; you may spare all

this labor. Take only the gospel into your hands; deny yourself; renounce

the lusts of the flesh; set your affections on things above; call upon God

for his Holy Spirit; walk by faith, and not by sight; adore the holy Deity

of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose image and likeness you was at first

created; and in whose name and power you have been baptized, to be again the

living likeness, and holy habitation, of his life, and light, and Holy

Spirit.

[Way-2-28] "Look up to Christ, as your redeemer, your regenerator, your

second Adam; look at him, as truly he is, the wisdom and power of God,

sitting at his right hand in heaven, giving forth gifts unto men; governing,

sanctifying, teaching, and enlightening with his Holy Spirit, all those that

are spiritually-minded; who live in faith, and hope, and prayer, to be

redeemed from the nature and power of this evil world. Follow but this

simple, plain spirit of the gospel, loving God with all your heart, and your

neighbor as yourself; and then you are Christ's disciple, and have his

authority to let the dead bury their dead.

[Way-2-29] "God is a spirit, in whom you live and move and have your being;

and he stays not till you are a great scholar, but till you turn from evil,

and love goodness, to manifest his holy presence, power, and life, within

you. It is the love of goodness, that must do all for you; this is the art

of arts; and when this is the ruling spirit of your heart, then Father, Son,

and Holy Ghost, will come unto you, and make their abode with you, and lead

you into all truth, though you knew no more books than I do."

[Way-2-30] So ended Rusticus. It is not easy for me, Theophilus, to tell

you, how much good I received from this simple instruction of honest Master

Rusticus; for master I may well call him, since he, in so few words, taught

me a better lesson of wisdom, than ever I had heard before.

[Way-2-31] What a project was it, to be grasping after the knowledge of all

the opinions, doctrines, disputes, heresies, schisms, councils, canons,

alterations, additions, inventions, corruptions, reformations, sects, and

churches, which 1700 years had brought forth through all the extent of the

Christian world! What a project this, in order to be a divine, that is, in

order to bear true witness to the power of Christ, as a deliverer from the

evil of flesh, and blood, and hell, and death, and a raiser of a new birth

and life from above! For as this is the divine work of Christ, so he only is

a true and able divine, that can bear a faithful testimony to this divine

work of Christ.

[Way-2-32] How easy was it for me to have seen with Rusticus, that all this

labyrinth of learned enquiry into such a dark, thorny wilderness of notions,

facts, and opinions, could signify no more to me now, to my own salvation,

to my interest in Christ, and obtaining the Holy Spirit of God, than if I

had lived before it had any beginning! But the blind appetite of learning

gave me no leisure to apprehend so plain a truth. Books of divinity indeed I

have not done with; but I will esteem none to be such, but those that make

known to my heart the inward power and redemption of Jesus Christ. Nor will

I seek for anything even from such books, but that which I ask of God in

prayer; viz., how better to know, more to abhor and resist the evil that is

in my own nature; and how to attain a supernatural birth of the divine life

brought forth in me: all besides this is pushpin. The shipwrecked man wants

only to get to shore. Did we see the truth of our state as he does, we

should have but one want, and that would be, to get possession of our first

created state. There is no misery but in the evil that is in our own fallen

state; this is our shipwreck, and great distress; nor is there any

happiness, but in having the first life of God, and all goodness, opened

again in the soul. He that is not intent upon this one thing needful, is not

a wise Christian, much less a divine, or one qualified to make known to

others the mystery of the power of Christ in the work of redemption.

[Way-2-33] But now I go back to that which I first spoke of; and though I

give up all that I said of putting out Jacob Behmen in new language, with

comments, &c. yet I must still desire, that, some way or other, he may be

made more plain and intelligible; call it by what name you please.

[Way-2-34] Theophilus. Jacob Behmen may be considered, (1.) as a teacher of

the true ground of the Christian religion. (2.) As a discoverer of the false

anti-Christian church, from its first rise in Cain, through every age of the

world, to its present state in all and every sect of the present divided

Christendom. (3.) As a guide to the truth of all the mysteries of the

kingdom of God. In these three respects, which contain all that anyone can

possibly want to know or learn from any teacher; he is the strongest, the

plainest, the most open, intelligible, awakening, convincing writer, that

ever was. As to all these three matters, he speaks to everyone, as himself

saith, in the sound of a trumpet. And here to pretend to be an explainer of

him, or make him fitter for our apprehension, in these great matters, is as

vain, as if a man should pipe through a straw, to make the sound of a

trumpet better heard by us.

[Way-2-35] Further, he may be considered, (4.) as a relater of depths opened

in himself, of wonders which his spirit had seen and felt in his ternario

sancto. Now in this respect he is no teacher, nor his reader a learner; but

all that he saith is only for the same end as St. Paul spoke of his having

been in the third heaven, and hearing things not possible to be spoken in

human words. And yet in these matters it is, that most of his readers,

especially if they are scholars, are chiefly employed; everyone in his way

trying to become masters of them. Thus, when he first appeared in English,

many persons of this nation, of the greatest wit and abilities, became his

readers; who, instead of entering into his one only design, which was their

own regeneration from an earthly to an heavenly life, turned chemists, and

set up furnaces to regenerate metals, in search of the philosopher's stone.

And yet, of all men in the world, no one has so deeply, and from so true a

ground, laid open the exceeding vanity of such labor, and utter

impossibility of success in it from any art or skill in the use of fire. And

this must with truth be affirmed of him, that there is not any possible

error, that you can fall into in the use of his books, but what he gives you

notice of beforehand, and warns you against it in the most solemn manner;

and tells you, that the blame must be yours, if you fall into it. Neither is

there any question that you can put, nor advice or direction that you can

ask, but what he has over and over spoke to; telling you, in the plainest

manner, what the mystery is which his books contain; how, and by whom, and

for what end, they are to be read.

[Way-2-36] There are two sorts of people to whom he forbids the use of his

books, as uncapable of any benefit from them, and who will rather receive

hurt, than any good from them. The first sort he shows in these words:

"Loving reader, if thou lovest the vanity of the flesh still, and art not in

an earnest purpose of the way to the new birth, intending to be a new man,

then leave the above-written words in these prayers unnamed, or else they

will turn to a judgment of God in thee."* {*Repent. p. 42} Again, "Reader, I

admonish you sincerely, if you be not in the way of the prodigal, or lost

son, returning to his father again, that you leave my book, and read it not;

it will do you harm. But if you will not take warning, I will be guiltless;

blame nobody but yourself."

{**Three Prin.}

[Way-2-37] In this advice, so different from that of other writers, he shows

the truth and reality of his own regenerated state; and that the very same

spirit speaks in him, as formerly said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven

is at hand. Unless a man deny himself, and forsake all that he hath, he

cannot be my disciple. No man can come unto me, except the Father draweth

him. Except a man be born again from above, he cannot see the kingdom of

God. He that is of God, heareth God's word. Come unto me, all ye that labor,

are weary and heavy-laden." For all these texts of scripture say that very

self-same thing that Jacob Behmen doth, when he absolutely requires his

reader to be in the way of the returning prodigal. It is not rules of

morality observed, or an outward blameless form of life, that will do: for

pride, vanity, envy, self-love, and love of the world, can be, and often

are, the heart of such a morality of life. But the state of the lost son is

quite another thing; and must be the state of every man: as soon as he comes

to himself, and has seeing eyes, he will then, like him, see himself far

from home; that he has lost his first paradise, his heavenly Father, and the

dignity of his first birth; that he is a poor, beggarly slave in a foreign

land, hungry, ragged, and starving, amongst the lowest kind of beasts, not

so well fed and clothed as they are: when thus finding himself, he saith, "I

will arise, and go to my Father," &c. then has he his first fitness for the

mysteries opened in Jacob Behmen's writings; for they are addressed to man

only in this supposed state; they have no fitness to him but in this state;

and therefore no one, whether Jew, Christian, or Deist, who does not find

and feel himself to be the very lost son described in the parable, has any

capacity to receive benefit from them, but they will be a continual

stumbling block to him. And it is just thus with the gospel itself; wherever

it is received and professed, without something of this preparation of

heart, without this sensibility of the lost son, there it can only be a

stone of stumbling, and help the earthly man to form a religion of notions

and opinions from the unfelt meaning of the letter of the gospel.

[Way-2-38] Secondly, the other sort of people, whom he excludes from his

books, and for whom he has writ nothing, are the men of reason, who give

themselves up to the light of reason, as the true touchstone of divine

truths. To these he declares over and over, that he has not his light from

reason; and that he writes nothing to reason. "The rational man," saith he,

"understands nothing in reference to God; for it is without and not in God."

Again, "The true understanding must flow from the inward ground, out of the

living Word of God. In which inward ground, all my knowledge concerning the

divine and natural ground, hath taken its rise, beginning, and

understanding. I am not born of the school of this world, and am a plain

simple man; but by God's Spirit and will am brought, without my own purpose

and desire, into divine knowledge in high natural searchings."* {*Epist. p.

121.} Again, "He that will learn to understand the true way, let him depart

from and forsake his own reason."

{**p. 138} "If my writings," says he, "come into your hands, I would that

you should look upon them as of a child's, in whom the highest has driven

his work; for there is that couched therein, which no reason may understand

or comprehend." {Ibid. p. 141.} Again, "Reason must be blinded, kept under,

and not allowed to stir."* {*p. 68.} Again, "Reason must yield up its own

hearing and life, and give itself up to God, that God may live in the

understanding of man, else there is no finding in the divine wisdom. All

that is taught and spoken concerning God, without the Spirit of God, is but

Babel."

{**Epist. p. 9} Again, "We must wholly reject our own reason; it is not

available to help us to the light, but is a mere leading astray, and keeping

us back. This we intimate to the reader, that he may know what he readeth.

Let none account it for a work of outward reason." Again, "Speaking of the

mystery, {Three-fold L. p. 68,88.} he saith, "pray to God the most high,

that he would be pleased to open the door of knowledge, without which no man

will understand my writings; for they surpass the astral reason; they

apprehend and comprehend the divine birth; and therefore only the like

spirit can understand them aright. No reasoning or speculating reacheth

them, unless the mind be illuminated from God, to the finding of which the

way is faithfully shown to the seeking reader."* {*Epist. p. 138}

[Way-2-39] And now, Academicus, you may see how needless it is to ask me, or

anyone else, to help you to understand his works: he himself has given you

all the assistance that can be given: he has laid open before you, in the

utmost plainness, both the nature of the mystery, and the one only possible

way that you can partake of it.

[Way-2-40] Academicus. You speak often of the mystery: pray, what am I to

understand by it?

[Way-2-41] Theophilus. You are to understand by it, the deep and true ground

of all things. A mystery, in which the birth and beginning of eternal

nature, or the first workings of the inconceivable God, opening and

manifesting his hidden triune Deity in an outward state of glory in the

splendor of united fire, light, and spirit, all kindled and distinguished,

all united and beatified by the hidden three. In this eternal nature, all

inward powers, all the hidden riches of the incomprehensible Father, Son,

and Holy Ghost, are from eternity to eternity brought forth into outward

majesty, and visible glory. In which triune opening of heavenly glory,

power, and majesty, the triune God beholdeth himself as in his own

manifestation, is clothed as with his own garment, dwelleth as in his own

habitation, and worketh all his wonders of wisdom and omnipotence in and by,

and according to, the possible powers of this eternal nature. For this

eternal nature is the first possibility of all after-beings and things; for

before, or without, this eternal nature, all is an eternal, silent, still,

unmovable, unperceivable nothingness; and this eternal nature is the first

manifestation, the first opening of the divine omnipotence; and in it are

included, in its own infinite bounds, all the height and depth, and extent,

of the divine wisdom and powers. All that God is, and can do, or bring forth

from himself, is done in and by the working of his triune spirit in this

eternal nature.

[Way-2-42] This is the great scene of his eternal wisdom and omnipotence, in

which new wonders are eternally rising up, and declaring the fathomless

depths of the riches of the invisible triune Deity. And to say, that God can

do no more, than what he can do through and by the possible powers of this

eternal nature, is only saying, that he can do more than what he can do by

himself, because this eternal nature is the eternal manifestation of the

total God, or an out-birth of that which the Deity is, in its invisible

power and Deity.

[Way-2-43] Out of this transcendent eternal nature, which is as universal

and immense as the Deity itself, do all the highest beings, cherubims and

seraphims, all the hosts of angels, and all intelligent spirits, receive

their birth, existence, substance, and form. They are all so many different,

finite, bounded forms of the heavenly fire, and light of eternal nature,

into which creaturely beings the invisible triune God breatheth his

invisible Spirit, by which they become both the true children and likeness

of the invisible Deity, and also the true offspring of his eternal nature;

and are fitted to rejoice with God, to live in the life of God, and live and

work, and have their being, in that eternal nature, or kingdom of heaven, in

which the Deity itself liveth and worketh. And they are one, united in one,

God in them, and they in God, according to the prayer of Christ for his

disciples; that they, and he, and his holy Father, might be united in one.*

{*John xvi.}

[Way-2-44] This is in part what you are first to understand concerning the

mystery.

[Way-2-45] But, secondly, it is a mystery, in which the creation and fall of

angels, with all its consequences in them, and their kingdom; in which the

system of this visible universe, why, and from what, and how it came to be

as it is; the birth of the sun and the planets, why and how they come to

have such difference in nature, place, and office, as also of all the stars;

the nature of every creaturely life, and ground of its vast variety; the

cause of every inanimate dead thing; a mystery in which the creation,

dignity, and perfection, of the first angelic man in paradise; the whole

kingdom of nature, and kingdom of grace; their connection, difference, and

mutually affecting and working upon one another under the providence of the

invisible Spirit of God, from the beginning to the end of time, are all

unfolded from their first root and cause.

[Way-2-46] Thirdly, it is a mystery, in which the ground of Christian

redemption, its whole nature, absolute necessity, and the working of all its

parts both in the redeemer and in the redeemed, are set forth in the utmost

degree of clearness; where the whole process of Christ, as incarnate,

living, suffering, dying, rising from the dead, ascending into heaven, and

sitting at the right hand of God, and governing his church on earth by his

Holy Spirit; and all the practical duties of the gospel, whether of faith

and hope, or of self-denial; dying to this world, and strict conformity to

the life and Spirit of Christ; are all demonstrated from the deepest ground

of the nature of things, to be absolutely necessary to the recovery and

redemption of the fallen human nature.

[Way-2-47] This, sir, is, in some degree, the mystery which it has pleased

the Spirit of God to open in this plain and unlearned man.

[Way-2-48] Academicus. Well, Theophilus, I entirely consent to this account

you have given of it, and think it is sufficiently supported by what is to

be found in his books; they seem to mean all these great matters which you

mentioned. But then, sir, give me leave to tell you, that I think it is

impossible for you to defend what you have said above concerning reason; or

to show the unreasonableness of my demanding rational illustrations and

comments. For if this is the truth, that his works contain the ground and

philosophy of nature, and all creatures; surely they must not only allow the

use of our reason, but call for the highest and most acute exercise of it.

For what can enter into the reasons and philosophy of things, but reason? Or

what do all these great matters appeal to, but to our reason? I see no

possibility of denying this; and if this be granted, all that has been said

about silencing our reason, must be given up.

[Way-2-49] Theophilus. The conclusion, my friend, that you here think to be

so just and strong, as not possible to be denied, is so far from being so,

that it is a glaring absurdity; and the quite contrary to that one only true

conclusion, which you should have made, and which so easily and naturally

flowed from what was said. For if the mystery is the deep ground of all

things, of all nature, and all creatures, &c. then the one conclusion that

infallibly flows from it, is this, that no acuteness or ability of natural

reason can so much as look into it. For natural reason is no older than

flesh and blood; it has no higher a nature or birth than natural doubting;

it had no existence when nature began its first workings, and therefore can

bear no witness to them. It was not present, had no eyes, when things first

came forth; it never stood in the center, from whence the birth of

everything must arise; it never saw the forming of the first seeds of every

life: and yet the mystery, you see, contains all this: and therefore the one

plain and necessary conclusion is this; that natural reason is, and must be,

as incapable of entering into this mystery, as flesh and blood is incapable

of entering into the kingdom of heaven.

[Way-2-50] Behold, now, what a flagrant proof you have given of the vanity,

weakness, and blindness of natural reason in divine matters. Your reason

saw, with the utmost certainty, that the mystery must be an appeal to

reason, merely because it contained such an height and depth of a divine

philosophy; and yet the height and depth of its matters is the one full

proof, that reason can have nothing to do with it. This may show you by what

means Babel has built itself all over the Christian world. For, by the light

of this Babylonian reason, the defenders and opposers of doctrines confute

one another with such a certainty and strength of reason, as you saw, that

reason must be the only judge of the mystery, from which it is just as much

excluded by its own nature, as the mole under ground is, by its nature,

excluded from the flight and sight of the towering eagle.

[Way-2-51] Academicus. Pray then tell me, how a man is to attain the

knowledge of the mystery, or have any share in the light of it.

[Way-2-52] Theophilus. There is but one possible way, and that is this: it

must be born in you. All true knowledge, either of God or nature, must be

born in you. You cannot possibly know anything of God, but so far as God is

manifested in you; so far as his light and Holy Spirit is born in you, as it

is born in him, and liveth and worketh in you, as it liveth and worketh in

him. A distant, absent, separate God, is an unknown God. For God can only

manifest God, as light can only manifest light, and darkness make darkness

to be known.

[Way-2-53] Again, you can have no real knowledge of nature, and its inward

working power, but so far as the workings of nature, and the birth of

things, are a working and birth in yourself. Natural reason may trade in the

outside of things; it may measure, and make drafts of magnitude, height, and

distance of things on the earth, and above the earth; it may make many and

fine experiments of the powers of every element: but then this is going no

farther into the ground of nature, than when the potter makes curious

vessels with his clay and fire.

[Way-2-54] To count the stars, to observe their places or motions, is just

the same height of natural knowledge, as when the shepherd counts his sheep,

and observes their time of breeding.

[Way-2-55] This world, with all its stars, elements, and creatures, is come

out of the invisible world; it has not the smallest thing, or the smallest

quality of anything, but what is come forth from thence; and therefore every

quality of everything is what it is, and worketh that which worketh, by a

secret power and nature in and from the invisible world. Bitter, sweet,

sour, hard, soft, hot, cold, &c. have all of them their first seed and birth

in the invisible world, called eternal nature. The irrational animals of

this world feel all these things: the rational man goes farther; he can

reason and dispute about their outward causes and effects: but the mystery

of eternal nature must first be opened in man, before he can give the divine

philosophy of them. For as they all come from thence, have their nature,

birth, and growth, from thence; so no philosophy, but that which comes from

thence, can give the true ground of them.

[Way-2-56] If man himself was not all these three things, viz., (1.) a birth

of the holy Deity; (2.) a birth of eternal nature; and, (3.) also a

microcosm of all this great outward world; that is, of everything in it, its

stars and elements; and if the properties of every creaturely life were not

in an hidden birth in him; no omnipotence of God could open the knowledge of

divine and natural things in him.

[Way-2-57] For God can only manifest that, which there is to be manifested;

and therefore only open that, which before lay unopened, and as in a state

of hiddenness or death. Nothing can come forth from man, or any creature,

but that which first had its seed in him; and to think, that any knowledge

can be put into him, but that which is a birth of his own life, is as absurd

as to think, that the tree and its branches may first grow, and then be

brought to the root.

[Way-2-58] We are led into mistakes about this matter from the common

practice of the world, which calls everything knowledge, that the reason,

wit, or humor of man prompts him to discourse about; whether it be fiction,

conjecture, report, history, criticism, rhetoric, or oratory: all this

passes for sterling knowledge; whereas it is only the activity of reason,

playing with its own empty notions.

[Way-2-59] From this idea of knowledge it is, that when this rational man

turns his thoughts to the study of divinity, he is content with the same

knowledge of divine matters, as he had in these exercises of his reason; and

he proceeds in the same manner, as when he studied history and rhetoric.

[Way-2-60] He turns his mind to hearsay, to conjecture, to criticism, and

great names; and thinks he is then a member of the true church, when he

knows it as plainly as he knows the ancient commonwealth of Rome. His

knowledge of the being of God stands upon the same bottom, and is made known

to him by the same means and methods of proof, as he comes to be assured,

that once upon a time there was a first man, and his name was Adam. His

knowledge of the kingdom of heaven is looked upon to be sufficient, as soon

as he knows it, as he knows that there is such a place as Constantinople.

When he turns his inquiries into the mysteries of Christian redemption, he

looks as much out of himself as when he is searching into the antiquities of

Greece; and appeals to the same helps for his knowledge, as when he wants to

know the inward structure of Solomon's temple, and all its services, &c.

[Way-2-61] This is the great delusion which has long overspread the

Christian world; and all countries, and all libraries, are the proof of it.

It is this power and dominion of reason in religious matters, that Jacob

Behmen so justly calls the anti-Christ in Babel; for it leads men from the

life and truth of the mysteries of Christ, to put a carnal trust in a

confused multitude of contrary notions, inventions, and opinions. And the

thing is unavoidable, it cannot be otherwise with reason; it cannot do more

good with, or make a better use of, gospel doctrines; it is anti-Christ as

soon as ever it is admitted to debate and state the nature of any divine

truth. And that for these two great reasons: first, because it has

absolutely the same incapacity for it, as the man that is born blind hath

for the light. Wherein now lieth the incapacity of the blind man, to speak

or think anything truly about light? It is because he is born and bred in

another world, where nothing of light ever did or can enter; it is because

there is the gulf of a whole birth betwixt him and the light of this world;

and therefore, though he lives ever so long, reasons ever so much, or hears

ever so many speeches, about the light, all that he gets by it is only more

false ideas of the unknown thing.

[Way-2-62] Now this is strictly the incapacity of reason, to speak, or think

anything truly of the divine life. It is because it is born and bred in

another world, in the darkness of flesh and blood, into which no perception

or sensibility of God and heaven can enter; it is because there is the gulf

of a whole birth betwixt it, and the light of God and heaven; and therefore,

let reason, from age to age, hear, read, and dispute ever so much about the

light of God and heaven, all that it can get by it, is only to be enriched

with more and more fictions and falsities about the unknown thing.

[Way-2-63] Secondly, natural reason, whenever judging or ruling in divine

matters, must be anti-Christ, because it cannot make any other use of the

mysteries of religion, or do anything else with them, but in the same

spirit, and for the same ends, that it receiveth and useth the things of

this world. It matters not, what are the names or natures of the things,

whether you call them spiritual or temporal: natural reason can make but one

and the same use of them; it can only turn them to an earthly use, to

worldly prosperity, to private interest, honor, power, or distinction. And

the thing is unavoidable, it is impossible to be otherwise; it is not a

fault that reason might amend, if it would; but is as much its own nature,

as it is natural to flame to ascend. Now everything must act according to

its nature; every kind of life must be for itself, for its own good. Now

reason has no higher a birth and nature, than the spirit of this world; it

must be as worldly as its birth is, and cannot possibly have anything else

but worldly views, and the interests of its own flesh and blood, in

everything that it can make any use of. This is as essential to the natural

reason of man, as to the natural subtlety of every beast; for they have both

the same original from the light and life of this world, have both the same

earthly nature, and can act only in an earthly manner, to serve the same

ends of an earthly life. The reason of the one has no more of God and the

divine nature in it, than the subtlety of the other. And hence it is, that

man, following only the cunning of his natural reason, is often more

mischievous than the worst of beasts. And thus, you see how reason, ruling

in divine things, is and must be anti-Christ: first, as it turns the living

mysteries of God into lifeless ideas, and vain opinions; and, secondly, as

it sets up a worldly kingdom of strife, hatred, envy, division, and

persecution, in defense of them. And therefore it is a fundamental truth,

that man has no capacity for divine knowledge, till the particle of divine

life, lost in the fall, is awakened; in which alone, the mystery of God and

the divine nature can have a birth.

[Way-2-64] Academicus. You have carried your point, Theophilus, with a high

hand, and I rejoice in seeing this matter so well proved. But still I would

ask you something, that I know not how to express; I would fain understand

more clearly, how this mystery of God, and eternal nature, is to be born in

me.

[Way-2-65] Theophilus. Everything, Academicus, is, and must be, its own

proof; and can only be known from and by itself. There is no knowledge of

anything, but where the thing itself is, and is found, and possessed. Life,

and every kind and degree of life, is only known by life; and so far as life

reaches, so far is there knowledge, and no farther. Whatever knowledge you

can get by the searching and working of your own active reason, is only like

that knowledge, which you may be said to have got, when you have searched

for a needle in a load of straw, till you have found it.

[Way-2-66] For nothing that is brought into the mind from without, or is

only an idea beheld by our reasoning faculty, is any more our knowledge,

than the seeing our natural face in a glass, is seeing our own selves. And

all the ideas or images that your reason can form of any absent, unpossessed

thing, is no more a part of your own knowledge, than your drawing a picture

of your own hand is making a member of your own body. It is therefore a vain

and fruitless inquiry, to be asking beforehand for the knowledge of any

unpossessed matters; for knowledge can only be yours, as sickness and health

is yours, not conveyed into you by a hearsay notion, but the fruit of your

own perception and sensibility of that which you are, and that which you

have in yourself. How often have you been warned against this procedure, in

words like these? "Therefore let the reader be warned not to dive farther

into these very deep writings, nor plunge his will deeper, than so far as he

apprehendeth: he should always rest satisfied with his apprehension for in

his apprehension, he standeth yet in that which hath its reality; and

therefore he erreth not, how deep soever the Spirit leadeth him: for to one

more will be given than to another. And this is the only mark to be

observed, that every one continue steadfast in humility towards God, and

submit himself, that he may make the will and the deed as he pleaseth. When

you do that, you are in yourself as dead; for you desire nothing but God's

will, and the will of God is your life, which goeth inward even to the

opening of the highest mysteries."* {*Threefold L. p. 158.}

[Way-2-67] One would have thought, Academicus, that this advice, if only

from the uncommon nature of it, should have had more effect upon you. For it

is not only new to you, but to every reader; there being nothing like it,

either for the sense, the sobriety, or the depth of its matter, ever given

by the wisest of philosophers to their readers.

[Way-2-68] Truth, my friend, whatever you may think of it, is no less than

the savior and redeemer of the world.

[Way-2-69] Hear therefore its own language: "If any man will be my disciple,

let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after me." He does not

say, "Let him get a clear and distinct idea of me, what, and how I am God

and man in the unity of my person"; he only tells him what he is to part

with, what he must put off, to be made a child of the light. Search and look

where you will, this denial of self is the one only possible way to the

truth. For nothing has separated us from truth, nothing stands betwixt us

and truth, but this self of an earthly life, which is not from God, but from

our wandering out of our first created state.

[Way-2-70] God created us in and for the light; and had Adam kept his first

state, he had not been an ignorant, blind pilgrim in the darkness of this

world, but the illustrious opener of all its wonders in the light of God.

But as this light and knowledge was lost in Adam, so it can only be

recovered by him who came to restore all that was lost, and who justly

called himself the light of the world. Would you therefore be a disciple of

truth, you must not, with Pilate, ask, "What is truth?" or consult the

schools, how you shall form an idea of it: but you must alter your life, put

a stop to all earthly lusts, renounce all that you are, and have from self;

give up all the workings of your own reason, and your own will; and then,

and then only, are you fitted for that unction from above which can teach

you all things. But till Christ, who is the one fountain of life and light,

be opened in you; it is in vain, that you rise up early, and late take rest,

in quest of truth; for he himself hath said, "Without me, ye can do

nothing." And every son of earthly Adam, however naturally enriched with the

spirit, and light, and arts of this world, is born, and must remain, a

spirit in prison, till Christ is found to be an inward preacher, and light

within him. As he is the one resurrection from the dead, so is he the one

deliverer from everything that has the nature of death, darkness, and

ignorance. And to expect seeing eyes, hearing ears, and sensibility of

heart, from anything but that eternal Word, by which we were at first made,

is robbing God and Christ of more honor, is a more idolatrous departure from

the true worship and dependence upon him, than if we sometimes hoped to have

good from this or that saint's praying for us. For this is a truth, that

admits of no restriction, but reaches from one end of the earth to the

other, that as no man can come unto the Father, but through the Son; so no

one can come at any divine knowledge either in grace or nature, but through

him alone.

[Way-2-71] The schools of this world are of no higher a nature, than the

markets of this world; and, when rightly used, serve only to the end of this

earthly life. But as markets and traffic seldom keep within their just

bounds, but become serviceable to vanity, earthly lusts, and all the luxury

of life; so it mostly happens in our learned labors; we grow old, and

blear-eyed, in studies that nourish pride and envy, division and contention;

and only help our old man to be content with the riches of his fallen

nature, and feel no necessity of being born again.

[Way-2-72] Would you therefore be a divine philosopher, you must be a true

Christian; for darkness is everywhere, but in the kingdom of God, and truth

nowhere to be found by man, but in a new birth from above. Man was created

in and for the truth; that is, he was created in the truth of the divine

light, to see and hear, to taste and feel, to find and enjoy all things in

the truth of the divine life brought forth in him. And therefore it is, that

for fallen man there is but one remedy; it is only the truth that can make

him free. Truth is the one only resting-place of the soul; it is its

atonement and peace with God; all is, and must be, disquiet, a succession of

lying vanities, till the soul is again in the truth, in which God at first

created it. And therefore said the Truth, "Learn of me; for I am meek, and

lowly of heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

[Way-2-73] Academicus. Pray, Theophilus, stop a while: surely your zeal

carries you too far. All ages of the world have seemed to agree in this,

that the gospel teaches purely the simplicity of a godly life; calls no man

to be a philosopher, nor gives the smallest instruction in matters that

relate to philosophy.

[Way-2-74] Theophilus. All this, Academicus, is very true; but then, this

very simplicity and plainness of the gospel, turning man only from this

world, to a faith, and hope, and desire of God, is the one reason, and full

proof, that it alone is a true guide into the highest school of divine

wisdom and philosophy; not only because goodness is our greatest wisdom, but

because the mysteries of God, of grace, of nature, of time and eternity, can

no other possible way be opened in man, but by this simplicity of a godly

life taught in the gospel; because only the godly life hath knowledge of

God; just as the creaturely life hath only knowledge of the creature, and

the painful life hath knowledge of pain. The scripture saith, "that only the

Spirit of God knoweth the things of God." And indeed, how can it possibly be

otherwise? For since the Spirit of God is the spirit and life that goeth

through all nature and creature, and only openeth its own hidden powers

therein; since it is that which is the former of everything; that which

makes everything to have the life that it hath, and to work as it worketh;

nothing but the Spirit of God can possibly know the things of God: and

therefore, of necessity, this Spirit of God must be in man, and work in man,

as it is in nature, and worketh in nature, before man can enter into the

knowledge and working of God in nature. And therefore here you have two

immutable, and fundamental truths: (1.) that all our ignorance of God and

nature is, and must be, purely and solely, the want of the Spirit and life

of God in us: and, (2.) that therefore the one only way to divine knowledge

is the way of the gospel, which calls and leads us to a new birth of the

divine nature brought forth in us.

[Way-2-75] Academicus. I have nothing that I can, or would, object to what

you have said. But still I must say, that I do not enough apprehend how the

Spirit and life of God must thus, of all necessity, be born in us; nor,

indeed, do I entirely comprehend how it is done. Human reason, or human

instruction, I see plain enough, cannot help me to any divine light. But

suppose God should send an angel to instruct me, and that frequently, would

not divine knowledge be then imparted to me? And yet this would not be a

birth of God in me. Or, will you say, that God cannot sufficiently instruct

me, even by the highest of his angels?

[Way-2-76] Theophilus. An angel, sir, may instruct you, as the scriptures

instruct you; but it is only such an instruction, as may direct you where

and how to obtain that light, which neither the letter of scripture, nor the

voice of an angel, can bring forth in you. The highest angel neither hath,

nor ever can have, any more of a redeeming power in it, than the dead paper

on which the scriptures are written. But you are to observe, and mark it

well, that you cannot have divine light from any other thing, but that which

hath full power to redeem you: for light is not only life, but the

perfection, and highest state of it; and therefore nothing can bring forth

light, but that which can bring forth the truth and perfection of life.

[Way-2-77] Every other thing, besides the life and light of God, stands only

in a state of ministerial service towards you: whether it be words of

message from God, written on paper, engraven on tables of stone, or spoken

by the mouth of an angel, a prophet, or apostle; be it what it will, it is

only a creaturely thing; and its creaturely service can rise no higher, nor

go any farther, than to show the true way to him, who only himself can be

the truth, the life, and the light in you. For the light of God cannot, even

by God himself, be communicated to you by any creature; and the reason is,

because the light of God is God himself: it is the light of his own life:

and therefore only himself can bring it forth wherever it is; and no

creature can possibly partake of his light, but by having a birth in and

from the divine nature: for the light of God can never be separate from the

divine nature, or be anywhere but where the divine birth is. And thus you

fully see, that all that can be divinely known, either in heaven, or on

earth, can only be known in that one way, and by that one means, by which

fallen man can be saved; namely, by a new birth of the light and Spirit of

God within us. And therefore the simple way of the gospel is the one only

way to attain all the knowledge of all that, which can be known of God and

nature: for nothing can manifest God and nature, but the Spirit of God

working in man, as he worketh in nature, which can only be done by a new

birth of the divine nature, brought forth in man: but when man is thus born

again of God, then the life and Spirit of God is in him, and worketh in him,

as it doth in nature. And thus it is, that man can only be a divine

philosopher, when Christ, who is the light of God, and the light of nature,

is revealed in him. Then he is in that living Word, and that living Word is

in him, by which all things were at first made; and which maketh, createth,

and worketh in him, as it worketh in all things, both in heaven and earth.

[Way-2-78] Academicus. I never expected to have seen the gospel new birth

proved to be the only gate to all that divine knowledge which any son of

Adam ever had, or can have. But you have proved it to be so, beyond all

possibility of denial. And I now only want to have you go on in this

doctrine of the new birth; for I am persuaded, you can still add something

to that, which has already been said upon it, both as to the ground, and

nature, and fruits of it.

[Way-2-79] Theophilus. You must remember, Academicus, that all that I can by

discourse, from the beginning to the end of this matter, do for you, amounts

only to thus much: it is like giving you a full assurance of a wonderful

pearl of glorious virtues, hidden in the ground of a certain field, and

showing you every step of the way you must take to find it. Now, if from

month to month, you should be inquiring and hearing of some new powers and

virtues of this heavenly pearl; what good does all this discourse and

hearsay do you? You are just as far from the pearl itself, and have no more

of it, than when you first heard of it; and would be in the same distance

from it, though you was always, to the end of your life, loving to hear and

talk about it. I have had no other end in all that is said of the new birth,

but to assure you of the truth of the thing, and the true way to it. Now the

way to the new birth lies wholly in your will to it; and every step that you

can take, consists in a continual dying to that selfish corrupt will, which

you have from flesh and blood. Nothing can make any change in you, but the

change of your will. For everything, be it what it will, is a birth of that

will, which worketh in you. You have nothing therefore to enquire after, nor

anything that you can judge of yourself by, but the state of your mind, the

working of your will and desire. These will give you more light than all the

men or books in the world can give you: where these are, there are you; and

what these are, that are you: there you live, and to that you belong; and

there you must have all the good or evil that can be called yours.

[Way-2-80] For nothing leads or carries you anywhere, nothing generates

either life or death in you, but the working of your mind, will, and desire.

If your will is angelic, you are an angel, and angelic happiness must be

yours. If your will is with God, you work with God; God is then the life of

your soul, and you will have your life with God to all eternity. If you

follow an earthly will, every step you take is a departure from God, till

you become as incapable of God, and the life of God, as the animals of this

world. If your will worketh in pride and self-exaltation, in envy and wrath,

in hatred and ill will, in deceit, hypocrisy, and falseness, you work with

the devil, you are generating his nature within you, and making yourself

ready for the kingdom of hell. And thus it is, that our works follow us; and

that everyone will be rewarded according to his works; and none can reap

anything else but that which he hath sown. And the seed of everything that

can grow in us, is our will. The will maketh the beginning, the middle, and

the end of everything; it is the only workman in nature; and everything is

its work. It has all power; its works cannot be hindered; it carries all

before it; it creates as it goes; and all things are possible to it. It

enters wherever it wills, and finds everything that it seeks; for its

seeking is its finding. The will overrules all nature, because nature is its

offspring, and born of it; for all the properties of nature, whether they be

good or evil, in darkness or in light, in love or in hatred, in wrath or in

meekness, in pride or humility, in trouble or joy, are all of them the

offspring or birth of the will; as that liveth, so they live; and as that

changeth, so they change. So that whatever you are, or whatever you feel, is

all owing to the working and creating power of your own will. This is your

God or your devil, your heaven or your hell; and you have only so much of

one, or the other, as your will, which is the first mover, is either given

up to the one, or to the other.

[Way-2-81] For where the will of man is not, there he hath nothing; and

where his will is, there is all that something, which he hath, be it of what

kind it will; and it is inseparable from him, till his will worketh contrary

to it.

[Way-2-82] Academicus. Whence hath the will of man this mighty power, that

it can have nothing, but that which itself hath willed?

[Way-2-83] Theophilus. You might as well ask, why a circle must be perfectly

round, or a straight line free from every degree of crookedness. For as it

is not a circle till it is perfectly round, nor a straight line till it is

free from crookedness; so the will is not in being, but so far as it is

free, is its own mover, and can have nothing but that which it willeth.

Secondly, the will is not a made thing, which is made out of something, or

that came out of some different state, into the state of a will. But the

free will of man is a true and real birth from the free, eternal, uncreated

will of God, which willed to have a creaturely offspring of itself, or to

see itself in a creaturely state. And therefore the will of man hath the

nature of divine freedom; hath the nature of eternity, and the nature of

omnipotence in it; because it is what it is, and hath what it hath, as a

spark, a ray, a genuine birth of the eternal, free, omnipotent will of God.

And therefore, as the will of God is superior to, and ruleth over all

nature; so the will of man, derived from the will of God, is superior to,

and ruleth over all his own nature. And thence it is, that as to itself, and

so far as its own nature reacheth, it hath the freedom and omnipotence of

that will from which it is descended; and can have or receive nothing, but

what itself doth, and worketh, in and to itself.

[Way-2-84] And herein consisteth the infinite goodness of God, in the birth

of all intelligent creatures; and also the exceeding height, perfection, and

happiness of their created state: they are descended from God, full of

divine power; they can will and work with God, and partake of the divine

happiness. They can receive no injustice, hurt, or violence, either from

nature or creature; but must be only that, which they generate, and have no

evil or hurt, but that which they do in and to themselves. All things stand

in the will, and everything animate or inanimate is the effect and produce

of that will, which worketh in it, and formeth it to be that which it is.

And every will, wherever found, is the birth and effect of some antecedent

will; for will can only proceed from will, till you come to the first

working will, which is God himself.

[Way-2-85] And here, my friend, you have an easy entrance into the true

meaning of many important passages in the books of Jacob Behmen, like those

that follow: "All," says he, "is magical; the eternity is magical: Magic is

the mother of all things. I speak from a magic ground. Here the reader must

have magical eyes. This hath a magical understanding," &c. Vulgar reason is

offended at these expressions, because the word "magic" has, for many ages,

been mostly used in a bad sense. But don't you be frighted at the sound of

these words; they are not only innocent, but truly good and wise, and deeply

founded on the truth of things. They have the most Christian and divine

meaning; are strictly conformable to the spirit of the gospel, as shall be

shown by and by; and are used for the best of ends; namely, to open the true

ground of eternal and temporal nature, and the birth of creatures in each of

them. They are to show how the hidden, invisible Deity acteth and worketh

all its wonders in both these worlds, in one and the same uniform way; as

also, how everything in religion, whether it be a mystery of God, a grace of

God, or a duty of man, hath its whole ground, and nature and efficacy,

therein.

[Way-2-86] Now magic power meaneth nothing but the working of the will,

whether it be the divine, or the creaturely will; and everything that is the

work of the will, and is produced by it, is called its magic work, which

only means, that it is generated by and from the will, as a birth brought

forth by it. The will is the workman, and the work is that, which it

bringeth forth out of itself. So that by these words you are always to

understand these two things, the working, and the work of the will. And now,

you may already sufficiently see, that their meaning is not only innocent

and good, but as necessarily, and divinely, to be ascribed to God, as the

power of bringing things into existence by the working of his will. For here

you have the true ground and original of the creating power of God; how

everything that is not God; is yet come from him, and out of him, as so many

births of his invisible power, breaking forth into visibility, and sensible

qualities of an outward life.

[Way-2-87] The first manifestation of the invisible God, is that which is

called, and is, eternal nature; which is the eternity of all possible powers

and qualities of life, the first source of every natural power that can be

in any creature. All these qualities of life, in their eternal birth, and

rising from one another by the working will of God, are the outbirth, or

outward glory of God, in which he manifests his triune, invisible Deity in a

threefold life of fire, light, and spirit, which are the ground of all the

qualities of life, sensibility, power, and spirit, that ever were, or can be

found in any creature. Everything that exists, or thinks, or moves, or finds

itself in any kind or degree of sensibility, is from, and out of, this

glassy sea of these united powers of life. And this whole manifestation of

all the possible powers, and perfection of life and glory, is called that

kingdom of heaven, in which God dwelleth; and is, as it were, his divine

workhouse, out of which he is perpetually giving forth new works, and forms

of wonder.

[Way-2-88] This manifestation of God is a magic birth from the triune

working will of the hidden Deity, which willed to see itself in this opened,

outward show of all the possible powers of life and glory; and from whence

new worlds of finite divine beings, as so many living images of God, might

have a possibility of coming forth. For without nature, God must be by

himself, and continue an unmanifested God. For no form or creature can be,

unless there be something antecedent to it, that can be formed. Life must

be, before there can be any finite living creatures; just as light must be,

before there can be any seeing eyes. And therefore the manifestation of God

in an outward glory of all the possible powers, qualities, perfections of

life, called eternal nature, must be, or there could be no possibility for

the existence of any creature.

[Way-2-89] Now this same working will of the triune Deity, which manifested

itself in an eternal nature, manifesteth itself in creaturely forms, all

generated from, all enlivened and animated with, that same trinity of fire,

light, and spirit, that constitutes eternal nature. So that all intelligent

creatures are that in their finite being, which eternal nature is in its

infinite state. And thus all of them are from God, and from heaven, live in

God, and may work with God, as God is in heaven, and heaven in him; one

life, one power, one will, and one happiness with God.

[Way-2-90] Now everything that is not God, but after him, and distinct from

him, must be that which it is, from the working will of the Deity. For since

it cometh into being, only because it is willed to be, it can have nothing

in it, or be any other thing, but that which the working or creating will

brought forth. And as all things began in and from this working will; so all

things must go on in it; and there can be no other creator, worker, or

former of things to all eternity, but the working will of God, either

mediately or immediately. Nor can there be any other nature in anything, but

that which is the birth, or magic effect, of a working will within it. And

everything that is done by the creature, everything which it seeks and

likes, or abhors and resists, is all driven on by a working will, or magic

power, which stirs, and generates, and works within it.

[Way-2-91] Would you know now the true ground of all this? It is this: it is

because will is the first original of all power, and the omnipotence of God

consisteth in nothing else but his working will; and therefore no power ever

was, or ever can be, anywhere else, but as it is in God, and if the creature

hath any power, it must have it, as God hath it, in the working will. For

since all nature, with all its qualities, births, and creatures, are all

brought into being by the working will of God; it evidently follows, that

every creature, with every quality, power, and property in it, is magically

born, and therefore must have a magic nature, that is, a nature that cometh

from, and standeth in, a working will.

[Way-2-92] And now, sir, you are come into a full view of the most important

matter of the mystery of all things; a matter which, if rightly apprehended

in the inward ground of your soul, puts an entire end to all the jargon of a

false philosophy, and to all those fictions of doctrines and disputes, which

reason has built upon the written Word of God.

[Way-2-93] For nothing is effected by fiction and invention, by any

contrived arts or searchings of rational inquiries; all this is nothing,

because it toucheth not nature, but leaveth it to itself; which carrieth on

its own works by its own power, and can only work in its own way; and must

bring forth its own births independent of everything but its own working

life. But all lieth in the will and working desire of the soul, because will

began and brought forth all that nature that lives in the soul, and is the

only life in it; and this life can work and grow from nothing else, but that

which first brought it forth. Hence you see the full meaning of these words

of our author, "All is magical and that magic is the mother of all things,"

and consequently, the only opener of all divine knowledge. All which

expressions only imply thus much, that the will, whether in God, or the

creature, is the ground and seed of everything; is the generating working

power, which maketh and worketh all things to be in that state and condition

which they are; and that everything begins, goes on, and ends, in the

working of the will; and that nothing can be otherwise, than as its will

worketh; and therefore eternity and time is magical; and magic is, and must

be, the mother of all things.

[Way-2-94] Now here you see, in the utmost degree of clearness, how all true

and false religion divide from one another. For if nothing worketh but the

will, if nothing else carries on the work of nature; then all is false and

vain in religion but the working of the will; and nothing is saving, or

redeeming the life of the soul, but that which helps the will to work

towards God.

[Way-2-95] Hence it is, that our author so often tells his reader, that when

he sees and finds this magic birth of things, he is "delivered from Babel";

not by running from one place to another, or from one system of opinions to

another, but by inwardly leaving all the workings of the earthly self, all

the paper buildings of natural reason, and turning to God with the whole

will and working desire of his heart. This is the right coming out of our

own Babel of vain opinions into the truth and reality of nature, where the

living God of nature is found; not in notions, but in the living working of

the soul, and worshiped in spirit and in truth.

[Way-2-96] I said, into the truth and reality of nature, because nature is

the standard of truth, and all is Babel but that which worketh with nature,

that is, with eternal nature; for as eternal nature is the manifestation of

the unchangeable God, so it must be as unchangeable in itself, and its own

workings, as God is; because it hath nothing in it, but what is in and from

the unchangeable God. And therefore, God cannot be manifest, or work in any

creature, but as he is manifest, and worketh in eternal nature; and

therefore all that the creature doth is labor lost, and a vain beating of

the air, but that which it worketh with, and according to eternal nature.

Because God never was, nor ever can be, or be found, anywhere else but in

his own heaven, or eternal nature. And no soul can by any one possible thing

find, or be found by God, but by standing before him in the same will and

working as eternal nature doth. And therefore all is fiction and Babel but

the working of the will, because nothing but the will can work with nature;

and that for this reason, because all life, and all nature, eternal and

temporal, is what it is, merely and solely, from the working of the will.

All things in heaven and in earth stand in this magic birth; and nothing can

change its state, either for better or worse, but as the working of its will

changes. Justly therefore is it said, that where this truth is found, there

is a full and true deliverance from Babel; that is, from all strife, and

zeal, and division about opinions, sects, and churches; since the one thing

that works either to life, or to death, the one thing that alone opens

heaven or hell for us, is with every individual man in every place, and in

every age of the world; and that one thing is the working of the will. And

when, in any such man, his will is turned from his own earthly self, and

this earthly life and worketh with its desire to God, then all these sayings

of the scripture are true of him; viz., that he is redeemed from this evil

world--that he has his conversation in heaven--that he is of God, and

heareth God's Word--that he is saved by faith--that Christ is revealed in

him--that he is Christ's, and Christ is his--that Christ is in him of a

truth--and that he is led by the Spirit of Christ. All these texts would be

true of him, though he had never seen, nor heard, a syllable of the written

Word of God.

[Way-2-97] For the Word of God which saveth and redeemeth, which giveth life

and light to the soul, is not the word printed on paper, but is that

eternal, ever-speaking Word, which is the Son of God, who in the beginning

was with God, and was the God by whom all things were made. This is the

universal teacher and enlightener of all that are in heaven, and on earth,

who from the beginning to the end of time, without respect of persons,

stands at the door of every heart of man, speaking into it not human words,

but divine goodness; calling and knocking, not with outward sounds, but by

the inward stirring of an awakened divine life. And therefore, as sure as

that is true, which St. John saith, that this eternal Word "is the light of

men, and the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world," so

sure is it, that our savior and salvation, our teacher and enlightener, from

whom we have every good thought, is Christ within us; not within this or

that man, but in every man wherever born, and in whom the light of life

ariseth. And indeed how can it be otherwise? For if God is the God of all

men; and the Word of God the life and light of all men; and all men are

capable of goodness; and all goodness can only be from God; and no goodness

can belong to man, but that which is within him; then every man must have

the Word, or Christ of God within him, and can have it nowhere else. All

teachers therefore, who teach men to look for life or salvation in anything

but from the Word and Spirit of God within them, stand chargeable with the

blood and death of souls; because, in all the possibility of things, nothing

can overcome that death which is in the soul, but the Word, or Christ of God

living and working in it. For, observe, man must have goodness in the same

way as God hath goodness, that is, from the divine nature; for goodness is

nowhere else, neither is anything else capable of it; and therefore, if

goodness is to be in man, the divine nature must, of all necessity, be first

brought to life within him. But this cannot be, till the working will of our

heart turns and gives up itself wholly to the Word and Spirit of God within

us. For we can have nothing but that, towards which the earnestness of our

will goeth.

[Way-2-98] Again, see here in a still higher degree of proof the absolute

necessity, and unspeakable benefit, of the spirit of prayer; how it does,

and must, in spite of all opposition, raise the fallen soul out of the

poverty of flesh and blood, into the riches of an heavenly nature brought

forth in it. For since all things in heaven and earth stand in a magic

birth, or working of the will; the will is that, which hath all power; it

unites all that is united in heaven or on earth; it divides and separates

all that is divided in nature; it makes heaven, and it makes hell; for there

is no hell, but where the will of the creature is turned from God; nor any

heaven, but where the will of the creature worketh with God. Therefore, as

we pray, so we are; and as our will-spirit secretly worketh, so are we

either swallowed up in the vanity of time, or called forth into the riches

of eternity. And therefore the spirit of prayer is most justly conceived,

and most simply expressed, when it is said to be the rising of the soul out

of the vanity of time into the riches of eternity: for all the vanity which

the soul hath, is from its living in, and loving the things of time; and

therefore it can only come out of the vanity of its state, by loving and

living in the truths, which are the riches of eternity: for the spirit of

prayer is the hunger of the soul; and as every hunger is, so it eats; it

always eateth that which it hungereth after, and hath a life suitable to the

nature, state, and condition, both of its hunger, and its food. If it

hungereth after the things of flesh and blood, it eateth nothing else, and

only groweth in the bestial life; and of the flesh must reap the corruption

that belongs to flesh: and if it hungereth after God, it eateth the food

which giveth life to the angels; it eateth the bread that is come down from

heaven; namely, the real heavenly body and blood of Christ, which surely may

be called the riches of eternity.

[Way-2-99] All the mysteries of religion, and the necessity of the whole

process of Christ in our redemption, have all of them their ground, and

necessity, and efficacy, in this magic nature of things, and are all of them

only for this one end; to help fallen man to have a working will towards

that first life, which he has lost. And therefore no one joins with the

mysteries of redemption, or can have any share in them, but he whose will

turns wholly from this world, and hath all its workings towards God and

heaven. And now, sir, see the plain, and easy, and certain deliverance from

all perplexity and vain labor in the disputes and divisions of religion. It

is but opening your natural eyes, that is, letting simple nature work with

its own power, and all difficulties are removed; and the way to God and

goodness is as natural, and as free from all perplexity, as the opening our

eyes to see the light of the sun. For what is so natural to man as the

working of the will? And yet he can have nothing, or be anything, different

from that, to which his will worketh.

[Way-2-100] Nor does this at all too much exalt the human will, or make our

salvation not to be the pure grace and gift of God to us, but quite the

contrary. For the will here spoken of, is not the will of flesh and blood,

but that heavenly will, which is the only spark of the Deity in us, given by

the free grace of God to all mankind, as soon as fallen, and called in

scripture the inspoken Word of God in paradise; which was the beginning of

the redemption, when God first entered into a covenant of salvation with

Adam, and all his posterity. This inspoken Word is Christ, or the spark of

the divine nature, which is the light that lighteth every man that cometh

into the world. And here, in this Christ in us, lieth the will that hath the

power of salvation in it; and all its salvation is the salvation of Christ.

For it is the will of this heavenly nature, hid in every man, that is the

working will, that bringeth forth the new birth of heaven in us; and

therefore is the pure free salvation of Christ, given to be a redeemer

within us. So that all our salvation, though wrought out by this working

will within us, is, from the beginning to the end, the pure grace of God to

us, and no salvation of our own.

[Way-2-101] And thus, sir, you see, that every soul of man is partly human,

and partly divine; and is united to an earthly and an heavenly nature; and

so not only can, but must, always work either with one or the other, and has

nothing else to work with; and must and can be, or have nothing else, but as

he followeth or worketh with either of these wills. So that, infallibly to

know both your present and future state, what you are, and to what you

belong, you need only to see, what you cannot help seeing, how, and where,

and to what, your will worketh.

[Way-2-102] And thus, from this knowledge of the magic nature of things,

which all are that which they are, solely from the working of the will in

everything, you are delivered from all vain labor and party zeal; and are

brought back to that pure and safe ground, on which God has placed you to

work out your own salvation, without any hindrance from any builders of

Babel, of whatever denomination.

[Way-2-103] The short is this: the whole matter of religion relates only to

life and death. But life and death are both of them immutable, and founded

in the unchangeable nature of things. Nothing can alter them, or invent a

new way, either to or from either of them. To what purpose then, is all this

dividing into so many parties? Why all this strife and zeal about opinions?

Death and life go on their way, carry on their own work, and stay for no

opinions. Does the stone stop, or alter its tendency towards the earth? Do

the sparks and flame cease to fly upwards, because philosophers dispute and

quarrel about the reasons of one or the other? No; nature goes on in its own

way, let reason say what it will. Now death and life have their own

unchangeable nature and working in and from themselves; and are just as

distinct from, and independent of, all opinions of men about them, as the

things just now mentioned: so that to will and work, as life willeth and

worketh, and to will and work, as death willeth and worketh, is the one only

possible way to partake either of life or death. What a delusion is it

therefore, to grow grey headed in balancing ancient and modern opinions; to

waste the precious uncertain fire of life in critical zeal, and verbal

animosities; when nothing but the kindling of our working will into a faith,

that overcometh the world, into a steadfast hope, and ever -burning love,

and desire of the divine life, can hinder us from falling into eternal

death!

[Way-2-104] Academicus. Oh! Theophilus, you have led me into a depth, that I

never thought of seeing into.

[Way-2-105] For this magic power of everything, that works in all nature and

creature, shows me everything in a new view. You might well say, that reason

has no power in this mystery; that nothing is proposed to it: for since life

and death have their own working within themselves, and must at last, when

time is at an end, divide and take possession of everything, according as

its will has worked either with one or the other, it signifies no more to

them what reason has been all this time discoursing about, than in what

language a man used to talk. But before you go any farther, I beg a word or

two on these matters. First, how I am to understand our author, when he

says, "Here the reader must have magical eyes"; and, "This or that hath a

magical understanding." And, secondly, that you would, as you promised,

show, how the speaking thus of this magical power of life, is strictly

conformable to the spirit of the gospel.

[Way-2-106] Theophilus. As to your first matter, concerning magical eyes; I

should have thought the thing plain enough already. But you may understand

it thus. When a carpenter cuts timber into various shapes and forms, and

then joins one piece to another, till it is formed into the shape of a

house; this is no magical work, because one part does not grow from the

other, till the whole is brought forth, and therefore there is no need of

magical eyes to see what this work is. But when an oak groweth from an

acorn, or a plant from a seed in the ground, here the work is magical; that

is, it is a birth or product generated from the working will in the acorn

and seed, from whence the stem, and all its branches and fruits, grow forth;

which working will continueth till the plant or tree hath reached its limit,

that is, till the working will in the seed hath spent itself. Now all this

is a magical work, and therefore can only be seen by such magical eyes as

can see into the beginning, and go on with the working of that which works

and generates in the tree or plant.

[Way-2-107] As to your other matter, how this language of the magical

working of the will is entirely conformable to the spirit of the gospel; the

answer is easy, because the thing is plain. For the first possible beginning

of the Christian life, is, by the founder of it, expressly laid in a new

birth from above, and therefore plainly declared to be a magical work, and

to have no other nature; because a generating work, and a magical work, are

only different expressions for the same thing. And as the beginning, so

every following advancement in the Christian life, is as really and truly

only a growth of life, or magical birth from the powers of Father, Son, and

Holy Ghost, upon the working will in the soul, as the plant, from its first

stirring in the seed, to its last state, is only a growth from the powers of

the sun, stars, and elements, upon the working will in the seed.

[Way-2-108] Everything that is outward in religion, whether it be men or

things, planting or watering, is only for the sake of this inward birth;

either to direct man to it, to help him to work in it, or warn him of that

eternal death, which the will, working according to flesh and blood, must

inherit as its own genuine fruit. And whoever fancies the Christian life to

be anything else than a birth growing up in God, till it comes to the

perfection of the divine life, by the same way of a gradual growth from the

seed, has not a syllable in the gospel, nor an instance in nature, to plead

in excuse of his fanciful error.

[Way-2-109] For nothing worketh in all nature or grace, but what worketh as

a birth, or magical growth of life. For nothing can come from the living God

but life, nor for any other end, but to manifest some kind or degree of

life. There are no dead forms, or lifeless inventions to be found, till you

come to the mechanic works of men's hands, and the cobweb schemes of dead

knowledge, brought forth by human reason. For reason is the old serpent

called subtlety, the first and the last grand deceiver of mankind, that

takes them from the powerful workings of nature, to follow the shadows of

empty sounds, till all is swallowed up either by final life or death, which

will at last reap everything into its own unchangeable barn.

[Way-2-110] Again, faith and hope, and love and desire towards God, are the

only gospel means of bringing forth the new birth; and therefore all that

the gospel requires, is a magical working of the will.

[Way-2-111] For all these powers, whether of faith, hope, love, and desire

towards God and the divine life, are only so many different powers of the

working of the will, and have all their efficacy, as so many parts of it;

and only alter, raise, and bring forth a new life, because the working of

the will is magical, and generates as it works, and unites with that which

it willeth. And thus Christ, or the new man in Christ Jesus, is formed in

us, from a seed of heaven, which is the will that can work towards God, till

it becomes a godly birth, as the seed works towards the sun, till it is

changed into the birth of a beauteous fragrant flower.

[Way-2-112] Again, hence it is, namely, from this magic power of the working

of the will, that our blessed Lord speaks so often of the omnipotence of

faith; viz., "that all things are possible to him that believeth. Whatsoever

ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. If ye had faith but as

a grain of mustard seed, ye might say to this tree, be thou plucked up by

the root; and to this mountain, be thou cast into the sea; and it should be

done. Thy faith hath saved thee. According to thy faith, so be it done unto

thee."

[Way-2-113] Hence all these truths plainly follow: first, that faith, which

is in itself only the working of the will, is the source of all power; and

that all that is done in nature is done by it alone; and that therefore all

nature standeth in a magic working of the will. For all things could not be

possible to him that believeth, but because faith, or the working of the

will, is the true source of all power in or over nature. Secondly, here is a

full demonstration of the high and powerful state, in which man was at first

created! A lord over all this outward world; who could, by the working of

his will, command the obedience of all things about him.

[Way-2-114] This was the dominion he had over all the creatures on the

earth, in the sea, and in the air; not such a poor power as invented

weapons, or the strength of his hands and feet, could help him to; but a

power here mentioned, of standing still, and, by the faith or will of his

mind, making every creature to come or go, just as the faithful disciple of

Christ was, by his faith, to have power over every outward thing of this

world.

[Way-2-115] Now all this high state of his first power is undeniable from

the words of our savior. For it is not to be supposed, that he would turn

men's thoughts to any such powers, as to have all things obedient to their

faith, or the working will of their minds, if this had not been man's first

created state, or such powers as did then belong to it. For no man or

creature can have any higher power, than that which belongs to his first

created state.

[Way-2-116] And therefore all gospel faith, however wonderful in its power,

can only have somewhat of that first powerful faith, which man had when he

first came out of the hands of God. And faith now in a redeemer can only be

the means of obtaining salvation, for this reason; because faith was then

that original high power in man, which could have preserved him in his first

perfection and glory of life. Thus, when Christ saith, "Thy faith hath saved

thee," it is the same thing as if he had said, faith had always such power;

that faith was the strength and glory of the first man, that could have

saved him from falling under the power of the stars and elements; that it

was faith alone which could and did put an end to his first paradisiacal

glory, by turning its strength and desire into the life of this world.

Again, when our Lord saith, "According to thy faith, so be it done unto

thee"; this was no new thing, or new operation in the power of faith, but

was only a declaration of a truth as old as nature and creature, and was in

reality so much said of the powerful faith of the first man; and infallibly

shows, that as now, so then, nothing was done to him in his fall, but that

which was done according to the faith and working of his will. For this is

God's immutable righteous procedure with man, that nothing but his own works

can follow him; and that, from first to last, whether standing or falling,

according to his faith, and working will, so must it be done unto him. And

therefore man's faith, and working will, was his divine power of living

superior to, and independent of all the stars and elements of this world, in

his own angelic perfection of a divine life.

[Way-2-117] For if the revival of faith, in so small a degree, as to be

compared to a grain of mustard seed, could bring forth in man such a divine

power over all the things of this world, is it not a sufficient proof of the

high power of his first lost faith; which only thus coming again, as the

smallest of seeds, yet comes with such mighty power over all outward nature,

the flesh and the devil? And thus, all that is said in the gospel, of the

power of faith, is, in the strictest truth, so much said of the power and

perfection of our first father, over whom this earthly system had no power:

but whether he stood, or fell, or was to rise again, all was, and is, and

must be done, by his faith, or the working of his will.

[Way-2-118] And thus also, you see, that all that was said of the nature and

extent of the magic power of the will, is not only conformable to, but is

the very spirit of the gospel, and all the written word of God. For from the

first promise made to Adam, to the last written words of scripture, man is

only called and directed to the true exercise of these magic, generating

powers of the will; namely, to believe, to hope, to trust in God; to love,

desire, and expect the renewal of a divine life from the goodness of God.

[Way-2-119] Humanus. Give me leave only to add, that in these words of our

savior, "According to thy faith, so be it done unto thee," and other

such-like sayings, he has not only opened the true nature and power of

faith, but has discovered more of the true philosophy of nature, than ever

was told the world before. Faith is generally considered as a speculative

thing, as an assent of the mind to the credibility of things related. This

may sometimes, as well in the scriptures, as in other books, be called

faith, as the same word may be used in various senses. But the faith in

question, about which our savior speaks, and to which he ascribes so much

power, and which alone can do a man any real good or harm, is quite of

another nature: I say, good or harm; because all that is good or bad

proceeds from it, and it carries its power which way it will: as it can work

all wonders, and overcome the world, so it alone has power over life and

heaven in the soul, can drive them out, and set up the kingdom of hell and

death instead of them.

[Way-2-120] Now this faith may be thus understood; it is that power by which

a man gives himself up to anything, seeks, wills, adheres to, and unites

with it, so that his life lives in it and belongs to it. Now to whatever the

soul gives itself up; whatever it hungereth after; and in which it delights,

and seeks to be united there, and there only, is its faith; that faith which

can work either life or death, and according to which faith everything is,

and must be done to man.

[Way-2-121] Now this faith is not a matter of choice, so that a man may live

without it, if he pleases; but is essential to his life, and altogether

inseparable from it. For whatever the life drives at, to whatever it is

given up, there is its living and powerful faith. Therefore, be a man given

up to what he will, seeking, delighting, and acquiescing in whatever it be,

temporal or eternal, whether it be Christianity, idolatry, Deism, or

atheism; this is a certain conclusion, that every man in the world is a man

of faith, lives by faith, and that equally so; because every man's life is

equally given up to the seeking, and delighting in, and uniting itself to,

something or other; and therefore every man equally lives by faith, and that

in its highest degree. It matters not, whether a man delights and acquiesces

in the philosophy of Epicurus, or Spinoza; whether he be given up to luxury

and sensuality, or to syllogisms and definitions, to mysteries of

redemption, or mysteries of atheism: he is neither more nor less a man of

faith for all this; but is equally under the power of faith, whether it be

divine, earthly, sensual, or devilish. For which way soever the life of man

tends, or drives; to whatever he gives up himself; there he is, and lives by

faith, and that in its highest degree; for no faith can rise higher than

this. Nor can a man's faith be anywhere, but where his life is, and to which

it belongs; nor can he be said to live to anything, but by faith. For faith

is as much the one working power of life, as thought is the one working

power of understanding; and the understanding of man may as easily proceed

without being led by thought, as the life of man go on without being led by

faith; that is, without giving itself up to something, or other, with which

it would be united, and to which it would belong, as its desired good;

which, as I said before, is the highest degree of the most living faith.

[Way-2-122] The debate therefore, set up by the Deists, about reason and

faith, as two principles of life; the one appropriated to Christians, and

the other to themselves, is founded on the grossest ignorance of both their

natures; as great as that of supposing, that there are two principles of

seeing and smelling; viz., reason and the senses. And the Deist, who turns

from all faith, to have a life of reason, proceeds as much according to

nature, as if he was to leave it to Christians, to see and smell by their

senses; but himself and brethren to see and smell by the power of reason.

For reason is no more the power of life, than it is the power of the senses;

but must stand below them both, and follow them both, in the same degree of

inability to alter, increase, or lessen the natural power of either of them,

as the eye hath to alter the vegetation, or color, or smell, of the plant on

which it looks. For reason like the eye, is only an outward looker on; and

can no more form, or model, or alter the life of the soul, than it can alter

the life and vegetation of the body. But this saying, "According to thy

faith, so be it done unto thee," contains the unchangeable ground, and true

philosophy of life, and the power of life. And this saying takes in every

individual of human nature and the Deist may as well think of turning death

over to the Christians, and reserving immortality for himself, as to think

of being anything else, either here or hereafter, but purely and solely

that, which his faith has brought to pass in him. He may, indeed, easily

enough keep himself free from all Christian faith; but, whether he will or

no, a faith must do all in him, and for him, just in the same degree, as it

does for the Christian. Let him make ever so many declarations against the

superstition and blindness of faith; ever so many encomiums upon the beauty

of axioms, syllogisms, and deductions of reason; his life is just as far

from being a life of reason, as the Christian's is, who declares only for a

life of faith. For as the eye and the nose have just the same nature,

office, and power; and he cannot, as such, have either more or less from

them, or be more or less helped by them; so reason and faith have just the

same nature, office and power, in a man, and are always in him, and will

always do the same for him, whether he be Christian or Deist. And was the

Deist to change sides, he would be neither more nor less a man of faith and

reason, than he was before; nor have got or lost any power either of faith

or reason. He would only be under a divine, instead of an earthly and

sensual faith; and his reason would not have changed its state, or office,

or power, but only be the servant of a better master; that is, of a divine

faith.

[Way-2-123] Now, was not faith the power of life in every man, no man could

live by faith, nor could it be the principle or power of life in any man.

But seeing every man, whether earthly or heavenly, is that which he is, by

faith; and faith will and must have its work in every man; and he cannot

live without it, or free from it; hence is the absolute necessity of the one

right faith, in order to salvation, and the impossibility of anything else

to avail in the stead of it. Thence also it is, that Christianity applies

not to the reason of any man, because reason is not the principle of life,

or the former of it; but it calls the heart to a right faith, because man is

only lost and separate from God and heaven by his faith in the things and

powers of this world. And therefore all salvation does, and only can, arise

from a faith turned to God; and also all damnation from faith in the things

of this world. And no man can turn either to God, or to this world, but by

faith; that is, by giving up himself either to the one, or the other; which

is the highest act or power of faith. For there is nothing that works either

to life or death, in any man, but that to which he is given up, by faith in

it. And reason never had, nor ever can have, or do, anything else, but one

and the same underwork, or office, let faith take which way it will.

[Way-2-124] The delusion of the Deist lies here: he refuses an assent to the

history of facts and doctrines of the gospel; and this is his proof to

himself, that he lives by reason, and that it is the real principle of his

life. On the other hand, he that assents to the history of facts and

doctrines of the gospel, is, by the Deist, reckoned to be a man of gospel

faith, and that lives by it. But this is all mistake on both sides. For this

assent on one side, and dissent on the other, touches not the matter either

of reason or faith. For both these persons, notwithstanding this difference

of assenting, may not only be equally governed by faith; but have strictly

one and the same faith. For if the things of this world have the heart of

both of them, which very easily may be; then they have but one and the same

faith, and are equally governed by it; for they both equally live by a faith

in this world.

[Way-2-125] The Deist therefore hath no other possible way of showing, that

he is not as much a man of faith, as any Christian can be, but by showing,

that he has no will, no desire, no inclination of heart left in him; that

his life drives no way, is given up to no one thing, as its end and good;

but that reason, without affection, carries him only from syllogism to

syllogism, in quest of nothing. Then it is, that he may deem himself to be a

man of reason, but not till then; for if he has any heart that hath any

inclination to be united with, or belong to anything; then he becomes a man

of faith, and he lives by faith in that to which he is given up, as much as

any Christian does, who is given up to the mysteries of Christian

redemption.

[Way-2-126] I could not help saying thus much on this delusion, in which I

have been so long ensnared myself, and therefore have the utmost good will

and earnestness to help others out of it. And, to this end, I shall add the

following passages, taken from a book, where this whole matter is justly

said to be examined to the bottom. "We have no want of religion, but so far

as we want to better our state in God; or so far as we are unpossessed of

God, or less possessed of him than we might be, and our nature requires.

This is the true and only ground of religion; viz., to alter our state of

existence in God, and to have more of the divine nature and perfections

communicated to us. Nothing therefore is our good in religion, but that

which alters our state of existence in God for the better, and puts us in

possession of something of God; or makes us partakers of the divine nature

in such a manner and degree, as we wanted it. Everything that is in life,

has its degree of life in and from God; it lives and moves and has its being

in God. This is as true of devils, as of the highest and most perfect

angels. Therefore, all the happiness or misery of all creatures consists

only in this; viz., as they are more or less possessed of God, or as they

differently partake of the divine nature, or according to their different

state of excellence in God. But if this be a truth (and who can deny it?)

then we have the certainty of demonstration, that nothing can be our good in

religion, but that which communicates to us something of God, or the divine

nature, or that which betters our state and manner of existence in God.

[Way-2-127] "For if devils are what they are, because of their state and

manner of existence in God; if blessed angels are what they are, because of

their state, and manner of existence in God; then it undeniably follows,

that all that is betwixt angels and devils, all beings, from the happiness

of the one, to the misery of the other, must and can have no other happiness

or misery, but according to their state and manner of existence in God, or

according as they have more or less of the state of angels, or the state of

devils, in them. Therefore nothing can be our good in religion, but that

which alters our state and manner of existence in God, and renders us

possessed of him in a different and better manner.

[Way-2-128] "Now, if you was to send to the fallen spirits of darkness all

the systems of your religion of reason, that have been published, to let

them know that they have the power of their own restoration and happiness

within themselves; that they need seek to nothing, but their own natural

reason and understanding, and the strength and activity of their own powers,

to raise them to all the happiness they are capable of; such a religion

would be so far from altering or mending their state of existence in God, or

doing them any good, that it would add strength to all their chains; and the

more firmly they believed and relied upon it, the more would they be

confirmed and fixed in their separation from God. And yet, a religion that

must necessarily keep them in hell, is the only religion, that you have to

carry you to heaven. May God deliver you from this error!

[Way-2-129] "Hence it sufficiently appears, that your way of natural

religion cannot be the way of salvation; because the want of salvation is

nothing else, but the wanting to have our state and manner of existence in

God altered for the better, or to have something of God communicated to us,

which we want, and are capable of receiving. But if this is, and must be,

the nature of salvation; then no religion can save us, or do us our proper

good, or supply our proper want, but that which has power to alter our state

of existence in God, or to communicate to us that of God, which we want, and

are capable of. And therefore, nothing but that same power of God, which

created us, which gave us our state and manner of existence in God, and

communicated to us that which we possess in him, can redeem us, or help us

to that state and manner of existence in him, which we have lost, and are in

want of.

[Way-2-130] "There never could have been any dispute about the possibility

of saving ourselves by our own natural faculties, had not men lost all true

knowledge both of God and themselves. For this dispute cannot happen, till

men suppose God to be some outward being; that our relation to him is some

outward relation; that religion is an outward thing, that passes between God

and us, like terms of behavior between man and man; that sin hurts, and

separates us from God, only as a misdemeanor hurts, and separates us from

our prince; that an offended God either gives or refuses pardon to us, as an

angry prince does to his subjects; and that, what he gives or forgives to

us, is something as distinct or different from himself, as when a prince,

sitting upon his throne, gives or forgives something to an offender, that is

an hundred miles from him.

[Way-2-131] "Now all this is the same total ignorance of God, what he is in

himself, and what he is in relation to us, and the manner of his being our

good, as when the old idolators took men to be gods. And yet nothing is more

plain, than that your religion of reason is wholly founded upon all these

gross and false notions of God. You have not an argument in its defense, but

what supposes, that our relation to God is an outward relation, like that of

subjects to their prince; and that what we do to and for God, as our service

to him, is, and must be done, by our own power, as that which we do to and

for our prince, must be done by our own power. And from these errors it is,

that you draw this false conclusion, that if our own reason and natural

power were not sufficient to obtain for us all that we want, and God

requires of us; God must be less good than a good earthly prince, who

requires no more of us, than that which we have a natural strength to do, or

can do by our own power. And yet all this is pure absurdity, and has all the

grounds of idolatry in it, as soon as you know, that God is no outward or

separate being; but that we are what we are, have what we have, and do that

which we can do, because he has brought us to this state of life, power, and

existence in himself; because he has made us, so far as we are made,

partakers or possessors of a life in him, and has communicated to us, such a

life in himself; or in the words of scripture, because 'in him we live and

move and have our being,' and consequently have no life, motion, or being,

out of him. For from this state of our existence in God, it necessarily

follows; first, that by the nature of our creation, we are only put into a

capacity of receiving good. A creature, as such, can be in no other state;

it is as impossible for him to enrich himself, or communicate more good to

himself, as it was to create himself. Secondly, that nothing but God can do

us any good. Thirdly, that God himself cannot do us any good, but by the

communication of himself, in some manner, to us. Hence it is plain, that

your religion of reason, which supposes, that we have natural powers, that

can put us in possession of that which we want to be possessed of in God;

or, that we need no more divine assistance to recover what we have lost of

God, than to obtain a pardon from a prince; or, that God need communicate no

more of himself to us in our reconcilement to him, than a prince

communicates of himself to his pardoned subject; has all the mistakes,

error, and ignorance of God, that is in idolatry, when it takes God to be

something that he is not; and has all the false devotion that is in

idolatry, when it puts the same trust in, and expects the same benefit from,

its own powers and faculties, which idolators did in and from their idols.

Your religion of reason, therefore, which you esteem as the modern

refinement of the human mind, and more excellent and rational, than the

faith and humility of the gospel, has all the dregs of the grossest heathen

idolatry in it; and has changed nothing in idolatry, but the idol; and only

differs in such a degree of philosophy, as the religion of worshiping the

sun differs from the religion of worshiping an onion.

[Way-2-132] "For as soon as it is known and confessed, that God is all in

all; that in him we live and move and have our being; that we have nothing

separately, or at a distance, from him, but everything in him; that we have

no degree of being, nor any degree of good, but in him; that the almighty

can give us nothing, but that which is something of himself; nor any degree

of amendment or salvation, but in such degree as he communicates something

more of himself to us; as soon as this great immutable truth is known, then

it is known with the utmost certainty, that to put our trust in the sun, or

an onion, or our own reason, if not equally absurd, is yet equally

idolatrous, and equally prejudicial to our salvation."* {*A Demonstration of

the gross and fundamental Errors of a late Book, entitled, A Plain Account

of the Sacrament, &c. p. 161, &c. &c.}

[Way-2-133] And now, Theophilus, if you please, you may proceed in the

matter you was upon.

[Way-2-134] Theophilus. We have discoursed long enough for this time. Let

silence, recollection, inward and outward retirement, have their work for a

few days. They purify the heart; they weaken and disarm self; they

strengthen the spirit of prayer, and help us not only to pray, but to find,

to love, and live in God. Let us all desire such an interval as this; and

then we shall be fitter to meet again for our mutual benefit. My friends,

adieu.

The End of the Second Dialogue

The Way to Divine Knowledge--continued

The Third Dialogue

[Way-3-1] Academicus. If you please, Theophilus, pray go on, just where you

left off at our last meeting. For this mystery seems to be at daybreak with

me; and the approach of its light leaves me no power to be content without

it.

[Way-3-2] Theophilus. You have seen, that all nature begins and stands in a

magic birth; and is only a large display of its working power in every kind

of creature. You now want to see farther into this mystery, how eternal

nature begins; and how God, the first, hidden, imperceptible cause of all

after-things, manifests himself in the properties of a visible and working

nature. Now I would, to the best of my power, gladly assist you in this

matter, if I could find out a way of doing it, by opening in your heart a

knowledge of God, of nature, and yourself, without helping you to a mere

opinion, or increasing your thirst after ideal speculation. Tell me,

therefore, what you propose by the gratification of this desire; or what

effect you expect from such knowledge, as you here seek.

[Way-3-3] Academicus. All that I desire by it is, to strengthen and confirm

the ground on which I stand; that, seeing the true philosophy of religion, I

may have nothing to fear from all that variety of attacks which now, more

than ever, are made upon it by infidel reason. I hope, therefore, it is no

vain curiosity, to desire to enter into the depth of this mystery, since I

only desire thereby strength to resist all the enemies of religion.

[Way-3-4] Theophilus. All this is right, and very well; provided you do but

know who, and what, are the great and powerful enemies of religion. But

this, perhaps, you do not so well apprehend, as you may imagine. Your own

reason, born, and bred, and governed, by your own flesh and blood, is the

most powerful enemy of religion that you have to do with, and whom you have

the most to fear from.

[Way-3-5] The men of speculative reason, whom you seem most to apprehend,

are powerless enemies, that cannot strike at your religion with the strength

of a straw. Did you but rightly see what their power is, you would see it as

ridiculous, as that of a few water-engines trying to quench the fiery globe

of the sun: for reason stands in the same inability to touch the truth of

religion, as the water-engine to affect the sun. Nay, its inability is much

greater; for could the water, thrown from the engine, be made to reach the

sun, it would have some, though an insignificant, effect upon it; but reason

can no more affect the truth of religion, than nothing can affect something.

If reason seems to have any power against religion, it is only where

religion is become a dead form, has lost its true state, and is dwindled

into opinion; and when this is the case, that religion stands only as a

well-grounded opinion, then indeed it is always liable to be shaken; either

by having its own credibility lessened, or that of a contrary opinion

increased. But when religion is that which it should be, not a notion or

opinion, but a real life growing up in God, then reason has just as much

power to stop its course, as the barking dog to stop the course of the moon.

For true and genuine religion is nature, is life, and the working of life;

and therefore, wherever it is, reason has no more power over it, than over

the roots that grow secretly in the earth, or the life that is working in

the highest heavens. If therefore you are afraid of reason hurting your

religion, it is a sign, that your religion is not yet as it should be, is

not a self-evident growth of nature and life within you, but has much of

mere opinion in it.

[Way-3-6] Observe the word "self-evident"; for there lies the truth of the

matter; for you have no more of the truth of religion than what is

self-evident in you. A blind man may be rich in notions and opinions about

the nature, power, and good, of light; and in this case, one blind man may

perplex another, and unsettle his notions; but when the light manifesteth

itself, and is become self-evident, then he is at once delivered from all

uncertainty about it. Now religion is light and life; but light and life can

only manifest themselves, and can nowhere be known, but where they are

self-evident.

[Way-3-7] You can know nothing of God, of nature, of heaven, or hell, or

yourself, but so far as all these things are self-evident in you. Neither

could any of these things be of any concern to you, but because they can all

of them be self-evident in you. For the bare history, or hearsay of any one

thing, signifies no more to you, than the hearsay of any other thing. And if

God and heaven, hell and the devil, the world and the flesh, were not all of

them self-evident in you, you could have no more good or hurt from any

hearsay about them, than from the hearsay of pleasant gardens, and dismal

prisons, in the world of the moon.

[Way-3-8] Let it be supposed, that your ingenious reason should suggest to

you, that there are no devils or hell, and therefore no occasion to believe

that revelation that gives an account of them: in this case, do but turn to

that which is sensible and self-evident in you, and then you must know, in

the same certainty as you know yourself to be alive, that there is wrath,

self-torment, envy, malice, evil-will, pride, cruelty, revenge, &c. Now say,

if you please, there are no other devils but these, and that men have no

other devils to resist; and then you will have said truth enough, have owned

devils enough, and enough confessed, that you are in the midst of them; that

you are everywhere tempted by them; and that flesh and blood is too weak to

resist them, and therefore wants some kind of savior, of so contrary a

nature, as has power to destroy these works of the devil in you.

[Way-3-9] Now this is the only knowledge that you can possibly have of an

outward hell, and outward devils; and this knowledge is as self- evident in

you as your own thoughts, and is as near to you as your own life. But to see

and know an outward hell, or outward devils, that are outward living

creatures, can never be your own case, till all that is divine and human in

you is extinguished; and then you will have knowledge enough, how hell is a

place, and how the devils of rage, wrath, envy, and pride &c., are living

creatures.

[Way-3-10] Again, let it be supposed, that your sceptic reason had brought

you into doubt about the being and providence of God in you: you have no

occasion to consult the demonstrations which heathen philosophers, school

divines, Deists, or atheists, have produced about it, from the existence of

things; all concluding, as well Christians, as Deists and atheists, that

there must be some eternal first cause from which all has proceeded.

[Way-3-11] For what a God is this, that is only proved to be, because

something now is, and therefore something must always have been, an

infinite, eternal something, with infinite power to bring forth all that is

come into being? What a God, I say, is this, which the Arian, the Deist, and

the atheist, is as willing to own as the Christian; and which is as

serviceable to the cause of Arianism, Deism, idolatry, and atheism, as it is

to Christianity? For the atheist has his omnipotent, eternal, first cause,

as well as all the disputers for a God.

[Way-3-12] But now, if you turn from all these idle debates and

demonstrations of reason, to that which is sensible and self-evident in you,

then you have a sensible, self-evident proof of the true God of life, and

light, and love, and goodness, as manifest to you as your own life. For with

the same self-evident certainty, as you know that you think, and are alive,

you know that there is goodness, love, benevolence, meekness, compassion,

wisdom, peace, joy, &c. Now this is the self-evident God, that forces

himself to be known, and found, and felt, in every man, in the same

certainty of self-evidence, as every man feels and finds his own thoughts

and life. And this is the God, whose being and providence, thus self-evident

in us, calls for our worship, and love, and adoration, and obedience to him:

and this worship, and love, and adoration, and conformity to the divine

goodness, is our true belief in, and sure knowledge of, the self-evident

God. And atheism is not the denial of a first omnipotent cause, but is

purely and solely nothing else but the disowning, forsaking, and renouncing

the goodness, virtue, benevolence, meekness, &c. of the divine nature, that

has made itself thus self-evident in us, as the true object of our worship,

conformity, love, and adoration. This is the one true God, or the Deity of

goodness, virtue, and love, &c. the certainty of whose being and providence

opens itself to you in the self-evident sensibility of your own nature; and

inspires his likeness, and love of his goodness, into you. And as this is

the only true knowledge that you can possibly have of God and the divine

nature, so it is a knowledge not to be debated or lessened by any objections

of reason, but is as self-evident as your own life. But to find or know God

in reality, by any outward proofs, or by anything but by God himself made

manifest and self-evident in you, will never be your case either here or

hereafter. For neither God, nor heaven, nor hell, nor the devil, nor the

world, and the flesh, can be any otherwise knowable in you, or by you, but

by their own existence and manifestation in you. And all pretended knowledge

of any of these things, beyond or without this self-evident sensibility of

their birth within you, is only such knowledge of them, as the blind man

hath of that light, that never entered into him.

[Way-3-13] And as this is our only true knowledge, so every man is, by his

birth and nature, brought into a certain and self-evident sensibility of all

these things. And if we bring ourselves by reasoning and dispute into an

uncertainty about them, it is an uncertainty that we have created for

ourselves, and comes not from God and nature. For God and nature have made

that which is our greatest concern, to be our greatest certainty; and to be

known by us in the same self-evidence, as our own pain or pleasure is. For

nothing is religion, or the truth of religion, nothing is good or bad to

you, but that which is a self- evident birth within you. So that if you call

that only God, and religion, and goodness, which truly are so, and can only

be known by their self-evident powers and life in you, then you are in the

truth, and the truth will make you free from all doubts; and you will no

more fear or regard anything that talkative reason can discourse against it,

than against your own seeing, hearing, or sensible life. But if you turn

from self-evidence to reason and opinion, you turn from the tree of life,

and you give yourself up to certain delusion.

[Way-3-14] Wonder not therefore, my friend, that though the mystery under

consideration contains the greatest truths, yet I am unwilling to help you

to reason and speculate upon it; for if you attempt to go farther in it than

self-evidence leads you, you only go so far out of it, or from it. For the

end of this mystery is not to furnish new or better matter for reason and

opinion, but to bring man home to that sensibility, which is self-evident in

himself, and to lead him only by self-evident principles, to see, and find,

and feel the difference between true and false religion in the same degree

of self-evident certainty, as he sees and feels the difference between fire

and water. This, I say, is the great intent of this mystery, to bring man

into a sensibility of God and nature, to know and feel, that good and evil,

life and death, are a self-evident growth and birth of nature in man,

according as his will enters into and works with that which is unchangeably

good, or unchangeably evil, in the working of nature. Now as the workings of

nature are unchangeable in their effects, and that which is naturally good

or evil, must always be so; and seeing man's life standeth in nature, and

must work with it, must have only that good or evil which is unchangeable in

nature; and seeing his state in nature, whether good or evil, is, and can

be, only that, which the sensible, self-evident powers of his own life

manifest to him; then you see the fitness and necessity of your keeping

steadily to that, which is self- evident in you, as the very tree of life,

the criterion of all that truth and goodness that belongs to you. Secondly,

you see with what good reason Jacob Behmen so often tells you, that all that

he has written, was only to help man to seek and find himself, to see and

know his place and state in nature, and how to cooperate with God and nature

in generating a birth of heaven within himself. Thirdly, you may see how you

and I should abase this blessed mystery, should we, instead of only and

truly seeking and finding its birth within us, make it a matter of reasoning

and opinion.

[Way-3-15] Academicus. I have neither power nor inclination to object to

anything that you have said. But still I must desire you to assist me in

your own way, and such as you judge to be suitable to the intention of this

mystery. I plainly see, that the whole ground of religion lies in the

knowledge of what God is in himself, as distinct from nature; what nature is

in itself; what I have from God, and what I am in and from nature; and how I

am to work with it, as God himself is and worketh in nature. For if this

knowledge can be opened in me, then the why, and the how, of every mystery

of redemption must be seen to the bottom.

[Way-3-16] Theophilus. By nature are meant, all the working, stirring

properties of life, or all the various sensibilities which life is capable

of finding and feeling in itself. And therefore you need only look at the

working sensibilities of your own life, the several kinds and ways of

feeling and finding your own state, to know by a self- evident certainty,

what nature is in itself. And thus also, in the same self-evident certainty,

you may know, that nature is not God. For as you find, that nature is opened

in you; that all its properties have their existence in you; and yet that

none of these properties of life are their own happiness, or can make

themselves to be happy, full of peace, delight, and joy, and free from every

want; so you have a full self-evident proof, that God is not nature, but

entirely distinct from, and superior to, nature; and that, as considered in

himself, he is that which alone can make nature happy, free from want, and

full of all delightful satisfaction. And thus you know, not from hearsay,

but from a self-evident certainty in yourself, that God, considered as in

himself, is the happiness, the rest, the satisfaction, the joy, the

fulfilling of all the properties and sensibilities of nature; and also that

nature, in itself, is that working life of various properties and

sensibilities, which want to be made happy, which reach after something that

they are not, and have not, and which cannot be happy or fulfilled, till

something of an higher nature than themselves be united with them; that is,

the working of nature must be in want, in pain, and dissatisfaction, till

God (the blessing and fulfilling of nature) is manifested, found, and

enjoyed in it.

[Way-3-17] Now suppose you knew no more of what God is in himself, distinct

from nature, and what nature is as thus distinguished from God, than is

already opened in you, you would know enough to be a key to all that which

Jacob Behmen speaks of God, and of nature; and enough also to show you how

to cooperate with God and nature, in bringing forth a new birth of the

divine life within you. For as soon as you know, that nature in itself is

only a working life of various sensibilities, which wants something distinct

from itself, and higher than itself, to make it happy, then you have a

self-evident certainty of these following truths: first, that God,

considered as in himself, is the blessing, the satisfaction, the heaven, and

happiness, of all and every sensibility of nature. Secondly, that therefore,

as the gospel teaches, only the Word, the light, the Son of God, or Jesus

Christ, can redeem fallen nature, restore it to its first state of

blessedness in God. Thirdly, that therefore, as the gospel teaches, you have

but one thing to do, and that one thing absolutely necessary to be done;

viz., to deny yourself; that is, to turn this fallen nature from itself,

from all its own wills and workings in the vanity of this life, to give up

itself in faith, in hunger and thirst after that light, Word, Son, or Jesus

Christ of God, who is the fullness, the satisfaction, the joy, and

blessedness, of all nature; who alone can turn every working and sensibility

of nature in a participation of heavenly satisfaction and joy. Now what can

you desire, or need you to know of God, of nature, and the mystery of

Christian redemption, more than this? And yet all this is a self- evident

knowledge, born within you as soon as you turn to it.

[Way-3-18] Academicus. Oh! Sir, you quite transport me with this short,

easy, and yet full explication of so great a matter, which has often

perplexed me. But now I shall never be at a loss how to understand the

distinction between God and nature, and also the absolute necessity of it;

which, when rightly known, sets all the doctrines and mysteries of Christian

redemption upon such a ground as cannot be removed. But still I must beg of

you to help me to the same self- evidence of the birth and generation of the

properties of nature, as they are set forth by Jacob Behmen, especially of

the three first forms, which I perceive to be the ground of all; and yet

their birth and generation, their union with, and distinction from, one

another, I do not enough comprehend, as he sets them forth. Thus, the first

form of nature is said to be desire; which is the ground and foundation of

all things. This desire (the first property), he saith, is astringing,

drawing, shutting up, compressing, hardening, &c. Now all this is evident

enough; for I have a sufficient sensibility, that this is the nature of

desire; that, in its spiritual way, it attracts, draws, compresses, and

would shut up, or enclose, &c. But then, it is immediately said, that the

second property is attraction, drawing, sting, and motion, &c. Now if the

first is attraction and drawing, how can the second be different from it,

and yet be attraction and drawing?

[Way-3-19] Theophilus. The desire is not one property, but is in itself all

the properties of nature; it is the ground in which they all dwell, and the

mother out of which they are all born: so that all that is said of the three

first forms of nature, is only so much said of three forms or properties of

the desire. For the desire is not the first property of nature; but every

property hath all that it hath in and from the desire. The first property of

the desire, of that which is the peculiarity of its nature, as distinguished

from the second, is, to compress, enclose, shut up, &c., whence cometh

thickness, darkness, hardness, &c. But no sooner does the desire begin to

compress, shut up, but it brings forth its own greatest enemy, and the

highest resistance to itself: for it cannot compress or thicken, but by

drawing or attracting; but drawing and attracting is quite contrary to

shutting up, or compressing; because drawing or attracting is motion, and

every motion is contrary to shutting up or compressing together.

[Way-3-20] And thus your difficulty is removed: attraction or drawing is

rightly ascribed to the desire, and rightly called its second property,

because it is born of it; and yet is directly contrary to that which is the

desire's first property or intention; viz., to compress, to hold in

stillness, &c.

[Way-3-21] Now as these two properties are two resistances, not in two

different things, but are one and the same thing in this contrariety in and

to itself, as they are inseparable, generate each other, are equal in

strength, and can neither of them overcome the other, so as to go one way,

but each of them stops the other in the same manner; and seeing this desire

cannot cease to be these two contrary things; viz. a holding-fast, and

moving-away, a shutting-in, and a going-out, both in the same degree of

strength; neither able to shut up, or to go out, nor able to cease from

either; these two contrarieties become a whirling anguish in itself, and so

bring forth a third property of nature. And in these properties lies the

true ground of all sensibility of life, and also of every created thing.

Matter, motion, darkness, fire, and every natural power or quality of

anything, has its beginning from them. Considered in themselves, they are

the working powers of that great and strong creaturely life, which cannot be

broken, because it begets itself, and every property is included in, and

generates each other. It is a band or knot of life, that can never be

loosed; nor is capable of annihilation, because it is a birth of eternal

nature, which is as unchangeable as God himself. And as it arises from no

outward thing, but is generated in and from itself, its work is eternal, and

can never be made to cease. For as one property has no power over the other,

but that of forcing it to exist; as one property does not weary the other,

but always gives strength to it; so there can be no cessation of their

working, but they must do, as they do, to all eternity.

[Way-3-22] Now the life of these three properties is a life of three

contrary wills, equally strong and powerful against each other; and

therefore is a life of the highest disquiet, torment, and anguish, full of

the most horrible sensibility. It is a life that can feel nothing but its

own tearing contrariety, that reigns with it. And this is the life of nature

separated from God; it is the life of hell, and the devils; and is that life

of dark, raging distraction, which every living creature must be in, whose

first properties of life are not softened and quieted, either by the light

of God, or the light of this world, dwelling and making peace in them. And

he that will only seek to his reason, to cool the flame of these raging

first properties of life, acts as wisely as he, whose house being on fire,

would only have it extinguished, by reading a lecture upon the nature of

water to it.

[Way-3-23] And now, sir, you have seen plainly enough the birth, nature, and

difference, of these three first properties. But let it be supposed, that

you have no feeling, or inward sensibility, of these three properties in the

manner they have been here described, according to Jacob Behmen; yet you

have no reason to be troubled at it, or put your brain upon the rack how to

conceive it, or fear that you must want the benefit of this knowledge, till

you have it as above described; for you have in yourself a most self-evident

proof, that the thing is really so; and that desire hath all that in it

which he so deeply declares, from its first seed, or root.

[Way-3-24] For it is a thing self-evident to you, that every desire, as

such, is in itself a restless torment; that it has pain, disquiet, and

anguish, in itself; and, as to itself, consists of nothing else. Now,

whether you can, with Jacob Behmen, divide this restless, anguishing desire

into its three essential parts, of which it consists, matters not, as to the

reality of the thing itself; for you have sensibility enough, that the

desire is made up of pain and anguish, till the thing desired is obtained:

and therefore you have all the certainty and benefit of this knowledge; and

it serves the same end, as if you knew the ground of it with the same

exactness as he has set it forth.

[Way-3-25] You have yourself for a proof, that desire and pain begin

together; and this is a full proof of what was said; viz. that desire begins

with two properties, that resist and strive against one another. Again, you

have the same evidence in yourself, that the desire, left to itself, that

is, without the least glimpse of any possibility of having that which it

desires, is a degree of hell, and quite intolerable to itself: and this is a

self-evident proof of what was said; viz. that the third and last property

of the desire, is that whirling anguish, brought forth by the two first

properties: for these three properties are the whole of the desire; it has

nothing more in it. And when your desire cannot cease, and yet has nothing

but itself, without the least mixture or feeling of hope in it, then you

have a full self-evidence of all that which the desire is, in its three

essential, inseparable properties, and that strictly according to the letter

of Jacob Behmen.

[Way-3-26] Now all that is nature, or natural life within you, is only the

working of desire in this painful state; and that which can set this painful

life at rest in you, is so much of God, or the divine nature, manifested in

you, and changing your restless properties of life into peace and happiness.

And as the working properties of desire are your natural life, so the same

working properties are the life of eternal nature; from whence, as out of

the womb, your natural life is brought forth, and hath neither more nor less

in it than that which is in eternal nature.

[Way-3-27] And if the working properties, which constitute the life of

eternal nature, could be supposed to be without God in them, eternal nature

would be a mere eternal hell: But as the eternal desire, with all its

working properties, is brought forth by the magic power of the divine will,

only for this end, that the holy Deity may manifest a heaven of glory in

them; so eternal nature always was, and always must be, a kingdom of heaven,

or the unchangeable manifestation of the invisible God in an outward

sensibility of life, happiness, glory, and majesty.

[Way-3-28] Academicus. I am fully satisfied as to this point; and all that

you have said, has the evidence of light at noonday. And I hope you will now

go on in the birth of the four remaining properties; and show me, in the

same degree of evidence, how these three properties bring forth the four

following ones, which turn nature into a kingdom of heaven.

[Way-3-29] Theophilus. These three properties of nature cannot bring forth

the four following ones. They can bring forth nothing but themselves to all

eternity, nor can ever be anything else in themselves, but what they were at

first. Nature can rise no higher than this painful state; and its painful

working contrariety must always be the ground of all life, and all

sensibility of life. For if (1.) this shutting-up, or compressing; and (2.)

this resistance to it; and (3.) this whirling arising from both, was ever to

cease, there life, and all sensibility, must cease with them; and therefore

these three properties must always do as they do, as the only possible

ground of every kind and degree of creaturely life, both in heaven, and on

earth.

[Way-3-30] But if life is to be happy, something else must come into them,

not to destroy their natural working, but to make every contrariety in them

a strife of joy, and delightful sensibilities. Thus, (1.) compressing, or

shutting-up, must find itself only to compress and keep in light and love;

(2.) the attraction or drawing- motion, must find itself to be the drawing

and motion of love; and, (3.) the whirling anguish must whirl still, but as

a transport of joy unavoidably brought forth from the strife of love in the

two properties of which it is born. And thus nature remains in its full

strength; it compresses, it attracts, and it whirls, as it did at first; and

nothing is lost, or taken from it, but its hatred, wrath, and misery. Now

here you are to observe, that every thing or creature, either in heaven,

hell, or this world, hath its substance, or all that is substantiality in

it, solely from these three first properties of nature. The creaturely

substance of an angel, a devil, or a dead flint, all stand in these three

first forms of nature. And all the difference betwixt high and low,

spiritual and material, in the creatures, arises from their different

participation of the four following forms of nature. But the four following

forms cannot exist, or manifest themselves, but in the three first; and

therefore the three first are, and must be, as well in the highest as in the

lowest of creatures: they are the first something, or substantiality of

nature, in which the light, and love, and Spirit of God could manifest

itself; for spirit cannot work without something to work in and upon, and in

which it may be found; nor could light shine, unless there was something in

nature thicker than itself, to receive and reflect it: and therefore,

thickness or darkness is, and must be, as eternal as the visible or shining

light. Darkness is so far from being a mere negation, or only an absence, of

the light, that it is the first and only substance, and the ground of all

the possible substantiality in nature, and the substantial manifester of

light itself, which could have no visibility, shine, or color, but in and

through, and by the substantiality of darkness or thickness. This darkness,

thickness, or substantiality, is not co-existent with, or independent of,

God, but is the compressing, astringing, thickening work of the first

property of the desire; which desire comes eternally from God, only as a

magic birth from the will of the Deity, which willeth to come out of its

hiddenness into an outward visibility of a working life. And therefore the

desire is the beginning of nature; it compresseth and thickeneth. But what

does it compress and thicken? Why, nothing but itself; viz. its own three

properties. And these three properties thus brought forth, tied and bound in

one another, are, from eternity to eternity, all the substantiality and

thickness, that is or ever can be in nature, or any creature, from the

highest to the lowest. And they are thus brought forth in this indissolvable

band in and by the desire, that the invisible light and life of the hidden

Deity may have its something to move and shine in; his hidden Spirit have

something to work and manifest itself in; his hidden love have something

into which it may give itself; and his hidden life have something in which

it can open itself in a variety of births of life. And this something is the

working compressing desire, which includes itself, (1.) a continual

thickening, which is darkness and substantiality: (2.) motion or resistance

to this thickening, which is the ground of all sensibility; and, (3.) a

restless state of whirling from these two properties, which is the very

nature and power of life. And thus these three properties of the desire, are

that sufficient something, in which the Deity, by entering into it, can

manifest his hidden power in all the substances and working properties of

nature, by turning them all in their different workings into an endless

variety of delightful forms and sensibilities of the creaturely life.

[Way-3-31] Now this first thickness, darkness, or substantiality, brought

forth in the desire, though it is not matter, as matter is seen and found in

this world; yet these two things must be affirmed of it: first, that it

stands in the same place, answers the same ends, and is distinguished from

light and spirit in the eternal world, just as matter in this world stands

distinguished from the light and spirit of this world. Secondly, that all

the darkness, thickness, and matter of every kind in this world, is nothing

else in itself, but the first thickness, darkness, and substantiality in the

desire, brought down by various steps into such kinds of materiality as are

here to be seen. Look at what kind of materiality you will in this world; it

is, in its whole nature, nothing else but the darkness or thickness of the

eternal world, brought into a farther degree of thickness and compression.

And now we are come to see the true ground; (1.) how the angels could

destroy their kingdom, or lose all the light and happiness of heaven in it:

and, (2.) how also, their wasted, spoiled, darkened habitation in the

divided properties of nature, could be turned, and created by God, as it is,

into this new form of a material world.

[Way-3-32] The first three properties of nature were never to have been seen

or known, as they are in themselves, by any creature; their thickness,

strife, and darkness, were brought forth by God, in union with the light,

and glory, and majesty of heaven; and only for that end, that the holy Deity

might be made manifest in them. And therefore their own nature, as they are

in themselves, without God in them, could only then be first known, when the

angels turned their desire backwards to search and find the ground and

original of life, which could not be found, till these properties were

found, in which the original ground of life lay hid. This turning of their

desire into the origin of life, was their whole turning from the light of

God; and therefore they found themselves where they had turned their desire;

that is, in the center of nature; viz. in the first properties of nature,

which is the dark center, or ground of life, which never should have been

known or manifest to any creature. For by the center of nature, or the dark

center, you are always to understand these three first properties; which,

when without or separate from the light and goodness of the Deity in them,

are in themselves only the thickness, and rage, and darkness, of an

omnipotent compressing, and omnipotent resistance to it, and omnipotent

whirling from these two omnipotent contrarieties. I call them all

omnipotent, because they cannot be stopped, but do all that they would; and

though they are contrary to one another, yet each of them gives strength to

the other; so that the omnipotence of the one, is the omnipotence of the

other. And this is the boundless, incessant, strong rage, darkness, and

strife, of the hellish life, which only is that, which these three

properties of nature, when left to themselves, can feel or find. Now the

angels, which turned their desire into the center of nature, fell into the

life and working power of these three properties; they felt nothing else in

themselves, but these properties; they had no other will or power of

working, but as these properties worked; and therefore, as living and active

creatures, they could only live, and act, and cooperate, or unite with that

ground of nature without them, which was the same and one with their own

nature; and therefore, all that they could do, was to stir up, awaken, call

forth, and act with that thickness and darkness, and strife, that was hidden

in nature, just as the toad, in a fine garden, only sucks the poison that is

hid in a good herb. So the fallen angels, though in heaven, having only the

center of nature in themselves, could only find and work with that center

and root of darkness, on which the heavenly glory stood. But from this power

which they had of working in the center of nature, hence came forth a dark,

wrathful substantiality, separated from the light and glory of the holy

Deity; and thus a new kind of substantiality appeared in their kingdom; and

their outward habitation was like their inward life; viz. a manifestation of

nature fallen from God. And here now, you clearly see, how the first

thickness or compression of the first property of nature, which was only the

hidden substantiality of the light and glory of heaven, came into a more

outward state, and made its first approach or step towards matter, as you

now see it. For there was now a thickness, a darkness, and hardness, which

never had been before; for the light being lost, then the first property of

nature lost its beatified state of meekness, transparency, and spiritual

fluidity; and became stiff, rigid, dark, and hard; and this, as I said, was

its first step or descent towards the hardness and darkness of the matter of

this world, till it came to be earth and stones, by the creating power of

God. And thus it came to pass, as Moses speaks, that darkness was upon the

face of the deep. A state, that had no possibility of existence, till the

sin of angels had manifested the hidden center of nature, in the working of

its three properties, without the light of God in them.

[Way-3-33] Now as a new thickness of darkness, hardness, or substantiality,

was manifested by the strong working powers of the angels in the center, or

the first properties of fallen nature; so God, to manifest his wisdom and

goodness towards this fallen nature, took all these properties in their own

working way; and made them in their own way of working, to stop and overcome

the evil that was brought forth by them. For the will of God, joining with

the wrathful astringency of the first compressing property of nature, became

the divine fiat, which increased this compacting property to such a degree,

as created or compacted the darkened substantiality into a globe of earth

and stones. And this same divine fiat, or creating power, which coagulated

the grossness into earth and stones, compressed or coagulated all that was

substantial, or belonged to substantiality through their whole kingdom, as

well the heavenly as the earthly part of it; so that all their kingdom, as

to its substantiality, lost its spirituality, and entered into a new created

or compacted state of thickness, as well the spoiled as the unspoiled part

of their kingdom. And as soon as this was done, the angels lost all their

power in it, and over it. They could kindle no more wrath in its heavenly

part, nor make any use of that which they had spoiled, because all was shut

up together in this new compaction, with which the spirituality of their

nature could have no communication. And so they were left prisoners in their

own chains of darkness, unable to stir up wrath anywhere but in themselves.

All this was done in the first day of the creation, when the fiat of God

compressed or created their whole kingdom into a heaven and earth. Hence it

is; viz. from a compaction of their whole kingdom into a new-created heaven

and earth; that all things in this world, all its elements and stars, are a

mixture of good and evil, have something of the wrath and evil of hell in

them. Hence is the great variety of metallic ores and precious stones in the

earth; the good and bad qualities in fire, air, and water. It is because the

divine fiat, or compacting power, came at once in the utmost swiftness upon

their whole kingdom, as the good and evil stood in strife against each

other, and compressed all into a state of cessation and conjunction with one

another, as in the prison of this new-created materiality. And thus the

heavenly and hellish part of their kingdom, light and darkness, fluidity and

hardness, meekness and wrath, good and evil, were all shut up together in

the same sudden compaction; in which they lay, as in a state of death, till

the divine fiat should awaken a life in it.

[Way-3-34] Now the three first properties of nature; the first, a shutting

up; the second, a running out; and the third, a whirling; were by the divine

fiat, in the three first days of the creation, become the ground of an

earthly, a watery, and airy materiality, all according to the working nature

of the three properties; and all of them having something of an heavenly

nature shut up in them, which wanted to be delivered from its bondage. Hence

this threefold materiality of earth, water, and air, became a subject fit

for the birth of the fourth property of nature. And therefore, on the fourth

day of the creation, the divine fiat kindled in this anguishing materiality,

out of that very fire and light that was compacted and hid in it, the fourth

property of nature (the eternal fire), as a globe of fire and light, which

was to stand as an out-birth of the eternal fire, in the midst of this new-

created materiality, and become the opener of all the astral life and light

in this world. And as the eternal fire, the fourth property of eternal

nature, is not a movable thing that can change its place, but must be always

in the place of its birth, standing forever, as a birth, in the midst of the

seven properties, forever changing the three first properties of nature into

the three last properties of the kingdom of heaven; so the sun, the true

out-birth of the eternal fire, and having the same birth and office in this

material world, as the eternal fire hath in eternal nature, is not, cannot

be, a movable thing, or be in any other place in this world, than where it

is; but is, and must be, the center or heart of this whole system, ever

separating the three first properties of this material world, from the three

that follow, and ever changing the three first forms of material wrath into

the three following forms of terrestrial life, light, and all delightful

sensibilities; in strict conformity to that, which the eternal fire does in

eternal nature, changing the root, or first properties of nature, into a

kingdom of God, and heavenly glory. For the sun is not a body of fire

brought into the place where it is; but the kindled place is its body and

birth; and therefore it is as immovable as place is, and must be as it is;

viz. a place giving forth fire and light till all material nature is

dissolved. The place is kindled, not by any foreign fire, but thus: in the

first compaction of the whole angelic kingdom into this new materiality, the

good and bad part, that is, the spoiled and unspoiled substantiality of

their whole kingdom, was shut up in this new compression or materiality, in

one and the same state of death. Secondly, in the beginning of the creation,

God, said, "Let there be light," and there was light; not a shining light,

for that came first from the birth of the sun, but a power or virtue of

heavenly light, not yet in a visible, material shine, but as an uncreated

power of light, entering into this whole materiality, to stir up, and awaken

the good part of the heavenly substantiality, that was shut up in the

compaction of this new materiality.

[Way-3-35] Without these two things, material nature must have continued in

its darkness, and no fourth form of fire could ever have come forth in it.

But from these two things, viz. the heavenly substantiality, stirred up by

the power of light entering into it, the three first properties of darkness

were brought into a mere anguishing state; from whence, by the divine fiat,

the fourth form of material nature kindled itself, as a fire, and broke

forth in the place of the sun, and must be ever burning and flaming in the

midst of the material system; because it is born of the three first

properties of darkness, and brings forth the three last properties of light,

and life, and the joy of nature; and therefore must always be in the midst

of the six properties of nature, itself making the number to be seven. And

thus the sun, as the fourth form of nature, must always stand in the midst

of the whole material system. And this proved, not as Copernicus proved it,

from reasonable conjectures, and outward arguments, but from the internal

nature of its birth, the first root from which it proceeds, an the absolute

impossibility of its being otherwise. And thus it is, that the truth and

depth of nature is opened by the Spirit of God, in the mystery made known to

our illiterate shoemaker. And thus you have a short sketch, how this world

came to be as it is. It is descended as an out-birth of the eternal world,

and all the seven properties of eternal nature work in it, as they work in

eternity; and the eternity is manifested in the temporary working of a new

world, which is only to stand in this state of thickness or compaction for a

time, till the goodness of God towards fallen nature has been sufficiently

manifested thereby.

[Way-3-36] For as this material system of things may, in a good sense, be

said to be an unnatural state, occasioned by the disorders which the fall of

angels brought into nature; and as it had no beginning, but from the will of

God, commanding the first property of nature to coagulate and compress their

disordered kingdom into a new thickness or materiality, only as a remedy to

stop, remove, and overcome the evil in nature; so when this remedy shall

have had its trial, and the will of God shall no longer will this

compressing together; then all that has been brought together by it, must

fall back again into its first eternity. And then, without any possibility

of being otherwise, every birth in this world, that belongs to the root or

center of nature, and has worked with it, must fall down into that eternal

abyss of darkness, on which the light of God forever stands, unknown to it.

And every life that is born of heaven, and has worked with it, must ascend

into the kingdom of God, or abyss of divine glory and majesty.

[Way-3-37] Oh Academicus! Look now (whilst these thoughts are alive in you)

at worldly greatness, fleshly wisdom, and earthly schemes of happiness; and

tell me, if you can, what a nothingness, what a folly and delusion, there is

in them? Look again at the apostle's pilgrim, abstaining from worldly lusts,

desiring to know nothing but Christ, and him crucified; living in the spirit

of prayer, and thirst after God; striving in everything after the fullest

conformity to the tempers, Spirit, life, and behavior of Christ in this

world; and then tell me, whether heaven and earth, God and nature, and all

that is great, and wise, and happy, does not call upon you to be this

pilgrim.

[Way-3-38] Academicus. Truly, sir, I enough see, that all worldly wisdom,

and ambitious views of a glory of life in the things and concerns of this

world, are no better than vain attempts to be blessed and happy from the

ruins of the angelic kingdom. For this world is only a thickness and

materiality of the bestial life, built upon the ground of hell; that is,

upon the first properties of fallen nature, brought into a harder, more

compacted state of existence than they have in hell, and kindled into an

astral, terrestrial, bestial life, by the power of the sun. The bestial

life, therefore, is the highest good and happiness in it; and the creatures

of this world have nothing that they seek for further in it. But man, being

not created for it, but by sin fallen into it, is the only creature that

makes an unnatural use of it, and seeks for that in it, and by it, which

cannot be found in it. Man, having been wise, great, and happy in his

creation, though they are all lost, has yet some remaining sensibility of

them, though fallen into a world, that cannot help him to them. Hence it is,

that he would be wise, and great, and happy in a world, that has no

happiness but for beasts; and can only help man to know, that he is poor and

miserable, and banished from his true native country.

[Way-3-39] But, instead of learning this one lesson of truth, from the world

he is in, which is all the wisdom, greatness, and happiness, that can be had

from it; he gives himself up to a wisdom that is foolishness, a greatness

that is all meanness, and a happiness that begins and ends in torment and

delusion. Would you see all his greatness, wisdom and happiness united, the

sum total of earthly glory! It is, when he has in his cap the feathers of

some birds, wears a painted ribband, laced clothes, is called by some new

name, and drawn from place to place by a number of beasts. Now, poor, and

mean, and unnatural as this fiction of earthly glory is; yet this is the

powerful idol, that carries all before it! that destroys all sense of

goodness, and divine virtue! and keeps the heart of man so earnestly devoted

to it, that he has no sense of the eternity that is in him; that eternity

brought him forth, and eternity will take him again!

[Way-3-40] Theophilus. It is true, Academicus, that the highest good of this

world is its bestial life; and therefore it has no more, or other, happiness

for a man than for a beast; can give no more to one, than to the other; viz.

food and raiment; with which the bestial life in man ought to be content, as

well as in the beast. But seeing man, in spite of the nature of things, will

have an earthly glory of life; thence it is, that the wisdom of this world

is, and must be, foolishness with God, and will be foolishness with man, as

soon as he gets but a moderate knowledge of himself. But give me leave just

to observe, that though this material world has no higher happiness than the

bestial life; yet God hath much higher ends in creating it. For though the

dark wrathful properties of fallen nature could only, in their compaction,

be made the ground of a vegetable and bestial life; yet you are to observe,

that in the creation of this world; viz. in the compaction of the whole

angelic kingdom; the unspoiled heavenly part thereof was shut up with that,

in which the wrath was kindled: and that for these two great ends; first,

that, by this compaction, it might be taken out of the power of the evil

angels, that they might not go on in kindling wrath in it. Secondly, that

this reserved good part of their kingdom might be the foundation and ground

of an heavenly paradisiacal life, and a new host of heavenly creatures,

instead of the fallen angels. Now, to do this, God created an human angel,

who was to call forth the paradisiacal life out of the compacted heavenly

substantiality, as the sun opened a vegetable bestial life, out of the gross

substantiality of the material world.

[Way-3-41] God breathed the triune Spirit of the holy Deity into a body

taken out of the earth, that is, into a body of that heavenly

substantiality, that was shut up in the earth, as well as in every other

part of this material system; and therefore his body is rightly said to be

taken or formed out of the earth; because it was formed of that

substantiality, that was shut up in the earth.

[Way-3-42] But when his wandering eye had raised a longing desire to know

what the earthly life was in its good and evil, and took the certain means

of knowing it; then, as his soul lost the light and Spirit of God, so it

lost also that heavenly luminous body, in which the light and Spirit of God

could dwell, as it dwelleth in heaven. And when this heavenly luminous

corporeity was lost, and shut up again in that earthly bondage and

compaction, in which it lay, before it was his body; then the poor fallen

soul was only clothed with the gross corruptibility of bestial flesh and

blood. You are to understand this matter thus: when his body was formed out

of that heavenly substantiality, that was in the compaction of the earth, it

was not entirely separated from all earthly materiality (because he was to

have a body of this world, as well as of the heavenly world); but its state

in the earthly materiality was entirely changed; it was till then shut up in

the earthly compaction, but now it is called out of that earthly death into

a state of life; it is set free from the power of the earth, in a

superiority over it, to be its happiness, and open its own glory in it, and

through it.

[Way-3-43] And thus you see the possibility, the truth, and the manner of

the thing; how his heavenly body was taken out of the earth at his creation,

set in freedom from it, and in a living superiority over it; how, at the

fall, it was swallowed up, or compacted again in its own first earth; viz.

the earthly body, or materiality of Adam: for as it was not separated from

this earthly materiality, but only brought to life in it, and superiority

over it; so when the divine light, which was the life of this body, was

lost, it then fell again into a state of death in that gross materiality,

under which it lay before. And thus, in the strictest truth, the body of

Adam returned again to that very earth, or dust, from whence it was taken.

[Way-3-44] Now, when this happened, the fallen angels entered again into

some power in their lost kingdom. There was then something found, with which

they could work, and join their own power. For as the soul of man had lost

the light and Spirit of heaven, so the same dark center of nature, or the

three first wrathful properties, were opened in it, as are opened in the

fallen angels. And thus they got entrance into the awakened hell in man, and

can work in it. For as often as man stirred, followed, or worked with his

will according to these properties, the devil could enter into, and work

with him; and so the first son of fallen man was made a murderer. And hence

it is, that sin and wickedness have known no bounds; it is because it is the

joint work of fallen angels, and fallen man.

[Way-3-45] Stay a while, sir, in view of these truths: here you see the seat

and ground, the birth and growth of all sin and evil; it lies in these three

dark, selfish, self-willed, wrathful, hellish properties of the fallen soul.

This is the dark center of nature, in which the devils have all their own

power in themselves, and all their power in you; and till you resist this

hell within you, till you live in contrariety to it, the devils will not

flee from you.

[Way-3-46] Here also you see, in a self-evident light, the deep ground, and

absolute necessity, of that one redemption, which is called, and is, the

meekness and heavenly blood of the Lamb of God. For these words in their

true ground mean only the changing of the three first dark wrathful

properties of fallen nature, into the three last properties of the heavenly

life, light, and love, which is the life of God restored to the soul, or the

light, Spirit, or Word of God born again in it. Let me only add this one

word; turn from wrath of every kind, as you would flee from the most horrid

devil; for it is his, it is he, and his strength in you. Whether you look at

rage and anger in a tempest, a beast, or a man, it is but one and the same

thing, from one and the same cause; and therefore your own wrath is to be

turned from, as the same with that of hell; and which has its birth and

strength from that hell or center of nature, which the fall of angels hath

made known; and which only worketh thus differently, whether it be in a man,

a beast, or the elements of this world. And this must be, till the center of

nature is again in its place of hiddenness, by being wholly overcome by

heaven. Embrace therefore every meekness of love and humility with the same

eagerness as you would fall down at the feet of Jesus Christ; for it is his,

{"is" missing in printed text, but see sentence 3 of this paragraph for

exact parallel} it is he, and his power of salvation in you. Enter into no

strife, or self-defense against anyone, that either reproaches you, or your

doctrine; but remember, that if you are to join with Christ in doing good,

your sword of natural wrath must be locked up in its own sheath; no weapons

of the flesh are to be used; but you must work only in the meekness, the

sweetness, the humility, the love and patience of the Lamb of God; who, as

such, is the only doer of good, the only overcomer of wrath, and the one

redemption of fallen nature. If you are reproached as an enthusiast, do not

take comfort in thinking, that it is the truth of your own piety, or the

want of it in others, that gives occasion to the charge; for though both of

these should happen to be the case, yet they are not proper reflections for

you; and if you take your peace from them, it is not the peace of God in

you: but as in good report, you are to be as though you heard it not,

ascribe nothing to yourself from it; so in evil report, self is just as much

to be forgotten; and both of them are to be used, only as an occasion to

generate humility, meekness, love, and the Spirit of the Lamb of God, both

in yourself, and all that speak either well or ill of you. For this is the

will and working of heaven; it has but one will, and one work; and that is,

to change all the wrath, evil, and disorder of nature, into a kingdom of

God. And therefore he that would be a servant of God, and work with heaven,

must will all that he willeth, do all that he doth, and bear all that he

beareth, in that one Spirit, and one will, with which heaven ruleth over all

the earth.

[Way-3-47] You rejoice to think, that you know the true ground of your

redemption; how heaven comes again into the fallen soul, when that property

of light and love, which is called the fifth property of nature, is

generated in it. It is indeed a blessed knowledge; but its blessedness is

only then yours, when yourself are this fifth property, that is, when your

life is a life of this fifth property; when, whatever you do, wherever you

go, or whatever you meet, you only do as this fifth property doth, give

nothing but that which it giveth; viz. its gentle light and love to every

man, and everything, whether it be good or bad. For this property hath

nothing else to give, and yet is always giving; its nature is, to

communicate and impart itself, not here or there, but always and everywhere;

it has no other will. When therefore this property (the Christ of God, and

the life of heaven) is born in you, friend and foe will have the same from

you; you will have lost all resentment; you will love your enemies; bless

them that curse you; pray for them that despitefully use you; and have but

one will towards every man, and that is, that light and love may do that for

him, which they have done for you.

[Way-3-48] Academicus. Oh! Theophilus, you have given me more than I know

how to contain; and yet have increased my thirst after more still. You have

so touched the cord of love within me, that all my nature stands in a

trembling desire after it; I would fain feel nothing else but the gentle

godlike power of love, living in my heart. Pray therefore, of all things,

help me to understand how the fire, the fourth property of nature, is born;

and how it turns the first three wrathful forms into the three following

forms of heavenly joy, triumph, and happiness; the first of which three

forms, is this fifth of light and love: therefore, help me here, I beseech

you.

[Way-3-49] Theophilus. What a therefore have you here drawn? That therefore,

of all things, I must need help you to an opinion, or notional knowledge,

how the fire is born, and how it turns nature into a kingdom of God. For was

I to join with you in forming notions of this how, I should only help you to

lose all, by being content with the shadow, instead of the substance.

[Way-3-50] You say, that your nature stands in a trembling desire after the

birth of this light and love: if so, you stand in the very place of its

birth, and must stand there till it is born in you. It can be born nowhere

else, nor in any other manner; and all that Jacob Behmen has written, is

only to direct and bring you to this place of its birth. He himself has

given you all the hearsay knowledge that you can have of it; for he can give

you no more from the plainest words. And therefore, to help anyone to work

with his brain for clear notions, and rational conceptions, of what he has

written, is helping him to do and be that, which all his works, from the

beginning to the end, absolutely declare against, as contrary to the whole

nature and end of them. Which speak, as he saith, with the sound of a

trumpet; and chiefly to awaken man out of the dream and death of rational,

notional, and hearsay knowledge; and to show him, that his own inward hunger

and thirst after God, is that alone which can and must open the fountain of

light and divine knowledge in him.

[Way-3-51] But to speak a word or two of the fire, whose birth you want to

know. You know already, better than any words can tell you, from a

self-evident knowledge, that nature is in you; that it is not God, but is

that which wants God, or its true good; and must be an emptiness, a pain,

and want, till God is manifested in it. If you ask why nature is only a

state of want and disquiet, and unable to be content with itself; it is

because the eternal, uncreated, incomprehensible light, which no creature

can enter into, is that which gave birth to all nature, and from whence all

nature hath its hungering, and state of want. For nature had never come into

being, but that the eternal, incomprehensible light longed to be manifested

in an outspoken life of nature and creatures, and in a visibility and shine

of glory: therefore, as nature came forth from this first longing of the

light to be manifested in it, so nature is in itself only a want and

hungering, which the light alone has raised, and can only satisfy.

[Way-3-52] Now from this longing on both sides, nature wanting God, and God

wanting to be manifested in nature, the union of both is effected; which is

the birth of that eternal fire, or fourth form of nature, which is always

burning in the same degree, that is, always doing the same thing; viz.

always overcoming and shutting up the three first forms of nature, and

making them to be the hidden root and center of nature; and always bring

forth out of them the three following properties of light and love, and

every joyful sensibility of life; that is, changing nature into a kingdom of

heaven. Now that which makes this change in the properties of nature is, and

is rightly called, fire, in the strictest literal meaning of the word;

because all that we can conceive as fire in this world, hath its whole

nature, power, and existence, from it. Not only the fire of life in animals

and vegetables, but the fire in the kitchen, and the candle, are each of

them kindled as it is kindled, and doth all that it doth from this fourth

property, or fire of eternal nature. The thickness and darkness in the wood,

and the candle, have fire kindled in them, and light from that fire, in no

other way, than as the fourth property is a fire from the thickness and

darkness of nature, kindled by the light of God entering into union with it.

Had the wood, and the candle, no water or oil in them, neither of them could

give forth fire and light. Now water and oil have the properties of light in

them: when therefore the properties of nature in the wood, and the candle,

are put into strife, and begin to work in blackness and darkness (which is

the beginning of every fire), they by this strife open an entrance for the

properties of light in the water, and the oil, to mix and unite with them;

and by this union of darkness and light, that fire is kindled, which turns

the darkness of the wood and candle into a shining and light. And thus does

every fire kindled in this world bear an infallible witness to the kindling,

the nature, and power, of that eternal fire, which, kindled by the oil of

divine light, changes the first dark properties of nature into the light and

majesty of heaven. Now what would you know more of fire, or its birth, than

that it is, and only can be, kindled by the light of God entering into, and

uniting with, the first properties of nature in the soul? Leave off

therefore all working with your reason in the way of notions; empty your

heart of all vain satisfactions in earthly things, that so the first

properties of nature in your soul, finding their misery, and want of God,

may make you to be all hunger, and faith, and desire of him. And then the

fire must kindle, nothing can hinder it; God will then infallibly come as a

fire and light into your soul, changing all the wanting, empty, restless

properties of your natural life, into a sweetness of a new birth of rest and

peace in him.

[Way-3-53] For nothing works either in God, or nature, or creature, but

desire. And as God created angels and men out of eternal nature, only

through a longing desire of manifesting his own goodness and happiness in

them, so every angel and man must find God, as a life of happiness and

goodness in him, as soon as nature, either in angel or man, is become a

hunger after God. For hunger does all in all worlds, and finds all that it

wants, and hungers after. Everything had its beginning in it, and from it;

and everything is led by it to all its happiness.

[Way-3-54] Academicus. I am quite satisfied in all my demands, and will ask

for no more help, as to the use I am to make of our author's writings. Only

tell me when they will all come forth in a new edition, or which will be

published first; for I want several of them, which I could never get.

[Way-3-55] Theophilus. If you have but two or three of his books, it is

enough; for everyone of them has all in it that you need be taught, and

sufficiently opens the ground of the whole mystery of the Christian

redemption. He himself thought his books to be too numerous; and expressed

his wish, that they were all reduced into one. As he wrote without any art,

and had no knowledge of regularity of composition; so whatever particular

matter he occasionally entered upon, he always began again afresh from the

same first ground, and full opening of the mystery of nature, from whence he

explained and determined the matter he was upon. And it was this frequent,

and almost constant, repetition of one and the same ground that swelled his

writings into so many volumes; though it may be said, that there is nothing

separately in any of his books, but what is to be found in almost every

other, though not so largely set forth. You have no need therefore to run

with eagerness through all his books; but the thing that you are to intend

and look for, is the ground and foundation on which all his doctrines are

built, which contains the true philosophy, or fundamental opening of all the

powers that work both in nature and grace; and that by this knowledge you

may become a true workman yourself; and know how to conform to, and concur

with, all that the working powers, either of nature or grace, require of

you. Now this ground and foundation of all is (as far as words can do it)

opened to you in every one of his books: and you have been already also

sufficiently brought into the knowledge of it, by what has been said of the

birth of nature; what it is, how it works, how it came into being, how it is

distinct from God, how it wants God, how God is manifested in it, how every

after-thing is from and out of it, is all that it is, and hath all that it

hath, in it, and by it, and must have all its happiness or misery, according

as it works with, or contrary to nature. From this fundamental ground, or

opening of the working powers of nature, you have seen how angels could and

did, lose their first state in nature; and how a second new creation could,

and did come out of their fallen state and kingdom, all according to the

powers of fallen nature, overruled, and governed, and put into a new way by

the good creating fiat of God. You have seen how this new creation, with man

its lord, could, and did, lose also their first created state in nature; and

how God, overruling fallen nature again, did, by his merciful redeeming

fiat, or by the means of the holy Jesus, put this fallen new creation in a

state of recovery, and all done according to the powers, and workings, and

possibilities of nature. So that nothing is done arbitrarily, or by mere

will, but everything in conformity to the unchangeable workings and powers

of nature; only directed, assisted, and helped, by the mercy of his

redeeming fiat, so far as nature was capable of being helped. This, sir, is

the true and fundamental ground of all his doctrines; and, standing upon

this ground, you stand in the center of truth, whence everything that you

need to know of God, of nature, of heaven, of hell, of the fall of man, of

his redemption only and solely in and by the Word or Son of God, is known in

such self-evident certainty, as you find and know the workings of your own

life: and also, that happiness, or misery, life or death, can only be had,

or not had, lost or found, solely as a birth in nature, brought forth by the

faith, or magic power of the will of man, working either with, or contrary

to, the redeeming fiat of God.

[Way-3-56] To make therefore a right use of his writings, you should, for a

sufficient time, keep solely to that part of them, which opens the ground

and foundation of the powers that work in grace and nature, till by a

self-evident sensibility it is opened in you, and your heart stands in a

conformity to it, and true working with it: for it is your own heart, as

finding the working powers of nature and grace in itself, and simply given

up in faith to work with them, that is to be your key and guide to that

knowledge you are to have of them; whether it be from the Holy Scripture, or

the writings of this author. For to this end, he tells you, he has written

all; viz. to help man to seek and find himself; what is his birth, his state

and place in nature; what he is in body, soul, and spirit; from what worlds

all these three parts of him are come; how they came to be as they are at

present; what his fall is, and how he must rise out of it. And therefore,

if, in order to seek and find this ground in yourself, you was, for some

sufficient time, to read only to the 10th chapter of his Three Principles,

or to the 6th or 8th chapter of his Threefold Life; and proceed no farther,

till this ground had made itself manifest in you, and your heart stood in a

strict conformity to it, and working with it; you would then be in a true

fitness to read farther, and reap the full benefit from any other of his

books, that should fall into your hands; whether it was the Way to Christ,

or the book upon the Incarnation. But, above all things, remember this

advice, as of the last moment to you, Be no reasoner upon the mystery; seek

for no commentaries, or rational explications of it, to entertain your

reason with: for, as soon as you do this; then, however true and good this

mystery may be in itself, it is, with regard to you, of no better use than

that very vain philosophy, and science falsely so called, condemned by the

apostle. It will only be the same snare and delusion to you, that other

learning and philosophy is to other people. For if there is nothing good or

divine in you but the faith, and hope, and love, and desire of your heart

turned to God; if nothing can do any good, be any blessing or happiness to

this faith, and love, and desire turned to God, but only God himself in his

holy being; and if nothing can communicate God to you, but God himself; and

if God cannot communicate himself to you under a notion, or an idea of

reason, but a degree of life, good, and blessing, born or brought to life in

your soul; then you see, that to give yourself up to reasoning, and notional

conceptions, is to turn from God, and wander out of the way of all divine

communications.

[Way-3-57] Academicus. But if it be strictly thus, Theophilus, had it not

been better, that these deep matters had not been communicated to the world,

since it is so natural to man to make a wrong use of them?

[Way-3-58] Theophilus. This objection, Academicus, comes with the same

strength against the scriptures themselves. For, excepting the seven

thousands unknown in every age, as in the days of Elijah, and a few

spiritual fathers and writers in almost every age of the church, bearing

faithful witness to the truth and mysteries of religion, it must be said,

that human learning, governed by human reason, hath, from age to age, to

this very day, not only mistaken the true end and use of the scriptures, but

hath turned them into an occasion of much evil and mischief. The scriptures

speak only to the heart and conscience of man, not to amend or enlighten it

with notions and opinions formed from the written letter of the Word; but

solely to make the being and power of God known and adored, and to awaken in

man a sensibility of his want of God; and to turn all the power, and

strength, and will of the heart wholly to God, to receive light, and life,

and rest, in his holy being.

[Way-3-59] But to speak now directly to your objection: if I knew of any

person, who stood in the faith and simplicity of the first Christians, free

from all carnal adherence, or vain trust, to party notions, doctrines, and

errors, brought forth by the contention of sects and churches; whose soul

was dead to the earthly nature, and all the rudiments of this world, seeking

only light, life, and salvation, from God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

living and dwelling in him, redeeming and sanctifying his whole body, soul,

and spirit; to such a one I could freely say, this mystery was needless; as

having all that already which this mystery would do for him. For its only

end is, to bring man out of all the labyrinths of false and notional

religion, to this very first state and simplicity of the gospel faith and

life.

[Way-3-60] And this may pass for a good reason why this mystery was not

opened by God in the first ages of the church; since there was then no

occasion for it. For religion began, and went on, rightly, in its own true

way; it had the faith and heart of man; it stood in its own proper strength

and glory, and was an awakened divine life of faith simply given up with joy

and gladness to the mysteries of the gospel; not wanting any why's or

wherefore's, because in the real possession of all the good, and blessing,

and power, of every mystery of salvation.

[Way-3-61] But seeing a worldly spirituality, called in the scripture the

whore riding upon the beast, has had its thousand years in the church; since

not only every kingdom, but almost every corner of Christendom, has a Babel

of its own, built upon some rational interpretation of the letter of

scripture; since learned reason, within the church, knows no other use of

scriptures, but to reproach and condemn all other Babels, and to find

materials to strengthen its own; since reason, without the church, finds it

as easy to reproach and condemn all revelation, as it is to reproach all

these Babels built upon it; since this is the finished confusion, brought

forth by the reason and fleshly wisdom both of those that defend, and those

that oppose the gospel; how adorable is the goodness of God in vouchsafing

to these last ages of the world such a remedy (viz. the opening the ground

and mystery of all things) as is suitable to the distressed and confused

state of religion in the world! And how easy is it also to see the greatest

reasons, why this remedy was not afforded sooner! For as true faith did not

want it, and learned reason, whilst pleased with itself, could not be in a

condition to receive it; so it was highly suitable to the goodness and

wisdom of God, not to give forth this mystery, till reason, or fleshly

wisdom, had made shipwreck of faith; and had so filled up the measure of its

folly, as to stand in its last and highest state of distress, perplexity,

and confusion. For any remedy is only then likely to be rightly received,

when distress and perplexity makes the want of it to be sensibly felt.

[Way-3-62] Let not therefore the genuine, plain, simple Christian, who is

happy and blessed in the simplicity of gospel faith, take offense at this

mystery, because he has no need of it. For it is God's goodness to the

distressed state of the church, fallen from the life and power of gospel

faith, and groaning under the slavery, darkness, and perplexity of

bewildered reason and opinions.

[Way-3-63] Neither let the orthodox divine, who sticks close to the phrases

and sentiments of antiquity, reject this mystery as heretical, because it

opens a ground of man, and the divine mysteries, not known or found in the

primitive writers. For this is the very reason, why he should thankfully

receive it with open arms, as having, and being that very thing, which the

distressed divided state of the church now so greatly wants; and yet did not

want, till it was fallen from its first simplicity of faith. For whilst

faith and life defended the mysteries of religion, the ground and philosophy

of it was not wanted. But when orthodoxy had given itself up to reason, and

had nothing else for its support but reason and argument from the letter of

scripture, without the least knowledge of the first ground of doctrines;

then it could only be defended, as it is defended in every sect and division

of the Christian world. For if reason will defend the mysteries of

redemption, without knowing the true ground on which they stand, or why they

must be as they are, from the nature of the thing; the more zealous and

learned any man is, the more errors must he fall into in the defense of

them. For the greater the strength is, that works without light, the more

extravagancies it must produce. This is too visible in all the controversies

that have risen in the church. Now, that learned reason, as presiding in the

divinity schools, never yet had, nor could have, any knowledge of the ground

of man, and the mysteries of redemption, is plain from this one generally

received opinion of every age to this day; viz. that all things were created

out of nothing. For this maxim entirely excludes all possibility of giving

any account of the ground and reason of anything, either in the nature of

man, or religion; and is the same thing as saying, that nothing has any

ground or reason. For if that which begins to be comes out of nothing, it

can only have the nature of that out of which it comes; and therefore can

have no more said about it, why it is this or that, than can be said of that

nothing, from whence it comes. And if the mystery, or life of the human

nature, is out of nothing, has no reality of any antecedent ground in it,

out of which it came to be such as it is, and to have that which it hath;

then it is most certain, that all the mysteries of the religion of man must

come forth from the same nothing, and have no antecedent ground from whence

they come, that requires them to be as they are. For man, created out of

nothing, cannot have a religion that is of any higher descent than himself,

unless he is to have a religion that is quite unnatural to him. But a

religion that has its ground in eternity, must be an unnatural religion to

man that comes up in time, and out of nothing. If therefore you will hold

man to be out of nothing, you must of all necessity hold all the mysteries

of the religion of man to be also out of nothing; and that therefore no

possible account can be given either of the ground of man, or his religion,

or why there can be either right or wrong, good or evil, in either of them.

[Way-3-64] Hence you may see why the truth has always suffered in every

controversy of the church: thus, if you begin with that of St. Austin and

Pelagius, about the freedom of the human will; do but suppose, what is fact,

that they both of them held the human will to be created out of nothing; and

then you need not wonder at that number of volumes and systems of errors,

which this dispute has brought forth. For who can say, what the will is, or

is not; what nature or power it must have, if it is created out of nothing?

Whereas, if either of these disputants had known, from a true ground, what

the human will is; that it cannot be a made thing, much less made out of

nothing; but that the will of angel or man is the eternal uncreated will

become creaturely, as a true direct birth from the divine will, descended

from it, born out of it, and from thence come into a creaturely state; then

they had known, that the will of angel or man must have the nature and

freedom of the eternal will; and that its freedom not only consisted in its

self-motion, but chiefly and most gloriously in this, that it could neither

receive, nor have, nor be anything, as to its happiness or misery, but

according to its own working: and then all that predestinarian learning of

decrees, &c. that has tormented the church ever since the time of St.

Austin, had been prevented.

[Way-3-65] Look next at the Socinian controversy. The Socinians, and their

opponents, met in the field of reason, to debate about the fall, original

sin, its guilt, the vindictive wrath of God, and the necessity of the

incarnation, sufferings, death, and satisfaction, of Christ. These were the

great points to be tried at the bar of reason. Now all these disputants

stood upon the old ground; viz. that the soul of man, as well as all other

things, was created out of nothing. And therefore they all stood absolutely

excluded from every possibility of touching the true ground or reason of any

one doctrine in debate. For the soul, created out of nothing, leaves no room

to affirm, or even to suppose, that anything can be affirmed of the ground

and reason of Christian redemption. For surely, if the soul of man is

created out of nothing, it may and must with as much sense be affirmed, that

it may be redeemed by nothing; and he that affirms the one, can have no

pretense to deny the other.

[Way-3-66] Just the same may be said of the present controversy betwixt the

Christians and infidels, concerning Christianity itself. You need not

wonder, that so many learned volumes have had so little effect; or that the

defenders of Christianity seem to lose ground, though the infidels, at the

same time, get no advantage to their cause, but that of increasing their

numbers. For as neither side can go any higher, than a creation out of

nothing; so neither side can say anything from a true ground, either for or

against the mysteries of the gospel. If therefore infidelity increases, it

is not because it has got more light, sees further into the depths of

nature, or stands upon a more rational ground; but merely because the vanity

and blindness of the dispute has a natural tendency to beget indifference

and infidelity in the hearts of men.

[Way-3-67] Observe this proposition; viz. "In God we live and have our

being." Now, how easy is it for anyone to see, that no one can say anything

as to the ground and reasons of the mysteries of the gospel, either for or

against them, till he can go to the bottom of this proposition, and plainly

show, either how we do, or do not, live and move, and have our being in God!

For the truth or falseness of every mystery of the Christian redemption

plainly depends upon this matter. If the Christian therefore will speak to

the purpose, in defense of the ground of the gospel; he must be able to

show, that we so are in God, so have our life in him, as to prove, from

thence, the ground, the necessity, and certainty, of the Christian means of

redemption. On the other hand, the Deist cannot take one rational step, or

have any true ground to stand upon, but so far as he can show, that we are

not so from God, have not such a nature in and from him, do not so live and

move in him, as to have any want or any fitness for that method of

redemption, which the gospel teaches. But as neither side did this, though

the one thing necessary to be done; so you also see, that neither side had

any possibility of doing it. For the soul, created out of nothing, allows of

no inquiry, whether anything of God be in it, or how it has its life in him,

or stands related to him. It admits of no searching after any ground or

reason of its good or evil, or how it must have its happiness or misery from

the nature of the thing. For if the intelligent life itself must be supposed

to come from no ground, but to be created out of nothing; then it is

certain, that its good and evil, its happiness or misery, with everything

else, must be supposed to have no ground or reason for being as it is, but

to be created out of nothing; and may go again into nothing, just as the

creator pleaseth.

[Way-3-68] And now, sir, you may enough see, how all controversy, both

within and without the church, has been so vain a thing. For reason was to

support doctrines and mysteries, without the least knowledge of the ground

on which they stood; and reason was to oppose them in the same ignorance.

You see also, why in these last ages, where literal learning has made so

great a figure, that the matter has only been made worse, and division and

error more triumphant. For as the ground of the truths was still wanted, and

nothing appealed to, but the letter and phrase of scripture; so the more

artful and learned disputants were in reasoning and criticism, the more

absurdities must be defended on both sides. Why is not the learned papist

shocked at transubstantiation, or the Protestant at predestination and

reprobation? It is because each of them have enough of the truth of reason,

and the goodness of criticism, to draw the letter of scripture to his side.

And this you may be assured of, that reason, and literal learning, have just

as good eyes in every other religious matter, and will give just such an

account of every other doctrine, when it comes into dispute, as the papist

and Protestant have done in these two points. And the thing cannot be

otherwise: as Deist and Christian both hold a creation out of nothing, they

must both have only an arbitrary God, and arbitrary religion, that has no

antecedent ground to stand upon, but is left to the arbitrary proof or

reason of both of them. What thanks, therefore, are due to the goodness of

God, for opening this great mystery of all things in our author, wherein the

right and wrong, the true and false, in religion, is as manifest as anything

can be to our senses! Let no one therefore take offense at the opening of

this mystery, as if it brought anything new into religion; for it has

nothing new in it; it alters no point of gospel-doctrine, nor adds anything

to it, but only sets every article of the old Christian faith upon its true

ground, and in such a degree of light, as, when seen, is irresistible. It

disturbs no one, who is in possession of the truth, because it points at

nothing, drives to nothing, but to the opening the heavenly life in the

soul. It calls no man from any outward form of religion, as such; but only

shows, that no outward form can have any good in it, but so far as it only

means, and seeks, and helps, the renewed life of heaven in the soul. "A

Christian," says he, "is of no sect, and yet in every sect"; a truth which

all sects, as such, will dislike; and therefore a truth equally wanted to be

known, and equally beneficial to all sects. For the chief hurt of a sect

lies in this, that it takes itself to be necessary to the truth; whereas the

truth is only then found, when it is known to be of no sect, but as free and

universal as the goodness of God, and as common to all names and nations as

the air and light of this world.

[Way-3-69] Suffer me now, before we part, once more to repeat what I have so

often said, that you would not receive this mystery as a system of rational

notions; nor do with it, as the world has, for the most part, done with the

Bible, only gather opinions of reason and speculation from it. For it opens

no depth of nature or grace, but to help you to the heart and spirit of the

returning prodigal son, and to show you the blindness and vanity of reason

and opinions; and that truth can have no possible entrance into you, but so

far as you die to your earthly nature. The gospel saith all this to you in

the plainest words; and the mystery only shows you, that the whole system of

the universe saith the same thing. To be a true student or disciple of the

mystery, is to be a disciple of Christ; for it calls you to nothing but to

the plain letter of the gospel; and wherever it enters, either into the

height or depth of nature, it is only to confirm the truth of these words of

Christ; viz. "He that followeth not me, walketh in darkness: and unless a

man deny himself, and forsake all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."

This is the philosophy opened in this mystery. It is not to lead you after

itself, but to compel you, by every truth of nature, to turn to Christ, as

the one way, the one truth, the one life, and salvation of the soul; not as

notionally apprehended, or historically known; but as experimentally found,

living, speaking, and working, in your soul. Read as long or as much as you

will of this mystery, it is all labor lost; if you intend anything else by

it, or would be anything else from it, but a man dead to this world, that

you may live unto God through Christ Jesus, in the power of faith, and the

spirit of prayer. With these words upon our minds, my friends, let us now

end this conversation.

The End of the Third Dialogue.

FINIS.

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