William Law · 3 of 14

Part I. In a Letter to a Friend · Part 3

How unreasonable would it be to begin to doubt whether Strength and Health of Body were real Things, or possible to be had, because you could not by the Power of your Reason take Possession of them? Yet this is as well as to suspect the Purity and Perfection of Love to be only a Notion, because your Reason cannot bring forth its Birth in your Soul. For Reason has no more Power of altering the Life and Properties of the Soul, than of altering the Life and Properties of the Body. That, and That only, can cast Devils and evil Spirits out of the Soul, that can say to the Storm, Be still, and to the Leper, Be thou clean.

The Birth of Love is a Form or State of Life, and has its fixed Place in the fifth Form of Nature. The three first Properties or Forms of Nature are the Ground or Band of Life, that is in itself only an extreme Hunger, Want, Strife, and Contrariety. And they are in this State, that they may become a proper Fuel for the fourth Form of Nature, viz., the Fire, to be kindled in them. You will perhaps say, "What is this Fire? What is its Nature? And how is it kindled? And how is it that the Hunger and anguishing State of the Properties, are a Fitness to be a Fuel of this Fire?" It may be answered, This Hunger and Anguish of Nature, in its first Forms, is its Fitness to be changed into a Life of Light, Joy, and Happiness: And that for this Reason, because it is in this Hunger and Anguish only because God is not in it. For as Nature comes from God, and for this only End, that the Deity may manifest Heaven in it, it must stand in an Hunger and anguishing State till the Deity is manifested in it. And therefore its Hunger and Anguish are its true Fitness to be changed into a better State, and this is its Fitness for the Birth of the Fire: For the Fire means nothing, and is nothing else, but That which changes them into a better State. Not as if Fire was a fourth, distinct Thing that comes into them from without, but is only a fourth State, or Condition into which the same Properties are brought.

The Fire then is that which changes the Properties into a new and heavenly State: Therefore the Fire does two things; it alters the State of Nature and brings Heaven into it, and therefore it must Work from a two-fold Power; the Deity and Nature must both be in it. It must have some Strength from Nature, or it could not work in Nature. It must have some Strength from the Deity or it could not overcome and change Nature into a Divine Life. Now all this is only to show you, that the Fire can only be kindled by the Entrance of the Deity, or supernatural God, into a Conjunction or Union with Nature. And this Conjunction of the Deity and Nature maketh, or bringeth forth, that State or Form of Life, which is called and truly is, Fire: First, Because it does that in the spiritual Properties of Nature, which Fire doth in the Properties of material Nature; and Secondly, Because it is that alone, from which every Fire in this World, whether in the Life of animal or vegetable or inanimate Matter, has its Source and Power and Possibility of Burning. The Fire of this World overcomes its Fuel, breaks its Nature, alters its State and changes it into Flame and Light. But why does it do this? Whence has it this Nature and Power? It is because it is a true Outbirth of the eternal Fire, which overcomes the Darkness, Wrath, and Contrariety of Nature, and changes all its Properties into a Life of Light, Joy, and Glory. Not a Spark of Fire could be kindled in this World, nor a Ray of Light come from any material Fire, but because material Nature is, in itself, nothing else but the very Properties of eternal Nature, standing for a Time in a material State or Condition; and therefore they must work in Time as they do in Eternity; and consequently there must be Fire in this World, it must have the same Birth and do the same Work in its material Way, which the eternal Fire hath, and doth in spiritual Nature. And this is the true Ground and Reason why every Thing in this World is delivered as far as it can be from its earthly Impurity, and brought into its highest State of Existence, only by Fire; it is because the eternal Fire is the Purifier of eternal Nature and the Opener of every Perfection, Light, and Glory in it. And if you ask why the eternal Fire is the Purifier of eternal Nature, the Reason is plain; it is because the eternal Fire has its Birth and Nature and Power from the Entrance of the pure, supernatural Deity into the Properties of Nature, which Properties must change their State, and be what they were not before, as soon as the Deity entereth into them. Their Darkness, Wrath, and Contrariety, is driven out of them, and they work and give forth only a Life and Strength of Light, and Joy, and Glory. And this two-fold Operation, viz., on one hand taking from Nature its wrathful Workings, and on the other hand opening a glorious Manifestation of the Deity in them, is the whole Nature and Form of the Fire, and is the Reason why from Eternity to Eternity it is and must be the Purifier of eternal Nature; namely, as from Eternity to Eternity changing Nature into a Kingdom of Heaven. Now every Fire in this World does, and must do, the same Thing in its low Way, to the utmost of its Power, and can do nothing else. Kindle Fire where, or in what you will, it acts only as from and by the Power of this eternal purifying Fire; and therefore it breaks and consumes the Grossness of every Thing, and makes all that is pure and spirituous to come forth out of it; and therefore Purification is its one only Work through all material Nature, because it is a real Out-birth of that eternal Fire which purifies eternal Nature, and changes it into a mere Heaven of Glory.

The eternal Fire is called a fourth Form, or State of Nature; because it cannot exist but from the first Three and hath its Work in the fourth Place in the Midst of the seven Forms, changing the three first into the three last Forms of Nature, that is, changing them from their natural into a heavenly State. So that, strictly speaking, there are but three Forms of Nature in answerableness to the threefold Working of the Triune Deity. For the three last are not three new or different Properties, but are only the three first brought into a new State by the Entrance of the Triune Deity into Conjunction with them. Which Entrance of the supernatural Deity into them is the consuming of all that is bad in them, and turning all their Strength into a working Life of Light, Joy, and heavenly Glory; and therefore has the justest Title to be called Fire, as having no other Nature and Operation in it but the known Nature of Fire, and also as being That from which every Fire in this World has all its Nature and Power of doing as it doth.

You once, as I remember, objected to my speaking so much in the Appeal, &c., of the Fire of Life, as thinking it too gross an Expression to be taken in its literal Meaning, when mention is made of the eternal Fire, or the Fire in animal Life. But, Sir, Fire has but one Nature through the whole Universe of Things, and material Fire has not more or less of the Nature of Fire in it, than that which is in eternal Nature; because it has nothing, works nothing, but what it has, and works from thence. How easy was it for you to have seen, that the Fire of the Soul and the Fire of the Body had but one Nature? How else could they unite in their Heat? How easy also to have seen that the Fire of animal Life was the same Fire that burns in the Kitchen? How else could the Kitchen Fire be serviceable to animal Life? What Good could it do you to come to a Fire of Wood where you wanted to have the Heat of your own Life increased? In animal Life the Fire is kindled and preserved in such a Degree, and in such Circumstances, as to be Life, and the Preservation of Life; and this is its Difference from Fires kindled in Wood and burning it to Ashes. It is the same Fire, only in a different State, that keeps up Life and consumes Wood; and has no other Nature in the Wood than in the Animal. Just as in Water that has only so much Fire in it as to make it warm, and Water that is by Fire made boiling hot, the same Nature and Power of Fire is in both, but only in a different State. Now will you say, that Fire is not to be literally understood, when it only makes Water to be warm, because it is not red and flaming as you see it in a burning Coal? Yet this would be as well as to say, that Fire is not literally to be understood in the animal Life, because it is so different from that Fire which you see burning in a Piece of Wood. And thus, Sir, there is no Foundation for any Objection to all that has been said of Fire in the Appeal, &c. It is one and the same great Power of God in the spiritual and material World; it is the Cause of every Life and the Opener of every Power of Nature; and its one great Work through all Nature and Creature, animate and inanimate, is Purification and Exaltation; it can do nothing else, and that for this plain Reason, because its Birth is from the Entrance of the pure Deity into Nature, and therefore must in its various State and Degrees be only doing that which the Entrance of the Deity into Nature does. It must bring every natural Thing into its highest State. But to go back now to the Spirit of Love and show you the Time and Place of its Birth before which it can have no Existence in your Soul, do what you will to have it.

The Fire, you see, is the first Overcomer of the hungry, wrathful, self-tormenting State of the Properties of Nature; and it only overcomes them, because it is the Entrance of the pure Deity into them; and therefore That which overcomes them is the Light of the Deity. And this is the true Ground and Reason why every right-kindled Fire must give forth Light, and cannot do otherwise. It is because the eternal Fire is only the Effect or Operation of the supernatural Light of the Deity entering into Nature; and therefore Fire must give forth Light, because it is itself only a Power of the Light, and Light can be nowhere in Nature but as a fifth Form or State of Nature, brought forth by the Fire. And as Light thus brought forth is the first State that is lovely and delightful in Nature, so the Spirit of Love has only its Birth in the Light of Life, and can be nowhere else. For the Properties of Life have no common Good, nothing to rejoice in, till the Light is found; and therefore no possible Beginning of the Spirit of Love till then.

The Shock that is given to the three first Properties of Nature by the amazing Light of the Deity breaking in upon them, is the Operation of the Fire, that consumes, or takes away, the wrathful Strength and Contrariety of the Properties, and forces each of them to shrink, as it were, away from itself, and come under the Power of this new-risen Light. Here all Strife of Enmity and wrathful Contrariety in the Properties must cease, because all are united in the Love of the Light, and all equally helping one another to a higher Enjoyment and Delight in it. They are all one Triune Will, all doing the same Thing, viz., all rejoicing in the one Love of the Light. And here it is, in this delightful Unity of Operation, that the Spirit of Love is born, in the fifth Property or Light of Life; and cannot possibly rise up in any Creature till the Properties of its Life are brought into this fifth State, thus changed and exalted into a new Sensibility of Life. Let me give you this Similitude of the Matter: Fancy to yourself a Man shut up in a deep Cave underground, without ever having seen a Ray of the Light, his Body all over tortured with Pain, his Mind distracted with Rage, himself whirling and working with the utmost Fury and Madness, he knows not what; and then you have an Image of the first Properties of Life as they are in themselves before the Fire had done its Work in them.

Fancy this Man suddenly struck, or all surrounded, with such a Glare of Light as in the Twinkling of an Eye stopped or struck dead, every Working of every Pain and Rage, both in his Body and Mind; and then you have an Image of the Operation of the Fire, and what it does to the first Properties of Nature. Now as soon as the first Terror of the Light has had its fiery Operation, and struck nothing dead but every working Sensibility of Distress, fancy this Man, as you now well may, in the sweetest Peace of Mind and bodily Sensations, blessed in a new Region of Light, giving Joy to his Mind, and Gratification to every Sense; and then the Transports, the Overflowings of Love and Delight in this new State may give you an Image how the Spirit of Love is, and must be born, when Fire and Light have overcome and changed the State of the first Properties of Nature; and never till then, can have any Existence in any Creature, nor proceed from any other Cause. Thus, Sir, you may sufficiently see, how vainly you attempt to possess yourself of the Spirit of Love by the Power of your Reason; and also what a Vanity of all Vanities there is in the Religion of the Deists, who will have no other Perfection, or Divine Life, but what they can have from their Reason: as great a Contradiction to Nature, as if they would have no Life or Strength of Body, but that which can be had from their Faculty of Reasoning. For Reason can no more alter or exalt any one Property of Life in the Soul, and bring it into its perfect State, than it can add one Cubit to the Stature of the Body. The Perfection of every Life is no way possibly to be had, but as every Flower comes to its Perfection, viz., from its own Seed and Root and the various Degrees of Transmutation which must be gone through before the Flower is found: It is strictly thus with the Perfection of the Soul: All its Properties of Life must have their true natural Birth and Growth from one another. The first, as its Seed and Root, must have their natural change into an higher State; must, like the Seed of the Flower, pass through Death into Life and be blessed with the Fire and Light and Spirit of Heaven, in their Passage to it; just as the Seed passes through Death into Life, blessed by the Fire, and Light, and Air of this World, till it reaches its last Perfection, and becomes a beautiful sweet-smelling Flower. And to think that the Soul can attain its Perfection any other Way, than by the Change and Exaltation of its first Properties of Life, just as the Seed has its first Properties changed and exalted till it comes to have its Flower, is a total Ignorance of the Nature of Things. For as whatever dies cannot have a Death particular to itself, but the same Death in the same Way, and for the same Reasons, that any other Creature, whether Animal or vegetable, ever did or can die; so every Life and Degree of Life, must come into its State and Condition of Life in the same Way, and for the same Reasons as Life, and the Perfection of Life, comes into every other living Creature, whether in Heaven or on Earth. Therefore the Deists’ Religion or Reason, which is to raise the Soul to its true Perfection, is so far from being the Religion of Nature, that it is quite unnatural and declared to be so by every Working in Nature. For since Reason can neither give Life nor Death to any one Thing in Nature, but every Thing lives, or dies, according to the Working of its own Properties, every Thing, dead and alive, gives forth a Demonstration, that Nature asks no Counsel of Reason, nor stays to be directed by it. Hold it therefore for a certain Truth, that you can have no Good come into your Soul, but only by the one Way of a Birth from above, from the Entrance of the Deity into the Properties of your own soulish Life. Nature must be set right, its Properties must enter into the Process of a new Birth, it must work to the Production of Light, before the Spirit of Love can have a Birth in it. For Love is Delight, and Delight cannot arise in any Creature till its Nature is in a delightful State, or is possessed of that in which it must rejoice. And this is the Reason why God must become Man; it is because a Birth of the Deity must be found in the Soul, giving to Nature all that it wants, or the Soul can never find itself in a delightful State and only Working with the Spirit of Love. For whilst the Soul has only its natural Life, it can only be in such a State, as Nature, without God, is in, viz., a mere Hunger, Want, Contrariety, and Strife for it knows not what. Hence is all that Variety of blind, restless, contrary Passions, which govern and torment the Life of fallen Man. It is because all the Properties of Nature must Work in Blindness, and be doing they know not what, till the Light of God is found in them. Hence also it is, that That which is called the Wisdom, the Honour, the Honesty, and the Religion of the natural Man, often does as much Hurt to himself, and others, as his Pride, Ambition, Self-Love, Envy, or Revenge, and are subject to the same Humour and Caprice; it is because Nature is no better in one Motion than in another, nor can be so, till something supernatural is come into it. We often charge Men, both in Church and State, with changing their Principles; but the Charge is too hasty; for no Man ever did, or can change his Principles, but by a Birth from above. The natural, called in Scripture, the old Man, is steadily the same in Heart and Spirit in every Thing he does, whatever Variety of Names may be given to his Actions. For Self can have no Motion but what is selfish, which Way soever it goes, or whatever it does, either in Church or State. And be assured of this, that Nature in every Man, whether he be learned or unlearned, is this very Self, and can be nothing else, till a Birth of the Deity is brought forth in it. There is therefore no Possibility of having the Spirit of Love, or any Divine Goodness, from any Power of Nature or Working of Reason. It can only be had in its own Time and Place; and its Time and Place is nowhere, but where Nature is overcome by a Birth of the Life of God in the Properties of the Soul. And thus you see the infallible Truth, and absolute Necessity, of Christian Redemption; it is the most demonstrable Thing in all Nature.— The Deity must become Man, take a Birth in the fallen Nature, be united to it, become the Life of it, or the natural Man must of all Necessity be forever and ever in the Hell of his own Hunger, Anguish, Contrariety, and Self-Torment; and all for this plain Reason, because Nature is, and can be, nothing else, but this Variety of Self-Torment, till the Deity is manifested and dwelling in it.

And now, Sir, you see also the absolute Necessity of the Gospel-Doctrine of the Cross, viz., of dying to Self, as the one only Way to Life in God. This Cross, or Dying to Self, is the one Morality that does Man any Good. Fancy as many Rules as you will of modeling the moral Behaviour of Man, they all do nothing, because they leave Nature still alive, and therefore can only help a Man to a feigned, hypocritical Art of concealing his own inward Evil, and seeming to be not under its Power. And the Reason why it must be so is plain; it is because Nature is not possible to be reformed; it is immutable in its Workings and must be always as it is, and never any better or worse, than its own untaught Workings are. It can no more change from Evil to Good, than Darkness can Work itself into Light. The one Work therefore of Morality is the one Doctrine of the Cross, viz., to resist and deny Nature, that a supernatural Power or Divine Goodness, may take Possession of it, and bring a new Light into it.

In a Word, there are, in all the Possibility of Things, but two States, or Forms of Life; the one is Nature, and the other is God manifested in Nature; and as God and Nature are both within you, so you have it in your Power to live and work with which you will; but are under a Necessity of doing either the one or the other. There is no standing still, Life goes on, and is always bringing forth its Realities, which Way soever it goeth. You have seen, that the Properties of Nature are, and can be, nothing else in their own Life, but a restless Hunger, Disquiet, and blind Strife for they know not what, till the Property of Light and Love has got Possession of them. Now when you see this, you see the true State of every natural Man, whether he be Caesar or Cato, whether he gloriously murders others or only stabs himself; blind Nature does all the Work, and must be the Doer of it, till the Christ of God is born in him. For the Life of Man can be nothing else but a Hunger of Covetousness, a Rising up of Pride, Envy, and Wrath, a medley of contrary Passions, doing and undoing it knows not what because these Workings are essential to the Properties of Nature; they must be always hungering, and working one against another, striving to be above one another, and all this in Blindness, till the Light of God has helped them to one common Good, in which they all willingly unite, rest, and rejoice. In a Word, Goodness is only a Sound and Virtue a mere Strife of natural Passions, till the Spirit of Love is the Breath of every Thing that lives and moves in the Heart. For Love is the one only Blessing and Goodness, and God of Nature; and you have no true Religion, are no Worshiper of the one true God, but in and by that Spirit of Love, which is God himself living and working in you.

But here I take off my Pen and shall leave the remaining Part of your Objection to another Opportunity.

I am, &c.

King’s Cliff, June 16, 1752