William Law · 6 of 14

Dialog 1 · Part 3

Theophilus. I promised, you know, to remove this Difficulty, and will be as good as my Word. But I must first tell you, that you are in much more Distress about it than you need to be. For in the little Book of Regeneration, in the Appeal, in the Spirit of Prayer, &c., which you have read with such entire Approbation, the whole Matter is cleared up from its true Ground, how Wrath in the Scriptures is ascribed to God, and yet cannot belong to the Nature of the Deity.

Thus you are told in the Appeal, After these two Falls of two orders of Creatures (that is, of Angels and Man), the Deity itself came to have new and strange Names, new and unheard of Tempers and Inclinations of Wrath, Fury, and Vengeance ascribed to it. I call them new, because they began at the Fall; I call them strange because they were foreign to the Deity, and could not belong to God in Himself. Thus, God is said to be a consuming Fire. But to whom? To the fallen Angels and lost Souls. But why, and how, is He so to them? It is because those Creatures have lost all that they had from God but the Fire of their Nature, and therefore God can only be found and manifested in them as a consuming Fire. Now, is it not justly said, that God, who is nothing but infinite Love, is yet in such Creatures only a consuming Fire? And though God be nothing but Love, yet they are under the Wrath and Vengeance of God because they have only that Fire in them which is broken off from the Light and Love of God and so can know or feel nothing of God but his Fire of Nature in them. As Creatures, they can have no Life but what they have in and from God; and therefore that wrathful Life which they have, is truly said to be a Wrath or Fire of God upon them. And yet it is still strictly true that there is no Wrath in God Himself, that He is not changed in his Temper toward the Creatures, that he does not cease to be one and the same infinite Fountain of Goodness, infinitely flowing forth in the Riches of his Love upon all and every Life. (Now, Sir, mind what follows, as the true Ground, how Wrath can and cannot be ascribed to God.) God is not changed from Love to Wrath, but the Creatures have changed their own State in Nature, and so the God of Nature can only be manifested in them, according to their own State in Nature. And, N.B., this is the true Ground of rightly understanding all that is said of the Wrath and Vengeance of God in and upon the Creatures. It is only in such a Sense, as the Curse of God may be said to be upon them, not because any Thing cursed can be in or come from God, but because they have made that Life, which they must have in God, to be a mere Curse to themselves. For every Creature that lives must have its Life in and from God, and therefore God must be in every Creature. This is as true of Devils, as of holy Angels. But how is God in them? N.B. Why, only as He is manifested in Nature. Holy Angels have the Triune Life of God, as manifested in Nature, so manifested also in them, and therefore God is in them all Love, Goodness, Majesty, and Glory, and theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Devils have nothing of this Triune Life left in them, but the Fire, or Wrath of eternal Nature, broken off from all Light and Love; and therefore the Life that they can have in and from God is only and solely a Life of Wrath, Rage, and Darkness, and theirs is the Kingdom of Hell.

And because this Life, (though all Rage and Darkness ), is a Strength and Power of Life, which they must have in and from God, and which they cannot take out of his Hands, therefore is their cursed, miserable, wrathful Life, truly and justly said to be the Curse and Misery, and Wrath, and Vengeance of God upon them, though God Himself can no more have Curse, Misery, Wrath, and Vengeance than He can have Mischief, Malice, or any fearful Tremblings in his holy Triune Deity.

See now, Theogenes, what little Occasion you had for your present Difficulty. For here, in the above cited Words, which you have been several Years acquainted with, the true Ground and Reason is plainly shown you, how and why all the Wrath, Rage, and Curse that is anywhere stirring in Nature, or breaking forth in any Creature, is and must be in all Truth called by the Scriptures the Wrath, and Rage, and Vengeance of God, though it be the greatest of all Impossibilities for Rage and Wrath to be in the Holy Deity itself.

The Scriptures therefore are literally true in all that they affirm of the Wrath, &c., of God. For is it not as literally true of God, that Hell and Devils are his, as that Heaven and holy Angels are his? Must not therefore all the Wrath and Rage of the one, be as truly his Wrath and Rage burning in them, as the Light and Joy and Glory of the other, is only his Goodness opened and manifested in them, according to their State in Nature?

Take notice of this fundamental Truth.

Every Thing that works in Nature and Creature, except Sin, is the working of God in Nature and Creature. The Creature has nothing else in its Power but the free Use of its Will; and its free Will hath no other Power, but that of concurring with, or resisting the Working of God in Nature. The Creature with its free Will can bring nothing into Being, nor make any Alteration in the working of Nature, it can only change its own State or Place in the working of Nature, and so feel and find something in its State, that it did not feel or find before.

Thus God, in the Manifestation of himself in and by Nature, sets before every Man Fire and Water, Life and Death; and Man has no other Power, but that of entering into and uniting with either of these States, but not the least Power of adding to, or taking any Thing from them, or of making them to be otherwise than he finds them.

For this Fire and Water, this Life and Death, are Nature, and have their unchangeable State in the uniform Working of God in Nature. And therefore, whatever is done by this Fire and Water, this Life and Death in any Creature, may, nay, must, in the strictest Truth, be affirmed of God as done by Him. And consequently, every breathing forth of Fire, or Death, or Rage, or Curse, wherever it is, or in whatever Creature, must be said, in the Language of Scripture, to be a provoked Wrath, or fiery Vengeance of God, poured forth upon the Creature. And yet, every Thing that has been said in Proof of the Wrath of God shows, and proves to you at the same Time, that it is not a Wrath in the Holy Deity itself.

For you see, as was said above, that God sets before Man Fire and Water, Life and Death; now these Things are not God, nor existent in the Deity itself; but they are that which is, and is called Nature, and as they are the only Things set before Man, so Man can go no further, reach no further, nor find, nor feel, nor be sensible of any Thing else, but that which is to be felt or found in this Nature, or Fire and Water, Life and Death, which are set before him. And therefore all that Man can find or feel of the Wrath and Vengeance of God, can only be in this Fire and this Death, and not in the Deity itself.

Theogenes. Oh Theophilus, you have given me the utmost Satisfaction on this Point, and in a much better Way than I imagined. I expected to have seen you glossing and criticizing away the literal Expression of Scriptures that affirm the Wrath of God, in order to make good your Point, that the Deity is mere Love.

But you have done the utmost Justice to the Letter of Scripture, you have established it upon a firm and solid Foundation, and shown that the Truth of Things require it to be so, and that there can be no Wrath anywhere, but what is and must be called the Wrath and Vengeance of God, and yet is only in Nature.

What you have here said, seems as if it would clear up many Passages of Scripture that have raised much Perplexity. Methinks I begin to see how the Hardness of Pharaoh’s Heart, how Eyes that see not, and Ears that hear not, may, in the strictest Truth, be said to be of or from God, though the Deity, in itself, stands in the utmost Contrariety to all these Things, and in the utmost Impossibility of willing or causing them to be.

But I must not draw you from our present Matter. You have shown, from the Letter of Scripture, that nothing else is set before Man but Fire and Water, Life and Death; and therefore, no Possibility of Wrath or Love, Joy or Sorrow, Curse or Happiness to be found by Man, but in this State of Nature set before him, or into which at his Creation he is introduced as into a Region of various Sensibilities, where all that he finds or feels, is truly God’s, but not God himself, who has his supernatural Residence above, and distinct from every Thing that is Nature, Fire or Water, Life or Death.

But give me Leave to mention one Word of a Difficulty that I yet have. You have proved that Wrath, Rage, Vengeance, &c., can only exist, or be found in Nature, and not in God; and yet you say, that Nature is nothing else but a Manifestation of the hidden, invisible Powers of God. But if so, must not that which is in Nature be also in God? How else could Nature be a Manifestation of God?

Theophilus. Nature is a true Manifestation of the hidden, invisible God. But you are to observe, that Nature, as it is in itself, in its own State, cannot have the least possible Spark, or Stirring of Wrath, or Curse, or Vengeance in it: But, on the contrary, is from Eternity to Eternity, a mere Infinity of heavenly Light, Love, Joy, and Glory; and thus it is a true Manifestation of the hidden Deity, and the greatest of Proofs that the Deity itself can have no Wrath in it, since Wrath only then begins to be in Nature, when Nature has lost its first State.

Theogenes. This is Answer enough. But now another Thing starts up in my Mind. For if the Deity in itself, in its supernatural State, is mere Love, and only a Will to all Goodness, and if Nature in itself is only a Manifestation of this Deity of Love in heavenly Light and Glory, if neither God nor Nature have, or can give forth Wrath, how then can Fire and Water, Life and Death be set before Man? What can they come from, or where can they exist, since God in himself is all Love; and Nature, which is the Kingdom of Heaven, is an Infinity of Joy, Blessing, and Happiness?

Theophilus. I will open to you all this Matter to the Bottom in as few Words as I can.

Before God began any Creation, or gave Birth to any Creature, He was only manifested, or known to himself in his own Glory and Majesty; there was nothing but Himself beholding Himself in his own Kingdom of Heaven, which was, and is, and ever will be, as unlimited as Himself.

Nature, as well as God, is and must be antecedent to all Creature. For as no seeing Eye could be created, unless there was antecedently to it, a natural Visibility of Things, so no Creature could come into a Sensibility of any natural Life, unless such a State of Nature was antecedent to it. For no Creature can begin to be in any World or State of Nature, but by being created out of that World, or State of Nature, into which it is brought to have its Life. For to live in any World, is the same Thing as for a Creature to have all that it is, and has, in and from that World. And, therefore, no Creature can come into any other Kind of Existence and Life, but such as can be had out of that World in which it is to live. Neither can there possibly be any other Difference between created Beings, whether animate or inanimate, but what arises from that out of which they were created. Seeing then, that before the Existence of the first Creatures, there was nothing but God and his Kingdom of Heaven, the first Creatures could receive no other Life but that which was in God, because there was nothing living but God, nor any other Life but his, nor could they exist in any other Place or outward State, but the Kingdom of Heaven, because there was none else in Existence; and therefore, the first Creatures must, of all Necessity, be Divine and heavenly, both in their inward Life and outward State.

Theogenes. Here then, Theophilus, comes my Question. Where is that Fire and Water, that Life and Death, that is set before the Creature? For as to these first Creatures, nothing is set before them, nothing is within them, or without them, but God and the Kingdom of Heaven.

Theophilus. You should not have said, There is nothing within them, but God and the Kingdom of Heaven. For that which is their own creaturely Nature within them, is not God, nor the Kingdom of Heaven.

It has been already proved to your Satisfaction, that no Creature can be Divine, good, and happy, but by having a two-fold Life united in it. And in this two-fold Life of the Creature, is Fire and Water, Life and Death unavoidably set before it. For as its Will worketh with either of these Lives, so will it find either Fire or Water, Life or Death. If its Will turneth from the Life of God, into the creaturely Life, then it enters into a Sensibility of that which is meant by Death and Fire, viz., a wrathful Misery. But if the Will keeps steadily given up to the Deity, then it lives in Possession of that Life and Water, which was its first, and will be its everlasting heavenly Joy and Happiness.

But to explain this Matter something deeper to you, according to the Mystery of all Things opened by God in his chosen Instrument, Jacob Behmen.

You know we have often spoken of eternal Nature, that so sure as there is an eternal God, so sure is it, that there is an eternal Nature, as universal, as unlimited as God Himself, and everywhere working where God is, and therefore, everywhere equally existent, as being his Kingdom of Heaven, or outward Manifestation of the invisible Riches, Powers, and Glories of the Deity.

Before, or without Nature, the Deity is an entire hidden, shut up, unknown, and unknowable Abyss. For Nature is the only Ground, or Beginning of something; there is neither this nor that, no Ground for Conception, no Possibility of Distinction or Difference; there cannot be a Creature to think, nor any Thing to be thought upon, till Nature is in Existence. For all the Properties of Sensibility and sensible Life, every Mode and Manner of Existence, all Seeing, Hearing, Tasting, Smelling, Feeling, all Inclinations, Passions, and Sensations of Joy, Sorrow, Pain, Pleasure, &c., are not in God, but in Nature. And therefore, God is not knowable, not a Thought can begin about Him, till He manifests himself in, and through, and by the Existence of Nature; that is, till there is something that can be seen, understood, distinguished, felt, &c.

And this eternal Nature, or the Out-Birth of the Deity, called the Kingdom of Heaven, viz., an Infinity, or boundless Opening of the Properties, Powers, Wonders, and Glories of the hidden Deity, and this not once done, but ever doing, ever standing in the same Birth, for ever and ever breaking forth and springing up in new Forms and Openings of the abyssal Deity, in the Powers of Nature. And out of this Ocean of manifested Powers of Nature, the Will of the Deity, created Hosts of heavenly Beings, full of the heavenly Wonders introduced into a Participation of the Infinity of God, to live in an eternal Succession of heavenly Sensations, to see and feel, to taste and find new Forms of Delight in an inexhaustible Source of ever-changing and never-ceasing Wonders of the Divine Glory.

Oh Theogenes! What an Eternity is this, out of which, and for which thy eternal Soul was created? What little, crawling Things are all that an earthly Ambition can set before Thee? Bear with Patience for a while the Rags of thy earthly Nature, the Veil and Darkness of Flesh and Blood, as the Lot of thy Inheritance from Father Adam, but think nothing worth a Thought, but that which will bring thee back to thy first Glory, and land thee safe in the Region of Eternity.

But to return. Nothing is before this eternal Nature, but the holy, supernatural Deity; and every Thing that is after it, is Creature, and has all its creaturely Life and State in it, and from it, either mediately or immediately.

This eternal Nature hath seven chief or fountain Properties, that are the Doers, or Workers of every Thing that is done in it, and can have neither more nor less, because it is a Birth from, or a Manifestation of the Deity in Nature. For the Perfection of Nature (as was before said of every Divine and happy Creature) is an Union of two Things, or is a two-fold State. It is Nature, and it is God manifested in Nature. Now God is Triune, and Nature is Triune, and hence there arises the Ground of Properties, three and three; and that which brings those three and three into Union, or manifests the Triune God in the Triune Nature, is another Property; so that the glorious Manifestation of the Deity in Nature can have neither more nor less than seven chief or fountain Properties from which every Thing that is known, found, and felt, in all the Universe of Nature, in all the Variety of Creatures either in Heaven or on Earth, hath its only Rise, or Cause, either mediately or immediately.

Theogenes. You say, Theophilus, that the Triune Deity is united or manifested in Triune Nature, and that thence comes the glorious Manifestation of God in seven heavenly Properties called the Kingdom of Heaven. But how does it appear that this Nature, antecedently to the Entrance of the Deity into it, is Triune? Or what is this Triune Nature, before God is supposed to be in Union with it?

Theophilus. It is barely a Desire. It neither is, nor has, nor can be any Thing else but a Desire. For Desire is the only Thing in which the Deity can work and manifest itself; for God can only come into That which wants and desires him.

The Deity is an infinite Plenitude, or Fullness of Riches and Powers, in and from itself; and it is only want and Desire, that is excluded from It, and can have no Existence in it. And here lies the true, immutable Distinction between God and Nature, and shows why neither can ever be changed into the other; it is because God is a universal all; and Nature or Desire is a universal want, viz., to be filled with God.

Now as Nature can be nothing but a Desire, so nothing is in, or done in any natural Way, but as Desire does it, because Desire is the All of Nature. And, therefore, there is no Strength or Substance, no Power or Motion, no Cause or Effect in Nature, but what is in itself a Desire, or the Working and Effect of it.

This is the true Origin of Attraction, and all its Powers, in this material World. It gives Essence and Substance to all that is Matter and the Properties of Matter; it holds every Element in its created State; and not only Earth and Stones, but Light and Air and Motion are under its Dominion. From the Centre to the Circumference of this material System, every Motion, Separation, Union, Vegetation, or Corruption begins no sooner, goes on no further, than as Attraction Works.

Take away Attraction from this material System, and then it has all the Annihilation it can ever possibly have.

Whence now has Attraction this Nature?

It is solely from hence; because all Nature from its Eternity, hath been, is, and for ever can be only a Desire, and hath nothing in it but the Properties of Desire.

Now the essential, inseparable Properties of Desire are the three, and can be neither more nor less; and in this you have that Tri-Unity of Nature which you asked after, and in which the Triune Deity manifesteth itself. I shall not now prove these three Properties of the Desire, because I have done it at large, and plainly enough elsewhere. { Way to Divine Knowledge; Spirit of Love, Part I }

But to go back now to your Question, Where, or how this Fire and Water, &c., can be found, since God is all Love and Goodness, and his Manifestation in Nature is a mere Kingdom of Heaven. They are to be found in the two-fold State of Heaven, and the two-fold State of every heavenly Creature.

For seeing that the Perfection of Nature, and the Perfection of the intelligent Creature, consists in one and the same two-fold State, you have here the plainest Ground and Reason why and how every good and happy and new created Being, must of all Necessity, have Fire and Water, Life and Death set before it, or put into its Choice.

Because it has it in its Power to turn and give up its Will to either of these Lives, it can turn either to God, or Nature, and therefore must have Life and Death, Fire or Water in its Choice.

Now this two-fold Life, which makes the Perfection of Nature and Creature, is, in other Words, signified by the seven heavenly Properties of Nature; for when God is manifested in Nature, all its seven Properties are in a heavenly State.

But in these seven Properties, though all heavenly, lieth the Ground of Fire and Water, &c., because a Division or Separation can be made in them by the Will of the Creature. For the three first Properties are as distinct from the four following ones, as God is distinct from That which wants God. And these three first Properties are the Essence or whole Being of that Desire, which is, and is called Nature, or that which wants God.

When, therefore, the Will of the Creature turns from God into Nature, it breaks, or looses the Union of the seven heavenly Properties; because Nature, as distinct from God, has only the three first Properties in it. And such a Creature, having broken or lost the Union of the seven Properties, is fallen into the three first, which is meant by Fire and Death. For when the first three Properties have lost God, or their Union with the four following ones, then they are mere Nature, which, in its whole Being, is nothing else but the Strength and Rage of Hunger, an Excess of Want, of Self-Torment, and Self-Vexation. Surely now, my friend, this Matter is enough explained.

Theogenes. Indeed, Theophilus, I am quite satisfied; for by this Account which you have given of the Ground of Nature, and its true and full Distinction from God, you have struck a most amazing Light into my Mind.

For if Nature is mere Want, and has nothing in it but a Strength of Want, generated from the three self-tormenting Properties of a Desire, if God is all Love, Joy, and Happiness, an infinite Plenitude of all Blessings, then the Limits and Bounds of Good and Evil, of Happiness and Misery, are made as visibly distinct and as certainly to be known, as the Difference between a Circle and a straight Line.

To live to Desire, that is, to Nature, is unavoidably entering into the Region of all Evil and Misery; because Nature has nothing else in it. But on the other Hand, to die to Desire, that is, to turn from Nature to God, is to be united with the infinite Source of all that is good, and blessed, and happy.

All that I wanted to know, is now cleared up in the greatest Plainness. And I have no Difficulty about those passages of Scripture, which speak of the Wrath, and Fury, and Vengeance of God. Wrath is his, just as all Nature is his, and yet God is mere Love, that only rules and governs Wrath, as He governs the foaming Waves of the Sea, and the Madness of Storms and Tempests.

The following Propositions are as evidently true, as that two and two are four.

First, That God in his holy Deity is as absolutely free from Wrath and Rage, and as utterly incapable of them as He is of Thickness, Hardness, and Darkness; because Wrath and Rage belong to nothing else, can exist in nothing else, have Life in nothing else, but in Thickness, Hardness, and Darkness.

Secondly, That all Wrath is Disorder, and can be nowhere but in Nature and Creature, because nothing else is capable of changing from Right to Wrong.

Thirdly, That Wrath can have no Existence even in Nature and Creature, till they have lost their first Perfection which they had from God, and are become that which they should not have been.

Fourthly, That all the Wrath, and Fury, and Vengeance, that ever did, or can break forth in Nature and Creature is, according to the strictest Truth, to be called and looked upon as the Wrath and Vengeance of God, just as the Darkness, as well as the Light is, and is to be called his.

Oh! Theophilus, what a Key have you given me to the right understanding of Scripture!

For when Nature and Creature are known to be the only Theater of Evil and Disorder, and the holy Deity as that governing Love, which wills nothing but the Removal of all Evil from every Thing, as fast as infinite Wisdom can find Ways of doing it, then whether you read of the raining of Fire and Brimstone, or only Showers of heavenly Manna falling upon the Earth, it is only one and the same Love, working in such different Ways and Diversity of Instruments, as Time, and Place, and Occasion, had made wise, and good, and beneficial.

Pharaoh with his hardened Heart, and St Paul with his Voice from Heaven, though so contrary to one another, were both of them the chosen Vessels of the same God of Love, because both miraculously taken out of their own State, and made to do all the Good to a blind and wicked World, which they were capable of doing.

And thus, Sir, are all the Treasures of the Wisdom and Goodness of God, hidden in the Letter of Scripture, made the Comfort and Delight of my Soul, and every Thing I read turns itself into a Motive, of loving and adoring the wonderful Working of the Love of God over all the various Changings of Nature and Creature, till all Evil shall be extinguished, and all Disorder go back again to its first harmonious State of Perfection.

Depart from this Idea of God, as an Infinity of mere Love, Wisdom, and Goodness, and then every Thing in the System of Scripture, and the System of Nature, only helps the reasoning Mind to be miserably perplexed, as well with the Mercies, as with the Judgments of God.

But when God is known to be omnipotent Love, that can do nothing but Works of Love, and that all Nature and Creature are only under the Operation of Love, as a distempered Person under the Care of a kind and skillful Physician, who seeks nothing but the perfect Recovery of his Patient, then whatever is done, whether a severe Caustic, or a pleasant Cordial is ordered, that is, whether because of its Difference, it may have the different Name of Mercy or Judgment, yet all is equally well done, because Love is the only Doer of both, and does both, from the same Principle, and for the same End.

Theophilus. Oh Theogenes, Now you are according to your Name, you are born of God. For when Love is the Triune God that you serve, worship, and adore, the only God, in whom you desire to live and move and have your Being, then of a Truth God dwelleth in you, and you in God.

I shall now only add this one Word more, to strengthen and confirm your right understanding of all that is said of the Wrath, or Rage of God in the Scriptures.

The Psalmist, you know, saith thus of God, "He giveth forth his Ice like Morsels, and who is able to abide his Frosts?" Now, Sir, if you know how to explain this Scripture, and can show how Ice and Frost can truly be ascribed to God, as His, though absolutely impossible to have any Existence in Him, then you have an easy and unerring Key, how the Wrath, and Fury, and Vengeance, that anywhere falls upon any Creature is, and may be truly ascribed to God, as his, though Fury and Vengeance are as inconsistent with, and as impossible to have any Existence in the Deity, as lumps of Ice, or the Hardness of intolerable Frosts.