William Law · 4 of 14

Chapter II. Discovering the True way of Turning to God, and of Finding the Kingdom of Heaven, the Riches of Eternity in our Souls · Part 3

Now had this man any ground for pride, or a high opinion of himself, for the share he had in the restoring of his hand? Yet just such is our share in the raising up of the spiritual life within us. All that we can do by our own activity, is only like this man's stretching out his hand; the rest is the work of Christ, the only giver of life to the withered hand, or the dead soul. We can only then do living works, when we are so far born again, as to be able to say with the apostle, "Yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me." But to return, and further show, how the soul that feels the call of God to repentance is to behave under it, that this stirring of the divine power in the soul may have its full effect, and bring forth the birth of the new man in Christ Jesus. We are to consider it (as in truth it is) as the seed of the divine nature within us, that can only grow by its own strength and union with God. It is a divine life, and therefore can grow from nothing but divine power. When the Virgin Mary conceived the birth of the holy Jesus, all that she did towards it herself, was only this single act of faith and resignation to God; "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy Word." This is all that we can do towards the conception of that new man that is to be born in ourselves. Now this truth is easily consented to, and a man thinks he believes it, because he consents to it, or rather, does not deny it. But this is not enough, it is to be apprehended in a deep, full, and practical assurance, in such a manner as a man knows and believes that he did not create the stars, or cause life to rise up in himself. And then it is a belief, that puts the soul into a right state, that makes room for the operation of God upon it. His Light then enters with full power into the soul, and his Holy Spirit moves and directs all that is done in it, and so man lives again in God as a new creature. For this truth thus firmly believed, will have these two most excellent effects: first, it will keep the soul fixed, and continually turned towards God, in faith, prayer, desire, confidence, and resignation to him, for all that it wants to have done in it, and to it; which will be a continual source of all divine virtues and graces. The soul thus turned to God must be always receiving from him. It stands at the true door of all divine communications, and the Light of God as freely enters into it, as the light of the sun enters into the air. Secondly, it will fix and ground the soul in a true and lasting self-denial. For by thus knowing and owning our own nothingness and inability, that we have no other capacity for good, but that of receiving it from God alone, self is wholly denied, its kingdom is destroyed; no room is left for spiritual pride and self-esteem; we are saved from a Pharisaical holiness, from wrong opinions of our own works and good deeds, and from a multitude of errors, the most dangerous to our souls, all which arise from the something that we take ourselves to be either in nature or grace. But when we once apprehend but in some good degree, the all of God, and the nothingness of ourselves, we have got a truth, whose usefulness and benefit no words can express. It brings a kind of infallibility into the soul in which it dwells; all that is vain, and false, and deceitful, is forced to vanish and fly before it. When our religion is founded on this rock, it has the firmness of a rock, and its height reaches unto heaven. The world, the flesh, and the devil, can do no hurt to it; all enemies are known, and all disarmed by this great truth dwelling in our souls. It is the knowledge of the all of God, that makes cherubims and seraphims to be flames of divine love. For where this all of God is truly known, and felt in any creature, there its whole breath and spirit is a fire of love, nothing but a pure disinterested love can arise up in it, or come from it, a love that begins and ends in God. And where this love is born in any creature, there a seraphic life is born along with it. For this pure love introduces the creature into the all of God; all that is in God is opened in the creature, it is united with God, and has the life of God manifested in it.

There is but one salvation for all mankind, and that is the life of God in the soul. God has but one design or intent towards all mankind, and that is to introduce or generate his own life, Light, and Spirit in them, that all may be as so many images, temples, and habitations of the Holy Trinity. This is God's good will to all Christians, Jews, and heathens. They are all equally the desire of his heart, his Light continually waits for an entrance into all of them, his wisdom crieth, she putteth forth her voice, not here, or there, but everywhere, in all the streets of all the parts of the world.

Now there is but one possible way for man to attain this salvation, or life of God in the soul. There is not one for the Jew, another for a Christian, and a third for the heathen. No; God is one, human nature is one, salvation is one, and the way to it is one; and that is, the desire of the soul turned to God. When this desire is alive and breaks forth in any creature under heaven, then the lost sheep is found, and the shepherd has it upon his shoulders. Through this desire the poor prodigal son leaves his husks and swine, and hastes to his father: it is because of this desire, that the father sees the son, while yet afar off, that he runs out to meet him, falls on his neck, and kisses him. See here how plainly we are taught, that no sooner is this desire arisen, and in motion towards God, but the operation of God's Spirit answers to it, cherishes and welcomes its first beginnings, signified by the father's seeing, and having compassion on his son, whilst yet afar off, that is, in the first beginnings of his desire. Thus does this desire do all, it brings the soul to God, and God into the soul, it unites with God, it co-operates with God, and is one life with God. Suppose this desire not to be alive, not in motion either in a Jew, or a Christian, and then all the sacrifices, the service, the worship either of the Law, or the gospel, are but dead works, that bring no life into the soul, nor beget any union between God and it. Suppose this desire to be awakened, and fixed upon God, though in souls that never heard either of the Law or the gospel, and then the divine life, or operation of God, enters into them, and the new birth in Christ is formed in those who never heard of his name. And these are they "that shall come from the East, and from the West and sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, in the kingdom of God."

Oh my God, just and good, how great is thy love and mercy to mankind, that heaven is thus everywhere open, and Christ thus the common savior to all that turn the desire of their hearts to thee! Oh sweet power of the bruiser of the serpent, born in every son of man, that stirs and works in every man, and gives every man a power, and desire, to find his happiness in God! O holy Jesus, heavenly light, that lightest every man that cometh into the world, that redeemest every soul that follows thy light, which is always within him! O Holy Trinity, immense ocean of divine love in which all mankind live, and move, and have their being! None are separated from thee, none live out of thy love, but all are embraced in the arms of thy mercy, all are partakers of thy divine life, the operation of thy Holy Spirit, as soon as their heart is turned to thee! Oh plain, and easy, and simple way of salvation, wanting no subtleties of art or science, no borrowed learning, no refinements of reason, but all done by the simple natural motion of every heart, that truly longs after God. For no sooner is the finite desire of the creature in motion towards God, but the infinite desire of God is united with it, co-operates with it. And in this united desire of God and the creature, is the salvation and life of the soul brought forth. For the soul is shut out of God, and imprisoned in its own dark workings of flesh and blood, merely and solely, because it desires to live to the vanity of this world. This desire is its darkness, its death, its imprisonment, and separation from God.

When therefore the first spark of a desire after God arises in thy soul, cherish it with all thy care, give all thy heart into it, it is nothing less than a touch of the divine loadstone, that is to draw thee out of the vanity of time into the riches of eternity. Get up therefore and follow it as gladly, as the wise men of the East followed the star from heaven that appeared to them. It will do for thee, as the star did for them, it will lead thee to the birth of Jesus, not in a stable at Bethlehem in Judea, but to the birth of Jesus in the dark center of thy own fallen soul.

I shall conclude this first part, with the words of the heavenly illuminated, and blessed Jacob Behmen.

"It is much to be lamented, that we are so blindly led, and the truth withheld from us through imaginary conceptions; for if the divine power in the inward ground of the soul was manifest, and working with its luster in us, then is the whole Triune God present in the life and will of the soul, and there, in the soul, is the place where the Father begets his Son, and where the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son.

"Christ says, 'I am the Light of the world, he that followeth me, walketh not in darkness.' He directs us only to himself, he is the morning star, and is generated and rises in us, and shines in the darkness of our nature. O how great a triumph is there in the soul, when he arises in it! then a man knows, as he never knew before, that he is a stranger in a foreign land."

Oh heavenly Father, infinite, fathomless depth of never- ceasing love, save me from myself, from the disorderly workings of my fallen, long corrupted nature, and let my eyes see, my heart and spirit feel and find, thy salvation in Christ Jesus.

O God, who madest me for thyself, to show forth thy goodness in me, manifest, I humbly beseech thee, the life-giving power of thy holy nature within me; help me to such a true and living faith in thee, such strength of hunger and thirst after the birth, life, and Spirit of thy holy Jesus in my soul, that all that is within me, may be turned from every inward thought, or outward work, that is not thee, thy holy Jesus, and heavenly working in my soul. Amen.