Dialogues on the Supersensual Life

Theophorus said: It is very rightly understood by you. Go on.

On the other hand (said he) I clearly perceive by what I have heard, that Heaven cannot but be in a loving Soul which is possessed of God, and hath subdued thereby the Body to the obedience of the Spirit in all things, and perfectly immersed itself into the Will and Love of God. And when the Body dyeth, and the Soul is hence redeemed from the Earth, it is now evident to me that the Life of God, which was hidden in it, will display itself gloriously, and Heaven consequently be then manifested. But, notwithstanding, if there be not a local Heaven besides and a local Hell, I am still at a loss where to place no small part of the Creation, if not the greatest. For where must all the intellectual inhabitants of it abide?

In their own Principle, answered the Master, whether it be of Light or of Darkness. For every created intellectual Being remaineth in its deeds and essences, in its wonders and properties, in its life and image; and therein it beholdeth and feeleth God, as who is everywhere, whether it be in the Love or in the Wrath.

If it be in the Love of God, then beholdeth it God accordingly, and feeleth him as he is, Love. But if it hath captivated itself in the Wrath of God, then it cannot behold God otherwise than in the Wrathful Nature, nor perceive him otherwise than as an incensed and vindictive Spirit. All places are alike to it, if it be in God's Love; and, if it be not there, every place is Hell alike. What Place can bound a Thought? Or what needeth any understanding Spirit to be kept here or there, in order to its happiness or misery? Verily, wheresoever it is, it is in the Abyssal World, where there is neither end nor limit. And whither, I pray, should it go? since though it should go a thousand miles off, or a thousand times ten thousand miles, and this ten thousand times over beyond the bounds of the Universe, and into the imagining spaces above the stars, yet it were then still in the very same point from whence it went out. For God is the Place of Spirit, if it may be lawful to attribute to him such a name to the which Body hath a relation. And in God there is no limit; both near and far off is here all one; and be it in his Love, or be it in his Anger, the abyssal Will of the Spirit is altogether unconfined. It is swift as thought, passing through all things; it is magical, and nothing corporeal or from without can let it; it dwelleth in its wonders, and they are its house.

Thus it is with every Intellectual, whether of the Order of Angels or of human Souls, and you need not fear but there will be room enough for them all, be they ever so many; and such also as shall best suit them, even according to their election and determination, and which may thence very well be called the "own place" of each.

At which said the Scholar, I remember, indeed, that it is written concerning the great traitor, that he went after death to his own place.

The Master said: The same is true of every Soul, when it departeth this mortal life. And it is true in like manner of every Angel and Spirit whatsoever, which is necessarily determined by its own choice. As God is everywhere, so also the Angels are everywhere; but each one in its own Principle, and in its own Property or (if you had rather) in its own Place. The same Essence of God, which is as a Place to Spirits, is confessed to be everywhere, but the appropriation or participation hereof is different to everyone, according as each hath attracted it magically in the earnestness of Will. The same Divine Essence which is with the Angels of God above, is with us also below. And the same Divine Nature which is with us is likewise with them; but after different manners and in different degrees communicated and participated.

And what I have said here of the Divine, is no less to be considered by you in the participation of the Diabolical Essence and Nature, which is the Power of Darkness, as to the manifold modes, degrees, and appropriations thereof in the false Will. In this World there is strife between them, but when this World hath reached in anyone the Limit, then the Principle catcheth that which is its own, and so the Soul receiveth companions accordingly, that is, either Angels or Devils.

To whom the Scholar again: Heaven and Hell then being in us at strife in the time of this life, and God himself being also thus near to us, where can Angels and Devils dwell?

And the Master answered him thus: Where thou dost not dwell as to thy Self-hood and to thine own Will, there the holy Angels dwell with thee, and every where all over round about thee. Remember this well. On the contrary, where thou dwellest as to thyself, or in Self-seeking, and Self-will, there to be sure the Devils will be with thee, and will take up their abode with thee, and dwell all over thee, and round about thee everywhere, which God in his mercy prevent.

I understand not this, said the Scholar, so perfectly well as I could wish. Be pleased to make it a little more plain to me.

The Master then spake: Mark well what I am going to say. Where the Will of God in anything willeth, there is God manifested. And in this very manifestation of God the Angels do dwell. But where God in any Creature willeth not with the Will of that Creature, there God is not manifested to it, neither can he be; but dwelleth in himself, without the co-operation thereof, and subjection to him in humility. There God is an unmanifested God to the Creature. So the Angels dwell not with such an one; for wherever they dwell, there is the Glory of God; and they make his Glory. What then dwelleth in such a Creature as this? God dwelleth not therein; the Angels dwell not therein; God willeth not therein; the Angels also will not therein. The case is evidently this; in that Soul or Creature its own will is without God's Will; and there the Devil dwelleth; and with him all that is without God, and without Christ. This is the truth; lay it to heart.

The Scholar said: It is possible I may ask several impertinent questions; but I beseech you, good Sir, to have patience with me, and to pity my ignorance, if I ask what may appear to you perhaps ridiculous, or may not be at all fit for me to expect an answer to. For I have several questions still to propound to you; but I am ashamed of my own thoughts in this matter.

The Master said: Be plain with me, and propose whatever is upon your mind; yea, be not ashamed even to appear ridiculous, so that by querying you may but become wiser.

The Scholar thanked his Master for this liberty and said: How far then are Heaven and Hell asunder?

To whom he answered thus: As far as Day and Night; or as far as Something and Nothing. They are in one another and yet they are at the greater distance one from the other. Nay, the one of them is as nothing to the other; and yet notwithstanding they cause joy and grief to one another. Heaven is throughout the whole World, and it is also without the World over all, even everywhere that is, or that can be even so much as imagined. It filleth all, it is within all, it is without all, it encompasseth all; without division, without place; working by a Divine Manifestation, and flowing forth universally, but not going in the least out of itself. For only in itself it worketh and is revealed, being one and undivided in all. It appeareth only through the Manifestation of God; and never but in itself only. And in that Being which cometh into it, or in that wherein it is manifested; there also it is that God is manifested. Because Heaven is nothing else but a Manifestation or Revelation of the Eternal One, wherein all the working and willing is in quiet love.

So in like manner Hell also is through the whole World, and dwelleth and worketh but in itself, and in that wherein the Foundation of Hell is manifested, namely, in Self-hood and in the False Will. The visible World hath both in it; and there is no place but Heaven and Hell may be found or revealed in it. Now Man as to his temporal life is only of the visible World; and therefore during the time of his life he seeth not the spiritual World. For the Outward World with its substance is a cover to the Spiritual World, even as the Body is to the Soul. But when the outward Man dyeth, then the Spiritual World is manifested to the Soul, which hath now its covering taken away. And it is manifested either in the Eternal Light with the holy Angels, or in the Eternal Darkness, with the Devils.

The Scholar further queried: What is an Angel, or an human Soul, that they can be thus manifested either in God's Love or Anger, either in Light or Darkness?

To whom Theophorus answered: They come from one and the self-same Original. They are little branches of the Divine Wisdom, of the Divine Will, sprung from the Divine Word, and made objects of the Divine Love. They are out of the Ground of Eternity; whence Light and Darkness do spring; Darkness which consisteth in the receiving of Self-Desire; and Light which consisteth in willing the same thing with God. For the conformity of the Will with God's Will is Heaven; and wheresoever there is this willing with God, there the Love of God is undoubtedly in the working, and his Light will not fail to manifest itself. But in the Self-attraction of the Soul's desire, or in the reception of Self into the willing of any Spirit, angelical or human, the Will of God worketh with difficulty, and is to that Soul and Spirit nought but Darkness; out of which, notwithstanding, the Light may be manifested. And this Darkness is the Hell of that Spirit wherein it is. For Heaven and Hell are nought else but a Manifestation of the Divine Will either in Light or Darkness, according to the Properties of the Spiritual World.

Scholar

What then is the Body of Man?

Master

It is the visible World, an Image and Quintessence, or Compound of all that the World is; and the visible World is a manifestation of the inward spiritual World, come out of the Eternal Light, and out of the Eternal Darkness, out of the spiritual compaction or connection; and it is also an Image or Figure of Eternity, whereby Eternity hath made itself visible; where Self-Will and resigned Will, viz., Evil and Good, work one with the other.

Such a substance is the outward Man. For God created Man out of the outward World, and breathed into him the inward spiritual World for a Soul and an intelligent Life, and therefore in the things of the outward World, Man can receive and work Evil and Good.

Scholar

What shall be after this World, when all things perish and come to an end?

Master

The material substance only ceaseth; viz., the four Elements, the Sun, Moon and Stars. And then the inward world will be wholly visible and manifest. But whatsoever hath been wrought by the Will or Spirit of Man in this World's time, whether evil or good shall there separate itself in a spiritual matter, either into the Eternal Light or into the Eternal Darkness. For that which is born from each Will penetrateth and passeth again into that which is like itself. And there the Darkness is called Hell, and is an eternal forgetting of all Good, and the Light is called the Kingdom of God, and is an eternal joy in and to the Saints, who continually glorify and praise God, for having delivered them from the torment of evil.

The last Judgment is a kindling of the Fire both of God's Love and Anger, in which the matter of every substance perisheth, and each Fire shall attract into itself its own, that is, the substance which is like itself. Thus God's Fire of Love will draw into itself what is wrought in the Anger of God in Darkness, and consume the false substance; and then there will remain only the painful, aching Will in its own proper nature, image, and figure.

Scholar

With what matter and form shall the human Body rise?

Master

It is sown a natural gross and elementary Body; yet in this gross Body there is a subtle Power and Virtue. As in the Earth also there is a subtle good Virtue, which is like the Sun, and is one and the same with the Sun, which also did in the beginning of time spring and proceed out of the Divine Power and Virtue, whence all the good Virtue of the Body is likewise derived. This good Virtue of the mortal Body shall come again and live for ever in a kind of transparent crystalline material property, in spiritual flesh and blood; as shall return also the good Virtue of the Earth, for the Earth, likewise shall become crystalline, and the Divine Light shine in everything that hath a being, essence, or substance. And as the gross Earth shall perish and never return, so also the gross flesh of Man shall perish and not live for ever. But all Things must appear before the Judgment, and in the Judgment be separated by the Fire; yea, both the Earth, and also the ashes of the human Body. For when God shall once move the spiritual World, every Spirit shall attract its spiritual substance to itself. A good Spirit and Soul shall draw to itself its own substance, and an evil one its evil substance.

Scholar

Shall we not rise again with our visible bodies, and live in them for ever?

Master

When the visible world perisheth, then all that hath come out of it, and hath been external, shall perish with it. There shall remain of the World only the crystalline Nature and Form, and of Man also only the spiritual Earth, for Man shall be then wholly like the crystalline World, which as yet is hidden.

Scholar

Shall all then have eternal joy and glorification alike?

Master

St Paul saith: In the Resurrection one shall differ from another in glory, as do the Sun, Moon and Stars. Therefore know that the Blessed shall indeed all enjoy the divine working in and upon them, but their virtue and illumination or glory shall be very different according as they have endured in this life with different measures and degrees of power and virtue in their painful workings.

Scholar

How shall all people and nations be brought to judgment?

Master

The Eternal Word of God, out of which every creaturely spiritual Life hath proceeded will move itself at that hour, according to Love and Anger, in every Life which is come out of the Eternity, and will draw every Creature before the Judgment of Christ, to be sentenced by this motion of the Word. The Life will then be manifested in all its works, and every Soul shall see and feel its judgment and sentence in itself. For the Judgment is, indeed, immediately at the departure of the Body manifested in and to every Soul. And the last Judgment is but a return of the spiritual Body, and a separation of the World, when the Evil shall be separated from the Good, in the substance of the World, and of the human Body, and everything enter into its eternal receptacle. And thus it is a manifestation of the Mystery of God in every substance and life.

Scholar

How will the sentence be pronounced?

Master

Here consider the words of Christ. He will say to those on his right hand; Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked and ye clothed me. I was sick and ye visited me, in prison and ye came unto me.

Then shall they answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, or in prison, and ministered thus unto thee?