lt sink down
again into that One Thing from which thou art originally sprung. For now
thou liest captive in the Creatures; but if thy Will forsaketh them,
they will die in thee, with their evil inclinations, which at present
stay and hinder thee that thou canst not come to God. But if thou takest
this course, thy God will meet thee with his infinite Love, which he
hath manifested in Christ Jesus in the Humanity, or human Nature. And
that will impart sap, life and vigour to thee, whereby thou mayst bud,
spring, flourish again, and rejoice in the Living God, as a branch
growing on his true Vine. And so thou wilt at length recover the Image
of God, and be delivered from that of the Serpent. Then shalt thou come
to be my brother and have fellowship with the Angels.

THE POOR SOUL SAID

How can I forsake my Will, so that the Creatures which lodge therein may
die, seeing I must be in the World, and also have need of it as long as
I live?

THE ENLIGHTENED SOUL SAID

Now thou hast worldly power and riches, which thou possesses! as thy
own, to do what thou wilt with, and regardest not how thou gettest or
invest the same, employing them in the service or indulgence of thy
carnal and vain desires. Nay though thou seest the poor and needy wretch
who wanteth thy help, and is thy brother, yet thou helpest him not, but
layest heavy burdens upon him, by requiring more of him than his
abilities will bear, or his necessities afford, and oppressest him, by
forcing him to spend his labour and sweat for thee and the gratification
of thy voluptuous Will. Thou art moreover proud and exultest over him,
and behavest roughly and sternly to him, exalting thyself above him, and
making small account of him in respect of thyself. Then that poor
oppressed brother of thine cometh, and complaineth with sighs towards
God, that he cannot reap the benefit of his labours and pains, but is
forced by thee to live in misery. By which sighings and groanings of his
he raiseth up the wrath of God in thee, which maketh thy flame and
unquietness still the greater.

These are the Creatures which thou art in love with, and hast broken
thyself off from God for their sakes, and brought thy Love into them or
them into thy Love, so that they live therein. Thou nourishest and
keepest them by continually receiving them into thy desire, for they
live in and by thy receiving them into thy mind, because thou thereby
bringest the lust of thy Life into them. They are but