gs thee to a ground where thou art laid hold on and
captivated in Nature. And having brought thee hither, it overshadows
thee with that which thou willest, it binds thee with thine own chains,
and it keeps thee in thine own dark prison which thou makest for
thyself, so that thou canst not go out thence, or come to that state
which is Supernatural and Supersensual.

DISCIPLE

But being I am in Nature, and thus bound as with my own chains, and by
my own natural will, pray be so kind, Sir, as to tell me, how I may come
_through_ Nature into the Supersensual and Supernatural Ground, without
the destroying of Nature?

MASTER

Three things are requisite in order to this. The first is, Thou must
resign up thy Will to God, and must sink thyself down to the dust in his
mercy. The second is, Thou must hate thy own Will, and forbear from
doing that to which thy own Will doth drive thee. The third is, Thou
must bow thy soul under the Cross, heartily submitting thyself to it,
that thou mayst be able to bear the temptations of Nature and Creature.
And if thou dost this, know that God will speak unto thee, and will
bring thy resigned Will into Himself, in the supernatural ground, and
then thou shalt hear, my son, what the Lord speaketh in thee.

DISCIPLE

This is a hard saying, Master, for I must forsake the World and my life
too, if I should do thus.

MASTER

Be not discouraged hereat. If thou forsakest the World, then thou comest
unto that out of which the World is made, and if thou losest thy life,
then thy life is in that for whose sake thou forsakest it. Thy life is
in God, from whence it came into the body, and as thou comest to have
thine own power faint and weak and dying, the power of God will then
work in thee and through thee.

DISCIPLE

Nevertheless, as God hath created man in and for the natural life, to
rule over all creatures on earth, and to be a lord over all things in
this world, it seems not to be at all unreasonable that God should
therefore possess this world and the things therein for his own.

MASTER

If thou rulest over all creatures but outwardly there cannot be much in
that. But if thou hast a mind to possess all things, and to be a lord
indeed over all things in this world, there is quite another method to
be taken by thee.

DISCIPLE

Pray, how is that? And what method must I take, whereby to arrive at
this sovereignty?

MASTER

Thou must learn to distinguish between the Thing, and th