The Life itself standeth in strife, that it may be made manifest,
sensible, and palpable, and that the wisdom may be made separable and
known.
The Strife also constituteth the Eternal Joy of the victory. For there
will arise great praise and thanksgiving in the Saints from the
experimental sense and knowledge that Christ in them hath overcome
Darkness, and all the Self of Nature, and that they are at length
totally delivered from the Strife, at which they shall rejoice
eternally. And therefore God suffereth all Souls to stand in a
free-will, that the Eternal Dominion both of Love and Anger, of Light
and of Darkness, may be made manifest and known; and that every Life
might cause and find its own sentence in itself. For that which is now a
strife and pain to the Saints in their wretched warfare here, shall in
the end be turned into great joy to them; and that which hath been a joy
and pleasure to ungodly persons in this world, shall afterwards be
turned into eternal torment and shame to them. Therefore the joy of the
Saints must arise to them out of death, as the light ariseth out of a
candle by the destruction and consumption of it in its fire, that so the
Life may be freed from the painfulness of Nature, and possess another
World.
And as the Light hath quite another property than the Fire has, for it
giveth and yieldeth itself forth; whereas the Fire draweth in and
consumeth itself, so the holy Life of Meekness springeth forth through
the Death of Self-will, and then God's Will of Love only ruleth, and
doth all in all. For thus the Eternal One hath attained Feeling and
Separability, and brought itself forth again with the feeling, through
Death, in great Joyfulness, that there might be an Eternal Delight in
the Infinite Unity, and an Eternal Cause of Joy; and therefore that
which was before Painfulness, must now be the Ground and Cause of this
motion or stirring to the Manifestation of all Things. And herein lyeth
the Mystery of the hidden Wisdom of God.
_Every one that asketh receiveth, every one that seeketh findeth, and to
every one that knocketh it shall be opened. The Grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost, be
with us all. Amen._