#56 The final prayer

A Prayer for Salvation

[Pryr-1.2-56] Oh heavenly Father, infinite, fathomless Depth of never- ceasing Love, save me from myself -- from the disorderly Workings of my fallen, corrupted Nature, and let my Eyes see, my Heart feel and Spirit find, Salvation in Christ Jesus.
  
[Pryr-1.2-57] O God, who madest me for yourself, show forth your Goodness in me.  I humbly beseech You, that you manifest the Life-giving Power of your holy Nature within me; help me to  a true and living Faith in You.  

Allow me Strength of Hunger and Thirst and allow the Birth, Life, and Spirit of your Holy Jesus into my Soul, and that all that is within me, so that it may be turned from every inward Thought, or outward Work, that is not You, and towards your holy Jesus, and thy heavenly working. 

Amen.

*  the end of part i.

#52 Following the Star of David in your Heart

[Pryr-1.2-52] So when the first Spark of a Desire for God arises in your Soul, cherish it with all your Care, give all your Heart into it, for it is nothing less than a Touch of the Divine Lodestone, that is made to draw You out of the Vanity of Time & into the Riches of Eternity. Get up and follow it as gladly, as the Wise Men of the East followed the Star from Heaven that appeared to them. And It will do for You, as the Star did for them,: lead You to the Birth of Jesus, not in a Stable at Bethlehem in Judea, but to the Birth of Jesus in the dark Centre of your own fallen Soul.

[Pryr-1.2-53] I shall conclude this first Part, with the Words of the heavenly Illuminated, and blessed Jacob Behmen.

  

[Pryr-1.2-54] "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 the Heaven, wherein God dwells, is opened in 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.

[Pryr-1.2-55] "Christ saith, 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."

#51 The Love and Mercy of Our Lord

[Pryr-1.2-51] Oh my God, just and good, how great is your 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 You!

 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 redeemed every Soul that follows your 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 You, none live out of your Love, but all are embraced in the Arms of your Mercy, all are Partakers of your Divine Life, the Operation of your holy Spirit, as soon as their Heart is turned to You!

Oh plain, and easy, and simple Way of Salvation, wanting no Subtleties of are 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-operating 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.

#50 The only way to Salvation

[Pryr-1.2-50] [Pryr-1.2-50] Now there is but one possible Way for Man to attain this Salvation, or have the Life of God in his Soul. There is not one way for the Jew, another for a Christian, and a Third for the Heathen. No for as God is one, human nature is one, Salvation is one, and the Way to Him is one; so too is the way to Him is one and that is via a true Desire of the Soul to be turned towards God. When this Desire is alive and breaks forth in any Creature under Heaven, then the proverbial lost Sheep is found, and the Shepherd can put it safely upon his Shoulders.¹

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, falleth on his Neck, and kisses him.

See here how plainly we are taught, that no sooner does this Desire arise, but the Operation of God's Spirit answers to it, cherishes and welcomes its first Beginnings/  That the Father's seeing this  and having Compassion even while t yet afar off, but still the  first Inklings of his Desire arise that God notices it and takes heed. This is what a pure Desire can do it brings the Soul to God, and welcome God into the Soul, and so it unites with God, and co-operates with God, and then becomes  one Life with God.

Now suppose this Desire is not yet alive, not yet in Motion either in a Jew, or a Christian, well then all the Sacrifices, the Services, and the Worship of either the Mosaic Law, or  Gospel, are then but dead Works, and as such they will not bring Life into the Soul, nor beget any Union between it and God.

But suppose that this Desire is awakened, and is fixed upon God, and but that these Souls have never heard either of the Law or the Gospel, but the Divine Life, or Operation of God, enters into them, well then there is a new Birth in Christ within them. For these souls we praise "That many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down at the table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens. 12 But the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness."

Footnotes:

1.  Jubliee Bible:  Matthew 15:  

And, behold, a woman of Canaan having come out of the same borders cried unto him, saying, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me; my daughter is sick, possessed by a demon. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she cries out after us.  But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 

Then she came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not good to take the children’s bread and to cast it to the little dogs. And she said, Yes, Lord, yet the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou desire. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

2.  Jubilee Bible Matthew 8:11

And when Jesus was entering into Capernaum, a centurion came unto him, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed, grievously tormented.  And Jesus said unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou should come under my roof; but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.  For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this man, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my slave, Do this, and he does it.

When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to those that followed, Verily I say unto you that not even in Israel have I found such faith. But I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down at the table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens. But the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Then Jesus said unto the centurion, Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed that same hour.

#49 God is everywhere

[Pryr-1.2-49] For there is but one Salvation for all Mankind, and that is with 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 because They all equally Desire his Heart, & so his Light continually waits for an Entrance into all of them, and his Wisdom cries out.

And  she putteth forth her Voice, not here, or there, but everywhere, in all the Streets, of all the Parts of the World.

#48 The Power of Repentance

    

[Pryr-1.2-48] But does this Man have any Ground for Pride, or a high Opinion of himself, because of his Share in Restoring Hand?  Can we by the same not, think by our own Activity, that we are responsible for our salvation like this Man with his outstretched his Hand?  and that the Work of Christ was superfluous?  

No.  While we can only do living Works of Christ when we are  born again, it is because we are able to say with the Apostle, "This is not I, but the Christ that lives in me."

But to return, and further show, how the Soul that feels the Call of God to Repentance, 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 because it is the Seed of the Divine Nature within us, but it can only grow by its own Strength and Union with God because, and this is important to remember, this Seed is Divine, and therefore can grow from nothing but Divine Light, just like the World that Our Creator first brought forth.

When the Virgin Mary conceived the Birth of the holy Jesus, all that she did, was a single Act of Faith and Resignation to God; "Behold the Handmaiden of the Lord, be  unto me according to your Word."  (see Luke i:38)   And this is what we all can do to bring forth the Conception of that new Man so that can be born in ourselves.

Now while this Truth is easily agreed up, makes sense, no?  And because it makes sense, Man thinks he believes it, because he consents to it, or rather we should say, that he does not deny it. But in honestly, this is not enough, it has to be comprehended in a deep, full, and practical Manner. You must believe in it deeply and assuredly, as much as man breathes, walks and lives.  It must be part and parcel of his being, so the Life of Christ can rise up in himself.

 And then once this is his Belief, and he puts the Soul into a right State, i.e. he makes room for the Operation of God upon it then God’s Light will enter unto him with full Power and his holy Spirit will move and direct all that is done in it, only then will Man live again as a new Creature in God, with God.  

This is a miraculous thing and will have two most excellent Effects:

1. First, it will keep the Soul fixed, and continually turned towards God, in Faith, Prayer, Desire, Confidence, and Resignation to Him, and The Soul thus turned to God will always receiving from Him.  It will stand 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.
2. Secondly, this belief will fix and ground the Soul in a true and lasting Self-denial. For by acknowledging our own Nothingness and Inability, and seeing that  we fully able to have no other Capacity for Good, and to be nothing more than a vessel of His will, then there is 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 of  which arise when we see ourselves as part of the Beastly World.

But once we apprehend all of this, in some good Degree, then All of God, and the Nothingness of ourselves have Truth, then a Kind of Infallibility, not of our judgment but of God’s occurs to us.  We see that all that is vain, and false, and deceitful, and it vanishes and flies before us. We realize with a certainty that is profound, that our Faith, our Religion is now founded on this Rock, & it has Firmness in character, with a Height that is immeasurable, and it reaches unto Heaven.  Then the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, can do no hurt to our new Faith; all our Enemies , seen and unseen, are known, and all are disarmed by this great Truth dwelling in our Souls. 

 This is the Knowledge of All of God, that makes Cherubims and Seraphims Flames of Divine Love & where All of God is truly known, and felt in any Creature, where its whole Breath and Spirit is a Fire of Love, & nothing but a pure disinterested Love can arise up or come from it, a Love that begins and ends in God. And this Love is born in any Creature, with a Seraphic Life 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.

#47 Stretching your hand towards God

[Pryr-1.2-47] There is no avoiding this fatal Error, except to deeply realize the great Truth, that all our own Activity and Working has no Good in it, & can do no Good to us, unless it leads and turns us to the Light and Spirit of God.  That is the only way to bring Life and Salvation into the Soul: Stretch forth your Hand, said our Lord to the Man that had a withered Hand; he did so, and it was immediately made whole as the other. 

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 9Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. 10 And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse Him  of impiety and breaking the Law.

.11 And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? 12  So “How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is  lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

 13 And then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand!” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other.

 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him & stop him because his following was growing.

                                                                                                                                               

            Gospel of St Matthew, chapter 12.

             New American Standard bible