Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Path to Eternity



Thomas Bromley poeticizes:

Now the motion of the Soul through the Gate of Death towards Life Eternal, is the motion of a Spirit, which is to be looked upon as ascending or descending, as it comes nearer or removes further from God the Center, as Bodies ascend or descend in relation to their Center, by their tending toward or fromward the Visible Heavens. Upward therefore to a Soul, is Inward; Outward is Downward. The Center is the Highest, the Circumference the lowest. God is in the Center being the most Inward; Matter in the Circumference, being most Outward; yet God is in the Outward, as his footstool, but in the most Inward, as his Throne; filling both, though in both, not manifest alike. In the Inmost, he shows himself wholly in the Love; in the Outmost, in Love and Wrath, Life and Death, Generation and Corruption: But in the Inward dark World, altogether in Death, Darkness, and Wrath; as in the Inmost, all in Light and Life.


Therefore our Progress is from the Outward, through the Inward to the Inmost. The Outward is the place of Good and Evil, and as to its corrupt State, the Kingdom of the Beast. The Inward is two-fold, either the Dark or Light World. The Dark, is the Kingdom of the Dragon, the Center of Evil and Wrath; The Light World is the Paradisiacal Sphere, or that Garden of Eden, which is also situate in its Mesopotamia, or betwixt the two great rivers of Wrath and Love. The first of which is called The Lake of Fire, burning with Brimstone; the last,  A pure River of Water of Life, clear as Chrystal, which proceeds out of the Throne of God, and of the Lamb. The Inmost, is the eternal Sanctuary, or true eternal Tabernacle of God, and that spiritual Land of Peace, where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all the glorified, departed Saints live and inhabit.

But none can ever reach This, but through the perfect Death; and as we die daily, so we rise nearer it, Death giving us a gradual passage towards this Eternal Kingdom of Life.

And is it so, that Death must waft us ore,

The Sea of Nature, to the Heavenly shore?

Then bring thy Boat, blest Death, that thou and I

May sail together towards Eternity.

A sweet Companion thou wilt be to me,

Till I imbosom’d am in Unity.

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