t is for the Will to sink into nothing, to attract
nothing, to imagine nothing.

MASTER

Let it be granted that it is so. Is it not surely worth thy while, and
all that thou canst ever do?

DISCIPLE

It is so, I must needs confess.

MASTER

But perhaps it may not be so hard as at first it appeareth to be; make
but the trial and be in earnest. What is there required of thee but to
stand still and see the salvation of thy God? And couldst thou desire
anything less? Where is the hardship in this? Thou hast nothing to care
for, nothing to desire in this life, nothing to imagine or attract. Thou
needest only cast thy care upon God, who careth for thee, and leave him
to dispose of thee according to his good will and pleasure, even as if
thou hadst no will at all in thee. For he knoweth what is best; and if
thou canst but trust him, he will most certainly do better for thee,
than if thou wert left to thine own choice.

DISCIPLE

This I most firmly believe.

MASTER

If thou believest, then go and do accordingly. _All_ is in the _Will_,
as I have shown thee. When the Will imagineth after _Somewhat_, then
entereth it into that somewhat, and this somewhat taketh the Will into
itself, and overcloudeth it, so as it can have no Light, but must dwell
in Darkness, unless it return back out of that somewhat into _Nothing_.
But when the Will imagineth or hasteth after nothing, then it entereth
into _Nothing_, where it receiveth the Will of God into itself, and so
dwelleth in Light, and worketh all its works in it.

DISCIPLE

I am now satisfied that the main cause of any one's spiritual blindness,
is his letting his Will into Somewhat, or into that which he hath
wrought, of what nature soever it be, good or evil, and his setting his
heart or affections upon the work of his own hand or brain, and that
when the earthly body perisheth, then the Soul must be imprisoned in
that very thing which it shall have received and let in; and if the
Light of God be not in it, being deprived of the Light of this World, it
cannot but be found in a dark prison.

MASTER

This is a very precious Gate of Knowledge; I am glad thou takest it into
such consideration. The understanding of the whole Scripture is
contained in it; and all that hath been written from the beginning of
the World to this day may be found therein, by him that having entered
with his Will into Nothing, hath there found All Things, by finding God,
from Whom, and to Who