CHAPTER XX
How, seeing that the Life of Christ is most bitter to Nature and
Self, Nature will have none of it, and chooseth a false careless Life, as is
most convenient to her.
Now, since the life of Christ is every way most bitter to nature and the Self
and the Me (for in the true life of Christ, the Self and the Me and nature must
be forsaken and lost, and die altogether), therefore, in each of us, nature
hath a horror of it, and thinketh it evil and unjust and a folly, and graspeth
after such a life as shall be most comfortable and pleasant to herself, and
saith, and believeth also in her blindness, that such a life is the best
possible. Now, nothing is so comfortable and pleasant to nature, as a free,
careless way of life, therefore she clingeth to that, and taketh enjoyment in
herself and her own powers, and looketh only to her own peace and comfort and
the like. And this happeneth most of all, where there are high natural gifts of
reason, for that soareth upwards in its own light and by its own power, till at
last it cometh to think itself the true Eternal Light, and giveth itself out as
such, and is thus deceived in itself, and deceiveth other people along with it,
who know no better, and also are thereunto inclined.