CHAPTER L
How this present Time is a Paradise and outer Court of Heaven, and
how therein there is only one Tree forbidden, that is, Self-will.
What is Paradise? All things that are; for all are goodly and pleasant, and
therefore may fitly be called a Paradise. It is said also, that Paradise is an
outer court of Heaven. Even so this world is verily an outer court of the
Eternal, or of Eternity, and specially whatever in Time, or any temporal things
or creatures, manifesteth or remindeth us of God or Eternity; for the creatures
are a guide and a path unto God and Eternity. Thus this world is an outer court
of Eternity, and therefore it may well be called a Paradise, for it is such in
truth. And in this Paradise, all things are lawful, save one tree and the
fruits thereof. That is to say: of all things that are, nothing is forbidden
and nothing is contrary to God but one thing only: that is, Self-will, or to
will otherwise than as the Eternal Will would have it. Remember this. For God
saith to Adam, that is, to every man, "Whatever thou art, or doest, or leavest
undone, or whatever cometh to pass, is all lawful and not forbidden if it be
not done from or according to thy will, but for the sake of and according to My
will. But all that is done from thine own Will is contrary to the Eternal
Will."
It is not that every work which is thus
wrought is in itself contrary to the Eternal Will, but in so far as it is
wrought from a different will, or otherwise than from the Eternal and Divine
Will.