(8) The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

(1) Our Lord saith that the Kingdom of God is near us. Yea, the Kingdom of God is within us as St Paul saith "our salvation is nearer than when we believed." Now we should know in what manner the Kingdom of God is near us. Therefore let us pay diligent attention to the meaning of the words. If I were a king, and did not know it, I should not really be a king. But, if I were fully convinced that I was a king, and all mankind coincided in my belief, and I knew that they shared my conviction, I should indeed be a king, and all the wealth of the king would be mine. But, if one of these three conditions were lacking, I should not really be a king.

(52) Behold! he, in whom it should be thus, whatever he had within, or did without, would be all of God, and the man would be in his life a follower of Christ more truly than we can understand or set forth. And he who led such a life would go in and out through Christ; for he would be a follower of Christ: therefore also he would come with Christ and through Christ unto the Father. And he would be also a servant of Christ, for he who cometh after Him is His servant, as He Himself also saith: “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be.”55 And he who is thus a servant and follower of Christ, cometh to that place where Christ Himself is; that is, unto the Father. As Christ Himself saith: “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.”56 Behold, he who walketh in this path, “entereth in by the door into the sheepfold,” that is, into eternal life; “and to him the porter openeth”;57 but he who entereth in by some other way, or vainly thinketh that he would or can come to the Father or to eternal blessedness otherwise than through Christ, is deceived; for he is not in the right Way, nor entereth in by the right Door.

(35) But what will the Spirit of this Kingdom say? Art thou not shining in Splendor? Hast thou not taken Possession of all? Hast thou not the Earth in Possession freely as God gave it thee? Dost thou not right? Dost thou not punish the Wicked, and look to it, where the Enemy breaks it? Dost thou not defend thy Country? Art thou not a Light to the Blind, and appointest Teachers for them, which drive them to Patience? The Kingdom is thine indeed, thou hast purchased it; the Poor is thy Servant indeed, that [in thy Opinion] cannot fail [but be right.]

(54) And here the Light shone in the Darkness of the natural outward Body, as Saint John witnesses; he came into [or to] his own, and his own received him not, for they knew him not; but those which received him, [to them] he gave the Might to be the Children of God; they were through him begotten to the Kingdom of Heaven. For his is the Kingdom, the [Power or] Might, and Glory in Eternity. Amen.

(23) I pass over in silence at present the parable which says in the Gospel: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who cast a net into the sea and out of the multitude of the fishes caught, makes a selection of the better ones."

(2) "The kingdom of heaven is like a head of grain that sprouted in a field. And when it was ripe, it scattered its seed, and again it filled the field with heads of grain for another year. So with you, be eager to harvest for yourselves a head of the grain of life that you may be filled with the kingdom.

(18) "And afterward was revealed a whole multitude of confronting, self-begotten ones, equal in age and power, being in glory (and) without number, whose race is called 'The Generation over Whom There Is No Kingdom' from the one in whom you yourselves have appeared from these men. And that whole multitude over which there is no kingdom is called 'Sons of Unbegotten Father, God, Savior, Son of God,' whose likeness is with you. Now he is the unknowable, who is full of ever-imperishable glory and ineffable joy. They all are at rest in him, ever rejoicing in ineffable joy in his unchanging glory and measureless jubilation; this was never heard or known among all the aeons and their worlds until now."

(9) For it is written, you must be born anew through the Water and the Spirit, or else you shall not see the Kingdom of God. This Birth must be done within you: The Heart, or the Son of God must arise in the Birth of your Life; and then the Saviour Christ is your faithful Shepherd, and you are in Him, and He in you, and all that He and his Father have is yours, and none shall pluck you out of his Hands; and as the Son (viz. the Heart of the Father) is one [with the Father,] so also the new Man is one in the Father and the Son, one Virtue or Power, one Light, one Life, one eternal Paradise, one eternal heavenly Birth, one Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and thou his Child.

(46) There is nothing more secret in this World than the Kingdom of Christ, and also nothing more manifest than the Kingdom of Christ; and it is often so, that he who supposes he has it, and lives therein, has it not, but has the Kingdom of Antichrist, and he is an Hypocrite and Scorner, and has the Serpent's Figure; and his Heart also is but the Heart of a greedy Wolf, and he stands not in the angelical Figure.

(22) Therefore consider what Weight thou puttest in by the Senses: Thou hast the Kingdom of Heaven in thy Power, for the Word of the divine Virtue [or Power] in Christ, has given itself to thee to be thy own; and so also thou hast the Kingdom of Hell in a Bridle, in the Root, and thou hast it for thy own by the Right of Nature; and thou hast the Kingdom of this World also (according to thy Humanity received from Adam) for thy own.

(4) Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into a garden in his field; and it grew, and waxed a great tree, and the birds of the air lodged in the branches thereof, in the shadow of it.

(8) Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.

(2) Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

(127) That circumference or space, region or province, wherein he and his angels are created, is his kingdom, and he is a loving son of God the Father in nature, a creaturely son, in whom the Father delighteth.

(9) Afterward he revealed many confronting, self-begotten ones, equal in age (and) power, being in glory and without number, who are called 'The Generation over Whom There Is No Kingdom among the Kingdoms That Exist'. And the whole multitude of the place over which there is no kingdom is called 'Sons of Unbegotten Father.'

(58) Behold! I tell this to thee, as a word of life, which I receive in the knowledge of the spirit, in the midst or centre in the birth or geniture of the new body of this world, over which the Man JESUS CHRIST is Ruler and King, together with his eternal Father.

(13) Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

(10) And so the Kingdom of Heaven is his own Body, and the whole princely Throne of his Principle is Paradise, wherein the blessed Fruit in the Virtue of God springs up, for the Holy Ghost is the Virtue [and Power] of the Fruit; as the Air in this World is, so the Holy Ghost is the Air and Spirit of the Soul in Christ, and of all his Children; for there is no other Air in Heaven, in the Body of Christ; and God the Father is all in all. Thus we live and are (in Christ) all in the Father, and there is no Soul that searches out to the Depth; but we live all in Singleness of Heart, and in great Humility and Love one towards another, and rejoice one with another, as Children do before their Parents; and to this End God created us.

(2) In similar fashion our salvation depends upon our knowing and recognizing the Chief Good which is God Himself. I have a capacity in my soul for taking in God entirely. I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and presence of God. He is also near things of wood and stone, but they know it not. If a piece of wood became as aware of the nearness of God as an archangel is, the piece of wood would be as happy as an archangel. For this reason man is happier than the inanimate wood, because he knows and understands how God is near him. His happiness increases and diminishes in proportion to the increase and diminution in his knowledge of this.

His happiness does not arise from this that God is near him, and in him, and that He possesses God; but from this, that he knows the nearness of God, and loves Him, and is aware that "the Kingdom of God is near." So, when I think on God's Kingdom, I am compelled to be silent because of its immensity, because God's Kingdom is none other than God Himself with all His riches. God's Kingdom is no small thing: we may survey in imagination all the worlds of God's creation, but they are not God's Kingdom. In whichever soul God's Kingdom appeareth, and which knoweth God's Kingdom, that soul needeth no human preaching or instruction; it is taught from within and assured of eternal life. Whoever knows and recognizes how near God's Kingdom is to him may say with Jacob, "God is in this place, and I knew it not."