Learn Blake: Inner War

Speaking in general life is made up of a war between Jesus and
Satan. You can read one skirmish in the story of Jesus in the
Wilderness (Luke 4:1-13). Luke gave us a pattern for the story
of our lives.

Reading Blake's poetry it becomes evident that Blake's inner
life was turbulent and often violent; the inner war fills the pages
of his poetry. He described that best with these words, often
found in this blog. It's a dialogue between Blake's higher and lower
nature:

Blake:
"My Spectre around me night & day Like a Wild beast guards my way. My Emanation far within Weeps incessantly for my Sin A Fathomless & boundless deep There we wander there we weep On the hungry craving wind My Spectre follows thee behind An observer: He scents thy footsteps in the snow Wheresoever thou dost go Thro the wintry hail & rain When wilt thou return again Blake: Dost thou not in Pride & scorn Fill with tempests all my morn And with jealousies & fears Fill my pleasant nights with tears Seven of my sweet loves thy knife Has bereaved of their life Their marble tombs I built with tears And with cold & shuddering fears Seven more loves weep night & day Round the tombs where my loves lay And seven more loves attend each night Around my couch with torches bright And seven more Loves in my bed Crown with wine my mournful head Pitying & forgiving all Thy transgressions great & small When wilt thou return & view My loves & them to life renew When wilt thou return & live When wilt thou pity as I forgive The Spectre Never Never I return Still for Victory I burn Living thee alone Ill have And when dead Ill be thy Grave Blake: Thro the Heavn & Earth & Hell Thou shalt never never quell I will fly & thou pursue Night & Morn the flight renew Till I turn from Female Love And root up the Infernal Grove I shall never worthy be To Step into Eternity And to end thy cruel mocks Annihilate thee on the rocks And another form create To be subservient to my Fate Let us agree to give up Love And root up the infernal grove Then shall we return & see The worlds of happy Eternity & Throughout all Eternity I forgive you you forgive me As our dear Redeemer said This the Wine & this the Bread".

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Blake had read and certainly appreciated Romans 7,
where Paul described the war within him:

"19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
So there we have Blake's war and Paul's war; neither is a corporeal war. They are both inner wars, written perhaps by both authors as a pattern for the shape of the life of everyman. Blake, Paul, and the rest of us have this same war within. Blake's solution was to annihilate the Spectre-- not a person, but our Selfhood. We might with well do likewise.

A good way to end this post might be to show something of the war of Jesus within: his temptation in the wilderness, described for us by three of the Evangelists (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:9-13, and Luke 4:1-13). Here's Matthews version:

Matthew 4
"1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2 nd when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.