JOHN OF RUYSBROECK
THE ADORNMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE
THE SPARKLING STONE
THE BOOK OF SUPREME TRUTH
TRANSLATED FROM THE FLEMISH BY
C. A. WYNSCHENK DOM
EDITED
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY
EVELYN UNDERHILL
BV5080 J33
"In tantum Deus cognoscitur, in quantum amatur"
ST BERNARD
CONTENTS
Introduction
THE ADORNMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE
THE FIRST BOOK
Prologue
I. Of the Active Life
II. Showing how we shall consider the Coming of Christ in Three
Ways
III. Of Humility
IV. Of Charity
V. Of Patient Endurance
VI. Of the Second Coming of Christ
VII. Of the Blessed Sacraments
VIII. Of the Third Coming of Christ
IX. Showing what Christ will do in the Day of Doom
X. Of the Five Kinds of Men who shall appear at the Judgment
XI. Of a Spiritual Going Out with all Virtues
XII. How Humility is the Foundation of all other Virtues
XIII. Of Obedience
XIV. Of the Renunciation of Self-Will
XV. Of Patience
XVI. Of Meekness
XVII. Of Kindliness
XVIII. Of Compassion
XIX. Of Generosity
XX. Of Zeal and Diligence
XXI. Of Temperance and Sobriety
XXII. Of Purity
XXIII. Of Three Enemies to be overcome by Righteousness
XXIV. Of the Kingdom of the Soul
XXV. Of a Spiritual Meeting of God and Ourselves
XXVI. Of the desire to know the Bridegroom in His Nature
THE SECOND BOOK
Prologue
I. How we achieve Supernatural Sight in our Inward Workings
II. Of a Three-fold Unity which is in us by Nature
III. Of the Inflow of the Grace of God into our Spirit
IV. Showing how we should found our Inward Life on a Freedom from
Images
V. Of a Three-fold Coming of our Lord in the Inward Man
VI. Of the Second Coming of our Lord in the Inward Man
VII. Of the Third Coming of our Lord
VIII. How the First Coming has Four Degrees
IX. Of Unity of Heart
X. Of Inwardness
XI. Of Sensible Love
XII. Of Devotion
XIII. Of Gratitude
XIV. Of Two Griefs which arise from Inward Gratitude
XV. A Similitude how we should perform the First Degree of our
Inward Exercise
XVI. Another Similitude concerning the same Exercise
XVII. Of the Second Degree of our Inward Exercise, which increases
Inwardness by Humility
XVIII. Of the Pure Delight of the Heart and the Sensible Powers
XIX. Of Spiritual Inebriation
XX. What may hinder a Man in this Inebriation
XXI. A Similitude how a Man should act and bear himself in this
case
XXII. Of the Third Degree of the Spiritual Coming of Christ
XXIII. Of the Pain and Restlessness of Love
XXIV. Of Ecstacies and Divine Revelations
XXV. An Example showing how one is hindered in this Exercise
XXVI. Another Example
XXVII. A Parable of the Ant
XXVIII. Of the Fourth Degree of the Coming of Christ
XXIX. Showing what the Forsaken Man should do
XXX. A Parable: How one may be hindered in this Fourth Degree
XXXI. Of another Hindrance
XXXII. Of Four Kinds of Fever wherewith a Man may be Tormented
XXXIII. Showing how these Four Degrees in their Perfection are
Found in Christ
XXXIV. Showing how a Man should Live if he would be Enlightened
XXXV. Of the Second Coming of Christ, or, the Fountain with Three
Rills
XXXVI. The First Rill adorns the Memory
XXXVII. The Second Rill enlightens the Understanding
XXXVIII. The Third Rill establishes the Will to every Perfection
XXXIX. Showing how the Established Man shall go out in Four Ways
XL. He shall go out towards God and towards all Saints
XLI. He shall go out towards all Sinners
XLII. He shall go out towards his Friends in Purgatory
XLIII. He shall go out towards himself and towards all Good Men
XLIV. Showing how we may recognise those Men who fail in Charity
to all
XLV. How Christ was, is, and ever will be the Lover of all
XLVI. Reproving all those who live on Spiritual Goods in an
Inordinate Manner
XLVII. Showing how Christ has given Himself to all in common in
the Sacrament of the Altar
XLVIII. Of the Unity of the Divine Nature in the Trinity of the
Persons
XLIX. Showing how God possesses and moves the Soul both in a
Natural and a Supernatural way
L. Showing how a Man should be adorned if he is to receive the
most Inward Exercise
LI. Of the Third Coming of Christ
LII. Showing how the Spirit goes out through the Divine Stirring
LIII. Of an Eternal Hunger for God
LIV. Of a Loving Strife between the Spirit of God and our Spirit
LV. Of the Fruitful Works of the Spirit, the which are Eternal
LVI. Showing the way in which we shall meet God in a Ghostly
Manner both with and without Means
LVII. Of the Essential Meeting with God without Means in the
Nakedness of our Nature
LVIII. Showing how one is like unto God through Grace and unlike
unto God through Mortal Sin
LIX. Showing how one possesses God in Union and Rest, above all
likeness through Grace
LX. Showing how we have need of the Grace of God, which makes us
like unto God and leads us to God without Means
LXI. Of how God and our Spirit visit each other in the Unity and
in the Likeness
LXII. Showing how we should go out to meet God in all our Works
LXIII. Of the ordering of all the Virtues through the Seven Gifts
of the Holy Ghost
LXIV. Of the Highest Degree of the most Interior Life
LXV. Of Three Kinds of most Inward Practices
LXVI. Showing how some Men live contrary to these Exercises
LXVII. Of another kind of Perverted Men
THE THIRD BOOK
I. Showing the Three Ways by which one enters into the God-Seeing
Life
II. How the Eternal Birth of God is renewed without interruption
in the nobility of the Spirit
III. How our Spirit is called to go out in Contemplation and
Fruition
IV. Of a Divine Meeting which takes place in the Hiddenness of our
Spirit
THE SPARKLING STONE
Prologue
I. Through Three Things a Man becomes Good
II. Through Three Things a Man becomes Inward
III Through Three Things a Man becomes God-Seeing
IV. Of the Sparkling Stone, and of the New Name written in the
Book of the Secrets of God
V. Of the works which God works in all in common, and of Five
Kinds of Sinners
VI. Of the difference between the Hirelings and the Faithful
Servants of God
VII. Of the difference between the Faithful Servants and the
Secret Friends of God
VIII. Of the difference between the Secret Friends and the Hidden
Sons of God
IX. How we may become Hidden Sons of God, and attain to the God-
Seeing Life
X. How we, though One with God, must eternally remain Other than
God
XI. Of the great difference between the Brightness of the Saints
and the Highest Brightness to which we can attain in this Life
XII. Of the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Thabor
XIII. How we ought to have Fruition of God
XIV. Of that Common Life which comes from the Contemplation and
Fruition of God
THE BOOK OF SUPREME TRUTH
Prologue
I. Wherefore this Book was Written
II. A short repetition of all the Highest Teachings written by the
Author
III. Of the Union through Means
IV. Of the Men who practise a False Vacancy
V. Of the Union without Means
VI. Of Heavenly Weal and Hellish Woe
VII. Showing wherefore all Good Men do not attain to the
Unmediated Union with God
VIII. Showing how the Inward Man should exercise himself, that he
may be united with God without Means
IX. Of the Inward Working of God's Grace
X. Of the Mutual Contentment of the Divine Persons, and the Mutual
Contentment between God and Good Men
XI. How Good Men in their Contemplation have the Love of God
before them, and how they are lifted up into God
XII. Of the Highest Union, without Difference or Distinction
XIII. Of the Three-fold Prayer of Christ, that we might be one
with God
XIV. Here the Author declares that he submits all that he has
written to the judgment of Holy Church
Notes
INTRODUCTION
I
JAN VAN RUYSBROECK-three of whose most important works are here
for the first time presented to English readers-is the greatest of
the Flemish mystics, and must take high rank in any list of
Christian contemplatives and saints. He was born in 1273, at the
little village of Ruysbroeck or Ruusbroeck between Brussels and
Hal, from which he takes his name; and spent his whole life within
his native province of Brabant. At eleven years old, he is said to
have run away from home and found his way to Brussels; where he
was received by his uncle Jan Hinckaert, a canon of the Cathedral
of St Gudule. Hinckaert, who was a man of great piety, lived with
another devout priest named Francis van Coudenberg in the most
austere fashion; entirely devoted to prayer and good works. The
two ecclesiastics brought the boy up, and gave him a religious
education, which evidently included considerable training in
theology and philosophy: subjects for which he is said to have
shown, even in boyhood, an astonishing aptitude. In 1317 he took
orders, and obtained through his uncle's influence a prebend's
stall in St Gudule; a position which he occupied for twenty-six
years.
During youth and early middle-age, then, Ruysbroeck lived in
Brussels, fulfilling the ordinary duties of a cathedral chaplain:
and here some of his earlier works may have been written. Here no
doubt he developed that shrewd insight into human character to
which his books bear witness; and here gained his experience of
those "false mystics" and self-sufficient quietists so vividly
described and sternly condemned in the second book of The
Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, in The Book of Truth, and
other places. In the early fourteenth century a number of
heretical sects, of which the Brethren of the Free Spirit were
typical, flourished in the Low Countries. Basing their doctrine on
a pantheistic and non-Christian conception of the Godhead, they
proclaimed the "divinity of man," and preached a quietism of the
most soul-destroying kind, together with an emancipation from the
fetters of law and custom which often resulted in actual
immorality.1 As Ruysbroeck grew in knowledge of the true
contemplative life, the dangers attending on its perversion became
ever more clear to him: and he entered upon that vigorous campaign
against the heretical quietists which was the chief outward event
of his Brussels period.
As to his spiritual development during these years, we can have no
certain knowledge: since none of his works are exactly dated, and
the order in which they should be arranged is a matter of
inference. But it is inherently probable that he was experiencing
the early stages of that mysterious growth of the soul which he
describes so exactly in the first two books of The Adornment of
the Spiritual Marriage: the hard self-discipline, the
enlightenment, raptures, and derelictions, of the "active" and
"interior" life. At this period, he had made little impression on
his contemporaries. The Augustinian canon Pomerius, who had known
in their old age some of Ruysbroeck's friends and followers, and
who wrote his Life2 in the year 1420, describes him as a simple,
quiet, rather shabby-looking person, who "went about the streets
of Brussels with his mind lifted up into God." Yet it is certain
that great force of character, much shrewd common sense, and
remarkable intellectual qualities lay behind this meek appearance.
We know how greatly he disliked "singular conduct" in those who
had given themselves to the spiritual life. They should be, he
thought, like "other good men";3 and this ideal found expression
in his own life. A devout and orthodox Catholic, well read in
scholastic theology and philosophy, on the mental and social side
at least, he was a thorough man of his time; apparently accepting
without criticism its institutions and ideas. Many passages in his
works indicate this: for instance, his constant and unquestioning
use of the categories of mediaeval psychology, or his quiet
assumption4 that "putting to the torture" is part of the business
of a righteous judge. But on the spiritual side his period
influenced him little. There, his concern was with truths which
lie, as he says, "outside Time" in the Eternal Now; and when he is
trying to interpret these to us the Middle Ages and their
limitations fall away. Then we catch fragments which Plato or
Plotinus on one hand, Hegel on the other, might recognise as the
reports of one who had known and experienced the Reality for which
they sought. "My words," said Ruysbroeck, "are strange, but those
who love will understand": and this indeed is true, for he
possessed in an extraordinary degree the power-which so many great
mystics have lacked-of giving verbal and artistic expression to
his soaring intuitions of Eternity.
In 1343, when he was fifty years old, the growing sense of
contrast between those intuitions and the religious formalism and
unreality of the cathedral life, the distracting bustle of the
town, reached a point at which it seems to have become unendurable
to him. Together with Hinckaert and Coudenberg-both now old men-he
left Brussels for ever; all three intending to settle in some
lonely country place, where they could devote themselves to the
life of prayer and contemplation. They were given the old
hermitage of Groenendael, or the Green Valley, in the forest of
Soignes outside Brussels. There they were presently joined by
disciples, and formed a small community, which was eventually
placed under the rule of the Augustinian canons. Coudenberg became
the provost and Ruysbroeck the prior; and under their government
the priory of Groenendael soon became known as the home of a
special holiness.
We shall probably be right if we identify his thirty-eight years,
sojourn in the forest with the "God-seeing" stage of Ruysbroeck's
mystical life.5 Here without doubt all his greatest works were
written. The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage must have been
composed soon after his retreat from Brussels, for we know that in
1350 he sent a copy of it to the group of Rhenish mystics who
called themselves the Friends of God. The Sparkling Stone and The
Book of Truth-both written at the request of friends, to explain
difficult points in his earlier books-belong to a later date. We
need not feel surprised that the full flowering of his genius
should coincide with his abandonment of the world. In one form or
another such abandonment has been found imperative by all the
great explorers of Eternity; whose inward quest of the One nearly
always entails some withdrawal from the multiplicity of things.
But beyond this, there was in Ruysbroeck's mysticism-at once so
intimate in its feeling so vast in its reach-a deeply poetic
strain. The silence and growing beauty of the forest ministered to
this: and many passages in his books show how easily he discovered
intimations of divinity through the loving contemplation of
natural things. A beautiful tradition tells us that he would go
out alone into the woods when he felt that the inspiration of God
was upon him; and there, sitting under his favourite tree, would
write as the Holy Ghost dictated. The brethren used to declare
that once, having been absent many hours from the priory, he was
at last found in this place, rapt in ecstacy and surrounded by a
brilliant aura of divine light-a legend which closely resembles
many similar stories in the lives of the saints.
Such ecstatic absorption in God, however, formed only one side of
Ruysbroeck's religious life. True to his own doctrine of the
"balanced career" of action and contemplation as the ideal of the
Christian soul6 his rapturous ascents towards Divine Reality were
compensated by the eager and loving interest with which he turned
towards the world of men. In the daily life of the priory he
sought perpetually for opportunities of service, especially those
of the most menial kind. As time passed, and his great mystical
gifts became known, many disciples came to him: amongst them
Gerard Groot, afterwards the founder of the Brothers of the Common
Life and hence spiritual ancestor of Thomas a Kempis. To all these
he gave patient help and robust advice; initiating them, so far as
it was possible, into the secrets of the true spiritual life, and
ruthlessly exposing the pious pretensions of those who sought only
a reputation for sanctity. It is clear even from his writings that
he possessed to a remarkable degree the "gift of the discernment
of spirits"-in other words, that his shrewd judgment of humanity
seldom failed him. All know the story of the two priests, who came
from Paris to ask his opinion of their spiritual state: merely to
receive the truthful but disconcerting reply, "You are as holy as
you wish to be!"
The thirty-eight years which Ruysbroeck passed at Groenendael
were, from the point of view of the earthly biographer, almost
devoid of incident. True, he formed many friendships with the most
spiritual men of his time, and seems occasionally to have left his
priory in order to visit them. We possess a charming account of
one such visit; that to Gerard Naghel, the Prior of Herines, at
whose suggestion The Book of Truth was written. "His peaceful and
joyful countenance, his humble good-humoured speech," says Gerard,
made him loved by all with whom he came into contact: a sentence
which brings to mind Ruysbroeck's own picture of those happy men
who walk in the way of love.
"Those who follow the way of love
Are the richest of all men living:
They are bold, frank, and fearless,
They have neither travail nor care,
For the Holy Ghost bears all their burdens.
They seek no outward seeming,
They desire nought that is esteemed of men,
They affect not singular conduct,
They would be like other good men."7
Further, he saw during these years the rapid growth of the
community-now swiftly becoming one of the chief centres of
spiritual life in the Low Countries-and the wide dissemination of
his own works. He even lived to see certain passages in those
works criticised, as supporting a pantheistic and heretical view
of the union of the soul with God. The Book of Truth was written
to refute this accusation. But the true events of these years took
place for him in that supernal world of high contemplation which
it was his special province to disclose to his fellow-men. There
his real life was fixed. There his loving ardour was for ever
young. Thither he drew those treasures of mystical knowledge which
he is said to have poured forth to his brethren in long ecstatic
discourses when the Spirit impelled him to speak: for he never
taught or spoke unless he felt himself inspired thereto by God.
When old age came upon him, though his ghostly vision never lost
its keenness his earthly eyes grew dim: and his later works were
dictated, when the Spirit moved him, to one of the younger
brothers of the house. At eighty-eight years of age his strength
failed: and after a short illness, which never clouded the
radiance of his spirit, he died upon December 2nd, 1381.
II
Ruysbroeck wrote all his works in the dialect of his native
province of Brabant: which stands in much the same relation to
modern Flemish as Chaucer's English stands to our own speech.
Eleven of these works have come down to us in various MS.
collections; and all of them, with one or two others of doubtful
authenticity, are included in the great standard Latin translation
made in the sixteenth century by the Carthusian monk Laurentius
Surius.8
The authentic writings are these:
1. The Spiritual Tabernacle: a long symbolic treatise on the
tabernacle of the Israelites, considered as a type of the
spiritual life.
2. The Twelve Points of True Faith: a short mystical
interpretation of the Creed.
3. The Book of the Four Temptations: an oblique attack on false
mystics.
These are probably early works.
4. The Kingdom of God's Lovers.
5. The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage.
Two elaborate and orderly treatises on the threefold life and
development of the soul, which probably belong to the first years
at Groenendael.
6. The Mirror of Eternal Salvation: written before 1359.
7. The Seven Cloisters: written before 1363.
8. The Seven Degrees of Love: written before 1372.
This group of works, forming a graduated instruction on the
ascetic and mystical life, seems to have been written for Dame
Margaret Van Meerbeke, a nun in the Convent of Poor Clares at
Brussels.
9. The Book of the Sparkling Stone.
10. The Book of Supreme Truth.
11. The Twelve Beguines.
These three books, the substance of which is now accessible to
English readers,9 contain the finest fruit of Ruysbroeck's genius.
The Twelve Beguines is partly written in the rough rhymed verse
which he uses in many parts of The Kingdom of God's Lovers and
other places; as if at times his ecstatic apprehensions presented
themselves to the surface mind in a rhythmic form and "prayer into
song was turned." There is a short example of this in The Book of
Truth. Such verse, however, though its uncouth strangeness gives
to it an impressive quality, is a far less successful medium for
the expression of his subtle mystical perceptions than the
vigorous prose style of his best passages; for instance, the
wonderful ninth chapter of The Sparkling Stone.10
When we come to examine the character of these mystical
perceptions, we find that Ruysbroeck was one of the few mystics
who have known how to make full use of a strong and disciplined
intellect, without ever permitting it to encroach on the proper
domain of spiritual intuition. An orderly and reasoned view of the
universe is the ground plan upon which the results of those
intuitions are set out: yet we are never allowed to forget the
merely provisional character of the best intellectual concepts
where we are dealing with ultimate truth. Ultimate truth, he says,
is not accessible to the human reason: "the What-ness of God" we
can never know.11 Yet this need not discourage us from exploring,
and describing as well as we can, those rich regions of
approximate truth and life-giving experience which await us beyond
the ramparts of the sensual world. The intellectual ideas and
symbols which he uses most often are taken to a large extent from
the Bible and the Liturgy, and the works of his great predecessors
and contemporaries; and conform to the main lines of the Christian
mystical tradition. St Paul and St Augustine, in particular, have
influenced his thought. The notion popularised by M. Maeterlinck,
that Ruysbroeck was an "ignorant monk" who became in his ecstacies
a profound philosopher, is contradicted by the reminiscences of
Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus, the many quotations from Dionysius
the Areopagite, St Augustine, Richard of St Victor, St Bernard,
and other mystical authors, which we find in his works. Indeed,
only those familiar with these great seers and thinkers are in a
position to recognise the sources and unravel the meaning of his
more difficult passages. He was in fact almost as well equipped on
the intellectual as on the contemplative side: and hence was
enabled to interpret to others, in language with which all
educated Christians in his day were more or less familiar,
something at least of the adventures of his spirit in the
fathomless Ocean of God.
Those intellectual concepts, however, of which he availed himself,
are constantly used by him in an original way: and always as a
means of expressing the results of direct personal inspiration and
experience. Particularly characteristic is the living quality with
which he invests theological formulae that for us have become
fixed and sterile. As Dante, without deviating from the narrow
path of scholastic philosophy, brings us at last into the presence
of "that Eternal Light which loves and smiles,"12 so Ruysbroeck
leads us back by way of the most orthodox Trinitarian doctrine to
the very heart of Reality: the eternal and abysmal Fountain of
life-giving life.
In the three books which are now translated we shall find all his
most characteristic ideas, though here it is only possible to
touch upon a few of them.13 For Ruysbroeck, as for St Augustine,
Reality is both Being and Becoming: one-fold and changeless in
essence, active and diverse in expression-a dualism aptly
represented by the theological dogma of the Trinity in Unity. So
too man, the image of God, is a unity who manifests himself in
diversity; "made trinity, like to the unmade Blessed Trinity," as
our own mystic Julian of Norwich has it.14 The ultimate truth is
the Godhead: the Divine Unity of religion, the Absolute of
philosophy. It is Simple, not with the simplicity of negation but
with the simplicity of complete affirmation: gathering up into its
unity all the rich complexities of power, wisdom, and love. In its
essence it is "dark," "naked," "wayless"; inaccessible to all the
processes of thought. Yet it is alive through and through; the
eternal "lifegiving ground" from which all comes. The ideas of
"Fatherhood", and "Sonhood" represent its quickening
fruitfulness;15 the Holy Ghost is the name of the Divine energy
and love which pours forth into the created world, and thence,
like a strong ebb-tide, draws all things back into their Origin.16
Though the soul plunged in God, "sunk in His unity," seems to
itself to experience a profound rest and stillness, yet it is
really surrendered to the movement of this mighty power: for "God
is an ocean that ebbs and flows."
The ideas, then, of movement, effort, and growth are central for
Ruysbroeck's thought. Again and again we are impressed by his
almost modern sense of life and action as the substance of the
real: his freedom from merely static conceptions. Therefore we
find that the theme of all his more important books is the growth
and development of the soul: the forms in which God's energy plays
upon it, the forms which should be taken by its response. The goal
of this development is the unified state of "pure simplicity" in
which it is able to "lose itself in the Fathomless Love" and enter
into the complete and beatific enjoyment, possession, or use of
God-for all these meanings are included in the word ghebruken,
usually translated "fruition," which is his favourite term for the
consummation of the mystical life.17
In The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage this growth is divided
into the three stages of the Active, Interior, and Superessential
Life: called in The Sparkling Stone by the old names of the state
of Servant, Friend, and Son. Man, we know, has a natural, active
life; the only one that he usually recognises. This he may "adorn
with the virtues" and make well-pleasing to God (Book I.). But
beyond this he has a spiritual or "interior" life, which is
susceptible of grace, the Divine energy and love; and by this can
be remodelled in accordance with its true pattern or archetype,
the Spirit of Christ (Book II.). Beyond this, again, he has a
superessential or "God-seeing life," in virtue of the spark of
Divine life implanted in him. By the union of his powers of reason
will and feeling with this spark-a welding of the several elements
of his being into unity-he may enter into his highest life; the
dual and God-like existence of fruition in God and work for God,
alternate action and rest (Book III.). The correspondences of the
active life are with that moral order which we recognise as
binding on all men of good will. Those of the interior life are
with the experiences which we usually recognise as religious and
spiritual. But the correspondences of the superessential life are
with a plane of being which lies beyond thought, and has, so far
as our intellectual perceptions go, no condition. It is a wayless
state, "above reason, not without reason";18 dark with excess of
light. This state is the Being of God; but for us it is "beyond
being."
The First Book, then, is almost wholly concerned with the
development of the Christian character: the only solid and
enduring foundation of the mystical life. It treats of the virtues
which adorn our human nature and make it ready for the coming of
the Spirit of Christ; and of the primary importance of intention,
the stretching out of the loving will toward God, "having Him in
mind" in all things. "Mean only God," said the old English
mystics. So for Ruysbroeck meyninghe en minnen-will and love-sum
up the obligations of the soul at this stage of its growth, and
prepare it for the greater experiences of the interior life.
Though he never uses the traditional formula of the Mystic Way, we
may regard this active life as more or less equivalent to the Way
of Purgation. The same stage is treated in the 1st and 6th
chapters of The Sparkling Stone and the 3rd chapter of The Book of
Truth.
The Second Book goes on from moral training to spiritual training,
and includes all that ascetic writers mean by the "Illuminative
Way." It deals with those "ghostly exercises," the deliberate
responses of the soul to the invitation of God, which form the
first degrees of our interior life, and with the dawning of the
true mystical consciousness. It falls into three chief divisions,
treating of three ways in which the Spirit of God comes into our
inner man (caps. 5, 6, and 7).
In the first division (caps. 8-32) Ruysbroeck treats of the action
of grace on the "lower powers," or sense life. In the allegory of
the Seasons, he describes the normal development of the
illuminated life in its emotional aspect: its joys and ardours,
reactions and despairs. The Holy Ghost "hunting the spirit of man"
(cap. 3) has seized and transfigured those "desirous, affective
and irascible" powers of the soul which, according to the doctrine
of medieval psychology, make up natural life of normal men.19
In the second division (caps. 35-38) this process is extended to
the "higher powers" of the soul: the memory or mind, the
understanding, and the will. The experience of God is, for these
higher powers, an experience of fresh enlightenment and fresh
ardour; in Ruysbroeck's favourite imagery, of light and fire.
Grace, which dwells like a living fountain at the heart of our
personality-the "unity of the spirit"-thence pours forth into each
faculty in three streams of radiance: claerheit, a word expressive
at once of pervading brightness and limpid clearness, which occurs
on almost every page of his writings. The sense of this supernal
clarity, veritably experienced-a viva luce, a quickening light, of
which we become aware when we open the soul's eyes-is found in
nearly every mystical writer from the time of St John, and
probably originates in that consciousness of enhanced lucidity
which frequently accompanies spiritual exaltation. It was
crystallised by the schoolmen in the doctrine of the lumen
gloriae-the Divine light which transfigures the soul and makes it
like to God20-and much of Ruysbroeck's work is really a poetic
elaboration of this idea. As a "simple light" this Radiance now
frees the mind from the teasing complexity of distracting images:
as a "spreading light" it illuminates the understanding: as a
burning flame, it enkindles the will. The self thus becomes
capable of the first form of contemplation, adherence to God by
means of the purified reason and will: responding to the "loving
drawing-nigh" of God-dat minlike neyghen Gods-with an ardent
outstretching of himself towards that seeking and compelling
power.
The powers of the soul, then, in the second stage of illumination,
become inundated by the divine claerheit. It "drenches them"; and
the result of this is seen in the state of perfect charity to
which the self now attains: the condition of equable outflowing
love to God and all manner of men (caps. 39-43). In the third and
highest stage (caps. 49-65), we pass beyond the enhancement and
enlightenment of the separate powers of our nature to the
"essential being" of the self: that unity of the spirit of which
Ruysbroeck is always speaking, and wherefrom the powers proceed,
as the Divine Persons proceed from the Unity of God.21 Whether our
mental and emotional powers as such participate in the spiritual
life, is for him a secondary consideration. They may do so, if
they be wholly surrendered to God. But our true union with Him
takes place in the abysmal deeps of our being-our "ground"-and
ever abides there: for here our life, as it were, buds out from
the Divine life, and here God dwells eternally "according to His
essence." If we learn to enter within, passing beyond the powers
to the unity of the spirit, we become conscious of this.22 There
we experience His mysterious touch and stirrings; feel and respond
to the thrust and invitation of His love, as He drives each
created spirit forth to work His will, and draws it home again
towards His heart. There, outside Time, the Eternal Birth takes
place (caps. 57-61).
As a result of this practice in introversion, this simplification
of consciousness, the self now first becomes capable of the second
form of contemplation, described in The Twelve Beguines as
"A knowing which is in no wise;
For ever abiding above the reason."23
and enters upon that profound yet simple communion with God which
Ruysbroeck calls the most inward of all exercises. For this his
favourite image is that of feeding: the soul tastes God (cap. 65),
eats, devours, assimilates Him, and in her turn is eaten and
consumed24-language which probably reflects his great personal
devotion to the Eucharist. With this mystical savouring and
feeding upon Reality, the self reaches the term of the interior
life, and the full stature of that "secret friend of God"
described with such marvellous subtlety in the 8th chapter of The
Sparkling Stone.
It is at this point that the dangers of a false mysticism make
themselves felt. Here, then, Ruysbroeck enters upon a vigorous and
acute criticism of Quietism (caps. 66-67): especially valuable to
us at the present day, when so many irresponsible apostles of "new
mysticism" are recommending voluntary passivity of this type as a
substitute for the stern discipline and perpetual willed effort
involved in the Christian science of prayer. Ruysbroeck describes
the interior blankness and silence of the quietist as a psychic
trick: a deliberate sinking down into the subconscious-the subsoil
of human nature-where it is true that the Divine Life dwells and
supports our created life, but where we are below instead of above
the levels of normal consciousness. Here, indeed, the soul
experiences a sensation of rest and peace: but it is merely
resting in its own emptiness, a false repose which demands no
exercise of virtue, no tension of the will, and is a caricature of
the active and loving surrender taught by the Christian saints.
The true emptiness and idleness of which Ruysbroeck speaks as an
essential preparation of the contemplative state, is a condition
of meek and passive attentiveness to God, which excludes
consciousness of the ordinary objects of perception and thought;
sweeps and garnishes the interior castle. Here the virtue is not
in the emptiness and idleness, but in the humble and eager
yielding of ourselves. Although man cannot by his own effort reach
God, yet without such deliberate loving effort we shall never
possess Him.25
Beyond even the highest point of this interior life, in which the
contemplative feels himself to be living "in God,"26 is that
transfigured or deified life, as the Platonic mystics named it,
which Ruysbroeck calls overwesen-superessential-the life of the
"God-seeing man" (Book III). Whereas in the interior life we may
be said to re-discover the lost inheritance of our spirit, in this
life there is a genuine transcendence, a passing beyond that
spirit's created being: for the Being of God, in which this
consummation is found, is "more than being" to us. It abides
beyond all the concepts of reason, beyond anything that we can
name or describe, outside Time, in the bosom of Divine Reality:
that deep Quiet of the Godhead which cannot be moved. Those who
ascend thereto have passed from the state of "secret friends" to
that of the "hidden sons" of God, and completed the soul's journey
to its home.27 Then they find themselves, so far as their separate
consciousness persists, in a place that is placeless and a way
that is wayless: in the abysmal Onwise of God, a word for which we
have no exact equivalent, but which embodies one of Ruysbroeck's
most important conceptions, and is the occasion of some of his
most mysterious utterances. It represents that world of spiritual
reality which is beyond all attributes and conditions; which is
neither This nor That, which is "in no wise"-the Absolute wherein
all ways and modes of being, all wise, are swallowed up, and all
our finite perceptions die into ignorance and darkness (cap. 4).28
"The splendour of That which is in no wise is as a fair mirror
Wherein shines the everlasting light of God:
It has no attributes,
And in it all the activities of reason fail.
It is not God
But it is the light whereby we see Him:
Those who walk in the divine light thereof
Discover in themselves the Unwalled."29
Seen from the synthetic and spiritual point of view, this supernal
world of experience is the Essential Unity, wherein the richness
of Eternal Life consists, and where the surrendered soul enjoys
the peaceful fruition of God. But seen from the analytic and
intellectual point of view it is the Essential Nudity, the
"nought" or "divine dark" of Dionysius the Areopagite: for it has
been stripped of every character of which we can think.30 Here the
mystic feels himself, as regards his essential being, to be poured
out into God, melted and merged in Him as a river in the sea: and,
as regards his own separate consciousness, apprehends Him in one
simple act of absorbed attention "seeing and staring" with wide-
open eyes. It is in this one act, sometimes felt by us as a
passing beyond ourselves, sometimes as a fixed ecstatic vision,
"beholding that which we are, and becoming that which we behold"
that the self at last knows itself to be one life and one spirit
with God.31
The mystic has now entered into union with the three wise, the
three modes or ways, under which Divine Love imparts itself in the
spirit of man: characteristically distinguished by Ruysbroeck as
three forms of movement. First this energetic love pours itself
out from the Godhead into us as grace: and we, in receiving it and
making it ours by our virtues and good works, are united to God
"through means." This is the function of the active life
harmonising man's work with God's work. Then, as a compelling
tide, it draws us within its own flood back towards God. This is
the union "without means"' wherein we are wholly surrendered to
His love: it is the proper condition of the interior life. But
when we have reached the superessential life, and seem to our own
feeling to be lost in the Darkness, burned up in the Brightness,
and sunk in the Eternal Stillness of God-that "dark silence where
all lovers lose themselves,"32-then the circle is complete. We are
made part of His divine fruition or "content the eternal
satisfaction and eternal activity of Perfect Love; achieving thus
the "union without distinction," though not union without
"otherness."33 Henceforward we can participate in God's dual life
of rest and work, transcendent fruition and immanent fruitfulness:
abiding in restful possession of Him, yet perpetually sent down
from the heights to serve the whole world.34
The final state of the Christian mystic, then, is not annihilation
in the Absolute. It is a condition wherein we dwell wholly in God,
one life and truth with Him; yet still "feel God and ourselves,"
as the lover feels his beloved, in a perfect union which depends
for its joy on an invincible otherness. The soul, transfused and
transfigured by the Divine Love as molten iron is by the fire,
becomes, it is true, "one simple blessedness with God"35 yet ever
retains its individuality: one with God beyond itself, yet other
than God within itself.36 The "deified man" is fully human still,
but spiritualised through and through; not by the destruction of
his personality, but by the taking up of his manhood into God.
There he finds, not a static beatitude, but a Height, a Depth, a
Breadth of which he is made part, yet to which he can never
attain: for the creature, even at its highest, remains finite, and
is conscious that Infinity perpetually eludes its grasp and leads
it on. So heaven itself is discovered to be no mere passive
fulfillment, but rather a forward-moving life:37 an ever new
loving and tasting, new exploring and enjoying of the Infinite
Fulness of God, that inexhaustible Object of our knowledge and
delight. It is the eternal voyage of the adventurous soul on the
vast and stormy sea of the Divine.
EVELYN UNDERHILL
THE ADORNMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE HERE BEGINS
THE FIRST BOOK
PROLOGUE
Ecce sponsus venit,
exile obviam ei.
BEHOLD, THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH, GO YE OUT TO MEET HIM. These words
were written by St Matthew the Evangelist, and Christ spoke them
to His disciples and to all other men in the parable of the
virgins. This Bridegroom is Christ, and human nature is the bride;
the which God has made in His own image and after His likeness.
And in the beginning He had set her in the highest and most
beautiful, the richest and most fertile place in all the earth:
that is, in Paradise. And He had given her dominion over all
creatures; and He had adorned her with graces; and had given her a
commandment, so that by obedience she might have merited to be
confirmed and established with her Bridegroom in an eternal troth,
and never to fall into any grief, or any sin.
Then came a beguiler, the hellish fiend, full of envy, in the
shape of a subtle serpent, and he beguiled the woman; and they
both beguiled the man, in whom above all the whole of our nature
consists. And the fiend seduced that nature, the bride of God,
with false counsel; and she was driven into a strange country,
poor and miserable and captive and oppressed, and beset by her
enemies; so that it seemed as though she might never attain
reconciliation and return again to her native land.
But when God thought the time had come, and had mercy on the
suffering of His beloved, He sent His Only Begotten Son to earth,
in a fair chamber, in a glorious temple; that is, in the body of
the Virgin Mary. There He was married to this bride, our nature,
and He united her with His own person through the most pure blood
of this noble Virgin. The priest who married the bride was the
Holy Ghost; the angel Gabriel brought the offer; the glorious
Virgin gave her consent. Thus Christ, our faithful Bridegroom,
united our nature with His person; and He has sought us in strange
countries, and taught us heavenly customs and perfect
faithfulness, and has laboured for us and fought as our champion
against the adversary. And He has broken open our prison, and won
the victory, and by His death slain our death; and He has redeemed
us by His blood, and made us free through His living waters of
baptism, and enriched us with His sacraments and with His gifts:
that we might go out (as He says) with all the virtues, to meet
Him in the house of glory and to enjoy Him without end in
eternity.
Now Christ, the Master of Truth, says: BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM
COMETH, GO YE OUT TO MEET HIM. In these words, Christ our Lover
teaches us four things. First, He gives us a command, in that He
says: BEHOLD. Those who neglect this command and remain blind are
all damned. Secondly, He shows us what we shall see, that is, the
coming of the Bridegroom; for He says, THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. In
the third place, He teaches and commands us what we shall do, for
He says: GO YE OUT. And in the fourth place, by saying: TO MEET
HIM, He shows us the use and the purpose of our labour and of all
our life; that is to say, the loving meeting with our Bridegroom.
These words we shall now declare and set forth in three ways.
First, according to the common way relating to the life of
beginners, which is called the Active Life, and which is necessary
for all men who wish to be saved. Secondly, we will explain these
same words in their relation to the interior, exalted, and God-
desiring life, at which many men may arrive by their virtues and
by the grace of God. Thirdly, we will expound them in respect of a
superessential, God-seeing life, which few men can attain or
taste, by reason of the sublimity and high nobility of that life.
CHAPTER I
OF THE ACTIVE LIFE
SINCE the time of Adam, Christ, the Wisdom of the Father, has said
to all men, and He says so still, inwardly according to His
Divinity: BEHOLD. And this beholding is needful. Now mark this
well: that for anyone who wishes to see, either in a bodily or a
ghostly manner, three things are necessary.
The first thing is that, if a man will see bodily and outwardly,
he must have the outward light of heaven, or some other material
light, to illuminate the medium, that is, the air, through which
he will see. The second thing is, that he must permit the things
which he wishes to see to be reflected in his eyes. And the third
thing is that the organs, the eyes, must be sound and flawless, so
that gross bodily things can be subtly reflected in them. If a man
lack any of these three things his bodily sight is wanting. Of
this sight, however, we shall say nothing more; but we shall speak
of a ghostly and supernatural sight, in which all our bliss
abides.
For all who wish to see in a ghostly and supernatural manner three
things also are needful. The first is the light of Divine grace;
the second is a free turning of the will to God, the third is a
conscience clean from any mortal sin.
Now mark this: God being a common good, and His boundless love
being common to all, He gives His grace in two ways: prevenient
grace, and the grace by which one merits eternal life. Prevenient
grace is common to all men, Pagan and Jew, good and evil. By
reason of His common love, which God has towards all men, He has
caused His name and the redemption of human nature to be preached
and revealed to the uttermost parts of the earth. Whosoever wishes
to turn to Him can turn to Him. All the sacraments, baptism and
every other sacrament are made ready for all men who wish to
receive them according to the needs of each; for God wishes to
save all men and to lose not one. At the day of Judgment, no one
shall be able to complain that, had he wished to be converted, but
little was done for him. Thus God is a common light and a common
splendour enlightening heaven and earth, and every man, each
according to his need and worth.38
But although, even as God is common to all, the sun shines upon
all trees, yet many a tree remains without fruits, and many a tree
brings forth wild fruits of little use to men. And for this reason
such trees are pruned, and shoots of fruitful trees are grafted
into them, so that they may bear good fruits, savoury and useful
to man.
The light of Divine grace is a fruit-bearing shoot, coming forth
from the living paradise of the eternal kingdom; and no deed can
bring refreshment or profit to man if it be not born of this
shoot. This shoot of Divine grace, which makes man pleasing to
God, and through which he merits eternal life, is offered to all
men. But it is not grafted into all, because some will not cut
away the wild branches of their trees; that is, unbelief, and a
perverse and disobedient will opposed to the commandments of God.
But if this shoot of God's grace is to be grafted into our souls,
there must be of necessity three things: the prevenient grace of
God, the conversion of one's own free will, and the purification
of conscience. The prevenient grace touches all men, God bestowing
it upon all men. But not all men give on their part the conversion
of the will and the purification of conscience; and that is why so
many lack the grace of God, through which they should merit
eternal life.
The prevenient grace of God touches a man from without and from
within. From without through sickness; or through the loss of
external goods, of kinsmen, and of friends; or through public
disgrace. Or he may be stirred by a sermon, or by the examples of
the saints or of good men, their words, or their deeds; so that he
learns to recognize himself as he is. This is how God touches a
man from without.
Sometimes a man is touched also from within, through remembering
the sorrows and the sufferings of our Lord, and the good which God
has bestowed upon him and upon all other men; or by considering
his sins, the shortness of life, the fear of death and the fear of
hell, the eternal torments of hell and the eternal joy of heaven,
and how God has spared him in his sins and has awaited his
conversion. Or he may ponder the marvellous works of God in heaven
and in earth, and in all creatures. Such are the workings of the
prevenient grace of God, stirring men from without and from
within, in many ways. And besides this, man has a natural tendency
towards God, because of the spark of the soul, and because of that
highest reason, which always desires the good and hates the evil.
In all these ways God touches all men, each one according to his
need; so that at times a man is smitten, reproved, alarmed, and
stands still within himself to consider himself. And all this is
still prevenient grace, and not yet efficacious grace. Thus does
prevenient grace prepare the soul for the reception of the other
grace, through which eternal life is merited. For when the soul
has thus got rid of evil willing and evil doing, it is perplexed
and smitten with fear of what it should do, considering itself,
its wicked works, and God. And from this there arise a natural
repentance of its sins and a natural good-will. Such is the
highest work of prevenient grace.
If a man does all he can, and cannot do more because of his
feebleness, it rests with the infinite goodness of God to finish
the work. Then, straight as a sunbeam, there comes a higher light
of Divine grace, and it is shed into the soul according to its
worth, though neither merited nor desired. For in this light God
gives Himself out of free goodness and generosity, the which never
creature can merit before it has received it. And this is an
inward and mysterious working of God in the soul, above time; and
it moves the soul and all its powers. Therewith ends prevenient
grace and begins the other grace, that is to say, the supernatural
light.
This light is the first point necessary, and from it there arises
a second point, and that on the part of the soul; namely, the free
conversion of the will, in a single moment of time. And here it is
that charity is born of the union of God with the soul. These two
points hang together, so that the one cannot be fulfilled without
the other. Where God and the soul come together in the union of
love, then God, above time, gives His light; and the soul, in a
single moment of time, gives, by virtue of the grace received, its
free conversion to Him. And there charity is born of God and of
the soul in the soul, for charity is a bond of love, tying God to
the loving soul.
Of these two things-that is to say, the grace of God and the free
conversion of the will enlightened by grace-charity, that is,
Divine love, is born. And from this Divine love the third point
arises; that is, the purification of conscience. And these three
points belong together in such a way that one cannot exist long
without the others; for whosoever has Divine love has also perfect
contrition for his sins.
Yet here we must take heed to the order of Divine and creaturely
things as they are here shown. For God gives His light, and by
this light man gives his willing and perfect conversion: and of
these two is born a perfect love towards God. And from this love
there come forth perfect contrition and purification of
conscience. And these arise from the consideration of misdeeds and
all that may defile the soul: for when a man loves God he despises
himself and all his works. This is the order of every conversion.
From it there come true repentance, a perfect sorrow for every
evil thing which one has done, and an ardent desire never to sin
again and evermore to serve God in humble obedience. Hence too an
open confession, without reserve, ambiguity, or excuse; a perfect
satisfaction according to the counsel of a prudent priest; and the
beginning of virtue and of all good works.
These three things, as you have heard, are needful to a spiritual
or godly sight. If you have them, Christ is saying within you:
BEHOLD, and you are beholding in truth. And this is the first of
the four chief points; namely, that in which Christ our Lord says:
BEHOLD.
CHAPTER II
SHOWING HOW WE SHALL CONSIDER THE COMING OF CHRIST IN THREE WAYS
Now, by saying: THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH, He shows us further what we
shall see. Christ, our Bridegroom, spoke this word in Latin:
VENIT. And this word implies two tenses, the past and the present;
and yet here it denotes the future too.
And that is why we shall consider three comings of our Bridegroom,
Jesus Christ. In the first coming He became man, for man's sake,
out of love. The second coming takes place daily, often and many
times, in every loving heart, with new graces and with new gifts,
as each is able to receive them. The third coming we shall see as
the coming in the Judgment, or at the hour of death. And in all
these comings there are three things to be considered: the why and
the wherefore, the inward way, and the outward work.
The reason why God created the angels and man, was His
unfathomable goodness and nobleness whereby He willed to do it;
that the bliss and the richness which He is Himself might be
revealed to rational creatures, so that they might taste Him in
time, and enjoy Him outside time in eternity.
The reason why God became man was His incomprehensible love, and
the need of all men; for man had been corrupted by the Fall, and
could not amend himself.
But the reason why Christ, according to His Godhead and according
to His manhood, wrought all His works on earth, this reason is
fourfold: His Divine love which is without measure; the created
love, called charity, which He had in His soul through union with
the Eternal Word and through the perfect gift of His Father; the
great need of man; and the glory of His Father. These are the
reasons for the coming of Christ our Bridegroom, and for all His
works, both outward and inward.
Now, if we would follow Christ our Bridegroom in virtue, so far as
we are able, we must consider in what wise He was inwardly and the
works which He wrought outwardly; that is to say, His virtues and
the deeds of these virtues.
In what wise He was according to His Godhead, this is inaccessible
and incomprehensible to us; for it is that according to which He
is born of the Father without ceasing, and wherein the Father, in
Him and through Him, knows, creates, orders and rules all things
in heaven and on earth. For He is the Wisdom of the Father, and
they breathe forth one Spirit, that is, one Love, which is a
common bond between Them and all saints, and all good men in
heaven and on earth. Of this condition we shall not speak any
more; but we shall speak of that condition which He had through
Divine gifts and according to His created manhood.39 And this
condition was manifold. For as many inward virtues as Christ
possessed, so many were His inward conditions: for every virtue
has its special condition. The sum of the virtues and conditions
in the soul of Christ, this is above the understanding and above
the comprehension of all creatures. But we shall take three of
them: namely, humility, charity, and patient suffering, in inward
and outward things. These are the three chief roots and beginnings
of all virtues and all perfection.
CHAPTER III
OF HUMILITY
NOW understand this: we find in Christ, according to His Godhead,
two kinds of humility.
The first kind is this: that He willed to become man, and took
upon Himself that very nature which had been banished and cursed
to the bottom of hell, and willed to become one with it according
to His personality; so that now any man, either good or evil, can
say: Christ, the Son of God, is my brother.
The second kind of humility according to His Godhead consists in
this; that He chose a poor maiden, and not a king's daughter, for
His mother, so that a poor maiden should be the mother of God, who
is Lord of heaven and earth and all creatures.
And further, we can say of all the works of humility which Christ
ever wrought, that they were wrought by God Himself.
Now let us take the humility which was in Christ according to His
manhood and through the grace and the gifts of God. In this
humility His soul with all its powers bowed down in reverence and
adoration before the most high might of the Father; for a bowed
down heart is a humble heart. And therefore He wrought all His
works for the praise and for the honour of His Father, and never
and in nothing sought His own glory according to His humanity.
He was humble and subject to the old law, and to the commandments,
and also to custom whenever such was right. And that is why He was
circumcised, and taken into the temple, and redeemed in the
customary way; and He paid His tribute money to Caesar like any
other Jew. And He was humble and subject to His mother and to the
lord Joseph; and that is why He served them with true reverence
according to all their needs. He chose poor and outcast people for
His comrades, to live with, and wherewith to convert the world:
these were the Apostles. And He was lowly and meek among them and
among all other men. And He was ever ready for all men in whatever
inward or outward need they might be: as if he were the servant of
all the world.
This is the first point which we find in Christ our Bridegroom.
CHAPTER IV
OF CHARITY
THE second point is charity, beginning and origin of all virtues.
This charity upheld the higher powers of His soul in quietness,
and in a fruition of that very bliss which He now enjoys. And this
charity kept Him constantly uplifted to His Father in reverence,
in love, in adoration, in praise; with fervent prayers for the
needs of all men, and with an offering up of all His works to the
glory of His Father.
It was also this same charity that made Christ stoop with loving
faithfulness and kindness to the bodily and ghostly needs of all
men. And in this He gave an example to all men, teaching them by
His life how to live. He fed in ghostly wise with true and inward
teachings all those men who could understand them: and others from
without through the senses with signs and wonders. And sometimes
He fed them also with bodily food, as when they had followed Him
into the desert and were in need of it. He made the deaf hear and
the lame walk straight, and the blind see, and the dumb speak, and
cast forth devils from men. He raised up the dead; and this should
be understood both in a bodily and a ghostly way. Christ, our
Lover, has laboured for us from without and from within, with true
faithfulness. His charity we cannot fathom and understand, for it
flows out of the unfathomable fountain of the Holy Ghost, and
transcends all that creatures have ever experienced of charity;
for Christ was God and man in one Person.
And this is the second point: that is to say, charity.
CHAPTER V
OF PATIENT ENDURANCE
THE third point is patient endurance. We should mark this point
carefully, for it adorned Christ our Bridegroom during all His
life. For His sufferings began very early, as soon as He was born;
they began with poverty and cold. Then He was circumcised and shed
His blood; He was driven to a strange country; He served the lord
Joseph and His mother; He suffered hunger and thirst, shame and
contempt, the vile words and works of the Jews. He fasted, He
watched, and He was tempted by the devil. He was subject to all
men; He wandered from country to country, from town to town, with
much labour and great zeal, that He might preach the Gospel.
At last He was taken prisoner by the Jews, who were His enemies,
though He was their friend. He was betrayed, mocked and insulted,
scourged and buffetted, and condemned by false witness. He bore
His cross with great pains up to the highest point of the land. He
was stripped stark naked. So fair a body neither man nor woman
ever saw so cruelly ill-used. He suffered shame, and anguish, and
cold, before all the world: for He was naked, and it was cold, and
a searching wind cut into His wounds. He was nailed to the wood of
the cross with blunt nails, and so stretched out that His veins
were torn asunder. He was lifted up and then flung down, and
because of the blow His wounds began to bleed again. His head was
crowned with thorns; His ears heard the Jews cry in their fury:
CRUCIFY HIM, CRUCIFY HIM, with many other infamous words. His eyes
saw the hardness and malice of the Jews, and the anguish of His
mother. And His eyes overflowed with the bitterness of sorrow and
death; His nose smelt the filth which the Jews spat out of their
mouths into His face; His mouth and tongue dripped with vinegar
mingled with gall, and every sensitive part of His body had been
wounded by the scourge.
Christ our Bridegroom, wounded to the death, forsaken of God and
of all creatures, dying on the cross, hanging like a log for which
no one cared, save Mary, His poor mother, who could not help Him!
Christ also suffered spiritually, in His soul, because of the
hardened hearts of the Jews and of those who were putting Him to
death; for whatever signs and wonders they saw, they remained in
their wickedness. And He suffered because of their corruption and
because of the vengeance for His death; for He knew that God would
avenge it on them, body and soul. Also He suffered from the
distress and anguish of His mother and His disciples, who were in
great affliction. And He suffered still more, because His death
would be of no profit to so many men, and because of the
ingratitude of man and because of the false oaths which many would
swear, reviling and blaspheming Him Who had died out of love for
us all. And also His bodily nature and His lower reason suffered,
because God had withdrawn the inflow of His grace and of His
consolations, and had left them alone in such distress. And of
this Christ complained, exclaiming: MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU
FORSAKEN ME? But as to all His sufferings our Lover was silent;
and cried to His Father saying: FATHER, FORGIVE THEM; FOR THEY
KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO. And Christ was heard of His Father because
of His reverence; for those who acted from ignorance were soon
afterwards converted.
These then were Christ's inward virtues: humility, charity, and
patient endurance. These three virtues Christ our Bridegroom
practised during all His life, and He died with them, and paid our
debt according to justice. And of His generosity He has opened His
side. Thence flow forth the rivers of well-being and the
sacraments of bliss. And He has ascended in power, and sits at the
right hand of the Father, and reigns in eternity.
This is the first coming of our Bridegroom, and it is wholly past.
CHAPTER VI
OF THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
THE second coming of Christ our Bridegroom takes place every day
within good men; often and many times, with new graces and gifts,
in all those who make themselves ready for it, each according to
his power. We would not speak here of a man's first conversion,
nor of the first grace which was given to him when he turned from
sin to the virtues. But we would speak of an increase of new gifts
and new virtues from day to day, and of the present coming of
Christ our Bridegroom which takes place daily within our souls.
Now we must consider the why and the wherefore, the way and the
working of this coming. Its wherefore is fourfold: God's mercy and
our destitution, God's generosity and our desire. These four
things cause the growth of virtue and of nobleness.
Now understand this: when the sun sends its beams and its radiance
into a deep valley between two high mountains, and, standing in
the zenith, can yet shine upon the bottom and ground of the
valley, then three things happen: the valley becomes full of light
by reflection from the mountains, and it receives more heat, and
becomes more fruitful, than the plain and level country. And so
likewise, when a good man takes his stand upon his own littleness,
in the most lowly part of himself, and confesses and knows that he
has nothing, and is nothing, and can nothing, of himself, neither
stand still nor go on, and when he sees how often he fails in
virtues and good works: then he confesses his poverty and his
helplessness, then he makes a valley of humility. And when he is
thus humble, and needy, and knows his own need; he lays his
distress, and complains of it, before the bounty and the mercy of
God. And so he marks the sublimity of God and his own lowliness;
and thus he becomes a deep valley. And Christ is a Sun of
righteousness and also of mercy, Who stands in the highest part of
the firmament, that is, on the right hand of the Father, and from
thence He shines into the bottom of the humble heart; for Christ
is always moved by helplessness, whenever a man complains of it
and lays it before Him with humility. Then there arise two
mountains, that is, two desires; one to serve God and praise Him
with reverence, the other to attain noble virtues. Those two
mountains are higher than the heavens, for these longings touch
God without intermediary, and crave His ungrudging generosity. And
then that generosity cannot withhold itself, it must flow forth;
for then the soul is made ready to receive, and to hold, more
gifts.
These are the wherefore, and the way of the new coming with new
virtues. Then, this valley, the humble heart, receives three
things: it becomes more radiant and enlightened by grace, it
becomes more ardent in charity, and it becomes more fruitful in
perfect virtues and in good works. And thus you have the why, the
way, and the work of this coming.
CHAPTER VII
OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENTS
THERE is still another coming of Christ our Bridegroom, taking
place every day, with growth of grace and renewal of gifts. That
is, when a man receives some sacrament with a humble heart void of
anything contrary thereto. In this way he receives new gifts and
more ample grace, because of his humility and through the
mysterious working of Christ in the sacraments. Those things which
are contrary to the sacraments are unbelief in Baptism, a lack of
repentance in Confession, and approaching the Sacrament of the
Altar in the state of mortal sin or with an evil intention; and so
on as regards the other sacraments. Those who act thus receive no
new grace; rather does their sinfulness increase.
This is the other coming of Christ our Bridegroom, which is
present with us every day. We should consider it with a desiring
heart, lest it should not take place within us; for it is needful,
if we are to remain steadfast and to go forward in eternal life.
CHAPTER VIII
OF THE THIRD COMING OF CHRIST
THE third coming, which is yet to be, will take place at the
Judgment, or in the hour of death. The wherefore of this coming is
the fitting time, the due cause, and the righteousness of the
Judge.
The time which is fitting for this coming is the hour of death,
and the Last Judgment of all men. When God created the soul out of
nothing and united it with the body, He set a fixed day and a
fixed hour known only of Him, when it should have to give up
temporal things and to appear in His presence.
The due cause: for the soul must then account for every word
spoken and for every deed done, before the Eternal Truth.
The righteousness of the Judge, for it is to Christ that this
Judgment and this Verdict belong; for He is the Son of Man and the
Wisdom of the Father, and to this Wisdom all judgment is given,
since all hearts, in heaven, and on earth, and in hell, are clear
and open to It. And therefore these three points are the occasions
of the general coming in the Day of Doom, and of the particular
coming to each man in the hour of his death.
CHAPTER IX
SHOWING WHAT CHRIST WILL DO IN THE DAY OF DOOM
IN this Judgment Christ, our Bridegroom and our Judge, will reward
and punish, according to justice; for He will give every man that
which he has earned. He will give to the good, for every good work
done in God, a wage without measure, that is to say, God's very
Self, Whom no creature of itself can earn. But when God works
these works with and through the creature, then by His power the
creature gains His very Self as wage. And with due justice He will
give eternal woe and eternal sorrow to the damned; for these
despised and rejected the Eternal Good for a good that cannot
endure. And of their own free will they have turned away from God,
and have set themselves against His glory and His will, and have
sought after creatures; and so shall they be justly condemned.
Those who bear witness at the Judgment are the angels and the
conscience of men. And the adversary is the hellish fiend; and the
Judge is Christ, Whom none can deceive.
CHAPTER X
OF THE FIVE KINDS OF MEN WHO SHALL APPEAR AT THE JUDGMENT
FIVE kinds of men shall appear before this Judge.
The first, and the worst, are those Christians who have died in
mortal sin, without repentance and without regret; for these have
despised the death of Christ and His sacraments, or else they have
received them unworthily and in vain. And they have not practised
the works of mercy, showing charity toward their neighbours, as
God has commanded. And for this they are doomed to the depths of
hell.
The second kind are the unbelievers, Pagans and Jews. These must
all appear before Christ, though they were damned already during
their lives; for, in their time, they possessed neither Divine
grace nor Divine love, and for this reason they have always dwelt
in the eternal death of damnation. But these shall have less pain
than the evil Christians; for, since they received fewer gifts of
God, they owed Him less loyalty.
The third kind are those good Christians who, from time to time,
fell into sin, and rose again through contrition and penance; but
who have not made full satisfaction for their sins according to
justice. These belong to purgatory.
The fourth kind consists of those men who have kept God's
commandments; or, when they broke them, they have returned to God
with contrition and with penance, and with works of charity and
mercy and so have made satisfaction; so that their souls coming
forth from their mouths go straight to heaven, without passing
through purgatory.
The fifth kind are all those who, above all outward works of
charity, have their sojourn in heaven, and are noughted and lost
in God, and God in them, so that there is no other thing between
God and them but time and their mortal nature. When these men are
made free from their bodies, they enjoy, in that very moment,
eternal bliss; and they are not judged, but shall themselves judge
other men, with Christ, in the Day of Doom. And then all mortal
life, and all temporal sorrows, both on earth and in purgatory,
shall end, and all the souls of the damned, together with the
Fiend and his companions, shall sink and disappear in the deeps of
hell, in a corruption and everlasting horror without end. And in
the twinkling of an eye the blessed shall be with Christ their
Bridegroom in eternal glory; and they shall see and taste and
enjoy the fathomless riches of the Being of God, eternally and for
ever.
This is the third coming, which all of us await, and which is
still to happen. The first coming, when God became man and lived
in humility among us, and died for the love of us, this coming we
should imitate, outwardly by fulfilling the perfect moral virtues,
inwardly by the practice of charity and true humility. In the
second coming, which happens in the present time, He comes with
grace within each loving heart; and this coming we should long for
and pray for every day, that we may remain steadfast and grow in
new virtues. The third coming, at the Judgment, or in the hour of
death, we should expect with longing, with trust, and with awe;
that we may be set free from this misery and enter into the house
of glory.
This coming in its three ways is the second point of the four
chief points, wherein Christ says: Sponsus venit, THE BRIDEGROOM
COMETH.
CHAPTER XI
OF A SPIRITUAL GOING OUT WITH ALL VIRTUES
NOW understand and mark this: Christ says, at the beginning of
this precept, BEHOLD; and this is done through charity and a pure
conscience, as you have heard before. Then He has shown us what we
shall see, that is, the threefold coming.
Now He commands us what we shall do next, and says: GO YE OUT. If
you possess the first point, that is, if you are able to see,
through grace and through charity; and if, further, you have gazed
well upon your pattern Christ and His going out; then, there
arises within you, out of charity, and out of the loving
observation of your Bridegroom, a righteousness,40 namely, that
thereafter you long to follow Him in the virtues. Then Christ is
saying within you: GO YE OUT. This going out must be done in three
ways: we must go out towards God, towards ourselves, and towards
our neighbours, and this we must do by means of charity and
righteousness. For charity ever strives towards the height,
towards the kingdom of God, which is God Himself; for He is the
source from which unmediated charity flows forth, and wherein it
abides in the Unity. And righteousness, which is born of charity,
wills the perfection of all the moral and all the other virtues
which are honourable and proper to the kingdom of God, that is the
soul.
Charity and Righteousness: these two lay the foundation of the
kingdom of the soul where God would dwell. And this foundation is
humility.
These three virtues prop and bear the whole weight and the whole
edifice of all the other virtues and of all transcendence. For
charity always confronts man with the unfathomable goodness of
God, from which it has flowed forth, that thereby he may live
worthily and remain steadfast before God, and grow in true
humility and all other virtues. And righteousness places man face
to face with the eternal truth of God, that he may know truth, and
become enlightened, and may fulfil all virtue without erring. But
humility brings man face to face with the most high mightiness of
God, that he may always remain little and lowly, and may surrender
himself to God, and may not stand upon his selfhood. This is the
way in which a man should hold himself before God, that thereby he
may grow continually in new virtues.
CHAPTER XII
HOW HUMILITY IS THE FOUNDATION OF ALL OTHER VIRTUES
NOW consider this: as we have laid down humility as a foundation,
so therefore we shall speak of humility first.
Humility, that is lowliness or self-abasement, is an inward bowing
down or prostrating of the heart and of the conscience before
God's transcendent worth. Righteousness demands and orders this,
and through charity a loving heart cannot leave it undone. When a
lowly and loving man considers that God has served him so humbly,
so lovingly, and so faithfully; and sees God so high, and so
mighty, and so noble, and man so poor, and so little, and so low:
then there springs up within the humble heart a great awe and a
great veneration for God. For to pay homage to God by every
outward and inward act, this is the first and dearest work of
humility, the most savoury among those of charity, and most meet
among those of righteousness. The loving and humble heart cannot
pay homage enough, either to God or to His noble manhood, nor can
it abase itself as much as it would. And that is why a humble man
thinks that his worship of God and his lowly service are always
falling short. And he is meek, reverencing Holy Church and the
sacraments. And he is discreet in food and drink, in speech, in
the answers which he makes to everybody; and in his behaviour,
dress, and lowly service he is without hypocrisy and without
pretence. And he is humble in his devotions, both outwardly and
inwardly, before God and before all men, so that none are offended
because of him. And so he overcomes and casts out Pride, which is
the source and origin of all other sins. By humility the snares of
the devil, and of sin, and of the world, are broken, and man is
set in order, and established in the very condition of virtue. And
heaven is opened to him, and God stoops to hear his prayers, and
he is fulfilled with grace. And Christ, that strong rock, is his
foundation. Whosoever therefore grounds his virtues in humility,
he shall never err.
CHAPTER XIII
OF OBEDIENCE
FROM this humility there springs obedience, for none can be
inwardly obedient save the humble man.
Obedience means an unassuming, submissive, and pliable humour, and
a will in readiness for all that is good. Obedience makes a man
submit to the biddings, the forbiddings, and the will of God; it
subjects the senses and the animal powers to the higher reason, so
that a man may live decently and reasonably. And it makes men
submissive and obedient to Holy Church, to the sacraments, to the
prelates and their teaching, to their commandments and their
counsels, and to all the good customs practised by Holy
Christendom. It also makes a man ready and supple in his
intercourse with other men, in deed and counsel, in ghostly and
bodily business, with prudent discretion, according to the needs
of each.
And it casts out disobedience, that daughter of pride, more to be
abhorred than venom or poison. To be obedient in will and deed
adorns and enlarges and reveals the humility of a man. It makes
peace in the cloister. If it is in the prelate, as it ought to be,
it will draw to him all those whom he rules. It makes for peace
and unanimity between equals; and he who has it is loved by his
superiors and by those who are set over him; whilst by God he is
advanced, and enriched with His gifts, which are eternal.
CHAPTER XIV
OF THE RENUNCIATION OF SELF WILL
FROM this obedience there springs the renunciation of one's own
will and one's own opinion, for none can submit his own will in
all things to the will of another, save the obedient man: though
one may obey in outward things and yet remain self-willed.
The forsaking of one's own will causes a man to live without
preference for either this or that, in doing or leaving undone, in
those things which are strange and special in the saints, in their
precepts and in their practice; but it makes him to live always
according to the glory and the commandments of God, and the will
of his prelates, and in peace with all men in his neighbourhood,
so far as true prudence permits.
By renouncing self-will in doing, in leaving undone, and in
suffering, the material and occasion of pride are wholly cast out,
and humility is made perfect in the highest degree. And God
becomes the Lord of the man's whole will; and the man's will is so
united with the will of God that he can neither will nor desire in
any other way. This man has put off the old man, and has put on
the new man, who is renewed and made according to the dearest will
of God. Of all such Christ says: BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT-
that is to say, those who have renounced self-will-FOR THEIRS IS
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.41
CHAPTER XV
OF PATIENCE
FROM the renunciation of self-will springs patience; for none can
be perfectly patient in all things save the man who has subjected
his own will to the will of God, and also in all profitable and
seemly things, to the will of all other men.
Patience is a peaceful endurance of all things that may befall a
man either from God or from the creatures. Nothing can trouble the
patient man; neither the loss of earthly goods, of friends and
kinsmen, nor sickness, nor disgrace, nor life, nor death, nor
purgatory, nor devil, nor hell. For he has abandoned himself in
perfect charity to the will of God, and as he is not burdened by
mortal sin, everything that God imposes on him, in time and in
eternity, is light to him. By this patience a man is also adorned
and armed against peevishness and sudden wrath, and impatience in
suffering; which often stir a man from within and from without,
and lay him open to many temptations.
CHAPTER XVI
OF MEEKNESS
FROM this patience there spring meekness and kindliness, for none
can be meek in adversity save the patient man.
Meekness gives a man peace and rest in all things. For the meek
man can bear provoking words and ways, uncivil looks and deeds,
and every kind of injustice towards himself and his friends, and
yet in all things remain in peace, for meekness is peaceful
endurance.
By meekness the irascible or repulsive power remains unmoved, in
quietude; the desirous power is uplifted toward virtue; the
rational power, perceiving this, rejoices. And the conscience,
tasting it, rests in peace; for the second mortal sin, Anger,
fury, or wrath, has been cast out. For the Spirit of God dwells in
the humble and the meek; and Christ says: BLESSED ARE THE MEEK,
FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH, that is, their own nature and
all earthly things, in meekness; and after that the Country of
Life in Eternity.
CHAPTER XVII
OF KINDLINESS
OUT of the same source wherein meekness takes its rise springs
kindliness, for none can be kind save the meek man.
This kindness makes a man show a friendly face, and give a cordial
response, and do compassionate deeds, to those who are
quarrelsome, when he hopes that they will come to know themselves
and mend their ways.
By gentleness and kindness, charity is kept quick and fruitful in
man, for a heart full of kindness is like a lamp full of precious
oil; for the oil of mercy enlightens the erring sinner with good
example, and with words and works of comfort it anoints and heals
those whose hearts are wounded or grieved or perplexed. And it is
a fire and a light for those who dwell in the virtues, in the fire
of charity; and neither jealousy nor envy can perturb it.
CHAPTER XVIII
OF COMPASSION
OUT of kindliness springs compassion, which is a fellow-feeling
with all men; for none can share the griefs of all, save him who
is kind.
Compassion is an inward movement of the heart, stirred by pity for
the bodily and ghostly griefs of all men. This compassion makes a
man suffer with Christ in His passion; for he who is compassionate
marks the wherefore of His pains and the way of His resignation;
of His love, His wounds, His tenderness; of His grief and His
nobleness; of the disgrace, the misery, and the shame He endured;
of the way in which He was despised; of His crown; of the nails;
of His mercifulness; of His destruction and dying in patience.
These manifold and unheard-of sorrows of Christ, our Saviour and
our Bridegroom, move all kindly men to pity and compassion with
Christ.
Compassion makes a man look into himself, and recognize his
faults, his feebleness in virtues and in the worship of God, his
lukewarmness, his laziness, his many failings, the time he has
wasted and his present imperfection in moral and other virtues;
all this makes a man feel true pity and compassion for himself.
Further, compassion marks the errors and disorders of our fellow-
creatures, how little they care for their God and their eternal
blessedness, their ingratitude for all the good things which God
has done for them, and the pains He suffered for their sake; how
they are strangers to virtue, unskilled and unpractised in it, but
skilful and cunning in every wickedness; how attentive they are to
the loss and gain of earthly goods, how careless and reckless they
are of God, of eternal things, and their eternal bliss. When he
marks this, a good man is moved to compassion for the salvation of
all men.
Such a man will also regard with pity the bodily needs of his
neighbours, and the manifold sufferings of human nature; seeing
men hungry, thirsty, cold, naked, sick, poor, and abject; the
manifold oppressions of the poor, the grief caused by loss of
kinsmen, friends, goods, honour, peace; all the countless sorrows
which befall the nature of man. These things move the just to
compassion, so that they share the sorrows of all. But their
greatest pain springs from this: that men are so impatient of this
suffering, that they lose their reward, and may often earn hell
for themselves. Such is the work of compassion and of pity.
This work of compassion and of common neighbourly love overcomes
and casts out the third mortal sin, that is hatred or Envy. For
compassion is a wound in the heart, whence flows a common love to
all mankind and which cannot be healed so long as any suffering
lives in man; for God has ordained grief and sorrow of heart
before all the virtues. And this is why Christ says: BLESSED ARE
THEY THAT MOURN: FOR THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED. And that shall come
to pass when they reap in joy that which now, through compassion
and pity, they sow in tears.
CHAPTER XIX
OF GENEROSITY
FROM this compassion springs generosity; for none can be generous
in a supernatural way, with faithfulness and goodwill towards all,
save him who has a pitiful heart-though a man may often show
generosity to a particular person without charity and without
supernatural generosity.
Generosity is a liberal flowing forth of the heart which has been
touched by charity and pity. When a man considers with compassion
the sufferings and the sorrows of Christ, therefrom springs
generosity; which makes him offer to Christ, for His pains and for
His love, praise and thanks, worship and adoration, with a joyful
and humble surrender of body and soul, in time and in eternity. If
a man considers himself with compassion, and has pity on himself,
and thinks upon the good which God has done to him, and his own
failings: then he must pour himself forth into the generosity of
God, taking refuge in His faithfulness and His mercy, turning to
Him with trust and with a perfect and free intention to serve Him
for evermore. And the generous man who sees the errors and
disorders of others, and their unrighteousness, beseeches and
prays God, with ardent faith, that He will let His Divine gifts
flow forth, that He will show His generosity to all men, and they
may know Him and turn to the Truth. The generous man also marks
with compassion the bodily needs of all men, and he serves, and he
gives, and he lends, and he consoles everyone, according to the
needs of each, in so far as he is able, with prudent discretion.
Because of this generosity men are wont to practise the seven
works of mercy; the rich do them by their alms and because of
their riches, the poor by their good-will and by their hearty
desire to do as the rich if they could. And thus the virtue of
generosity is made perfect.
By generosity of heart all other virtues are increased, and all
the powers of the soul are adorned; for the generous man is always
blithe in spirit and untroubled of heart, and he flows forth with
desire and in his works of virtue, to all men in common. Whosoever
is generous, and loves not earthly goods how poor soever he be, he
is like God: for all that he has in himself, and all that he
feels, flow forth and are given away. And in this way he has cast
out the fourth mortal sin, which is covetousness or Avarice. Of
all such Christ says: BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL, FOR THEY SHALL
OBTAIN MERCY in that day when they shall hear these words: COME,
YE BLESSED OF MY FATHER, INHERIT THE KINGDOM PREPARED FOR YOU-
because of your mercy,-FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.
CHAPTER XX
OF ZEAL AND DILIGENCE
OUT of this generosity there spring a supernatural zeal and
diligence in all virtues and all that is seemly. And none can feel
this zeal save him who overflows with generosity. It is an inward
restless striving after every virtue, after the likeness of Christ
and of all His saints. In this zeal a man longs to devote his
heart and his senses, his soul and his body, and all that he is,
and all that he has and all toward which he aspires, to the glory
and praise of God.
This zeal makes a man grow in reason and prudence, and practise
the virtues, both of soul and of body, in righteousness. Through
this supernatural zeal all the powers of the soul are laid open to
God, and are made ready for all virtues. And the conscience
rejoices, and the grace of God is increased; the virtues are
practised with joy and gladness, and the outward works are
adorned.
Whosoever has received this living zeal from God has cast out the
fifth mortal sin, which is indolence of the mind or Sloth, as
regards the virtues which it is needful that we should practise.
And sometimes, this living zeal also casts out the sloth and
indolence of the natural body. Of all such Christ says: BLESSED
ARE THEY WHICH DO HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS: FOR THEY
SHALL BE FILLED, and this shall come to pass when the glory of God
shall be manifest to them, and shall fill them, each according to
his love and righteousness.
CHAPTER XXI
OF TEMPERANCE AND SOBRIETY
FROM this zeal there spring temperance and sobriety, both inward
and outward; for none can possess the right measure of sobriety
save him who is greatly zealous and diligent to keep his soul and
body in righteousness. Sobriety divides the higher powers from the
animal powers; it saves a man from intemperance and from excess.
Sobriety wishes neither to taste, nor to know, those things which
are forbidden.
The incomprehensible and most high Nature of God transcends all
creatures in heaven and on earth. For all that a creature can
comprehend is of the creature; but God is above all creatures and
within and without all creatures, and every created comprehension
is too narrow to comprehend Him. But if a creature is to
comprehend and to understand God, it must be caught up beyond
itself into God, and comprehend God with God. Whosoever then would
know and understand what God is-which is not permitted-he would go
mad. Behold, all created light is powerless to know what God is.
What God is in Himself, transcends all creatures, but that God
exists, is testified by nature, and by Holy Writ, and by every
creature. We should believe the articles of faith, and not desire
to understand them, for this is impossible as long as we are here
below: such is sobriety. The mysterious and subtle teachings of
Holy Writ, inspired by the Holy Ghost, should not be explained and
understood in any other way than in their bearing upon the lives
of Christ and His saints. Man should consider nature, and the
Scriptures, and all creatures, and take from these that which
profits him and nothing more. Such is sobriety of spirit.
A man should keep his senses in sobriety and should restrain the
animal powers by means of the reason; so that the lusts of the
flesh do not enter too far into the savouring of food and of
drink; but he should eat and drink as the sick take their physic,
because it is needful to support his strength, that he may serve
God therewith. This is sobriety of body. He should also observe
method and moderation in doing and in leaving undone, in words and
in works, in silence and in speaking, in food and in drink,
according to the custom of Holy Church, and after the example of
the saints.
By inward and ghostly temperance and sobriety a man preserves
firmness and constancy of faith, purity of intelligence, that
tranquillity of reason necessary to the comprehension of truth, an
impulse towards all virtues according to the will of God, peace of
heart, and serenity of conscience. And herewith he possesses an
enduring peace, in God and in himself.
And by temperance and sobriety of the outward bodily senses, a man
often preserves the health and the soundness of his natural body,
the dignity of his outward life, and a good reputation. And thus
he lives in peace with himself and with his neighbours; for by his
temperance and sobriety he draws to himself and pleases all men of
good-will. And thus he casts out the sixth mortal sin, which is
intemperance, greed or Gluttony. Of all such Christ says: BLESSED
ARE THE PEACEMAKERS: FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED THE CHILDREN OF GOD;
for they are like unto the Son, Who has made peace in every
creature who desired peace. And whosoever makes peace in himself
through his temperance and sobriety shall partake with Him of the
inheritance of His Father; and shall possess it with Him in
eternity.
CHAPTER XXII
OF PURITY
FROM this temperance there springs purity both of soul and of
body, for none can be perfectly pure in body and in soul save him
who is temperate in body and in soul.
Purity of spirit is this: that a man should not cleave to any
creature with desirous affection, but to God alone; for we should
use all creatures, but enjoy only God. Purity of spirit makes a
man cleave to God, above all understanding, and above all
feelings, and above all the gifts which God may pour into his
soul: for all that a creature receives in his understanding and in
his feeling, purity will pass by, to rest in God. Go therefore to
the Sacrament of the Altar, not for the sake of refreshment, nor
because of desire, nor for pleasure, nor for peace, nor for
satisfaction, nor for sweetness, nor for anything else than the
glory of God and your own growth in all virtues. This is purity of
spirit.
Purity of heart is this: that a man, in every bodily temptation or
natural inclination, of his own free will, and with an ever-
renewed confidence and without hesitation, turns to God; with an
ever-renewed faithfulness and with a firm will ever to remain with
Him. For consenting to those sins or satisfactions, which the
bodily nature seeks like a beast, is a departure from God.
Purity of body is this: that a man withdraws from, and bewares of,
all unchaste deeds, in whatsoever manner they be, which his
conscience teaches and declares to be unchaste, and contrary to
the commandments, the honour, and the will of God.
By these three kinds of purity the seventh mortal sin is overcome
and cast out; that is, Unchastity. And this is a consenting and
turning of the spirit from God to some creaturely thing; it is the
unchaste work of the body contrary to the dispensation of Holy
Church; it is a sensual dwelling of the heart upon the taste or
enjoyment of some creature, whatsoever it be. But thereby I do not
mean those sudden movements of appetite and desire, which no one
can prevent.
Now you should know that purity of spirit keeps a man in the
likeness of God, untroubled by any creature and inclined towards
God, and united with Him.
Purity of body is likened to the whiteness of lilies and to the
cleanness of the angels. In withstanding, it is likened to the
redness of roses and to the nobleness of martyrs. If it is kept
for the love and the glory of God, it is perfect. And so it is
likened to the sunflower, for it is one of the highest ornaments
of nature.
Purity of heart works a renewal and increase of the grace of God.
By purity of heart all the virtues are prompted, practised and
preserved. It guards and keeps the senses from without; it quells
and restrains the animal lusts from within; it is an adornment of
all inwardness. And it is the door of the heart; barred against
all earthly things and all deceit, but opened to all heavenly
things and to all truth. And of all such Christ says: BLESSED ARE
THE PURE IN HEART: FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD; and in this vision
consist our eternal joy, our reward and our entrance into bliss.
Therefore men should be sober and temperate in all things, and
beware of all intercourse and occasion whereby purity, whether of
soul or of body, may be defiled.
CHAPTER XXIII
OF THREE ENEMIES TO BE OVERCOME BY RIGHTEOUSNESS
NOW, if we wish to possess these virtues, and to cast out their
opposites, we must possess righteousness, and we must practise and
preserve it in purity of heart unto death; for we have three
powerful adversaries, who tempt us and make war on us at all
times, in all places, and in many ways. If we make peace with one
of these three, and become subject to him, we are vanquished; for
the three of them agree together in all iniquity.
These three adversaries are the devil, the world and our own
flesh; and this last is the nearest to us and often the worst and
most harmful of all three to us; for our fleshly lusts are the
weapons with which our enemies make war on us. Idleness and
indifference to virtue and the glory of God, these are the causes
and the occasions of the struggle. But the weakness of our nature,
our carelessness and ignorance of truth, these are the swords with
which our enemies often wound, and sometimes conquer us.
And for this reason we should build up a wall and make a
separation within ourselves. And the lower part of ourselves,
which is beastly and contrary to the virtues, and which wills our
separation from God, we should hate and persecute, and we should
torment it by means of penances and austerity of life; so that it
be always repressed, and subject to reason, that thereby
righteousness and purity of heart may always have the upper hand
in all the works of virtue. And all the suffering, grief, and
persecution, which God sends us through these enemies of virtue,
we should gladly bear for the glory of God, and for the honour of
the virtues, and that we may obtain and possess righteousness in
purity of heart; for Christ says: BLESSED ARE THEY WHICH ARE
PERSECUTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS SAKE: FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF
HEAVEN. For a righteousness which is maintained in suffering and
in virtuous deeds is like the penny which is counted as heavy as
the kingdom of God; and with it is bought eternal life.
And with these virtues a man goes out towards God, towards
himself, and towards his neighbour, in good customs, in virtues,
and in righteousness.
CHAPTER XXIV
OF THE KINGDOM OF THE SOUL
WHOSOEVER wishes to obtain and to keep these virtues should adorn
and possess and rule his soul like a kingdom. Free-will is the
king of the soul. It is free by nature and still more free by
grace. It shall be crowned with a crown that is called charity.
The crown and the kingdom shall be received from the Emperor, Who
is Lord and Master and King of kings; and the kingdom should be
possessed, ruled, and maintained in His name. This king, free-
will, should dwell in the chief city of the kingdom; namely, in
the desirous power of the soul. And he should be clad and adorned
with a garment of two parts. The right side of his garment should
be a virtue called strength, that therewith he may be strong and
mighty to overcome all hindrances, and to ascend up to heaven,
into the palace of the most high Emperor, and to bow down his
crowned head before the most high King, with love, and with self-
surrendered desire. This is the proper work of charity: through it
the crown is received, through it the crown is adorned, through it
the kingdom is maintained and possessed in eternity. The left side
of the garment should be a cardinal virtue called moral force.
Through it, free-will, the king, shall quell all immorality, and
fulfil all virtues, and shall possess his kingdom in power, even
unto death.
This king should also choose councillors in his kingdom: the
wisest in the country. These should be two divine virtues:
knowledge and discretion, enlightened by the light of Divine
grace. They should dwell near the king, in a palace called the
rational power of the soul, and they should be clad and adorned
with a moral virtue called temperance, so that the king may always
do or leave undone according to their counsels. By means of
knowledge our conscience shall be cleansed of all its failings and
adorned with all virtues; and by help of discretion we shall give
and take, do and leave undone, be silent and speak, fast and eat,
listen and reply, and act in all things according to knowledge and
discretion, clad in the moral virtue called temperance or
sobriety.
This king, free-will, should also appoint in his kingdom a judge:
that is, righteousness. This is a divine virtue when it springs
from love, and it is one of the highest of moral virtues. This
judge should dwell in the heart, in the midst of the kingdom, in
the irascible power. And he should be adorned with a moral virtue
called prudence; for righteousness cannot be perfect without
prudence. This judge, righteousness, should travel through the
kingdom with the king's own power and majesty, and furnished with
the wisdom of the councillors, and with his own prudence. And he
should set up and cast down, judge and condemn, kill and leave
alive, put to the torture, blind and restore sight, raise and
suppress, scourge and chastise, extirpate all vices, and order all
things according to righteousness.
The common people of the kingdom are all the other powers of the
soul, which should be grounded in humility and godly fear, and
should be subject to God in all virtues, each power according to
its own character.
Whosoever possesses, maintains, and has ordered, the kingdom of
his soul in this way, has gone out with love and with virtue
towards God, towards himself and towards his neighbour.
And this is the third of the four principal points which we would
consider.
CHAPTER XXV
OF A SPIRITUAL MEETING OF GOD AND OURSELVES
WHEN a man through the grace of God is able to behold, and his
conscience is clean, and he has considered the three comings of
Christ our Bridegroom, and when he has gone out with the virtues:
then there ensues the meeting with the Bridegroom, and that is the
fourth point and the last. In this meeting lies all our bliss, the
beginning and end of all virtue; and without this meeting no
virtue has ever been fulfilled.
Whosoever wishes to meet Christ as his beloved Bridegroom, and to
possess in Him, and with Him, eternal life; he must now, in time,
go out to meet Christ at three points or in three ways. The first
point is that he shall have God in mind in all things through
which we earn eternal life. The second point is that there shall
be nothing that he means or loves more than God or even so much as
God. And the third point is that he shall with great zeal seek to
rest in God, above all creatures and above all God's gifts, above
all the works of virtue and above all feelings that God may infuse
into soul and body.
Now grasp this well: whosoever means God must have God present in
his mind under some godly attribute; and thereby he should mean
only Him Who is the Lord of heaven and earth and all creatures,
Who died for him, and Who can, and will, give him eternal bliss.
In whatever way or under whatever name we represent God to
ourselves, if it be as the Lord over all creatures, that is always
right. If we conceive one of the Divine Persons, and in Him the
being and the might of the Divine Nature, that is right. If we set
God before us as Maintainer, Redeemer, Creator, Ruler; as Bliss,
Power, Wisdom, Truth, Goodness, and all this as within the abysmal
properties of the Divine Nature, that is right.
Though the names which we give to God are many, the most high
Nature of God is a Simplicity which cannot be named by any
creature. But because of His incomprehensible nobility and
sublimity, which we cannot rightly name nor wholly express, we
give Him all these names. This is the way and the manner of
apprehension in which we should have God present in our mind; for,
to mean God, this is to see God in ghostly wise. And to this
intention charity and love also belong; for to know God and to be
without charity has no savour, neither does it help or further us.
That is why a man should always in all his works stretch towards
God with love; Whom, above all things, he aims at and loves. And
this is going out to meet God by intention and by love.
If a sinner would turn from his sins with full and true
repentance, he must go out to meet God in contrition and of his
own free-will, and with an upright purpose and intention to serve
Him thenceforward and never to sin any more. Then, in this
meeting, he shall receive through the mercy of God a sure hope of
eternal bliss and the remission of his sins; and he shall further
receive the foundation of all virtue: namely, Faith, Hope, and
Charity, and a good-will toward all other virtues.
If this man wishes to go forward in the light of faith, and lay
hold of all the works of Christ, and all His suffering; all the
things He promised us and did to us and will do to us until the
Day of Doom and in eternity; if that man wishes to lay hold of
these that they may avail to his salvation: then he should go out
to meet Christ once more, and should have Him ever in his sight,
with praise and thankfulness and with a worthy acknowledgment of
all His gifts, and all that He has done, and will do, in eternity.
Then his faith will be strengthened; and he will be more often,
and more ardently impelled towards all virtues.
If, then, he wishes to go forward in the works of virtue, he must
also go out to meet Christ with self-renunciation, neither seeking
himself, nor pursuing things alien from God; but let him be wise
and discreet in all that he does, having in mind in all things God
alone, and God's praise and glory, and let him continue therein
even unto death. Thereby his reason is enlightened, and his
charity is increased, and he grows in piety and in the aptitude
for all virtues.
We should have God in mind in all our good works; in evil works we
cannot do this. We should not have in mind two ends; that is to
say, we should mean God alone and nothing else. All other ends
should be subordinate to God, not opposed to God; they should be,
in their order, a help and a furtherance, that we may the better
come to God. And then we are in the right way.
We should also rather seek our rest upon Him and in Him Whom we
mean and love, than in any of the messengers He sends; that is to
say, His gifts. The soul should also rest in God above all the
jewels and all the gifts which it may send back to God by its own
messengers. The messengers of the soul are intention, love, and
desire: these carry all good deeds and all virtues up to God. But
above all these things, above all multiplicity, the soul should
rest in its Beloved. In this way and in this wise we should go out
to meet Christ with an upright intention during all our lives, and
in all our works, and in all our virtues; so that we may also meet
Him in the light of glory at the hour of death.
This method and this way, of which you have now heard, is called
the Active Life. It is needful for all men; and these, at least,
should not live contrary to virtue, even though they may not
possess all the virtues in this perfection. For, to live contrary
to virtue is to live in sin; for Christ says: HE THAT IS NOT WITH
ME IS AGAINST ME. Whosoever is not humble, he is proud; and
whosoever is proud and not humble does not belong to God. And thus
it is with all the sins and all the virtues; either a man has the
virtue and lives in grace, or else he has its opposite and lives
in sin. Let each man try himself, and live according to that which
has here been shown.
CHAPTER XXVI
OF THE DESIRE TO KNOW THE BRIDEGROOM IN HIS NATURE
A MAN who lives this life in its perfection, as it has here been
shown, and who is offering up his whole life, and all his works,
to the worship and praise of God, and who wills and loves God
above all things, is often stirred by a desire to see, to know,
and to prove what, in Himself, this Bridegroom Christ is; Who for
man's sake became man and laboured in love unto death, and
delivered us from sin and the devil, and has given us Himself and
His grace, and left us His sacraments, and has promised us His
kingdom and Himself as an eternal wage; Who also gives us all that
is needful for the body, and inward consolation and sweetness, and
innumerable gifts of all kinds, according to the needs of each.
When a man beholds all this, he feels an unmeasured impulse to see
Christ his Bridegroom, and to know Him as He is in Himself. Though
he knows Him in His works, this does not seem to him enough. Then
he must do as the publican Zaccheus did, who longed to see Jesus,
who He was. He must run before the crowd, that is the multiplicity
of creatures; for these make us so little and so low that we
cannot see God. And he must climb up into the tree of faith, which
grows from above downwards, for its roots are in the Godhead. This
tree has twelve branches, which are the twelve articles of faith.
The lower speak of the Divine Humanity, and of those things which
belong to our salvation of soul and of body. The upper part of the
tree tells of the Godhead, of the Trinity of Persons, and of the
Unity of the Nature of God. And the man must cling to that unity,
in the highest part of the tree; for there it is that Jesus must
pass with all His gifts.
Here comes Jesus, and sees the man, and shows to him, in the light
of faith, that He is according to His Godhead immeasurable and
incomprehensible and inaccessible and abysmal, transcending every
created light and every finite conception. And this is the highest
knowledge of God which any man may have in the active life: that
he should confess in this light of faith that God is
incomprehensible and unknowable. And in this light Christ says to
man's desire: MAKE HASTE AND COME DOWN, FOR TO-DAY I MUST ABIDE AT
THY HOUSE. This hasty descent, to which he is summoned by God, is
nothing else than a descent through desire and through love into
the abyss of the Godhead, which no intelligence can reach in the
created light. But where intelligence remains without, desire and
love go in. When the soul is thus stretched towards God, by
intention and by love, above everything that it can understand,
then it rests and dwells in God, and God in it. When the soul
climbs with desire above the multiplicity of creatures, and above
the works of the senses, and above the light of nature, then it
meets Christ in the light of faith, and becomes enlightened, and
confesses that God is unknowable and incomprehensible. When it
stretches itself with longing towards this incomprehensible God,
then it meets Christ, and is filled with His gifts. And when it
loves and rests above all gifts, and above itself, and above all
creatures, then it dwells in God, and God dwells in it.
This is the way in which we shall meet Christ on the summit of the
active life. When you have laid the foundation of righteousness,
charity, and humility; and have established on it a dwelling-
place, that is, those virtues which have been named heretofore;
and have met Christ through faith, by intention and by love; then
you dwell in God and God dwells in you, and you possess the true
active life.
And this was the first of which we would speak.
THE END OF THE FIRST BOOK
HERE BEGINS
THE SECOND BOOK
PROLOGUE
THE wise virgin, that is the pure soul, having abandoned earthly
things, and living according to the virtues for God, has taken in
the vessel of her heart the oil of charity and of godly deeds,
with the lamp of an unsullied conscience. But when Christ the
Bridegroom tarries with His consolations, and the renewed
inpouring of His gifts, the soul becomes drowsy, sleepy, and
inert. Then, at midnight, when it is least expected, a ghostly cry
is made within the soul: BEHOLD, THE BRIDEGROOM, COMETH, GO YE OUT
TO MEET HIM. Of this beholding, and of the inward coming of
Christ, and of a man's ghostly going out, and of his meeting with
Christ; of these four points we will now speak, and we will
explain and apply them according to an inward, lofty, God-desiring
life, which all cannot reach, but which many men attain through
the moral virtues and inward zeal.
By these words Christ teaches us four things. First, that He wills
that our understanding should be enlightened by supernatural
light; this we learn from the word which He speaks: BEHOLD.
Secondly, He shows us what we ought to see: namely, the inward
coming of our Bridegroom, the Eternal Truth; this we understand
from His saying: THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. Thirdly, He commands us to
go out through inward exercises according to righteousness; for
this reason He says: GO YE OUT. And, by the fourth point, He shows
us the end and the aim of the whole; that is, the meeting with our
Bridegroom Christ, in the fruitive unity of the Godhead.
CHAPTER I
HOW WE ACHIEVE SUPERNATURAL SIGHT IN OUR INWARD WORKINGS
NOW concerning the first point. Christ says: BEHOLD. Whosoever
wishes to see in a supernatural way in his inward exercises must
have three things. The first is the light of Divine grace, and
this in a more lofty degree than that which we can experience in
the outward and active life without earnest inward diligence. The
second thing is the casting out of all distracting images and
attachments from the heart; so that the man may be free and
imageless, released from all attachments, and empty of all
creatures. The third thing is a free turning of the will, with a
gathering together of all our powers, both bodily and ghostly,
cleansed from every inordinate love. Thereby the will flows forth
into the unity of God and into the unity of the mind; and thus the
rational creature may obtain and possess the most high unity of
God in a supernatural manner. For this God has created heaven and
earth and everything; and for this reason He became man, and
taught us, and lived for our sake, and has Himself become the Way
to the unity. And He died in the bonds of love, and has ascended
and has opened to us that very unity, in which we may possess
eternal bliss.
CHAPTER II
OF A THREE-FOLD UNITY WHICH IS IN US BY NATURE
NOW mark this with diligence: a threefold unity is found in all
men by nature, and also in all good men according to a
supernatural manner.
The first and highest unity of man is in God; for all creatures
depend upon this unity for their being, their life, and their
preservation; and if they be separated in this wise from God, they
fall into the nothingness and become nought. This unity is in us
essentially, by nature, whether we be good or evil. And without
our own working it makes us neither holy nor blessed. This unity
we possess within us and yet above us, as the ground and the
preserver of our being and of our life.
The second unity or union is also in us by nature. It is the unity
of our higher powers; forasmuch as these spring naturally as
active powers from the unity of the mind or of the spirit. This is
that same unity which depends upon God; but with this difference,
that here it is active and there essential. Nevertheless, the
spirit is wholly and perfectly understood according to the fulness
of its substance, in each unity. This unity we possess within us,
above our senses; and from it there proceed memory, understanding,
and will, and all the powers of ghostly action. In this unity, the
soul is called "spirit."
The third unity which is in us by nature is the source of all the
bodily powers, in the unity of the heart; origin and beginning of
the bodily life. This unity the soul possesses in the body and in
the quickening centre of the heart, and therefrom flow forth all
bodily activities, and the five senses. And therein the soul is
called "soul"; for it is the forming principle of the body, and
quickens this carcase; that is, gives it life and keeps it
therein.
These three unities abide in man by nature as one life and one
kingdom. In the lowest we are sensible and animal; in the middle
we are rational and spiritual; and in the highest we are kept
according to our essence. And thus are all men by nature.
Now these three unities, as one kingdom and one eternal dwelling-
place, are adorned and inhabited in a supernatural way by the
moral virtues through charity and the active life. And they are
still more gloriously adorned and more excellently perfected by
inward exercises united with a spiritual life. But they are most
gloriously and blessedly adorned by a supernatural and
contemplative life.
The lowest unity, being of the body, is supernaturally adorned and
perfected through outward works and moral perfection, according to
the way of Christ and His saints: and through bearing the cross
with Christ, and through subordinating nature discreetly according
to its powers to the commandments of Holy Church and to the
doctrines of the saints.
The second unity, being in the spirit and wholly spiritual, is
supernaturally adorned and perfected through the three divine
virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity; and through the inflow of the
grace and the gifts of God; and through a good-will to follow the
examples of Christ and Holy Christendom in all virtues.
The third and highest unity is above the comprehension of our
reason, and yet essentially within us. We possess it in a
supernatural way when in all our works of virtue we have in mind
the praise and glory of God, and above all aims, above ourselves,
and above all things would rest only in Him. This is that unity
wherefrom we have come forth as creatures, and wherein, according
to our being, we are at home. And by means of the virtues here
named, these three unities are adorned in the active life.
Now we will show how these three unities are more highly adorned
and more nobly fostered through an inward exercise joined to the
active life. Whenever a man, because of his charity and his
upright intention, lifts himself up with all his works and with
his whole life toward the glory and the praise of God, ever
seeking to rest in God above all things: then, in humble patience
and self-surrender, yet with a sure trust, he will await new
riches and new gifts, but without anxiety as to whether it be
God's good pleasure to give or not to give.
In this way one prepares and makes oneself ready to enter on the
inward and God-desiring life. And, when the vessel is made ready,
then the noble vintage is poured into it. And there is no vessel
more noble than the loving soul, neither a vintage more wholesome
than the grace of God. So a man should devote all his acts and all
life to God, with a simple and upright intention directed to God;
and should rest, above intentions, and above himself, and above
all things in that most high unity, in which God and the loving
spirit are united without intermediary.
CHAPTER III
OF THE INFLOW OF THE GRACE OF GOD INTO OUR SPIRIT
FROM this unity, wherein the spirit is united with God without
intermediary, grace and all gifts flow forth: and out of this same
unity, where the spirit rests above itself in God, Christ the
Eternal Truth says: BEHOLD, THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH, GO YE OUT TO
MEET HIM. Christ, who is the light of Eternal Truth, says: BEHOLD:
for through Him we become seeing; for He is the light of the
Father, and without Him there were no light, neither in heaven nor
on earth. This speaking of Christ within us is nothing else than
an inrush of His light and His grace. This grace pours into us in
the unity of our higher powers and of our spirit; wherefrom,
through the power of the grace received, the higher powers flow
out to become active in all virtues, and whereto, because of the
bond of love, they ever return again.
In this unity lie the power for, and beginning and end of, every
natural and supernatural work of the creature in so far as it is
wrought in a creaturely way, through grace and Divine gifts, and
by the creature's own strength. And therefore God pours His grace
into the unity of the higher powers, that therewith man may always
fulfil the virtues, through the power and the richness and the
thrust of grace. For God gives us grace, therewith to work; and
above all graces He gives Himself, for fruition and for rest. The
unity of our spirit is our dwelling-place, in the peace of God and
in the riches of charity; and there all the manifold virtues are
gathered together, and live in the simplicity of the spirit.
Now the grace of God, pouring forth from God, is an inward thrust
and urge of the Holy Ghost, driving forth our spirit from within
and exciting it towards all virtues. This grace flows from within,
and not from without; for God is more inward to us than we are to
ourselves, and His inward thrust or working within us, be it
natural or supernatural, is nearer to us and more intimate to us,
than our own working is. And therefore God works in us from within
outwards; but all creatures work from without inwards. And thus it
is that grace, and all the gifts of God, and the Voice of God,
come from within, in the unity of our spirit; and not from
without, into the imagination, by means of sensible images.
CHAPTER IV
SHOWING HOW WE SHOULD FOUND OUR INWARD LIFE ON A FREEDOM FROM
IMAGES
NOW Christ says in ghostly wise in the man who is turned within:
BEHOLD. Three things, as I have said, make a man seeing in his
inward exercise. The first is a shining forth of the grace of God.
The grace of God in a soul is like a candle in a lantern or in a
glass vessel; for it enlightens, and brightens, and shines
through, the vessel, that is, the righteous man. And it manifests
itself to the man who has it within him, if he be observant of
himself. And it manifests itself through him, to other men, in
virtues and in good example. This flash of divine grace inwardly
stirs and moves a man with swiftness, and this swift movement is
the first thing which makes us see. Of this swift movement of God
there springs from the side of man the second thing, which is a
gathering together of all inward and outward powers in the unity
of the spirit, in the bonds of love. The third point is the
freedom which allows the man to turn inwards, without hindrance
from sensible images, as often as he wills and thinks upon his
God. This means that a man must be indifferent to gladness and
grief, profit and loss, rising and falling, to strange cares, to
delight and to dread, and never be attached to any creature. These
three things make a man seeing in his inward exercise. If you have
these three, you have the foundation and the beginning of the
inward practice and the inward life.42
CHAPTER V
OF A THREE-FOLD COMING OF OUR LORD IN THE INWARD MAN
EVEN though the eye be clear and the sight keen, if there were no
loveworthy and desirable object, clearness of sight would neither
please nor profit a man. And this is why Christ shows to the
enlightened eyes of the understanding what they shall see, to wit,
the inward coming of Christ their Bridegroom.
Three ways of this special inward coming of God are found in those
men who exercise themselves with devotion in the inward life; and
each of these three comings raises a man to a higher degree and to
a more inward exercise.
The first coming of Christ in inward working drives and urges a
man in his inward feeling; it draws him with all his powers
upwards to heaven, and it calls him to unite himself with God.
This driving and drawing we feel in the heart, and in the unity of
all the bodily powers, and especially in the desirous power. For
this coming stirs, and works in, the lower part of man; for this
must be wholly purged and adorned, and inflamed and drawn inwards.
This inward urge of God gives and takes, makes rich and poor,
brings weal and woe upon a man; it causes hope and despair; it
burns and it freezes. But no tongue can tell of those gifts and
works and contraries that here come to pass.
This coming with its working is parted into four degrees, each one
higher than the other, as we will show afterwards. And with it the
lower part of man is adorned in the inward life.
CHAPTER VI
OF THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD IN THE INWARD MAN
THE second way in which Christ comes inwardly, with a higher
nobleness, more after His likeness, with increased gifts, and with
a greater radiance, is a pouring forth of the riches of His Divine
gifts into the higher powers of the soul, whereby the spirit is
strengthened, enlightened, and enriched in many ways. This
streaming of God into us demands of us a flowing out and a flowing
back, with all these riches, into that same Source from which that
torrent has flowed. And in this torrent God gives to us and shows
to us great wonders; but He asks back from the soul all His gifts,
increased beyond anything that any creature could accomplish. This
exercise and this way is more noble and more like unto God than
the first; and by it the three higher powers of the soul are
adorned.
CHAPTER VII
OF THE THIRD COMING OF OUR LORD
THE third way in which our Lord comes inwardly is by an inward
stirring or touch in the unity of the spirit, wherein are the
higher powers of the soul; wherefrom they flow forth, and to which
they return again, and with which they always remain united in the
bonds of love and through the natural unity of the spirit. In this
coming consists the highest and most interior condition of the
inward life; and by it the unity of the spirit is adorned in many
ways.
Now, in each coming, Christ desires of us a special going out of
ourselves, toward a life that shall accord with the way of His
coming. And therefore He says in ghostly wise within our hearts at
each coming: GO YE OUT in your lives and in your practices in the
way in which My graces and My gifts shall urge you. For according
to the manner and way in which the Spirit of God urges, and
drives, and draws, and streams into us, and stirs us; in this way
we must go out and progress in our inward practices, if we are to
become perfect. But if we withstand the Spirit of God by a life
that does not accord with it, we lose that inward urge, and then
the virtues will depart from us.
These are the three comings of Christ, in inward exercises. We
will now explain and set forth each coming separately. Attend
therefore with diligence; for he who never has himself felt or
experienced this he shall not easily understand it.
CHAPTER VIII
HOW THE FIRST COMING HAS FOUR DEGREES
THE first coming of Christ in the exercise of desire is, as we
have said, an inward and sensible thrust of the Holy Ghost, urging
and driving us towards all virtues. This coming may be likened to
the splendour and the power of the sun, which, from the moment
when it rises, enlightens and brightens and warms the whole
world.43 So likewise Christ, the eternal Sun, beams and shines,
dwelling above the summit of the spirit; and enlightens and
enkindles the lowest part of man, namely, the fleshly heart and
the sensible powers. And this happens in a moment of time, shorter
than the twinkling of an eye; for God's work is swift. But that
man in whom this should take place must be inwardly seeing, with
the eyes of the understanding.
In the higher lands, in the middle region of the world, the sun
shines upon the mountains, bringing an early summer there, with
good fruits and strong wine, and filling that land with joy. The
same sun gives its splendour to the lower lands, at the utmost
part of the earth. There the country is colder, and the power of
the heat less; nevertheless, there too it produces many good
fruits, though little wine. The men who dwell in the lower parts
of themselves, in their outward senses, yet with a good intention,
in moral virtues, in outward work, and in the grace of God: they
too produce the good fruits of virtue, in great numbers and in
many ways; but of the wine of inward joy and ghostly consolation
they taste little.
Now the man who wishes to feel within himself the glow of the
Eternal Sun, which is Christ Himself, he should be seeing, and
should dwell on the mountains in the higher lands, by a gathering
together of all his powers, and lifting up his heart towards God,
free and careless of joy and grief, and of all created things.
There Christ, the Sun of righteousness, shines upon the free and
uplifted heart: and these are the mountains that I mean.
Christ, the glorious Sun, the Divine Brightness, by His inward
coming and by the power of His Spirit, enlightens and brightens
and enkindles the free heart and all the powers of the soul. And
this is the first work of the inward coming in the exercise of
desire. Like as the power and the nature of fire enkindles
everything which is offered to the flames, so Christ, by the fiery
ardour of His inward coming, enkindles every ready, free and
uplifted heart; and in this coming He says: GO YE OUT by exercises
according to the way of this coming.
CHAPTER IX
OF UNITY OF HEART
OF this ardour there springs unity of heart; for we cannot achieve
true unity unless the Spirit of God blows to a flame His fire in
our hearts. For this fire makes one with itself and like to itself
all that it can master and re-shape.
Unity is this: that a man feel himself to be gathered together
with all his powers in the unity of his heart. Unity brings inward
peace and restfulness of heart. Unity of heart is a bond which
draws together body and soul, heart and senses, and all the
outward and inward powers and encloses them in the union of love.
CHAPTER X
OF INWARDNESS
FROM this unity springs inwardness; for none can be inward save
him who is gathered together in unity within himself. Inwardness
means that a man is turned within, into his own heart, that
thereby he may understand and feel the interior workings, and the
interior words of God. Inwardness is a sensible fire of love,
which the Spirit of God has blown to a flame, and which urges a
man from within; and he knows not whence it comes nor what has
befallen him.
CHAPTER XI
OF SENSIBLE LOVE
FROM inwardness there springs a sensible love, which fulfills the
man's heart and the desirous power of the soul. This yearning
love, and this sensible fruition of the heart, none can have save
he who is inward of heart.
Sensible love is a yearning and savouring delight which we feel in
God as the eternal Good, wherein are all other goods. Sensible
love forsakes all creatures as regards pleasure, not as regards
need. Inward love feels itself moved from within by the Eternal
Love; and this it must ever cherish. Inward love easily foregoes
and despises all things that it may obtain that which it loves.
CHAPTER XII
OF DEVOTION
OF this sensible love is born devotion to God and to His glory.
For none can have within his heart the hunger of devotion save him
who bears within himself a sensible love of God. Where the fire of
love sends up the flames of its desire to heaven, there is
devotion. Devotion moves and draws a man, both from without and
from within, towards the service of God. Devotion makes body and
soul to blossom in nobility and worth before God and before all
men. Devotion is demanded of us by God in every service which we
ought to do to Him. Devotion purifies the body and the soul of
everything that can stop and hinder us. Devotion shows and bestows
the right way at blessedness.
CHAPTER XIII
OF GRATITUDE
INWARD devotion often brings forth gratitude; for none can thank
and praise God so well as the inward and devout man. And it is
just that we should thank and praise God, because He has created
us as reasonable creatures, and has ordained and destined heaven
and earth and the angels to our service; and because He became man
for our sins, and taught us, and lived for our sake, and showed us
the way; and because He has ministered to us in humble raiment,
and suffered an ignominous death for the love of us, and promised
us His eternal kingdom and Himself also for our reward and for our
wage. And He has spared us in our sins, and has forgiven us or
will forgive us; and has poured His grace and His love into our
souls, and will dwell and remain with us, and in us, throughout
eternity. And He has visited us and will visit us all the days of
our lives with His noble sacraments, according to the need of
each, and has left us His Flesh and His Blood for food and drink,
according to the desire and the hunger of each; and has set before
us nature and the Scriptures and all creatures, as examples, and
as a mirror, that therein we may look and learn how we may turn
all our deeds to works of virtue; and has given us health and
strength and power, and sometimes for our own good has sent us
sickness; and in outward need has established inward peace and
happiness in us; and has caused us to be called by Christian names
and to have been born of Christian parents. For all these things
we should thank God here on earth, that hereafter we may thank Him
in eternity.
We should also praise God by means of everything that we can offer
to Him. To praise God, means that all his life long a man
glorifies, reverences and venerates the Divine Omnipotence. The
praise of God is the meet and proper work of the angels and the
saints in heaven, and of loving men on earth. God should be
praised by desire, by the lifting up of all our powers, by words,
by works, with body and with soul, and faith whatsoever one
possesses; in humble service, from without and from within. He who
does not praise God while here on earth shall in eternity be dumb.
To praise God is the dearest and most joyous work of every loving
heart; and the heart which is full of praise desires that every
creature should praise God. The praise of God has no end, for it
is our bliss; and most justly shall we praise Him in eternity.
CHAPTER XIV
OF TWO GRIEFS WHICH ARISE FROM INWARD GRATITUDE
FROM inward gratitude and praise there arises a two fold grief of
the heart and torment of desire. The first grief is, that we feel
ourselves to lag behind in thanking, praising, glorifying and
serving God. The second is, that we do not grow in charity, in
virtue, in faith, and in perfect behaviour as much as we desire,
that we may become worthy to thank and praise and serve God as it
is proper to do. This is the second grief. These two are root and
fruit, beginning and end, of all inward virtues.
Inward grief and pain for our shortcomings in virtue and the
praise of God, is the highest effect of this first degree of the
inward exercise; and by it this degree is perfectly achieved.
CHAPTER XV
A SIMILITUDE HOW WE SHOULD PERFORM THE FIRST DEGREE OF OUR INWARD
EXERCISE
NOW consider in a similitude, how this inward exercise should be
performed. When the natural fire has by its heat and power stirred
water, or some other liquid, until it bubbles up; then this is its
highest achievement. Then the water boils up and falls down to the
bottom, and is then stirred again to the same activity by the
power of the fire: so that the water is incessantly bubbling up,
and the fire incessantly stirring it.
And so likewise works the inward fire of the Holy Ghost. It stirs
and goads and drives the heart and all the powers of the soul
until they boil; that is, until they thank and praise God in the
way of which I have told you. And then one falls down to that very
ground, where the Spirit of God is burning. So that the fire of
love ever burns, and the man's heart ever thanks and praises God
with words and with works and yet always abides in lowliness;
esteeming that which he should do and would do to be great, and
that which he is able to do to be small.
CHAPTER XVI
ANOTHER SIMILITUDE CONCERNING THE SAME EXERCISE
WHEN summer draws near and the sun rises higher, it draws the
moisture out of the earth through the roots, and through the
trunks of the trees, into the twigs; and hence come foliage,
flower, and fruit.
So likewise, when Christ the Eternal Sun rises and ascends in our
hearts, so that it is summer in the adornment of our virtues, He
gives His light and His heat to our desires, and draws the heart
from all the multiplicity of earthly things, and brings about
unity and inwardness; and makes the heart grow and bring forth the
leaves of inward love, the flowers of ardent devotion, and the
fruits of thanksgiving and praise, and makes these fruits to
endure eternally, in humble grief, because of our shortcomings.
Here ends the first of the four chief degrees of that inward
working whereby the lowest part of man is adorned.
CHAPTER XVII
OF THE SECOND DEGREE OF OUR INWARD EXERCISE, WHICH INCREASES
INWARDNESS BY HUMILITY
BUT, having likened the four degrees of the first coming of Christ
to the splendour and the power of the sun, we also find in the sun
another power and another action, which hastens the ripening, and
increases the numbers, of the fruit.
When the sun rises very high, and enters the sign of Gemini (that
is, the Twins; or a twofold thing of one nature), which happens in
the middle of the month of May: then it has a double power over
flowers and herbs and everything that grows out of the earth. If,
then, the planets which govern nature are well ordered according
to the need of the season, the sun shines upon the earth and draws
the moisture into the air. Thence come dew and rain; and the
fruits increase and multiply.
So likewise, when Christ that bright Sun has risen in our hearts
above all things; when the demands of our bodily nature which are
opposed to the spirit have been curbed and discreetly set in
order; when we have achieved the virtues in the way of which you
have heard in the first degree; when, lastly, through the ardour
of our charity, all the pleasure, and all the peace, which we
experience in these virtues, have been offered up and devoted to
God, with thanksgiving and praise:-then, of all this there may
come down a sweet rain of new inward consolation and the heavenly
dew of the sweetness of God. This makes the virtues grow, and
multiplies them twofold if we hinder it not. This is a new and
special working, and a new coming, of Christ into the loving
heart. And by it a man is lifted up into a higher state than that
in which he was before. On this height Christ says: GO YE OUT
according to the way of this coming.
CHAPTER XVIII
OF THE PURE DELIGHT OF THE HEART AND THE SENSIBLE POWERS
FROM this sweetness there springs a well-being of the heart and of
all the bodily powers, so that a man thinks himself to be inwardly
enfolded in the divine embrace of love. This delight and this
consolation are greater and more pleasant to the soul and the body
than all the satisfactions of the earth, even though one man
should enjoy them all together. In this well-being God sinks into
the heart by means of His gifts; with so much savoury solace and
joy that the heart overflows from within. This makes a man
comprehend the misery of those who live outside love. This well-
being melts the heart to such a degree, that the man cannot
contain himself through the fulness of inward joy.
CHAPTER XIX
OF SPIRITUAL INEBRIATION
FROM this rapturous delight44 springs spiritual inebriation.
Spiritual inebriation is this; that a man receives more sensible
joy and sweetness than his heart can either contain or desire.
Spiritual inebriation brings forth many strange gestures in men.
It makes some sing and praise God because of their fulness of joy,
and some weep with great tears because of their sweetness of
heart. It makes one restless in all his limbs, so that he must run
and jump and dance; and so excites another that he must
gesticulate and clap his hands. Another cries out with a loud
voice, and so shows forth the plenitude he feels within; another
must be silent and melt away, because of the rapture which he
feels in all his senses. At times he thinks that all the world
must feel what he feels: at times he thinks that none can taste
what he has attained. Often he thinks that he never could, nor
ever shall, lose this well-being; at times he wonders why all men
do not become God-desiring. At one time he thinks that God is for
him alone, or for none other so much as for him; at another time
he asks himself with amazement of what nature these delights can
be, and whence they come, and what has happened to him. This is
the most rapturous life (as regards our bodily feelings) which man
may attain upon earth. Sometimes the excess of joy becomes so
great that the man thinks that his heart must break. And for all
these manifold gifts and miraculous works, he shall, with a humble
heart, thank and praise and honour and reverence the Lord, Who can
do all this; and thank Him with fervent devotion because it is His
will to do all this. And the man shall always keep in his heart
and speak through his mouth with sincere intention: "Lord, I am
not worthy of this; yet I have need of Thy boundless goodness and
of Thy support." In such humility he may grow and rise into higher
virtues.
CHAPTER XX
WHAT MAY HINDER A MAN IN THIS INEBRIATION
WHEN, however, this coming and this degree are granted to such men
as first begin to turn from the world; even though their
conversion be perfect, and they have abandoned all worldly
consolation, that they may be wholly God's, and may live
altogether for Him,-yet they are still feeble and have need of
milk and sweet things, and not of the strong food of fierce
temptation and the loss of God. And in this season, that is to
say, in this state, hoar-frost and fog often harm such men; for it
is just in the middle of May according to the course of the inward
life. Hoar-frost is the desire to be somewhat or the belief that
one is somewhat; or to be attached to one's self, or to suppose
that we have earned these consolations and are worthy of them.
This is hoar-frost, which may destroy the flowers and fruits of
all the virtues. Fog is, the desire to rest in inward consolations
and sweetness. This darkens the air of the reason; and the powers,
which ought to open and flower, close again. And thereby one loses
the knowledge of truth, and yet may keep a certain false
sweetness, which is given by the devil, and which in the end shall
lead us astray.
CHAPTER XXI
A SIMILITUDE HOW A MAN SHOULD ACT AND BEAR HIMSELF IN THIS CASE
NOW I will give you a short similitude, that you may not err in
this case, but may govern yourselves prudently. You should watch
the wise bee and do as it does. It dwells in unity, in the
congregation of its fellows, and goes forth, not in the storm, but
in calm and still weather, in the sunshine, towards all those
flowers in which sweetness may be found. It does not rest on any
flower, neither on any beauty nor on any sweetness; but it draws
from them honey and wax, that is to say, sweetness and light-
giving matter, and brings both to the unity of the hive, that
therewith it may produce fruits, and be greatly profitable.
Christ, the Eternal Sun, shining into the open heart, causes that
heart to grow and to bloom, and it overflows with all the inward
powers with joy and sweetness.
So the wise man will do like the bee, and he will fly forth with
attention and with reason and with discretion, towards all those
gifts and towards all that sweetness which he has ever
experienced, and towards all the good which God has ever done to
him. And in the light of love and with inward observation, he will
taste of the multitude of consolations and good things; and will
not rest upon any flower of the gifts of God, but, laden with
gratitude and praise, will fly back into the unity, wherein he
wishes to rest and to dwell eternally with God.
This is the second degree of that inward working which adorns the
lower part of man in many ways.
CHAPTER XXII
OF THE THIRD DEGREE OF THE SPIRITUAL COMING OF CHRIST
WHEN the sun has risen in the heavens as high as it can, it stands
in the sign of Cancer (which means Crab, because it cannot go
further, but begins to go back). Then come the fiercest heats of
the whole year. And the sun draws up all the moisture, and the
earth becomes dry, and the fruits ripen quickly.
So likewise, when Christ, the Divine Sun, has risen to the zenith
of our hearts-that is, above all the gifts and consolations and
sweetness which we may receive from Him-so that we do not rest in
any savours, how great soever they be, which God may pour into our
souls; if then, masters of ourselves, we ever turn inwards, by the
way which has been shown heretofore, with humble praise and with
fervent thanksgiving, towards the very source from which all gifts
flow forth according to the needs and the merits of each creature:
then Christ stands on high in the zenith of our hearts, and He
will draw all things, that is, all our powers, to Himself. When
thus neither savour nor consolation can overcome or hinder the
loving heart, but it would rather forgo all consolations and all
gifts, that it may find Him Whom it loves: then there arises from
this the third kind of inward exercise, by which man is uplifted
and adorned in his sensibility and the lower part of his being.
The first work of Christ, and the beginning of this degree
consists in this: that God draws the heart, the desires, and all
the powers of the soul up towards heaven, and calls them to be
united with Him, and says in ghostly wise within the heart: GO YE
OUT of yourselves by the way in which I draw and invite you. This
drawing and this inviting I cannot well make plain to gross and
insensitive men; but it is an inward constraining and drawing of
the heart towards the most high unity of God. This inward summons
is joyful to the loving heart above anything it ever experienced
before. For hence arise a new way and a higher exercise.
Here the heart opens itself in joy and in desire, and all the
veins gape, and all the powers of the soul are in readiness, and
desire to fulfil that which is demanded of them by God and by His
unity. This invitation is a shining forth of Christ, the Eternal
Sun; and it brings forth such great pleasure and joy in the heart,
and makes the heart open so widely, that it can never wholly close
again. And thereby a man is wounded in the heart from within, and
feels the wound of love. To be wounded by love is the sweetest
feeling and the sharpest pain which any one may endure. To be
wounded by love is to know for certain that one shall be healed;
for the ghostly wound brings woes and weal at the same time. For
Christ, the true Sun streams and shines into the wounded and open
heart and calls it to oneness again. And this renews the wound and
all its pangs.45
CHAPTER XXIII
OF THE PAIN AND RESTLESSNESS OF LOVE
OF this inward demand and this invitation, and also because the
creature lifts itself up and offers itself, and all that it can
do, and yet can neither attain nor acquire the unity-of these
things spring a ghostly pain. When the inmost part of the heart
and the source of life have been wounded by love, and one cannot
obtain that which one desires above all things, but must ever
abide where one does not wish to be: from these two things pain
comes forth. Here Christ is risen to the zenith of the conscience,
and He sends His Divine rays into the hungry desires and into the
longings of the heart; and this splendour burns and dries up and
consumes all the moisture, that is, the strength and the powers of
nature. The desire of the open heart, and the shining of the
Divine rays, cause a perpetual pain.
If, then, one cannot achieve God and yet cannot and will not do
without Him, from these two things there arise in such men tumult
and restlessness, both without and within. And so long as a man is
thus agitated, no creature, neither in heaven nor on earth, can
give him rest or help him. In this state there are sometimes
spoken from within sublime and salutary words, and singular
teachings and wisdom are given. In this inward tumult one is ready
to suffer all that can be suffered, that one may obtain that which
one loves. This fury of love is an inward impatience which will
hardly use reason or follow it, if it cannot obtain that which it
loves. This inward fury eats a man's heart and drinks his blood.
Here the sensible heat of love is fiercer than at any other stage
in man's whole life; and his bodily nature is secretly wounded and
consumed without any outward work, and the fruits of the virtues
ripen more quickly than in all the degrees which have been shown
heretofore.
In the like season of the year, the visible sun enters the sign of
Leo, that is, the Lion, who is fierce by nature, for he is the
lord over all beasts. So likewise, when a man comes to this way,
Christ, the bright Sun, stands in the sign of the Lion, for the
rays of His heat are so fierce that the blood in the heart of the
impatient man must boil. And when this fierce way prevails, it
masters and subdues all other ways and works; for it wills to be
wayless, that is, without manner. And in this tumult a man
sometimes falls into a desire and restless longing to be freed
from the prison of his body, so that he may at once be united with
Him Whom he loves. And he opens his inward eyes and beholds the
heavenly house full of glory and joy, and his Beloved crowned in
the midst of it, flowing forth towards His saints in abounding
bliss; whilst he must lack all this. And therefrom there often
spring in such a man outward tears and great longings. He looks
down and considers the place of exile in which he has been
imprisoned, and from which he cannot escape; then tears of sadness
and misery gush forth. These natural tears soothe and refresh the
man's heart, and they are wholesome to the bodily nature,
preserving its strength and powers and sustaining him through this
state of tumult. All the manifold considerations and exercises
according to ways or manner are helpful to the impatient man; that
his strength may be preserved and that he may long endure in
virtue.
CHAPTER XXIV
OF ECSTACIES AND DIVINE REVELATIONS
BY this fierce ardour and this impatience some men are at times
caught into the spirit, above the senses; and there words are
spoken to them and images and similitudes shown to them, teaching
them some truth of which they or other men have need, or else
things that are to come. These are called revelations or visions.
If they are bodily images, they are received in the imagination.
This may be the work of an angel in man, through the power of God.
If it be an intellectual truth, or a ghostly image, through which
God reveals Himself in His unfathomableness, this is received in
the understanding; and the man can clothe it in words in so far as
it can be expressed in words. Sometimes a man may also be drawn
above himself and above the spirit (but not altogether outside
himself) into an Incomprehensible Good, which he shall never be
able either to utter or to explain in the way in which he heard
and saw; for in this simple act and this simple vision, to hear
and to see are one. And none can work this in man, without
intermediary and without the co-operation of any creature, save
God alone. It is called RAPTUS; which means, rapt away, or
uplifted, or carried away. At times God grants to such men a
sudden spiritual glimpse, like the lightning in the sky. It comes
like a sudden glimpse of strange brightness, shining forth from
the Simple Nudity. And thereby for an instant the spirit is raised
above itself; but the light passes at once and the man returns to
himself again. This is the work of God Himself; it is something
very sublime; for those to whom it happens often become
illuminated men.
Other things sometimes happen to those who live in the fierce
ardour of love; for often another light shines into them, and this
is the work of God through means. In this light the heart and the
desirous powers uplift themselves towards that light; and, in the
meeting with that light, the joy and the satisfaction are so great
that the heart cannot contain them, but breaks out in a loud voice
with cries of joy. And this is called the JUBILUS, or jubilation;
that is, a joy which cannot be uttered in words.46 And one cannot
contain oneself; but if one would go out with an opened and
uplifted heart to meet this light the voice must follow, so long
as this exercise and this light endure. Some inward men are at
times taught in a dream by their guardian angels or by other
angels, concerning many things of which they have need. Some men
too are found who have many sudden intuitions, or inspirations, or
imaginations, and also have miraculous dreams, and yet remain in
their outward senses. But these know nothing of the tumult of
love; for they dwell in outward multiplicity, and love has not
wounded them. These things may be natural, or they may come from
the devil, or from good angels, and therefore we may have faith in
them so far as they accord with Holy Writ, and with the truth, but
no more. If we trust them beyond this, we may easily be
deceived.47
CHAPTER XXV
AN EXAMPLE SHOWING HOW ONE IS HINDERED IN THIS EXERCISE
Now I will show you the hindrances and the dangers which he meets
with who dwells in the fury of love. In this time, as you have
heard, the sun is in the sign of the Lion; and this is the most
unhealthy period of the year, although it is fruitful; for here
begin the dog-days, which bring many a plague with them. Then the
weather may become so unwholesome and so hot that in some
countries herbs and trees wither and shrivel, and in some waters
the fishes pine away and perish, and on the land men also sicken
and die. And this is not caused only by the sun, for then it would
be the same everywhere; in all countries and in all waters, and
with all men. But the cause of it is often the corruption and the
disorder of the matter on which the sun's power works. So likewise
it is when a man comes into this state of impatience. He enters in
truth into the dog-days, and the splendour of the Divine rays
burns so fiercely and so hotly from above, and the heart wounded
by love is so inflamed from within-since the ardour of affection
and the impatience of desire have been thus enkindled-that the man
falls into impatience and striving, even as a woman who labours in
child-birth and cannot be delivered. If the man then look
steadfastly into his own wounded heart, and at Him Whom he loves,
these woes grow without ceasing. So greatly does the torment
increase that the man withers and shrivels in his bodily nature,
even as the trees in hot countries; and he dies in the fury of
love, and enters the kingdom of heaven without passing through
purgatory. But though he dies well who dies of love, as long as a
tree may bear good fruit, it should neither be felled nor
uprooted. Sometimes God flows forth with great sweetness into the
turbulent heart. Then the heart swims in bliss, as a fish in
water; and the inmost ground of the heart burns in the fury of
love, even whilst it swims in delight in the gifts of God, because
of the blissful and impatient ardour of the loving heart itself.
And to dwell long in this degree consumes the bodily nature. All
men who burn in the fury of love must pine away in that state; but
those who can govern themselves well do not die.48
CHAPTER XXVI
ANOTHER EXAMPLE
AND now I will warn you against another thing which may cause
great harm. Sometimes in that hot season there falls the honey-dew
of a certain false sweetness, which pollutes the fruit, or utterly
spoils it. And it is most apt to fall at noon, in bright sunshine,
and in big drops; and it is hardly to be distinguished from rain.
So likewise, some men may be robbed of their outward senses by a
certain light produced by the devil. And in this light they are
enwrapped and ensnared, and at the same time many kinds of images,
both false and true, are shown to them, and they are spoken to in
diverse ways; and all this is seen and received of them with great
delight. And here there fall sometimes the honey-drops of a false
sweetness, in which a man may find his pleasure. He who esteems it
much receives much of it: and thereby the man is easily polluted,
for if he will hold for true those things which are not like to
truth, for the reason that they have been shown or spoken to him,
he falls into error and the fruit of virtue is lost. But those who
have trodden the ways whereof I have written before, though they
may be tempted by this spirit and this light, they will recognise
them and will not be harmed.
CHAPTER XXVII
A PARABLE OF THE ANT
A BRIEF parable I will give to those who dwell in the tumult of
love, that they may endure this state nobly and becomingly, and
may attain to higher virtues. There is a small insect called the
ant. It is strong and sagacious, and very loth to die. It lives by
choice amongst the congregation of its fellows, in hot and dry
soil. The ant works during summer, and gathers grain for food for
the winter. And it splits the grain in two lest it should sprout
and be spoiled, and be of no use when nothing can be gathered
anymore. And it seeks no strange ways, but always goes forth by
the same way. And if it abides its time, it shall be able to fly.
Thus should these men do. They should be strong in abiding the
coming of Christ, sagacious against the communications and
inspirations of the devil. They should not desire death; but God's
glory alone, and for themselves new virtues. They should dwell in
the congregation of their heart and of their powers, and should
follow the drawing and the inviting of the Divine Unity. They
should dwell in warm and dry soil, that is, in the fierce tumult
of love and in a great restlessness. And they should labour during
the summer of this life, and gather the fruits of virtue for
eternity; and they should split these fruits in two. The one part
is, that they should ever desire the most high fruition of
Eternity; and the other part is that, by means of the reason, they
should always restrain themselves as much as they can, and abide
the time which God has ordained to them, and thus the fruit of
virtue is preserved unto eternity. And they should not follow
strange paths or singular ways; but they should follow the track
of love through all storms to that place whither love shall lead
them. And if they abide the time, and persevere in all virtues,
they shall behold the Mystery of God and take flight towards It.
CHAPTER XXVIII
OF THE FOURTH DEGREE OF THE COMING OF CHRIST
Now we will speak further of the fourth manner of the coming of
Christ, uplifting and perfecting a man by inward exercise in the
lower part of his being. But having likened all the inward comings
to the splendour of the sun, and to its power, according to the
course of the year, we will speak further, according to the course
of the seasons, of another action and another work of the sun.
When the sun first begins to descend from the zenith to the nadir,
it enters the sign which is called Virgo, that is, the Virgin,
because now the season becomes unfruitful, as a virgin is. (In
this time the glorious Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ, ascended
to heaven full of joy and rich in all virtues.) At this time the
heat begins to grow less; and men begin to gather in, for use
during the rest of the year, those ripe and lasting fruits which
can be kept and consumed long afterwards, such as corn and wine
and the durable fruits, which have now come to their maturity. And
a part of the same corn is sown, so that it be multiplied for the
benefit of men. In this season all the work of the sun of the
whole year is perfected and fulfilled.
So likewise, when Christ the glorious Sun has risen to the zenith
in a man's heart, as I have taught you in the third degree; and
when He then begins to descend and to hide the shining of His
Divine rays and to forsake the man; then the heat and impatience
of love begin to grow less. Now when Christ thus hides Himself,
and withdraws the shining of His brightness and His heat, this is
the first work, and the new coming, of this degree. Then Christ
speaks in ghostly wise within this man, saying: "GO YE OUT in such
wise as I will now show you." So the man goes out, and finds
himself poor and miserable and forsaken. Here all the tempest and
fury and impatience of love grow less, and the hot summer passes
into autumn, and all its riches are turned to great poverty. Then
the man begins to complain because of his wretchedness: Whither
has gone the ardent love, the inwardness, the gratitude, the
joyful praise? And the inward consolation, the intimate joy, the
sensible savour, how has he lost them? How have the fierce tempest
of love, and all the other gifts which he felt before, become dead
in him? And he feels like an ignorant man who has lost all his
pains and his labour. And often his natural life is troubled by
such a loss.
Sometimes these unhappy men are also deprived of their earthly
goods, of friends, of kinsmen; and they are abandoned of all
creatures, their holiness is not known or esteemed, men speak evil
of their works and their whole lives, and they are despised and
rejected by all their neighbours. And at times they fall into
sickness and many a plague, and some into bodily temptations; or,
that which is worst of all, into temptations of the spirit.
From this poverty arise a fear lest one should fall, and a kind of
half-doubt. This is the utmost point at which a man can hold his
ground without falling into despair. Such a man likes to seek out
good men, and to complain to them, and show them his miseries; and
he desires the help and prayers of Holy Church and of all the
just.
CHAPTER XXIX
SHOWING WHAT THE FORSAKEN MAN SHOULD DO
HERE the man should bethink himself with a humble heart that of
his own he has nothing but misery; and he should say in
resignation and self-abandonment the words which were spoken by
the holy man Job: "THE LORD GAVE, AND THE LORD HATH TAKEN AWAY; as
it pleased the Lord, so it hath been done; BLESSED BE THE NAME OF
THE LORD. And he should renounce himself in all things, and should
say and mean in his heart, "Lord, I am as willing to be poor in
all those things of which I have been deprived as I am ready to be
rich, O Lord, if it be Thy will and to Thy glory; not my will
according to nature, O Lord, but Thy will and my will according to
spirit be done. For I am Thine own, O Lord, and would as well be
in hell as in heaven, if it were to Thy glory. Lord, do unto me
according to Thy good pleasure." Of all this suffering and
abandonment the man should make an inward joy; and he should give
himself into the hands of God, and should be glad because he is
able to suffer for the glory of God. And if he be true to this
disposition, he shall taste such an inward joy as he never tasted
before; for nothing is more joyful to the lover of God, than to
feel that he belongs wholly to his Beloved. And if he has indeed
followed the way of the virtues straight to this degree, even
though he has not passed through all the states which have been
pointed out heretofore, it is not needful, if he feels within
himself the source of the virtues: which is in activity, humble
obedience; and, in passivity, patient resignation. In these two
things this degree is established in everlasting surety.
In this season of the year the sun of heaven enters the sign of
Libra, which means the Scales; for day and night are evenly
balanced, and the sun divides the light from the darkness in equal
parts. So likewise Christ stands in the sign of the Balance for
the resigned man. Whether He gives sweetness or bitterness,
darkness or light, whatever he lays upon the scale, the man
balances it evenly; all things are equal to him, save sin alone,
which is for ever cast out. When such utterly resigned men have
thus been deprived of all consolation, and believe that they have
lost all virtues, and are forsaken of God and of all creatures:
then if they are able to reap them, all kinds of fruit, the corn
and vine, are ready and ripe. And this image means, that all that
the body can endure, whatsoever it be, should be offered up to God
gladly, and of one's own free will, and without resistance to the
supreme Will. All the outward and inward virtues, which a man
practised with joy in the fire of love; these, since he knows them
and is able to perform them, he should now practise diligently and
with courage, and should offer them up to God. Never were they so
dear to God; for never were they so noble and so fair. All the
consolations which God ever gave should gladly be given up, if it
be to His glory. This is the harvest of the corn, and of all kinds
of ripe fruits, on which we shall live eternally, and which make
us rich in God. Thus the virtues are made perfect, and sorrow is
turned to eternal wine. By such men, and by their lives and their
patience, all those who know them and all their neighbours are
taught and changed for the better: and so the corn of their
virtues is sown and multiplied for the benefit of all good men.
This is the fourth way in which a man by inward working is adorned
and perfected in the bodily powers and the lower part of himself:
and in no other way can he continually grow and become more
perfect. But as such men have been harshly afflicted, and have
been tried, and tempted, and combatted, by God, by their own
selves, and by all creatures, in them the virtue of resignation
reaches a singular perfection. Nevertheless, resignation, or the
renunciation of self-will for the will of God, is before all
things needful for all men who wish to be saved.
CHAPTER XXX
A PARABLE: HOW ONE MAY BE HINDERED IN THIS FOURTH DEGREE
AT this season of the year, so soon as the equinox is come, the
sun begins to descend and the weather becomes cooler. And then
some imprudent men become full of noxious humours, which enter
into the stomach, and spoil the health and bring many diseases:
and these destroy the appetite and the taste of good food, and
bring many to death. And some men are corrupted by these noxious
humours, so that they get dropsy, and have therefrom long torments
and sometimes die. And from the super-abundance of these humours
come sickness and fever from which many men suffer, and of which
some die. And so likewise it is, when men of good-will, who once
tasted God, have swerved from Him and from truth, and have gone
astray; these either sicken in the way of perfection, or wither
away as regards virtue, or fall into eternal death, through one of
these maladies, and some through all three. Especially when he is
forsaken a man has need of much strength, and must exercise
himself in the way I have just taught you: thus he shall not be
deceived. But the unwise man, who rules himself ill, falls easily
into these maladies; for in him the weather has grown cooler. For
this reason his nature becomes slow in virtue and in good works,
and craves for comfort and softness of the body; often without
discretion and more than is needful. And other men would like well
to receive solace from God, if they might partake of Him without
pains and labour. And some seek for solace in creatures, wherefrom
great harm often ensues. And some think themselves sick and feeble
and that their powers are exhausted, and believe that they have
need of all that they can get, and that they must cherish their
bodies in comfort and repose. When a man yields himself in such a
way, and seeks without discretion after bodily things and
comforts; then all such things are noxious humours which fulfil
the stomach, that is to say, the man's heart, and take from him
the taste and the enjoyment of good food, that is to say, of all
the virtues.
CHAPTER XXXI
OF ANOTHER HINDRANCE
IF a man thus falls into sickness and cold, he is sometimes caught
by dropsy, that is to say, he has an inclination towards the
outward possession of earthly things. The more such men acquire,
the more they desire; for they straightway become dropsical. The
belly, that is, the appetites or lusts, swells terribly, and the
thirst will not be quenched. But the face of conscience and
discretion becomes small and thin, for these men put hindrances
against the inflow of the grace of God. If they thus accumulate
the waters of earthly possessions about the heart, that is, if
they cling to them with desire, they cannot progress in works of
charity; for they are sick, they lack the inward spirit of life
and breath, that is to say, they lack the grace of God and inward
charity. And therefore they cannot rid themselves of the waters of
earthly riches: the heart is submerged in them, and they are often
choked therein and die an eternal death. But those who keep the
waters of earthly riches far below the heart, so that they are
master of their possessions and can renounce them whenever it is
needful: these, though they may suffer long from inordinate
inclinations, may yet be cured.
CHAPTER XXXII
OF FOUR KINDS OF FEVER WHEREWITH A MAN MAY BE TORMENTED
THOSE men who are full of noxious humours, that is to say, full of
inordinate inclination towards bodily comfort and towards foreign
and creaturely consolations, can fall into four kinds of fever.
The first kind is called the quotidian fever. It is a multiplicity
of the heart; for these men wish to know all things, and to speak
of all things, and to criticise and to judge all things, and
meanwhile they often fail to observe themselves. They are weighed
down by many strange cares; they must often hear what they do not
like; and the least thing troubles them. Their thoughts are
restless; first this, then that, first here, then there; they are
like to the winds. This is a daily fever; for they are troubled,
and busied, and in multiplicity, from morning until evening, and
sometimes in the night also, whether they sleep or wake. Though
this may exist in a state of grace and without mortal sin, yet it
hinders inwardness and inward practices and takes away the taste
of God and of all virtues. And this is an eternal loss.
The second kind of fever comes on alternate days. It is called
fickleness. If it lasts long it is often dangerous. This fever is
of two kinds: sometimes it comes from intemperate heat, and
sometimes from cold. The one which comes from intemperate heat
befalls certain good men; for when they are, or have been, touched
by God, and then are forsaken of Him, they sometimes fall into
fickleness. To-day they choose one way of life, and to-morrow
another; at one time they wish to be silent, and another time they
wish continually to speak. First they wish to enter into this
order, then into that. First they wish to give all their goods to
God, then they wish to keep them. At one time they wish to wander
abroad, at another to be enclosed in a cell. At one time they long
to go often to the Sacrament, and shortly afterwards they value
this but little. At one time they wish to pray much in a loud
voice, and another time but shortly after, they would keep
silence. And this is both a vain curiosity and a fickleness, which
hinder and impede a man from comprehending inward truth, and
destroy in him both the source and the practice of all inwardness.
Now mark whence this unstable condition comes in some good men.
When a man sets his thoughts and his inward active endeavour on
the virtues and on outward behaviour more than on God and on union
with God: though he remains in the grace of God (for in the
virtues he aims at God), yet none the less his life is unstable,
for he does not feel himself to rest in God above all virtues. And
therefore he possesses something that he does not know; for, Him
Whom he seeks in the virtues and in the multiplicity of acts, he
possesses within himself, above intention, above virtues, and
above all ways and means. And therefore, if this man would
overcome his fickleness, he must learn to rest above all virtues
in God and in the most high Unity of God.
The other fever of fickleness, which comes from cold, all those
men have who love God indeed, but at the same time seek and
inordinately love some other thing. This fever comes from cold,
for the heat of charity is poor indeed where not God alone, but
foreign things besides and with God, urge and excite us towards
the works of virtue. Such men are fickle of heart; for in all the
things which they do, nature is secretly seeking its own, often
without their knowledge, for they know not themselves. Such men
choose and abandon, first one way of life, then another. To-day
they choose one priest, to whom they would go for confession and
for counsel their whole life long; and to-morrow they will choose
another. On all things they will ask advice, but hardly ever do
they act upon it. All things for which they are blamed and rebuked
they like to excuse and to justify. Of fine words they have
plenty, but little is in them. They like well to have a reputation
for virtue, but without great effort. They wish their virtues to
be known, and these are therefore empty, and have no savour either
of God nor of themselves. Others they teach, but will themselves
hardly be taught or reproved. A natural self-love and a hidden
pride make them thus fickle. Such people walk on the verge of
hell: one false step, and into it they fall.
In some men this fever of fickleness may produce the quartan
fever; that is, an estrangement from God and from themselves and
from truth and from all virtues. And then they fall into such
confusion that they are at their wit's end and know not what to
do. This illness is more dangerous than either of the others.
Through this estrangement a man sometimes falls into a fever which
is called the double quartan, which means indifference. Then the
fourth day is doubled, and he can hardly recover, for he becomes
indifferent and heedless of all that is needful to eternal life.
So he may fall into sin, like one who never knew anything of God.
If this may befall those men who govern themselves ill in this
state of abandonment, then it behoves those to beware who never
knew ought of God, nor of the inward life, nor of that sweet
savour which good men find in their exercises.
CHAPTER XXXIII
SHOWING HOW THESE FOUR DEGREES IN THEIR PERFECTION ARE FOUND IN
CHRIST
IF we wish to progress rightly in the four aforesaid degrees of
the inward exercise which adorn a man's bodily powers and the
lower part of his nature, we should mark Christ, Who taught us
these four ways and has gone before us therein. Christ, the bright
Sun, rose in the heavens of the most high Trinity, and in the dawn
of His glorious mother, the Virgin Mary; who was, and is, the dawn
and daybreak of all those graces in which we shall rejoice
eternally.
Now mark this: Christ had, and still has, the first degree; for he
was one and in oneness. In Him were, and are, gathered and united
all the virtues that ever were, and ever shall be, practised;
moreover all the creatures who ever practised, and ever shall
practise, these virtues. Thus He was the Father's Only Begotten
Son, and was united with human nature. And He was inward; for He
brought to earth the fire that inflamed all the saints and all
good men. And He yielded a sensible love and loyalty to His
Father, and to all those who shall enjoy Him in eternity. And His
devotion and His loving and aspiring heart burned and groaned
before His Father because of the miseries of all men. His whole
life, and all His works, from without and from within, and all His
words, were thanksgiving and praise, and glorifying of His Father.
This is the first degree.
Christ, the Sun of Love, sparkled and shone brighter still, and
more ardently; for in Him was, and is, the fulness of all graces
and gifts. And for this reason the heart of Christ and His way of
life, and His conduct, and His service, over-flowed in mercy, in
gentleness, in humility, and in generosity; and He was so gracious
and so lovable that His ways and His person drew all men of
goodwill. He was the unspotted lily amidst the flowers of the
field, wherefrom all the just may suck the honey of eternal
sweetness and eternal consolation. For all the gifts which were
ever bestowed upon the manhood of Christ, Christ thanked and
praised, according to His manhood, His Eternal Father, Who is the
Father of all gifts; and He rested, as regards the highest powers
of His soul, above all gifts, in the most high Unity of God, from
which all gifts flow forth. Thus He possessed the second degree.
Christ the glorious Sun sparkled and shone higher still, and
brighter, and more ardently; for all the days of His life long His
bodily powers and His senses, His heart and His mind, were called
and destined of His Father to that most high glory and beatitude
which He now enjoys, according to His senses and His bodily
powers. And He Himself was both naturally and supernaturally
inclined thereto, according to His affections; nevertheless He was
willing to abide in this exile until the time that His Father had
foreseen and ordained from eternity. Thus He possessed the third
degree.
When the due time had come wherein Christ should reap, and carry
into the Eternal Kingdom, the fruits of all those virtues which
ever had ripened, or ever should ripen, then the Eternal Sun began
to descend; for then Christ humbled Himself, and delivered His
bodily life into the hands of His enemies. And in this distress He
was denied and forsaken of His friends, and from His human nature
there was withdrawn all inward and outward consolation; and there
was laid on it misery and sorrow, buffettings, blasphemies, and
heavy burdens, and it paid the price of all our sins according to
justice. And He bore these things in humble patience, and, whilst
He was thus forsaken, He wrought the greatest work of love. And,
thereby He has bought back and redeemed our eternal heritage. Thus
is He adorned in the lower part of His noble manhood; for in it He
suffered these pains for our sins. And this is why He is called
the Saviour of the world, and why He is glorified, honoured, and
exalted, and set on the right hand of His Father, where He reigns
in mightiness; and all creatures, in heaven, and on earth, and in
hell, bow the knee eternally before His most high Name.
CHAPTER XXXIV
SHOWING HOW A MAN SHOULD LIVE IF HE WOULD BE ENLIGHTENED
THE man who lives in true obedience and in the moral virtues,
according to the commandments of God, and besides this practices
the inward virtues according to the teaching and stirring of the
Holy Ghost, who is just in deed and in word, who seeks not his
own, neither in time nor in eternity, who can bear with equanimity
and with true patience, darkness and heaviness, and all kinds of
miseries, and thanks God for everything, and offers himself up
with humble resignation: he has received the first coming of
Christ according to the way of inward exercise. And he has gone
out from himself in the inward life, and has adorned with rich
virtues and gifts his quickened heart and the unity of his body
and senses. When such a man has been altogether purified and set
at rest, and is gathered together into unity as regards his lower
powers, he can be inwardly enlightened, if God deems that the time
is fit and he craves it. It may also come to pass, that a man may
be enlightened at the beginning of his conversion, if he yield
himself wholly to the will of God and renounce all selfhood; all
lies in this. Such a man, however, must afterwards pass through
those degrees and ways of the outward and the inward life which
have been shown heretofore; but this would be easier to him than
to another, who mounts from below upwards, for he has more light
than the other man.
CHAPTER XXXV
OF THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, OR, THE FOUNTAIN WITH THREE RILLS
NOW we will speak further of the second manner of the coming of
Christ, in those inward exercises by which a man is adorned,
enlightened, and enriched in the three highest powers of the soul.
This coming we will liken to a living fountain with three rills.49
The fountain-head, from which the rills flow forth, is the fulness
of Divine grace within the unity of our spirit. There grace dwells
essentially; abiding as a brimming fountain, and actively flowing
forth in rills into all the powers of the soul, each according to
its need. These rills are special inflowings or workings of God in
the higher powers, wherein God works by means of grace in many
diverse ways.
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE FIRST RILL ADORNS THE MEMORY50
THE first rill of grace, which God causes to flow forth in this
coming, is a pure simplicity, shining in the spirit without
differentiation. This rill takes its rise from the fountain within
the unity of the spirit; and it flows straight downwards and pours
through all the powers of the soul, the lower and the higher; and
raises them above all multiplicity and all busyness and produces
simplicity in a man; and shows and gives him the inward bond of
unity of spirit. Thus he is lifted up as regards his memory, and
is freed from distracting images and from fickleness.
Now in this light, Christ demands a going out in conformity with
this light and with this coming. So the man goes out, and knows
and finds himself, through this simple light which has been poured
into him, to be united and established and penetrated and
confirmed, in the unity of his spirit or mind. Thereby the man is
raised up and set in a new state, and he turns inwards, and fixes
his memory upon the Nudity, above all the distractions of sensible
images, and above multiplicity. Here the man possesses the
essential and supernatural unity of his spirit, as his own
dwelling-place and as his own eternal, personal heritage. He ever
has a natural and a supernatural tendency towards this same unity;
and this same unity through the gifts of God and through
simplicity of intention, shall have an eternal loving tendency
towards that most high Unity, where, in the bond of the Holy
Ghost, the Father and the Son are united with all saints. And thus
the first rill, which demands unity, is satisfied.51
CHAPTER XXXVII
THE SECOND RILL ENLIGHTENS THE UNDERSTANDING
THROUGH inward charity and loving inclination and the faithfulness
of God, there arises the second rill from the fulness of grace
within the unity of the spirit; and it is a ghostly light which
flows forth and shines into the understanding, discerning diverse
things. For this light shows and proves in truth the distinctions
between all the virtues; but this does not lie wholly in our
power. For, even if we always had this light within our souls, it
is God Who makes it to be silent and to speak, and He may show it
and hide it, give it and take it away, in any time and place; for
this light is His. And He therefore works in this light when He
wills, and where He wills, and for whom He wills, and what He
wills. These men have no need of revelations, neither of being
caught up above the senses; for their life, and dwelling-place,
their way, and their being, are in the spirit, above the senses
and above sensibility. And there God shows to such men what is His
good pleasure, and what is needful for them or for other men.
Nevertheless God could, were such His will, deprive such men of
their outward senses, and show them from within unknown
similitudes and future things in many ways.
Now Christ wills that this man go out and walk in this light, in
the way of this light. Therefore this enlightened man shall go out
and shall mark his state and his life from within and from
without, and see whether he is perfectly like unto Christ,
according to His manhood and according to His Godhead. For we have
been created in the image and after the likeness of God. And he
shall raise his enlightened eyes, by means of the illuminated
reason, to the intelligible Truth, and mark and behold in a
creaturely way the most high Nature of God and the fathomless
attributes which are in God: for to a fathomless Nature belong
fathomless virtues and activities.
The most high Nature of the Godhead may thus be perceived and
beheld: how it is Simplicity and Onefoldness, inaccessible Height
and bottomless Depth, incomprehensible Breadth and eternal Length,
a dark Silence, a wild Desert, the Rest of all saints in the
Unity, and a common Fruition of Himself and of all saints in
Eternity. And many other marvels may be seen in the abysmal Sea of
the Godhead; and though, because of the grossness of the senses to
which they must be shown from without, we must use sensible
images, yet, in truth, these things are perceived and beheld from
within, as an abysmal and unconditioned Good. But if they must be
shown from without, it must be done by means of diverse
similitudes and images, according to the enlightenment of the
reason of him who shapes and shows them.
The enlightened man shall also mark and behold the attributes of
the Father in the Godhead: how He is omnipotent Power and Might,
Creator, Mover, Preserver, Beginning and End, the Origin and Being
of all creatures. This the rill of grace shows to the enlightened
reason in its radiance. It also shows the attributes of the
Eternal Word: abysmal Wisdom and Truth, Pattern of all creatures
and all life, Eternal and unchanging Rule, Seeing all things and
Seeing Through all things, none of which is hidden from Him;
Transillumination and Enlightenment of all saints in heaven and on
earth, according to the merits of each. And even as this rill of
radiance shows the distinctions between many things, so it also
shows to the enlightened reason the attributes of the Holy Ghost:
incomprehensible Love and Generosity, Compassion and Mercy,
infinite Faithfulness and Benevolence, inconceivable Greatness,
outpouring Richness, a limitless Goodness drenching through all
heavenly spirits with delight, a Flame of Fire which burns all
things together in the Unity, a flowing Fountain, rich in all
savours, according to the desire of each; the Preparation of all
saints for their eternal bliss and their entrance therein, an
Embrace and Penetration of the Father, the Son, and all saints in
fruitive Unity. All this is observed and beheld without
differentiation or division in the simple Nature of the Godhead.
And according to our perception these attributes abide as Persons
do, in manifold distinctions. For between might and goodness,
between generosity and truth, there are, according to our
perception great differences. Nevertheless all these are found in
oneness and undifferentiation in the most high Nature of the
Godhead. But the relations which make the personal attributes
remain in eternal distinction. For the Father begets distinction.
For the Father incessantly begets his Son, and Himself is
unbegotten; and the Son is begotten, and cannot beget; and thus
throughout eternity the Father has a Son, and the Son a Father.
And these are the relations of the Father to the Son, and of the
Son to the Father. And the Father and the Son breathe forth one
Spirit, Who is Their common Will or Love. And this Spirit begets
not, nor is He begotten; but must eternally pour forth, being
breathed forth from both the Father and the Son. And these three
Persons are one God and one Spirit. And all the attributes with
the works which flow forth from them are common to all the
Persons, for They work by virtue of Their Onefold Nature.52
The incomprehensible richness and loftiness of the Divine Nature,
its outpouring generosity toward all in common, fills a man with
wonder. And, above all, he wonders at the universality of God and
His outpouring upon all things. For he beholds the
incomprehensible Essence as a common fruition of God and all
saints. And he sees the Divine Persons as a common outpouring and
a common activity in grace and in glory, in nature and above
nature, in all places and at all times, in saints and in men, in
heaven and on earth, in all creatures, rational, irrational, and
material, according to the merits, the need, and the receptivity
of each. And he beholds heaven and earth, sun and moon, the four
elements, together with all creatures, and the course of the
heavens, created for all in common. God, with all His gifts, is
common to all: the angels are common: the soul is common to all
its powers, to the whole body, to all its members, yet in each
member is entire; for the soul cannot be divided, save by the
reason. For though, according to the reason, the highest powers
and the lowest, the spirit and the soul, are certainly divided;
yet, in nature, they are one. So too God is whole and special to
each, and yet common to all creation; for by Him all things are;
within Him and upon Him, heaven and earth and all nature depend.
When a man thus considers the wonderful wealth and loftiness of
the Divine Nature, and all the multiplicity of gifts which He
gives and offers to His creatures, then there grows up within him
a wonder at such manifold richness, at such loftiness, and at the
immeasurable faithfulness of God to His creatures. And thence
springs a particular inward gladness of the spirit, and a high
trust in God, and this inward gladness envelops and drenches all
the powers of the soul and the most inward part of the spirit.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE THIRD RILL ESTABLISHES THE WILL TO EVERY PERFECTION
FROM this gladness and the fulness of grace and the faithfulness
of God, there is born and flows forth the third rill in this same
unity of the spirit. This rill, like a fire, enkindles the will,
and swallows up and consumes everything into unity. And it fills
to the brim and flows through all the powers of the soul, with
rich gifts and with a singular nobility: and it calls forth in the
will a tender spiritual love without effort.
Now Christ says inwardly within the spirit by means of this
burning brook: GO YE OUT by practices in conformity with these
gifts and with this coming. By the first rill, which is a simple
light, the memory has been lifted above sensible images, and has
been grounded and established in the unity of the spirit. By the
second rill, which is an inflowing light, understanding and reason
have been enlightened, to know the diverse ways of virtue and of
practice, and discern the mysteries of the Scriptures. By the
third rill, which is an inpouring heat, the supreme will has been
enkindled in tranquil love, and has been endowed with great
riches. Thus has this man become spiritually enlightened; for the
grace of God dwells like a fountainhead in the unity of his
spirit; and its rills cause in the powers an outflowing with all
the virtues. And the fountainhead of grace ever demands a flowing-
back into the same source from whence the flood proceeds.
CHAPTER XXXIX
SHOWING HOW THE ESTABLISHED MAN SHALL GO OUT IN FOUR WAYS
NOW the man who is established in the bonds of love shall dwell in
the unity of the spirit; and he shall go out with enlightened
reason and with overflowing love in heaven and on earth; and he
shall mark all things with clear discernment; and he shall
dispense and distribute all things, out of true generosity, and
because of his richness in God.
In four ways this enlightened man is invited and urged to go out.
The first going out shall be towards God and towards all saints;
the second going out shall be towards sinners and towards all
perverted men; the third going out shall be towards purgatory; and
the fourth, towards himself and towards all good men.
CHAPTER XL
HE SHALL GO OUT TOWARDS GOD AND TOWARDS ALL SAINTS
NOW understand this: this man shall go out and observe God in His
glory with all saints. And he shall behold the rich and generous
outflowing of God, with glory, and with Himself, and with
inconceivable delights towards all the saints, according to the
longing of all spirits; and how these flow back, with themselves,
and with all that they have received and can achieve, towards that
same rich Oneness from which all bliss comes forth.
This flowing forth of God always demands a flowing back; for God
is a Sea that ebbs and flows, pouring without ceasing into all His
beloved according to the need and the merits of each, and ebbing
back again with all those who have been thus endowed both in
heaven and on earth, with all that they have and all that they
can. And of some He demands more than they are able to bring, for
He shows Himself so rich and so generous and so boundlessly good:
and in showing Himself thus He demands love and adoration
according to His worth. For God wishes to be loved by us according
to the measure of His nobility, and in this all spirits fail; and
therefore their love becomes wayless and without manner, for they
know not how they may fulfil it, nor how they may come to it. For
the love of all spirits is measured: and for this reason their
love perpetually begins anew, so that God may be loved according
to His demand and to the spirit's own desires. And this is why all
blessed spirits perpetually gather themselves together and form a
burning flame of love, that they may fulfil this work, and that
God may be loved according to His nobility. Reason shows clearly
that to creatures this is impossible; but love always wills the
fulfilment of love, or else will be consumed, burned up,
annihilated in its own failure. Yet God is never loved according
to His worth by any creatures. And to the enlightened reason this
is a great delight and satisfaction: that its God and its Beloved
is so high and so rich that He transcends all created powers, and
can be loved according to His merits by none save Himself.
This rich and enlightened man shall distribute gifts to all the
angelic choirs, and all spirits, each in particular according to
its merits, out of the richness of his God and out of the
generosity of his own ground; which is illuminated and overflowing
with great and wonderful gifts. He passes through all choirs,
through all hierarchies and orders, and beholds how God dwells in
all according to the merit of each. This enlightened man goes
swiftly and in ghostly wise round and through all the heavenly
hosts, rich and overflowing with charity, and enriching and
inundating the whole celestial company with fresh glory out of the
Richness and Abundance of the Trinity and Unity of the Divine
Nature.
This is the first going out, towards God and towards all saints.
CHAPTER XLI
HE SHALL GO OUT TOWARDS ALL SINNERS
AT times this same man shall descend towards sinners, with great
compassion, and with generous mercy, and shall bring them before
God with fervent devotion and with much prayer; bringing to God's
remembrance all the good which He is, and all His power, and all
that He has done for us, and has promised us, right as though He
had forgotten all this: for God wills that we beseech Him. And
charity shall obtain all that it desires; nevertheless it must not
be stubborn and self-willed, but must leave all to the rich
goodness and to the generosity of God: for God loves without
measure, and herein the lover best finds his peace. Now, since
this man bears a common love to all, he prays and beseeches God
that His love and His mercy may flow forth towards Pagans and
towards Jews and towards all unbelievers, that He may be loved and
known and praised in heaven, and that our glory, our joy and our
peace may spread to all the ends of the earth.
This is the second going out, towards sinners.
CHAPTER XLII
HE SHALL GO OUT TOWARDS HIS FRIENDS IN PURGATORY
AT times the man shall behold his friends in purgatory, and shall
consider their misery and their yearnings and their heavy pains.
Then shall he pray and beseech the pity, the mercy, and the
generosity of God; and shall plead their good-will, and their
great misery, and their yearning after the rich goodness of God,
and he shall bring to God's remembrance that they died in love,
and that their only refuge is in His passion and mercy.
Now understand this: it may sometimes happen that this enlightened
man is specially urged of the Spirit of God to pray for a certain
thing, for some sinner, or for some soul, or for some ghostly
benefit, in such a way that he feels and understands it to be the
work of the Holy Ghost, and not of his own choice, or self-will,
or nature. Then the man sometimes becomes so intense and so ardent
in his prayer that he receives in ghostly wise the answer that his
prayer has been heard. And with the coming of this sign the thrust
of the Spirit and the prayer abate.
CHAPTER XLIII
HE SHALL GO OUT TOWARDS HIMSELF AND TOWARDS ALL GOOD MEN
NOW the man shall go out towards himself and towards all men of
good-will, and shall taste and behold how that they are tied and
bound together in love; and he shall beseech and pray God that He
may let His customary gifts flow forth, that thereby all may be
confirmed in His love and His eternal worship. This enlightened
man shall faithfully and discreetly teach and instruct, reprove
and serve, all men; for he bears in him a love towards all. And
thereby is he a mediator between God and all men. And then he
shall turn wholly inwards upon himself with all the saints and
with all the just, and possess in peace the unity of his spirit,
and therewith the most high Unity of God, wherein all spirits
rest. This is a true ghostly life; for all the degrees and all the
virtues, inward as well as outward, and the highest powers of the
soul, are supernaturally adorned by it in a right and profitable
way.
CHAPTER XLIV
SHOWING HOW WE MAY RECOGNISE THOSE MEN WHO FAIL IN CHARITY TO ALL
THERE are some men who are very subtle in words, and skilful in
showing forth high things, and yet do not enjoy this enlightened
condition, neither this common and generous charity. In order that
these men may learn to know themselves, and also may be known of
others, I will distinguish them by three signs. By the first sign
they may be known of themselves, and by the two others they may be
recognised of all men of understanding.
The first sign: Whereas the enlightened man, by virtue of the
Divine light, is simple and stable and free from curious
considerations, these others are manifold and restless and full of
subtle reasonings and reflections, and they do not taste inward
unity, nor the satisfaction which is without images. And by this
they may know themselves.
The second sign: Whereas the enlightened man possesses a wisdom
inpoured by God, wherein he knows and distinguishes the truth
without effort, these men have shrewd and sudden notions, with
which they work in their imagination, and which they display and
develop with much cunning. But their ground is barren and they
cannot bring forth fruitful doctrine. Their doctrines are
manifold, they are concerned with outward things and addressed to
the understanding. And thereby inward men are troubled, hindered,
and led astray. They neither lead nor point to unity; but they
teach subtle observations in multiplicity. Such people hold
obstinately to their own doctrine and opinion, even though another
opinion be as good as their own. And they are idle and careless as
regards all virtues. Spiritual pride is in all their being. This
is the second sign.
The third sign: Whereas the enlightened and loving man flows forth
in love towards all in heaven and on earth, as you have heard,
this other man sets himself apart in all things. He thinks himself
to be the wisest and the best of all; and desires that others
should think highly of him and his teaching. All those whom he
does not teach and advise, all those who do not follow his way of
life and do not cling to him as their master, these seem to him to
be sunk in error. He is large and spacious in satisfying his
bodily needs, and little faults do not count heavily with him.
This man is neither just, nor humble, nor generous, nor a servant
of the poor, nor inward, nor fervent, nor does he feel the love of
God. He knows neither God, nor his own being, in the way of true
virtue. This is the third sign.
Mark these, and study them, and cast them out of yourselves, and
out of all men in whom you remark them; but condemn no one for
such things unless it be that they have proved it by their deeds,
for this would soil your heart and would hinder it in the
knowledge of Divine truth.
CHAPTER XLV
HOW CHRIST WAS, IS, AND EVER WILL BE THE LOVER OF ALL
IN order that we shall possess and desire this state of being
common to all above the other conditions of which we have spoken
(because this state is the highest of all) we shall take as a
model Christ, Who was, and is, and eternally shall remain common
to all; for He was sent down to earth for the common benefit of
all men who would turn to Him.
Yet He Himself says that He is not sent but unto the lost sheep of
the house of Israel. These, however, are not only the Jews, but
all those who shall see God in eternity. These belong to the house
of Israel, and no one else; for the Jews despised the Gospel, and
the Heathen entered and received it. And so all Israel, that is to
say, all the eternally chosen, shall be saved.
Now mark how Christ gave Himself to all in perfect loyalty. His
inward and sublime prayer flowed forth towards His Father, and it
was a prayer for all in common who desired to be saved. Christ was
common to all in love, in teaching, in tender consolation, in
generous gifts, in merciful forgiveness. His soul and His body,
His life and His death and His ministry were, and are, common to
all. His sacraments and His gifts are common to all. Christ never
took any food or drink, nor anything that His body needed, without
intending by it the common good of all those who shall be saved,
even unto the last day. Christ had nothing particular and of his
own, but everything in common, body and soul, mother and
disciples, cloak and tunic. He ate and He drank for our sake; He
lived and He died for our sake. His pains and His sorrows and His
miseries were of His own and for Him only; but the fruits and the
profit which came forth from them are common to all. And the glory
of His merits shall be common to all in eternity.
CHAPTER XLVI
REPROVING ALL THOSE WHO LIVE ON SPIRITUAL GOODS IN AN INORDINATE
MANNER
NOW Christ left His treasure and His revenue here on earth. These
are the seven sacraments and the outward goods of Holy Church,
which He has gotten through His death, and which, therefore,
should be in common. And His servants, who live thereon, should
therefore be in common. All those who live on alms and are in the
ecclesiastical state, should be in common at least in their
prayers: and especially all religious who live in cloisters and in
cells. In the beginning of Holy Church and of our Faith, popes,
bishops, and priests, were all in common; for they went out and
converted the folk, and established Holy Church and our Faith, and
sealed them with their blood and with their death. These men were
simple and onefold, and they had steadfast peace in the unity of
the spirit. And they were enlightened with godly wisdom, rich and
overflowing with faith and with love towards God and towards all
men. But now, notwithstanding it is become wholly otherwise; for
those who to-day possess the heritage and the revenue which were
given to those others out of love and because of their holiness,
are unstable of soul, and restless, and in multiplicity; for they
have altogether turned towards the world, and do not thoroughly
apprehend in their ground those things and that business which
they have in hand. That is why they pray with their lips, but
their heart does not savour the meaning, that is to say, it does
not feel the secret wonder which is hidden in Scripture, and in
the sacraments, and in their office. And therefore they are coarse
and dull, and are not enlightened by the Divine truth, and they
often seek food and drink and ease of body without moderation:
would to God they were at least clean of fleshly sins! As long as
they live thus, they shall never be enlightened; and whereas those
others were generous, and overflowing with charity, and kept
nothing for themselves, these are now greedy and avaricious, and
deny themselves nothing. All this is contrary and unlike to the
saints, and to that common way of which we have spoken. I speak of
the general state of things: let each prove himself, and teach and
reprove himself, if needs be; and, if not, let him rejoice and
rest in peace in his clean conscience, and serve and praise God,
for the good of himself and of all men, and for the glory of God.
CHAPTER XLVII
SHOWING HOW CHRIST HAS GIVEN HIMSELF TO ALL IN COMMON IN THE
SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR
AS I will specially praise and glorify this state of being in
common, so I find another special treasure which Christ has left
in Holy Church to all good men; in His supper upon the high feast
of the Passover when Christ knew that He would pass from this
exile to His father, after He had eaten of the Paschal Lamb with
His disciples, and the ancient law had been fulfilled. At the end
of the meal and of the feast, He desired to give to them a dish of
singular excellence which He had long wished to do. And herewith
He willed to make an end of the ancient law and begin the new. And
He took bread in His holy and venerable hands, and consecrated His
sacred Body, and after that His sacred Blood; and He gave them
both to all His disciples, and left them to all good men in common
for their eternal profit. This gift and this excellent dish
rejoice and adorn all high festivals and all banquets, in heaven
and on earth. In this gift Christ gives Himself to us in three
ways. He gives us His Flesh and His Blood and His bodily life,
glorified and full of joy and sweetness; He gives us His spirit
with its highest powers, full of glory and gifts, truth and
righteousness; and He gives us His personality through that Divine
Light which raises His spirit and all enlightened spirits into the
most high and fruitive unity.
Now Christ desires that we shall remember Him so often as we
consecrate, offer, and receive His Body. Consider now how we shall
remember Him. We shall mark and behold how Christ inclines Himself
towards us with loving affection, with great desire, and with
yearning delight, and with a warm and tender outpouring of Himself
into our bodily nature. For He gives us that which He has in
common with our manhood, that is, His Flesh and His Blood, and His
bodily nature. We shall also mark and behold that precious body
martyred, pierced and wounded for our sake, because of His love
and His faithfulness towards us. Herewith we are adorned and
nourished in the lower part of our manhood. In this most high gift
of the Sacrament He also gives us His spirit, full of glory and
rich gifts of virtue, and unspeakable marvels of charity and
nobleness. And herewith we are nourished and adorned and
enlightened in the unity of our spirit and in the higher powers,
through the indwelling of Christ with all His riches. Moreover He
gives us in the Sacrament of the Altar His most high personality
in incomprehensible splendour. And through this we are lifted up
to and united with the Father, and the Father receives His adopted
sons together with His natural Son, and thus we enter into our
inheritance of the Godhead in eternal blessedness.
When a man has worthily recollected and considered these things,
then he shall go out to meet Christ in the same way in which
Christ comes to him. He shall lift himself up to receive Christ
with his heart, with his desire, with sensible love, with all his
powers, and with a joyful craving. For even thus does Christ
receive Himself. And this craving cannot be too great; for then
our nature receives its own nature, that is, the glorified manhood
of Christ, full of joy and worth. Therefore I would that a man, in
thus receiving, should melt and flow forth in desire, in joy, and
in delight: for he embraces and is united with Him who is the
fairest, the most gracious and most lovable of all the children of
men. In this yearning devotion, and in these delights, many a
great benefit has been bestowed upon men, and many a secret and
hidden wonder of the rich treasures of God has been revealed and
disclosed to them. When a man, in thus receiving, bethinks himself
of the martyrdom and the sufferings of this precious Body of
Christ, which he receives, then he may sometimes rise into such
loving devotion and such sensible compassion that he desires to be
nailed with Christ to the cross, and longs to shed his heart's
blood for the glory of Christ. And he presses into the wounds and
into the open heart of Christ, his Saviour. In this exercise many
a revelation and many a benefit have often been bestowed upon men.
This sensible love and compassion, and the power of the
imagination united with the inward contemplation of the wounds of
Christ, may be so great, that the man thinks that he feels the
wounds and the bruises of Christ in his own heart and in all his
limbs. And if any man could indeed in any way receive the stigmata
of our Lord, it would be such a man as this. And herewith we
satisfy Christ as regards the lower part of His manhood.
We shall also dwell in the unity of our spirit and should flow
forth with an ample love in heaven and on earth, with clear
discernment. And by this we bear some resemblance to Christ as
regards the spirit, and give Him satisfaction.
We shall also, through the personality of Christ, with simplicity
of intention and with fruitive love, transcend ourselves, and also
the created being of Christ, and rest in our inheritance, that is,
in the Divine Being in eternity. This Christ always desires to
give us in ghostly wise, whenever we so exercise ourselves and
make ourselves in readiness for Him. And He desires that we shall
receive Him both in a sacramental and a spiritual way, as is meet
and right and as reason demands. Though a man may not always have
such feelings and such desires, if he intend the praise of God and
His glory, and the increase of his own being and blessedness, he
may go freely to the table of the Lord, if his conscience be clean
from mortal sin.
CHAPTER XLVIII
OF THE UNITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE IN THE TRINITY OF THE PERSONS
THE most high and superessential Unity of the Divine Nature, where
the Father and the Son possess Their nature in the unity of the
Holy Ghost-above the comprehension and understanding of all our
powers, in the naked being of our spirit-is a supernal stillness,
wherein God broods above all creatures in the created light. This
most high Unity of the Divine Nature is living and fruitful; for,
out of this same Unity, the Eternal Word is incessantly born of
the Father. And, through this birth, the Father knows the Son;
and, in the Son, all things. And the Son knows the Father; and all
things in the Father. For they are one Simple Nature. From this
mutual contemplation of the Father and the Son, in the eternal
radiance, there flow forth an eternal content53 and a fathomless
love, and that is the Holy Ghost. And through the Holy Ghost, and
through the Eternal Wisdom, God inclines Himself towards each
creature in particular, and lovingly endows and enkindles each
one, according to its worth and the state into which it has been
put and to which it has been destined by its virtues and by the
Eternal Providence of God. And thereby all good spirits, in heaven
and on earth, are moved to virtue and righteousness.
CHAPTER XLIX
SHOWING HOW GOD POSSESSES AND MOVES THE SOUL BOTH IN A NATURAL AND
A SUPERNATURAL WAY
NOW mark well: I will show you an image of this. God has created
the highest heaven, a pure and simple Radiance, which enrings and
encloses all the heavens and all bodily and material things that
God has ever created; for it is an outward dwelling-place and a
kingdom of God and His saints, full of glory and eternal joy. Now
since this heaven is an unmingled Radiance, there is here neither
time, nor space, nor movement, nor any change; for it is immovable
and unchangeable above all things. The sphere which is nearest to
this glowing heaven is called the First Movement. For here all
movement arises from the highest heaven, by the Power of God. From
this movement the firmament and all planets derive their courses.
And, through it, all creatures live and grow, each according to
its kind54. Now understand this well: so likewise the essence of
the soul is a ghostly kingdom of God, full of Divine radiance
transcending all our powers, except they be in that simplified
state of which I will not speak now. Behold, in regard to the
essence of the soul, wherein God reigns, the unity of our spirit
is like to the First Movement; for, in this unity, the spirit is
moved from above by the power of God, both naturally and
supernaturally. For we have nothing of our own, neither in nature,
nor above nature. And this stirring of God, when it is
supernatural, is the first and principle cause of all virtues. And
through this stirring of God, there are given to some men the
seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, like to the seven planets, which
illuminate and make fruitful the whole life of man. This is the
way in which God possesses the essential unity of our spirit as
His kingdom; and in which He works and flows forth with His gifts
into our potential unity and into all our powers.
CHAPTER L
SHOWING HOW A MAN SHOULD BE ADORNED IF HE IS TO RECEIVE THE MOST
INWARD EXERCISE
NOW consider diligently how we can acquire and possess the most
inward exercise of our spirit in the created light. The man who is
well adorned with the moral virtues of the outward life, and has
risen into nobility and divine peace by inward practices; he
possesses the unity of the spirit, enlightened by supernatural
wisdom, flowing forth in generous love toward heaven and earth and
lifting itself up by its reverence and its merits, and flowing
back into that very ground, the most high Unity of God, from which
all things proceed. For each creature, according to whether it has
received more or less from God, has more or less of ascending love
and inward tendency towards its origin; for God and all His gifts
invite us into Him, and through charity and the virtues and
resemblance, we desire to enter into Him.
CHAPTER LI
OF THE THIRD COMING OF CHRIST
THROUGH this loving inclination of God, and His inward working in
the unity of our spirit, and further through our glowing love and
the pressing of all our powers together into the very unity in
which God dwells, there arises the third coming of Christ in
inward working. And this is an inward touch or stirring of Christ
in His Divine brightness, in the inmost part of our spirit. The
second coming, of which we have spoken, we have likened to a
fountain, pouring forth in three rills. But this coming we will
liken to the duct which feeds the fountain. For there is no rill
without a fountain; and no fountain without a living duct. So
likewise the grace of God flows forth like rills into the higher
powers, and impels and enkindles a man in all virtue. And this
grace springs up within the unity of our spirit like a fountain,
and falls back again into that same unity whence it arises; even
as a living and gushing spring which comes forth from the living
ground of the Divine Richness, where neither faithfulness nor
grace can ever fail. And this is the touch which I mean. And the
creature passively endures this touch. For here there is a union
of the higher powers within the unity of the spirit, above the
multiplicity of all the virtues, and here no one works save God
alone, in untrammelled goodness; which is the cause of all our
virtues and of all blessedness. In the unity of the spirit, into
which this duct gushes forth, one is above activity and above
reason, though not without reason. For the enlightened reason, and
especially the power of love, feels this touch; and reason cannot
understand, nor can it comprehend, the way or the means of this
touch, how or what it is, for it is a working of God, the
upspringing and the inrushing of all graces and gifts, and the
last intermediary between God and the creature. And above this
touch, in the still being of the spirit, there broods an
incomprehensible Brightness. And that is the most high Trinity
whence this touch proceeds. There God lives and reigns in the
spirit, and the spirit in God.
CHAPTER LII
SHOWING HOW THE SPIRIT GOES OUT THROUGH THE DIVINE STIRRING
NOW, through this touch, Christ says inwardly within the spirit:
GO YE OUT with practices in conformity with this touch. For this
deep touch draws and invites our spirit to the most inward
practices which a creature is able to fulfil in a creaturely way
in the created light. Here the spirit raises itself, through the
power of love, above all works, into the unity where this life-
giving spring or touch gushes forth. And this touch invites the
understanding to know God in His brightness, and it draws and
invites the power of love to enjoy God without intermediary. And
this the loving spirit desires to do, both in a natural and a
supernatural way, above all other things. By means of the
enlightened reason the spirit lifts itself up in inward
observation, and it beholds and observes the most inward part of
itself, where this touch lives. Here reason and every created
light fail and can go no further. For the Supernal Brightness
brooding over all, which gives rise to this touch, blinds in its
coming every created sight; for it is abysmal. And all
understanding in the created light is here like the eyes of a bat
in the light of the sun. Yet the spirit is continually invited and
urged anew by God and by itself to sound and to know that which is
stirring these deeps, and what God is, and what this touch is. And
the enlightened reason ever asks anew, whence this comes, and ever
seeks to explore further, that it may follow back this stream of
honey to its source. But in this it is, on the first day, as wise
as it shall ever be. And this is why reason and all observation
say: "I know not what it is," for the Supernal Brightness brooding
over all, strikes back all understanding and blinds it whenever
they meet.
So God abides in His brightness above all spirits who are in
heaven and on earth. And those who have pierced through their
ground by means of the virtues and inward practices, to their
source, that is, to the door of eternal life, may feel this touch.
There the Brightness of God shines so mightily that reason and all
understanding fail and can go no further, but must be overcome and
give way before the incomprehensible Brightness of God. But when
the spirit feels this in its ground, then, though its reason and
understanding fail before the Divine Brightness, and must remain
outside the door, the power of love desires to go forward; for it
too, like the understanding, has been invited and urged. And it is
blind and desires fruition; and fruition abides more in tasting
and feeling than in understanding. Therefore would love go
forward, whilst understanding stays outside.
CHAPTER LIII
OF AN ETERNAL HUNGER FOR GOD
HERE there begins an eternal hunger, which shall never more be
satisfied; it is an inward craving and hankering of the loving
power and the created spirit after an untreated Good. And since
the spirit longs for fruition, and is invited and urged thereto by
God, it must always desire its fulfilment. Behold, here there
begins an eternal craving and continual yearning in eternal
insatiableness. All such are the poorest of all men living; for
they are avid and greedy, and their hunger is insatiable. Whatever
they eat or drink, they shall never be satisfied, for this hunger
is eternal. For a created vessel cannot contain an uncreated Good:
and hence there is here an eternal, hungry craving without
satisfaction, and God poured forth above all and yet staying it
not. Here are great dishes of food and drink, of which no one
knows save he who tastes them: but full satisfaction in fruition
is the dish which is lacking there, and therefore this hunger is
ever renewed. Yet, in the touch, rivers of honey, full of all
delights, flow forth; for the spirit tastes these riches in all
the ways which it can conceive and apprehend; but all this is in a
creaturely way and below God, and hence there remains an eternal
hunger and impatience. Though God gave to such a man all the gifts
which are possessed by all the saints, and everything that He is
able to give, but withheld Himself, the gaping desire of the
spirit would remain hungry and unsatisfied. The inward stirring
and touching of God makes us hungry and yearning; for the Spirit
of God hunts our spirit: and the more it touches it, the greater
our hunger and our craving. And this is the life of love in its
highest working, above reason and above understanding; for reason
can here neither give nor take away from love, for our love is
touched by the Divine love. And as I understand it, here there can
never more be separation from God. God's touch within us,
forasmuch as we feel it, and our own loving craving, these are
both created and creaturely; and therefore they may grow and
increase as long as we live.
CHAPTER LIV
OF A LOVING STRIFE BETWEEN THE SPIRIT OF GOD AND OUR SPIRIT
IN this storm of love two spirits strive together: the spirit of
God and our own spirit. God, through the Holy Ghost, inclines
Himself towards us; and, thereby, we are touched in love. And our
spirit, by God's working and by the power of love, presses and
inclines itself into God: and, thereby, God is touched. From these
two contacts there arises the strife of love, at the very deeps of
this meeting; and in that most inward and ardent encounter, each
spirit is deeply wounded by love. These two spirits, that is our
own spirit and the Spirit of God, sparkle and shine one into the
other, and each shows to the other its face. This makes each of
the spirits yearn for the other in love. Each demands of the other
all that it is; and each offers to the other all that it is and
invites it to all that it is. This makes the lovers melt into each
other. God's touch and His gifts, our loving craving and our
giving back: these fulfil love. This flux and reflux causes the
fountain of love to brim over: and thus the touch of God and our
loving craving become one simple love. Here man is possessed by
love, so that he must forget himself and God, and knows and can do
nothing but love. Thereby the spirit is burned up in the fire of
love, and enters so deeply into the touch of God, that it is
overcome in all its cravings, and turned to nought in all its
works, and empties itself; above all surrender becoming very love.
And it possesses, above all virtues, the inmost part of its
created being, where every creaturely work begins and ends. Such
is love in itself, foundation and origin of all virtues.
CHAPTER LV
OF THE FRUITFUL WORKS OF THE SPIRIT, THE WHICH ARE ETERNAL
NOW our spirit and this love are living and fruitful in virtues;
and for this reason the powers can no longer remain idle in the
unity of the spirit. For the incomprehensible brightness of God
and His boundless love brood above the spirit, and touch the
loving power; and the spirit goes forth once more into its works,
but with a more sublime and inward striving than ever before. And
the more noble and inward it is, the more quickly it is spent and
brought to nought in love, and goes forth once more into fresh
works. And this is heavenly love. For ever does the craving spirit
yearn to eat and to swallow God; but itself is swallowed up in the
touch of God, and fails in all its works. For the highest powers
are made one in the unity of the spirit. Here are grace and love
in their essence, above all works; for here is the source of
charity and every virtue. Here there is an eternal outflow into
charity and the virtues, and an eternal return with inward hunger
for the taste of God, and an eternal dwelling within in pure love.
And all this is in a creaturely way and below God; it is the most
inward exercise which one can perform in the created light, in
heaven and on earth; and above it there is nothing but the God-
seeing life in the Divine light and in the Godlike way. In this
exercise one cannot go astray, nor can one be deceived; and it
begins in grace, and shall for ever last in glory.
CHAPTER LVI
SHOWING THE WAY IN WHICH WE SHALL MEET GOD IN A GHOSTLY MANNER
BOTH WITH AND WITHOUT MEANS55
NOW I have shown you how the free and uplifted man becomes,
through the grace of God, seeing in his inward practices. And we
see that this is the first point which Christ demands and desires
of us where He says: BEHOLD. As to the second and third points,
wherein He says: THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH, and: GO YE OUT, I have
shown you the three ways of the inward coming of Christ; and
further that the first coming has four degrees, and how we are to
go out with practices answering to each way in which God inwardly
enkindles, teaches, and moves us. Now we must consider the fourth
point, which is the last. This is the meeting with Christ our
Bridegroom. For all our inward and ghostly vision, in grace or in
glory, and all our going out in the virtues, in whatsoever
practices this be done, it is all for the sake of a meeting and a
union with Christ our Bridegroom: for He is our eternal rest and
the end and wage of all our labour.
You know that every meeting is a coming together of two persons,
who come from different places, which are separated from, and
opposite to, each other. Now Christ comes from above as a Lord and
generous Giver, who can do all things. And we come from below as
the poor servants, who can do nothing of ourselves, but have need
of everything. The coming of Christ to us is from within outwards,
and we go towards Him from without inwards; and this is why a
ghostly meeting must here take place. And this coming and this
meeting of ourselves and Christ takes place in two ways, to wit,
with means and without means.
CHAPTER LVII
OF THE ESSENTIAL MEETING WITH GOD WITHOUT MEANS IN THE NAKEDNESS
OF OUR NATURE
NOW understand and mark this well. The unity of our spirit has two
conditions: it is essential, and it is active. You must know that
the spirit, according to its essence, receives the coming of
Christ in the nakedness of its nature, without means and without
interruption. For the being and the life which we are in God, in
our Eternal Image, and which we have within ourselves according to
our essence, this is without means and indivisible. And this is
why the spirit, in its inmost and highest part, that is in its
naked nature, receives without interruption the impress of its
Eternal Archetype, and the Divine Brightness; and is an eternal
dwelling-place of God in which God dwells as an eternal Presence,
and which He visits perpetually, with new comings and with new
instreamings of the ever-renewed brightness of His eternal birth.
For where He comes, there He is; and where He is, there He comes.
And where He has never been, thereto He shall never come; for
neither chance nor change are in Him. And everything in which He
is, is in Him; for He never goes out of Himself. And this is why
the spirit in its essence possesses God in the nakedness of its
nature, as God does the spirit: for it lives in God and God in it.
And it is able, in its highest part, to receive, without
intermediary, the Brightness of God, and all that God can fulfil.
And by means of the brightness of its Eternal Archetype, which
shines in it essentially and personally, the spirit plunges itself
and loses itself, as regards the highest part of its life,56 in
the Divine Being, and there abidingly possesses its eternal
blessedness; and it flows forth again, through the eternal birth
of the Son, together with all the other creatures, and is set in
its created being by the free will of the Holy Trinity. And here
it is like unto the image of the most high Trinity in Unity, in
which it has been made. And, in its created being, it incessantly
receives the impress of its Eternal Archetype, like a flawless
mirror, in which the image remains steadfast, and in which the
reflection is renewed without interruption by its ever-new
reception in new light. This essential union of our spirit with
God does not exist in itself, but it dwells in God, and it flows
forth from God, and it depends upon God, and it returns to God as
to its Eternal Origin.57 And in this wise it has never been, nor
ever shall be, separated from God; for this union is within us by
our naked nature, and, were this nature to be separated from God,
it would fall into pure nothingness. And this union is above time
and space, and is always and incessantly active according to the
way of God. But our nature, forasmuch as it is indeed like unto
God but in itself is creature. receives the impress of its Eternal
Image passively. This is that nobleness which we possess by nature
in the essential unity of our spirit, where it is united with God
according to nature. This neither makes us holy nor blessed, for
all men, whether good or evil, possess it within themselves; but
it is certainly the first cause of all holiness and all
blessedness. This is the meeting and the union between God and our
spirit in the nakedness of our nature.
CHAPTER LVIII
SHOWING HOW ONE IS LIKE UNTO GOD THROUGH GRACE AND UNLIKE UNTO GOD
THROUGH MORTAL SIN
NOW consider this thought earnestly; for if you understand well
that which I will now tell you, and that which I have told you,
you will have understood all the Divine truth which any creature
can teach you, and far more besides. Otherwise does our spirit
keep itself in that same unity when it is conceived as acting or
working: for then it exists in itself as in its created and
personal being. This is the source of the higher powers, and here
there are beginning and end of all the creaturely works which are
worked in a creaturely way, both in nature and above nature. Yet
here the unity does not work forasmuch as it is unity; but all the
powers of the soul, in what way soever they work, derive their
strength and their power from their proper source, that is, from
the unity of the spirit, where it dwells in its personal being.
In this unity, the spirit must always either be like unto God
through grace and virtue, or unlike unto God through mortal sin.
For, that man has been made after the likeness of God, means that
he has been created in the grace of God; the which grace is a God-
formed light, which shines through us and makes us like to God;
and without this light, which makes us God-like, we cannot be
united with God supernaturally, even though we cannot lose the
image of God nor our natural unity with Him58. If we lose the
likeness, that is, the grace of God, we are damned. And therefore,
whenever God finds within us some capacity for the reception of
His grace, it is His pleasure and His free goodness to make us
through His gifts, full of life, and like unto Him. This always
happens whenever we turn to Him with our whole will; for at that
very moment, Christ comes to us and in us, both with means and
without means, that is, with the virtues and above the virtues.
And He impresses His image and His likeness in us, namely Himself
and His gifts: and He redeems us from sin, and makes us free and
like unto Himself. And in that same working, through which God
redeems us from sins, and makes us free and like unto Him through
charity, the spirit immerses itself in fruitive love59. And here
there take place a meeting and a union which are without means and
above nature, and wherein our highest blessedness consists.
Although all that He gives us from love and free goodness is
natural to God, for us, according to our condition, it is
accidental and supernatural. For before, we were strangers and
unlike unto God; and afterwards, becoming like Him, have received
union with God.
CHAPTER LIX
SHOWING HOW ONE POSSESSES GOD IN UNION AND REST, ABOVE ALL
LIKENESS THROUGH GRACE
THIS meeting and this union, which the loving spirit achieves in
God and possesses without means, must take place in the essential
intuition, deeply hidden from our understanding; unless it be an
effective understanding according to the way of simplicity60. In
the fruition of this unity we shall rest evermore, above ourselves
and above all things. From this unity, all gifts, both natural and
supernatural, flow forth, and yet the loving spirit rests in this
unity above all gifts; and here there is nothing but God, and the
spirit united with God without means. In this unity we are taken
possession of by the Holy Ghost, and we take possession of the
Holy Ghost and the Father and the Son, and the whole Divine
Nature: for God cannot be divided. And the fruitive tendency of
the spirit61, which seeks rest in God above all likeness, receives
and possesses in a supernatural way, in its essential being, all
that the spirit ever received in a natural way. All good men
experience this; but how it is, this remains hidden from them all
their life long if they do not become inward and empty of all
creatures. In that very moment in which man turns away from sin,
he is received by God in the essential unity of his own being, at
the summit of his spirit, that he may rest in God, now and
evermore. And he also receives grace, and likeness unto God, in
the proper source of his powers, that he may evermore grow and
increase in new virtues. And as long as this likeness endures in
charity and in virtues, so long also endures the union in rest.
And this cannot be lost save only by mortal sin.
CHAPTER LX
SHOWING HOW WE HAVE NEED OF THE GRACE OF GOD, WHICH MAKES US LIKE
UNTO GOD AND LEADS US TO GOD WITHOUT MEANS
NOW all holiness and all blessedness lie in this: that the spirit
is led upwards, through likeness and by means of grace or glory,
to rest in the essential unity. For the grace of God is the way by
which we must always go, if we would enter into the naked essence
in which God gives Himself with all His riches without means. And
this is why the sinners and the damned spirits dwell in darkness;
for they lack the grace of God, which should enlighten them, and
lead them, and show them the way to the fruitive unity. Yet the
essential being of the spirit is so noble, that even the damned
cannot will their own annihilation. But sin builds up a barrier,
and gives rise to such darkness and such unlikeness between the
powers and the essence in which God lives, that the spirit cannot
be united with its proper essence; which would be its own and its
eternal rest, did sin not impede it. For whosoever lives without
sin, he lives in likeness unto God, and in grace, and God is his
own. And so we have need of grace, which casts out sin, and
prepares the way, and makes our whole life fruitful. And this is
why Christ always comes into us through means, that is, through
grace and multifarious gifts; and we too go out towards Him
through means, that is, through virtues and diverse practices. And
the more inward gifts He gives and the more deeply He stirs us,
the more inward and delightful are the workings of our spirit, as
you have already heard in all the ways which have been shown forth
before. And here there is a perpetual renewal; for God ever gives
new gifts, and our spirit ever turns inward in such wise as it is
invited and as is bestowed on it by God, and in that meeting it
always receives a higher renewal. And thus one grows continually
into a higher life. And this active meeting is altogether through
means; for the gifts of God and our virtues and the activity of
our spirit are the means. And these means are necessary for all
men and all spirits: for, without the mediation of God's grace and
a loving turning to Him in freedom, no creature shall ever be
saved.
CHAPTER LXI
OF HOW GOD AND OUR SPIRIT VISIT EACH OTHER IN THE UNITY AND IN THE
LIKENESS
NOW God sees the dwelling and the resting-place which He has made
within us and through us; namely, the unity and the likeness.62
And He wills to visit this unity without interruption, with a new
coming of His most high birth and with a rich pouring forth of his
fathomless love; for He wills to dwell in bliss within the loving
spirit. And He wills to visit the likeness of our spirit with rich
gifts, so that we become more like unto Him and more enlightened
in the virtues. Now it is Christ's will that we should dwell and
abide within the essential unity of our spirit, rich with Him
above all creaturely works and above all virtues; and that we
should dwell actively in that same unity, rich and fulfilled with
virtues and heavenly gifts. And He wills that we shall visit that
unity and that likeness without interruption, by means of every
work which we do: for in every new "Now," God is born in us, and
from this most high birth the Holy Ghost flows forth with all His
gifts. Therefore we should go out to meet the gifts of God through
the likeness; and the most high birth, through the unity.
CHAPTER LXII
SHOWING HOW WE SHOULD GO OUT TO MEET GOD
NOW mark how, in each of our works, we shall go out to meet God,
and shall increase our likeness unto Him, and shall more nobly
possess the fruitive unity. By every good work, how small soever
it be, which is directed to God with love and with an upright and
single intention, we earn a greater likeness, and eternal life in
God. A single intention draws together the scattered powers into
the unity of the spirit, and joins the spirit to God. A single
intention is end, and beginning, and adornment, of all virtues. A
single intention offers to God praise and honour and all virtues:
and it pierces and passes through itself, and all the heavens, and
all things, and finds God within the simple ground of its own
being. That intention is single which aims only at God and in all
things only at their connection with God. The single intention
casts out hypocrisy and duplicity, and a man must possess it and
practise it in all his works above all other things; for it is
this which keeps man in the presence of God, clear in
understanding, diligent in virtue, and free from outward fear,
both now and in the Day of Doom. Singleness of intention is the
single eye of which Christ speaks, giving light to the whole body-
that is, to the man's works and his whole life-and cleansing it of
sin. Singleness of intention is the inward, enlightened, and
loving tendency of the spirit; it is the foundation of all
ghostliness; it includes in itself faith, hope, and charity, for
it trusts in God and is faithful to Him. It casts nature
underfoot, it establishes peace, it drives out ghostly discontent,
and preserves fulness of life in all the virtues. And it gives
peace and hope and boldness toward God, both now and in the Day of
Doom.
Thus we shall dwell in the unity of the spirit, in grace and in
likeness; and shall always go out to meet God by means of the
virtues, and offer up to Him with a simple intention our whole
life and all our works; and thus in every work, and ever more and
more, we shall increase our likeness. And thus we rise up out of
the ground of our single intention, and pass through ourselves and
go out to meet God without means, and rest in Him in the abyss of
simplicity: there we possess that heritage which has been prepared
for us from all eternity. All ghostly life and all works of virtue
consist in the Divine likeness and in singleness of intention; and
all their supreme rest consists in simplicity above all likeness.
Nevertheless, one spirit surpasses another in virtue and in
likeness, and each possess its own proper being in itself,
according to the degree of its nobleness. And God suffices each
one in particular, and each one, according to the measure of his
love, seeks God in the ground of his spirit; both here and in
eternity.
CHAPTER LXIII
OF THE ORDERING OF ALL THE VIRTUES THROUGH THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE
HOLY GHOST
NOW consider the order and the degrees of all the virtues and of
all holiness, with which we should go out to meet God through
resemblance; that so we may rest with Him in the unity.
THE GIFT OF FEAR
When a man lives in the Fear of God, in the moral virtues and in
outward works; and when he is obedient and submissive to Holy
Church and to the Divine commandments, and when he is ready and
willing in simplicity of intention to do all good things: then he
is like unto God, through faithfulness, and through the gathering
of his will into the will of God, both in doing and in leaving
undone. And he rests in God, above likeness; for through
faithfulness and singleness of intention, he fulfils the will of
God, more or less according to the measure of his likeness; and
through love, he rests in his Beloved above likeness.
THE GIFT OF PIETY
And if he exerts himself well in that which he has received from
God, then God bestows upon him the spirit of Piety and Mercy. Thus
he becomes gentle of heart, meek and merciful. And thereby he
becomes more full of life and more like to God, and feels himself
to be resting more in God, and to be broader and deeper in virtue
than before. And he savours this likeness and this rest so much
the better, the more his resemblance is increased.
THE GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE
And if he here exerts himself well, with great zeal, and with a
single intention, and fights all that which is opposed to the
virtues; this man receives the third gift, which is Knowledge and
Discretion. Thus he becomes reasonable and discerning, and knows
what to do and what to leave undone, and where he must give and
where he must take away. And through simplicity of intention and
godly love, this man rests in God above himself in the unity; and
he possesses himself in likeness, and he possesses all his works
with a greater delight, because he is obedient and submissive to
the Father, and has reason and discernment through the Son, and is
gentle and merciful through the Holy Ghost. And thus he bears a
resemblance unto the Holy Trinity, and he rests in God, through
his love and the simplicity of his intention. And herein the whole
of the active life consists. Thus a man should exert himself with
great zeal, and should follow his single intention with reason and
discernment. And he must beware of all that is opposed to the
virtues, and must ever bow himself down in humility at the feet of
Christ: and in this way he will grow ever more and more in virtue
and in resemblance; and if he keeps himself thus he cannot err.
Yet according to this way, he still remains in the active life.
For if a man practises and clings to the activities of the heart
and the diversity of works, more than to the ground and reason of
all works; and if he busies himself more with the practice of the
sacraments, with their forms and outward symbols, than with the
ground and the truth which are signified thereby: so he shall ever
remain an outward man. But he shall be saved by his good works and
his simplicity of intention.
THE GIFT OF STRENGTH
And therefore, if a man wishes to come nearer to God, and to exalt
his practice and his life, he must proceed from the works to their
reason, and from the forms to the truth; thereby he shall become
master of his works, and shall know truth, and shall come into the
inward life. And God gives him the fourth gift, which is the
spirit of Strength: and thus he shall be able to overcome joy and
grief, profit and loss, hope and care in earthly things, together
with all kinds of hindrances and all multiplicity. And thus he
becomes free and detached from all creatures. When a man has
become free from all creaturely images, he is master of himself,
and easily and without labour becomes inward and recollected; and
turns freely and without hindrance to God, with fervent devotion,
with lofty desire, with thanksgiving and praise, and with a single
intention. Thus he enters into fruition of all his deeds and his
whole life, inward and outward; for he stands before the throne of
the Holy Trinity, and often receives inward consolation and
sweetness from God. For he who serves at such a table with
thanksgiving and praise, and with inward reverence, often drinks
of the wine, and often eats of that which is left, and of the
crumbs which fall from the Lord's table: and he continually
possesses inward peace, through the singleness of his intention.
And if he will abide steadfastly before God in thanksgiving and
praise, and with uplifted purpose, the spirit of Strength is
doubled within him; for then he no longer loses himself in bodily
desires, in longings after consolation or sweetness, nor in any
other gift of God, nor in rest and peace of the heart. But he will
forego all gifts and every consolation, if so be that he may find
Him Whom he loves. In this way he is strong who abandons and
overcomes the unrest of the heart and earthly things; and doubly
strong is he who also foregoes and overpasses every consolation
and heavenly gift. Thus a man transcends all creatures, and
possesses himself, powerful and free, through the gift of
spiritual Strength.
THE GIFT OF COUNSEL
When, therefore, no creature can either overcome or impede a man
from persisting in his single and upward-striving intention, and
when through this Strength he is steadfast in praising God,
seeking and meaning God above all His gifts, then God bestows upon
him the fifth gift, which is the gift of Counsel In this gift the
Father draws the man inwardly, and calls him to His right hand,
with the chosen in His unity. And the Son says in ghostly wise
within him: Follow Me to My Father: ONE THING IS NEEDFUL." And the
Holy Ghost makes the heart expand and flame up in fiery love. And
thence comes the life of loving tumult and inward restlessness;
for, in him who listens to this counsel, there arises a storm of
love, and nothing can satisfy him save God alone. And therefore he
abandons himself and all things, that he may find Him in Whom he
lives and in Whom all things are one. Here the man should have God
in mind in a simple way, and should master himself by means of the
reason, and should renounce all self-will, and should await in
freedom the unity which he desires, until the day when it is God's
pleasure to give it. Thus the spirit of Counsel works in him in
two ways: for that man is great, and follows the precept and
counsel of God, who abandons himself and all things, and says,
with an insatiable, impetuous and burning love: THY KINGDOM COME.
But that man is greater still, and follows still better the
counsel of God, who overcomes his own self-will, and renounces it
in love, and says unto God with reverent submission: THY WILL BE
DONE in all things and not my will. When Christ our dear Lord
approached His passion, He said those very words unto His Father,
in humble abnegation of Himself; and they were to Him the most
happy, and to us the most wholesome, and to the Father the most
lovable, and to the devil the most terrible, words which Christ
ever spoke; for, by His renunciation of self-will according to His
manhood, we are all saved. In this way the will of God now becomes
to the loving and humble man the highest joy, and the greatest
desire of his ghostly feelings: even though this will should lead
him to hell, which is impossible. And here nature is cast down
into the depths, and God is exalted most highly; and this man
becomes capable of receiving all the gifts of God; for he has
denied himself, and has renounced his own self, and has given all
for all. And he therefore asks nothing and wills nothing but that
which God wishes to give him. That which God wills, this is his
joy; and he who surrenders himself to God in love is the most free
of all men living. He lives without care, for God cannot lose that
which is His.
Now mark this: although God knows all hearts, yet such a man is
often tempted and tried of Him, whether he is able to renounce
himself in freedom: and by this, he may then become enlightened,
and may live for the glory of God and also for his own salvation.
And that is why God sometimes takes him from His right hand to His
left, from heaven into hell, from all blessedness into great
misery; so that it seems to him as though he were forsaken and
despised of God and of all creatures. If, then, he has formerly
renounced himself and his own will in love and in joy, so that he
sought not himself but the good pleasure of God, he will easily
renounce himself also in pains and misery, so that in these too he
will seek not himself but always the glory of God. He who is
willing to work great things is willing also to suffer great
things; but to bear and to suffer in resignation is nobler and
more pleasing to God, and more satisfying to our spirit, than to
work great things in a like resignation, for it is more contrary
to our nature. And this is why our spirit is more exalted and our
nature more cast down by grievous suffering than by great works
done with equal love. When a man maintains himself in this
resignation, without any other preference, right as one who
neither wills nor knows anything else, then he possesses the
spirit of Counsel in two ways; for he satisfies the will and the
counsel of God in his working and his suffering, by self-
surrender, and by submissive obedience. And his nature is adorned
most gloriously: and he is capable of being enlightened according
to
THE GIFT OF UNDERSTANDING
And therefore God gives him the sixth gift, which is the spirit of
Understanding. This gift we have already likened to a fountain
with three rills, for it establishes our spirit in the unity, it
reveals Truth and it brings forth a wide and general love. This
gift may also be likened to sunshine, for by its shining the sun
fills the air with a simple brightness and lights all forms, and
shows the distinctions of all colours. And thereby it shows forth
its own power; and its heat is common to the whole world, bringing
forth fruits and useful things. So likewise does the first ray of
this gift bring about simplicity within the spirit. And this
simplicity is penetrated by a particular radiance even as the air
of the heavens by the splendour of the sun. For the grace of God,
which is the ground of all gifts, maintains itself essentially
like to a simple light in our potential understanding: and, by
means of this simple light our spirit is made stable and onefold
and enlightened, and fulfilled of grace and Divine gifts: and here
it is like unto God through grace and Divine love. And since the
spirit is now like unto God, and means and loves God alone above
all gifts, it will no longer be satisfied by likeness, nor by a
created brightness; for it has both by nature and above nature a
primal tendency towards the Abysmal Being from which it has flowed
forth. And the Unity of the Divine Being eternally draws back all
likeness into its unity. And here the spirit is enkindled into
fruition, and it melts into God as into its eternal rest; for the
grace of God is to God even as the sunshine is to the sun, and the
grace of God is the means and the way which leads us to God. And
for this reason it shines within us in simplicity, and makes us
deiform, that is, like unto God. And this likeness perpetually
merges itself in God, and dies in God, and becomes one with God,
and remains one, for charity makes us one with God, and causes us
to remain one and to dwell in the One. Nevertheless we keep the
eternal likeness in the light of grace or of glory; thereby we
possess ourselves actively in charity and in the virtues. And we
keep the union with God, above our activity, in the nakedness of
our spirit, in the Divine light, where we possess God in rest,
above all virtues. For charity in the likeness must ever be at
work; and union with God in fruitive love must ever be at rest.
And this is the working of love; for in one "Now" and at the same
time love works and rests in its Beloved. And the one is
strengthened by the other; for the higher the love, the greater
the rest; and the greater the rest, the deeper the love; for the
one lives in the other, and whosoever loves not, rests not, and
whosoever rests not, loves not. And yet, some good men think that
they neither love nor rest in God; and this thought itself comes
from love. Because they desire to love more than they can, it
seems to them that their love falls short. And yet in this work
they taste love and rest; for none save the resigned, emptied and
enlightened man can understand how one may love in labour and rest
in fruition. Yet every lover is one with God in rest, and like
unto God in the works of love; for God in His most high nature, of
which we bear the likeness, dwells in fruition in eternal rest
according to His Essential Unity, but works in eternal activity
according to the Trinity: and the one is the perfection of the
other; for rest abides in the Unity, and work in the Trinity. And
thus they dwell together throughout eternity. And, therefore, if a
man is to taste of God, he must love and if he will love, then he
may taste. But if he lets himself be satisfied with other things,
he shall not be able to taste what God is. And therefore we must
possess ourselves in simplicity, in virtue, and in likeness, and
God above ourselves through love in rest and unity. And this is
the first way in which the man who is common to all is made
stable.
When the air is fulfilled with the brightness of the sun, the
beauty and the wealth of the whole world are revealed, and the
eyes of men become enlightened and rejoice in the manifold
diversity of colours. And so it is, when we are onefold within
ourselves, and our power of understanding is enlightened and the
Spirit of Understanding shines through it. Then we can become
aware of the high attributes which are in God, and which are the
causes of all the works which flow forth from Him. Although all
men may understand the works, and God through His works; yet no
one can truly understand, neither in their appearance nor in their
reality, the attributes of the works of God as they are in their
ground, save by means of this gift. For this teaches us to seek
out and to recognise our own nobleness, and it gives us the power
to discern the virtues and all practices, and the way in which we
should live without error in accordance with eternal Truth: and he
who is enlightened by it can dwell in the spirit, and can, with
enlightened reason, rightly apprehend and understand all things in
heaven and on earth. And therefore such a one walks in heaven, and
beholds and apprehends with all saints the nobility of his
Beloved, His incomprehensible height, His abysmal depth, length
and breadth, wisdom and truth, His bounty and His unspeakable
generosity, and all those loveworthy attributes which are in God
our Lover without number, and without limit in His most high
nature: for all this is He Himself. Then that enlightened man
lowers his eyes, and beholds himself and all other men and all
creatures, and observes how God in His free generosity has created
them in nature and endowed them in many ways, and how, above
nature, it is His pleasure to endow them and to enrich them with
Himself, if they will but seek and desire Him. All such reasoning
observation of the manifold diversities of the Divine riches
rejoices our spirit, if, through Divine love, we have died unto
ourselves in God, and if we live and walk in the spirit, and taste
of the things which are eternal. This gift of Understanding shows
us the unity which we possess in God through the fruitive
immersion of love, and also the likeness to God which we have in
ourselves through charity and the works of virtue. And it gives to
us light and brightness in which we can walk with discernment in
the ways of the spirit, and can seek out and recognise God in
ghostly similitudes, and also ourselves, and all things according
to the mode and the measure of that light and according to the
will of God and the greater nobility of our understanding. This is
the second degree in which the man who is common to all may be
enlightened.
According to the measure in which the air is irradiated by the
brightness of the sun, so too the heat increases and brings all
things to fruitfulness. When our reason and understanding are so
enlightened, that they can recognise and distinguish Divine truth,
then the will, that is, the power of love, grows hotter and
streams forth in abundant loyalty and love towards all men in
common. For this gift, through the knowledge of truth which is
imparted to us in its light, establishes in us a wide-stretching
love toward all in common. Now the most simple are also the most
tranquil, and have the most peace in themselves; and are the most
deeply immersed in God; and are most enlightened in understanding,
and most fruitful in good works, and in outflowing love toward all
in common. And they are hindered least, for they are most like
unto God; for God is simplicity in His Being, clarity in His
understanding, and outflowing and universal love in His works. And
the more we are like unto God in these three things, so much the
more closely are we united with Him. And for this reason we must
remain simple in our ground, and must apprehend all things by
means of enlightened reason, and must flow forth through all
things in universal love. So likewise the sun in the heavens,
though it abides in itself simple and unchanged, sends forth its
light and heat to the whole world in common.
Now understand how we should live with enlightened reason in
universal love. The Father is the Origin of the whole Godhead
according to Essence and according to Personality. We therefore
should bow down in spirit, in humble awe, before the sublimity of
the Father: and thereby we possess humility, the foundation of all
the virtues. We should fervently adore, that is to say, we should
honour and reverence, the mightiness of the Father, because He, in
His might, creates and preserves all things out of nothing. And
thereby we shall be lifted up in ghostly wise. We should offer
praise and thanks and everlasting service to the faithfulness and
love of God, Who has freed us from the fetters of the enemy and
from eternal death: and thereby we shall be made free. We should
present and bewail before the wisdom of God the blindness and
ignorance of human nature; and should crave that all men may
become enlightened, and may attain to the knowledge of truth: thus
God shall be known and honoured by them. We should pray for the
mercy of God upon sinners, that thus they may be converted, and
may grow in virtue: thus God shall be loved by them with a
desirous love. We should give generously to all those who have
need of it of the rich treasures of God, that therewith they may
all be filled, and may flow back towards God; and thus God shall
be possessed by them all. We should offer to the Father, with awe
and reverence, all the service and all the works which Christ,
according to His manhood, fulfilled in love: thus all our prayers
shall be heard. We should also offer to the Father in Christ Jesus
all the fervent devotion of the angels and the saints and the
just: so we shall be united with them all in the glory of Godly We
should also offer up to the Father the whole service of Holy
Church, and the Holy Sacrifice of all the priests, and all that we
may achieve and think, in the name of Christ; that thereby we may
go out to meet God through Christ, and may become like unto Him in
universal love, and may transcend all likeness in simplicity, and
may be united with Him within the Essential Unity. We should ever
abide in oneness with God, and should eternally flow forth with
God and all His saints in universal love, and continually return
with thankfulness and praise, and immerse ourselves in fruitive
love in the Essential Rest. This is the richest life of which I
know: and in it we possess the gift of Understanding.
THE GIFT OF WISDOM
Now understand this well: when we turn within ourselves in
contemplation, the fruitive unity of God is like to a darkness, a
somewhat which is unconditioned and incomprehensible. And the
spirit turns inward through love and through simplicity of
intention, because it is active in all virtues, offering itself up
in fruition above all virtues. In this loving introversion, there
arises the seventh gift, which is the spirit of Savouring
Wisdom;63 and it saturates the simplicity of our spirit, soul and
body, with wisdom and with ghostly savours. And it is a ghostly
touch or stirring within the unity of our spirit; and it is an
inpouring and a source of all grace, all gifts and all virtues.
And, in this touch of God, each man savours his exercise and his
life according to the power of the touch and the measure of his
love. And this Divine stirring is the inmost mediator between God
and ourselves, between rest and activity, between the conditioned
and the unconditioned, between eternity and time. And God works
this ghostly touching within us first of all, before all gifts;
and yet it is known and tasted by us last of all. For only when we
have lovingly sought God in all our practices even to the inward
deeps of our ground, do we first feel the gushing in of all the
graces and gifts of God; and we feel this touch in the unity of
our highest powers, above reason, but not without reason, for we
understand in truth that we are touched. But if we would know what
this is and whence it comes, then reason and all creaturely
observation fail. For though the air be illuminated by the
sunlight, and the eyes be sharp and sound, if one would follow the
rays which bring the brightness, and look at the disc of the sun,
the eyes would fail in their activity, and would only receive the
lustre of the rays in a passive way. So likewise, the reflection
of the Incomprehensible Light in the unity of our highest power is
so intense that all creaturely activity which works in distinction
must fail. And here our activity must passively endure the
interior working of God, which is the source of all Divine gifts.
For could we receive God Himself into our comprehension, He would
give Himself to us without intermediary; but this is impossible to
us because we are too narrow and too little to comprehend God. And
therefore He pours His gifts into us according to the measure of
our comprehension and the worthiness of our practices. For the
fruitful unity of God ever abides above the unity of our powers
and ever demands of us likeness in love and in virtues. And that
is why we are touched again and again, that we may each time be
renewed and become more like Him in the virtues. And, through
these renewed touches, the spirit falls into hunger and thirst,
and would taste through and through, and pass through and through
the whole abyss in a storm of love, that thereby it may be
satisfied. Hence there comes an eternal, hungry craving, and an
eternal unsatisfied desire. For all loving spirits desire and
strive after God, each according to its nobleness and the measure
in which it has been touched by God; yet God remains eternally
incomprehensible by way of our active desires, and therefore there
abides in us, together with all saints, an eternal hunger, and an
eternal desirous introversion. And in the meeting with God, the
radiance and the heat are so great and so limitless that all
spirits must fail in their activity, and must melt and vanish away
in sensible love in the unity of their spirit. And here they must
passively endure as sheer creatures the working of God. And here
our spirit and Divine grace and all our virtues are one sensible
love without activity; for our spirit has spent itself and has
itself become love. And here the spirit is simple and susceptible
of all gifts and is capable of every virtue. And, in this ground
of sensible love, there dwells the gushing spring, that is, the
inpouring or inward working of God, which at every hour moves us
and urges us and draws us inward and causes us to flow forth into
new works of virtue. Thus I have shown to you the ground and the
condition of all the virtues.
CHAPTER LXIV
OF THE HIGHEST DEGREE OF THE MOST INTERIOR LIFE
NOW understand this well: that measureless Splendour of God, which
together with the incomprehensible brightness, is the cause of all
gifts and of all virtues-that same Uncomprehended Light
transfigures the fruitive tendency of our spirit and penetrates it
in a way that is wayless; that is, through the Uncomprehended
Light. And in this light the spirit immerses itself in fruitive
rest; for this rest is wayless and fathomless, and one can know of
it in no other way than through itself-that is, through rest. For,
could we know and comprehend it, it would fall into mode and
measure; then it could not satisfy us, but rest would become an
eternal restlessness. And for this reason, the simple, loving and
immersed tendency of our spirit works within us a fruitive love;
and this fruitive love is abysmal. And the abyss of God calls to
the abyss; that is, of all those who are united with the Spirit of
God in fruitive love. This inward call is an inundation of the
essential brightness, and this essential brightness, enfolding us
in an abysmal love, causes us to be lost to ourselves, and to flow
forth from ourselves into the wild darkness of the Godhead. And,
thus united without means, and made one with the Spirit of God, we
can meet God through God, and everlastingly possess with Him and
in Him our eternal bliss.
CHAPTER LXV
OF THREE KINDS OF MOST INWARD PRACTICES
THIS most inward life is practised in three ways.
At times, the inward man performs his introspection simply,
according to the fruitive tendency, above all activity and above
all virtues, through a simple inward gazing in the fruition of
love. And here he meets God without intermediary. And from out the
Divine Unity, there shines into him a simple light and this light
shows him Darkness and Nakedness and Nothingness.64 In the
Darkness, he is enwrapped and falls into somewhat which is in no
wise, even as one who has lost his way. In the Nakedness, he loses
the perception and discernment of all things, and is transfigured
and penetrated by a simple light. In the Nothingness, all his
activity fails him, for he is vanquished by the working of God's
abysmal love, and in the fruitive inclination of his spirit he
vanquishes God, and becomes one spirit with him. And in this
oneness with the Spirit of God, he enters into a fruitive tasting
and possesses the Being of God. And he is filled, according to the
measure in which he has sunk himself in his essential being with
the abysmal delights and riches of God. And from these riches an
envelopment and a plenitude of sensible love flow forth into the
unity of the higher powers. And from this plenitude of sensible
love, a savoury and penetrating satisfaction flows forth into the
heart and the bodily powers. And through this inflow the man
becomes immovable within, and helpless as regards himself and all
his works. And in the deeps of his ground he knows and feels
nothing, in soul or in body, but a singular radiance with a
sensible well-being and an all-pervading saviour. This is the
first way, and it is the way of emptiness; for it makes a man
empty of all things, and lifts him up above activity and above all
the virtues. And it unites the man with God, and brings about a
firm perseverance in the most interior practices which he can
cultivate. When, however, any restlessness, or working of the
virtues, puts intermediaries, or images, between the inward man
and the naked introversion which he desires, then he is hindered
in this exercise; for this way consists in a going out, beyond all
things, into the Emptiness. This is the first form of the most
inward exercise.
At times such an inward man turns towards God with ardent desire
and activity; that he may glorify and honour Him, and offer up and
annihilate in the love of God, his selfhood and all that he is
able to do. And here he meets God through an intermediary. This
intermediary is the gift of Savouring Wisdom, the ground and
origin of all virtues; which enkindles and moves all good men
according to the measure of their love, and at times so greatly
stirs and enkindles the inward man through love, that all the
gifts of God, and all that God may give, except the gift of
Himself, seem too little to him, and cannot satisfy him, but
rather increase his impatience. For he has an inward perception or
feeling in his ground; where all the virtues begin and end, where
love dwells, and where with ardent desire he offers up all his
virtues to God. And here the hunger and thirst of love become so
great that he perpetually surrenders himself, and gives up his own
works, and empties himself, and is noughted in love, for he is
hungry and thirsty for the taste of God; and, at each irradiation
of God,65 he is seized by God, and more than ever before is newly
touched by love. Living he dies, and dying he lives again. And in
this way the desirous hunger and thirst of love are renewed in him
every hour.
This is the second way, which is the way of longing, in which love
dwells in the Divine likeness, and longs and craves to unite
itself with God. This way is more profitable and honourable to us
than the first, for it is the source of the first; for none can
enter into the rest which is above all works save the man who has
loved love with desire and with activity. And this is why the
grace of God and our active love must both go before and follow
after; that is to say, they must be practised both before and
after. For without acts of love we cannot merit anything, neither
achieve God, nor keep the possession of that which we have
acquired through the works of love. And for this reason no one who
has power over himself, and can practise love, should be idle.
When, however, a good man lingers in any gift of God, or any
creature, he will be hindered in this most inward exercise; for
this exercise is a hunger which nothing can still, save God alone.
From these two ways the third way arises; and this is an inward
life according to justice. Now understand this: God comes to us
without ceasing both with means and without means, and demands of
us both action and fruition, in such a way that the one never
impedes, but always strengthens, the other. And therefore the most
inward man lives his life in these two ways: namely, in work and
in rest.66 And in each he is whole and undivided; for he is wholly
in God because he rests in fruition, and he is wholly in himself
because he loves in activity: and he is perpetually called and
urged by God to renew both the rest and the work. And the justice
of the spirit desires to pay every hour that which is demanded of
it by God. And therefore, at each irradiation of God, the spirit
turns inward, in action and in fruition; and thus it is renewed in
every virtue, and is more deeply immersed in fruitive rest. For
God gives, in one gift, Himself and His gifts; and the spirit
gives, at each introversion, itself and all its works. For by
means of the simple irradiation of God and the fruitive tendency
and melting away of love, the spirit has been united with God, and
is incessantly transported into rest. And through the gifts of
Understanding and Savouring Wisdom, it is touched in an active
way, and perpetually enlightened and enkindled in love. And there
is shown and presented to it in the spirit all that one may
desire. It is hungry and thirsty, for it beholds the food of the
angels and the heavenly drink. It works diligently in love, for it
beholds its rest. It is a pilgrim; and it sees its country. In
love it strives for victory; for it sees its crown. Consolation,
peace, joy, beauty and riches, and all that can delight it, are
shown without measure in ghostly images to the reason which is
enlightened in God. And through this showing and the touch of God,
love remains active. For this just man has established a true life
in the spirit, in rest and in work, which shall endure eternally;
but, after this life, it shall be changed into a higher state.
Thus the man is just; and he goes towards God with fervent love in
eternal activity; and he goes in God with fruitive inclination in
eternal rest. And he dwells in God, and yet goes forth towards all
creatures in universal love, in virtue, and in justice. And this
is the supreme summit of the inward life. All those men who do not
possess both rest and work in one and the same exercise, have not
yet attained this justice. This just man cannot be hindered in his
introversion, for he turns inward both in fruition and in work;
but he is like to a double mirror, which receives images on both
sides. For in his higher part, the man receives God with all His
gifts; and, in his lower part, he receives bodily images through
the senses. Now he can enter into himself at will, and can
practise justice without hindrance. But man is unstable in this
life, and that is why he often turns outwards, and works in the
senses, without need and without the command of the enlightened
reason; and thus he falls into venial sins. But in the loving
introversion of the just man all venial sins are like to drops of
water in a glowing furnace.
And with this I leave the inward life.
CHAPTER LXVI
SHOWING HOW SOME MEN LIVE CONTRARY TO THESE EXERCISES
NOW some men, who seem to be righteous, yet live contrary to these
three ways and to every virtue. Let every one observe and prove
himself! Every man who is not drawn and enlightened of God is not
touched by love, and has neither the active cleaving with desire67
nor the simple and loving tendency to fruitive rest. And therefore
such a one cannot unite himself with God; for all those who live
without supernatural love are inclined towards themselves and seek
their rest in outward things. For all creatures by their nature
tend towards rest: and therefore, rest is sought both by the good
and by the evil, in divers ways.
Now mark this: when a man is bare and imageless in his senses, and
empty and idle in his higher powers,68 he enters into rest through
mere nature; and this rest may be found and possessed within
themselves in mere nature by all creatures, without the grace of
God, whenever they can strip themselves of images and of all
activity. But in this the loving man cannot find his rest, for
charity and the inward touch of God's grace will not be still: and
so the inward man cannot long remain in natural rest within
himself.
But now mark the way in which this natural rest is practised. It
is a sitting still, without either outward or inward acts, in
vacancy, in order that rest may be found and may remain
untroubled. But a rest which is practised in this way is unlawful;
for it brings with it in men a blindness and ignorance, and a
sinking down into themselves without activity. Such a rest is
nought else than an idleness, into which the man has fallen, and
in which he forgets himself and God and all things in all that has
to do with activity. This rest is wholly contrary to the
supernatural rest, which one possesses in God; for that is a
loving self-mergence joined to a simple gazing into the
Incomprehensible Brightness. This rest in God, which is actively
sought with inward longing, and is found in fruitive inclination,
and is eternally possessed in the self-mergence of love, and
which, when possessed, is sought none the less: this rest is
exalted above the rest of mere nature as greatly as God is exalted
above all creatures. And that is why all those men are deceived
who have self in mind and sink down in the natural rest, and
neither seek God in desire, nor find Him in fruitive love; for the
rest which they find consists in their own idleness, to which they
are inclined by nature and by habit. And in this natural rest one
cannot find God, but it certainly leads a man into a bare vacancy,
which may be found by Pagans and Jews and all men, how wicked
soever they may be, if they can live in their sins without the
reproach of their conscience, and can empty themselves of every
image and of all activity. In this bare vacancy the rest is
pleasant and great. This rest is in itself no sin; for it exists
in all men by nature, whenever they make themselves empty. But
when a man wishes to practise and possess it without acts of
virtue, he falls into spiritual pride and a self-complacency, from
which he seldom recovers. And he sometimes fancies himself to have
and to be that to which he shall never attain. When a man thus
possesses this rest in false quietude, and all loving adherence
seems a hindrance to him, he clings to himself in his rest, and
lives contrary to the first way in which man is united with God:
and this is the beginning of all ghostly error.
Now consider a similitude of this: the angels who turned inward
towards God in love and fruition, with all that they had received
from Him, found beatitude and eternal rest; but those who turned
towards themselves, and sought rest in themselves with self-
complacency in the natural light, their rest was short and was
unlawful. And they were blinded, and there was a wall of
separation between them and the external light, and they fell into
darkness and eternal restlessness. This is the first contrary way;
which one possesses by resting in false quietude.
Now mark this: when a man wishes to possess inward rest in
idleness, without inward and desirous cleaving to God, then he is
ready for all errors; for he is turned away from God, and inclined
towards himself, in natural love, seeking and desiring consolation
and sweetness and everything that pleases him. And such a man is
like to a merchant, for in all his activity he is turned only
towards himself, and seeks and means his own rest and his own
profit, more than the glory of God. A man who thus lives in mere
natural love, always possesses himself in self-love without self-
renunciation. Such men often lead a hard life with great works of
penitence, that they may become known and renowned for their great
sanctity, and also that they may merit a great reward; for all
natural love is favourably disposed to itself and likes to receive
great honours in time and a great reward in eternity. And these
men have many special desires, and pray and beseech God for many
particular things. And thus they are often deceived; for
sometimes, through the work of the devil, those things which they
desire happen to them, and then they ascribe this to their
sanctity, and hold themselves worthy of them all; for such people
are proud, and neither touched nor enlightened by God. And
therefore they dwell within themselves, and a small consolation
may greatly rejoice them, for they know not what they lack. And
they are wholly attached, in their desire, to inward savours and
the spiritual refreshment of their nature. And this is called
spiritual lust; for it is an inordinate attachment in natural
love, which is always directed towards itself, and seeks its own
profit in all things.
Such men are always spiritually proud and self-willed; and this is
why their desires and lusts are sometimes so vehemently set upon
the things which they desire, and wilfully strive to acquire from
God, so that they are often deceived, and some of them also become
possessed by the devil. All these men live contrary to charity and
to the loving introversion in which a man offers himself up, with
all that he can achieve, for the honour and love of God; and in
which nothing can give him rest or satisfaction but a single
incomprehensible Good, which is God alone. For charity is a bond
of love, in which we are drawn up to God, and through which we
renounce ourselves, and whereby we are united with God and God is
united with us. But natural love turns back towards itself, and
towards its own profit, and ever abides alone. Nevertheless, in
its outward works, natural love is as like unto charity as two
hairs from the same head; but the intentions are different. For
the good man always seeks and means and desires, with an aspiring
heart, to glorify God; but in natural love a man has always
himself and his own profit in mind. Therefore, when natural love
opposes and conquers true charity the man falls into four sins;
namely, spiritual pride, avarice, gluttony, and lust. And in this
way Adam fell in Paradise, and all human nature with him, for he
loved himself inordinately with natural love, and so he turned
away from God, and scorned in his pride the commandment of God.
And he desired knowledge and wisdom in his avarice; and he sought
pleasant tastes and satisfactions in gluttony; and after that he
was moved by lust. But Mary was a living Paradise. She found the
grace which Adam lost, and much more besides, for she is the
Mother of Love. She turned in active charity towards God, and
conceived Christ in humility. And she offered Him up to the Father
with all His sufferings in generosity; and she never tasted of
consolation, nor of any gift, in gluttony; and her whole life was
in purity. Whosoever follows her shall conquer all that is
contrary to the virtues, and shall enter into the kingdom where
she reigns with her Son in eternity.
So, when a man possesses the natural rest in bare vacancy, whilst
in all his works he has himself in mind, and he continues
obstinately disobedient in his self-will, he cannot be united with
God; for he lives without charity in unlikeness to God. And here
begins the third contrary way, which is the most noxious of all;
and this is an unrighteous life, full of ghostly error and of all
perversity.
Now mark well what follows, lest you should not understand it
well. All these men are, in their own opinion, God-seeing men, and
believe themselves the holiest of all men living. Yet they live
contrary and unlike to God and all saints and all good men.
Observe the following marks: thus you will be able to recognise
them both by their words and their works. By means of the natural
rest which they feel and possess in themselves in bare vacancy,
they believe themselves to be free, and to be united with God
without means, and to be above all the customs of Holy Church, and
above the commandments of God, and above the law, and above every
work of virtue which can in any way be done. For they think their
idleness to be so great a thing that it may not be troubled by any
work, how good soever it be; for this idleness is nobler than any
virtue. And therefore they maintain themselves in pure passivity,
without any activity towards above or towards below; like a loom,
which does not work of itself, but awaits its master, and the time
when he wishes to work. For they deem that if they worked
themselves, God would be hindered in His work. And therefore they
are empty of every virtue; and indeed so empty, that they will
neither praise nor thank God. They have no knowledge and no love,
no will, no prayer, no desire; for they believe that all that they
could pray for, and desire, is already possessed of them. And so
they are poor of spirit, for they are without will, and have
forsaken everything, and live without any personal preferences:
and thus it seems to them that they are empty, and have overcome
everything, and have in their possession all those things for
which the customs of Holy Church have been instituted and
ordained. And so, they say, no one, not even God, can give them
anything, or can take away anything from them; for they have, in
their own opinion, transcended all customs and all virtues, and
have entered into the pure emptiness, and are released from every
virtue. And this release from all virtues in emptiness needs, they
say, more labour than the acquisition of the virtues. And
therefore they would be free, and obedient to none; neither pope,
nor bishop, nor parson. Even though outwardly they seem to be so,
inwardly they are submissive to none, neither in will nor in
works; for they are in every respect empty of all that Holy Church
practises. And therefore they say, as long as a man strives after
virtue, and desires to fulfil the good pleasure of God, he is
still imperfect; for he is still amassing virtues, and knows not
this spiritual poverty and emptiness. But they are themselves, in
their own opinion, lifted up above all the choirs of saints and
angels, and above every reward which one can in any way merit. And
therefore they say that their virtues can nevermore increase, nor
can they themselves deserve a greater reward, nor commit any sin
any more; for, they say, they live without will, and have
surrendered their spirit to God in rest and bareness, and are one
with God, and in themselves have become nothing. And therefore
they can do without hindrance all that the bodily nature desires,
for they have attained to the state of innocence, and no law has
sway over them. When therefore it happens that their emptiness of
spirit is troubled or hindered by any natural lust, they yield to
nature, that their emptiness of spirit may remain untroubled. And
that is why they do not keep Lent or Ember-days, or any other
commandment, save when they do it for the sake of their
neighbours; for they live without conscience in all things. I hope
that of such folk not many are to be found; but those who are like
them are the most wicked and vile of all men living. And they are
sometimes possessed of the Fiend; and then they are so cunning
that one cannot vanquish them on the grounds of reason. But
through Holy Scripture and the teaching of Christ and our Faith,
we may prove that they are deceived.
CHAPTER LXVII
OF ANOTHER KIND OF PERVERTED MEN
NOW we find yet another kind of perverted men, who are in some
points different from those already described; though they too
believe themselves to be exempted from all works, and to be
instruments with which God works what He wills. And therefore they
say that they are in a purely passive state without activity; and
that the works which God works through them are noble and
meritorious beyond anything that another man, working his works
himself by the grace of God, could do. And therefore they say that
they are God-passive men,69 and that they do nothing of
themselves, but that God works all their works. And they say they
can do no sin: for it is God Who does all their works, and in
themselves they are empty of all things. And all that God wills is
worked through them, and nothing else. These men have surrendered
themselves to inward passivity in their emptiness; and live
without preference for any one thing. And they have a resigned and
humble appearance, and can very well endure and suffer with
equanimity all that befalls them; for they hold themselves to be
the instruments with which God works according to His will. Such
men in many of their ways and works are like in their conduct to
good men, but in some things they differ from them; for all things
to which they are inwardly urged, whether these be virtuous or
not, they believe to proceed from the Holy Ghost. And in this and
in suchlike things, they are deceived; for the Spirit of God
neither wills, counsels, nor works, in any man things which are
contrary to the teaching of Christ and Holy Christianity.
Such folk are hard to recognise, save by the man who is
enlightened, and has received the power of discerning spirits and
divine truth; for many amongst them are cunning in outward things
and know well how to cloak and make fair their perversity. And
they are so self-willed, and hold so fast to their own peculiar
ideas, that they would sooner die than abandon one point of the
thing they have laid hold on; for they hold themselves the holiest
and most enlightened of all men living.
These men differ from the first kind in this, that they say that
they can grow and acquire merit: whereas the others hold that they
cannot merit anything more, for they possess themselves in unity
and emptiness, wherefrom one cannot rise higher, because here
there is no more activity. These are all perverted men, and are
the most wicked of the living; and they are to be abhorred as if
they were the Fiend in hell. But if you have well understood that
teaching which I have given you heretofore in various ways, you
will perceive that these men are deceived. For they live contrary
to God and righteousness and all saints; and they are all
precursors of the Antichrist, preparing his way in every unbelief.
For they would be free, without the commandments of God, and
without virtues; and empty and united with God, without love and
charity. And they would be God-seeing men without loving and
steadfast contemplation, and the holiest of all men living without
the works of holiness. And they say that they rest in Him Whom
they do not love; and are uplifted into That which they neither
will nor desire. And they say that they are stripped of every
virtue, and of diligent devotion to God, lest they should hinder
God in His working. They confess, indeed, that God is the Creator
and Lord over all creatures, and yet they will neither thank nor
praise Him. They confess that His power and His riches are without
end, and yet they say that He can neither give nor take from them
anything, neither can they grow nor acquire merit.
And sometimes too they uphold the opposite, and say that they
merit a greater wage than other men; for God does their works, and
they themselves endure passively the workings of God, without co-
operation, since these are worked of Him. And in this, they say,
lies the supreme merit. But this is altogether illusion and
impossibility. For the activity of God is in itself eternal and
unchangeable; for He is His own activity and nought else. And in
this working there can be no growth, nor merit of any creature
whatsoever; for here there is nothing but God, Who can neither wax
nor wane. But the creatures, by virtue of God, have their own
activity, in nature and in grace, and also in glory: and if their
works end in grace here, they shall continue in glory for ever.
Now were it possible, which it is not, that a spiritual creature
could be annihilated as regards its activity, and thereby became
even as empty as it was when it was not made-that is, that it
could become wholly one with God, as it was then-it could acquire
no merit, no more than it could before creation. Further, it would
be neither holier nor more blessed than a stone or a log of wood;
for without our own work and the knowledge and love of God, we
cannot be blessed. Though God would indeed be blessed, as He is
eternally, yet it would not avail us. And therefore that which
these say of their emptiness is all deceit; for they wish to
excuse all wickedness and perversity, and give these out as nobler
and more sublime than all the virtues. And they would cunningly
disguise the worst, so that it should seem the best. All these are
contrary to God and all His saints; but they have a likeness to
the damned spirits in hell, for these too are without charity and
without knowledge, and are empty of thanksgivings and praise and
of all loving adherence; and this is the cause, why they remain
damned in eternity. And that these folk may be like to them, they
lack only this, that they should fall from time into eternity, and
that the justice of God be revealed in their works.
But Christ the Son of God, Who according to His manhood is the
pattern and the head of all good men, showing them how to live, He
was and is and everlastingly shall abide with all His members,
that is, with all His saints, in love and longing, thankfulness
and praise, toward His heavenly Father. Nevertheless, His soul was
and is united with the Divine Essence and blessed therein. But to
this bare idleness He never could, nor ever shall, come; for His
glorified soul, and all who are blessed, have an eternal loving
striving, even as those who have tasted of God, and are hungry and
thirsty, and can nevermore be satisfied. Yet that very soul of
Christ, and all saints, partake of God above all desires, where
there is nothing but the One. This is the eternal bliss of God and
of all His chosen. And that is why fruition and activity are the
blessedness of Christ and all His saints; and this is the life of
all good men, each according to the measure of his love. And this
is a righteousness that shall never pass away. And that is why we
should adorn ourselves, from without and from within, with virtues
and with goodly behaviour, as do the saints; and should lovingly
and humbly exercise ourselves before the eyes of God in all our
works. Then we shall meet God by means of all His gifts. And then
we shall be touched by sensible love, and shall be filled with
loyalty towards all. And so we shall flow forth and flow back
again in true charity, and shall be firmly established and
steadfast within ourselves in simple peace and in the Divine
likeness. And by means of this likeness and fruitive love and the
Divine brightness, we shall be melted into the unity, and shall
meet God through God, without means, in fruitive rest. And so we
shall eternally remain within, and yet continually flow forth and
incessantly flow back again. And herewith we shall possess a
veritable inward life in all perfection, That this may come to
pass in us, so help us God. AMEN.
THIS END OF THE SECOND BOOK
HERE BEGINS
THE THIRD BOOK
CHAPTER I
SHOWING THE THREE WAYS BY WHICH ONE ENTERS INTO THE GOD-SEEING
LIFE
THE inward lover of God, who possesses God in fruitive love, and
himself in adhering and active love, and his whole life in virtues
according to righteousness; through these three things, and by the
mysterious revelation of God, such an inward man enters into the
God-seeing life. Yea, the lover who is inward and righteous, him
will it please God in His freedom to choose and to lift up into a
superessential contemplation, in the Divine Light and according to
the Divine Way.70 This contemplation sets us in purity and
clearness above all our understanding, for it is a singular
adornment and a heavenly crown, and besides the eternal reward of
all virtues and of our whole life. And to it none can attain
through knowledge and subtlety, neither through any exercise
whatsoever. Only he with whom it pleases God to be united in His
Spirit, and whom it pleases Him to enlighten by Himself, can see
God, and no one else. The mysterious Divine Nature is eternally
and actively beholding and loving according to the Persons, and
has everlasting fruition in a mutual embrace of the Persons in the
unity of the Essence. In this embrace, in the essential Unity of
God, all inward spirits are one with God in the immersion of love;
and are that same one which the Essence is in Itself, according to
the mode of Eternal Bliss.71 And in this most high unity of the
Divine Nature, the heavenly Father is origin and beginning of
every work which is worked in heaven and on earth. And He says in
the deep sunken hiddenness of the spirit: BEHOLD, THE BRIDE GROOM
COMETH; GO YE OUT TO MEET HIM.
These words we will now explain and set forth in their relation to
that superessential contemplation which is the source of all
holiness, and of all perfec tion of life to which one may attain.
Few men can attain to this Divine seeing, because of their own in
capacity and the mysteriousness of the light in which I one sees.
And therefore no one will thoroughly understand the meaning of it
by any learning or subtle consideration of his own; for all words,
and all | that may be learnt and understood in a creaturely way,
are foreign to, and far below, the truth which I mean. But he who
is united with God, and is en lightened in this truth, he is able
to understand the truth by itself. For to comprehend and to under
stand God above all similitudes, such as He is in Himself, is to
be God with God, without intermediary, and without any otherness
that can become a hindrance or an intermediary. And therefore I
beg every one who cannot understand this, or feel it in the
fruitive unity of his spirit, that he be not offended at it, and
leave it for that which it is: for that which I am going to say is
true, and Christ, the Eternal Truth, has said it Himself in His
teaching in many places, if we could but show and explain it
rightly. And therefore, whosoever wishes to understand this must
have died to himself, and must live in God, and must turn his gaze
to the eternal light in the ground of his spirit, where the Hidden
Truth reveals Itself without means. For our Heavenly Father wills
that we should see; for He is the Father of Light, and this is why
He utters eternally, without intermediary and without
interruption, in the hiddenness of our spirit, one unique and
abysmal word, and no other. And in this word, He utters Himself
and all things. And this word is none other than: BEHOLD. And this
is the coming forth and the birth of the Son of Eternal Light, in
Whom all blessedness is known and seen.
Now if the spirit would see God with God in this Divine light
without means, there needs must be on the part of man three
things.
The first is that he must be perfectly ordered from without in all
the virtues, and within must be unencumbered, and as empty of
every outward work as if he did not work at all: for if his
emptiness is troubled within by some work of virtue, he has an
image; and as long as this endures within him, he cannot
contemplate.
Secondly, he must inwardly cleave to God, with adhering intention
and love, even as a burning and glowing fire which can never more
be quenched. As long as he feels himself to be in this state, he
is able to contemplate.
Thirdly, he must have lost himself in a Waylessness and in a
Darkness, in which all contemplative men wander in fruition and
wherein they never again can find themselves in a creaturely way.
In the abyss of this darkness, in which the loving spirit has died
to itself, there begin the manifestation of God and eternal life.
For in this darkness there shines and is born an incomprehensible
Light, which is the Son of God, in Whom we behold eternal life.
And in this Light one becomes seeing; and this Divine Light is
given to the simple sight of the spirit, where the spirit receives
the brightness which is God Himself, above all gifts and every
creaturely activity, in the idle emptiness in which the spirit has
lost itself through fruitive love, and where it receives without
means the brightness of God, and is changed without interruption
into that brightness which it receives. Behold, this mysterious
brightness, in which one sees everything that one can desire
according to the emptiness of the spirit: this brightness is so
great that the loving contemplative, in his ground wherein he
rests, sees and feels nothing but an incomprehensible Light; and
through that Simple Nudity which enfolds all things, he finds
himself, and feels himself, to be that same Light by which he
sees, and nothing else.72 And this is the first condition by which
one becomes seeing in the Divine Light. Blessed are the eyes which
are thus seeing, for they possess eternal life.
CHAPTER II
HOW THE ETERNAL BIRTH OF GOD IS RENEWED WITHOUT INTERRUPTION IN
THE NOBILITY OF THE SPIRIT
WHEN we have thus become seeing, we can behold in joy the eternal
coming of our Bridegroom; and that is the second point of which we
would speak. What is this coming of our Bridegroom which is
eternal? It is the new birth and a new enlightenment without
interruption; for the ground from which the Light shines forth,
and which is the Light itself, is life-giving and fruitful, and
therefore the manifestation of the Eternal Light is renewed
without ceasing in the hiddenness of the spirit. Behold, every
creaturely work, and every exercise of virtue, must here cease;
for here God works alone in the high nobility of the spirit. And
here there is nothing but an eternal seeing and staring at that
Light, by that Light, and in that Light. And the coming of the
Bridegroom is so swift that He is perpetually coming, and yet
dwelling within with unfathomable riches; and ever coming anew, in
His Person, without interruption, with such new brightness that it
seems as though he had never come before. For His coming consists,
beyond time, in an eternal NOW, which is ever received with new
longings and new joy. Behold, the delight and the joy which this
Bridegroom brings with Him in His coming are boundless and without
measure, for they are Himself. And this is why the eyes with which
the spirit sees and gazes at its Bridegroom, have opened so wide
that they can never close again. For the spirit continues for ever
to see and to stare at the secret manifestation of God. And the
grasp of the spirit is opened so wide for the coming in of the
Bridegroom, that the spirit itself becomes that Breadth Which it
grasps. And so God is grasped and beheld through God; wherein
rests all our blessedness. This is the second point: in which we
receive, without interruption, the eternal coming of our
Bridegroom in our spirit.
CHAPTER III
HOW OUR SPIRIT IS CALLED TO GO OUT IN CONTEMPLATION AND FRUITION
NOW the Spirit of God says in the secret outpouring of our spirit:
GO YE OUT, in an eternal contemplation and fruition, according to
the way of God. All the riches which are in God by nature we
possess by way of love in God, and God in us, through the
unmeasured love which is the Holy Ghost, for in this love one
tastes of all that one can desire. And therefore through this love
we are dead to ourselves, and have gone forth in loving immersion
into Waylessness and Darkness. There the spirit is embraced by the
Holy Trinity, and dwells for ever within the superessential Unity,
in rest and fruition. And in that same Unity, according to Its
fruitfulness, the Father dwells in the Son, and the Son in the
Father, and all creatures dwell in Both. And this is above the
distinction of the Persons; for here by means of the reason we
understand Fatherhood and Sonhood as the life-giving fruitfulness
of the Divine Nature.
Here there arise and begin an eternal going out and an eternal
work which is without beginning; for here there is a beginning
with beginning. For, after the Almighty Father had perfectly
comprehended Himself in the ground of His fruitfulness, so the
Son, the Eternal Word of the Father, came forth as the second
Person in the Godhead. And, through the Eternal Birth, all
creatures have come forth in eternity, before they were created in
time. So God has seen and known them in Himself, according to
distinction, in living ideas,73 and in an otherness from Himself;
but not as something other in all ways, for all that is in God is
God.74 This eternal going out and this eternal life, which we have
and are in God eternally, without ourselves, is the cause of our
created being in time. And our created being abides in the Eternal
Essence and is one with it in its essential existence. And this
eternal life and being, which we have and are in the eternal
Wisdom of God, is like unto God. For it has an eternal immanence
in the Divine Essence, without distinction; and through the birth
of the Son it has an eternal outflowing in a distinction and
otherness, according to the Eternal Idea. And through these two
points it is so like unto God that He knows and reflects Himself
in this likeness without cessation, according to the Essence and
according to the Persons. For, though even here there are
distinction and otherness according to intellectual perception,
yet this likeness is one with that same Image of the Holy Trinity,
which is the wisdom of God and in which God beholds Himself and
all things in an eternal Now, without before and after. In a
single seeing He beholds Himself and all things. And this is the
Image and the Likeness of God, and our Image and our Likeness; for
in it God reflects Himself and all things. In this Divine Image
all creatures have an eternal life, outside themselves, as in
their eternal Archetype, and after this eternal Image, and in this
Likeness, we have been made by the Holy Trinity. And therefore God
wills that we shall go forth from ourselves in this Divine Light,
and shall reunite ourselves in a supernatural way with this Image,
which is our proper life, and shall possess it with Him, in action
and in fruition, in eternal bliss.
For we know well that the bosom of the Father is our ground and
origin, in which we begin our being and our life. And from our
proper ground that is from the Father and from all that lives in
Him there shines forth an eternal brightness, which is the birth
of the Son. And in this brightness, that is, in the Son, the
Father knows Himself and all that lives in Him; for all that He
has, and all that He is, He gives to the Son, save only the
property of Fatherhood, which abides in Himself. And this is why
all that lives in the Father, unmanifested in the Unity, is also
in the Son actively poured forth into manifestation: and the
simple ground of our Eternal Image ever remains in darkness and in
waylessness, but the brightness without limit which streams forth
from it, this reveals and brings forth within the Conditioned the
hiddenness of God. And all those men who are raised up above their
created being into a God-seeing life are one with this Divine
brightness. And they are that brightness itself, and they see
feel, and find, even by means of this Divine Light, that, as
regards their uncreated essence, they are that same onefold ground
from which the brightness without limit shines forth in the Divine
way, and which, according to the simplicity of the Essence, abides
eternally onefold and wayless within. And this is why inward and
God-seeing men will go out in the way of contemplation, above
reason and above distinction and above their created being,
through an eternal intuitive gazing. By means of this inborn light
they are transfigured, and made one with that same light through
which they see and which they see.75 And thus the God-seeing men
follow after their Eternal Image, after which they have been made;
and they behold God and all things, without distinction, in a
simple seeing, in the Divine brightness. And this is the most
noble and the most profitable contemplation to which one can
attain in this life; for in this contemplation, a man best remains
master of himself and free. And at each loving introversion he may
grow in nobility of life beyond anything that we are able to
understand; for he remains free and master of himself in
inwardness and virtue. And this gazing at the Divine Light holds
him up above all inwardness and all virtue and all merit, for it
is the crown and the reward after which we strive, and which we
have and possess now in this wise; for a God-seeing life is a
heavenly life. But were we set free from this misery and this
exile, so we should have, as regards our created being, a greater
capacity to receive this brightness; and so the glory of God would
shine through us in every way better and more nobly. This is the
way above all ways, in which one goes out through Divine
contemplation and an eternal intuitive gazing, and in which one is
transfigured and transmuted in the Divine brightness. This going
out of the God-seeing man is also in love; for through the
fruition of love he rises above his created being, and finds and
tastes the riches and the delights which are God Himself, and
which He causes to pour forth without interruption in the
hiddenness of the spirit, where the spirit is like unto the
nobility of God.
CHAPTER IV
OF A DIVINE MEETING WHICH TAKES PLACE IN THE HIDDENNESS OF OUR
SPIRIT
WHEN the inward and God-seeing man has thus attained to his
Eternal Image, and in this clearness, through the Son, has entered
into the bosom of the Father: then he is enlightened by Divine
truth, and he receives anew, every moment, the Eternal Birth, and
he goes forth according to the way of the light, in a Divine
contemplation. And here there begins the fourth and last point;
namely, a loving meeting, in which, above all else, our highest
blessedness consists.
You should know that the heavenly Father, as a living ground, with
all that lives in Him, is actively turned towards His Son, as to
His own Eternal Wisdom. And that same Wisdom, with all that lives
in It, is actively turned back towards the Father, that is,
towards that very ground from which It comes forth. And in this
meeting, there comes forth the third Person, between the Father
and the Son; that is the Holy Ghost, Their mutual Love, who is one
with them Both in the same nature. And He enfolds and drenches
through both in action and fruition the Father and the Son, and
all that lives in Both, with such great riches and such joy that
as to this all creatures must eternally be silent; for the
incomprehensible wonder of this love, eternally transcends the
understanding of all creatures. But where this wonder is
understood and tasted without amazement,76 there the spirit dwells
above itself, and is one with the Spirit of God; and tastes and
sees without measure, even as God, the riches which are the spirit
itself in the unity of the living ground, where it possesses
itself according to the way of its uncreated essence.
Now this rapturous meeting is incessantly and actively renewed in
us, according to the way of God; for the Father gives Himself in
the Son, and the Son gives Himself in the Father, in an eternal
content and a loving embrace; and this renews itself every moment
within the bonds of love. For like as the Father incessantly
beholds all things in the birth of His Son, so all things are
loved anew by the Father and the Son in the outpouring of the Holy
Ghost. And this is the active meeting of the Father and of the
Son, in which we are lovingly embraced by the Holy Ghost in
eternal love.
Now this active meeting and this loving embrace are in their
ground fruitive and wayless; for the abysmal Waylessness of God is
so dark and so unconditioned that it swallows up in itself every
Divine way and activity, and all the attributes of the Persons,
within the rich compass of the essential Unity, and it brings
about a Divine fruition in the abyss of the Ineffable. And here
there is a death in fruition, and a melting and dying into the
Essential Nudity, where all the Divine names, and all conditions,
and all the living images which are reflected in the mirror of
Divine Truth, lapse in the Onefold and Ineffable, in waylessness
and without reason. For in this unfathomable abyss of the
Simplicity, all things are wrapped in fruitive bliss; and the
abyss itself may not be comprehended, unless by the Essential
Unity. To this the Persons, and all that lives in God, must give
place; for here there is nought else but an eternal rest in the
fruitive embrace of an outpouring Love. And this is that wayless
being which all interior spirits have chosen above all other
things. This is the dark silence in which all lovers lose
themselves. But if we would prepare ourselves for it by means of
the virtues, we should strip ourselves of all but our very bodies,
and should flee forth into the wild Sea, whence no created thing
can draw us back again.77
May we possess in fruition the essential Unity, and clearly behold
unity in the Trinity; this may Divine Love, which turns no beggar
away, bestow upon us. AMEN.
HERE ENDS THE BOOK OF THE ADORNMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE
THE SPARKLING STONE
PROLOGUE
THE man who would live in the most perfect state of Holy Church
must be a good and zealous man; an inward and ghostly man; an
uplifted and God-seeing man; and an outflowing man to all in
common. Whenever these four things are together in a man, then his
state is perfect; and through the increase of grace he shall
continually grow and progress in all virtues, and in the knowledge
of truth, before God and before all men.
CHAPTER I
THROUGH THREE THINGS A MAN BECOMES GOOD
HEAR now three things which constitute a good man. The first,
which a good man must have, is a clean conscience without reproach
of mortal sin. And therefore whosoever wishes to become a good man
must examine and prove himself with due discernment, from that
time onward when he could first have committed sin. And from all
these sins he must purge himself, according to the precept and the
custom of Holy Church.
The second thing which pertains to a good man is that he must in
all things be obedient to God, and to Holy Church, and to his own
proper convictions. And to each of these three he must be equally
obedient: so shall he live without care and doubt, and shall ever
abide without inward reproach in all his deeds.
The third thing which behoves every good man is that in all his
deeds he should have in mind, above all else, the glory of God.
And if it happens that by reason of his business or the
multiplicity of his works, he has not always God before his eyes,
yet at least there should be established in him the intention and
desire to live according to the dearest will of God.
Behold, these three things, when they are possessed in this way,
make a man good. And whosoever lacks any one of these three is
neither good nor in the grace of God; but whenever a man resolves
in his heart to fulfil these three points, how wicked soever he
may have been before, in that very instant he becomes good, and is
susceptible of God, and filled with the grace of God.
CHAPTER II
THROUGH THREE THINGS A MAN BECOMES INWARD
IF, further, this good man would become an inward and ghostly man,
he needs must have three further things. The first is a heart
unencumbered with images; the second is spiritual freedom in his
desires, the third is the feeling of inward union with God.78
Now let every one who thinks himself to be ghostly observe
himself. He who would have a heart void of images may not possess
anything with affection, nor may he cling to any one, or have
intercourse with him with attachment of the will; for all
intercourse and all affection which do not aim purely at the
honour of God bring images into a man's heart, since they are
born, not of God, but of the flesh. And so if a man would become
spiritual, he must forsake all fleshly lusts and loves and must
cleave with longing and love to God alone, and thus possess Him.
And through this, all imaginations and all inordinate love towards
creatures are cast out. And this loving possession of God makes a
man inwardly free from ungodly images; for God is a Spirit, of
Whom no one can make to himself a true image. Certainly in this
exercise a man should lay hold of good images to help him; such as
the Passion of our Lord and all those things that may stir him to
greater devotion. But in the possession of God, the man must sink
down to that imageless Nudity which is God; and this is the first
condition, and the foundation, of a ghostly life.
The second condition is inward freedom. Through this, the man
should be able to raise himself towards God in all inward
exercises, free from images and encumbrances; that is, in
thanksgiving and praise, in worship, in devout prayer and fervent
love, and in all those things that may be done by longing and love
with the help of the grace of God and through inward zeal in all
ghostly exercises.
Through this inward exercise, he reaches the third state; which is
that he feels a ghostly union with God. Whosoever then has, in his
inward exercise, an imageless and free ascent unto his God, and
means nought else but the glory of God, must taste of the goodness
of God; and he must feel from within a true union with God. And in
this union, the inward and spiritual life is made perfect; for in
this union, the desirous power is perpetually enticed anew and
stirred to new inward activity. And by each act, the spirit rises
upwards to a new union. And so activity and union perpetually
renew themselves; and this perpetual renewal in activity and in
union is a ghostly life. And so you are now able to see how a man
becomes good through the moral virtues and an upright intention;
and how he may become ghostly through the inward virtues and union
with God. But without these said points, he can neither be good
nor ghostly.
CHAPTER III
THROUGH THREE THINGS A MAN BECOMES GOD-SEEING
FURTHER, you must know that if this ghostly man would now become a
God-seeing man, he needs must have three other things. The first
is the feeling that the foundation of his being is abysmal, and he
should possess it in this manner; the second is that his inward
exercise should be wayless; the third is that his indwelling
should be a divine fruition.
Now understand, you who would live in the spirit, for I am
speaking to no one else. The union with God which a spiritual man
feels, when the union is revealed to the spirit as being abysmal-
that is, measureless depth, measureless height, measureless length
and measureless breadth-in this manifestation the spirit perceives
that through love it has plunged itself into the depth and has
ascended into the height and escaped into the length; and it feels
itself to be wandering in the breadth, and to dwell in a knowledge
which is ignorance. And through this intimate feeling of union, it
feels itself to be melting into the Unity; and, through dying to
all things, into the life of God. And there it feels itself to be
one life with God. And this is the foundation, and the first
point, of the God-seeing life.
And from this there arises the second point, which is an exercise
above reason and without condition: for the Divine Unity, of which
every God-seeing spirit has entered into possession in love,
eternally draws and invites the Divine Persons and all loving
spirits into its self. And this inward drawing is felt by each
lover, more or less, according to the measure of his love and the
manner of his exercise. And whosoever yields himself to this
indrawing, and keeps himself therein, cannot fall into mortal sin.
But the God-seeing man who has forsaken self and all things, and
does not feel himself drawn away because he no longer possesses
anything as his own, but stands empty of all, he can always enter,
naked and unencumbered with images, into the inmost part of his
spirit. There he finds revealed an Eternal Light, and in this
light, he feels the eternal demand of the Divine Unity; and he
feels himself to be an eternal fire of love, which craves above
all else to be one with God. The more he yields to this indrawing
or demand, the more he feels it. And the more he feels it, the
more he craves to be one with God; for it urges him to pay the
debt which is demanded of him by God. This eternal demand of the
Divine Unity kindles within the spirit an eternal fire of love;
and though the spirit incessantly pays the debt, an eternal
burning continues within it. For, in the transformation within the
Unity, all spirits fail in their own activity, and feel nothing
else but a burning up of themselves in the simple Unity of God.
This simple Unity of God none can feel or possess save he who
maintains himself in the immeasurable radiance, and in the love
which is above reason and wayless. In this transcendent state the
spirit feels in itself the eternal fire of love; and in this fire
of love it finds neither beginning nor end, and it feels itself
one with this fire of love. The spirit for ever continues to burn
in itself, for its love is eternal; and it feels itself ever more
and more to be burnt up in love, for it is drawn and transformed
into the Unity of God, where the spirit burns in love. If it
observes itself, it finds a distinction and an otherness between
itself and God; but where it is burnt up it is undifferentiated
and without distinction, and therefore it feels nothing but unity;
for the flame of the Love of God consumes and devours all that it
can enfold in its Self.
And thus you may see that the indrawing Unity of God is nought
else than the fathomless Love, which lovingly draws inward, in
eternal fruition, the Father and the Son and all that lives in
Them. And in this Love we shall burn and be burnt up without end,
throughout eternity; for herein lies the blessedness of all
spirits. And therefore we must all found our lives upon a
fathomless abyss; that we may eternally plunge into Love, and sink
down in the fathomless Depth. And with that same Love, we shall
ascend, and transcend ourselves, in the incomprehensible Height.
And in that Love which is wayless, we shall wander and stray, and
it shall lead us and lose us in the immeasurable Breadth of the
Love of God. And herein we shall flee forth and flee out of
ourselves, into the unknown raptures of the Goodness and Riches of
God. And therein we shall melt and be melted away, and shall
eternally wander and sojourn within the Glory of God. Behold! by
each of these images, I show forth to God-seeing men their being
and their exercise, but none else can understand them. For the
contemplative life cannot be taught. But where the Eternal Truth
reveals Itself within the spirit all that is needful is taught and
learnt.
CHAPTER IV
OF THE SPARKLING STONE, AND OF THE NEW NAME WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF
THE SECRETS OF GOD
AND therefore the Spirit of our Lord speaks thus in the Book of
the Secrets of God, which St John wrote down: TO HIM THAT
OVERCOMETH, He says, that is, to him who overcometh and conquereth
himself and all else, WILL I GIVE TO EAT OF THE HIDDEN MANNA, that
is, an inward and hidden savour and celestial joy; AND WILL GIVE
HIM A SPARKLING STONE, AND IN THE STONE A NEW NAME WRITTEN WHICH
NO MAN KNOWETH SAVING HE THAT RECEIVETH IT. This stone is called a
pebble,79 for it is so small that it does not hurt when one treads
on it. This stone is shining white and red like a flame of fire;
and it is small and round, and smooth all over, and very light. By
this sparkling stone we mean our Lord Christ Jesus, for He is,
according to His Godhead, a shining forth of the Eternal Light,
and an irradiation of the glory of God, and a flawless mirror in
which all things live. Now to him who overcomes and transcends all
things, this sparkling stone is given; and with it he receives
light and truth and life. This stone is also like to a fiery
flame, for the fiery love of the Eternal Word has filled the whole
world with love and wills that all loving spirits be burned up to
nothingness in love. This stone is also so small that a man hardly
feels it, even though he treads it underfoot. And that is why it
is called CALCULUS, that is, "treadling." And this is made clear
to us by St Paul, where he says that the Son of God EMPTIED
HIMSELF, AND HUMBLED HIMSELF, AND TOOK UPON HIM THE FORM OF A
SERVANT AND BECAME OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH, EVEN THE DEATH OF THE
CROSS. And He Himself spoke through the mouth of the Prophet,
saying: I AM A WORM, AND NO MAN: A REPROACH OF MEN AND DESPISED OF
THE PEOPLE. And He made Himself so small in time that the Jews
trod Him under their feet. But they felt Him not; for, had they
recognized the Son of God, they had not dared to crucify Him. He
is still little and despised in all men's hearts that do not love
Him well. This noble stone of which I speak is wholly round and
smooth and even all over. That the stone is round teaches us that
the Divine Truth has neither beginning nor end; that it is smooth
and even all over teaches us that the Divine Truth shall weigh all
things evenly, and shall give to each according to his merits; and
that which he gives shall be with each throughout eternity. The
last property of this stone of which I will speak is, that it is
particularly light; for the Eternal Word of the Father has no
weight, nevertheless It bears heaven and earth by Its strength.
And It is equally near to all things; yet none can attain It, for
It is set on high and goes before all creatures, and reveals
Itself where It wills and when It wills; and, in Its lightness,
our heavy human nature has climbed above all the heavens, and sits
crowned at the right hand of the Father.
Behold, this is the sparkling stone which is given to the God-
seeing man, and in this stone A NEW NAME IS WRITTEN, WHICH NO MAN
KNOWETH SAVING HE THAT RECEIVETH IT. You should know that all
spirits in their return towards God receive names; each one in
particular, according to the nobleness of its service and the
loftiness of its love. For only the first name of innocence, which
we receive at baptism, is adorned with the merits of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And when we have lost this name of innocence through
sin, if we are willing still to follow God-especially in three
works which He wishes to work in us-we are baptized once more in
the Holy Ghost. And thereby we receive a new name which shall
remain with us throughout eternity.
CHAPTER V
OF THE WORKS WHICH GOD WORKS IN ALL IN COMMON AND OF FIVE KINDS OF
SINNERS
HEAR now what those three works are, which our Lord works in all
men if they will submit themselves thereto. The first work which
God works in all men in common consists in His calling and
inviting them all, without exception, to union with Himself. And
as long as a sinner does not follow this call, he must lack all
the other gifts which would follow thereafter.
Now I have observed that all sinners may be divided into five
kinds. To the first kind belong all those who are careless of good
works, who through bodily ease and the lust of the senses prefer
to live in worldly employments and in multiplicity of heart. All
such are unfit to receive the grace of God, and even if they had
received it, they would not be able to keep it.
To the second kind belong those who have willingly and wittingly
fallen into mortal sin, yet also do good works, and dwell in the
fear and awe of the Lord, and love the just, and desire their
prayers, and put their trust therein. So long, however, as turning
from God and love of sin vanquish and repulse love of God and
turning to God, so long these remain unworthy of the grace of God.
The third kind of sinners consists in all unbelievers, and those
who err in faith. What good works soever they do, or what lives
soever they lead, without the true faith they cannot please God;
for true faith is the foundation of all holiness and all virtues.
To the fourth kind belong those who abide in mortal sin without
fear and without shame, who care not for God and His gifts, and
neglect all virtues. They hold all ghostly life to be hypocrisy
and deceit; and they hardly listen to all that one may say to them
of God or of the virtues, for they have established themselves as
though there were no God, nor heaven, nor hell, and therefore they
desire to know of nothing but that which they now perceive and
have before them. Behold, all such are rejected and despised by
God, for they sin against the Holy Ghost. Yet they may be
converted; but this happens with difficulty and seldom.
The fifth kind of sinners are those hypocrites who do outward good
works, not for the glory of God and their own salvation, but to
acquire a name for holiness or for the sake of some fleeting
thing. Though they may appear holy and good from without, within
they are false and turned away from God, and they lack the grace
of God and every virtue.
See, I have shown to you five kinds of sinners, who have all been
inwardly called to union with God. But so long as a sinner remains
in the service of sin, so long he remains deaf and blind and
unable to taste, or to feel, all the good that God wishes to work
in him. But whenever a sinner enters into himself, and considers
himself, if he be displeased by his sinful life, then he draws
near to God. But if he would be obedient to the call and the words
of God, he must of his own free will resolve to leave sin and to
do penance. And so he becomes one aim and one will with God, and
receives the grace of God.
And therefore we should all conceive of God in this way: First of
all that, of His free goodness, He calls and invites all men,
without distinction, to union with Himself; both the good and the
wicked, without exception. Secondly, we should thus comprehend the
goodness of God; how He through grace flows forth towards all men
who are obedient to the call of God. Thirdly, we should find and
understand clearly in ourselves that we can become one life and
one spirit with God, when we renounce ourselves in every way, and
follow the grace of God to the height whereto it would guide us.
For the grace of God works according to order in every man, after
the measure and the way in which he is able to receive it. And
thereby, through the universal working of the grace of God, every
sinner, if he desires it, receives the discernment and strength
which are needful, that he may leave sin and turn towards virtue.
And, through that hidden cooperation of the grace of God, every
good man can overcome all sins, and can resist all temptations,
and can fulfil all virtues, and can persevere in the highest
perfection, if he be in all things submissive to the grace of God.
For all that we are, and all that we have received, from without
and from within, these are all the free gifts of God; for which we
must thank and praise Him, and with which we must serve Him, if we
are to please Him. But there are many gifts of God which are for
the good an aid to, and a source of, virtue; but for the wicked an
aid to, and an occasion of, sin: such are health, beauty, wisdom
riches, and worldly dignity. These are the lowest and least
precious gifts of God, which God gives for the benefit of all, to
His friends and to His enemies, to the good and to the wicked. And
with these the good serve God and His friends; but the wicked,
their own flesh, and the devil, and the world.
CHAPTER VI
OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE HIRELINGS AND THE FAITHFUL SERVANTS
OF GOD
NOW you may mark this: that some men receive the gifts of God as
hirelings, but others as faithful servants of God; and these
differ one from another in all inward works, that is, in love and
intention, in feeling and in every exercise of the inward life.
Now understand this well: all those who love themselves so
inordinately that they will not serve God, save for their own
profit and because of their own reward, these separate themselves
from God, and dwell in bondage and in their own selfhood; for they
seek, and aim at, their own, in all that they do. And therefore,
with all their prayers and with all their good works, they seek
after temporal things, or may be strive after eternal things for
their own benefit and for their own profit. These men are bent
upon themselves in an inordinate way; and that is why they ever
abide alone with themselves, for they lack the true love which
would unite them with God and with all His beloved. And although
these men seem to keep within the law and the commandments of God
and of Holy Church, they do not keep within the law of love; for
all that they do, they do, not out of love, but from sheer
necessity, lest they shall be damned. And, because they are
inwardly unfaithful, they dare not trust in God; but their whole
inward life is doubt and fear, travail and misery. For they see on
the right hand eternal life, and this they are afraid of losing;
and they see on the left hand the eternal pains of hell, and these
they are afraid of gaining. But all their prayers, all their
labour and all the good works, whatsoever they do, to cast out
this fear, help them not; for the more inordinately they love
themselves, the more they fear hell. And from this you may learn
that their fear of hell springs from self-love, which seeks its
own.
Now the Prophet, and also the Preacher, say: THE FEAR OF THE LORD
IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM; but by this is meant that fear which
is exercised upon the right side, where one considers the loss of
eternal blessedness, for this fear arises from the natural
tendency which every man has in himself to be blessed, that is, to
see God. And therefore, even though a man may be faithless to God,
yet whenever he truly observes himself from within, he feels
himself to be leaning out from himself towards that blessedness
which is God. And this blessedness he fears to lose; for he loves
himself better than God, and he loves blessedness wholly for his
own sake. And therefore he dare not trust in God. And yet this is
that FEAR OF THE LORD WHICH IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM and is a
law to the unfaithful servants of God: for it compels a man to
leave sin, and to strive after virtue, and to do good deeds, and
these things prepare a man from without to receive the grace of
God and become a faithful servant.
But from that very hour in which, with God's help, he can overcome
his selfhood-that is to say when he is so detached from himself
that he is able to leave in the keeping of God everything of which
he has need-behold, through doing this he is so well pleasing to
God that God bestows upon him His grace. And, through grace, he
feels true love: and love casts out doubt and fear, and fills the
man with hope and trust, and thus he becomes a faithful servant,
and means and loves God in all that he does. Behold, this is the
difference between the faithful servant and the hireling.
CHAPTER VII
OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FAITHFUL SERVANTS AND THE SECRET
FRIENDS OF GOD
WE must now observe the great difference which there is between
the faithful servants and the inward friends of God. For through
grace and the help of God, the faithful servants have chosen to
keep the commandments of God, that is, to be obedient to God and
Holy Church in all virtues and goodly behaviour: and this is
called the outward or active life. But the inward friends of God
choose to follow, besides the commandments, the quickening
counsels of God, and this is a loving and inward cleaving to God
for the sake of His eternal glory, with a willing abandonment of
all that one may possess outside God with lust and love. All such
friends God calls and invites inwards, and He teaches them the
distinctions of inward exercises and many a hidden way of ghostly
life. But He sends His servants outwards, that they may be
faithful to Him and to His House in every service and in every
kind of outward good works.
Behold, thus God gives His grace and His help to each man
according to his fitness; that is, according to the way in which
he is in tune with God, whether in outward good works or in the
inward practice of love. But none can do and feel the inward
exercises unless he be wholly turned inward to God. For as long as
a man is divided of heart, so long he looks outwards, and is
unstable of mind, and is easily swayed by joy and grief in
temporal things, for these are still alive within him. And though
he may live according to the commandments of God, inwardly he
abides in darkness, and knows not what inward exercises may be,
nor how these should be practised. But, since he knows and feels
that he has God in mind, and in all his works desires to fulfil
His dearest will, with this he may be content; for then he knows
himself to be free from hypocrisy in his intention, and faithful
in his service. And by these two things he contents himself; and
it seems to him that outward good works done with a pure intention
are more holy and more profitable than any inward exercise
whatever, for by the help of God, he has chosen an outward active
way of virtue. And therefore he had rather exercise himself in the
diversity of outward works than serve with inward love that same
One for Whom he works. And that is the cause why his mind is more
filled with the works which he does, than with God, for Whom he
does them. And through this tendency to images in his works, he
remains an outward man, and is not able to follow the counsels of
God; for his exercise is more outward than inward, more of the
senses than of the spirit. Though he is indeed a faithful servant
of God in outward works, yet that which the secret friends of God
experience remains hidden from, and unknown to him. And this is
why certain gross and outward men always condemn and blame the
inward and contemplative men, because they have in mind that these
are idle. And this was also the reason why Martha complained to
our Lord of her sister Mary, because she did not help her in
serving; for she believed that she was doing much service and much
usefulness, and that her sister was sitting idle and doing
nothing. But our Lord gave His judgment and decided between them:
He did not blame Martha for her diligence, for her service was
good and useful; but He blamed her for her care, and because she
was troubled and cast down by a multitude of outward things. And
He praised Mary for her inward exercise, and said that One Thing
was needful, and that she had chosen the better part, which should
not be taken away from her.
That One Thing which is needful for all men is Divine love. The
better part is an inward life, with loving adherence to God. This
Mary Magdalen had chosen, and this is chosen by the secret friends
of God. But Martha chose an outward, unenclosed, and active life;
and that is the other part, in which one may serve God, but which
is neither so perfect nor so good. And this part is chosen out of
love by the faithful servants of God.
But there are found some foolish men who would be so inward that
they would neither act nor serve, even in those things of which
their neighbour has need. Behold, these are neither secret friends
nor faithful servants of God; but they are altogether false and
deceived. For no man can follow the counsels of God who will not
keep His commandments. And therefore all secret friends of God are
also at the same time faithful servants, wherever this is needful;
but all the faithful servants are not secret friends, for the
exercise which belongs thereto is unknown to them.
This is the difference between the faithful servants and the
secret friends of God.
CHAPTER VIII
OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SECRET FRIENDS AND THE HIDDEN SONS
OF GOD
BUT further we find a more subtle and inward difference, between
the secret friends and the hidden sons of God; and yet both these
alike by their inward exercise maintain themselves in the Presence
of God. But the friends possess their inwardness as an attribute,
for they choose the loving adherence to God as best and highest of
all that they ever can and will reach: and that is why they cannot
with themselves and their own activity penetrate to the imageless
Nudity. For they have, as images and intermediaries between God
and themselves, their own being and their own activity. And though
in their loving adherence they feel united with God, yet, in this
union, they always feel a difference and an otherness between God
and themselves. For the simple passing into the Bare and Wayless,
they do not know and love: and therefore their highest inward life
ever remains in Reason and in Ways. And though they have clear
understanding and discernment of all virtues that may be
conceived, the simple staring with open heart into the Divine
Brightness remains unknown of them. And though they feel
themselves uplifted to God in a mighty fire of love, yet they keep
something of their own selfhood, and are not consumed and burnt to
nothingness in the unity of love. And though they may desire to
live for ever more in the service of God and to please Him
eternally, they will not die in God to all the selfhood of their
spirit, and receive from Him a God-formed life.80 And even though
they esteem little and count as nothing all consolation and all
rest which may come from without, yet they greatly value the gifts
of God, and also their own inward works and the solace and
sweetness which they feel within and thus they rest upon the way,
and do not so wholly die to themselves, as to be able to attain
the highest beatitude in bare and wayless love. And even if they
could practise and apprehend with clear discernment the perfection
of loving adherence to God, and all the inward and upward going
ways by which one may pass into the Presence of God; yet the
wayless passing, and the glorious wandering, in the Superessential
Love, wherein neither end, nor beginning, nor way, nor manner, can
ever be found, would remain hidden from, and unknown of them.
And so there is a great difference between the secret friends and
the hidden sons of God. For the friends feel nought else but a
loving and living ascent to God in some wise, but, above this, the
sons experience a simple and death-like passing which is in no
wise.
The inward life of the friends of our Lord is an upward-striving
exercise of love, wherein they desire to remain for ever with
their own selfhood; but how one possesses God through bare love
above every exercise, in freedom from one's self, this they do not
feel. Hence they are always striving upwards towards God in true
faith, and await God and eternal blessedness with sincere hope,
and are fastened and anchored to God through perfect charity. And
therefore good things have befallen them, for they please God, and
God is complaisant unto them: yet for all this, they are not
assured of eternal life, for they have not entirely died to
themselves and to all selfhood. But all those who abide and endure
in their exercise and in that turning to God which they have
chosen above all else, these God has chosen in eternity, and their
names together with their works are written from eternity in the
living book of the Providence of God. But those who choose other
things, and turn their inward faces away from God toward sin, and
endure therein (even though their names were written and known of
God because of the temporal righteousness which they had practised
before), their names shall be blotted out and erased from the Book
of Life because they did not persevere unto death, and they shall
never more be able to taste of God, nor of any fruit which springs
from virtue. And therefore we must needs observe ourselves with
diligence, and adorn our turning towards God, from within with
inward love, and from without with good works: thus we can await
in hope and joy the judgment of God and the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. But could we renounce ourselves, and all selfhood in
our works, we should, with our bare and imageless spirit,
transcend all things: and, without intermediary, should be led of
the Spirit of God into the Nudity. And then we should feel the
certainty that we are indeed the sons of God: for AS MANY AS ARE
LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THEY ARE THE SONS OF GOD, says the
Apostle St Paul.
Nevertheless, you should know that all good and faithful men are
the sons of God; for they are all born of the Spirit of God, and
the Spirit of God lives in them. And He moves and stirs them-each
according to his own capacity-to virtues and good works, wherein
they are well pleasing to God. But because of the inequality of
their adherence and their exercises, I call some the faithful
servants of God and others I call His secret friends, and others
again His hidden sons: nevertheless, they are all servants,
friends, and sons, for they all serve and love and mean one God,
and they live and work only by the free Spirit of God. And God
permits and allows that His friends do and leave undone all those
things which are not contrary to His commandments; and for those
who are bound by the counsels of God, then this bond also is a
commandment. And so no one is disobedient or contrary to God save
he who does not keep His commandments; but all those things which
God commands and forbids in Scripture or by Holy Church, or in our
conscience, all these things we must do and leave undone, or else
be disobedient to God, and lose His grace. But if we fall into
venial sins, this is suffered both by God and by our reason, for
we cannot wholly guard against them. And therefore such failings
do not make us disobedient, for they do not drive out the grace of
God nor our inward peace: nevertheless, we should always lament
such lapses, how small soever they may be, and guard against them
with all our might.
And by these words I have explained to you what I said at the
beginning: namely, that every man must needs be obedient in all
things to God and to Holy Church and to his own conscience; for I
do not wish that any should be unjustly offended by my words. And
herewith I leave it even as I have said it.
CHAPTER IX
HOW WE MAY BECOME HIDDEN SONS OF GOD, AND ATTAIN TO THE GOD-SEEING
LIFE
BUT I still longed to know how we may become hidden sons of God,
and may attain to the God-seeing life. And as to this I have
apprehended the following. As it has been said before, we must
always live and be watchful in all virtues, and beyond all virtues
must forsake this life and die in God; for we must die to sin and
be born of God into a life of virtue, and we must renounce
ourselves and die in God into an eternal life. And as to this
ensues the following instruction:
If we are born of the Spirit of God, we are the sons of grace; and
so our whole life is adorned with virtues. Thereby we overcome all
that is contrary to God; for St John says, WHATSOEVER IS BORN OF
GOD OVERCOMETH THE WORLD. In this birth all good men are sons of
God. And the Spirit of God kindles and stirs each one of them in
particular to those virtues and to those good works for which he
is in readiness and of which he is capable. And so they please God
all in common, and each in particular, according to the measure of
his love and the nobleness of his exercise; nevertheless, they do
not feel established nor possessed of God, nor assured of eternal
life, for they may still turn away and fall into sin. And that is
why I call them rather servants and friends, than sons. But when
we transcend ourselves, and become in our ascent towards God, so
simple that the naked love in the height can lay hold of us, where
love enfolds love, above every exercise of virtue-that is, in our
Origin, of Which we are spiritually born-then we cease, and we and
all our selfhood die in God. And in this death we become hidden
sons of God, and find a new life within us: and that is eternal
life And of these sons, St Paul says: YOU ARE DEAD, AND YOUR LIFE
IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD.81
Now understand, the explanation of this is as follows. In our
approach to God, we must carry with us ourselves and all our
works, as a perpetual sacrifice to God; and in the Presence of
God, we must forsake ourselves and all our works, and, dying in
love, go forth from all creatureliness into the superessential
richness of God: there we shall possess God in an eternal death to
ourselves. And that is why the Spirit of God says in the book of
the Divine Secrets: BLESSED ARE THE DEAD WHICH DIE IN THE LORD.
Justly He calls them the blessed dead, for they remain eternally
dead and lost to themselves in the fruitive Unity of God. And they
die in love ever anew, through the indrawing transformation of
that same Unity. Further, the Spirit of God says: THEY MAY REST
FROM THEIR LABOURS, AND THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM. In the
ordinary state of grace, when we are born of God into a ghostly
and virtuous life, we carry our works before us, as an offering to
God; but in the wayless state, where we die back into God in an
eternal and blessed life, there our good works follow us, for they
are one life with us. When we go towards God by means of the
virtues, God dwells in us; but when we go out from ourselves and
from all else, then we dwell in God. So soon as we have faith,
hope and charity, we have received God, and He dwells in us with
His grace, and He sends us out as His faithful servants, to keep
His commandments. And He calls us in again as His secret friends,
so soon as we are willing to follow His counsels; and He names us
openly as His sons so soon as we live in opposition to the world.
But if above all things we would taste God, and feel eternal life
in ourselves, we must go forth into God with our feeling, above
reason; and there we must abide, onefold, empty of ourselves, and
free from images, lifted up by love into the simple bareness of
our intelligence. For when we go out in love beyond and above all
things, and die to all observation in ignorance and in darkness,
then we are wrought and transformed through the Eternal Word, Who
is the Image of the Father. In this idleness of our spirit, we
receive the Incomprehensible Light, which enwraps us and
penetrates us, as the air is penetrated by the light of the sun.
And this Light is nothing else than a fathomless staring and
seeing. What we are, that we behold; and what we behold, that we
are: for our thought, our life, and our being are uplifted in
simplicity, and made one with the Truth which is God. And
therefore in this simple staring we are one life and one spirit
with God: and this I call a contemplative life.82 As soon as we
cleave to God through love, we practise the better part; but when
we gaze thus into our superessence, we possess God utterly. With
this contemplation, there is bound up an exercise which is
wayless, that is to say, a noughting of life; for, where we go
forth out of ourselves into darkness and the abysmal Waylessness,
there shines perpetually the simple ray of the Splendour of God,
in which we are grounded, and which draws us out of ourselves into
the superessence, and into the immersion of love. And with this
sinking into love there is always bound up a practice of love
which is wayless; for love cannot be lazy, but would search
through and through and taste through and through the fathomless
richness which lives in the ground of her being, and this is a
hunger which cannot be appeased. But a perpetual striving after
the unattainable-this is swimming against the stream. One can
neither leave it nor grasp it, neither do without it nor attain
it, neither be silent on it nor speak of it, for it is above
reason and understanding, and it transcends all creatures; and
therefore we can never reach nor overtake it. But we should abide
within ourselves: there we feel that the Spirit of God is driving
us and enkindling us in this restlessness of love. And we should
abide above ourselves. And then we feel that the Spirit of God is
drawing us out of ourselves and burning us to nothingness in His
Selfhood; that is, in the Superessential Love with which we are
one, and which we possess more deeply and more widely than all
else.
This possession is a simple and abysmal tasting of all good and of
eternal life; and in this tasting we are swallowed up above reason
and without reason, in the deep Quiet of the Godhead, which is
never moved. That this is true we can only know by our own
feeling, and in no other way. For how this is, or where, or what,
neither reason nor practice can come to know: and therefore our
ensuing exercise always remains wayless, that is, without manner.
For that abysmal Good which we taste and possess, we can neither
grasp nor understand; neither can we enter into it by ourselves or
by means of our exercises. And so we are poor in ourselves, but
rich in God; hungry and thirsty in ourselves, drunken and
fulfilled in God; busy in ourselves, idle in God. And thus we
shall remain throughout eternity. But without the exercise of
love, we can never possess God; and whosoever thinks or feels
otherwise is deceived. And thus we live wholly in God, where we
possess our blessedness; and we live wholly in ourselves, where we
exercise ourselves in love towards God. And though we live wholly
in God and wholly in ourselves, yet it is but one life; but it is
twofold and opposite according to our feeling, for poor and rich,
hungry and satisfied, busy and idle, these things are wholly
contrary to one another. Yet with this our highest honour is bound
up, now and in eternity: for we cannot wholly become God and lose
our created being, this is impossible. Did we, however, remain
wholly in ourselves, sundered from God, we should be miserable and
unblest. And therefore we should feel ourselves living wholly in
God and wholly in ourselves; and between these two feelings we
should find nothing else but the grace of God and the exercise of
our love. For out of our highest feeling, the brightness of God
shines into us, which teaches us truth, and moves us towards every
virtue and in eternal love towards God. If we follow this
brightness without pause, back into that Source from whence it
comes forth, there we feel nothing but a quenching of our spirit
and an irretrievable down-sinking into simple and fathomless love.
Could we continue to dwell there with our simple gaze, we should
always so feel it; for our immersion and transformation in God
continues without ceasing in eternity, if we have gone forth from
ourselves, and God is ours in the immersion of love. For if we
possess God in the immersion of love-that is, if we are lost to
ourselves-God is our own and we are His own: and we sink ourselves
eternally and irretrievably in our own possession, which is God.
This immersion is essential, and is closely bound up with the
state of love: and so it continues whether we sleep or whether we
wake, whether we know it or whether we know it not. And so it does
not earn for us any new degree of reward; but it maintains us in
the possession of God and of all that good which we have received.
And this down-sinking is like a river, which without pause or
turning back ever pours into the sea; since this is its proper
resting-place. So likewise when we possess God alone, the down-
sinking of our being, with the love that belongs to it flows
forth, without return, into a fathomless experience which we
possess, and which is our proper resting-place. Were we always
simple, and could we always contemplate with the same
recollection, we should always have the same experience. Now this
immersion is above all virtues, and above every exercise of love;
for it is nothing else than an eternal going out from ourselves,
with a clear looking forward, into an otherness or difference
towards which, outside ourselves, we tend as towards our
blessedness. For we feel an eternal yearning toward something
other than what we are ourselves. And this is the most inward and
hidden distinction which we can feel between God and ourselves,
and beyond it there is no difference any more. But our reason
abides here with open eyes in the darkness, that is, in an abysmal
ignorance; and in this darkness, the abysmal splendour remains
covered and hidden from us, for its overwhelming unfathomableness
blinds our reason. But it enwraps us in simplicity, and transforms
us through its selfhood: and thus we are brought forth by God, out
of our selfhood, into the immersion of love, in which we possess
blessedness, and are one with God.
When we are thus made one with God, there abides within us a
quickening knowledge and an active love; for without our own
knowledge, we cannot possess God; and without the practice of
love, we cannot be united with God, nor remain one with Him. For
if we could be blessed without our knowledge, then a stone, which
has no knowledge, could also be blessed. Were I lord over all the
world and knew it not, how would it profit me? And therefore we
shall ever know and feel that we taste and possess; and this is
testified by Christ Himself, where He speaks thus of us to His
Father: THIS, HE SAYS, IS LIFE ETERNAL, THAT THEY SHOULD KNOW
THEE, THE ONLY TRUE GOD, AND JESUS CHRIST, WHOM THOU HAST SENT.
And by this you may understand that our eternal life consists in
knowledge with discernment.
CHAPTER X
HOW WE, THOUGH ONE WITH GOD, MUST ETERNALLY REMAIN OTHER THAN GOD
THOUGH I have said before that we are one with God and this is
taught us by Holy Writ, yet now I will say that we must eternally
remain other than God, and distinct from Him, and this too is
taught us by Holy Writ. And we must understand and feel both
within us, if all is to be right with us.
And therefore I say further: that from the Face of God, or from
our highest feeling, a brightness shines upon the face of our
inward being, which teaches us the truth of love and of all
virtues: and especially are we taught in this brightness to feel
God and ourselves in four ways. First, we feel God in His grace;
and when we apprehend this, we cannot remain idle. For like as the
sun, by its splendour and its heat, enlightens and gladdens and
makes fruitful the whole world, so God does to us through His
grace: He enlightens and gladdens and makes fruitful all men who
desire to obey Him. If, however, we would feel God within us, and
have the fire of His love ever more burning within us, we must, of
our own free will, help to kindle it in four ways: We must abide
within ourselves, united with the fire through inwardness. And we
must go forth from ourselves towards all good men with loyalty and
brotherly love. And we must go beneath ourselves in penance,
betaking ourselves to all good works, and resisting our inordinate
lusts. And we must ascend above ourselves with the flame of this
fire, through devotion, and thanksgiving, and praise, and fervent
prayer, and must ever cleave to God with an upright intention and
with sensible love. And thereby God continues to dwell in us with
His grace; for in these four ways is comprehended every exercise
which we can do with the reason, and in some wise, but without
this exercise no one can please God. And he who is most perfect in
this exercise, is nearest to God. And therefore it is needful for
all men; and above it none can rise save the contemplative men.
And thus, in this first way, we feel God within us through His
grace, if we wish to belong to Him.
Secondly: when we possess the God-seeing life, we feel ourselves
to be living in God; and from out of that life in which we feel
God in ourselves, there shines forth upon the face of our inward
being a brightness which enlightens our reason, and is an
intermediary between ourselves and God. And if we with our
enlightened reason abide within ourselves in this brightness, we
feel that our created life incessantly immerses itself in its
eternal life. But when we follow the brightness above reason with
a simple sight, and with a willing leaning out of ourselves,
toward our highest life, there we experience the transformation of
our whole selves in God; and thereby we feel ourselves to be
wholly enwrapped in God.
And, after this, there follows the third way of feeling; namely,
that we feel ourselves to be one with God; for, through the
transformation in God, we feel ourselves to be swallowed up in the
fathomless abyss of our eternal blessedness, wherein we can
nevermore find any distinction between ourselves and God. And this
is our highest feeling, which we cannot experience in any other
way than in the immersion in love. And therefore, so soon as we
are uplifted and drawn into our highest feeling, all our powers
stand idle in an essential fruition; but our powers do not pass
away into nothingness, for then we should lose our created being.
And as long as we stand idle, with an inclined spirit, and with
open eyes, but without reflection, so long we can contemplate and
have fruition. But, at the very moment in which we seek to prove
and to comprehend what it is that we feel, we fall back into
reason, and there we find a distinction and an otherness between
ourselves and God, and find God outside ourselves in
incomprehensibility.
And hence the fourth way of distinction; which is, that we feel
God and ourselves. Hereby we now find ourselves standing in the
Presence of God; and the truth which we receive from the Face of
God teaches us that God would be wholly ours and that He wills us
to be wholly His. And in that same moment in which we feel that
God would be wholly ours, there arises within us a gaping and
eager craving which is so hungry and so deep and so empty that,
even though God gave all that He could give, if he gave not
Himself, we should not be appeased. For, whilst we feel that He
has given Himself and yielded Himself to our untrammeled craving,
that we may taste of Him in every way that we can desire-and of
this we learn the truth in His sight-yet all that we taste,
against all that we lack, is but like to a single drop of water
against the whole sea: and this makes our spirit burst forth in
fury and in the heat and the restlessness of love. For the more we
taste, the greater our craving and our hunger; for the one is the
cause of the other. And thus it comes about that we struggle in
vain. For we feed upon His Immensity, which we cannot devour, and
we yearn after His Infinity, which we cannot attain: and so we
cannot enter into God nor can God enter into us, for in the
untamed fury of love we are not able to renounce ourselves. And
therefore the heat is so unmeasured that the exercise of love
between ourselves and God flashes to and fro like the lightning in
the sky; and yet we cannot be consumed in its ardour. And in this
storm of love our activity is above reason and wayless; for love
longs for that which is impossible to it, and reason teaches that
love is in the right, but reason can neither counsel love nor
dissuade her. For as long as we inwardly perceive that God would
be ours, the goodness of God touches our eager craving: and
therefrom springs the wildness of love, for the touch which pours
forth from God stirs up this wildness, and demands our activity,
that is, that we should love eternal love. But the inward-drawing
touch draws us out of ourselves, and calls us to be melted and
noughted in the Unity. And in this inward-drawing touch, we feel
that God wills us to be His; and therefore, we must renounce
ourselves and leave Him to work our blessedness. But where He
touches us by the outpouring touch, He leaves us to ourselves, and
makes us free, and sets us in His Presence, and teaches us to pray
in the spirit and to ask in freedom, and shows us His
incomprehensible riches in such manifold ways as we are able to
grasp. For everything that we can conceive, wherein is consolation
and joy, this we find in Him without measure. And therefore, when
our feeling shows us that He with all these riches would be ours
and dwell in us for ever more, then all the powers of the soul
open themselves, and especially the desirous power; for all the
rivers of the grace of God pour forth, and the more we taste of
them, the more we long to taste; and the more we long to taste,
the more deeply we press into contact with Him; and the more
deeply we press into contact with God, the more the flood of His
sweetness flows through us and over us; and the more we are thus
drenched and flooded, the better we feel and know that the
sweetness of God is incomprehensible and unfathomable. And
therefore the prophet says: O TASTE, AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS
SWEET. But he does not say how sweet He is, for God's sweetness is
without measure and therefore we can neither grasp it nor swallow
it. And this is also testified by the bride of God in the Song of
Songs, where she says: I SAT DOWN UNDER HIS SHADOW, WITH GREAT
DELIGHT, AND HIS FRUIT WAS SWEET TO MY TASTE.
CHAPTER XI
OF THE GREAT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE SAINTS AND
THE HIGHEST BRIGHTNESS TO WHICH WE CAN ATTAIN IN THIS LIFE
THERE is a great difference between the brightness of the saints
and the highest brightness or enlightenment to which we may attain
in this life. For it is only the shadow of God which enlightens
our inward wilderness, but on the high mountains of the Promised
Land there is no shadow: and yet it is one and the same Sun, and
one radiance, which enlightens both our wilderness and the high
mountains. But the state of the saints is transparent and shining,
and therefore they receive the brightness without intermediary:
but our state is still mortal and gross, and this sets up an
obstacle which causes the shadow, which so darkens our
understanding that we cannot know God and heavenly things so
clearly as the saints can and do. For as long as we dwell in the
shadow, we cannot see the sun in itself; but NOW WE SEE THROUGH A
GLASS DARKLY, says St Paul. Yet the shadow is so enlightened by
the sunshine that we can perceive the distinctions between all the
virtues, and all the truth which is profitable to our mortal
state. But if we would become one with the brightness of the Sun,
we must follow love, and go out of ourselves into the Wayless, and
then the Sun will draw us with our blinded eyes into Its own
brightness, in which we shall possess unity with God. So soon we
feel and understand ourselves thus, we are in that contemplative
life which is within reach of our mortal state.
The state of the Jews, according to the Old Testament, was cold
and in the night, and they walked in darkness. And they DWELT IN
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, says the prophet Isaias. The
shadow of death came forth from original sin; and therefore they
had all to endure the lack of God. But though our state in the
Christian faith is but still in the cool and morning hour; yet for
us the day has dawned. And therefore we shall walk in the light,
and shall sit down in the shadow, of God; and His grace shall be
an intermediary between ourselves and God. And, through it, we
shall overcome all things, and shall die to all things, and shall
pass without hindrance into the unity of God. But the state of the
saints is warm and bright; for they live and walk in the noon-
tide, and see with open and enlightened eyes the brightness of the
Sun, for the glory of God flows through them and overflows in
them. And each one according to the degree of his enlightenment,
tastes and knows the fruits of all the virtues which have there
been gathered together by all spirits. But that they taste and
know the Trinity in the Unity, and the Unity in the Trinity, and
know themselves united therewith, this is the highest and all-
surpassing food which makes them drunken, and causes them to rest
in Its Selfhood. And This it was that the bride in the Book of
Love desired, when she said unto Christ: TELL ME, O THOU WHOM MY
SOUL LOVETH, WHERE THOU FEEDEST, WHERE THOU MAKEST THY FLOCK TO
REST AT NOON, that is, in the light of glory, as St Bernard says;
for all the food which is given to us here, in the morning hour
and in the shadow, is but a foretaste of the food that is to come
in the noon-tide of the glory of God.
Yet the bride of our Lord gloried in having sat under the shadow
of God, and that His fruit was sweet to her taste. Whenever we
feel that God touches us from within, we taste of His fruit and
His food: for His touch is His food. And His touch is both
indrawing and outpouring, as I have said before. In His indrawing,
we must be wholly His: thereby we learn to die and to behold. But
in His outpouring He wills to be wholly ours: and then He teaches
us to live in the riches of the virtues. In His indrawing-touch
all our powers forsake us, and then we sit under His shadow, and
His fruit is sweet to our taste, for the Fruit of God is the Son
of God, Whom the Father brings forth in our spirit. This Fruit is
so infinitely sweet to our taste that we can neither swallow It
nor assimilate It, but It rather absorbs us into Itself and
assimilates us with Itself.83 And whenever this Fruit draws us
inward and touches us, we abandon, forsake, and overcome all other
things. And in this overcoming of all things, we taste of the
hidden manna, which shall give us eternal life; for we receive the
sparkling stone, of which I have spoken heretofore, in which our
new names were written before the beginning of the world.
This is the NEW NAME WHICH NO MAN KNOWETH BUT HE THAT RECEIVETH
IT. And whosoever feels himself to be for ever united with God, he
possesses his name according to the measure of his virtues, and of
his introversion, and of his union. And, that every one may obtain
his name and possess it in eternity, the Lamb of God, that is, the
manhood of our Lord, has delivered Itself up to death; and has
opened for us the Book of Life, wherein are written all the names
of the elect. And these names cannot be blotted out, for they are
one with the Living Book, which is the Son of God. And that same
death has broken for us the seals of the Book, so that all virtues
may be fulfilled according to the eternal Providence of God. And
so, in the measure in which each man can overcome himself, and can
die to all things, he feels the touch of the Father drawing him
inward; and then he tastes the sweetness of the Inborn Fruit,
Which is the Son; and in this tasting the Holy Ghost teaches him
that he is the heir of God. But in these three points no one is
like to another in every respect. And therefore each one has been
named separately, and his name is continually made new through new
graces and new works of virtue. And therefore every knee shall bow
before the Name of Jesus, for He has fought for our sake, and has
conquered. And He has enlightened our darkness, and has fulfilled
all the virtues in the highest degree. And so His name is lifted
up above all other names, for He is the King and the Prince over
all the elect. And in His name we are called and chosen, and
adorned with grace and with virtues, and look for the glory of
God.
CHAPTER XII
OF THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST ON MOUNT THABOR
AND so, that the Name of Christ may be exalted and glorified in
us, we should follow Him up the mountain of our bare
intelligence,84 even as Peter, James and John followed Him on to
mount Thabor. Thabor means in our tongue an increase of light. So
soon as we are like Peter in knowledge of truth, and like James in
the overcoming of the world, and like John in fulness of grace
possessing the virtues in righteousness; then Jesus brings us up
on to the mountain of our bare intelligence to a hidden solitude,
and reveals Himself to us in glory and in Divine brightness. And,
in His name, His Father in heaven opens to us the living book of
His Eternal Wisdom. And the Wisdom of God enfolds our bare vision
and the simplicity of our spirit in a wayless, simple fruition of
all good without distinction; and here there are indeed seeing and
knowing, tasting and feeling, essence and life, having and being:
and all this is one in our transcendence in God. And before this
transcendence we are all set, each in his own particular way; and
our heavenly Father, of His wisdom and goodness, endows each one
in particular according to the nobility of his life and his
practice. And therefore, if we ever remained with Jesus on mount
Thabor, that is, upon the mountain of our bare thought, we should
continually experience a growth of new light and new truth; for we
should ever hear the voice of the Father, Who touches us, pouring
forth with grace, and drawing us inward into the unity. The voice
of the Father is heard by all who follow our Lord Jesus Christ,
for He says of them all: "These are My chosen sons, in whom I am
well pleased." And, through this good pleasure, each one receives
grace, according to the measure and the way in which God is well-
pleasing unto him. And therefrom, between our pleasure in God, and
God's pleasure in us, there arises the practice of true love. And
so each one tastes of his name and his office and the fruit of his
exercise. And here all good men abide, hidden from those who live
in the world; for these are dead before God and have no name, and
therefore they can neither feel nor taste that which belongs to
those who live indeed.
The outpouring touch of God quickens us with life in the spirit,
and fulfills us with grace, and enlightens our reason, and teaches
us to know truth and to discern the virtues, and keeps us stable
in the Presence of God, with such a great strength that we are
able to endure all the tasting, all the feeling, and all the
outpouring gifts of God without our spirits failing us. But the
indrawing-touch of God demands of us, that we should be one with
God, and go forth from ourselves, and die into blessedness, that
is, into the Eternal Love Which embraces the Father and the Son in
one fruition. And therefore when we have climbed with Jesus on to
the mountain of our bare thought; and if, then, we follow Him with
a single and simple gaze, with inward pleasure, and with fruitive
inclination, we feel the fierce heat of the Holy Ghost, burning
and melting us into the Unity of God. For when we are one with the
Son, and lovingly return towards our Beginning, then we hear the
voice of the Father, touching us and drawing us inward; for He
says to all His chosen in His Eternal Word: THIS IS MY BELOVED
SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED. For you should know that the
Father with the Son, and the Son with the Father, have conceived
an eternal satisfaction in regard to this: that the Son should
take upon Himself our manhood, and die, and bring back all the
chosen to their Beginning.
And so soon as we are uplifted through the Son into our Origin, we
hear the voice of the Father, which draws us inward, and
enlightens us with eternal truth. And truth shows to us the wide-
opened good-pleasure of God, in which all good-pleasure begins and
ends.85 There all our powers fail us, and we fall from ourselves
into our wide-opened contemplation, and become all One and one
All, in the loving embrace of the Threefold Unity. Whenever we
feel this union, we are one being and one life and one blessedness
with God. And there all things are fulfilled and all things are
made new; for when we are baptized into the wide embrace of the
Love of God, the joy of each one of us becomes so great and so
special that he can neither think of nor care for the joy of
anyone else; for then each one is himself a Fruition of Love, and
he cannot and dare not seek for anything beyond his own.
CHAPTER XIII
HOW WE OUGHT TO HAVE FRUITION OF GOD
IF a man would have fruition of God, three things are needful
thereto; these are, true peace, inward silence, and loving
adherence.
Whosoever would find true peace between himself and God must love
God in such a way that he can, with a free heart, renounce for the
glory of God everything which he does or loves inordinately, or
which he possesses, or can possess, contrary to the glory of God.
This is the first thing which is needful to all men.
The second thing is an inward silence; that is, that a man should
be empty and free from images of all things which he ever saw or
of which he ever heard.
The third thing is a loving adherence to God, and this adherence
is itself fruition; for whosoever cleaves to God out of pure love,
and not for his own profit, he enjoys God in truth, and feels that
he loves God and that God loves him.
There are still three other points, which are higher still, and
which establish a man and make him able to enjoy and to feel God
continually, if it be His good will to have it so.
The first of these points is to rest in Him Whom one enjoys; that
is, where love is overcome by the lover, and love is taken
possession of by the lover, in bare Essential Love. There love has
fallen in love with the lover, and each is all to the other, in
possession and in rest.
From this there follows the second: and this is called a falling
asleep in God; that is, when the spirit immerses itself, and knows
not how, nor where, nor in what it is.
And therefrom follows the last point that can be put into words,
that is, when the spirit beholds a Darkness into which it cannot
enter with the reason. And there it feels itself dead and lost to
itself, and one with God without difference and without
distinction. And when it feels itself one with God, then God
Himself is its peace and its enjoyment and its rest. And this is
an unfathomable abyss wherein man must die to himself in
blessedness, and must live again in virtues, whenever love and its
stirring demand it. Lo! if you feel these six points within you,
then you feel all that I have, or could have, said before. And
introversion is as easy to you, and contemplation and fruition are
as ready to you, as your life according to nature. And from these
riches there comes that common life of which I promised to speak
to you at the beginning.
CHAPTER XIV
OF THAT COMMON LIFE WHICH COMES FROM THE CONTEMPLATION AND
FRUITION OF GOD
THE man who is sent down by God from these heights into the world
is full of truth and rich in all virtues. And he seeks not his own
but the glory of Him Who has sent him. And hence he is just and
truthful in all things, and he possesses a rich and a generous
ground, which is set in the richness of God: and therefore he must
always spend himself on those who have need of him; for the living
fount of the Holy Ghost, which is his wealth, can never be spent.
And he is a living and willing instrument of God, with which God
works whatsoever He wills and howsoever He wills; and these works
he reckons not as his own, but gives all the glory to God. And so
he remains ready and willing to do in the virtues all that God
commands, and strong and courageous in suffering and enduring all
that God allows to befall him. And by this he possesses a
universal life, for he is ready alike for contemplation and for
action, and is perfect in both of them. And none can have this
universal life save the God-seeing man; and none can contemplate
and enjoy God save he who has within himself the six points,
ordered as I have described heretofore. And therefore, all those
are deceived who fancy themselves to be contemplative, and yet
inordinately love, practice, or possess, some creaturely thing; or
who fancy that they enjoy God before they are empty of images, or
that they rest before they enjoy. All such are deceived; for we
must make ourselves fit for God with an open heart, with a
peaceful conscience, with naked contemplation, without hypocrisy,
in sincerity and truth. And then we shall mount up from virtue
unto virtue, and shall see God, and shall enjoy Him, and in Him
shall become one with Him, in the way which I have shown to you.
That this be done in all of us, so help us God. AMEN.
THE BOOK OF SUPREME TRUTH
PROLOGUE
THE prophet Samuel mourned for King Saul, though he knew well that
God had rejected him and his issue from being kings in Israel:
this was because of his pride, and because he did not obey God and
the prophet who spoke in His name. We may also read in the Gospel,
that the disciples of our Lord pleaded with Him for the Gentile
woman of Canaan, to send her away, that is, to do unto her that
which she desired; for she cried after Him. So likewise I might
say that we must mourn for all such deceived men as think
themselves to be kings in Israel; for they believe themselves to
be lifted up above other good men, into a lofty and God-seeing
life. And yet they are proud and wittingly and willingly
disobedient to God and the law and the Holy Church and every
virtue. And like as Saul rent the mantle of the prophet Samuel,
they endeavour to rend asunder the unity of the Christian faith,
and all true doctrine and virtuous life. Whosoever persist herein,
they are separated and shut out from the kingdom of eternal
contemplation, even as Saul was shut out from the kingdom of
Israel. But that humble little woman of Canaan, though she was
Gentile and a stranger, had faith and hope in God, and
acknowledged and confessed her littleness before Christ and His
apostles: and so she received grace and health and all that she
desired. For God exalts the humble, and fills them with grace and
all virtues; and He resists the proud, and these remain empty of
all good.
CHAPTER I
WHEREFORE THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN
CERTAIN of my friends have desired and besought me, that I should
show and make plain in a few words and according to my best
cunning, shortly and clearly, how I understand and feel the truth
of all the highest teachings that I have written before; so that
none should take offense at my words, but everyone should profit
by them. And this I willingly consent to do. I will, with God's
help, teach the humble who love virtue and truth; and, with the
same words, I shall inwardly vex and darken the false and the
proud: for to these my words will be displeasing and contrary, and
this the proud cannot endure, but it provokes them to anger.
CHAPTER II
A SHORT REPETITION OF ALL THE HIGHEST TEACHINGS WRITTEN BY THE
AUTHOR
BEHOLD, I have said this: that the contemplative lover of God is
united with God through means, and also without means, and
thirdly, without difference or distinction; and this I find in
nature, and in grace, and also in glory. Further I have said that
never creature may be or become so holy that it loses its created
being and becomes God; even the soul of our Lord Jesus Christ
shall ever remain creature, and other than God. Yet, none the
less, we must all be lifted up above ourselves into God, and
become one spirit with God in love; and then we shall be blessed.
And therefore mark my words and my meaning, and understand me
aright as to what is the condition and the way to our eternal
blessedness.
CHAPTER III
OF THE UNION THROUGH MEANS
AND next, I will say that all good men are united with God through
means. These means are the grace of God, and the sacraments of
Holy Church, and the Divine virtues, faith, hope and charity, and
a virtuous life according to the commandments of God; and to these
there belongs a death to sin and to the world and to every
inordinate lust of nature. And through these, we remain united
with Holy Church, that is, with all good men; and with these, we
obey God, and are one will with Him, even as an orderly convent is
united with its Superior: and without this union none can please
God nor be saved. Whosoever keeps this union through these means
unto the end of his life, he shall be one of those of whom Christ
says unto His Father in heaven in the Gospel of St John: FATHER, I
WILL THAT THEY ALSO WHOM THOU HAST GIVEN ME BE WITH ME WHERE I AM:
THAT THEY MAY BEHOLD MY GLORY WHICH THOU HAST GIVEN ME. And in
another place He says that HIS SERVANTS SHALL SIT DOWN TO MEAT-
that is, in the richness and the fulness of those virtues which
they have exercised-and He will go one to another and WILL
MINISTER UNTO THEM of His glory which He has achieved. And He will
generously impart and reveal to His beloved, to each one specially
and separately-more or less according as he is worthy of it and
can lay hold of it-the loftiness of His glory and honour which He
alone has earned by the merits of His life and His death. Thus all
saints shall be forever with Christ, each in his own order and in
the degree of glory which he has earned through God's help by his
works. And Christ, according to His manhood shall be set above all
saints, and above all angels, as a prince of all glory and all
honour; the which pertain to His manhood alone above all
creatures. Behold, thus you may understand how we are united with
God through means, both here in grace and hereafter in glory. But
there is a great distinction and a great difference in these
means, and this is true both as regards life and reward, as I have
told you. And this was well understood by St Paul, when he said
that he had A DESIRE TO DEPART AND TO BE WITH CHRIST. But he did
not say that he had a desire to be Christ Himself or God; as is
done by some unbelieving and perverse men, who say that they have
no God, but that they are so wholly dead to themselves, and united
with God, that they have themselves become God.
CHAPTER IV
OF THE MEN WHO PRACTISE A FALSE VACANCY
BEHOLD, such folk, by means of a onefold simplification and a
natural tendency, are turned in upon the bareness of their own
being; and therefore they think eternal life is and shall be
nought else but an enduring state of beatitude, without
distinction in order in holiness or in reward. Yea, all such are
so deep in error that they say that the Persons shall pass away
into the Godhead, and that nought else shall remain in eternity
than the essential substance of the Godhead; and that all blessed
spirits shall be so simply absorbed with God in the Essential
Blessedness that nothing shall remain beside it, neither willing
nor working, nor the discerning knowledge of any creature
whatsoever. Behold, these men have gone astray into the vacant and
blind simplicity of their own being, and they seek for blessedness
in bare nature; for they are so simply and so idly united with the
bare essence of their souls, and with that wherein God always is,
that they have neither zeal, nor cleaving to God, neither from
without, nor from within. For in the highest part into which they
have entered, they feel nothing but the simplicity of their own
proper being, depending upon the Being of God. And the onefold
simplicity which they there possess, they take to be God, because
they find a natural rest therein. And so they think themselves to
be God in their simple ground; for they lack true faith, hope and
charity. And, because of the naked emptiness which they feel and
possess, they say that they are without knowledge and without
love, and are exempt from the virtues. And so they endeavour to
live without heeding their conscience, what wickedness soever they
commit. And they are careless of the sacraments, and of all
virtues, and of all the practices of Holy Church, and believe that
they have no need of them: for they fancy in their folly that they
have passed beyond all these things, but imperfect men, they say,
have need of them. And some men have become so accustomed to and
deep-rooted in this simplification that they would know and heed
as little of all the works which God has wrought, and all that
Scripture teaches, as though not one line had ever been written;
for they believe themselves to have found and to possess that for
the sake of which all Scriptures have been made, namely, the blind
essential rest which they feel. But in fact they have lost God and
all the ways which may lead to Him; for they have no more
inwardness, nor more devotion, nor holy practices, than a dead
beast has. Yet they sometimes approach the sacraments, and at
times they quote the Scriptures, that thus they may the better
dissimulate and cover themselves; and they like to take some dark
saying of Scripture, which they can falsely turn to their own
sense, so that they may please other simple men, and may draw them
into the false vacancy which they themselves feel. Behold, these
folk think themselves wise and subtle beyond any one else, and yet
they are the most coarse and crude of all men living; for that
which even Pagans and Jews and bad Christians, learned and
unlearned, find and understand through their natural reason, these
wretched men neither can nor will attain. You may cross yourselves
against the devil, but beware earnestly of these perverted men,
and take care lest you should not recognise them in their words
and works. For they would teach, and be taught of none; they would
reprove, and be reproved of none; they would command, and obey
none. They would oppress others, but no one may oppress them; they
wish to say whatever they like, but will endure no contradiction;
they recognise only their own self-will and are subject to no one;
and this they take to be ghostly freedom. They practise the
liberty of the flesh, for they give to the body whatsoever it
lusts after; and this they take to be natural freedom. They have
unified themselves in a blind and dark vacancy of their own being;
and there, they think, they are one with God, and they take this
for the Eternal Blessedness. And they have entered into this, and
have taken possession of it, through self-will and their natural
tendency; and therefore they imagine themselves to be set above
the law and above the commandments of God and Holy Church. For,
above that essential rest which they possess, they feel neither
God nor any otherness; for the Divine light has not shone into
their dimness. And this is because they have neither sought after
it through active love nor through supernatural freedom. And thus
they have lost truth and every virtue, and have fallen into a
perverted unlikeness; for they make it a part of the highest
holiness that a man should yield to all that concerns his nature,
and be without restraint, so that he may abide, with an inclined
spirit, in vacancy; and that as regards the lusts of the flesh
whenever they move him, he should turn outwards, that the flesh
being satisfied, he may quickly escape from the image and may
return once more unencumbered into the bare vacancy of his spirit.
Lo! this is a fruit of hell, which grows from their unbelief; and
therewith shall unbelief be nourished even in death. For, when the
time has come and their nature is weighed down with bitter woe and
the sorrow of death, then they are filled with images and unrest
and inward fear; and they lose their vacant introversion in
quietude, and fall into such despair that none can console them,
and they die like mad dogs. And their vacancy shall bring them no
reward, and those who worked wicked works, and died in them shall
go to the eternal flames, as our faith teaches.
I have shown to you the evil and the good side by side, so that
you may so much the better understand the good and be able to
guard against the evil. You shall abhor and fly from such folk,
for, how holy soever they seem in their conduct, in works, in
dress and demeanour, they are the mortal enemies of your soul. For
they are the devil's ministers, and the most noxious of all who
now live to simple and unlearned men of good-will. But I will
leave this subject, and go back again to the matter with which I
first began.
CHAPTER V
OF THE UNION WITHOUT MEANS
YOU may remember that I showed heretofore how all saints and all
good men are united with God through means. Now I will further
show to you how they are all united with God without means. But in
this life there are but few who are meet for this, and
sufficiently enlightened to feel and understand it. And therefore,
whosoever wishes to find and to feel within himself those three
unions of which I am going to speak, he must live entirely and
wholly in God, so that he may satisfy and be amenable to the grace
and the stirring of God, in all virtues and inward exercises. And
he must be lifted up through love, and die in God to himself and
all his works; so that he yields himself up with all his powers,
and submits to the transformation through the incomprehensible
Truth which is God Himself. And to that end it is needful that
living he should go forth in the virtues, and dying should enter
into God. And in these two things his perfect life consists; and
these two are joined together within him like matter and form,
like body and soul.86 And as he exercises himself in them so he
becomes clear in understanding, and rich and overflowing in
feeling; for he has joined himself to God with uplifted powers,
with true intention, with his heart's desire, with ceaseless
craving, with the living ardour of his spirit and of his nature.
And since he thus exercises himself and keeps himself in the
Presence of God, love overpowers him: in whatsoever manner he
moves, he is ever growing in love and in all virtues. But love
always moves each man according to the profit and the ability of
each.
CHAPTER VI
OF HEAVENLY WEAL AND HELLISH WOE
THE most profitable stirrings which such a man can feel, and for
which he is best fitted, are heavenly weal and hellish woe, and
the ability to respond to these two with fit and proper works. For
heavenly weal lifts a man up above all things into an untrammelled
power of praising and loving God in every way that his heart and
his soul desire. After this comes hellish woe, and casts him down
into a misery, and into a lack of all the comfort and consolation
that he experienced before. In this woe, weal sometimes shows
itself, and brings with it a hope which none can gainsay. And then
the man falls back again into a despair in which he can find no
consolation. When a man feels God within himself with rich and
full grace, this I call heavenly health; for then he is wise and
clear of understanding, rich and outflowing with heavenly
teachings, ardent and generous in charity, drunken and overflowing
with joy, strong in feeling, bold and ever ready in all the things
which he knows to be well pleasing to God; and such-like things
without number, which may only be known by those who feel them.
But when the scale of love goes down, and God hides Himself with
all His graces, then the man falls back into dereliction and
torment and dark misery, as though he should never more recover:
and then he feels himself to be nought else but a poor sinner, who
knows little or nothing of God. He scorns every consolation that
creatures may give him; and the taste and consolation of God he
does not receive. And then his reason says within him: WHERE IS
NOW THY GOD? What hath become of all that thou didst receive from
God? Then his TEARS ARE HIS MEAT DAY AND NIGHT, as the Prophet
says. Now if that man is to recover from this misery, he must
observe and feel that he does not belong to himself, but to God;
and therefore he must freely abandon his own will to the will of
God, and must leave God to work in him in time and in eternity. So
soon as he can do this, with untroubled heart, and with a free
spirit, at that very moment he recovers his health, and brings
heaven into hell, and hell into heaven. For howsoever the scales
of love go up and down, all things to him are even or alike. For
whatsoever love gives or takes away, he who abandons himself and
loves God finds peace in all. For his spirit remains free and
unmoved, who lives in all pains without rebellion; and he is able
to feel the unmediated union with God. For he has achieved the
union through means by the richness of his virtues. And after
this, because he is one aim and one will with God, he feels God
within himself together with the fulness of His grace, as the
quickening health of his being and all his works.
CHAPTER VII
SHOWING WHEREFORE ALL GOOD MEN DO NOT ATTAIN TO THE UNMEDIATED
UNION WITH GOD
BUT now you may ask me why all good men do not attain to feel
this. Now listen and I will tell you the why and the wherefore.
They do not respond to the stirring of God with a forsaking of
themselves, and so they do not abide with quickening fervour
before the Presence of God; and also they are not careful of heart
in their inward self-examination. And therefore they always remain
more outward and manifold than inward and simple, and they work
their works more from good custom than from inward feeling. And
they care more for particular methods and the greatness and
multiplicity of good works than for the intention and love towards
God. And so they remain outward and manifold of heart, and are not
aware of how God lives in them with the fulness of grace.
CHAPTER VIII
SHOWING HOW THE INWARD MAN SHOULD EXERCISE HIMSELF, THAT HE MAY BE
UNITED WITH GOD WITHOUT MEANS
BUT now I will tell you how the inward man, who has health amidst
all miseries, should feel himself to be one with God without
means. When such a quickened man rises up, with his whole being
and all his powers, and joins himself to God with life-giving and
active love, then he feels that his love is, in its ground, where
it begins and ends, fruitive and without ground. If he then wishes
to penetrate further, with his active love into that fruitive
love: then, all the powers of his soul must give way, and they
must suffer and patiently endure that piercing Truth and Goodness
which is God's self. For, as the air is penetrated by the
brightness and heat of the sun, and iron is penetrated by fire; so
that it works through fire the works of fire, since it burns and
shines like the fire, and so likewise it can be said of the air-
for, if the air had understanding, it could say: "I enlighten and
brighten the whole world"-yet each of these keeps its own nature.
For the fire does not become iron and the iron does not become
fire, though their union is without means; for the iron is within
the fire and the fire within the iron; and so also the air is in
the sunshine and the sunshine in the air87. So likewise is God in
the being of the soul; and whenever the soul's highest powers are
turned inward with active love, they are united with God without
means, in a simple knowledge of all truth, and in an essential
feeling and tasting of all good. This simple knowing and feeling
of God is possessed in essential love, and is practised and
preserved through active love. And therefore it is accidental to
our powers through the dying introversion in love; but it is
essential to our being, and always abides within it. And therefore
we must perpetually turn inwards and be renewed in love, if we
would seek out love through love. And this is taught us by St
John, where he says: HE THAT DWELLETH IN LOVE DWELLETH IN GOD AND
GOD IN HIM. And though this union of the loving spirit with God is
without means, yet there is here a great distinction, for the
creature never becomes God, nor does God ever become the creature;
as I explained to you heretofore in the example of the iron wnd
the fire. And if material things, which have been made by God, may
thus be united without means; so much the more may He, whenever
such is His pleasure, unite himself with his beloved, if they,
through His grace, submit to it and make themselves ready for it.
And so in such an inward man, whom God has adorned with virtues,
and, above that, has lifted up into a contemplative life, there is
no intermediary between himself and God in his highest
introversion but his enlightened reason and his active love. And
through these two things, he has an adherence to God; and this is
"becoming one with God," says St Bernard. But above reason, and
above active love, he is lifted up into a naked contemplation, and
dwells without activity in essential love. And there he is one
love and one spirit with God, as I said heretofore. In this
essential love through the unity which he has essentially with
God, he infinitely transcends his understanding; and this is a
life common to all God-seeing men. For in this transcendence such
a man is able to see in one sight-if it be God's pleasure to show
it to him-all the creatures in heaven and on earth, with the
distinction of their lives and their rewards. But before the
Infinity of God, he must yield, and must follow after It
essentially and without end; for This no creature, not even the
soul of our Lord Jesus Christ, which yet received the highest
union above all other creatures, can either comprehend or
overtake.
CHAPTER IX
OF THE INWARD WORKING OF GOD'S GRACE
BEHOLD, this Eternal Love, which lives within the spirit, and with
which it is united without means, gives its light and its grace to
all the powers of the soul; and becomes thereby the cause of all
the virtues. For the grace of God touches the highest powers of
the soul, and from this touch there spring charity and the
knowledge of truth, the love of all righteousness, the practice of
the counsels of God according to discretion, freedom from images,
the overcoming of all things without effort, and the death into
the Unity through love. As long as a man can maintain himself in
this exercise, he is able to contemplate, and to feel the union
without means; and he feels the touch of God within himself, which
is a renewal of grace and all virtues. You must further know that
the grace of God also pours forth even through the lowest powers,
and touches a man's heart; and from this there comes forth a
heart-felt love towards God and a sensible joy in Him; and the
love and delight pierce through heart and senses, through flesh
and blood, and the whole bodily nature, and cause a pressure and
restlessness in all his members, so that he is often at his wit's
end. For he feels like a man full of wine, who is no longer master
of himself. And from this there come many a strange state, wherein
men of tender heart cannot well govern themselves. Sometimes
through impatient longing, they lift up their heads and gaze with
wide-opened eyes towards heaven; now joying, now weeping; now
singing, now crying; now in weal, now in woe, and often both
together; running and jumping, laughing, clapping their hands,
kneeling, bowing down: and many other like gestures are seen in
them. So long as a man remains thus, and lifts himself up with an
open heart towards those riches of God which live in his spirit,
he feels ever anew the stirring of God, and the impatience of
love; and then all these things are renewed in him. And so this
man through this bodily feeling may sometimes pass into a ghostly
feeling which is according to reason; and through this ghostly
feeling, he may pass into a godly feeling, which is above reason;
and, through this godly feeling, he may drown himself in an
unchangeable and beatific feeling. This feeling is our
superessential blessedness, which is a fruition of God and all His
beloved: and this blessedness is that Dark Quiet which ever abides
in idleness. To God it is essential, and to all creatures
superessential. And there we may behold how the Persons give place
and abide in the Essential Love, that is, in the Fruitive Unity
and yet they dwell for ever, according to Their personal nature,
in the working of the Trinity.
CHAPTER X
OF THE MUTUAL CONTENTMENT OF THE DIVINE PERSONS, AND THE MUTUAL
CONTENTMENT BETWEEN GOD AND GOOD MEN
AND so you may perceive that the Divine Nature eternally works
according to the Persons, and is eternally idle and wayless
according to the simplicity of Its Essence. All therefore that God
has chosen and laid hold of with eternal personal love, has
already been essentially and fruitively possessed of Him in unity
with essential love. For the Divine Persons are enfolded within
the Unity in a mutual embrace in an eternal contentment, in
abysmal active love. And this is perpetually renewed in the
lifegiving life of the Trinity; for here there takes place a
perpetual new birth in new knowledge new contentment and new
outbreathing; in a new embrace with new torrents of Eternal Love.
In this contentment all the chosen are enfolded: angels and men,
from the first even to the last. Upon this contentment depend
heaven and earth, and life and being and the activity and
preservation of all creatures, save only the tendency to turn from
God in sin: this comes from the wilful and blind wickedness of the
creatures. From the Divine contentment grace and glory and all
gifts pour forth in heaven and on earth, and into each creature
separately, according to its needs and its receptivity. For God's
grace is made ready for all men, and awaits the conversion of
every sinner, and whenever a sinner, urged by grace, renounces
himself and will call upon God with faith, he finds pardon. And
likewise, whosoever through grace with loving contentment turns
towards the Eternal Contentment of God, he is enwrapped and
embraced in the abysmal love which is God Himself. And thereby he
is perpetually renewed in love and in the virtues; for, between
our contentment in God and God's contentment in us there abides an
activity of love and of eternal life. But God has eternally loved
us and established us within His contentment, and if we rightly
observe this, our love and our contentment shall be wakened anew.
For, in the mutual relations of the Persons in the Godhead, this
contentment perpetually renews itself, in a new gushing forth of
love, in an ever new embrace within the Unity. And this takes
place beyond Time; that is, without before and after, in an
eternal NOW. For, in this embrace in the Unity, all things are
consummated; and in the gushing forth of love, all things are
wrought; and in the life-giving and fruitful Nature lie the power
and possibilities of all things. For in the life-giving and
fruitful Nature, the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the
Son, and the Holy Ghost in Both. For It is a life-giving and
fruitful Unity, which is the home and the beginning of all life
and of all becoming. And so all creatures are therein, beyond
themselves, one Being and one Life with God, as in their Eternal
Origin. But in the precession of the different Persons, the Son
proceeds from the Father, and the Holy Ghost from Both: and it is
there that God has made and ordained all creatures according to
their proper being, and has re-made man, through His grace and His
death, inasmuch as he cleaves to Him. And He has adorned His own
with love and with the virtues; and has turned back with them,
towards His Origin.
There the Father and the Son and all the beloved are enfolded and
embraced in the bonds of love; that is, in the unity of the Holy
Ghost. And this is that same unity which is fruitful in the
outgoing activity of the Persons, and forms in Their return an
eternal bond of love which shall never be untied: and all who know
themselves to be bound up in it shall be blessed throughout
eternity, and they are rich in virtue, and clear in contemplation,
and simple in fruitive rest. For in their introversion, the Love
of God is revealed to them, pouring forth with all good, and
drawing back again into the Unity, and above all being and beyond
all conditions abiding in eternal rest. And so they are all united
with God, through means, and without means, and also without
distinction.
CHAPTER XI
HOW GOOD MEN IN THEIR CONTEMPLATION HAVE THE LOVE OF GOD BEFORE
THEM, AND HOW THEY ARE LIFTED UP INTO GOD
THEY have the Love of God before them in their inward seeing, as a
common good pouring forth through heaven and earth; and they feel
the Holy Trinity inclined towards them, and within them, with
fulness of grace. And therefore they are adorned without and
within with all the virtues, with holy practices and with good
works. And thus they are united with God through Divine grace and
their own holy lives. And because they have abandoned themselves
to God in doing, in leaving undone, and in suffering, they have
steadfast peace and inward joy, consolation and savour, of which
the world cannot partake; neither any dissembler, nor the man who
seeks and means himself more than the glory of God. Moreover,
those same inward and enlightened men have before them in their
inward seeing whenever they will, the Love of God as something
drawing or urging them into the Unity; for they see and feel that
the Father with the Son through the Holy Ghost, embrace Each Other
and all the chosen, and draw themselves back with eternal love
into the unity of Their Nature. Thus the Unity is ever drawing to
itself and inviting to itself everything that has been born of It,
either by nature or by grace. And therefore, too, such enlightened
men are, with a free spirit, lifted up above reason into a bare
and imageless vision, wherein lives the eternal indrawing summons
of the Divine Unity; and, with an imageless and bare
understanding, they pass through all works, and all exercises, and
all things, until they reach the summit of their spirits. There,
their bare understanding is drenched through by the Eternal
Brightness, even as the air is drenched through by the sunshine.
And the bare, uplifted will is transformed and drenched through by
abysmal love, even as iron is by fire. And the bare, uplifted
memory feels itself enwrapped and established in an abysmal
Absence of Image. And thereby the created image is united above
reason in a threefold way with its Eternal Image, which is the
origin of its being and its life; and this origin is preserved and
possessed, essentially and eternally, through a simple seeing in
an imageless void: and so a man is lifted up above reason in a
threefold manner into the Unity, and in a onefold manner into the
Trinity. Yet the creature does not become God, for the union takes
place in God through grace and our homeward-turning love: and
therefore the creature in its inward contemplation feels a
distinction and an otherness between itself and God. And though
the union is without means, yet the manifold works which God works
in heaven and on earth are nevertheless hidden from the spirit.
For though God gives Himself as He is, with clear discernment, He
gives Himself in the essence of the soul, where the powers of the
soul are simplified above reason, and where, in simplicity, they
suffer the transformation of God.88 There all is full and
overflowing, for the spirit feels itself to be one truth and one
richness and one unity with God. Yet even here there is an
essential tending forward, and therein is an essential distinction
between the being of the soul and the Being of God; and this is
the highest and finest distinction which we are able to feel.
CHAPTER XII
OF THE HIGHEST UNION, WITHOUT DIFFERENCE OR DISTINCTION
AND after this there follows the union without distinction. For
you must apprehend the Love of God not only as an outpouring with
all good, and as drawing back again into the Unity; but it is
also, above all distinction, an essential fruition in the bare
Essence of the Godhead. And in consequence of this enlightened men
have found within themselves an essential contemplation which is
above reason and without reason, and a fruitive tendency which
pierces through every condition and all being, and through which
they immerse themselves in a wayless abyss of fathomless
beatitude, where the Trinity of the Divine Persons possess Their
Nature in the essential Unity. Behold, this beatitude is so
onefold and so wayless that in it every essential gazing,
tendency, and creaturely distinction cease and pass away. For by
this fruition, all uplifted spirits are melted and noughted in the
Essence of God, Which is the superessence of all essence. There
they fall from themselves into a solitude and an ignorance which
are fathomless; there all light is turned to darkness; there the
three Persons give place to the Essential Unity, and abide without
distinction in fruition of essential blessedness. This blessedness
is essential to God, and superessential to all creatures; for no
created essence can become one with God's Essence and pass away
from its own substance. For so the creature would become God,
which is impossible; for the Divine Essence can neither wax nor
wane, nor can anything be added to It or taken from It. Yet all
loving spirits are one fruition and one blessedness with God
without distinction; for that beatific state, which is the
fruition of God and of all His beloved, is so simple and onefold
that therein neither Father, nor Son, nor Holy Ghost, is distinct
according to the Persons, neither is any creature. But all
enlightened spirits are here lifted up above themselves into a
wayless fruition, which is an abundance beyond all the fulness
that any creature has ever received or shall ever receive. For
there all uplifted spirits are, in their superessence, one
fruition and one beatitude with God without distinction; and there
this beatitude is so onefold that no distinction can enter into
it. And this was prayed for by Christ when He besought His Father
in heaven that all His beloved might be made perfect in one, even
as He is one with the Father through the Holy Ghost: even so He
prayed and besought that He in us and we in Him and His heavenly
Father might be one in fruition through the Holy Ghost. And this I
think the most loving prayer which Christ ever made for our
blessedness.
CHAPTER XIII
OF THE THREEFOLD PRAYER OF CHRIST, THAT WE MIGHT BE ONE WITH GOD
BUT you should also observe that His prayer, as it has been
written by St John in this same Gospel, was threefold. For He
prayed that we might be with Him, that we might behold the glory
which His Father had given Him. And therefore I said at the
beginning that all good men are united with God by means of Divine
grace and their own virtuous life; for the love of God is always
pouring into us with new gifts, and whosoever is aware of this is
fulfilled with new virtues and holy exercises and with all good,
in the way that I told you heretofore: and this union through the
fulness of grace and glory, in body and soul, begins here below
and shall endure throughout eternity.
Further, Christ prayed thus, that He might be in us and we in Him.
This we find in the Gospel, in many places. And this is the union
without means; for the Love of God is not only outpouring, but it
also draws us inwards, into the Unity. And those who feel and are
aware of this, become inward and enlightened men, and their
highest powers are uplifted, above all exercises, into their naked
being: and there, above reason, the powers become simplified in
their essence, and so they are full and overflowing. For in that
simplicity, the spirit finds itself united with God without means;
and this union, with the exercise which belongs to it, shall
endure eternally, as I have told you heretofore.
Further, Christ uttered His most sublime prayer, namely, that His
beloved might be made perfect in one, as He is one with the
Father: not one as He is with the Father one single Divine
Substance, for this is impossible to us; but so one, and in such a
unity, as He is one fruition and one beatitude with the Father
without distinction in Essential Love. Those who are thus united
with God in this threefold way, in them the prayer of Christ has
been fulfilled.
These with God shall ebb and flow,
Having and joying, they shall empty go;
They shall both work and passively endure,
And in their superessence rest secure.
They shall go out and in, and find their food,
And, drunk with love, in radiant darkness sleep in God.
Many more words I should like to say here, but those who possess
this have no need of them: and he to whom it has been shown, and
who cleaves with love to Love, he shall be taught the whole truth
by Love itself. But those who turn outwards, and would find
consolation in outward things, do not feel this; and, even though
I should say much more of it, yet they would not understand. For
those who give themselves wholly to outward works, or those who
are idle in inward passivity, shall never be able to understand
it. Now although reason and all bodily feelings must here give
place and yield to the faith and contemplation of the spirit,89
and to those things which are above reason; yet reason and also
the life of the senses continue to abide in their place, and
cannot pass away, any more than the nature of man can pass away.
And further, though the gazing and tendency of the spirit towards
God must give place to fruition in simplicity; yet this gazing and
this tendency continue to exist in their place.90 For this is the
inmost life of the spirit; and, in the enlightened and uplifted
man, the life of the senses adheres to the spirit. And so his
sensual powers are joined to God by heart-felt love, and his
nature is fulfilled with all good; and he feels that his ghostly
life adheres to God without means. And thereby his highest powers
are uplifted to God in eternal love, and drenched through by
Divine truth, and established in imageless freedom. And so he is
filled with God, and overflowing without measure. In this
inundation there comes to pass the essential outpouring or
immersion in the superessential Unity; and this is the union
without distinction, of which I have often told you. For in the
superessence all our ways end. If we will go with God upon the
highway of love, we shall rest with Him eternally and without end:
and thus we shall eternally go forth towards God and enter into
Him and rest in Him.
CHAPTER XIV
HERE THE AUTHOR DECLARES THAT HE SUBMITS ALL THAT HE HAS WRITTEN
TO THE JUDGMENT OF HOLY CHURCH
NOW at this time I cannot set forth my meaning more clearly. In
all that I understand, or feel, or have written, I submit myself
to the judgment of the saints and of Holy Church; for I wish to
live and to die as a servant of Christ, in the Christian faith;
and I desire to be, by the grace of God, a life-giving member of
Holy Church. And therefore, as I told you heretofore, you should
beware of those self-deceived men who, by means of their idle
vacancy, and with their bare and simple gaze have found the Divine
Essence within themselves in a merely natural way; and who pretend
to be one with God without the grace of God, and without exercise
of virtue, and without obedience to God and to Holy Church. And
for all their perversity of life, which I have described, they
would be one with God's Son by nature. But if the Prince of all
the angels was cast out of heaven, because he set himself up
against God and would be like unto the most High; and if the first
man was driven from Paradise because he would be as God: how then
shall this wretched sinner-that is, the faithless Christian who
would be as God without likeness to God in grace and virtue-ever
rise from earth into heaven? For through his own power no man has
ascended into heaven, save the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. And
therefore we must unite ourselves with Him, through grace and
virtue and Christian faith: so we shall ascend with Him whither He
has gone before us. For in the Last Day we shall all rise, each
with his own body; and then those who have worked good works shall
go into life everlasting, and those who have worked evil works
shall go into everlasting fire. These are two unlike ends, which
shall never come together for each flies from the other
perpetually.
Pray for him who has composed and written this, that God may have
mercy upon him. That his poor beginning, and his and our wretched
middle course may be brought to a blessed end, this may Jesus
Christ, the Son of the living God, bestow upon us all. AMEN.
ENDNOTES
1 Cf. The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, bk. ii. caps. 66-
67, and The Book of Truth, cap. 4.
2 H. Pomerius, De Origine Monasterii Viridisvallis una cum Vitis
Joannis Rusbrochii (Analecta Bollandiana, vol. iv., Brussels,
1885).
3 The Twelve Beguines, cap. 2. Vide infra, p. xvii.
4 The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, bk. i. cap. 24.
5 Cf. The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, bk. iii., and The
Sparkling Stone, caps. 3 and 9.
6 The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, bk. ii. caps. 62 and
63. Cf. The Sparkling Stone, cap. 14.
7 The Twelve Beguines, cap. 2.
8 L. Surius, D. Joannis Rusbrockii Opera Omnia, Cologne, 1552.
9 The first and finest part of The Twelve Beguines, translated
from the Flemish by John Francis, was published by J. M. Watkins
in 1913.
10 This he evidently came to realise himself. Cf. the end of the
8th chapter of The Twelve Beguines, "Now I must cease from my
rhyming, that I may show clearly the way of contemplation."
11 The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, bk. i. cap. 21.
Compare The Sparkling Stone, cap. 9.
12 Par. xxxiii. 124.
13 The student will find a fuller analysis in my monograph
Ruysbroeck (Quest Series, 1915).
14 The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, bk. ii. cap. 2.
15 The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, bk. iii. cap. 3; and
The Book of Truth, cap. 10.
16 The Sparkling Stone, caps. 3 and 10.
17 Cf. The Twelve Beguines, cap. 16.
18 The Twelve Beguines, cap. 8.
19 Cf. The Book of Truth, cap. 9.
20 Cf. St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, i., q. 12, a. 5.
21 The Book of Truth, cap. 11.
22 Ibid., cap. 8.
23 The Twelve Beguines, cap. 8.
24 The Sparkling Stone, caps. 9, 10 and 11. Compare The Twelve
Beguines, caps. 5 and 15.
25 The Sparkling Stone, cap. 9.
26 Ibid., cap. 10.
27 Cf. The Sparkling Stone, caps. 8, 9, 10 and 13; and The Book of
Truth, caps. 10, 11 and 12.
28 The Sparkling Stone, cap. 13.
29 The Twelve Beguines, cap. 8.
30 The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, bk. iii. cap. 6.
31 The Sparkling Stone, caps. 9, 10 and I2. The Twelve Beguines,
cap. 12. Compare Dante (Par. xxxiii. 97):
"Cosi la mente mia, tutta sospesa,
mirava fissa, immobile ed attenta,
e sempre del mirar faceasi accesa."
32 The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, bk. iii. cap. 4.
33 The Sparkling Stone, cap. 12, and The Book of Truth, caps. 10
and 12.
34 The Sparkling Stone, cap. 14.
35 Ibid., cap. 10, and The Book of Truth, cap. 12.
36 The Twelve Beguines, cap. 16.
37 The Book of Truth, caps. 11 and 13.
38 "Light" is the second of the Divine Names which Dionysius the
Areopagite attributes to the Godhead, being placed by him between
"Goodness" and "Beauty"; and his influence may be traced in
Ruysbroeck's frequent use of it. Thus he says, "Let us now extol
the spiritual name of Light, under which we contemplate the Good;
and declare that He is called spiritual Light because He fills
every supercelestial mind with spiritual light, expelling
ignorance and error from all souls in which they may be . . . the
Good is therefore called spiritual Light above all other light: as
fontal Ray and overflowing Stream of light, shining out of its
fulness upon every mind above, around, and in the world, renewing
all their powers, and embracing them in its span. (Divine Names,
cap. 4.)
39 The word here translated "conditions" is Ruysbroeck's favourite
term, "wise," meaning ways or modes of being; literally, "how"
Christ was as regards each virtue. The Flemish of this passage
reads, "Want alsoe menighe inwendighe doghet, alsoe menighe
inwendighe wise hadde Christus."
40 "Righteousness" (gherechticheit) must be read here and onwards
in the sense, not only of goodness, but of justice and rightness
in the conduct of life. "It is meet and right so to do."
41 It will be seen that the description of the virtues in this
section, like that of the terraces in Dante's Purgatorio, is
arranged upon a definite plan. Each virtue or group of qualities
opposes one of the seven mortal sins, and is associated with one
of the Beatitudes.
42 The three points here described-the enlightenment or impulse of
grace, concentration of mind, and the deliberate expulsion of
distracting thoughts and images-are summed up in the exercise
which ascetic writers call Recollection, and which prepares
consciousness for the contemplative state.
43 The source of this image seems to be a well-known passage in
Dionysius the Areopagite-
"That brilliant likeness of the Divine Goodness, our great sun,
all-radiant and ever-shining as a distant echo of the Good,
enlightens all capable of receiving light . . . pouring upon the
universe above and beneath the splendour of its rays. And if
anything does not share in them this is not because of any lack in
its distribution of light, but because of the inaptitude for light
of those things which do not unfold themselves that they may
participate in the light." (Divine Names, cap. 4.)
44 The word "weelden," here translated "rapturous delight," really
means a luxury of enjoyment: an overpassing and voluptuous
rapture, in which the soul partakes of the rich content of God.
45 The "wound of love" as a metaphor for the rapturous yet
piercing entrance of Divine Love into the heart, meets us again
and again in the literature of mysticism. "God," says St Basil,
"is the Perfect Beauty which inflicts on the soul an ineffable
wound of love." In many cases, as for instance in the celebrated
"transverberation" of St Teresa, this image probably describes one
of those psycho-physical parallelisms-not uncommon in the records
of high religious experience-in which actual bodily pangs
accompany the spiritual crisis. Thus Richard Rolle says, "O thou
everlasting fairness, thou hast wounded my heart; scarcely I live
for joy and almost I die, for I may not in my deadly flesh suffer
such a sweetness of this great majesty." (The Mending of Life,
cap. 11.)
Thus, too, St John of the Cross-
"O burn that burns to heal!
O more than pleasant wound!
And O soft hand, O touch most delicate
That dost new life reveal,
That dost in grace abound,
And, slaying, dost from death to life translate."
(Llama de Amor Viva. Trans. by Arthur Symons.)
46 The Jubilus, or inarticulate song of joy, was recognised by
medieval writers as a normal form of religious exaltation: there
are many references to it in mystical literature. Thus Jacopone da
Tod� in the poem, "O jubilo del core"-
"The Jubilus in fire awakes
And straight the man must sing and pray,
His tongue in childish stammering shakes,
Nor knows he what his lips may say;
He cannot quench nor hide away
That sweetness pure and infinite.
"The Jubilus in flame is lit
And straight the man must shout and sing;
So close to love his heart is knit
He scarce can bear the honeyed sting;
His clamour and his cries must ring
And shame for ever take its flight."
(Laude 76. Trans. by J. Beck.)
47 This is the traditional Christian test for all visions and
revelations. Thus Richard of St. Victor, the source of so much of
Ruysbroeck's teaching, says in a celebrated passage-
"Even though you believe that you have been taken up into the high
mountain apart, even though you believe that you see Christ
transfigured, be not too ready to believe anything you see in Him
or hear from him, unless Moses and Elias run to meet Him. I hold
all truth in suspicion which Scripture does not confirm: nor do I
receive Christ in His glory unless Moses and Elias are talking
with Him." (Benjamin Minor, cap. 81.)
48 Rolle's Fire of Love provides an apt commentary upon this
chapter. Thus he says of the devout and ardent lover who "burns in
the fire of the Holy Ghost"-
"He utterly burns and longs for light while he thus fervently
tastes of things heavenly . . . as the seraphim, to whom he is
like in loving mind, he cries and says to his noble Lover,
'Behold, loving I burn, greedily desiring.' Thus with fire
untrowed and thirling flame the soul of a lover is burned. It
gladdens all things and heavenlike sparkles: nor happily do I long
to make an end, but, always going to that which I love, death to
me is sweet and sicker." (Incendium Amoris, I., cap. 14.)
49 Probably Ruysbroeck had here in mind such a "fountain" or
lavabo as was to be seen in almost any fourteenth century
cloister: a cistern or basin fed by a duct of running water, and
pouring itself out in several streams into the lower basin or
trough which provided washing-places for the brethren.
50 It should be remembered that for the medieval psychologist the
term "memory" included all that we mean by "mind."
51 "The Godhead," says Dionysius, "is celebrated by religion as
One and as Unity, because of the simplicity and oneness of its
supernatural indivisibility. Thereby, as by a unifying power, we
are unified; and, when our various diversities have been gathered
together in a supernatural way, we are collected into a divine
onefoldness and union wherein we are like unto God." (Divine
Names, cap. 1.)
52 This wonderful description of the attributes of God contains
many reminiscences of mystical writers, from St Paul onwards:
especially St Augustine, Dionysius, St Bernard, and Meister
Eckhart. Cf. St Augustine, Confessions, bk. 1. caps. 3 and 4,
Dionysius the Areopagite, Divine Names, caps. 1 and 7, and
Celestial Hierarchy, cap. 7, St. Bernard, de consideratione, bk.
v. cap. 8, Meister Eckhart, Predichten. There are striking
parallels to this and other similar passages in Ruysbroeck in the
Book of Truth of his contemporary Suso.
53 The Flemish "welbehagen" is perhaps more accurately translated
"well-being," "comfort" or "good pleasure." Cf. The Book of Truth,
cap. 10. The idea intended is the complete and blissful self-
comprehension and self-satisfaction of the Divine Essence; the
"perfect round" which is enringed in love. So Dante-
"O luce eterna, che sola in te sidi,
sola t'intendi, e, da te intelletta
ed intendente te, ami ed arridi!"
(Par. xxxiii. 124.)
54 Here again Ruysbroeck and Dante, both depending upon scholastic
conceptions of the Universe, are in close agreement. Ruysbroeck's
"heaven of unmingled radiance" is the Empyrean "ch' � pura luce"
(Par. xxx. 39): from this the Primum Mobile, or first revolving
heaven, takes and distributes the power by which all creation is
moved.
"E questo cielo non ha altro dove
che la mente divina, in che s'accende
l'amor che il volge e la virt� ch' ei piove."
(Par. xxvii. 109.)
55 "Middel en sonder middel": i.e. mediated, through gifts, forms,
symbols and conceptual images; and unmediated, being given as a
direct intuitive experience to the soul in the unity of the
spirit.
56 The word is "levendicheit," really meaning the vital essence of
the soul: that "life-giving life" which Ruysbroeck, following St
Bernard, regards as the link between the soul's essence and the
Divine Essence, and the vivid source of our life in time. Thus for
him the spiritual man is a "levende mensche": more vividly alive
than those in whom this germ of Eternity has not been quickened.
57 Thus Dionysius-
"Every essence, power, energy, condition, perception, reason,
conception, contact, knowledge and union-in a word, all things
existing-are from the Beautiful and Good, and in the Beautiful and
Good, and return towards the Beautiful and Good." (Divine Names,
cap. 4.)
58 This is the scholastic doctrine of the lumen gloriae. See
Introduction, p. xxv.
59 "Onsinct die gheest hem selven in ghebrukeliker minnen"-the
spirit, as regards its separate consciousness, drowns and loses
itself in the Eternal Love of God. This immersion, self-mergence,
or sinking of the spirit into the One which is its home, is the
"completing opposite" of that other action of grace, which thrusts
the self out with its powers as a free and energetic instrument of
the Divine Will: thus perfecting the soul's dual likeness to God,
in work and in rest. Compare Ch. LXIII, "The Gift of
Understanding."
60 By the "effective understanding" Ruysbroeck probably meant the
faculty, sometimes called the "higher reason" or "pure intellect"
which the Victorine mystics described as "beyond and beside
reason," and whereby the mind contemplates intellectibilia: the
"invisible things which may not be comprehended by human reason."
Cf. Richard of St Victor, Benjamin Major, bk. i. caps. 6 and 7.
61 "Ghebrukelike gheneychtheit." This, one of Ruysbroeck's
favourite terms, is generally translated "inclination"; but really
includes the meaning-so characteristic of his doctrine-of a
perceptual willed and active tending or drawing-nigh of the spirit
to the enjoyment and possession of God: and instinctive effort of
the soul to achieve its goal. It is the tendency immortalised in
St Augustine's saying, "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our
heart can find no rest except in Thee." (Confessions, bk. i. cap.
7.)
62 So Dionysius: "God-receptive minds, being the images of God,
are the Divine abodes wherein above all God rests." (Celestial
Hierarchy, cap. 7.)
63 "Smakender wijsheit": "tasting wisdom." Taste and touch, the
most intimate of the bodily senses, are those most frequently used
by Ruysbroeck as images of the soul's apprehensions of God.
64 This is that "contemplation in caligine" celebrated by all
Christian mystics of the Dionysian tradition. It introduces
consciousness into a universe which seems dark, bare, and nought
to the intellect, because it transcends all the conceptions with
which that intellect is able to deal; being indeed "dark with
excess of light." Thus Dionysius says:
"We pray that we may enter the Radiant Darkness, and through
blindness and ignorance may see and know that this blindness and
ignorance is itself above sight and knowledge" (Mystic Theology,
cap. 1); and again, "The Divine Dark is the inaccessible Light in
which God is said to dwell. Into this dark, invisible because of
its surpassing brightness and unsearchable because of the
abundance of its supernatural torrents of light, all enter who are
deemed worthy to know and see God: and by the very fact of not
seeing or knowing, are truly in Him Who is above all sight and
knowledge." (Letter to Dorothy the Deacon.)
So, too, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing-"Let be this
everywhere and this aught, in comparison of this nowhere and this
nought. Reck thee never if thy wits cannot reason of this nought;
for surely I love it much the better. It is so worthy a thing in
itself that they cannot reason thereupon. this nought may better
be felt than seen: for it is full blind and full dark to them that
have but little while looked thereupon. Nevertheless, if I shall
soothlier say, a soul is more blinded in feeling of it for
abundance of ghostly light, than for any darkness or wanting of
bodily light."
(The Cloud of Unknowing, cap. 68.)
65 The Flemish "inblicke Gods" suggests the sudden flashing glance
of Divine enlightenment: keen, vivid, but transitory, like
lightning in the sky.
66 This conception of the dual life which man possesses in the
likeness of God appears to be derived from Dionysius, who says:
"That which is established above both every rest and every
movement, and moves each thing according to the law of its own
being in its own movement, is both the Rest and the Movement of
all." (Divine Names, cap. 1.)
67 This adherence or deliberate cleaving of the loving will to God
is the supreme work of the self in the Divine union and is never
transcended. Its absence marks the distinction between heretical
quietism and true contemplation.
68 Ruysbroeck's word "ledich" means both empty and idle: a blank
passivity of the mind and of the will.
69 "God-lidende": i.e. passively suffering God to act in and
through them.
70 This entrance of the soul into the God-seeing life is the
equivalent of Dante's entrance into the Empyrean.
". . . noi semo usciti fuore
del maggior corpo al ciel, ch' � pura luce;
luce intellettual piena d'amore,
amor di vero ben pien di letizia,
letizia che trascende ogni dolzore."
(Par. xxx. 38.)
71 So Dionysius: "The Beginning and Cause beyond all beginning of
every being, grasping all things superessentially in an
irresistible embrace." (Celestial Hierarchy, cap. 7.)
72 "When this takes place," says Plotinus, "the soul will see both
God and herself, so far as it is lawful for her to see Him. And
she will see herself indeed illumined, and full of intelligible
light; or rather, she will perceive herself to be pure light." (On
the Good, or the One.)
73 "In levenden redenen," perhaps more exactly "in life-giving
ideas." Surius, in his great Latin translation renders, this, "sub
vividis rationibus." This is one of the passages in which the
Platonic character of Ruysbroeck's doctrine is specially marked.
74 Suso expresses this doctrine with even greater daring-
"Mark this: in eternity, all creatures are God in God; and there,
there is no fundamental difference between them, save that which
we have said. And in so much as they are in God, they are the same
life, the same being, the same power: they are the same One, and
nothing less. (Suso, The Book of Truth, cap. 3.)
75 Thus Dionysius says, "We should know that our mind has the
power of thought, through which it perceives intellectual things:
but the union through which it is brought into contact with things
beyond itself surpasses the nature of the mind. We must therefore
contemplate Divine things by means of this union; not in
ourselves, but by standing out of ourselves with our whole selves
and becoming wholly of God. For it is better to be of God than of
ourselves." (Divine Names, cap 7.)
76 Cf. The Twelve Beguines, cap. 8-
"That which is wayless is above reason, not without it,
And it perceives all things without wonder.
Wonder is far beneath it,
And the life of contemplation is without wonder."
77 The last phrases of this passage are written in the irregular
rhymed verse which Ruysbroeck so often interpolated in his prose
writings. It has been found impossible to give a sufficiently
close English rendering of this. I therefore give the original
Flemish as an example of his poetic style-
"En dit is in dat wiselose wesen dat age ynnighe gheeste boven
alle dinc hebben vercoren,
Dit is die donkere stille daer alle minnende in sijn verloren:
Maer moche wi ons aldus in doghenden ghereden,
Wi souden ons schiere van den live ontcleden,
En souden vlieten in wilde zeebaren:
Nemmermeer en mochte ons creature verhalen."
78 These are the mystical forms of the Evangelical Counsels of
Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience.
79 Ruysbroeck wrote, or dictated, terdelinc, literally "tread-
ling," probably imagining some relation between calculus (pebble),
from calx (stone), and calcare (to tread), from calx (knuckle,
heel).
80 "Een eenformich leven met Gode draghen." Here Ruysbroeck
accepts in the most extreme form possible to a Catholic Christian
the dangerous doctrine of the "deification" of the soul; its total
transformation in God. We must, however, read such passages in the
light thrown upon them by his distinct declarations in other
places concerning the "invincible otherness" of God and the human
spirit. Cf. infra cap. 10, where it is shown that this
transmutation within the Divine Essence cannot and does not
involve identity. Compare The Book of Truth, cap. 11. So, too, in
The Twelve Beguines, cap. 14: "The spirit of man doth not become
God, but is God-formed, and knows itself to be breadth and length
and height and depth."
81 This "death in God" or total self-loss in the Divine Abyss was
one of the favourite doctrines of the Friends of God, with whom
Ruysbroeck appears to have been closely connected.
Thus Tauler says-
"Everything depends on this: a fathomless sinking into a
fathomless nothingness. . . . The Heavenly Father says, 'Thou
shalt call Me Father, and shalt never cease to enter in; entering
ever further, ever nearer, so as to sink ever deeper into an
unknown and unnamed Abyss, and, above all ways, images and forms,
above an powers, to lose thyself, deny thyself, and even unform
thyself.' In this lost state, nothing is seen but a ground which
rests upon itself: everywhere one being, one life. Thus, man may
say, he becomes without knowledge, without love, without feeling.
But this does not come from our natural qualities; but from the
transformation of the created spirit by the Spirit of God, in the
fathomless self-immersion of the created spirit, and its
fathomless resignation." (Sermon on St Matthew.)
82 Compare St Augustine-
"In this seeing and beholding of Truth, which is the seventh and
last stage of the soul (and not indeed a stage but a habitation to
which she attains by these stages), what shall I say of the joys,
of the fruition of the Supreme and True Good, of the perfect peace
and breath of Eternity. (De Quantitate Animae, cap. 33.)
83 This, too, seems to have an Augustinian source-
"I heard Thy voice from on high crying unto me, 'I am the Food of
the full-grown: grow, and thou shalt feed on Me; nor shalt thou
change Me into thine own substance, as thou changest the food of
the flesh, but thou shalt be changed into Mine.'" (Confessions,
bk. vii. cap. 10.)
84 Ruysbroeck wrote "bloter ghedacten"; probably meaning the
simple and undifferentiated consciousness, above the discursive
reason, which is attained in high contemplative states: the "pure
intellect" of Plotinus.
85 "Dat wide onploken behagene Gods." Compare note 53.
86 It will be seen that this is another aspect of that balanced
life of action and fruition described in The Adornment of the
Spiritual Marriage, which parallels on the human plane the
essentially static and personally dynamic aspects of the Divine
life. Compare note 66.
87 This ancient simile for the union of the soul with God is
constantly used by Ruysbroeck. It goes back at least to the fourth
century A.D.; being found in the sermons of St Macarius.
Ruysbroeck probably took it from St Bernard (De diligendo Deo,
cap. 10), or possibly Richard of St Victor (De Quatuor Gradibus
Violentae Charitatis).
88 "Hi gheeft hem in dat wesen der sielen, dar der sielen
crachten, boven redene, gheenvoldicht sijn en ghedaghen die
overforminghen Gods eenvoldigher wijs."
Reason, will and love must here be fused in one simple state, in
order that they may apprehend the Unity in which an wisdom, love
and will are resumed. This doctrine of self-simplification was
well understood by the Platonic mystics and has passed from them
into the Christian tradition. Thus Plotinus says, "The soul must
ascend to the principle which is in herself, and become one
instead of many, in order that she may contemplate the Principle
of all things, and the One." (On the Good, or the One.)
89 The Flemish word "instaerne," which Ruysbroeck here uses,
conveys the idea of an absorbed inward gazing, for which we have
no exact expression in English.
90 "Staende in syn abijt." This phrase has puzzled all
translators, from Surius onwards. Taken with its context, it seems
to mean that the self's ascent to the heights of Divine fruition
does not entail any impoverishment of the lower levels of
existence. The senses, the intellect, the normal religious
faculty, each continue to exist "in their own place." This is
another statement of the profound truth insisted upon in The
Sparkling Stone: that the completed life of man, like that of its
Pattern Christ, is both active and contemplative, both human and
divine-"living wholly in God where we possess our blessedness, and
wholly in ourselves where we exercise ourselves in love to God."
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