The
Sparkling Stone, Part II
Continued...
9 – 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.
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. 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.
10 – 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.
11 – 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. 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.
12 – 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, 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. 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.
13 – 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.
14 – 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.
by
Blessed Jan van Ruysbroek,
translated from the Flemish by C. A. Wynschenk Dom
Photo taken from MorgueFile Photos
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