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- <DC.Title>Meister Eckhart's Sermons / first time translated into English by Claud Field</DC.Title>
- <DC.Title sub="short">Meister Eckhart's Sermons</DC.Title>
- <DC.Creator sub="Author" scheme="file-as">Eckhart, Johannes (c. 1260-1327)</DC.Creator>
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- <div1 title="Title Page" n="i">
- <pb n="1"/>
- <p> </p>
- <pb n="2-3"/>
- <h3>HEART AND LIFE BOOKLETS. No. 22</h3>
- <p> </p>
- <table border="5" cellpadding="12"> <tr> <td> <h1>MEISTER<br/> ECKHART’S<br/>
- SERMONS</h1> <h2>FIRST TIME TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH</h2> <h3>BY</h3> <h2>CLAUD FIELD, M.A.</h2>
- <p style="margin-top:48pt; text-align:center">LONDON: H. R. ALLENSON, LTD.<br/>
- RACQUET COURT, 114 FLEET STREET, E.C.</p>
- </td> </tr>
- </table>
- </div1>
- <div1 title="Preface" n="ii">
- <pb n="4-5"/>
- <h3>PREFACE</h3>
- <p class="first">“<span class="sc">Meister Eckhart</span>,”
- who has been called the “Father of German thought,” was
- a Dominican monk, and one of the most profound thinkers of the Middle
- Ages. He was born about 1260 A.D. in Thuringia, and died at Cologne 1327
- A.D. In 1295 he was Prior of the Dominicans at Erfurt and Vicar-General
- of Thuringia. In 1300 he was sent to the University of Paris, where he
- studied Aristotle and the Platonists, and took the degree of Master
- of Arts. It is possible also that he taught at Paris. He already
- had a wide reputation as a philosopher, and was summoned to Rome in
- 1302 to assist Pope Boniface VIII. in his struggle against Philip
- the Fair. In 1304 he became Provincial of his order for Saxony, and
- in 1307 Vicar-General of Bohemia. In 1311 he was sent again to act
- as professor of theology in the school of Dominicans in Paris, and
- afterwards in Strasburg. Everywhere his teaching and preaching left a
- deep mark. At Strasburg he aroused suspicions and created enemies; his
- doctrine was accused of resembling that of the heretical sects of the
- “Beghards” and “Brothers of the Holy Spirit.” The
- <pb n="6-7"/>
- Superior-General of the Order had his writings submitted to a close
- examination by the Priors of Worms and Mayence. The history of this
- episode is very obscure. It appears that Eckhart was cited before the
- tribunal of the Inquisition at Cologne, and that he professed himself
- willing to withdraw anything that his writings might contain contrary to
- the teaching of the Church. The matter was referred to the Pope, who,
- in 1329, condemned certain propositions extracted from the writings of
- Eckhart two years after the death of the latter.</p>
- <p>The importance of Eckhart in the history of scholastic philosophy
- is considerable. At that period all the efforts of religious philosophy
- were directed to widen theology, and to effect a reconciliation between
- reason and faith. The fundamental idea of Eckhart’s philosophy
- is that of the Absolute or Abstract Unity conceived as the sole real
- existence. His God is the <span class="Greek">Θεος
- αγνοστος</span> of the
- neoplatonists: He is absolutely devoid of attributes which would be a
- limitation of His Infinity. God is incomprehensible; in fact, with regard
- to our limited intelligence, God is the origin and final end of every
- being. How then, it may be asked, can God be a Person? The answer is,
- that by the eternal generation of the Son the Father becomes conscious
- of Himself, and the Love reflected back to the Father by the Son is the
- Holy Spirit. Together with the Son, God also begets the ideal forms of
- created things. The Absolute is thus the common background of God and
- the Universe. Like as the Son does, so everything born of God tends to
- return to Him, and to lose itself in the unity of His Being.</p>
- <p>This theology is really Pantheism. Of the Absolute we have no
- cognizance but only of phenomena, but by the resolute endeavour to
- abstract ourselves from time and space, we can, according to Eckhart, at
- rare moments, attain to the Absolute by virtue of what he calls “the
- spark” (Funkelein) of the soul, which comes direct from God. This
- is really God acting in man; to know God is to be one with God. This is
- the final end of all our activity, and the means of attaining thereto is
- complete quietism. But Eckhart shrank from carrying his doctrines out to
- their extreme logical conclusion, though some of the more fanatical among
- his followers did so. On account of his insistence on the immediacy of
- man’s approach to God, apart from Church institutions, he may be
- justly regarded as a fore-runner of the Reformation.</p>
- <p class="quote" style="margin-top:12pt"><span
- class="sc">Note</span>.—The best account of Eckhart in English
- is probably to be found in Vaughan’s “Hours with the
- Mystics,” vol. i.</p>
- <pb n="8-9"/>
- </div1>
- <div1 title="I. The Attractive Power of God" n="iv">
- <pb n="10-11"/>
- <h2>ECKHART’S SERMONS</h2> <h3>I</h3> <h3>THE ATTRACTIVE POWER OF GOD</h3>
- <p class="quote"><scripCom type="Sermon" passage="John
- 6:44"/><scripRef passage="John 6:44"><span class="sc">St John</span>
- vi. 44.</scripRef>—“No one can come unto Me, except the
- Father which hath sent Me draw him.”</p>
- <p class="first"><span class="sc">Our</span> Lord Jesus Christ hath in
- the Gospel spoken with His own blessed lips these words, which signify,
- “No man can come to Me unless My Father draw him.” In another
- place He says, “I am in the Father and the Father in Me.”
- Therefore whoever cometh to the Son cometh to the Father. Further,
- He saith, “I and the Father are One. Therefore whomsoever the
- Father draweth, the Son draweth likewise.” St Augustine also
- saith, “The works of the Holy Trinity are inseparable from each
- other.” Therefore the Father draweth to the Son, and the Son draweth
- to the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost draweth to the Father and the
- Son; and each Person of the Trinity, when He draweth to the Two Others,
- draweth to Himself, because the Three are One. The Father draweth with
- the might of His power, the Son draweth with His unfathomable wisdom,
- the Holy Ghost draweth with
- <pb n="12-13"/>
- His love. Thus we are drawn by the Sacred Trinity with the cords of Power,
- Wisdom and Love, when we are drawn from an evil thing to a good thing,
- and from a good thing to a better, and from a better thing to the best
- of all. Now the Father draws us from the evil of sin to the goodness
- of His grace with the might of His measureless power, and He needs all
- the resources of His strength in order to convert sinners, more than
- when He was about to make heaven and earth, which He made with His own
- power without help from any creature. But when He is about to convert
- a sinner, He always needs the sinner’s help. “He converts
- thee not without thy help,” as St Augustine says.</p>
- <p>Therefore deadly sin is a breach of nature, a death of the soul, a
- disquiet of the heart, a weakening of power, a blindness of the sense,
- a sorrow of the spirit, a death of grace, a death of virtue, a death of
- good works, an aberration of the spirit, a fellowship with the devil,
- an expulsion of Christianity, a dungeon of hell, a banquet of hell, an
- eternity of hell. Therefore, if thou committest a deadly sin thou art
- guilty of all these and incurrest their consequences. Regarding the first
- point: Deadly sin is a breach of nature, for every man’s nature
- is an image and likeness and mirror of the Trinity, of Godhead and of
- eternity. All these together are marred by a deadly sin; therefore,
- it is a breach of nature. Such sin is also the death of the soul, for
- death is to lose life. Now God is the life of the soul, and deadly sin
- separates from God; therefore it is a death of the soul. Deadly sin is
- also a disquiet of the heart, for everything rests nowhere except in its
- own proper place; and the proper resting-place of the soul is nowhere
- except in God as St Augustine saith, “Lord! Thou hast made us for
- Thyself, therefore we may not rest anywhere save in Thee.” Deadly
- sin is also a weakening of the powers, for by his own power no one can
- throw off the load of sin nor restrain himself from committing sin. It is
- also a blindness of the sense, for it prevents a man recognizing how brief
- is the space of time that can be spent in the pleasure of voluptuousness,
- and how long are the pains of hell and the joys of heaven. Deadly sin
- is also a death of all grace, for whenever such a sin is committed, the
- soul is bereft of all grace. Similarly, it is the death of all virtue
- and good works, and an aberration of the spirit.</p>
- <p>It is also a fellowship with the Devil, for everything hath fellowship
- with its like; and sin maketh the soul and Satan resemble each other. It
- is also an expulsion of Christianity, for it depriveth the sinner of
- all the profit that comes from Christianity. It is also a dungeon of
- hell, for if the soul remain in the purity in which God created her,
- neither angel nor devil may rob her of her freedom. But sin confines it
- in hell. Sin is also an eternity of hell, for eternity is in the
- <pb n="14-15"/>
- will, and were it not in the will, it would not be in the consciousness.</p>
- <p>Now, people say when they commit sin, that they do not intend to do
- so always; they intend to turn away from sin. That is just as though a
- man were to kill himself and suppose that he could make himself alive
- again by his own strength. That is, however, impossible; but to turn
- from sin by one’s own power and come to God is still much more
- impossible. Therefore, whosoever is to turn from sin and come to God
- in His heavenly kingdom, must be drawn by the heavenly Father with the
- might of His divine power. The Father also draws the Son who comes to
- help us with His grace, by stimulating our free will to turn away from,
- and hate sin, which has drawn us aside from God, and from the immutable
- goodness of the Godhead. Then, if she is willing, He pours the gift of His
- grace into the soul, which renounces all her misery and sin, and all her
- works become living. Now, this grace springs from the centre of Godhead
- and the Father’s heart, and flows perpetually, nor ever ceases, if
- the soul obeys His everlasting love. Therefore He saith in the prophets:
- “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving
- kindness have I drawn thee.” Out of the overflow of His universal
- love He desires to draw all to Himself, and to His Only-begotten Son,
- and to the Holy Ghost in the joy of the heavenly kingdom. Now, we should
- know that before our Lord Jesus Christ was born, the Heavenly Father drew
- men with all His might for five thousand, two hundred years; and yet,
- as far as we know, brought not one into the heavenly kingdom. So, when
- the Son saw that the Father had thus strongly drawn men and even wearied
- Himself, and yet not succeeded, He said to the Father: “I will draw
- them with the cords of a man.” It was as though He said, “I
- see well, Father, that Thou with all Thy might, canst not succeed,
- therefore will I myself draw them with the cords of a man.”</p>
- <p>Therefore the Son came down from heaven, and was incarnate of a Virgin,
- and took upon Him all our bodily weaknesses, except sin and folly, into
- which Adam had cast us; and out of all His words and works and limbs and
- nerves, He made a cord, and drew us so skillfully, and so heartily, that
- the bloody sweat poured from His sacred Body. And when He had drawn men
- without ceasing for three and thirty years, He saw the beginnings of a
- movement and the redemption of all things that would follow. Therefore
- He said, “And I, if I be lifted up on the Cross, will draw all
- men unto Me.” Therefore He was stretched upon the Cross, and laid
- aside all His glory, and whatever might hinder His drawing men.</p>
- <p>Now, there are three natural means of attraction with which Christ
- on the Cross drew to Himself between the third and the ninth hour,
- more people than He had drawn
- <pb n="16-17"/>
- before during the three and thirty years of His life. The first means
- by which He draws is affinity, that affinity which brings creatures
- of the same species together, and like to its like. With this cord of
- affinity he drew men to the Godhead, Whom He always resembles. In order
- that God may draw more to Himself, and forget His wrath, the Son saith,
- “Beloved Father, seeing that Thou wouldest not forgive sins because
- of all the former sacrifices offered, lo I, Thine Only begotten Son,
- Who resemble Thy Godhead in all things, in Whom Thou hast hidden all
- the riches of divine love, I come to the Cross, that I may be a living
- sacrifice before Thine eyes; that out of Thy fatherly compassion Thou
- mayest bend and look on Me, Thine only Son, and on My Blood flowing from
- My wounds, and slake the fiery sword with which in the angel’s
- hands Thou hast barred the way to Paradise, that all who have repented
- and bewailed their sins through Me, may enter therein.”</p>
- <p>The second means of attraction which He used is Emptiness, as we
- see when we place one end of a hollow pipe in water, and draw up it by
- suction; the water runs up the stem to the mouth, because the emptiness
- of the pipe, from which the air has been drawn, draws the water to
- itself. So Our Lord Jesus Christ made Himself empty that He might wisely
- draw all things to Himself. Therefore He let all the blood that was in
- His Body flow out, and so attracted to Himself all the compassion and
- grace that was in His Father’s heart, so completely and profitably
- as to suffice for the whole world. Accordingly, the Father said, “My
- compassion will I never forget,” and further, “Now, My Son, be
- bold and strong that Thou mayest lead the people altogether into the land
- which I have promised, the land of heavenly joys, the land which floweth
- with the honey of My Godhead, and with the milk of Thy manhood.”</p>
- <p>The third means of attraction is this—that as we see the sun
- draw up the mists from the earth to heaven, so the heart of our Lord
- Jesus Christ waxed hot as a fiery furnace upon the Cross, so fiercely
- burned the flame of love which He felt towards the whole world. Thus,
- with the heat of His love, from which nothing could be hidden, so
- intense was it—He drew the whole world to Himself. Never did
- our Lord Jesus Christ display such great love as when He suffered the
- torture of the Cross when He gave His life for us, and washed our sins
- with His precious Blood. Therefore with the cords of Love, He drew us
- all to Himself upon the Cross that those who feel the drawing of His
- death and martyrdom might live with Him in everlasting felicity.</p>
- <p>Now when the Holy Spirit saw that the Only Begotten Son of the Father
- had drawn so wisely that He had won to Himself all things in heaven and
- earth, He also felt impelled by His own love and kindness to
- <pb n="18-19"/>
- draw. Therefore He said, “I will also draw with My cords and My
- net.” So He made a net of the seven high attributes of the Father,
- of the seven graces of the Son, of His own seven gifts, and of the seven
- Christian virtues. Thus He assures us that we shall never perish, for we
- are so caught by His goodness that He expels from us all the evil works of
- the flesh, and produces in us His fruits, so that we gain the reward of
- everlasting life. May the Father of His love, and the Son of His grace,
- and the Holy Spirit with His fellowship, grant us to be worthy of the
- same. Amen.</p></div1>
- <div1 title="II. The Nearness of the Kingdom" n="v">
- <h3>II</h3> <h3>THE NEARNESS OF THE KINGDOM</h3>
- <p class="quote"><scripCom type="Sermon" passage="Luke 21:31"/><scripRef passage="Luke 21:31"><span class="sc">St Luke</span> xxi. 31</scripRef>.—“Know that the Kingdom of God is near.”</p>
- <p class="first"><span class="sc">Our</span> Lord saith that the Kingdom
- of God is near us. Yea, the Kingdom of God is within us as St Paul saith
- “our salvation is nearer than when we believed.” Now we
- should know in what manner the Kingdom of God is near us. Therefore let
- us pay diligent attention to the meaning of the words. If I were a king,
- and did not know it, I should not really be a king. But, if I were fully
- convinced that I was a king, and all mankind coincided in my belief,
- and I knew that they shared my conviction, I should indeed be a king,
- and all the wealth of the king would be mine. But, if one of these three
- conditions were lacking, I should not really be a king.</p>
- <p>In similar fashion our salvation depends upon our knowing and
- recognizing the Chief Good which is God Himself. I have a capacity in
- my soul for taking in God entirely. I am as sure as I live that nothing
- is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my
- existence depends
- <pb n="20-21"/>
- on the nearness and presence of God. He is also near things of wood
- and stone, but they know it not. If a piece of wood became as aware
- of the nearness of God as an archangel is, the piece of wood would
- be as happy as an archangel. For this reason man is happier than the
- inanimate wood, because he knows and understands how God is near him. His
- happiness increases and diminishes in proportion to the increase and
- diminution in his knowledge of this. His happiness does not arise from
- this that God is near him, and in him, and that He possesses God; but
- from this, that he <i>knows </i>the nearness of God, and loves Him,
- and is aware that “the Kingdom of God is near.” So, when
- I think on God’s Kingdom, I am compelled to be silent because
- of its immensity, because God’s Kingdom is none other than God
- Himself with all His riches. God’s Kingdom is no small thing: we
- may survey in imagination all the worlds of God’s creation, but
- they are not God’s Kingdom. In whichever soul God’s Kingdom
- appeareth, and which knoweth God’s Kingdom, that soul needeth no
- human preaching or instruction; it is taught from within and assured of
- eternal life. Whoever knows and recognizes how near God’s Kingdom
- is to him may say with Jacob, “God is in this place, and I knew
- it not.”</p>
- <p>God is equally near in all creatures. The wise man saith, “God
- hath spread out His net over all creatures, so that whosoever wishes to
- discover Him may find and recognize Him in each one.” Another saith,
- “He knows God rightly who recognizes Him alike in all things.”
- To serve God with fear is good; to serve Him out of love is better;
- but to fear and love Him together is best of all. To have a restful
- or peaceful life in God is good; to bear a life of pain in patience is
- better; but to have peace in the midst of pain is the best of all.</p>
- <p>A man may go into the field and say his prayer and be aware of God,
- or, he may be in Church and be aware of God; but, if he is more aware of
- Him because he is in a quiet place, that is his own deficiency and not due
- to God, Who is alike present in all things and places, and is willing to
- give Himself everywhere so far as lies in Him. He knows God rightly who
- knows Him everywhere. St Bernard saith, “How is it that mine eye
- and not my foot sees heaven? Because mine eye is more like heaven than
- my foot is. So, if my soul is to know God, it must be God-like.”</p>
- <p>Now, how is the soul to arrive at this heavenly state that it
- recognizes God in itself, and knows that He is near? By copying
- the heavens, which can receive no impulse from without to mar their
- tranquility. Thus must the soul, which would know God, be rooted and
- grounded in Him so steadfastly, as to suffer no perturbation of fear or
- hope, or joy or sorrow, or love or hate, or anything which may disturb
- its peace.</p>
- <p>The heavens are everywhere alike remote
- <pb n="22-23"/>
- from earth, so should the soul be remote from all earthly things alike so
- as not to be nearer to one than another. It should keep the same attitude
- of aloofness in love and hate, in possession and renouncement, that is,
- it should be simultaneously dead, resigned and lifted up. The heavens
- are pure and clear without shadow of stain, out of space and out of
- time. Nothing corporeal is found there. Their revolutions are incredibly
- swift and independent of time, though time depends on them. Nothing
- hinders the soul so much in attaining to the knowledge of God as time and
- place. Therefore, if the soul is to know God, it must know Him outside
- time and place, since God is neither in this or that, but One and above
- them. If the soul is to see God, it must look at nothing in time; for
- while the soul is occupied with time or place or any image of the kind,
- it cannot recognize God. If it is to know Him, it must have no fellowship
- with nothingness. Only he knows God who recognizes that all creatures
- are nothingness. For, if one creature be set over against another, it
- may appear to be beautiful and somewhat, but if it be set over against
- God, it is nothing. I say moreover: If the soul is to know God it must
- forget itself and lose itself, for as long as it contemplates self, it
- cannot contemplate God. When it has lost itself and everything in God,
- it finds itself again in God when it attains to the knowledge of Him,
- and it finds also everything which it had abandoned complete in God. If
- I am to know the highest good, and the everlasting Godhead, truly, I
- must know them as they are in themselves apart from creation. If I am
- to know real existence, I must know it as it is in itself, not as it is
- parceled out in creatures.</p>
- <p>The whole Being of God is contained in God alone. The whole of
- humanity is not contained in one man, for one man is not all men. But in
- God the soul knows all humanity, and all things at their highest level
- of existence, since it knows them in their essence. Suppose any one to
- be <i>in</i> a beautifully adorned house: he would know much more about
- it than one who had never entered therein, and yet wished to speak much
- about it. Thus, I am as sure, as I am of my own existence and God’s,
- that, if the soul is to know God, it must know Him outside of time and
- place. Such a soul will know clearly how near God’s kingdom is.</p>
- <p>Schoolmen have often asked how it is possible for the soul to know
- God. It is not from severity that God demands much from men in order to
- obtain the knowledge of Himself: it is of His kindness that He wills the
- soul by effort to grow capacious of receiving much, and that He may give
- much. Let no man think that to attain this knowledge is too difficult,
- although it may sound so, and indeed the commencement of it, and the
- renouncement of all things, <i>is</i> difficult. But
- <pb n="24-25"/>
- when one attains to it, no life is easier nor more pleasant nor more
- lovable, since God is always endeavouring to dwell with man, and teach him
- in order to bring him to Himself. No man desires anything so eagerly as
- God desires to bring men to the knowledge of Himself. God is always ready,
- but we are very unready. God is near us, but we are far from Him. God
- is within, and we are without. God is friendly; we are estranged. The
- prophet saith, “God leadeth the righteous by a narrow path into a
- broad and wide place, that is into the true freedom of those who have
- become one spirit with God.” May God help us all to follow Him
- that He may bring us to Himself. Amen.</p></div1>
- <div1 title="III. The Angel's Greeting" n="vi">
- <h3>III</h3> <h3>THE ANGEL’S GREETING</h3>
- <p class="quote"><scripCom type="Sermon" passage="Luke
- 1:28"/><scripRef passage="Luke 1:28"><span class="sc">St Luke</span>
- i. 28</scripRef>.—“Hail, thou that art highly favoured among
- women, the Lord is with thee.”</p>
- <p class="first"><span class="sc">Here</span> there are three things
- to understand: the first, the modesty of the angel; the second, that
- he thought himself unworthy to accost the Mother of God; the third,
- that he not only addressed her, but the great multitude of souls who
- long after God.</p>
- <p>I affirm that had the Virgin not first borne God spiritually He would
- never have been born from her in bodily fashion. A certain woman said to
- Christ, “Blessed is the womb that bear Thee.” To which Christ
- answered, “Nay, rather blessed are they that hear the Word of God
- and keep it.” It is more worthy of God that He be born spiritually
- of every pure and virgin soul, than that He be born of Mary. Hereby we
- should understand that humanity is, so to speak, the Son of God born
- from all eternity. The Father produced all creatures, and me among them,
- and I issued forth from Him with all creatures, and yet I abide in the
- Father. Just as the word which I now speak is conceived
- <pb n="26-27"/>
- and spoken forth by me, and you all receive it, yet none the less it
- abides in me. Thus I and all creatures abide in the Father.</p>
- <p>Hereto I adjoin a parable. There were a certain man and wife; the
- woman by accident lost an eye, and was sorely troubled thereat. Her
- husband then said to her, “Wife, why are you troubled? “She
- answered, “It is not the loss of my eye that troubles me, but the
- thought that you may love me less on account of that loss.” He said,
- “I love you all the same.” Not long after he put one of his
- own eyes out, and came to his wife and said, “Wife, that you may
- believe I love you, I have made myself like you: I, too, now, have only
- one eye.” So men could hardly believe that God loved them till
- God put one of His eyes out, that is took upon Himself human nature,
- and was made man. Just as fire infuses its essence and clearness into
- the dry wood, so has God done with man. He has created the human soul
- and infused His glory into it, and yet in His own essence has remained
- unchangeable. If you ask me whether, seeing that my spiritual birth is
- out of time, whether I am an eternal son, I answer “Yes,” and
- “No.” In the everlasting foreknowledge of God, I slumbered
- like a word unspoken. He hath brought me forth His son in the image
- of His eternal fatherhood, that I also should be a father and bring
- forth Him. It is as if one stood before a high mountain, and cried,
- “Art thou there?” The echo comes back, “Art thou
- there?” If one cries, “Come out.” the echo answers,
- “Come out.”</p>
- <p>Again: If I am in a higher place and say to some one, “Come up
- hither,” that might be difficult for him. But if I say, “Sit
- down,” that would be easy. Thus God dealeth with us. When man
- humbles himself, God cannot restrain His mercy; He must come down and
- pour His grace into the humble man, and He gives Himself most of all,
- and all at once, to the least of all. It is essential to God to give,
- for His essence is His goodness and His goodness is His love. Love is the
- root of all joy and sorrow. Slavish fear of God is to be put away. The
- right fear is the fear of losing God. If the earth flee downward from
- heaven, it finds heaven beneath it; if it flee upward, it comes again to
- heaven. The earth cannot flee from heaven: whether it flee up or down,
- the heaven rains its influence upon it, and stamps its impress upon it,
- and makes it fruitful, whether it be willing or not. Thus doth God with
- men: whoever thinketh to escape Him, flies into His bosom, for every
- corner is open to Him. God brings forth His Son in thee, whether thou
- likest it or not, whether thou sleepest or wakest; God worketh His own
- will. That man is unaware of it, is man’s fault, for his taste is
- so spoilt by feeding on earthly things that he cannot relish God’s
- love. If we had love to God, we should relish God, and all His works; we
- <pb n="28-29"/>
- should receive all things from God, and work the same works as He worketh.</p>
- <p>God created the soul after the image of His highest perfection. He
- issued forth from the treasure-house of the everlasting Fatherhood in
- which He had rested from all eternity. Then the Son opened the tent of His
- everlasting glory and came forth from His high place to fetch His Bride,
- whom the Father had espoused to Him from all Eternity, back to that heaven
- from which she came. Therefore He came forth rejoicing as a bridegroom
- and suffered the pangs of love. Then He returned to His secret chamber
- in the silence and stillness of the everlasting Fatherhood. As He came
- forth from the Highest, so He returned to the Highest with His Bride,
- and revealed to her the hidden treasures of His Godhead.</p>
- <p>The first beginning is for the sake of the last end. God Himself doth
- not rest because He is the beginning, but because He is the end and goal
- of all creation. This end is concealed in the darkness of the everlasting
- Godhead, and is unknown, and never was known, and never will be known. God
- Himself remains unknown; the light of the everlasting Father shineth in
- darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. May the truth of which
- we have spoken lead us to the truth. Amen.</p></div1>
- <div1 title="IV. True Hearing" n="vii">
- <h3>IV</h3> <h3>TRUE HEARING</h3>
- <p class="quote"><scripCom type="Sermon"
- passage="Ecclus. 24:30"/><scripRef passage="Sir 24:30"><span
- class="sc">Ecclesiasticus</span> xxiv. 30</scripRef>.—“Whoso
- heareth Me shall not be confounded.”</p>
- <p class="first"><span class="sc">The</span> everlasting and paternal
- wisdom saith, “Whoso heareth Me is not ashamed.” If he is
- ashamed of anything he is ashamed of being ashamed. Whoso worketh in
- Me sineth not. Whoso confesseth Me and feareth Me, shall have eternal
- life. Whoso will hear the wisdom of the Father must dwell deep, and
- abide at home, and be at unity with himself. Three things hinder us from
- hearing the everlasting Word. The first is fleshliness, the second is
- distraction, the third is the illusion of time. If a man could get free
- of these, he would dwell in eternity, and in the spirit, and in solitude,
- and in the desert, and there would hear the everlasting Word. Our Lord
- saith, “No man can hear My word nor my teaching without renouncing
- himself.” All that the Eternal Father teaches and reveals is His
- being, His nature, and His Godhead, which He manifests to us in His Son,
- and teaches us that we are also His Son.</p>
- <p>All that God worketh and teacheth, He
- <pb n="30-31"/>
- worketh in His Son. All His work is directed to this end that we also may
- be His Son. When God sees that we are indeed His son, He yearns after us,
- and in the depth of His Divine Being waves of longing break forth, to
- reveal to us the abyss of His Godhead, and the fullness of His essence;
- He hastens to identify Himself with us. Herein He hath joy and gladness
- in full measure. God loveth men not less than He loveth Himself. If thou
- really lovest thyself, thou lovest all men as thyself; as long as thou
- lovest any one less than thyself, thou dost not really love thyself. That
- man is right who loves all men as himself.</p>
- <p>Some folk say: “I love my friends, who do me kindness, more
- than other people.” Such love is imperfect and incomplete; it is
- like having your sails only half-tilled with wind. When I love anyone as
- much as myself, I would just as soon that joy or sorrow, death or life
- were mine, as well as his. That would be the dictate of right reason.</p>
- <p>St Paul felt such love when he said, “I would that I were cut off
- from God for my friends’ sake.” Now to be cut off from God
- is equivalent to suffering the pains of hell. Some ask whether St Paul
- was on the way to perfection or was perfect. I answer, he was perfect,
- or he would have spoken otherwise.</p>
- <p>I wish further to elucidate this saying of St Paul that he was willing
- to be cut off from God. The highest act of renunciation for man is for
- God’s sake to give up God, and that is what St Paul was willing to
- do; to give up all the blessings that he might receive from God. When
- for God’s sake he gave up God, God still remained with him,
- since God’s essence is Himself, not any impression or reception
- of Himself. He who does so is a true man to whom no grief may happen,
- any more than it happens to the Divine Being. There is a somewhat in
- the soul that is, as it were, a blood-relative of God. It is one, it has
- nothing in common with nothing, nor is it like nothingness, nothing. All
- that is created is nothing, all far from and foreign to the soul. Could
- I but find myself one instant in that sphere of pure existence, I should
- regard myself as little as a worm.</p>
- <p> A question arises regarding the angels who dwell with us, serve us and
- protect us, whether their joys are equal to those of the angels in heaven,
- or whether they are diminished by the fact that they protect and serve
- us. No, they are certainly not; for the work of the angels is the will of
- God, and the will of God is the work of the angels; their service to us
- does not hinder their joy nor their working. If God told an angel to go
- to a tree and pluck caterpillars off it, the angel would be quite ready
- to do so, and it would be his happiness, if it were the will of God.</p>
- <p>The man who abides in the will of God wills
- <pb n="32-33"/>
- nothing else than what God is, and what He wills. If he were ill he would
- not wish to be well. If he really abides in God’s will, all pain
- is to him a joy, all complication, simple: yea, even the pains of hell
- would be a joy to him. He is free and gone out from himself, and from
- all that he receives, he must be free. If my eye is to discern colour,
- it must itself be free from all colour. <i>The eye with which I see God
- is the same with which God sees me. </i>My eye and God’s eye is
- one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love.</p>
- <p> The man who abides in God’s love must be dead to himself and
- all created things, and regard himself as a mere unit among a thousand
- million. Such a man must renounce himself and all the world. Supposing
- a man possessed all the world, and gave it back to God intact just as
- he received it, God would give him back, all the world and everlasting
- life to boot. And supposing there were another man who had nothing
- but a good will, and he thought in his heart, “Lord, were all
- this world mine, and two worlds more beside it, I would give them and
- myself also back to Thee as I received them from thee”; to that
- man God would give back as much as he had given away. And supposing a
- man had renounced himself for twenty years, if he took himself back for
- a moment, that man’s renunciation would be as nothing. The man
- who has truly renounced himself and does not once cast a glance on what
- he has renounced, and thus remains immovable and unalterable, that man
- alone has really renounced self. May God and the Eternal Wisdom grant us
- to remain equally immovable and unalterable with Himself. Amen.</p></div1>
- <div1 title="V. The Self-Communication of God" n="viii">
- <pb n="34-35"/>
- <h3>V</h3> <h3>THE SELF-COMMUNICATION OF GOD</h3>
- <p class="quote"><scripCom type="Sermon" passage="John
- 14:23"/><scripRef passage="John 14:23"><span class="sc">St John</span>
- xiv. 23</scripRef>.—“If a man love me, he will keep my words;
- and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our
- abode with him.”</p>
- <p class="first"><span class="sc">We</span> read in the Gospels that
- Our Lord fed many people with five loaves and two fishes. Speaking
- parabolically, we may say that the first loaf was—that we should
- know ourselves, what we have been everlastingly to God, and what we now
- are to Him. The second—that we should pity our fellow Christian
- who is blinded; his loss should grieve us as much as our own. The
- third—that we should know our Lord Jesus Christ’s life,
- and follow it to the utmost of our capacity. The fourth—that we
- should know the judgments of God. All that may be said of the pains of
- hell is true. St Dionysius saith, “To be separated from God is
- hell, and the sight of God’s countenance is heaven.” The
- fifth is—that we should know the Godhead which has flowed into the
- Father and filled Him with joy, and which has flowed into the Son and
- filled Him with wisdom, and the Two are essentially one. Therefore said
- Christ, “Where I am, there is My Father, and where My Father is,
- there am I” And They have flowed into the Holy Ghost and filled
- Him with good will. Therefore said Christ, “I and My Father have
- one Spirit,” and the Holy Ghost has flowed into the soul.</p>
- <p>The soul has by nature two capacities. The one is intelligence, which
- may comprehend the Holy Trinity with all its works and be contained by
- It as water is by a vessel. When the vessel is full, it has enclosed all
- that is contained in it, and is united with that which it has enclosed,
- and of which it is full. Thus intelligence becomes one with that which
- it has understood and comprehended. It is united therewith by grace,
- as the Son is one with the Father.</p>
- <p>The second capacity is Will. That is a nobler one, and its essential
- characteristic is to plunge into the Unknown which is God. There the Will
- lays hold of God in a mysterious manner, and the Unknown God imparts His
- impress to the Will. The Will draws thought and all the powers of the soul
- after it in its train, so that the soul becomes one with God by grace,
- as the Holy Ghost is one with the Father and with the Son by nature. In
- God it is more worthy to be loved, than it is in itself. Therefore
- St Augustine saith that the soul is greater by its love-giving power
- than by its life-giving power. If man might only abide in this union,
- and do all the works which have ever been done by creatures, he would
- be no other than God, if his higher powers so brought
- <pb n="36-37"/>
- his lower powers under control, that he could only work God-like
- works. That however may not be, and man’s highest faculty therefore
- contemplates God as best it can, and so influences his lower faculties
- that they can discern between Good and Evil.</p>
- <p>Adam possessed that union with God which we have spoken of, and while
- he had it, his capacity contained the capacities of all creatures. The
- load-stone attracts the needle, and the needle receives the magnetic
- power, so that it can also attract other needles and draw them to the
- load-stone. But if one draws the first needle away, all the other needles
- come with it. Thus was it with Adam: when, in his highest capacity, he
- was separated from God all his capacities deteriorated. Thence came also
- discord and the clashing of oppugnant wills among the lower creation,
- and deterioration of their powers down to the lowest. It is necessary,
- therefore, for all the creatures which issued forth from God to co-operate
- earnestly with all their powers to form a Man who may again attain that
- union with God which Adam enjoyed before he fell, and who may again
- restore to the creatures their forfeited powers. This is fulfilled in
- Christ as He Himself said, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all
- men unto Me.” He means, if He is exalted in our knowledge, He will
- draw us unto Himself. In Him human nature grew divine, and thanked God
- and loved Him with immeasurable love. This also befits God that he loves
- human nature with so great love. I counsel you, sisters and brothers,
- that you grow in knowledge, and thank God, while you are in time, that He
- brought you out of non-existence to existence, and united you with the
- Divine Nature. But if the Divine Nature be beyond your comprehension,
- believe simply on Christ;  follow His holy example and remain
- steadfast. Convert Jews, heathen, heretics, bad Christians, and all who
- do not enjoy your knowledge of God, and are still astray.</p>
- <p>Now rejoice, all ye powers of my soul, that you are so united with
- God that no one may separate you from Him. I cannot fully praise nor
- love Him therefore must I die, and cast myself into the divine void,
- till I rise from non-existence to existence. If I should remain entombed
- in flesh till the judgment day and suffer the pains of hell, that would
- be for me a small thing to bear for my beloved Lord Jesus Christ, if I
- had the certainty at last of not being separated from Him. While I am
- here, He is in me; after this life, I am in Him. All things are therefore
- possible to me, if I am united to Him Who can do all things. Previously I
- could not distinguish whether we were divine by nature or by grace. Then
- came Jesus and enlightened me so that I recognized in the Divine Nature
- Three Persons, and that the Father was the Bringer-Forth of all things,
- as St James says, “every perfect gift cometh down from the Father
- of lights.”</p>
- <pb n="38-39"/>
- <p>The Father and the Son have one Will, and that Will is the Holy Ghost,
- Who gives Himself to the soul so that the Divine Nature permeates the
- powers of the soul so that it can only do God-like works. Just as a
- spring, which perpetually flows and waters the roots of the flowers, so
- that the flowers bloom and receive their colours from the water of the
- spring, so the Godhead imparts Itself to the capacities of the soul that
- it may grow in the likeness of God. The more that the soul receives of
- the Divine Nature, the more it grows like It, and the closer becomes its
- union with God. It may arrive at such an intimate union that God at last
- draws it to Himself altogether, so that there is no distinction left,
- in the soul’s consciousness, between itself and God, though God
- still regards it as a creature. Wherefore let yourselves not be misled by
- the light of nature. The higher the degree of knowledge which the soul
- attains to in the light of grace, the darker seems to it the light of
- nature. If the soul would know the real truth it must examine itself,
- whether it has withdrawn from all things, whether it has lost itself,
- whether it loves God purely with His love and nothing of its own at the
- same time, so that it may not be separated from Him by anything, and
- whether God alone dwells in it. If it has lost itself, it is as when the
- Virgin Mary lost Christ. She sought Him for three days, and yet was sure
- that she would find Him. All the while Christ was in the highest class
- in the school of His Father, unconscious of His mother’s seeking
- Him. Thus happens it to the noble soul which goes to God to school, and
- learns there what God is in His essence, and what He is in the Trinity,
- and what He is in man, and what is most acceptable to Him. St Augustine
- saith that the righteousness of God in the Godhead and in the Trinity and
- in all creatures is the source of the chief joy which is in heaven. God in
- human nature is a lamp of living light, and “the light shineth in
- darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not.” The darkness must
- ever more flee the light, as the night flees day. Thus the soul learns to
- know God’s will. St Paul saith, “This is God’s will,
- our sanctification.” And this is our sanctification, to know what
- we were before time; what we are in time, and what we shall be after
- time. Thus the soul loses itself in these three, and recketh naught of the
- body, till it comes to it in the temple, and obeys it without murmuring.
- The Father is a revelation of the Godhead, the Son is an image and
- countenance of the Father, and the Holy Ghost is an effulgence of that
- countenance, and a mutual love between Them, and these properties They
- have always possessed in Themselves. The Three Persons have stooped out
- of pity down to human nature, and the Son became man, and was the most
- despised man on the earth, and suffered pain at the hands of the
- <pb n="40-41"/>
- creatures whom He Himself created with the Father, through Whose will
- He became man. Thus was Christ till His death, and when He rose from the
- dead then was seen the most despised of all men united with the Godhead
- in the Person of Christ.</p></div1>
- <div1 title="VI. Sanctification" n="ix">
- <h3>VI</h3> <h3>SANCTIFICATION<note n="1">
- <p class="footnote">That is separation from all outward things.</p>
- </note></h3>
- <p class="quote"><scripCom type="Sermon" passage="Luke
- 10:42"/><scripRef passage="Luke x. 42"><span class="sc">St Luke</span>
- x. 42</scripRef>.—“One thing is needful.”</p>
- <p class="first"><span class="sc">I have</span> read many writings both
- of heathen philosophers and inspired prophets, ancient and modern,
- and have sought earnestly to discover what is the best and highest
- quality whereby man may approach most nearly to union with God, and
- whereby he may most resemble the ideal of himself which existed in God,
- before God created men. And after having thoroughly searched these
- writings as far as my reason may penetrate, I find no higher quality
- than sanctification or separation from all creatures. Therefore said
- our Lord to Martha, “One thing is necessary,” as if to say,
- “whoso wishes to be untroubled and content, must have <i>one</i>
- thing, that is sanctification.”</p>
- <p>Various teachers have praised love greatly, as St Paul does, when
- he saith, “to whatever height I may attain, if I have not love,
- I am nothing.” But I set sanctification even above love; in the
- first place because the best thing in love is that it compels me
- <pb n="42-43"/>
- to love God. Now it is a greater thing that I compel God to come to me,
- than that I compel myself to go to God. Sanctification compels God to
- come to me, and I prove this as follows:—</p>
- <p>Everything settles in its own appropriate place; now God’s proper
- place is that of oneness and holiness; these come from sanctification;
- therefore God must of necessity give Himself to a sanctified heart.</p>
- <p>In the second place I set sanctification above love, because love
- compels me to suffer all things for the sake of God; sanctification
- compels me to be the recipient of nothing but God; now, it is a higher
- state to be the recipient of nothing but God than to suffer all things
- for God, because in suffering one must have some regard to the person
- who inflicts the suffering, but sanctification is independent of all
- creatures.</p>
- <p>Many teachers also praise humility as a virtue. But I set
- sanctification above humility for the following reason. Although humility
- may exist without sanctification, perfect sanctification cannot exist
- without perfect humility. Perfect humility tends to the annihilation of
- self; sanctification also is so close to self-annihilation that nothing
- can come between them. Therefore perfect sanctification cannot exist
- without humility, and to have both of these virtues is better than to
- have only one of them.</p>
- <p>The second reason why I set sanctification above humility is that
- humility stoops to be under all creatures, and in doing so goes out
- of itself. But sanctification remains self-contained. But to remain
- contained within oneself is nobler than to go out of oneself for any
- purpose whatever; therefore saith the Psalmist, “The King’s
- daughter is all glorious <i>within</i>,” that is, all her glory
- is from her inwardness. Perfect sanctification has no inclination
- nor going-out towards any creature; it wishes neither to be above
- or below, neither to be like nor unlike any creature, but only to be
- <i>one</i>. Whosoever wishes to be this or that wishes to be somewhat;
- but sanctification wishes to be nothing.</p>
- <p>But some one may say: “All virtues must have existed in fullness
- in Our Lady, therefore perfect sanctification must have been in her. If
- sanctification is higher than humility, why did Our Lady speak of her
- humility, and not of her sanctification, when she said, “For He
- hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaiden?” To this I answer
- that God possesses both sanctification and humility, so far as we may
- attribute virtues to God. Now thou shouldest know that His humility
- brought God to stoop down to human nature, and our Lady knew that He
- wished for the same quality in her, and in that matter had regard to
- her humility alone. Therefore she made mention of her humility and not
- of her sanctification, in which she remained unmoved and unaffected. If
- she had said, “He hath regarded the sanctification of His
- <pb n="44-45"/>
- handmaiden,” her sanctification would have been disturbed, for, so
- to speak, would have been a going out of herself. Therefore the Psalmist
- said, “I will hear what the Lord God will say in me,” as if
- to say, “If God will Speak to me, let Him come in, for I will not
- come out.” And Boethius saith, “Men, why seek ye outside
- you what is inside you—salvation?”</p>
- <p>I set also sanctification above pity, for pity is only going out
- of oneself to sympathize with one’s fellow-creature’s
- sorrows. From such an out-going sanctification is free and abides in
- itself, and does not let itself be troubled. To speak briefly: when I
- consider all the virtues I find none so entirely without flaw and so
- conducive to union with God as sanctification.</p>
- <p>The philosopher Avicenna says, “The spirit which is truly
- sanctified attains to so lofty a degree that all which it sees is
- real, all which it desires is granted, and in all which it commands,
- it is obeyed.” When the free spirit is stablished in true
- sanctification, it draws God to itself, and were it placed beyond the
- reach of contingencies, it would assume the properties of God. But God
- cannot part with those to anyone; all that He can do for the sanctified
- spirit is to impart Himself to it. The man who is wholly sanctified is
- so drawn towards the Eternal, that no transitory thing may move him,
- no corporeal thing affect him, no earthly thing attract him. This was
- the meaning of St Paul when he said, “I live; yet not I; Christ
- liveth in me.”</p>
- <p>Now the question arises what <i>is</i>
- sanctification, since it has so lofty a rank. Thou shouldest know
- that real sanctification consists in this that the spirit remain as
- immovable and unaffected by all impact of love or hate, joy or
- sorrow, honour or shame, as a huge mountain is unstirred by a gentle
- breeze. This immovable sanctification causes man to attain the
- nearest likeness to God that he is capable of. God’s very essence
- consists of His immovable sanctity; thence springs His glory and
- unity and impassibility. If a man is to become as like God as a
- creature may, that must be by sanctification. It is this which draws
- men upward to glory, and from glory to unity, and from unity to
- impassibility, and effects a resemblance between God and men. The
- chief agent in this is grace, because grace draws men from the
- transitory and purifies them from the earthly. And thou shouldest
- know that to be empty of all creature’s love is to be full of God,
- and to be full of creature-love is to be empty of God.</p>
- <p>God has remained from everlasting in immovable sanctity, and
- still remains so. When He created heaven and earth and all creatures,
- His sanctity was as little affected thereby as though He had created
- nothing. I say further: God’s sanctity is as little affected by
- men’s good works and prayers, as though they had accomplished
- none, and
- <pb n="46-47"/>
- He is by those means no more favourably inclined towards men than if
- they ceased praying and working. I say even more: when the Divine Son
- became man and suffered that affected the sanctity of God as little as
- though He had never become man at all.</p>
- <p> Here some one may make the objection: “Are then all good works
- and prayers thrown away, since God is unmoved by them, and at the same
- time we are told to pray to Him for everything?” In answer to
- this I say that God from all eternity saw everything that would happen,
- and also when, and how He would make all creatures: He foresaw also all
- the prayers which would be offered, and which of them He would hear:
- He saw the earnest prayers which thou wilt offer tomorrow, but He will
- not listen to them tomorrow, because He heard them in eternity, before
- thou wast a man at all. If, however, thy prayer is half-hearted and not
- in earnest, God will not deny it <i>now</i>, seeing that He has denied
- it in eternity. Thus God remains always in His immovable sanctity,
- but sincere prayer and good works are not lost, for whoso doeth well,
- will be well rewarded.</p>
- <p>When God appears to be angry or to do us a kindness, it is we who are
- altered, while He remains unchangeable, as the same sunshine is injurious
- to weak eyes and beneficial to strong ones, remaining in itself the
- same. Regarding this Isidorus in his book concerning the highest good
- says, “People ask what was God doing before He created heaven and
- earth, or whence came the new desire in God to create?” To this
- he answers, “No new desire arose in God, seeing that creation was
- everlastingly present in Him, and in His intelligence.” Moses
- said to God, “When Pharaoh asks me who Thou art, what shall I
- answer?” God said, “Say, I AM hath sent me unto you,”
- that is to say, “He Who is unchangeable hath sent me.”</p>
- <p>Perhaps some one may ask, “Was Christ then also unchangeable,
- when He said, ‘My soul is troubled even unto death,’ or
- Mary when she stood under the Cross and lamented?” Here, thou
- shouldest know that in every man are two kinds of men, the outer and
- the inner man. Every man, who loves God, only uses his outer senses so
- far as is absolutely necessary; he takes care that they do not drag him
- down to the level of the beasts, as they do some who might rather he
- termed beasts than men. The soul of the spiritual man whom God moves to
- love Him with all his powers concentrates all its forces on the inner
- man. Therefore He saith, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
- all thy heart.” Now, there are some who waste the powers of the
- soul for the use of the outer man; these are they who turn all their
- thoughts and desires towards transitory things, and know nothing of the
- inner life. But a good man sometimes deprives his outer man of all power
- <pb n="48-49"/>
- that it may have a higher object, while sensualists deprive the inner
- man of all power to use it for the outer man.</p>
- <p> The outer man may go through various experiences, while the inner man
- is quite free and immovable. Now both in Christ and in Our Lady there
- was an inner and an outer man; when they spoke of outward things, they
- did so with the outward man, while the inner man remained immovable.</p>
- <p>It may be asked: “What is the object of this immovable
- sanctity?” I answer, “Nothing”: that is, so far as
- God has His way with a man, for He has not His way with all men.</p>
- <p>Although God is Almighty, He can only work in a heart when He finds
- readiness or makes it. He works differently in men than in stones. For
- this we may take the following illustration: if we bake in one oven three
- loaves of barley-bread, of rye-bread, and of wheat, we shall find the
- same heat of the oven affects them differently; when one is well-baked,
- another will be still raw, and another yet more raw. That is not due to
- the heat, but to the variety of the materials. Similarly God works in
- all hearts not alike but in proportion as He finds them prepared and
- susceptible. If the heart is to be ready for the highest, it must he
- vacant of all other things. If I wish to write on a white tablet, whatever
- else is written on the tablet, however noble its purport, is a hindrance
- to me. If I am to write, I must wipe the tablet clean of everything, and
- the tablet is most suitable for my purpose when it is blank. Similarly,
- if God is to write on my heart, everything else must come out of it
- till it is really sanctified. Only so can God work His highest will,
- and so the sanctified heart has no outward object at all.</p>
- <p> The question arises: But what then does the sanctified heart pray
- for? I answer that when truly sanctified, it prays for nothing, for
- whosoever prays asks God to give him some good, or to take some evil from
- him. But the sanctified heart desires nothing, and contains nothing that
- it wishes to be freed from. Therefore it is free of all want except
- that it wants to be like God. St Dionysius commenting on the text,
- “Know ye not that all run, but one receiveth the prize?”
- says “this running is nothing else than a turning away from all
- creatures and being united to the Uncreated.” When the soul gets
- to this point, it loses its own distinctiveness, and vanishes in God
- as the crimson of sunrise disappears in the sun. To this goal only pure
- sanctification can arrive.</p>
- <p>St Augustine says. “the strong attraction of the soul to the
- Divine reduces everything to nothingness: on earth this attraction
- is manifested as sanctification. When this process has reached its
- culminating point, knowledge becomes ignorance, desire indifference and
- light darkness. The reason why God desires a sanctified heart more than
- any other is apparent when we ask the question,
- <pb n="50-51"/>
- “What does God seek in all things?” The mouth of Wisdom
- says to us, “In all things I seek rest,” and rest is to be
- found only in the sanctified heart; therein therefore God is more glad
- to dwell than in any other thing.</p>
- <p> Thou shouldest also know that the more a man sets himself to be
- receptive of divine influence, the happier he is: who most sets himself
- so, is the happiest. Now no man can reach this condition of receptivity
- except by conformity with God, which comes from submission to God. This
- is what Saint Paul means when he says, “Put on the Lord Jesus
- Christ,” that is “be conformed to Christ.” Whosoever
- wishes to comprehend the lofty rank and benefit of sanctification must
- mark Christ’s words to His disciples regarding His humanity,
- “It is profitable for you, that I go away, for, if I go not away,
- the Comforter will not come to you.” As if to say, “Ye have so
- much desire towards my natural outward form, that ye cannot fully desire
- the Holy Spirit.” Therefore put away forms and unite yourselves
- with formless Being, for God’s spiritual comfort is only offered
- to those who despise earthly comfort.</p>
- <p>Now, all thoughtful folk, mark me! no one can be truly happy, except
- he who abides in the strictest sanctification. No bodily and fleshly
- delight can ever take place with out spiritual loss, for the flesh lusteth
- against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Therefore, the more
- a man fleeth from the created, the more the Creator hastens to him. And
- consider this: if the pleasure we take in the outward image of our Lord
- Jesus Christ diminishes our capacity for receiving the Holy Spirit, how
- much more must our unbridled desire for earthly comforts diminish it!</p>
- <p> Therefore sanctification is the best of all things, for it cleanses
- the soul, and illuminates the conscience, and kindles the heart, and
- wakens the spirit, and girds up the loins, and glorifies virtue and
- separates us from creatures, and unites us with God. The quickest means to
- bring us to perfection is suffering; none enjoy everlasting blessedness
- more than those who share with Christ the bitterest pangs. Nothing is
- sharper than suffering, nothing is sweeter than to have suffered. The
- surest foundation in which this perfection may rest is humility;
- whatever here crawls in the deepest abjectness, that the Spirit lifts
- to the very heights of God, for love brings suffering and suffering
- brings love. Ways of living are many; one lives thus, and another thus;
- but whosoever will reach the highest life, let him in a few words hear
- the conclusion of the whole matter: keep thyself clear of all men, keep
- thyself from all imaginations that crowd upon the mind, free thyself
- from all that is contingent, entangling, and cumbersome and direct thy
- mind always to gazing upon God in thy heart with a steadfast look that
- never wavers: as for other spiritual exercises—fasting, watching
- and prayer—direct them all to this
- <pb n="52-53"/>
- one end, and practice them so far as they may be helpful thereto,
- so wilt thou win to perfection. Here some one may ask, “Who can
- thus gaze always without wavering at a divine object?” I answer:
- “No one who now lives.” This has only been said to thee
- that thou mightest know what the highest is, and that thou mightest
- have desires after it. But when thou losest sight of the Divine, thou
- shouldest feel as if bereft of thine eternal salvation, and shouldest
- long to recover it, and watch over thyself at all times, and direct thy
- aims and longing towards it. May God be blessed for ever. Amen.</p></div1>
- <div1 title="VII. Outward and Inward Morality" n="x">
- <h3>VII</h3> <h3>OUTWARD AND INWARD MORALITY</h3>
- <p class="quote"><scripCom type="Sermon" passage="1 Cor. 15:10"/><scripRef
- passage="I Cor. xv. 10">I <span class="sc">Cor.</span>
- xv. 10</scripRef>.—“The Grace of God.”</p>
- <p class="first"><span class="sc">Grace</span> is from God, and works in
- the depth of the soul whose powers it employs. It is a light which issues
- forth to do service under the guidance of the Spirit. The Divine Light
- permeates the soul, and lifts it above the turmoil of temporal things
- to rest in God. The soul cannot progress except with the light which God
- has given it as a nuptial gift; love works the likeness of God into the
- soul. The peace, freedom and blessedness of all souls consist in their
- abiding in God’s will. Towards this union with God for which it
- is created the soul strives perpetually. Fire converts wood into its own
- likeness, and the stronger the wind blows, the greater grows the fire. Now
- by the fire understand love, and by the wind the Holy Spirit. The stronger
- the influence of the Holy Spirit, the brighter grows the fire of love;
- but not all at once, rather gradually as the soul grows. Light causes
- flowers and plants to grow and bear fruit; in animals it produces life,
- but in men blessedness. This comes from the
- <pb n="54-55"/>
- grace of God, Who uplifts the soul, for if the soul is to grow God-like
- it must be lifted above itself.</p>
- <p> To produce real moral freedom, God’s grace and man’s will
- must co-operate. As God is the Prime Mover of nature, so also He creates
- free impulses towards Himself and to all good things. Grace renders the
- will free that it may do everything with God’s help, working with
- grace as with an instrument which belongs to it. So the will arrives at
- freedom through love, nay, becomes itself love, for love unites with
- God. All true morality, inward and outward, is comprehended in love,
- for love is the foundation of all the commandments.</p>
- <p>All outward morality must be built upon this basis, not on
- self-interest. As long as man loves something else than God, or outside
- God, he is not free, because he has not love. Therefore there is no
- inner freedom which does not manifest itself in works of love. True
- freedom is the government of nature in and outside man through God;
- freedom is essential existence unaffected by creatures. But love often
- begins with fear; fear is the approach to love: fear is like the awl
- which draws the shoemaker’s thread through the leather.</p>
- <p>As for outward works they are ordained for this purpose that the
- outward man may be directed to God. But the inner work, the work of God
- in the soul is the chief matter; when a man finds this within himself,
- he can let go externals. No law is given to the righteous, because he
- fulfils the law inwardly, and bears it in himself, for the least thing
- done by God is better than all the work of creatures. But this is intended
- for those who are enlightened by God and the Holy Scriptures.</p>
- <p> But here on earth man never attains to being unaffected by external
- things. There never was a Saint so great as to be immovable. I can
- never arrive at a state when discord shall be as pleasing to my ears as
- harmony. Some people wish to do without good works. I say, “This
- cannot be.” As soon as the disciples received the Holy Ghost,
- they began to work. When Mary sat at the feet of our Lord that was
- her school time. But afterwards when Christ went to heaven, and she
- received the Holy Spirit, she began to serve and was a handmaid of the
- disciples. When saints become saints, they begin to work, and so gather
- to the refuge of everlasting safety.</p>
- <p>How can a man abide in love, when he does not keep God’s
- commands which issue forth from love? How can the inner man be born
- in God, when the outer man abides not in the following of Christ, in
- self-mortification and in suffering, for there is no being born of God,
- except through Christ. Love is the fulfilling of <i>all</i> commands;
- therefore however much man strives to reach this freedom, the body can
- never quite attain thereto, and must be ever in conflict. Seeing that
- good works are
- <pb n="56-57"/>
- the witness of the Holy Ghost, man can never do without them. The aim
- of man is not outward holiness by works, but life in God, yet this last
- expresses itself in works of love.</p>
- <p> Outward as well as inward morality helps to form the idea of true
- Christian freedom. We are right to lay stress on inwardness, but in this
- world there is no inwardness without an outward expression. If we regard
- the soul as the formative principle of the body, and God as the formative
- principle of the soul, we have a profounder principle of ethics than
- is found in Pantheism. The fundamental thought of this system is the
- real distinction between God and the world, together with their real
- inseparability, for only really distinct elements can interpenetrate
- each other.</p>
- <p>The inner work is first of all the work of God’s grace in
- the depth of the soul which subsequently distributes itself among the
- faculties of the soul, in that of Reason appearing as Belief, in that
- of Will as Love, and in that of Desire as Hope. When the Divine Light
- penetrates the soul, it is united with God as light with light. This is
- the light of faith. Faith bears the soul to heights unreachable by her
- natural senses and faculties.</p>
- <p> As the peculiar faculty of the eye is to see form and colour, and
- of the ear to hear sweet tones and voices, so is aspiration peculiar
- to the soul. To relax from ceaseless aspiration is sin. This energy of
- aspiration directed to and grasping God, as far as is possible for the
- creature, is called Hope, which is also a divine virtue. Through this
- faculty the soul acquires such great confidence that she deems nothing
- in the Divine Nature beyond her reach.</p>
- <p> The third faculty is the inward Will, which, always turned to God
- like a face, absorbs to itself love from God. According to the diverse
- directions in which redemptive Grace through the Holy Spirit is imparted
- to the different faculties of men, it finds corresponding expression
- as one of the Spirit’s seven gifts. This impartation constitutes
- man’s spiritual birth which brings him out of sin into a state of
- grace while natural birth makes him a sinner.</p>
- <p>As God can only be seen by His own light, so He can only be loved
- by His own love. The merely natural man is incapable of this, because
- nature by itself is incapable of responding to the Divine Love and is
- confined within its own circle. Therefore it is necessary for Grace,
- which is a simple supernatural power, to elevate the natural faculties
- to union in God above the merely temporal objects of existence. The
- possibility of love to God is grounded in the relative likeness between
- man and God. If the soul is to reach its moral goal, i.e. Godlikeness,
- it must become inwardly like God through grace, and a spiritual birth
- which is the spring of true morality.
- <pb n="58-59"/>
- The inner work that man has to do is the practical realization of Grace:
- without this, all outward work is ineffectual for salvation. Virtue is
- never mere virtue, it is either from God, or through God, or in God. All
- the soul’s works which are to inherit an everlasting recompense
- must be carried on in God. They are rewarded by Him in proportion as they
- are carried on in Him, for the soul is an instrument of God whereby He
- carries on His work.</p>
- <p> The essence of morality is inwardness, the intensity of will
- from which it springs, and the nobleness of the aim for which it is
- practiced. When a good work is done by a man, he is free of it, and
- through that freedom is liker and nearer to his Original than he was
- before.</p>
- <p>The moral task of man is a process of spiritualization. All creatures
- are go-betweens, and we are placed in time that by diligence in spiritual
- business we may grow liker and nearer to God. The aim of man is beyond
- the temporal—in the serene region of the everlasting Present.</p>
- <p>In this sense the New Birth of man is the focus towards which all
- creation strives, because man is the image of God after the likeness of
- which the world is created. All time strives towards eternity or the
- timeless Now, out of which it issued at creation. The merely temporal
- life in itself is a negation of real being, because it depends on itself
- and not on the deepest foundation of life; therefore also natural love
- is cramped finite and defective. It must through grace be lifted to the
- highest sphere of existence, and attain to freedom outside the narrow
- confines of the natural. Thereby love becomes real love, because only
- that is real which is comprehended and loved in its essence. Only by
- grace man comes from the temporal and transitory to be one with God. This
- lifting of manifoldness to unity is the supreme aim of ethics; by thus
- the divine birth is completed on the side of man.</p>
- <p> This passage from nothingness to real being, this quitting of oneself
- is a birth accompanied by pain, for by it natural love is excluded. All
- grief except grief for sin comes from love of the world. In God is
- neither sorrow, nor grief, nor trouble. Wouldst thou be free from all
- grief and trouble, abide and walk in God, and to God alone. As long as
- love of the creature is in us, pain cannot cease.</p>
- <p>This is the chief significance of the suffering of Christ for us,
- that we cast all our grief into the ocean of His suffering. If thou
- sufferest only regarding thyself, from whatever cause it may be,
- that suffering causes grief to thee, and is hard to bear. But if thou
- sufferest regarding God and Him alone, that suffering is not grievous,
- nor hard to bear, because God bears the load. The love of the Cross
- must swallow up our personal grief. Whoso does not suffer from love,
- for him sorrow is sorrow and grievous to bear; but whoso
- <pb n="60-61"/>
- suffers from love he sorrows not, and his suffering is fruitful in
- God. Therefore is sorrow so noble; he who sorrows most is the noblest. Now
- no mortal’s sorrow was like the sorrow which Christ bore; therefore
- he is far nobler than any man. <i>Verily were there anything nobler than
- sorrow, God would have redeemed man thereby.</i> Sorrow is the root of
- all virtue.</p>
- <p>Through the higher love the whole life of man is to be elevated from
- temporal selfishness to the spring of all love, to God: man will again
- be master over nature by abiding in God and lifting her up to God.</p>
- <pb n="62-63"/>
- <p> </p>
- <pb n="64-65"/>
- </div1>
- </ThML.body></ThML>
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