86. ‘ Sir, when you speak of God’s birth, of the Father begetting his Son in the soul, is this birth the same as the rapture of St Paul and what happened at Pentecost to the disciples or are these different things ? "—They are exactly the same.— Then when you talk of eternal light do you mean God’s birth in the soul or is that something else? ’—I mean the same thing; they are identical. But one thing I do say. Birth is the better term and nearer to the truth though in reality there is no difference. I will tell you why. An angel by nature is eternal light; the sun is eternal light ; the stars are eternal light. Eternal light is ascribed to things that are not changed by time; and since we can attribute eternal light to creatures so we may to man in an imperfect sense. But birth applies to the heavenly Father alone, this birth in eternity. God catches the soul all at once to himself and his birth is gotten therein. There it is to him well-nigh the same as the Son in the Trinity. I say, well-nigh, for it is there by grace and the Son by nature.—‘ Suppose a man has eternal light, is he prone to temporal sin ? ’—It was after Pentecost that Peter sinned.
90. ‘ Can a man make certain of having nothing more to over- come ? ’—St Paul had things to overcome after he was caught up. And our Lord Jesus Christ had to overcome. Though his soul and body were united with the Godhead and the Godhead is impassible, yet his future pains were present with him, racking all his soul-powers.
91. ‘ When the soul prepares for God by chasing away thoughts and discarding all the things she has relied on and endeavours to get rid of every means but without success, tell me, Sir, what
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ought she to do next ?’—When the images from outside are all gone let her abase herself and lovingly entreat of him somewhat . that she still lacks.—‘ But if she refuses to desire or entreat, being minded to remain quite simple ? —Then let her simply fix her mind on God with vehement longing.— But surely, Sir, longing is a means and she wants to be quite simple and direct: without any images and free from this and that, with not a word or prayer to come between ? ’—I say it is impossible in the unglorified body ; she ought not to expect it.—‘ If that is the case, Sir, then it seems to me her watchword ought to be refusal—of objective things and subjective images—and that is her best way.’— There is no doubt of it; she can do no more. When a soul like this is rapt above herself into naked knowledge of naught it is God who does it at his own good pleasure, absolutely freely, without any help of hers.
92. ‘Sir, can we realize all our minds can grasp ?’—No. I can conceive of things I cannot be: the unglorified body is not so agile as the mind.
93. ‘ What is a reasonable man ? ’—One who is controlled in joy and sorrow, him I call a reasonable man.— How would you define prayer ? ’—St Augustine says, prayer is the soul’s detach- ment from things and attachment to God.—‘ Tell me, Sir, can we be rid of things at once without any trouble ? ’—No, it is always accompanied with pain: that indicates the pull of something higher. If it comes without pain it is no matter for rejoicing. True, St Paul lost things all at once, but afterwards he had to
‘conquer them in detail. Conquests made by suffering are lasting.
94. What God has by nature in unity is not denied to any rational creature, by grace, in his individuality. Rejoicing and sorrowing, that is nature. We must expect nature in people.
95. ‘Sir, are we punished for faults ?’—We are punished for sins and hindered by faults.—‘ But you said that when a man has eternal light he never has anything between and now you say he is prone to sin. Do such people sin and is sin punished with tire ? You certainly did say that they have nothing between. How are these two facts to be reconciled ? How is the sin wiped out ?’ —By the perfect love of the creator to his creature and the creature to his creator: the sin lies between them and in the fire of their love sin burns away. \
96. ‘ Those to whom eternal light has come, do they afterwards remain in a state of love and vision? I am wondering, being established in the one, where there is naught but one, how they manage to be one and other, for there is that in me, when spirit conceives unity, that passes all distinction. Are grace and vision and light all the same? ’—No, not by any means. Take an illustration. The stars are put out by the sun and in the same way
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grace and vision fade when eternal light is given. The highest of the angels draws a form from God and on assuming it, adapts it further to himself and informs therewith the middle ones who pass it on to those below and the lowest give it to the soul and the fiend can copy it. So they may be deceived. But the soul in whom the heavenly Father speaks his Word does not receive from the lower angels: what the highest of the angels draws from God he pours into this soul without the intervention of the rest. Verily I say, seldom or never do people get through angels apparitions of such things as are given in time and temporalities.
97. ‘ What is the difference between nature and spirit ? ’—I call that spirit whereby we are aware what we ought to have and what to leave whether we would or no. Spirit makes us do it, willy-nilly. Not to do it because we do not want to would be nature.
98. “When is nature uppermost ? ’—When we have at heart something we ought to get rid of and will not.
99. ‘How would you distinguish, Sir, between sin, fault and infirmity ? ’—It is sin to cleave with desire to anything that does not make for God. ‘By a fault I mean any accidental falling short of God. And infirmity may be defined as not having the mind fixed on God all the time.
100. *O thou fathomless Truth,’ cries St Paul, ‘ thy ways are past finding out!’ When he cries O, he is thinking of the hidden hoard of the divine nature.—* What hoard ? ’—The wisdom of God. Angels’ and souls’ desire is appeased by nothing but the best. The wisdom of God is savoured when all creatures point (us) towards -—— the best.. The other hoard is God’s art. Art amounts, in temporal things, to singling out the best. True art loses this altogether and abides in the ground of them all. St Paul was caught up above this wonder and above this O and saw the very thing he is seeing to this day, the bond of life meanwhile persisting in his body as form does in its matter. His higher self received naked eternal light ; body was no hindrance, soul received from God.
101. ‘ When is the soul above O ? ’—When she gets the simple impression of divine form, of the image which is the Son himself for so the Father is always letting down the apex of the higher world into the one below.—Anyone on earth may be deceived excepting him in whom the Father bears his Son.
102. ‘ What is the sign of the eternal birth ?’— While a man is subject to sensible affection he has no conception of eternal truth. When he does conceive the eternal truth no creature can comfort or discomfit him. The time when Paul was felled to earth he heard a voice which said to him, ‘ Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? ” He said, ‘Who art thou Lord? ’—‘I am Jesus of Nazareth.’
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The voice was not God: God was speaking through an angel. God can no more lose his nature than utter his eternal Word in sound or image. God said through an angel, I am Jesus of Nazareth. He said I, referring to the impartible I of divine nature. The am shows distinction between the Father and the Son. Jesus of Nazareth suggests the union of divine and human nature.
103. St James says, ‘ With the Father of lights is no turning.’ There are three kinds of turning. One of nature, another of will and a third of power. I speak of the first. Turning means changing from one thing to another, becoming more or less, going to and fro. One philosopher says, ‘Things are all fighting their way back to naught.’ If God withdrew support things would all relapse into primeval chaos. The philosopher says, all created things are fluent. That is fluent which is not stationary in itself. If creature could touch bottom heaven would end and creature would be God. Natural change there is none with the Father of lights. Change is due to a longing for rest. If there were rest in him divine nature would pass away and heaven be at an end. He does not alter. What he has like nature is generation. If generation stopped things would all go back to their primeval nothingness. But of what avail are long discussions of God’s nature if we are not aware of his image in us ?
104. ‘Pray Sir, what makes the soul unchangeable ? ’— Stability of soul depends upon three things. First on her having her body well-controlled : what the soul wills, that her body must do without question. If Adam had preserved his natural perfection he could have done whatever he desired and creatures would all have been obedient to him. But when he fell both his own body and all creatures left off obeying him: they were no longer true to him who was untrue to God.—The second thing is to have no attachment to or enjoyment in anything inferior to God.—Thirdly, no quarter must be given to the mortal nature. If Adam had stood firm he would not have become mortal. Adam as God made him on the first day would have survived until the day of judgment. St Paul declares, ‘From the moment God called me not once have I looked back.’ If Adam had seen God in him- self he could not have fallen. He knew that God had made him and what he made him for and this he viewed with carnal pleasure. It was this and nothing else that carried him away.
105. When our Lord Jesus Christ was about to depart to heaven to his Father his disciples were with him at the place of his ascen- sion, distraught and unable to speak or pay attention, so much were they engrossed with the bodily presence of our Lord. And while they stood staring up at the sky there came an angel saying, ‘Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye here gazing up into heaven ? ”
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Why so absorbed in that which, after all, cannot remain with you for ever? Philosophers tell us that creature does not stay, it is flowing all the time back into its source. If the disciples had been proof to sweetness not one of them would have been distraught. For this the angel chid them saying, ‘Why stand ye here?’ as though to say, why occupy your minds so much with the beloved bodily form of our Lord Jesus Christ ? Ye only waste yourselves on temporal things which, after all, are impermanent. ‘ Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?’ God is the form of the soul, the soul’s soul. When spirit is caught up above all images, into the eternal truth, then the soul stops and sees into heaven. It is
‘ man’s highest happiness that she cannot rest until, being rid of
images, she is reflected back into the naught where she has been eternally without herself. Soul becomes Son when she is thus transported over all into the open where God is ; then soul draws out of God and when she is as we have said she is standing at the door. She loses her own nature drinking out of God, on the threshold of gnosis, where nothing enters into her except the eternal, Eternal rest, then, is not given her except by him.
106. Aristotle says, everything partial is painful; the most united is most painful when divided.