“ By not telling me outright the quickest way to it.’—‘ It is obedience to the Holy Ghost,’ he said. ‘I should never counsel thee other- wise than I have counselled thee.’-—‘ If you had not discouraged me,’ she said, ‘ and other spiritual folks to boot, I should have spent my time more virtuously. I weened, forsooth, it were the gospel that priests propagated.’—‘ The gospel is begotten in the Holy Ghost of the perfect life of our Lord Jesus Christ and according to his noble teachings. We read and preach the gospel openly : he who would follow it let him follow it to the utmost.’—‘ God forgive me for not doing so all my days,’ said she. Quoth he, ‘I grieve thou shouldst accuse me of preventing thee.’—‘ Aye,’ she replied, ‘I accuse you and all creatures.’-—‘ Thou art mistook,’ he said. ‘No one can hinder thee but thine own self. Know, whom God impels none can resist : not all the saints in heaven nor all the preaching friars and barefoot monks on earth can stand against one man moved by the truth. He is impelled by that same word which Christ spoke, answering the youth who sought the perfect life. Christ said: Keep the ten commandments. The young man replied, All these have I kept from my youth up. Then said Christ, If thou wilt be perfect, sell all thou hast and give to the poor and follow me. Christ made known this same truth to us by Peter and others of his disciples whom he called to live with him in willing poverty. Thou knowest, daughter, that what Christ said and did is true, for he is truth itself; and know more- over, that to reach the Father we must walk in, Christ’s footsteps all the way.’ Quoth she, ‘ Well then, good father, why be so discouraging ? ’—* ’Tis such a flawless life,’ he said, ‘ anyone leading it God must needs come and help.’-—‘ God does not come and go,’ she said ; ‘ that I do know. I wot right well when we resign our- selves to him he does not fail to succour us at need.’ Quoth he, ‘ What if all creatures despise thee?’ She said, ‘I want to be the least of creatures in our Lord Jesus Christ, the lowest of his creatures ; then I can say with Paul, Rejoice, all creatures are my cross and I the cross of creatures.’ He said, ‘ Daughter, thou art too young.’—‘ Mary was younger than I,’ she said, ‘ when she set forth into the desert and exile, driven by robbery and murder.’ —‘ God was with her,’ said he. ‘ And well I wot God is with me.’ said she. ‘He was there present in her.’ he replied. ‘He is ever present in my soul,’ she said. Quoth he, ‘ But Mary had a solemn pledge of his presence, which thou hast not, my daughter.’ Quoth she, ‘Since I dispense with outward consolations, I am without his outward presence. I would that he were ever being born within my soul.’—‘ Think twice,’ he said, * before adventuring that.’—‘ Peace, let me speak ! ’ she cried, ‘ ’tis by your too much admonition that you have hindered me.’ He said, * Know, did
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the truth move thee, thou hadst not done nor yet forborne because of me. I am but creature, as thou knowest. As long as any creature has power to give and take thou livest not unto truth. Truth has virtue sufficient to raise man to the summit without help from creatures. Thou durst not cast the blame on me, for know, whom the truth moves has the Holy Ghost to his master, who educates his pupils in the highest school of all. There we learn more in the twinkling of an eye than all the doctors can express.’—‘ You speak the truth,’ she said.
The second article of faith is trust in God. He can say he trusts God who keeps not overnight so much as a pen’orth of possessions. I say more: he keeps nothing at all; but he who withholds but a pennyworth of worldly goods from his even- christian, knowing him to be in need of it, is a robber in the sight of God. I warn you, by Christ who suffered so for love of men, allow no want in any man, he being made in the likeness of Christ for whose sake God created all things ; and impair not his condition by withholding from him his father’s goods, which it behoves him to restore to God.
Further I declare, who spares a penny for himself to put it by against a rainy day, thinking, I may need that for to-morrow, is a murderer before God. And I will prove it. Forif he trust God he will leave himself in God’s hands; if God give him the morrow, he will give him also the wherewithal for it. Hence I affirm there be few who have faith enough to trust God blindly. Know that the man who sets more store by worldly goods than by his powers of knowing and loving God, is justly termed a murderer. This I call Christ to witness, who said, ‘ When I am ascended I will draw all things after me.’ In the same way the virtuous man takes all things up to God, to their first source. The masters teach that creatures were made for man. They prove it from the fact that creatures all need each other: cattle need grass, fish water, birds the air, and beasts the forest. By the same token all creatures come in useful to the good and are carried, one creature in the other, by the good soul to God. Lived there a man who trusted God, God would do unto him better than ever he could do unto himself.
Take the third article of faith, that is, knowledge of God. I say, no man knows God who knows not himself first. Mark how to know yourselves. To know himself a man must be for ever on the watch over himself, holding his outer faculties, breaking them in by vigorous training to obey the higher powers of his soul. This discipline must be continued till he reach a state of conscious- ness so pure that nothing short of God can form in it. Then thou dost come acquainted with thyself and God.
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The fourth property of faith is love. To be able to say, ‘ I love thee, Lord,’ a man must suffer without why what without why Christ suffered, and suffer it gladly without suffering. Though God shall tell him mouth to mouth, ‘ Thou shalt be lost for ever with the damned,’ he only loves God all the more, and says, * Lord, an thou wilt that I be damned, damned I will be, eternally.’ Thus he identifies his will with what God wills, willing that same in earth and heaven. Of this he deems himself unworthy. That man can say, ‘ I love thee.’
We have explained now what faith means. To carry out in
practice these articles of faith as enumerated from the start entitles
us to say, *I believe in God.’
By the two roast fishes (one fish is will, the other its fulfilment) we understand thorough subjection, the downright death of thy whole nature—the marrow of thy bones, blood in thy veins and whole concomitants of natural vigour—so that albeit having the will to sin, thou hast no power to. Doctors debate whether a man can reach the stage at which he is incapable of sinning in his body. ‘The best authorities say ‘ Yes’; alluding to souls so perfectly disciplined outwardly and inwardly that they have no propensity to sin.
The second fish we take to signify achievement of the virtues ; virtue consummated to the pitch where it becomes instinctive ; where virtue is our very being; where our knowledge and love transcend virtue. A man at this stage gives pure light.
Doctors describe four kinds of light. The first is natural, the light of natural man apt in affairs, which is less a help than a hindrance. The second is the light of grace. Whom this en- lightens has his natural light put out. It lights him on the road to his salvation, preserving him in grace so he follow it closely. The third light lightens the angels and man in his primitive innocence. For know, the man who with the angels receives all things from God is void of mundane things and creaturehood and naked as he was when he came out of God. Man can what angels cannot: in this light he can transcend the angels and receive all things from the source of divine truth. Then he is given divine light, the fourth light, and about this Iam dumb. I keep that to myself.
Here the daughter comes to her revered confessor and says, ‘ Sir, I fear I shall never do it.‘ Why not ?.’ said he. Said she, “I still have all the virtues to cultivate. I ween I never brought one single virtue to the pitch required.’ Quoth he, “ Be satisfied to do thy best.’—‘ I have never done my best,’ she said, ‘ albeit I am well aware that I am thrice behoven unto God. My first behoof is to repair my faults.’—‘ None can repair a =) if God
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_ forgive it not in love,’ said he. ‘I wot of that,’ she said, ‘ but I must do my share and live in hopes of grace until I die.’
Quoth he, ‘ What is thy second accusation?’ She answered, ‘That, while fain to be in the joy of our Lord, I have not lived accordingly, albeit well aware that to enter there one has to live the perfect life in our Lord Jesus Christ.’—‘ That is so,’ he said. ‘ Tell me, what is thy third behoof?’ Shesaid, “ Though there were neither hell nor heaven, to follow him for true love all the same, as he prevented me: to follow him to the end without a why. I know my duty but mend not my ways as in duty bound.’—* What more wouldst thou do?’ he asked. ‘Thou hast given up honour and possessions, and kith and kin and every comfort thou didst get from creatures.’—‘ True, sir, in letter,’ she said, * but giving up all God ever created to leave it for God’s sake is giving up nothing ; it is not mine to give. It is God’s. Anything in the shape of possessions is God’s. Wherefore I ween there is still something more for me to leave.’-—‘* What must thou leave ?’ he asked.— ‘ Myself,’ she answered. ‘ If I leave myself wherever I find myself I can say, I have left myself.’—* Thou art right,’ he cried, ‘but I marvel, being so sensitive, thou canst brook the insults heaped upon thee.’ She said, ‘God knows I feel none.’ Quoth he, * Does it not touch thee that thy friends, spiritual as well as worldly, are so distressed on thy account, thinking thee most mistook in thy behaviour ? ’—‘ What is that to me?’ she said. ‘ For well I ween Christ knew, when he was sitting in the temple, that Joseph and his mother sought him sorrowing. The doctors told Christ : Thy father and thy mother are seeking thee. Christ answered : He who is kind to me, the same is my father and mother and sister and brother. —‘ True,’ he said. ‘I prithee, though, accept life’s necessaries when they are offered thee in the name of God.’ —‘ Tell me,’ she queried, ‘what are necessaries ? ’—* Wouldst have me specify the bare necessities of life ?’ he asked. ‘ Aye,’ she replied. ‘ Bread, water, and a cloak,’ he said. ‘ These are bare bodily necessities.’ Quoth she, ‘ Now tell me what is neces- sary?’ And he made answer, ‘To dwell in utter ignominy in Christ who alone lives.’—* Now God reward you ! ’ she exclaimed. ‘Pray God on my behalf to give all creatures licence to cry me down and persecute me to their topmost bent.’ Quoth he, ‘ Thow It get a plenty in thy vocation. A holy man has said, Did God know anyone willing to suffer the sum of human suffering, he would give it him to bear that his worth might be so much the greater in eternity. God will do this out of pure love to anyone he calls to him.’ Quoth she, ‘A master says, He alone deserves suffering who dearly desires it.’—* True, daughter,’ he said. ‘ Prithee, an thou wilt, remain in these parts and busy thyself among us.’—