BOOK II CHAPTER LXIII
OF THE ORDERING OF ALL THE VIRTUES
THROUGH THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST
Now consider the order and the degrees of all the virtues and of all
holiness, with which we should go out to meet God through resemblance ;
that so we may rest with Him in the unity.
THE GIFT OF FEAR
When a man lives in the Fear of God, in the moral virtues and in outward
works; and when he is obedient and submissive to Holy Church and to the
Divine commandments, and when he is ready and willing in simplicity of
intention to do all good things: then he is like unto God, through faithfulness,
and through the gathering of his will into the will of God, both in doing
and in leaving undone. And he rests in God, above likeness; for through
faithfulness and singleness of intention, he fulfils the will of God, more
or less according to the measure of his likeness; and through love, he
rests in his Beloved above likeness.
THE GIFT OF PIETY
And if he exerts himself well in that which he has received from God,
then God bestows upon him the spirit of Piety and Mercy. Thus he becomes
gentle of heart, meek and merciful. And thereby he becomes more full of
life and more like to God, and feels himself to be resting more in God,
and to be broader and deeper in virtue than before. And he savours this
likeness and this rest so much the better, the more his resemblance is
increased.
THE GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE
And if he here exerts himself well, with great zeal, and with a single
intention, and fights all that which is opposed to the virtues; this man
receives the third gift, which is Knowledge and Discretion. Thus he becomes
reasonable and discerning, and knows what to do and what to leave undone,
and where he must give and where he must take away. And through simplicity
of intention and godly love, this man rests in God above himself in the
unity; and he possesses himself in likeness, and he possesses all his works
with a greater delight, because he is obedient and submissive to the Father,
and has reason and discernment through the Son, and is gentle and merciful
through the Holy Ghost. And thus he bears a resemblance unto the Holy Trinity;
and he rests in God, through his love and the simplicity of his intention.
And herein the whole of active life consists. Thus a man should exert himself
with great zeal, and should follow his single intention with reason and
discernment. And he must beware of all that is opposed to the virtues,
and must ever bow himself down in humility at the feet of Christ: and in
this way he will grow ever more and more in virtue and in resemblance;
and if he keeps himself thus, he cannot err. Yet according to this way,
he still remains in the active life. For if a man practises and clings
to the activities of the heart and the diversity of works, more than to
the ground and reason of all works; and if he busies himself more with
the practice of the sacraments, with their forms and outward symbols, than
with the ground and the truth which are signified thereby: so he shall
ever remain an outward man. But he shall be saved by his good works and
his simplicity of intention.
THE GIFT OF STRENGTH
And therefore, if a man wishes to come nearer to God, and to exalt his
practice and his life, he must proceed from the works to their reason,
and from the forms to the truth; thereby he shall become master of his
works, and shall know truth, and shall come into the inward life. And God
gives him the fourth gift, which is the spirit of Strength: and thus he
shall be able to overcome joy and grief, profit and loss, hope and care
in earthly things, together with all kinds of hindrances and all multiplicity.
And thus he becomes free and detached from all creatures. When a man has
become free from all creaturely images, he is master of himself, and easily
and without labour becomes inward and recollected; and turns freely and
without hindrance to God, with fervent devotion, with lofty desire, with
thanksgiving and praise, and with a single intention. Thus he enters into
fruition of all his deeds and his whole life, inward and outward; for he
stands before the throne of the Holy Trinity, and often receives inward
consolation and sweetness from God. For he who serves at such a table with
thanksgiving and praise, and with inward reverence, often drinks of the
wine, and often eats of that which is left, and of the crumbs which fall
from the Lord’s table: and he continually possesses inward peace, through
the singleness of his intention. And if he will abide steadfastly before
God in thanksgiving and praise, and with uplifted purpose, the spirit of
Strength is doubled within him; for then he no longer loses himself in
bodily desires, in longings after consolation or sweetness, nor in any
other gift of God, nor in rest and peace of the heart. But he will forego
all gifts and every consolation, if so be that he may find Him Whom he
loves. In this way he is strong who abandons and overcomes the unrest of
the heart and earthly things; and doubly strong is he who also foregoes
and overpasses every consolation and heavenly gift. Thus a man transcends
all creatures, and possesses himself, powerful and free, through the gift
of spiritual Strength.
THE GIFT OF COUNSEL
When, therefore, no creature can either overcome or impede a man from
persisting in his single and upward-striving intention; and when through
this Strength he is steadfast in praising God; seeking and meaning God
above all His gifts, then God bestows upon him the fifth gift, which is
the gift of Counsel. In this gift the Father draws the man inwardly, and
calls him to His right hand, with the chosen in His unity And the Son says
in ghostly wise within him: “Follow Me to My Father: ONE THING IS NEEDFUL.”
And the Holy Ghost makes the heart expand and flame up in fiery love. And
thence comes the life of loving tumult and inward restlessness; for, in
him who listens to this counsel, there arises a storm of love, and nothing
can satisfy him save God alone. And therefore he abandons himself and all
things, that he may in Whom he lives and in Whom all things are one. Here
the man should have God in mind in a simple way, and should master himself
by means of the reason, and should renounce all self-will, and should await
in freedom the unity which he desires, until the day when it is God’s pleasure
to give it. Thus the spirit of Counsel works in him in two ways: for that
man is great, and precept and counsel of God, who abandons himself and
all things, and says, with an insatiable, impetuous and burning love: THY
KINGDOM COME. But that man is greater still, and follows still better the
counsel of God, who overcomes his own self-will, and renounces it in love,
and says unto God with reverent submission: THY WILL BE DONE in all things
and not my will. When Christ our dear Lord approached His passion, He said
those very words unto His Father, in humble abnegation of Himself; and
they were to Him the most happy, and to us the most wholesome, and to the
Father the most lovable, and to the devil the most terrible, words which
Christ ever spoke; for, by His renunciation of self-will according to His
manhood, we are all saved. In this way the will of God now becomes to the
loving and humble man the highest joy, and the greatest desire of his ghostly
feelings: even though this will should lead him to hell, which is impossible.
And here nature is cast down into the depths, and God is exalted most highly;
and this man becomes capable of receiving all the gifts of God; for he
has denied himself, and has renounced his own self, and has given all for
all. And he therefore asks nothing and wills nothing but that which God
wishes to give him. That which God wills, this is his joy; and he who surrenders
himself to God in love is the most free of all men living. He lives without
care, for God cannot lose that which is His.
Now mark this: although God knows all hearts, yet such a man is often
tempted and tried of Him, whether he is able to renounce himself in freedom:
and by this, he may then become enlightened, and may live for the glory
of God and also for his own salvation. And that is why God sometimes takes
him from His right hand to His left, from heaven into hell, from all blessedness
into great misery; so that it seems to him as though he were forsaken and
despised of God and of all creatures. If, then, he has formerly renounced
himself and his own will in love and in joy, so that he sought not himself
but the good pleasure of God, he will easily renounce himself also in pains
and misery, so that in these too he will seek not himself but always the
glory of God. He who is willing to work great things is willing also to
suffer great things; but to bear and to suffer in resignation is nobler
and more pleasing to God, and more satisfying to our spirit, than to work
great things in a like resignation, for it is more contrary to our nature.
And this is why our spirit is more exalted and our nature more cast down
by grievous suffering than by great works done with equal love. When a
man maintains himself in this resignation, without any other preference,
right as one who neither wills nor knows anything else, then he possesses
the spirit of Counsel in two ways; for he satisfies the will and the counsel
of God in his working and his suffering, by self-surrender, and by submissive
obedience. And his nature is adorned most gloriously: and he is capable
of being enlightened according to the Spirit.
THE GIFT OF UNDERSTANDING
And therefore God gives him the sixth gift, which is the spirit of Understanding.
This gift we have already likened to a fountain with three rills; for it
establishes our spirit in the unity, it reveals Truth, and it brings forth
a wide and general love. This gift may also be likened to sunshine, for
by its shining the sun fills the air with a simple brightness and lights
all forms, and shows the distinctions of all colours. And thereby it shows
forth its own power; and its heat is common to the whole world, bringing
forth fruits and useful things. So likewise does the first ray of this
gift bring about simplicity within the spirit. And this simplicity is penetrated
by a particular radiance even as the air of the heavens by the splendour
of the sun. For the grace of God, which is the ground of all gifts, maintains
itself essentially like to a simple light in our potential understanding:
and, by means of this simple light our spirit is made stable and onefold
and enlightened, and fulfilled of grace and Divine gifts: and here it is
like unto God through grace and Divine love. And since the spirit is now
like unto God, and means and loves God alone above all gifts, it will no
longer be satisfied by likeness, nor by a created brightness; for it has
both by nature and above nature a primal tendency towards the Abysmal Being
from which it has flowed forth. And the Unity of the Divine Being eternally
draws back all likeness into its unity. And here the spirit is enkindled
into fruition, and it melts into God as into its eternal rest; for the
grace of God is to God even as the sunshine is to the sun, and the grace
of God is the means and the way which leads us to God. And for this reason
it shines within us in simplicity, and makes us deiform, that is, like
unto God. And this likeness perpetually merges itself in God, and dies
in God, and becomes one with God, and remains one; for charity makes us
one with God, and causes us to remain one and to dwell in the One. Nevertheless
we keep the eternal likeness in the light of grace or of glory; thereby
we possess ourselves actively in charity and in the virtues. And we keep
the union with God, above our activity, in the nakedness of our spirit,
in the Divine light, where we possess God in rest, above all virtues. For
charity in the likeness must ever be at work; and union with God in fruitive
love must ever be at rest. And this is the working of love; for in one
“ Now” and at the same time love works and rests in its Beloved. And the
one is strengthened by the other; for the higher the love, the greater
the rest; and the greater the rest, the deeper the love; for the one lives
in the other, and whosoever loves not, rests not, and whosoever rests not,
loves not. And some good men think that they neither love nor rest in God;
and this thought itself comes from love Because they desire to more that
they can, it seems to them that their love falls short. And yet in this
work they taste love and rest; for none save the resigned, emptied and
enlightened man can understand how one may love in labour and rest in fruition.
Yet every lover is one with God in rest, and like unto God in the works
of love; for God in His most high nature, of which we bear the likeness,
dwells in fruition in eternal rest according to His Essential Unity, but
works in eternal activity according to the Trinity: and the one is the
perfection of the other; for rest abides in the Unity, and work in the
Trinity. And thus they dwell together throughout eternity. And, therefore,
if a man is to taste of God, he must love; and if he will love, then he
may taste. But if he lets himself be satisfied with other things, he shall
not be able to taste what God is. And therefore we must possess ourselves
in simplicity, in virtue, and in likeness, and God above ourselves through
love in rest and unity. And this is the first way in which the man who
is common to all is made stable.
When the air is fulfilled with the brightness of the sun, the beauty
and the wealth of the whole world are revealed, and the eyes of men become
enlightened and rejoice in the manifold diversity of colours. And so it
is, when we are onefold within ourselves, and our power of understanding
is enlightened and the Spirit of Understanding shines through it. Then
we can become aware of the high attributes which are in God, and which
are the causes of all the works which flow forth from Him. Although all
men may understand the works, and God through His works; yet no one can
truly understand, neither in their appearance nor in their reality, the
attributes of the works of God as they are in their ground, save by means
of this gift. For this teaches us to seek out and to recognise our own
nobleness, and it gives us the power to discern the virtues and all practices,
and the way in which we should live without error in accordance with eternal
Truth: and he who is enlightened by it can dwell in the spirit, and can,
with enlightened reason, rightly apprehend and understand all things in
heaven and on earth. And therefore such a one walks in heaven, and beholds
and apprehends with all saints the nobility of his Beloved, His incomprehensible
height, His abysmal depth, length and breadth, wisdom and truth, His bounty
and His unspeakable generosity, and all those loveworthy attributes which
are in God our Lover without number, and without limit in His most high
nature: for all this is He Himself. Then that enlightened man lowers his
eyes, and beholds himself and all other men and all creatures; and observes
how God in His free generosity has created them in nature and endowed them
in many ways, and how, above nature, it is His pleasure to endow them and
to enrich them with Himself, if they will but seek and desire Him. All
such reasoning observation of the manifold diversities of the Divine riches
rejoices our spirit, if, through Divine love, we have died unto ourselves
in God, and if we live and walk in the spirit, and taste of the things
which are eternal. This gift of Understanding shows us the unity which
we possess in God through the fruitive immersion of love, and also the
likeness to God which we have in ourselves through charity and the works
of virtue. And it gives to us light and brightness in which we can walk
with discernment in the ways of the spirit, and can seek out and recognise
God in ghostly similitudes, and also ourselves, and all things according
to the mode and the measure of that light and according to the will of
God and the greater nobility of our understanding. This is the second degree
in which the man who is common to all may be enlightened.
According to the measure in which the air is irradiated by the brightness
of the sun, so too the heat increases and brings all things to fruitfulness.
When our reason and understanding are so enlightened, that they can recognise
and distinguish Divine truth, then the will, that is, the power of love,
grows hotter and streams forth in abundant loyalty and love towards all
men in common. For this gift, through the knowledge of truth which is imparted
to us in its light, establishes in us a wide-stretching love toward all
in common. Now the most simple are also the most tranquil, and have the
most peace in themselves; and are the most deeply immersed in God; and
are most enlightened in understanding, and most fruitful in good works,
and in outflowing love toward all in common. And they are hindered least,
for they are most like unto God; for God is simplicity in His in
His understanding, and outflowing and universal love in His works. And
the more we are like unto God in these three things, so much the more closely
are we united with Him. And for this reason we must remain simple in our
ground, and must apprehend all things by means of enlightened reason, and
must flow forth through all things in universal love. So likewise the sun
in the heavens, though it abides in itself simple and unchanged, sends
forth its light and heat to the whole world in common.
Now understand how we should live with enlightened reason in universal
love. The Father is the Origin of the whole Godhead according to Essence
and according to Personality. We therefore should bow down in spirit, in
humble awe, before the sublimity of the Father: and thereby we possess
humility, the foundation of all the virtues. We should fervently adore,
that is to say, we should honour and reverence, the mightiness of the Father,
because He, in His might, creates and preserves all things out of nothing.
And thereby we shall be lifted up in ghostly wise. We should offer praise
and thanks and everlasting service to the faithfulness and love of God,
Who has freed us from the fetters of the enemy and from eternal death:
and thereby we shall be made free. We should present and bewail before
the wisdom of God the blindness and ignorance of human nature; and should
crave that all men may become enlightened, and may attain to the knowledge
of truth: thus God shall be known and honoured by them. We should pray
for the mercy of God upon sinners, that thus they may be converted, and
may grow in virtue: thus God shall be loved by them with a desirous love.
We should give generously to all those who have need of it of the rich
treasures of God, that therewith they may all be filled, and may flow back
towards God; and thus God shall be possessed by them all. We should offer
to the Father, with awe and reverence, all the service and all the works
which Christ, according to His manhood, fulfilled in love: thus all our
prayers shall be heard. We should also offer to the Father in Christ Jesus
all the fervent devotion of the angels and the saints and the just: so
we shall be united with them all in the glory of God. We should also offer
up to the Father the whole service of Holy Church, and the Holy Sacrifice
of all the priests, and all that we may achieve and think, in the name
of Christ; that thereby we may go out to meet God through Christ, and may
become like unto Him in universal love, and may transcend all likeness
in simplicity, and may be united with Him within the Essential Unity. We
should ever abide in oneness with God, and should eternally flow forth
with God and all His saints in universal love, and continually return with
thankfulness and praise, and immerse ourselves in fruitive love in the
Essential Rest. This is the richest life of which I know: and in it we
possess the gift of Understanding.
THE GIFT OF WISDOM
Now understand this well: when we turn within ourselves in contemplation,
the fruitive unity of God is like to a darkness, a somewhat which is unconditioned
and incomprehensible. And the spirit turns inward through love and through
simplicity of intention, because it is active in all virtues, offering
itself up in fruition above all virtues. In this loving introversion, there
arises the seventh gift, which is the spirit of Savouring Wisdom (25);
and it saturates the simplicity of our spirit, soul and body, with wisdom
and with ghostly savours. And it is a ghostly touch or stirring within
the unity of our spirit; and it is an inpouring and a source of all grace,
all gifts and all virtues And, in this touch of God, each man savours his
exercise and his life according to the power of the touch and the measure
of his love. And this Divine stirring is the inmost mediator between God
and ourselves, between rest and activity, between the conditioned and the
unconditioned, between eternity and time. And God works this ghostly touching
within us first of all, before all gifts; and yet it is known and tasted
by us last of all. For only when we have lovingly sought God in all our
practices even inward deeps of our ground, do we first feel the gushing
in of all the graces and gifts of God; and we feel this touch in the unity
of our highest powers, above reason, but not without reason, for we understand
in truth that we are touched. But if we would know what this is and whence
it comes, then reason and all creaturely observation fail. For though the
air be illuminated by the sunlight, and the eyes be sharp and sound, if
one would follow the rays which bring the brightness, and look at the disc
of the sun, the eyes would fail in their activity, and would only receive
the lustre of the rays in a passive way. So likewise, the reflection of
the Incomprehensible Light in the unity of our highest power is so intense
that all creaturely activity which works in distinction must fail. And
here our activity must passively endure the interior working of God, which
is the source of all Divine gifts. For could we receive God Himself into
our comprehension, He would give Himself to us without intermediary; but
this is impossible to us because we are too narrow and too little to comprehend
God. And therefore He pours His gifts into us according to the measure
of our comprehension and the worthiness of our practices. For the fruitful
unity of God ever abides above the unity of our powers and ever demands
of us likeness in love and in virtues. And that is why we are touched again
and again, that we may each time be renewed and become more like Him in
the virtues. And, through these renewed touches, the spirit falls into
hunger and thirst, and would taste through and through, and pass through
and through the whole abyss in a storm of love, that thereby it may be
satisfied. Hence there comes an eternal, hungry craving, and an eternal
unsatisfied desire. For all loving spirits desire and strive after God,
each according to its nobleness and the measure in which it has been touched
by God; yet God remains eternally incomprehensible by way of our active
desires, and therefore there abides in us, together with all saints, an
eternal hunger, and an eternal desirous introversion. And in the meeting
with God, the radiance and the heat are so great and so limitless that
all spirits must fail in their activity, and must melt and vanish away
in sensible love in the unity of their spirit. And here they must passively
endure as sheer creatures the working of God. And here our spirit and Divine
grace and all our virtues are one sensible love without activity; for our
spirit has spent itself and has itself become love. And here the spirit
is simple and susceptible of all gifts and is capable of every virtue.
And, in this ground of sensible love, there dwells the gushing spring,
that is, the inpouring or inward working of God, which at every hour moves
us and urges us and draws us inward and causes us to flow forth into new
works of virtue. Thus I have shown to you the ground and the condition
of all the virtues.
