Wout p, Lord, that all who by Thy gift have received eyes of the mind would open them, and would see with me how Thou art a jealous 1 God! For Thou, Love that lovest, canst hate nothing; for ’tis in Thee, O loveable God, that all things loveable are enfolded, and Thou lovest each of them. They would thus see with me the alliance or bond whereby Thou art united unto all.
Thou lovest, Lord, and lovest alike all in general and each in particular, Thou spreadest Thy love over all. Yet many love not Thee, but prefer something other than Thyself to Thee. If loveable love were not distinct from active love, Thou wouldst be seen so loveable by all that they could not love aught beside
At. Dionysius, De Divinis Nominibus, iv. 13 (ed. Rolt, p- 106): “Jealous, because He is vehement in His good yearning towards the world.”
Thee, and all reasoning spirits would be constrained to love Thee. But Thou art so magnanimous, my God, that Thou willest reasoning spirits to be free to love Thee or not. Wherefore it followeth not on Thy loving that Thou art loved. Thou therefore, my God, art united by a bond of love to all, because Thou spreadest Thy love over every creature of Thine. But not every reasoning spirit is united unto Thee, because .it directeth its love, not toward Thy _loveableness, but toward some other thing whereunto it is united and bound. Thou hast espoused unto Thyself; by Thine active love, every reasoning soul; but every spouse loveth not Thee, her Betrothed, but too often some other unto whom she cleaveth. But how, my God, could Thy spouse, the human soul, attain her end if Thou wert not loveable, that thus, by loving Thee, the loveable, she might attain to be knit unto Thee, and unto most blissful union?
Who, then, can deny that Thou, God, art triune, when he perceiveth that, wert Thou not Three and One, Thou couldst not be either a magnanimous, or a natural and perfect God, and that the spirit could not enjoy free will, nor attain to fruition of Thee and to its own bliss? *Tis because Thou art an intellect
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that understandeth and an intellect that is:
understood and again the bond between them, that the created intellect can attain in Thee, its intelligible God, union and bliss. In like manner, “tis because Thou art loveable love, that the created will, by loving, can attain in Thee, its loveable God, union and bliss. For he that receiveth Thee, O God, Thou light that may be received by the reason, might attain unto so close a union with Thee as that of a son with his father.
I perceive, Lord, by Thine enlightening, that the reasoning nature can only attain union with Thee because ‘Thou art loveable and canst be apprehended. Wherefore, human nature cannot be united unto Thee as a loving God (for in this aspect Thou art not its object), but it can be united unto Thee as its loveable God, since the loveable is the lover’s object. Thus in like manner the intelligible is the object of the intellect, and this object we call truth. Wherefore, since Thou, my God, art the truth intelligible, the created intellect can be united unto Thee. And thus I perceive that the reasoning human nature can be united only unto Thy divine and intelligible and loveable nature, and that man, taking hold on Thee, a God that may be received, passeth
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into a bond which, by reason of its being so closely knit, may be given the name of sonship, since sonship is the most close-knit bond we know.
If this bond of union be the closest possible, it will of necessity result that, since Thou, the loveable God, canst not more be loved by man, this bond will attain to the most perfect sonship in that sonship which is perfection, embracing all possible sonships, whereby all sons attain final bliss and perfection. In this most exalted Son, sonship is as art in a master or light in the sun. In the rest, ’tis as art in disciples or light in the stars.
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