Or Thine own best and greatest gift, my Jesus, I contemplate Thee preaching words of life, and plentifully sowing the seed divine in the hearts of them that hear Thee. I see those depart from Thee who have not perceived the things that are of the Spirit. But I see the disciples remaining, who have already begun to taste the sweetness of the doctrine that quickeneth the soul. On behalf of all these, that prince and leader of all the Apostles, Peter, confessed how Thou, Jesu, haddest the words of life, and marvelled that seekers after life should depart from Thee. Paul in ecstasy heard from Thee, Jesu, the words of life, and thereafter neither persecution, nor sword, nor bodily hunger could separate him from Thee. None could depart from Thee who had tasted the words of life. Who can separate a bear from honey after he hath once tasted the sweetness thereof? How great is the sweetness of truth which maketh life delightsome to the full! It surpasseth all bodily sweetness, for ’tis absolute sweetness, whence floweth all that is IigQ
desired by every taste! What is stronger than love, whence all that is loveable hath that for which it is loved? If the bond of love in limitation be sometimes so strong that the fear of death cannot sever it, how strong is the bond when that love is tasted whence all love springeth? I wonder not that their cruel torments were accounted as naught by other of Thy soldiers, Jesu, to whom Thou hadst afforded a foretaste of Thyself, the Life. O Jesu my Love, Thou hast sowed the seed of life in the field of the faithful, and hast watered it by the witness of Thy blood, and hast shown , by bodily death that truth is the life of the rational spirit; the seed grew in good soil and bore fruit.
Thou showest me, Lord, how my soul is the breath of life in regard to my body, whereinto it breatheth and infuseth life, but ’tis not life in regard to Thee, O God, but as it were a potentiality of life. Now, Thou canst not but grant our petitions if they be made in most expectant faith. And so Thou dost inspire me with the thought that there is a soul in the child which hath vegetative power in actual exercise, since the child groweth; he hath also a percipient power in actual exercise, since the child feeleth; he hath moreover an imaginative
pewer, but not as yet in actual exercise; and a reasoning power, the exercise whereof is as yet still more remote; he hath, too, an intellectual power, but that is even more delayed in developing. Thus we find that one and the same soul hath the lower powers in actual exercise first, and afterward the higher, as if man were animal before he is spiritual.
In the same way, we find that a certain mineral power, which can also be called spirit, existeth in the bowels of the earth, and hath the power to become a mineral of stone, or hath the power to become salt, or, again, the power to become a metal, and that there are divers such spirits in that stones, salts and metals are diverse. Howbeit, there is but one spirit of the mineral of gold, which, being ever more and more refined through the influence of the sun or sky, is at last fashioned into gold of such a nature that it may not be corrupted by any element. And ’tis in it most chiefly that the heavenly incorruptible light shineth forth, for it much resembleth the sun’s corporeal light. We find the same of the vegetative spirit and of the percipient spirit. The percipient spirit, in man, conformeth itself closely unto the motive and influential power of the heavens, under which influence it
receiveth one increase after another, until it is ‘set in perfect act. But as ’tis drawn out from the power of the body, its perfection ceaseth with the failing of the bodily perfection whereon it dependeth.
There is, finally, an intellectual spirit which, in the act of its perfection, is independent of the body, but is united thereunto by means of the percipient power; this spirit, being independent of the body, is not subject unto the influence of the heavenly bodies; ’tis independent of the percipient spirit, and thus of the motive power of the heavens. But, just as the motive forces of the heavenly bodies are subject unto the First Mover, so too is this moving force, which is the intellect. Howbeit, since *tis united unto the body by means of the percipient power, it cometh not to perfection without the senses, since all that reacheth it
. from the world of sense doth so by the medium of the senses. Whence naught of this kind can exist in the intellect that hath not first existed in the senses, but the more the senses are pure and perfect, the imagination clear, and the discursive reason! in good state, the more the intellect in its intellectual operations is unhampered, and clear-sighted.
1 discursus.
But the intellect feedeth on the Word of life, under whose influence it is stablished, like the motive forces of the orbs; howbeit in other fashion, as even the spirits which are subject unto the influences of the heavens come ~to perfection in divers ways. And the intellect is not perfected, save incidentally, by the percipient spirit, just as an image maketh not perfect, albeit it stirreth up an inquiry after the truth of the exemplar. The image of the Crucified, for example, doth not inspire devotion, but kindleth the memory that devotion may be inspired. Since the intellectual spirit is not constrained by the influence of the heavens, but is absolutely free, it cometh not to perfection unless it submit itself through faith unto the Word of God, like a free disciple, under no control, who is not perfected unless by faith he submit himself unto the word of a master: he needs must have confidence: in the master and listen unto him. The intellect is perfected by the Word of God, and groweth, and becometh continually more receptive and apt, and liker unto the Word.
This perfection, which thus cometh from the Word whence it had being, is not a corruptible perfection, but Godlike. Like the perfection of gold, ’tis not corruptible, but of heavenly form.
But it behoveth every intellect to submit itself by faith unto the Word of God, and to hear with closest attention that inward teaching of the supreme Master, and by hearing what the Lord saith in it it shall be made perfect. >Twas for this that Thou, Jesu, one and only Master, didst preach the necessity of faith for all approaching the fount of life, and didst show that the inflowing of divine power was according unto the measure of faith.
Two things only hast Thou taught, O Saviour Christ—faith and love. By faith, the intellect hath access unto the Word; by love, ’tis united thereunto; the nearer it approacheth, the more it waxeth in power; the more it loveth, the more it stablisheth itself in its light. And the Word of God is within it, it needeth not to seek outside itself, since it will find Him within, and shall have access unto Him by faith. And by prayer it shall obtain a nearer approach unto Him, for the Word will increase faith by communication of His light.
I render Thee thanks, Jesu, that by Thy light I have come thus far. In Thy light I see the light of my life. I see how Thou, the Word, infusest life into all believers, and makest perfect all that love Thee. What teaching, good Jesu, was ever briefer and more effectual than
Thine? Thou persuadest us but to believe, Thou biddest us but to love. What is easier than to believe in God? What is sweeter than to love Him? How pleasant is Thy yoke, how light is Thy burden, Thou one and only Teacher! To them that obey this teaching Thou dost promise all their desires, for Thou requirest naught difficult to a believer, and naught that a lover can refuse. Such are the promises that Thou makest unto Thy disciples, and they are entirely true, for Thou art the truth, who canst promise naught but truth. Nay more, ’tis naught other than Thyself that Thou dost promise, who art the perfection of all that may be made perfect. To Thee be praise, to Thee be glory, to Thee the rendering of thanks through endless ages! Amen.
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