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Title: Theologia Germanica
Creator(s): anonymous ()
Print Basis: Golden Treasure Series, 1893
Rights: Public Domain
CCEL Subjects: All; Classic; Mysticism; Proofed
LC Call no: BV4834 .F6713
LC Subjects:
Practical theology
Practical religion. The Christian life
Works of meditation and devotion
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Theologia Germanica
Which setteth forth many fair Lineaments of
divine Truth, and saith very lofty and
lovely things touching a
perfect life
EDITED BY DR. PEIFFER FROM THE ONLY
COMPLETE MANUSCRIPT YET KNOWN
Translated from the German by
Susanna Winkworth
With a Preface by the Rev. Charles Kingsley
Rector of Eversley, and a Letter to the Translator by the
Chevalier Bunsen, D.D., D.C.L., etc.
First published as a volume of the Golden Treasury Series in 1874. New
Edition 1893
Reprinted 1901, 1907
Scanned from the 1893 Golden Treasury Series edition
by John H. Richards (jhr@elidor.demon.co.uk), March 1995
Introductory material scanned from the 1907 reprint
by Harry Plantinga (hplantin@calvin.edu), 1996
This electronic text is in the public domain
This work was discovered and published in 1516 by Martin Luther, who said of
it that “Next to the Bible and St. Augustine, no book has ever come into my
hands from which I have learnt more of God and Christ, and man and all
things that are.” It has since appealed to Christians of all persuasions.
STRONG Son of God, Immortal Love,
Whom we, that have not seen Thy face,
By faith, and faith alone embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove.
* * * * *
Thou seemest human and divine,
The highest, holiest manhood Thou;
Our wills are ours, we know not how,
Our wills are ours to make them Thine.
* * * * *
O Living Will that shalt endure,
When all that seems shall suffer shock
Rise in the spiritual Rock,
Flow through our deeds and make them pure.
* * * * *
That we may lift, from out the dust,
A voice as unto Him that hears,
A cry above the conquered years,
To one that with us works, and trust
* * * * *
With faith that comes of self‑control
The truths that never can be proved,
Until we close with all we loved
find all we flow from, soul in soul.
TENNYSON.
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PREFACE
TO those who really hunger and thirst after righteousness; and who therefore
long to know what righteousness is, that they may copy it: To those who long
to be freed, not merely from the punishment of sin after they die, but from
sin itself while they live on earth; and who therefore wish to know what sin
is, that they may avoid it: To those who wish to be really justified by
faith, by being made just persons by faith; and who cannot satisfy either
their consciences or reasons by fancying that God looks on them as right,
when they know themselves to be wrong, or that the God of truth will stoop
to fictions (miscalled forensic) which would be considered false and unjust
in any human court of law: To those who cannot help trusting that union with
Christ must be something real and substantial, and not merely a metaphor,
and a flower of rhetoric: To those, lastly, who cannot help seeing that the
doctrine of Christ in every man, as the Indwelling Word of God, The Light
who lights every one who comes into the world, is no peculiar tenet of the
Quakers, but one which runs through the whole of the Old and New Testaments,
and without which they would both be unintelligible, just as the same
doctrine runs through the whole history of the Early Church for the first
two centuries, and is the only explanation of them;
To all these this noble little book will recommend itself; and may God bless
the reading of it to them, and to all others no less.
As for its orthodoxy; to “evangelical” Christians Martin Luther’s own words
ought to be sufficient warrant. For he has said that he owed more to this,
than to any other book, saving the Bible and Saint Augustine. Those, on the
other hand, to whom Luther’s name does not seem a sufficient guarantee, must
recollect, that the Author of this book was a knight of the Teutonic order;
one who considered himself, and was considered, as far as we know, by his
contemporaries, an orthodox member of the Latin Church; that his friends and
disciples were principally monks exercising a great influence in the
Catholic Church of their days; that one of their leaders was appointed by
Pope John XXII. Nuncio and overseer of the Dominican order in Germany; and
that during the hundred and seventy years which elapsed between the writing
of this book and the Reformation, it incurred no ecclesiastical censure
whatsoever, in generations which were but too fond of making men offenders
for a word.
Not that I agree with all which is to be found in this book. It is for its
noble views of righteousness and of sin that I honour it, and rejoice at
seeing it published in English, now for the first time from an edition based
on the perfect manuscript. But even in those points in which I should like
to see it altered, I am well aware that there are strong authorities against
me. The very expression, for instance, which most startles me,
“vergottet,” deified or made divine, is used, word for word, both by Saint
Athanase and Saint Augustine, the former of whom has said: “He became man,
that we might be made God;” [1] and the latter, “He called men Gods, as
being deified by His grace, not as born of His substance.” [2] There are
many passages, moreover, in the Epistles of the Apostles, which, if we
paraphrase them at all, we can hardly paraphrase in weaker words. It seems
to me safer and wiser to cling to the letter of Scripture: but God forbid
that I should wish to make such a man as the Author of the Theologia
Germanica an offender for a word!
One point more may be worthy of remark. In many obscure passages of this
book, words are used, both by the Author and by the Translator, in their
strict, original, and scientific meaning, as they are used in the Creeds,
and not in that meaning which has of late crept into our very pulpits, under
the influence of Locke’s philosophy. When, for instance, it is said that God
is the Substance of all things; this expression, in the vulgar Lockite sense
of substance, would mean that God is the matter or stuff of which all things
are made; which would be the grossest Pantheism: but “Substance” in the true
and ancient meaning of the word, as it appears in the Athanasian Creed,
signifies the very opposite; namely, that which stands under the appearance
and the matter; that by virtue of which a thing has its form, its life, its
real existence, as far as it may have any; and thus in asserting that God is
the substance of all things, this book means that everything (except sin,
which is no thing, but the disease and fall of a thing) is a thought of God.
So again with Eternity. It will be found in this book to mean not merely
some future endless duration, but that ever‑present moral world, governed by
ever-living and absolutely necessary laws, in which we and all spirits are
now; and in which we should be equally, whether time and space, extension
and duration, and the whole material universe to which they belong, became
nothing this moment, or lasted endlessly.
I think it necessary to give these cautions, because by the light of
Locke’s philosophy, little or nothing will be discerned in this book, and
what little is discerned will probably be utterly misunderstood. If any man
wishes to see clearly what is herein written, let him try to forget all
popular modern dogmas and systems, all popular philosophies (falsely so
called), and be true to the letter of his Bible, and to the instincts which
the Indwelling Word of God was wont to awaken in his heart, while he was yet
a little unsophisticated child; and then let him be sure that he will find
in this book germs of wider and deeper wisdom than its good author ever
dreamed of; and that those great spiritual laws, which the Author only
applies, and that often inconsistently, to an ascetic and passively
contemplative life, will hold just as good in the family, in the market, in
the senate, in the study, ay, in the battlefield itself; and teach him the
way to lead, in whatsoever station of life he may be placed, a truly
manlike, because a truly Christlike and Godlike, life.
CHARLES KINGSLEY.
Torquay,
Lent, 1854.
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[1] Autos epēnthrōpēsen hina hēmeis theopoiēthōmen .—Athan. Orat. de Incarn.
Verbi, tom. I. page. 108.
[2] “Homines dixit Deos, ex gradia sua deificatos; non de substantia sua
natos,”—Aug. in Psalm xlix. (Ed. Bened. tom. iv. page 414.)
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HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
BY THE TRANSLATOR
THE Treatise before us was discovered by Luther, who first brought it into
notice by an Edition of it which he published in 1516. A Second Edition,
which came out two years later, he introduced with the following Preface:—
“We read that St. Paul, though he was of a weak and contemptible presence,
yet wrote weighty and powerful letters, and he boasts of himself that his
‘speech is not with enticing words of man’s device,’ but ‘full of the riches
of all knowledge and wisdom.’ And if we consider the wondrous ways of God,
it is clear, that He hath never chosen mighty and eloquent preachers to
speak His word, but as it is written: ‘Out of the mouths of babes and
sucklings hast thou perfected praise,’ Ps. 8:2. And again, ‘For wisdom
opened the mouth of the dumb, and made the tongues of them that cannot speak
eloquent,’ Wisdom 10:21. Again, He blameth such as are high‑minded and are
offended at these simple ones. Consilium inopis, etc. ‘Ye have made a mock
at the counsel of the poor, because he putteth his trust in the Lord,’ Ps.
14:6.
“This I say because I will have every one warned who readeth this little
book, that he should not take offence, to his own hurt, at its bad German,
or its crabbed and uncouth words. For this noble book, though it be poor and
rude in words, is so much the richer and more precious in knowledge and
divine wisdom. And I will say, though it be boasting of myself and ‘I speak
as a fool,’ that next to the Bible and St. Augustine, no book hath ever come
into my hands, whence I have learnt, or would wish to learn more of what
God, and Christ, and man and all things are; and now I first find the truth
of what certain of the learned have said in scorn of us theologians of
Wittemberg, that we would be thought to put forward new things, as though
there had never been men elsewhere and before our time. Yea, verily, there
have been men, but God’s wrath, provoked by our sins, hath not judged us
worthy to see and hear them; for it is well known that for a long time past
such things have not been treated of in our universities; nay, it has gone
so far, that the Holy Word of God is not only laid on the shelf, but is
almost mouldered away with dust and moths. Let as many as will, read this
little book, and then say whether Theology is a new or an old thing among
us; for this book is not new. But if they say as before, that we are but
German theologians, we will not deny it. I thank God, that I have heard and
found my God in the German tongue, as neither I nor they have yet found Him
in the Latin, Greek, or Hebrew tongue. God grant that this book may be
spread abroad, then we shall find that the German theologians are without
doubt the best theologians.
(Signed, without date,)
“Dr. MARTIN LUTHER,
AUGUSTINIAN of Wittemberg.”
These words of Luther will probably be considered to form a sufficient
justification for an attempt to present the Theologia Germanica in an
English dress. When Luther sent it forth, its effort to revive the
consciousness of spiritual life was received with enthusiasm by his
fellow‑countrymen, in whom that life was then breaking with volcanic energy
through the clods of formalism and hypocrisy, with which the Romish Church
had sought to stifle its fires. No fewer than seventeen editions of the work
appeared during the lifetime of Luther. Up to the present day, it has
continued to be a favourite handbook of devotion in Germany, where it has
passed through certainly as many as sixty Editions, and it has also been
widely circulated in France and the Netherlands, by means of Latin, French,
and Flemish translations.
To the question, who was the author of a book which has exerted so great an
influence? no answer can be given, all the various endeavours to discover
him having proved fruitless. Till within the last few years, Luther was our
sole authority for the text of the work, but, about 1850, a manuscript of it
was discovered at Wurtzburg, by Professor Reuss, the librarian of the
University there, which has since been published verbatim by Professor
Pfeiffer of Prague. This Manuscript dates from 1497; consequently it is
somewhat older than Luther’s time, and it also contains some passages not
found in his editions. As, upon careful comparison, it seemed to the
translator indisputably superior to the best modern editions based upon
Luther’s, it has been selected as the groundwork of the present translation,
merely correcting from the former, one or two passages which appeared to
contain errors of the press, or more likely of the transcriber’s pen. The
passages not found in Luther’s edition are here enclosed between brackets.
As has been stated, the author of the Theologia Germanica is unknown; but it
is evident from his whole cast of thought, as well as from a Preface
attached to the Wurtzburg Manuscript, that he belonged to a class of men who
sprang up in Southern Germany at the beginning of the fourteenth century,
and who were distinguished for their earnest piety and their practical
belief in the presence of the Spirit of God with all Christians, laity as
well as clergy.
These men had fallen upon evil times. Their age was not indeed one of those
periods in which the vigour of the nobler powers of the soul is enfeebled by
the abundance of material prosperity and physical enjoyment, nor yet one of
those in which they are utterly crushed out under the hoof of oppression and
misery; but it was an age in which conflicting elements were wildly
struggling for the mastery. The highest spiritual and temporal authorities
were at deadly strife with each other and among themselves; and in their
contests, there were few provinces or towns that did not repeatedly suffer
the horrors of war. The desolation caused by its ravages was however
speedily repaired during the intervals of peace, by the extraordinary energy
which the German nation displayed in that bloom of its manhood; so that
times of deep misery and great prosperity rapidly alternated with each
other. But on the whole, during the first half of this century, the sense of
the calamities, which were continually recurring, predominated over the
recollection of the calmer years, which were barely sufficient to allow
breathing time between the successive waves that threatened to overwhelm
social order and happiness.
The unquestioning faith and honest enthusiasm which had prompted the
Crusades, no longer burnt with the same fierce ardour, for the unhappy issue
of those sacred enterprises, and the scandalous worldly ambition of the
heads of the Church, had moderated its fervour and saddened the hearts of
true believers. Yet the one Catholic, Christian creed still held an
undivided and very real sovereignty over men’s minds, and the supremacy of
the Church in things spiritual was never questioned, though many were
beginning to feel that it was needful for the State to have an independent
authority in things temporal, and the question was warmly agitated how much
of the spiritual authority resided in the Pope and how much in the bishops
and doctors of the Church. But in whichever way the dispute between these
rival claims might be adjusted, the reverence for the office of the clergy
remained unimpaired. The case was very different with the reverence for
their persons, which had fallen to a very low ebb, owing to the worldliness
and immorality of their lives. This again was much encouraged by the conduct
of the Popes, who, in their zeal to establish worldly dominion, made
ecclesiastical appointments rather with a view to gain political adherents,
or to acquire wealth by the sale of benefices, than with a regard to the
fitness of the men selected, or the welfare of the people committed to their
charge.
On the whole, it was an age of faith, though by no means of a blind,
unreasoning taking things for granted. On the contrary, the evidences of
extreme activity of mind meet us on every hand, in the monuments of its
literature, architecture, and invention. A few facts strikingly illustrate
the divergent tendencies of thought and public opinion. Thus we may
remember, how it was currently reported that the profligate Pope Boniface
VIII. was privately an unbeliever, even deriding the idea of the immortality
of the soul, at the very time when he was maintaining against Philip the
Fair, the right of the Pope to sit, as Christ’s representative, in judgment
on the living and the dead, and to take the sword of temporal power out of
the hands of those who misused it. [3] Whether this accusation was true or
not, it is a remarkable sign of the times that it should have been widely
believed.
Some years later, and when the increased corruptness of the clergy, after
the removal of the Papal Court to Avignon, provoked still louder complaints,
we see the religious and patriotic Emperor, Louis IV., accusing John XXII.
of heresy, in a public assembly held in the square of St. Peter’s at Rome,
and setting up another Pope “in order to please the Roman people.” But
though the new Pope was every way fitted, by his unblemished character and
ascetic manners, to gain a hold on public esteem, we see that the Emperor
could not maintain him against the legitimately elected Pope, who, from his
seat at Avignon, had power to harass the Emperor so greatly with his
interdicts, that the latter, finding all efforts at conciliation fruitless,
would have bought peace by unconditional submission, had not the Estates of
the Empire refused to yield to such humiliation. Yet we find this very Pope
obliged to yield and retract his opinions on a point of dogmatic theology.
He had in a certain treatise propounded the opinion that the souls of the
pious would not be admitted to the immediate vision of the Deity until after
the day of judgment. The King of France, in 1333, called an assembly of
Prelates and theologians at his palace at Vincennes, where he invited them
to discuss before him the two questions, whether the souls of departed
saints would be admitted to an immediate vision of the Deity before the
resurrection; and whether, if so, their vision would be of the same or of a
different kind after the Judgment Day? The theological faculty having come
to conclusions differing in some respects from those of the Pope, the King
threatened the latter with the stake as a heretic, unless he retracted; and
John XXII. issued a bull, declaring that what he had said or written, ought
only to be received in so far as it agreed with the Catholic Faith, the
Church and Holy Scripture. No circumstance, perhaps, offers a more
remarkable spectacle to us in its contrast with the spirit of our own times.
At the present moment, when the Pope could not sit for a day in safety on
his temporal throne without the defence of French or Austrian bayonets, we
can scarcely conceive an Emperor of France or Austria taking upon himself to
convene an assembly of Catholic theologians, and the latter pronouncing a
censure on the dogmas propounded by the Head of the Church! It would be hard
to say whether the Sovereigns of the present day would be more amused by the
absurdity of devoting their time to such discussions, or the consciences of
good Catholics more shocked at the presumption of such a verdict.
Still it must not be forgotten that the importance of religious affairs in
that age must not be ascribed too exclusively to earnestness about religion
itself, for the ecclesiastical interest predominated over the purely
religious. The Pope and the Emperor represented the two great antagonistic
powers, spiritual and temporal, the rivalry between which absorbed into
itself all the political and social questions that could then be agitated.
The question of allegiance to the Pope or the Emperor was like the contest
between royalism and republicanism; the Ghibelline called himself a patriot,
and was called by his adversary, the Guelf, a worldly man or even an
infidel, while he retorted by calling the Guelf a betrayer of his country,
and an enemy of national liberties.
We cannot help seeing, however, that in those days both princes and people,
wicked as their lives often were, did really believe in the Christian
religion, and that while much of the mythological and much of the
formalistic element mingled in their zeal for outward observances, there was
also much thoroughly sincere enthusiasm among them. But both the two great
powers oppressed the people, which looked alternately to the one side or the
other for emancipation from the particular grievances felt to be most
galling at any given moment or place. In the frightful moral and physical
condition of society, it was no wonder that a despair of Providence should
have begun to attack some minds, which led to materialistic scepticism,
while others sought for help on the path of wild speculation. The latter
appears to have been the case with the Beghards or “Brothers and Sisters of
the Free Spirit,” who attempted to institute a reform by withdrawing the
people altogether from the influence of the clergy, but whose followers
after a time too often fell into the vices of the priests from whom they had
separated themselves. In 1317, we find the Bishop of Ochsenstein complaining
that Alsace was filled with these Beghards, who appear to have been a kind
of antinomian pantheists, teaching that the Spirit is bound by no law, and
annihilating the distinction between the Creator and the creature. Both in
their excellences and defects they remind us of the modern “German
Catholics,” and of some, too, of the recent Protestant schools in Germany.
There seems to have been no party of professed unbelievers, but that some
individuals were such in word as well as deed, appears from what Ruysbroch
of Brussels, [4] (1300-1330) says of those “who live in mortal sin, not
troubling themselves about God or His grace, but thinking virtue sheer
nonsense, and the spiritual life hypocrisy or delusion; and hearing with
disgust all mention of God or virtue, for they are persuaded that there is
no such thing as God, or Heaven, or Hell; for they acknowledge nothing but
what is palpable to the senses.”
The early part of the fourteenth century saw Germany divided for nine years
between the rival claims of two Emperors, Frederick of Austria, supported by
Pope John XXII. and a faction in Germany, and Louis of Bavaria, whose cause
was espoused by a majority of the princes of the Empire, as that of the
defender of the dignity and independence of the State, and the champion of
reform within the Church. The death of Frederick, in 1322, left Louis the
undisputed Emperor, as far as nearly all his subjects were concerned, and he
would fain have purchased peace with the Pope on any reasonable terms, that
he might apply himself to the internal improvement of his dominions; but
John XXII. was implacable, and continued to wage against him and his
adherents a deadly warfare, not closed until his successor Charles IV.
submitted to all the papal demands, and to every indignity imposed upon him.
One of the most fearful consequences of the enmity between John XXII. and
Louis of Bavaria, to the unfortunate subjects of the latter, was the
Interdict under which his dominions were laid in 1324, and from which some
places, distinguished for their loyalty to the Emperor, were not relieved
for six‑and-twenty years. Louis, indeed, desired his subjects to pay no
regard to the bull of excommunication, and most of the laity, especially of
the larger towns, would gladly have obeyed him in spite of the Pope; but the
greater part of the bishops and clergy held with their spiritual head, and
thus the inhabitants of Strasburg, Nuremberg, and other cities, where the
civil authorities sided with the Emperor, and the clergy with the Pope, were
left year after year without any religious privileges; for public worship
ceased, and all the business of life went on without the benedictions of the
Church, no rite being allowed but baptism and extreme unction.
After this had lasted sixteen years, the Emperor, wishing to relieve the
anguished consciences of his people, issued, in conjunction with the Princes
of the Empire, a great manifesto to all Christendom, refuting the Pope’s
accusations against him, maintaining that he who had been legally chosen by
the Electors was, in virtue thereof, the rightful Emperor, and had received
his dignity from God, and proclaiming that all who denied this were guilty
of high treason; that therefore none should be allowed any longer to observe
the Interdict, and all who should continue to do so, whether communities or
individuals, should be deprived of every civil and ecclesiastical right and
privilege. This courageous edict found a response in the heart of the
nation, and public opinion continually declared itself more strongly on the
side of the Emperor. Yet on the whole it rather increased the general
anarchy; for in many places the priests and monks were steadfast in their
allegiance to the Pope, and, refusing to administer public service, were
altogether banished from the towns, and the churches and convents closed. In
Strasburg, for instance, where the regular clergy had long since ceased to
perform religious rites, the Dominicans and Franciscans had continued to
preach and perform mass; but now they too, frightened by the Edict, which
placed them in direct opposition to the Pope, dared no longer to disregard
the renewed sentence of excommunication hanging over them, and refusing to
read mass, were expelled by the Town Council. Many of these banished clergy
wandered about in great distress, with difficulty finding refuge among the
scattered rural population, and the sufferings they endured proved the
sincerity of their conscientious scruples. Some few, either from worldly
motives, or out of pity for the people, remained at their posts. The former
indeed throve by the miseries of their fellow‑creatures, driving a usurious
trade in the famine of spiritual consolation; for it is upon record, that in
time of pestilence, the price of shrift has been as much as sixty florins!
The spectacle of such discord between the clergy and the laity was something
unspeakably shocking to the Christian world in that age, and the energetic
proceedings of the magistracy must have utterly staggered the faith of many.
Of all the events that were stirring up men’s passions and energies, none
was more calculated to move their souls to the very centre, than to find
themselves compelled to stand up in arms against those whom they had been
wont to bow down before, and to reverence as the source of those spiritual
blessings, for the sake of which they were now driven in desperation to take
this awful step.
To these political and religious dissensions were added, in process of time,
other miseries. After it had been preceded by earthquakes, hurricanes and
famine, the Black Death broke out, spreading terror and desolation through
Southern Europe. Men saw in these frightful calamities the judgments of God,
but looked in vain for any to show them a way of deliverance and escape.
Some believed that the last day was approaching; some, remembering an old
prophecy, looked with hope for the return of the Great Emperor Frederick II.
to restore justice and peace in the world, to punish the wicked clergy, and
help the poor and oppressed flock to their rights. Others traversed the
country in processions, scourging themselves and praying with a loud voice,
in order to atone for their sins and appease God’s anger, and inveighing
against man’s unbelief, which had called down God’s wrath upon the earth;
while some thought to do God service, by wreaking vengeance on the people
which had slain the Lord, and thousands of wretched Jews perished in the
flames kindled by frantic terror. “All things worked together to deepen the
sense of the corruptness of the Church, to lead men’s thoughts onwards from
their physical to their spiritual wants, to awaken reflection on the
judgments of God, and to fix their eyes on the indications of the
future,’’ [5] so that John of Winterthur was probably not alone in applying
to his own times what St. Paul says of the perils of the latter days.
In these chaotic times, and in the countries where the storms raged most
fiercely, there were some who sought that peace which could not be found on
earth, in intercourse with a higher world. Destitute of help and comfort and
guidance from man, they took refuge in God, and finding that to them He had
proved “a present help in time of trouble,” “as the shadow of a great rock
in a weary land,” they tried to bring their fellow‑men to believe and
partake in a life raised above the troubles of this world. They desired to
show them that that Eternal life and enduring peace which Christ had
promised to His disciples, was, of a truth, to be found by the Way which He
had pointed out,—by a living union with Him and the Father who had sent Him.
With this aim, like-minded men and women joined themselves together, that by
communion of heart and mutual counsel they might strengthen each other in
their common efforts to revive the spiritual life of those around them. The
Association they founded was kept secret, lest through misconception of
their principles, they might fall under suspicion of heresy, and the
Inquisition should put a stop to their labours; but they desired to keep
themselves aloof from every thing that savoured of heresy or disorder. On
the contrary, they carefully observed all the precepts of the Church, and
carried their obedience so far that many of their number were among the
priests who were banished for obeying the Pope, when the Emperor ordered
them to disregard the Interdict. They assumed the appellation of “Friends of
God” (Gottesfreunde), and, in the course of a few years, their associations
extended along the Rhine provinces from Basle to Cologne, and eastwards
through Swabia, Bavaria, and Franconia. Strasburg, Constance, Nuremberg and
Nordlingen were among their chief seats. Their distinguishing doctrines were
self‑renunciation,—the complete giving‑up of self‑will to the will of
God;—the continuous activity of the Spirit of God in all believers, and the
intimate union possible between God and man;—the worthlessness of all
religion based upon fear or the hope of reward;—and the essential equality
of the laity and clergy, though, for the sake of order and discipline, the
organization of the Church was necessary. They often appealed to the
declaration of Christ (John 15:15), “Henceforth I call you not servants; for
the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends;
for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you;”
and from this they probably derived their name of “Friends of God.” Their
mode of action was simply personal, for they made no attempt to gain
political and hierarchical power, but exerted all their influence by means
of preaching, writing and social intercourse. The Association counted among
its members priests, monks, and laity, without distinction of rank or sex.
Its leaders stood likewise in close connection with several convents,
especially those of Engenthal, and Maria-Medingen near Nuremberg, presided
over by the sisters Christina and Margaret Ebner, much of whose
correspondence is still extant. Agnes, the widow of King Andrew of Hungary,
and various knights and burghers, are also named as belonging to it.
Foremost among the leaders of this party should be mentioned the celebrated
Tauler, a Dominican monk of Strasburg, who spent his life in preaching and
teaching up and down the country from Strasburg to Cologne, and whose
influence is to this day active among his countrymen by means of his
admirable sermons, which are still widely read. At the time of the Interdict
he wrote a noble appeal to the clergy not to forsake their flocks,
maintaining that if the Emperor had sinned, the blame lay with him only, not
with his wretched subjects, so that it was a crying shame to visit his guilt
upon the innocent people, but that their unjust oppression would be
recompensed to them by God hereafter. He acted up to his own principles, and
when the Black Death was raging in Strasburg, where it carried off 16,000
victims, he was unwearied in his efforts to administer aid and consolation
to the sick and dying.
Much of Tauler’s religious fervour and light he himself attributed to the
instructions of a layman, his friend. It is now known from contemporary
records that this was Nicholas of Basle, a citizen of that Free town and a
secret Waldensian. Little is known of his life beyond the fact that he was
intimately connected with many of the heads of this party, and was resorted
to by them for guidance and help; for, being under suspicion of heresy, he
had to conceal all his movements from the Inquisition. He succeeded,
however, in carrying on his labours and eluding his enemies, until he
reached an advanced age; but at length, venturing alone and unprotected into
France, he was taken, and burnt at Vienne in 1382. Another friend of
Tauler’s, and like him an eloquent and powerful preacher, whose sermons are
still read with delight, was Henry Suso, a Dominican monk, belonging to a
knightly family in Swabia.
One of the leaders of the “Friends of God,” Nicholas of Strasburg, was in
1326 appointed by John XXII. nuncio, with the oversight of the Dominican
order throughout Germany, and dedicated to that Pope an Essay of great
learning and ability, refuting the prevalent interpretations of Scripture,
which referred the coming of Antichrist and the Judgment day to the
immediate future. Thus we see that the “Friends of God” were not confined to
one political party, and this likewise appears from the history of another
celebrated member of this sect, Henry of Nordlingen, a priest of Constance,
who, like Suso, was banished for his adherence to the Pope. One of the most
remarkable men of this sect was a layman and married, Rulman Merswin,
belonging to a high family at Strasburg. He appears to have been led to a
religious life by the influence of Tauler, who was his confessor. He is the
author of several mystical works which, he says, he wrote “to do good to his
fellow creatures,” but he contributed perhaps still more largely to their
benefit by his activity in charitable works, for he established one hospital
and seems to have had the oversight of others also. He likewise gave largely
to churches and convents, but is best known by having founded a house for
the Knights of St. John in Strasburg. The characteristic doctrines of the
“Friends of God” have already been indicated. That they should not have
fallen into some exaggerations was scarcely possible, but where they have
done so, it may generally be traced to the influence of the monastic life to
which most of them were dedicated, and to the perplexities of their age.
The book before us was probably written somewhere about 1350, since it
refers to Tauler as already well known. It was the practice of the “Friends
of God” to conceal their names as much as possible when they wrote, lest a
desire for fame should mingle with their endeavours to be useful. This is
probably the reason why we have no indication of its authorship beyond a
preface, which the Wurtzburg Manuscript possesses in common with that which
was in Luther’s hands, and from which it appears that the writer “was of the
Teutonic order, a priest and a warden in the house of the Teutonic order in
Frankfort.” A translation of this Preface is prefixed to the present volume.
Till the discovery of the Wurtzburg Manuscript, it was supposed that this
Preface was from Luther’s hand, who merely embodied in it the tradition
which he had received from some source unknown to us; and hence, some,
disregarding its authority, have ascribed the Theologia Germanica to Tauler,
whose style it resembles so much that it might be taken for his work, but
for the reference to him already mentioned. Since, however, the antiquity of
the Preface is now proved, we must be content with the information which it
affords us, unless any further discoveries among old manuscripts should
throw fresh light upon the subject.
Should this attempt to introduce the writings of the “Friends of God” in
England awaken an interest in them and their works, the Translator proposes
to follow up the present volume with an account of Tauler and selections
from his writings; believing that the study of these German theologians, who
were already called old in Luther’s age, would furnish the best antidote to
what of mischief English readers may have derived from German theology,
falsely so called.
Manchester, February 1854.
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[3] Neander’s “Kirchengeschichte,” Band 6, S. 15, 20. This work and
Schmitz’s “Johannes Tauler von Strasburg,” are the authorities for most of
the facts here mentioned.
[4] As quoted by Neander. Kirchengeschichte, B. 6, S. 769.
[5] Neander, Kircshengeschichte, B. 6, S. 728.
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LETTER FROM CHEVALIER BUNSEN TO THE TRANSLATOR
77 Marina, St. Leonard’s-on-Sea,
11th May 1854.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
YOUR Letter and the proof-sheets of your Translation of the Theologia
Germanica, with Kingsley’s Preface and your Introduction, were delivered to
me yesterday, as I was leaving Carlton Terrace to breathe once more, for a
few days, the refreshing air of this quiet, lovely place. You told me, at
the time, that you had been led to study Tauler and the Theologia Germanica
by some conversations which we had on their subjects in 1851, and you now
wish me to state to your readers, in a few lines, what place I conceive this
school of Germanic theology to hold in the general development of Christian
thought, and what appears to me to be the bearing of this work in particular
upon the present dangers and prospects of Christianity, as well as upon the
eternal interests of religion in the heart of every man and woman.
In complying willingly with your request, I may begin by saying that, with
Luther, I rank this short treatise next to the Bible, but, unlike him,
should place it before rather than after St. Augustine. That school of
pious, learned, and profound men of which this book is, as it were, the
popular catechism, was the Germanic counterpart of Romanic scholasticism,
and more than the revival of that Latin theology which produced so many
eminent thinkers, from Augustine, its father, to Thomas Aquinas, its last
great genius, whose death did not take place until after the birth of Dante,
who again was the contemporary of the Socrates of the Rhenish
school,—Meister Eckart, the Dominican.
The theology of this school was the first protest of the Germanic mind
against the Judaism and formalism of the Byzantine and mediaeval
Churches,—the hollowness of science to which scholasticism had led, and the
rottenness of society which a pompous hierarchy strove in vain to conceal,
but had not the power nor the will to correct. Eckart and Tauler, his pupil,
brought religion home from fruitless speculation, and reasonings upon
imaginary or impossible suppositions, to man’s own heart and to the
understanding of the common people, as Socrates did the Greek philosophy.
There is both a remarkable analogy and a striking contrast between the great
Athenian and those Dominican friars. Socrates did full justice to the deep
ethical ideas embodied in the established religion of his country and its
venerated mysteries, which he far preferred to the shallow philosophy of the
sophists; but he dissuaded his pupils from seeking an initiation into the
mysteries, or at least from resting their convictions and hopes upon them,
exhorting them to rely, not upon the oracles of Delphi, but upon the oracle
in their own bosom. The “Friends of God,” on the other hand, believing (like
Dante) most profoundly in the truth of the Christian religion, on which the
established Church of their age, notwithstanding its corruptions, was
essentially founded, recommended submission to the ordinances of the church
as a wholesome preparatory discipline for many minds. Like the saint of
Athens, however, they spoke plain truth to the people. To their disciples,
and those who came to them for instruction, they exhibited the whole depth
of that real Christian philosophy, which opens to the mind after all
scholastic conventionalism has been thrown away, and the soul listens to the
response which Christ’s Gospel and God’s creation find in a sincere heart
and a self-sacrificing life;—a philosophy which, considered merely as a
speculation, is far more profound than any scholastic system. But, in a
style that was intelligible to all, they preached that no fulfilment of
rites and ceremonies, nor of so‑called religious duties,—in fact, no outward
works, however meritorious, can either give peace to man’s conscience, nor
yet give him strength to bear up against the temptations of prosperity and
the trials of adversity.
In following this course they brought the people back from hollow profession
and real despair, to the blessings of gospel religion, while they opened to
philosophic minds a new career of thought. By teaching that man is justified
by ’faith, and by faith alone, they prepared the popular intellectual
element of the Reformation; by teaching that this faith has its philosophy,
as fully able to carry conviction to the understanding, as faith is to give
peace to the troubled conscience, they paved the way for that spiritual
philosophy of the mind, of which Kant laid the foundation. But they were not
controversialists, as the Reformers of the sixteenth century were driven to
be by their position, and not men of science exclusively, as the masters of
modern philosophy in Germany were and are. Although most of them friars, or
laymen connected with the religious orders of the time, they were men of the
people and men of action. They preached the saving faith to the people in
churches, in hospitals, in the streets and public places. In the strength of
this faith, Tauler, when he had been already for years the universal object
of admiration as a theologian and preacher through all the free cities on
the Rhine, from Basle to Cologne, humbled himself, and remained silent for
the space of two years, after the mysterious layman had shown him the
insufficiency of his scholastic learning and preaching. In the strength of
this faith, he braved the Pope’s Interdict, and gave the consolations of
religion to the people of Strasburg, during the dreadful plague which
depopulated that flourishing city. For this faith, Eckart suffered with
patience slander and persecution, as formerly he had borne with meekness,
honours and praise. For this faith, Nicolaus of Basle, who sat down as a
humble stranger at Tauler’s feet to become the instrument of his real
enlightenment, died a martyr in the flames. In this sense, the “Friends of
God” were, like the Apostles, men of the people and practical Christians,
while as men of thought, their ideas contributed powerfully to the great
efforts of the European nations in the sixteenth century.
Let me, therefore, my dear friend, lay aside all philosophical and
theological terms, and state the principle of the golden book which you are
just presenting to the English public, in what I consider, with Luther, the
best Theological exponent, in plain Teutonic, thus:—
Sin is selfishness:
Godliness is unselfishness:
A godly life is the steadfast working out of inward freeness from self:
To become thus Godlike is the bringing back of man’s first nature.
On this last point,—man’s divine dignity and destiny,—Tauler speaks as
strongly as our author, and almost as strongly as the Bible. Man is indeed
to him God’s own image. “As a sculptor,” he says somewhere, with a striking
range of mind for a monk of the fourteenth century, “is said to have
exclaimed indignantly on seeing a rude block of marble, ‘what a godlike
beauty thou hidest!’ thus God looks upon man in whom God’s own image is
hidden.” “We may begin,” he says in a kindred passage, “by loving God in
hope of reward, we may express ourselves concerning Him in symbols (Bilder),
but we must throw them all away, and much more we must scorn all idea of
reward, that we may love God only because He is the Supreme Good, and
contemplate His eternal nature as the real substance of our own soul.”
But let no one imagine that these men, although doomed to passiveness in
many respects, thought a contemplative or monkish life a condition of
spiritual Christianity, and not rather a danger to it. “If a man truly loves
God,” says Tauler, “and has no will but to do God’s will, the whole force of
the river Rhine may run at him and will not disturb him or break his peace;
if we find outward things a danger and disturbance, it comes from our
appropriating to ourselves what is God’s.” But Tauler, as well as our
Author, uses the strongest language to express his horror of Sin, man’s own
creation, and their view on this subject forms their great contrast to the
philosophers of the Spinozistic school. Among the Reformers, Luther stands
nearest to them, with respect to the great fundamental points of theological
teaching, but their intense dread of Sin as a rebellion against God, is
shared both by Luther and Calvin. Among later theologians, Julius Muller, in
his profound Essay on Sin, and Richard Rothe, in his great work on Christian
Ethics, come nearest to them in depth of thought and ethical earnestness,
and the first of these eminent writers carries out, as it appears to me,
most consistently that fundamental truth of the Theologia Germanica that
there is no sin but Selfishness, and that all Selfishness is sin.
Such appear to me to be the characteristics of our book and of Tauler. I may
be allowed to add, that this small but golden Treatise has been now for
almost forty years an unspeakable comfort to me and to many Christian
friends (most of whom have already departed in peace), to whom I had the
happiness of introducing it. May it in your admirably faithful and lucid
translation become a real “book for the million” in England, a privilege
which it already shares in Germany with Tauler’s matchless Sermons, of which
I rejoice to hear that you are making a selection for publication. May it
become a blessing to many a longing Christian heart in that dear country of
yours, which I am on the point of leaving, after many happy years of
residence, but on which I can never look as a strange land to me, any more
than I shall ever consider myself as a stranger in that home of old Teutonic
liberty and energy, which I have found to be also the home of practical
Christianity and of warm and faithful affection.
Bunsen.
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Theologia Germanica
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CHAPTER I
Of that which is perfect and that which is in part, and how that which is in
part is done away, when that which is perfect is come.
St. Paul saith, “When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in
part shall be done away.” [6] Now mark what is “that which is perfect,” and
“that which is in part.”
“That which is perfect” is a Being, who hath comprehended and included all
things in Himself and His own Substance, and without whom, and beside whom,
there is no true Substance, and in whom all things have their Substance. For
He is the Substance of all things, and is in Himself unchangeable and
immoveable, and changeth and moveth all things else. But “that which is in
part,” or the Imperfect, is that which hath its source in, or springeth from
the Perfect; just as a brightness or a visible appearance floweth out from
the sun or a candle, and appeareth to be somewhat, this or that. And it is
called a creature; and of all these “things which are in part,” none is the
Perfect. So also the Perfect is none of the things which are in part. The
things which are in part can be apprehended, known, and expressed; but the
Perfect cannot be apprehended, known, or expressed by any creature as
creature. Therefore we do not give a name to the Perfect, for it is none of
these. The creature as creature cannot know nor apprehend it, name nor
conceive it.
“Now when that which is Perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be
done away.” But when doth it come? I say, when as much as may be, it is
known, felt and tasted of the soul. For the lack lieth altogether in us, and
not in it. In like manner the sun lighteth the whole world, and is as near
to one as another, yet a blind man seeth it not; but the fault thereof lieth
in the blind man, not in the sun. And like as the sun may not hide its
brightness, but must give light unto the earth (for heaven indeed draweth
its light and heat from another fountain), so also God, who is the highest
Good, willeth not to hide Himself from any, wheresoever He findeth a devout
soul, that is thoroughly purified from all creatures. For in what measure we
put off the creature, in the same measure are we able to put on the Creator;
neither more nor less. For if mine eye is to see anything, it must be
single, or else be purified from all other things; and where heat and light
enter in, cold and darkness must needs depart; it cannot be otherwise.
But one might say, “Now since the Perfect cannot be known nor apprehended of
any creature, but the soul is a creature, how can it be known by the
soul?” Answer: This is why we say, “by the soul as a creature.” We mean it
is impossible to the creature in virtue of its creature-nature and
qualities, that by which it saith “I” and “myself.” For in whatsoever
creature the Perfect shall be known, therein creature-nature, qualities, the
I, the Self and the like, must all be lost and done away. This is the
meaning of that saying of St. Paul: “When that which is perfect is come”
(that is, when it is known), “then that which is in part” (to wit,
creature-nature, qualities, the I, the Self, the Mine) will be despised and
counted for nought. So long as we think much of these things, cleave to them
with love, joy, pleasure or desire, so long remaineth the Perfect unknown to
us.
But it might further be said, “Thou sayest, beside the Perfect there is no
Substance, yet sayest again that somewhat floweth out from it: now is not
that which hath flowed out from it, something beside it.” Answer: This is
why we say, beside it, or without it, there is no true Substance. That which
hath flowed forth from it, is no true Substance, and hath no Substance
except in the Perfect, but is an accident, or a brightness, or a visible
appearance, which is no Substance, and hath no Substance except in the fire
whence the brightness flowed forth, such as the sun or a candle.
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[6] 1 Cor. 13:10.
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CHAPTER II
Of what Sin is, and how we must not take unto ourselves any good Thing,
seeing that it belongeth unto the true Good alone.
The Scripture and the Faith and the Truth say, Sin is nought else, but that
the creature turneth away from the unchangeable Good and betaketh itself to
the changeable; that is to say, that it turneth away from the Perfect to
“that which is in part” and imperfect, and most often to itself. Now mark:
when the creature claimeth for its own anything good, such as Substance,
Life, Knowledge, Power, and in short whatever we should call good, as if it
were that, or possessed that, or that were itself, or that proceeded from
it,—as often as this cometh to pass, the creature goeth astray. What did the
devil do else, or what was his going astray and his fall else, but that he
claimed for himself to be also somewhat, and would have it that somewhat was
his, and somewhat was due to him? This setting up of a claim and his I and
Me and Mine, these were his going astray, and his fall. And thus it is to
this day.
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CHAPTER III
How Man’s Fall and going astray must be amended as Adam’s Fall was.
What else did Adam do but this same thing? It is said, it was because Adam
ate the apple that he was lost, or fell. I say, it was because of his
claiming something for his own, and because of his I, Mine, Me, and the
like. Had he eaten seven apples, and yet never claimed anything for his own,
he would not have fallen: but as soon as he called something his own, he
fell, and would have fallen if he had never touched an apple. Behold! I have
fallen a hundred times more often and deeply, and gone a hundred times
farther astray than Adam; and not all mankind could mend his fall, or bring
him back from going astray. But how shall my fall be amended? It must be
healed as Adam’s fall was healed, and on the self-same wise. By whom, and on
what wise was that healing brought to pass? Mark this: man could not without
God, and God should not without man. Wherefore God took human nature or
manhood upon Himself and was made man, and man was made divine. Thus the
healing was brought to pass. So also must my fall be healed. I cannot do the
work without God, and God may not or will not without me; for if it shall be
accomplished, in me, too, God must be made man; in such sort that God must
take to Himself all that is in me, within and without, so that there may be
nothing in me which striveth against God or hindereth His Work. Now if God
took to Himself all men that are in the world, or ever were, and were made
man in them, and they were made divine in Him, and this work were not
fulfilled in me, my fall and my wandering would never be amended except it
were fulfilled in me also. And in this bringing back and healing, I can, or
may, or shall do nothing of myself, but just simply yield to God, so that He
alone may do all things in me and work, and I may suffer Him and all His
work and His divine will. And because I will not do so, but I count myself
to be my own, and say “I,” “Mine,” “Me” and the like, God is hindered, so
that He cannot do His work in me alone and without hindrance; for this cause
my fall and my going astray remain unhealed. Behold! this all cometh of my
claiming somewhat for my own.
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CHAPTER IV
How Man, when he claimeth any good Thing for his own, falleth, and toucheth
God in His Honour.
God saith, “I will not give My glory to another.” [7] This is as much as to
say, that praise and honour and glory belong to none but to God only. But
now, if I call any good thing my own, as if I were it, or of myself had
power or did or knew anything, or as if anything were mine or of me, or
belonged to me, or were due to me or the like, I take unto myself somewhat
of honour and glory, and do two evil things: First, I fall and go astray as
aforesaid: Secondly, I touch God in His honour and take unto myself what
belongeth to God only. For all that must be called good belongeth to none
but to the true eternal Goodness which is God only, and whoso taketh it unto
himself, committeth unrighteousness and is against God.
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[7] Isaiah 42:8.
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CHAPTER V
How we are to take that Saying, that we must come to be without Will,
Wisdom, Love, Desire, Knowledge, and the like.
Certain men say that we ought to be without will, wisdom, love, desire,
knowledge, and the like. Hereby is not to be understood that there is to be
no knowledge in man, and that God is not to be loved by him, nor desired and
longed for, nor praised and honoured; for that were a great loss, and man
were like the beasts and as the brutes that have no reason. But it meaneth
that man’s knowledge should be so clear and perfect that he should
acknowledge of a truth that in himself he neither hath nor can do any good
thing, and that none of his knowledge, wisdom and art, his will, love and
good works do come from himself, nor are of man, nor of any creature, but
that all these are of the eternal God, from whom they all proceed. As Christ
Himself saith, “Without Me, ye can do nothing.” [8] St. Paul saith also,
“What hast thou that thou hast not received?” [9] As much as to say—nothing.
“Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not
received it?” Again he saith, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.” [10] Now
when a man duly perceiveth these things in himself, he and the creature fall
behind, and he doth not call anything his own, and the less he taketh this
knowledge unto himself, the more perfect doth it become. So also is it with
the will, and love and desire, and the like. For the less we call these
things our own, the more perfect and noble and Godlike do they become, and
the more we think them our own, the baser and less pure and perfect do they
become.
Behold on this sort must we cast all things from us, and strip ourselves of
them; we must refrain from claiming anything for our own. When we do this,
we shall have the best, fullest, clearest and noblest knowledge that a man
can have, and also the noblest and purest love, will and desire; for then
these will be all of God alone. It is much better that they should be God’s
than the creature’s. Now that I ascribe anything good to myself, as if I
were, or had done, or knew, or could perform any good thing, or that it were
mine, this is all of sin and folly. For if the truth were rightly known by
me, I should also know that I am not that good thing and that it is not
mine, nor of me, and that I do not know it, and cannot do it, and the like.
If this came to pass, I should needs cease to call anything my own.
It is better that God, or His works, should be known, as far as it be
possible to us, and loved, praised and honoured, and the like, and even that
man should vainly imagine he loveth or praiseth God, than that God should be
altogether unpraised, unloved, unhonoured and unknown. For when the vain
imagination and ignorance are turned into an understanding and knowledge of
the truth, the claiming anything for our own will cease of itself. Then the
man says: “Behold! I, poor fool that I was, imagined it was I, but behold!
it is and was, of a truth, God!”
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[8] John 15:5.
[9] 1 Cor. 4:7.
[10] 2 Cor. 3:5.
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CHAPTER VI
How that which is best and noblest should also be loved above all Things by
us, merely because it is the best.
A Master called Boetius saith, “It is of sin that we do not love that which
is Best.” He hath spoken the truth. That which is best should be the dearest
of all things to us; and in our love of it, neither helpfulness nor
unhelpfulness, advantage nor injury, gain nor loss, honour nor dishonour,
praise nor blame, nor anything of the kind should be regarded; but what is
in truth the noblest and best of all things, should be also the dearest of
all things, and that for no other cause than that it is the noblest and
best.
Hereby may a man order his life within and without. His outward life: for
among the creatures one is better than another, according as the Eternal
Good manifesteth itself and worketh more in one than in another. Now that
creature in which the Eternal Good most manifesteth itself, shineth forth,
worketh, is most known and loved, is the best, and that wherein the Eternal
Good is least manifested is the least good of all creatures. Therefore when
we have to do with the creatures and hold converse with them, and take note
of their diverse qualities, the best creatures must always be the dearest to
us, and we must cleave to them, and unite ourselves to them, above all to
those which we attribute to God as belonging to Him or divine, such as
wisdom, truth, kindness, peace, love, justice, and the like. Hereby shall we
order our outward man, and all that is contrary to these virtues we must
eschew and flee from.
But if our inward man were to make a leap and spring into the Perfect, we
should find and taste how that the Perfect is without measure, number or
end, better and nobler than all which is imperfect and in part, and the
Eternal above the temporal or perishable, and the fountain and source above
all that floweth or can ever flow from it. Thus that which is imperfect and
in part would become tasteless and be as nothing to us. Be assured of this:
All that we have said must come to pass if we are to love that which is
noblest, highest and best.
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CHAPTER VII
Of the Eyes of the Spirit wherewith Man looketh into Eternity and into Time,
and how the one is hindered of the other in its Working.
Let us remember how it is written and said that the soul of Christ had two
eyes, a right and a left eye. In the beginning, when the soul of Christ was
created, she fixed her right eye upon eternity and the Godhead, and remained
in the full intuition and enjoyment of the divine Essence and Eternal
Perfection; and continued thus unmoved and undisturbed by all the accidents
and travail, suffering, torment and pain that ever befell the outward man.
But with the left eye she beheld the creature and perceived all things
therein, and took note of the difference between the creatures, which were
better or worse, nobler or meaner; and thereafter was the outward man of
Christ ordered.
Thus the inner man of Christ, according to the right eye of His soul, stood
in the full exercise of His divine nature, in perfect blessedness, joy and
eternal peace. But the outward man and the left eye of Christ’s soul, stood
with Him in perfect suffering, in all tribulation, affliction and travail;
and this in such sort that the inward and right eye remained unmoved,
unhindered and untouched by all the travail, suffering, grief and anguish
that ever befell the outward man. It hath been said that when Christ was
bound to the pillar and scourged, and when He hung upon the cross, according
to the outward man, yet His inner man, or soul according to the right eye,
stood in as full possession of divine joy and blessedness as it did after
His ascension, or as it doth now. In like manner His outward man, or soul
with the left eye, was never hindered, disturbed or troubled by the inward
eye in its contemplation of the outward things that belonged to it.
Now the created soul of man hath also two eyes. The one is the power of
seeing into eternity, the other of seeing into time and the creatures, of
perceiving how they differ from each other as afore-said, of giving life and
needful things to the body, and ordering and governing it for the best. But
these two eyes of the soul of man cannot both perform their work at once;
but if the soul shall see with the right eye into eternity, then the left
eye must close itself and refrain from working, and be as though it were
dead.
For if the left eye be fulfilling its office toward outward things; that is,
holding converse with time and the creatures; then must the right eye be
hindered in its working; that is, in its contemplation. Therefore whosoever
will have the one must let the other go; for “no man can serve two
masters.”
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CHAPTER VIII
How the Soul of Man, while it is yet in the Body, may obtain a Foretaste of
eternal Blessedness.
It hath been asked whether it be possible for the soul, while it is yet in
the body, to reach so high as to cast a glance into eternity, and receive a
foretaste of eternal life and eternal blessedness. This is commonly denied;
and truly so in a sense. For it indeed cannot be so long as the soul is
taking heed to the body, and the things which minister and appertain
thereto, and to time and the creature, and is disturbed and troubled and
distracted thereby. For if the soul shall rise to such a state, she must be
quite pure, wholly stripped and bare of all images, and be entirely separate
from all creatures, and above all from herself. Now many think this is not
to be done and is impossible in this present time. But St. Dionysius
maintains that it is possible, as we find from his words in his Epistle to
Timothy, where he saith: “For the beholding of the hidden things of God,
shalt thou forsake sense and the things of the flesh, and all that the
senses can apprehend, and all that reason of her own powers can bring forth,
and all things created and uncreated that reason is able to comprehend and
know, and shalt take thy stand upon an utter abandonment of thyself, and as
knowing none of the aforesaid things, and enter into union with Him who is,
and who is above all existence and all knowledge.” Now if he did not hold
this to be possible in this present time, why should he teach it and enjoin
it on us in this present time? But it behoveth you to know that a master
hath said on this passage of St. Dionysius, that it is possible, and may
happen to a man often, till he become so accustomed to it, as to be able to
look into eternity whenever he will. For when a thing is at first very hard
to a man and strange, and seemingly quite impossible, if he put all his
strength and energy into it, and persevere therein, that will afterward grow
quite light and easy, which he at first thought quite out of reach, seeing
that it is of no use to begin any work, unless it may be brought to a good
end.
And a single one of these excellent glances is better, worthier, higher and
more pleasing to God, than all that the creature can perform as a creature.
And as soon as a man turneth himself in spirit, and with his whole heart and
mind entereth into the mind of God which is above time, all that ever he
hath lost is restored in a moment. And if a man were to do thus a thousand
times in a day, each time a fresh and real union would take place; and in
this sweet and divine work standeth the truest and fullest union that may be
in this present time. For he who hath attained thereto, asketh nothing
further, for he hath found the Kingdom of Heaven and Eternal Life on earth.
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CHAPTER IX
How it is better and more profitable for a Man that he should perceive what
God will do with him, or to what end He will make Use of him, than if he
knew all that God had ever wrought, or would ever work through all the
Creatures; and how Blessedness lieth alone in God, and not in the Creatures,
or in any Works.
We should mark and know of a very truth that all manner of virtue and
goodness, and even that Eternal Good which is God Himself, can never make a
man virtuous, good, or happy, so long as it is outside the soul; that is, so
long as the man is holding converse with outward things through his senses
and reason, and doth not withdraw into himself and learn to understand his
own life, who and what he is. The like is true of sin and evil. For all
manner of sin and wickedness can never make us evil, so long as it is
outside of us; that is, so long as we do not commit it, or do not give
consent to it.
Therefore although it be good and profitable that we should ask, and learn
and know, what good and holy men have wrought and suffered, and how God hath
dealt with them, and what He hath wrought in and through them, yet it were a
thousand times better that we should in ourselves learn and perceive and
understand, who we are, how and what our own life is, what God is and is
doing in us, what He will have from us, and to what ends He will or will not
make use of us. For, of a truth, thoroughly to know oneself, is above all
art, for it is the highest art. If thou knowest thyself well, thou art
better and more praiseworthy before God, than if thou didst not know
thyself, but didst understand the course of the heavens and of all the
planets and stars, also the dispositions of all mankind, also the nature of
all beasts, and, in such matters, hadst all the skill of all who are in
heaven and on earth. For it is said, there came a voice from heaven, saying,
“Man, know thyself.” Thus that proverb is still true, “Going out were never
so good, but staying at home were much better.”
Further, ye should learn that eternal blessedness lieth in one thing alone,
and in nought else. And if ever man or the soul is to be made blessed, that
one thing alone must be in the soul. Now some might ask, “But what is that
one thing?” I answer, it is Goodness, or that which hath been made good; and
yet neither this good nor that, which we can name, or perceive or show; but
it is all and above all good things.
Moreover, it needeth not to enter into the soul, for it is there already,
only it is unperceived. When we say we should come unto it, we mean that we
should seek it, feel it, and taste it. And now since it is One, unity and
singleness is better than manifoldness. For blessedness lieth not in much
and many, but in One and oneness. In one word, blessedness lieth not in any
creature, or work of the creatures, but it lieth alone in God and in His
works. Therefore I must wait only on God and His work, and leave on one side
all creatures with their works, and first of all myself. In like manner all
the great works and wonders that God has ever wrought or shall ever work in
or through the creatures, or even God Himself with all His goodness, so far
as these things exist or are done outside of me, can never make me blessed,
but only in so far as they exist and are done and loved, known, tasted and
felt within me.
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CHAPTER X
How the perfect Men have no other Desire than that they may be to the
Eternal Goodness what His Hand is to a Man, and how they have lost the Fear
of Hell, and Hope of Heaven.
Now let us mark: Where men are enlightened with the true light, they
perceive that all which they might desire or choose, is nothing to that
which all creatures, as creatures, ever desired or chose or knew. Therefore
they renounce all desire and choice, and commit and commend themselves and
all things to the Eternal Goodness. Nevertheless, there remaineth in them a
desire to go forward and get nearer to the Eternal Goodness; that is, to
come to a clearer knowledge, and warmer love, and more comfortable
assurance, and perfect obedience and subjection; so that every enlightened
man could say: “I would fain be to the Eternal Goodness, what His own hand
is to a man.” And he feareth always that he is not enough so, and longeth
for the salvation of all men. And such men do not call this longing their
own, nor take it unto themselves, for they know well that this desire is not
of man, but of the Eternal Goodness; for whatsoever is good shall no one
take unto himself as his own, seeing that it belongeth to the Eternal
Goodness, only.
Moreover, these men are in a state of freedom, because they have lost the
fear of pain or hell, and the hope of reward or heaven, but are living in
pure submission to the Eternal Goodness, in the perfect freedom of fervent
love. This mind was in Christ in perfection, and is also in His followers,
in some more, and in some less. But it is a sorrow and shame to think that
the Eternal Goodness is ever most graciously guiding and drawing us, and we
will not yield to it. What is better and nobler than true poorness in
spirit? Yet when that is held up before us, we will have none of it, but are
always seeking ourselves, and our own things. We like to have our mouths
always filled with good things, that we may have in ourselves a lively taste
of pleasure and sweetness. When this is so, we are well pleased, and think
it standeth not amiss with us. But we are yet a long way off from a perfect
life. For when God will draw us up to something higher, that is, to an utter
loss and forsaking of our own things, spiritual and natural, and withdraweth
His comfort and sweetness from us, we faint and are troubled, and can in no
wise bring our minds to it; and we forget God and neglect holy exercises,
and fancy we are lost for ever. This is a great error and a bad sign. For a
true lover of God, loveth Him or the Eternal Goodness alike, in having and
in not having, in sweetness and bitterness, in good or evil report, and the
like, for he seeketh alone the honour of God, and not his own, either in
spiritual or natural things. And therefore he standeth alike unshaken in all
things, at all seasons. Hereby let every man prove himself, how he standeth
towards God, his Creator and Lord.
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CHAPTER XI
How a righteous Man in this present Time is brought into hell, and there
cannot be comforted, and how he is taken out of Hell and carried into
Heaven, and there cannot be troubled.
Christ’s soul must needs descend into hell, before it ascended into heaven.
So must also the soul of man. But mark ye in what manner this cometh to
pass. When a man truly Perceiveth and considereth himself, who and what he
is, and findeth himself utterly vile and wicked, and unworthy of all the
comfort and kindness that he hath ever received from God, or from the
creatures, he falleth into such a deep abasement and despising of himself,
that he thinketh himself unworthy that the earth should bear him, and it
seemeth to him reasonable that all creatures in heaven and earth should rise
up against him and avenge their Creator on him, and should punish and
torment him; and that he were unworthy even of that. And it seemeth to him
that he shall be eternally lost and damned, and a footstool to all the
devils in hell, and that this is right and just and all too little compared
to his sins which he so often and in so many ways hath committed against God
his Creator. And therefore also he will not and dare not desire any
consolation or release, either from God or from any creature that is in
heaven or on earth; but he is willing to be unconsoled and unreleased, and
he doth not grieve over his condemnation and sufferings; for they are right
and just, and not contrary to God, but according to the will of God.
Therefore they are right in his eyes, and he hath nothing to say against
them. Nothing grieveth him but his own guilt and wickedness; for that is not
right and is contrary to God, and for that cause he is grieved and troubled
in spirit.
This is what is meant by true repentance for sin. And he who in this Present
time entereth into this hell, entereth afterward into the Kingdom of Heaven,
and obtaineth a foretaste there of which excelleth all the delight and joy
which he ever hath had or could have in this present time from temporal
things. But whilst a man is thus in hell, none may console him, neither God
nor the creature, as it is written, “In hell there is no redemption.” [11]
Of this state hath one said, “Let me perish, let me die! I live without
hope; from within and from without I am condemned, let no one pray that I
may be released.”
Now God hath not forsaken a man in this hell, but He is laying His hand upon
him, that the man may not desire nor regard anything but the Eternal Good
only, and may come to know that that is so noble and passing good, that none
can search out or express its bliss, consolation and joy, peace, rest and
satisfaction. And then, when the man neither careth for, nor seeketh, nor
desireth, anything but the Eternal Good alone, and seeketh not himself, nor
his own things, but the honour of God only, he is made a partaker of all
manner of joy, bliss, peace, rest and consolation, and so the man is
henceforth in the Kingdom of Heaven.
This hell and this heaven are two good, safe ways for a man in this present
time, and happy is he who truly findeth them.
For this hell shall pass away,
But Heaven shall endure for aye.
Also let a man mark, when he is in this hell, nothing may console him; and
he cannot believe that he shall ever be released or comforted. But when he
is in heaven, nothing can trouble him; he believeth also that none will ever
be able to offend or trouble him, albeit it is indeed true, that after this
hell he may be comforted and released, and after this heaven he may be
troubled and left without consolation.
Again: this hell and this heaven come about a man in such sort, that he
knoweth not whence they come; and whether they come to him, or depart from
him, he can of himself do nothing towards it. Of these things he can neither
give nor take away from himself, bring them nor banish them, but as it is
written, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof,” that is to say, at this time present, “but thou knowest not whence
it cometh, nor whither it goeth.” [12] And when a man is in one of these two
states, all is right with him, and he is as safe in hell as in heaven, and
so long as a man is on earth, it is possible for him to pass ofttimes from
the one into the other; nay even within the space of a day and night, and
all without his own doing. But when the man is in neither of these two
states he holdeth converse with the creature, and wavereth hither and
thither, and knoweth not what manner of man he is. Therefore he shall never
forget either of them, but lay up the remembrance of them in his heart.
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[11] The writer is probably alluding to Ps. 49:8.
[12] John 3:8.
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CHAPTER XII
Touching that true inward Peace, which Christ left to His Disciples at the
last.
Many say they have no peace nor rest, but so many crosses and trials,
afflictions and sorrows, that they know not how they shall ever get through
them. Now he who in truth will perceive and take note, perceiveth clearly,
that true peace and rest lie not in outward things; for if it were so, the
Evil Spirit also would have peace when things go according to his will,
which is nowise the case; for the prophet declareth, “There is no peace,
saith my God, to the wicked.” [13] And therefore we must consider and see
what is that peace which Christ left to His disciples at the last, when He
said: “My peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.” [14] We may
perceive that in these words Christ did not mean a bodily and outward peace;
for His beloved disciples, with all His friends and followers, have ever
suffered, from the beginning, great affliction, persecution, nay, often
martyrdom, as Christ Himself said: “In this world ye shall have
tribulation.” [15] But Christ meant that true, inward peace of the heart,
which beginneth here, and endureth for ever hereafter. Therefore He said:
“Not as the world giveth,” for the world is false, and deceiveth in her
gifts. She promiseth much, and performeth little. Moreover there liveth no
man on earth who may always have rest and peace without troubles and
crosses, with whom things always go according to his will; there is always
something to be suffered here, turn which way you will. And as soon as you
are quit of one assault, perhaps two come in its place. Wherefore yield
thyself willingly to them, and seek only that true peace of the heart, which
none can take away from thee, that thou mayest overcome all assaults.
Thus then, Christ meant that inward peace which can break through all
assaults and crosses of oppression, suffering, misery, humiliation and what
more there may be of the like, so that a man may be joyful and patient
therein, like the beloved disciples and followers of Christ. Now he who will
in love give his whole diligence and might thereto, will verily come to know
that true eternal peace which is God Himself, as far as it is possible to a
creature; insomuch that what was bitter to him before, shall become sweet,
and his heart shall remain unmoved under all changes, at all times, and
after this life, he shall attain unto everlasting peace.
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[13] Isaiah 57:21.
[14] John 14:27.
[15] John 16:33.
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CHAPTER XIII
How a Man may cast aside Images too soon.
Tauler saith: “There be some men at the present time, who take leave of
types and symbols too soon, before they have drawn out all the truth and
instruction contained therein.” Hence they are scarcely or perhaps never
able to understand the truth aright. [16] For such men will follow no one,
and lean unto their own understandings, and desire to fly before they are
fledged. They would fain mount up to heaven in one flight; albeit Christ did
not so, for after His resurrection, He remained full forty days with His
beloved disciples. No one can be made perfect in a day. A man must begin by
denying himself, and willingly forsaking all things for God’s sake, and must
give up his own will, and all his natural inclinations, and separate and
cleanse himself thoroughly from all sins and evil ways. After this, let him
humbly take up the cross and follow Christ. Also let him take and receive
example and instruction, reproof, counsel and teaching from devout and
perfect servants of God, and not follow his own guidance. Thus the work
shall be established and come to a good end. And when a man hath thus broken
loose from and outleaped all temporal things and creatures, he may
afterwards become perfect in a life of contemplation. For he who will have
the one must let the other go. There is no other way.
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[16] Here Luther’s Edition has the following passage instead of the
remainder of this chapter: “Therefore we should at all times give diligent
heed to the works of God and His commandments, movings, and admonitions, and
not to the works or commandments or admonitions of men.”
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CHAPTER XIV
Of three Stages by which a Man is led upwards till he attaineth true
Perfection.
Now be assured that no one can be enlightened unless he be first cleansed or
purified and stripped. So also, no one can be united with God unless he be
first enlightened. Thus there are three stages: first, the purification;
secondly, the enlightening; thirdly, the union. The purification concerneth
those who are beginning or repenting, and is brought to pass in a threefold
wise; by contrition and sorrow for sin, by full confession, by hearty
amendment. The enlightening belongeth to such as are growing, and also
taketh place in three ways: to wit, by the eschewal of sin, by the practice
of virtue and good works, and by the willing endurance of all manner of
temptation and trials. The union belongeth to such as are perfect, and also
is brought to pass in three ways: to wit, by pureness and singleness of
heart, by love, and by the contemplation of God, the Creator of all things.
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CHAPTER XV
How all Men are dead in Adam and are made alive again in Christ, and of true
Obedience and Disobedience.
All that in Adam fell and died, was raised again and made alive in Christ,
and all that rose up and was made alive in Adam, fell and died in Christ.
But what was that? I answer, true obedience and disobedience. But what is
true obedience? I answer, that a man should so stand free, being quit of
himself, that is, of his I, and Me, and Self, and Mine, and the like, that
in all things, he should no more seek or regard himself, than if he did not
exist, and should take as little account of himself as if he were not, and
another had done all his works. Likewise he should count all the creatures
for nothing. What is there then, which is, and which we may count for
somewhat? I answer, nothing but that which we may call God. Behold! this is
very obedience in the truth, and thus it will be in a blessed eternity.
There nothing is sought nor thought of, nor loved, but the one thing only.
Hereby we may mark what disobedience is: to wit, that a man maketh some
account of himself, and thinketh that he is, and knoweth, and can do
somewhat, and seeketh himself and his own ends in the things around him, and
hath regard to and loveth himself, and the like. Man is created for true
obedience, and is bound of right to render it to God. And this obedience
fell and died in Adam, and rose again and lived in Christ. Yea, Christ’s
human nature was so utterly bereft of Self, and apart from all creatures, as
no man’s ever was, and was nothing else but “a house and habitation of
God.” Neither of that in Him which belonged to God, nor of that which was a
living human nature and a habitation of God, did He, as man, claim anything
for His own. His human nature did not even take unto itself the Godhead,
whose dwelling it was, nor anything that this same Godhead willed, or did or
left undone in Him, nor yet anything of all that His human nature did or
suffered; but in Christ’s human nature there was no claiming of anything,
nor seeking nor desire, saving that what was due might be rendered to the
Godhead, and He did not call this very desire His own. Of this matter no
more can be said, or written here, for it is unspeakable, and was never yet
and never will be fully uttered; for it can neither be spoken nor written
but by Him who is and knows its ground; that is, God Himself, who can do all
things well.
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CHAPTER XVI
Telleth us what is the old Man, and what is the new Man.
Again, when we read of the old man and the new man we must mark what that
meaneth. The old man is Adam and disobedience, the Self, the Me, and so
forth. But the new man is Christ and true obedience, a giving up and denying
oneself of all temporal things, and seeking the honour of God alone in all
things. And when dying and perishing and the like are spoken of, it meaneth
that the old man should be destroyed, and not seek its own either in
spiritual or in natural things. For where this is brought about in a true
divine light, there the new man is born again. In like manner, it hath been
said that man should die unto himself, that is, to earthly pleasures,
consolations, joys, appetites, the I, the Self, and all that is thereof in
man, to which he clingeth and on which he is yet leaning with content, and
thinketh much of. Whether it be the man himself, or any other creature,
whatever it be, it must depart and die, if the man is to be brought aright
to another mind, according to the truth.
Thereunto doth St. Paul exhort us, saying: “Put off concerning the former
conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts:
. . . and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness.” [17] Now he who liveth to himself after
the old man, is called and is truly a child of Adam; and though he may give
diligence to the ordering of his life, he is still the child and brother of
the Evil Spirit. But he who liveth in humble obedience and in the new man
which is Christ, he is, in like manner, the brother of Christ and the child
of God.
Behold! where the old man dieth and the new man is born, there is that
second birth of which Christ saith, “Except a man be born again, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God.” [18] Likewise St. Paul saith, “As in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” [19] That is to say,
all who follow Adam in pride, in lust of the flesh, and in disobedience, are
dead in soul, and never will or can be made alive but in Christ. And for
this cause, so long as a man is an Adam or his child, he is without God.
Christ saith, “He who is not with Me is against Me.” [20] Now he who is
against God, is dead before God. Whence it followeth that all Adam’s
children are dead before God. But he who standeth with Christ in perfect
obedience, he is with God and liveth. As it hath been said already, sin
lieth in the turning away of the creature from the Creator, which agreeth
with what we have now said.
For he who is in disobedience is in sin, and sin can never be atoned for or
healed but by returning to God, and this is brought to Pass by humble
obedience. For so long as a man continueth in disobedience, his sin can
never be blotted out; let him do what he will, it availeth him nothing. Let
us be assured of this. For disobedience is itself sin. But when a man
entereth into the obedience of the faith, all is healed, and blotted out and
forgiven, and not else. Insomuch that if the Evil Spirit himself could come
into true obedience, he would become an angel again, and all his sin and
wickedness would be healed and blotted out and forgiven at once. And could
an angel fall into disobedience, he would straightway become an evil spirit
although he did nothing afresh.
If then it were possible for a man to renounce himself and all things, and
to live as wholly and purely in true obedience, as Christ did in His human
nature, such a man were quite without sin, and were one thing with Christ,
and the same by grace which Christ was by nature. But it is said this cannot
be. So also it is said: “There is none without sin.” But be that as it may,
this much is certain; that the nearer we are to perfect obedience, the less
we sin, and the farther from it we are, the more we sin. In brief: whether a
man be good, better, or best of all; bad, worse, or worst of all; sinful or
saved before God; it all lieth in this matter of obedience. Therefore it
hath been said: the more of Self and Me, the more of sin and wickedness. So
likewise it hath been said: the more the Self, the I, the Me, the Mine, that
is, self-seeking and selfishness, abate in a man, the more doth God’s I,
that is, God Himself, increase in him.
Now, if all mankind abode in true obedience, there would be no grief nor
sorrow. For if it were so, all men would be at one, and none would vex or
harm another; so also, none would lead a life or do any deed contrary to
God’s will. Whence then should grief or sorrow arise? But now alas! all men,
nay the whole world lieth in disobedience! Now were a man simply and wholly
obedient as Christ was, all disobedience were to him a sharp and bitter
pain. But though all men were against him, they could neither shake nor
trouble him, for while in this obedience a man were one with God, and God
Himself were one with the man.
Behold now all disobedience is contrary to God, and nothing else. In truth,
no Thing is contrary to God; no creature nor creature’s work, nor anything
that we can name or think of is contrary to God or displeasing to Him, but
only disobedience and the disobedient man. In short, all that is, is
well-pleasing and good in God’s eyes, saving only the disobedient man. But
he is so displeasing and hateful to God and grieveth Him so sore, that if it
were possible for human nature to die a hundred deaths, God would willingly
suffer them all for one disobedient man, that He might slay disobedience in
him, and that obedience might be born again.
Behold! albeit no man may be so single and perfect in this obedience as
Christ was, yet it is possible to every man to approach so near thereunto as
to be rightly called Godlike, and “a partaker of the divine nature.” [21]
And the nearer a man cometh thereunto, and the more Godlike and divine he
becometh, the more he hateth all disobedience, sin, evil and
unrighteousness, and the worse they grieve him. Disobedience and sin are the
same thing, for there is no sin but disobedience, and what is done of
disobedience is all sin. Therefore all we have to do is to keep ourselves
from disobedience.
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[17] Eph. 4:22, 24.
[18] John 3:3.
[19] 1 Cor. 15:22.
[20] Matt. 12:30.
[21] 2 Peter 1:4.
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CHAPTER XVII
How we are not to take unto ourselves what we have done well: but only what
we have done amiss.
Behold! now it is reported there be some who vainly think and say that they
are so wholly dead to self and quit of it, as to have reached and abide in a
state where they suffer nothing and are moved by nothing, just as if all men
were living in obedience, or as if there were no creatures. And thus they
profess to continue always in an even temper of mind, so that nothing cometh
amiss to them, howsoever things fall out, well or ill. Nay verily! the
matter standeth not so, but as we have said. It might be thus, if all men
were brought into obedience; but until then, it cannot be.
But it may be asked: Are not we to be separate from all things, and neither
to take unto ourselves evil nor good? I answer, no one shall take goodness
unto himself, for that belongeth to God and His goodness only; but thanks be
unto the man, and everlasting reward and blessings, who is fit and ready to
be a dwelling and tabernacle of the Eternal Goodness and Godhead, wherein
God may exert His power, and will and work without hindrance. But if any now
will excuse himself for sin, by refusing to take what is evil unto himself,
and laying the guilt thereof upon the Evil Spirit, and thus make himself out
to be quite pure and innocent (as our first Parents Adam and Eve did while
they were yet in paradise; when each laid the guilt upon the other), he hath
no right at all to do this; for it is written, “There is none without
sin.” Therefore I say; reproach, shame, loss, woe, and eternal damnation be
to the man who is fit and ready and willing that the Evil Spirit and
falsehood, lies and all untruthfulness, wickedness and other evil things
should have their will and pleasure, word and work in him, and make him
their house and habitation.
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CHAPTER XVIII
How that the Life of Christ is the noblest and best Life that ever hath been
or can be, and how a careless Life of false Freedom is the worst Life that
can be.
Of a truth we ought to know and believe that there is no life so noble and
good and well pleasing to God, as the life of Christ, and yet it is to
nature and selfishness the bitterest life. A life of carelessness and
freedom is to nature and the Self and the Me, the sweetest and pleasantest
life, but it is not the best; and in some men may become the worst. But
though Christ’s life be the most bitter of all, yet it is to be preferred
above all. Hereby shall ye mark this: There is an inward sight which hath
power to perceive the One true Good, and that it is neither this nor that,
but that of which St. Paul saith; “When that which is perfect is come, then
that which is in part shall be done away.” [22] By this he meaneth, that the
Whole and Perfect excelleth all the fragments, and that all which is in part
and imperfect, is as nought compared to the Perfect. Thus likewise all
knowledge of the parts is swallowed up when the Whole is known; and where
that Good is known, it cannot but be longed for and loved so greatly, that
all other love wherewith the man hath loved himself and other things, fadeth
away. And that inward sight likewise perceiveth what is best and noblest in
all things, and loveth it in the one true Good, and only for the sake of
that true Good.
Behold! where there is this inward sight, the man perceiveth of a truth,
that Christ’s life is the best and noblest life, and therefore the most to
be preferred, and he willingly accepteth and endureth it, without a question
or a complaint, whether it please or offend nature or other men, whether he
like or dislike it, find it sweet or bitter and the like. And therefore
wherever this Perfect and true Good is known, there also the life of Christ
must be led, until the death of the body. And he who vainly thinketh
otherwise is deceived, and he who saith otherwise, lieth, and in what man
the life of Christ is not, of him the true Good and eternal Truth will
nevermore be known.
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[22] 1 Cor. 13:10.
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CHAPTER XIX
How we cannot come to the true Light and Christ’s Life, by much Questioning
or Reading, or by high natural Skill and Reason, but by truly renouncing
ourselves and all Things.
Let no one suppose, that we may attain to this true light and perfect
knowledge, or life of Christ, by much questioning, or by hearsay, or by
reading and study, nor yet by high skill and great learning. Yea, so long as
a man taketh account of anything which is this or that, whether it be
himself, or any other creature; or doeth anything, or frameth a purpose, for
the sake of his own likings or desires, or opinions, or ends, he cometh not
unto the life of Christ. This hath Christ Himself declared, for He saith:
“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,
and follow Me.” [23] “He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me,
is not worthy of Me.” [24] And if he “hate not his father and mother, and
wife, and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he
cannot be My disciple.” [25] He meaneth it thus: “He who doth not forsake
and part with everything, can never know My eternal truth, nor attain unto
My life.” And though this had never been declared unto us, yet the truth
herself sayeth it, for it is so of a truth. But so long as a man clingeth
unto the elements and fragments of this world (and above all to himself),
and holdeth converse with them, and maketh great account of them, he is
deceived and blinded, and perceiveth what is good no further than as it is
most convenient and pleasant to himself and profitable to his own ends.
These he holdeth to be the highest good and loveth above all. Thus he never
cometh to the truth.
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[23] Matt. 16:24.
[24] Matt. 10:38.
[25] Luke 14:26.
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CHAPTER XX
How, seeing that the Life of Christ is most bitter to Nature and Self,
Nature will have none of it, and chooseth a false careless Life, as is most
convenient to her.
Now, since the life of Christ is every way most bitter to nature and the
Self and the Me (for in the true life of Christ, the Self and the Me and
nature must be forsaken and lost, and die altogether), therefore, in each of
us, nature hath a horror of it, and thinketh it evil and unjust and a folly,
and graspeth after such a life as shall be most comfortable and pleasant to
herself, and saith, and believeth also in her blindness, that such a life is
the best possible. Now, nothing is so comfortable and pleasant to nature, as
a free, careless way of life, therefore she clingeth to that, and taketh
enjoyment in herself and her own powers, and looketh only to her own peace
and comfort and the like. And this happeneth most of all, where there are
high natural gifts of reason, for that soareth upwards in its own light and
by its own power, till at last it cometh to think itself the true Eternal
Light, and giveth itself out as such, and is thus deceived in itself, and
deceiveth other people along with it, who know no better, and also are
thereunto inclined.
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CHAPTER XXI
How a friend of Christ willingly fulfilleth by his outward Works, such
Things as must be and ought to be, and doth not concern himself with the
rest.
Now, it may be asked, what is the state of a man who followeth the true
Light to the utmost of his power? I answer truly, it will never be declared
aright, for he who is not such a man, can neither understand nor know it,
and he who is, knoweth it indeed; but he cannot utter it, for it is
unspeakable. Therefore let him who would know it, give his whole diligence
that he may enter therein; then will he see and find what hath never been
uttered by man’s lips. However, I believe that such a man hath liberty as to
his outward walk and conversation, so long as they consist with what must be
or ought to be; but they may not consist with what he merely willeth to be.
But oftentimes a man maketh to himself many must-be’s and ought-to-be’s
which are false. The which ye may see hereby, that when a man is moved by
his pride or covetousness or other evil dispositions, to do or leave undone
anything, he ofttimes saith, “It must needs be so, and ought to be so.” Or
if he is driven to, or held back from anything by the desire to find favour
in men’s eyes, or by love, friendship, enmity, or the lusts and appetites of
his body, he saith, “It must needs be so, and ought to be so.” Yet behold,
that is utterly false. Had we no must-be’s, nor ought-to-be’s, but such as
God and the Truth show us, and constrain us to, we should have less,
forsooth, to order and do than now; for we make to ourselves much
disquietude and difficulty which we might well be spared and raised above.
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CHAPTER XXII
How sometimes the Spirit of God, and sometimes also the Evil Spirit may
possess a Man and have the mastery over him.
It is written that sometimes the Devil and his spirit do so enter into and
possess a man, that he knoweth not what he doeth and leaveth undone, and
hath no power over himself, but the Evil Spirit hath the mastery over him,
and doeth and leaveth undone in, and with, and through, and by the man what
he will. It is true in a sense that all the world is subject to and
possessed with the Evil Spirit, that is, with lies, falsehood, and other
vices and evil ways; this also cometh of the Evil Spirit, but in a different
sense.
Now, a man who should be in like manner possessed by the Spirit of God, so
that he should not know what he doeth or leaveth undone, and have no power
over himself, but the will and Spirit of God should have the mastery over
him, and work, and do, and leave undone with him and by him, what and as God
would; such a man were one of those of whom St. Paul saith: “For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God,” [26] and they “are
not under the law, but under grace,” [27] and to whom Christ saith: “For it
is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in
you.” [28]
But I fear that for one who is truly possessed with the Spirit of God, there
are a hundred thousand or an innumerable multitude possessed with the Evil
Spirit. This is because men have more likeness to the Evil Spirit than to
God. For the Self, the I, the Me and the like, all belong to the Evil
Spirit, and therefore it is, that he is an Evil Spirit. Behold one or two
words can utter all that hath been said by these many words: “Be simply and
wholly bereft of Self.” But by these many words, the matter hath been more
fully sifted, proved, and set forth.
Now men say, “I am in no wise prepared for this work, and therefore it
cannot be wrought in me,” and thus they find an excuse, so that they neither
are ready nor in the way to be so. And truly there is no one to blame for
this but themselves. For if a man were looking and striving after nothing
but to find a preparation in all things, and diligently gave his whole mind
to see how he might become prepared; verily God would well prepare him, for
God giveth as much care and earnestness and love to the preparing of a man,
as to the pouring in of His Spirit when the man is prepared.
Yet there be certain means thereunto, as the saying is, “To learn an art
which thou knowest not, four things are needful.” [29] The first and most
needful of all is, a great desire and diligence and constant endeavour to
learn the art. And where this is wanting, the art will never be learned. The
second is, a copy or ensample by which thou mayest learn. The third is to
give earnest heed to the master, and watch how he worketh, and to be
obedient to him in all things, and to trust him and follow him. The fourth
is to put thy own hand to the work, and practise it with all industry. But
where one of these four is wanting, the art will never be learned and
mastered. So likewise is it with this preparation. For he who hath the
first, that is, thorough diligence and constant, persevering desire towards
his end, will also seek and find all that appertaineth thereunto, or is
serviceable and profitable to it. But he who hath not that earnestness and
diligence, love and desire, seeketh not, and therefore findeth not, and
therefore remaineth ever unprepared. And therefore he never attaineth unto
that end.
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[26] Rom. 8:14.
[27] Rom. 6:14.
[28] Matt. 10:20.
[29] See note 31.
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CHAPTER XXIII
He who will submit himself to God and be obedient to Him, must be ready to
bear with all Things; to wit, God, himself, and all Creatures, and must be
obedient to them all whether he have to suffer or to do.
There be some who talk of other ways and preparations to this end, and say
we must lie still under God’s hand, and be obedient and resigned and submit
to Him. This is true; for all this would be perfected in a man who should
attain to the uttermost that can be reached in this present time. But if a
man ought and is willing to lie still under God’s hand, he must and ought
also to be still under all things, whether they come from God himself, or
the creatures, nothing excepted. And he who would be obedient, resigned and
submissive to God, must and ought to be also resigned, obedient and
submissive to all things, in a spirit of yielding, and not of resistance,
and take them in silence, resting on the hidden foundations of his soul, and
having a secret inward patience, that enableth him to take all chances or
crosses willingly, and whatever befalleth, neither to call for nor desire
any redress, or deliverance, or resistance, or revenge, but always in a
loving, sincere humility to cry, “Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do!”
Behold! this were a good path to that which is Best, and a noble and blessed
preparation for the farthest goal which a man may reach in this present
time. This is the lovely life of Christ, for He walked in the aforesaid
paths perfectly and wholly unto the end of His bodily life on earth.
Therefore there is no other and better way or preparation to the joyful life
of Jesus Christ, than this same course, and to exercise oneself therein, as
much as may be. And of what belongeth thereunto we have already said
somewhat; nay, all that we have here or elsewhere said and written, is but a
way or means to that end. But what the end is, knoweth no man to declare.
But let him who would know it, follow my counsel and take the right path
thereunto, which is the humble life of Jesus Christ; let him strive after
that with unwearied perseverance, and so, without doubt, he shall come to
that end which endureth for ever. “For he that endureth to the end shall be
saved.” [30]
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[30] Matt. 10:22.
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CHAPTER XXIV
How that four Things are needful before a Man can receive divine Truth and
be possessed with the Spirit of God. [31]
Moreover there are yet other ways to the lovely life of Christ, besides
those we have spoken of: to wit, that God and man should be wholly united,
so that it can be said of a truth, that God and man are one. This cometh to
Pass on this wise. Where the Truth always reigneth, so that true perfect God
and true perfect man are at one, and man so giveth place to God, that God
Himself is there and yet the man too, and this same unity worketh
continually, and doeth and leaveth undone without any I, and Me, and Mine,
and the like; behold, there is Christ, and nowhere else. Now, seeing that
here there is true perfect manhood, so there is a perfect perceiving and
feeling of pleasure and pain, liking and disliking, sweetness and
bitterness, joy and sorrow, and all that can be perceived and felt within
and without. And seeing that God is here made man, He is also able to
perceive and feel love and hatred, evil and good and the like. As a man who
is not God, feeleth and taketh note of all that giveth him pleasure and
pain, and it pierceth him to the heart, especially what offendeth him; so is
it also when God and man are one, and yet God is the man; there everything
is perceived and felt that is contrary to God and man. And since there man
becometh nought, and God alone is everything, so is it with that which is
contrary to man, and a sorrow to him. And this must hold true of God so long
as a bodily and substantial life endureth.
Furthermore, mark ye, that the one Being in whom God and man are united,
standeth free of himself and of all things, and whatever is in him is there
for God’s sake and not for man’s, or the creature’s. For it is the property
of God to be without this and that, and without Self and Me, and without
equal or fellow; but it is the nature and property of the creature to seek
itself and its own things, and this and that, here and there; and in all
that it doeth and leaveth undone its desire is to its own advantage and
profit. Now where a creature or a man forsaketh and cometh out of himself
and his own things, there God entereth in with His own, that is, with
Himself.
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[31] The heading of this Chapter appears to have no relation to its
contents, while it perfectly suits the latter half of Chapter xxii, which
has nothing corresponding to it in the heading of that chapter. As however
the heading of Chapter xxiv. is common both to the Wurtzburg MS. and
Luther’s editions, the translator has no option but to retain it in its
present position.
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CHAPTER XXV
Of two evil Fruits that do spring up from the Seed of the Evil Spirit, and
are two Sisters who love to dwell together. The one is called spiritual
Pride and Highmindedness, the other is false, lawless Freedom.
Now, after that a man hath walked in all the ways that lead him unto the
truth, and exercised himself therein, not sparing his labour; now, as often
and as long as he dreameth that his work is altogether finished, and he is
by this time quite dead to the world, and come out from Self and given up to
God alone, behold! the Devil cometh and soweth his seed in the man’s heart.
From this seed spring two fruits; the one is spiritual fulness or pride, the
other is false, lawless freedom. These are two sisters who love to be
together. Now, it beginneth on this wise: the Devil puffeth up the man, till
he thinketh himself to have climbed the topmost pinnacle, and to have come
so near to heaven, that he no longer needeth Scripture, nor teaching, nor
this nor that, but is altogether raised above any need. Whereupon there
ariseth a false peace and satisfaction with himself, and then it followeth
that he saith or thinketh: “Yea, now I am above all other men, and know and
understand more than any one in the world; therefore it is certainly just
and reasonable that I should be the lord and commander of all creatures, and
that all creatures, and especially all men, should serve me and be subject
unto me.” And then he seeketh and desireth the same, and taketh it gladly
from all creatures, especially men, and thinketh himself well worthy of all
this, and that it is his due, and looketh on men as if they were the beasts
of the field, and thinketh himself worthy of all that ministereth to his
body and life and nature, in profit, or joy, or pleasure, or even pastime
and amusement, and he seeketh and taketh it wherever he findeth opportunity.
And whatever is done or can be done for him, seemeth him all too little and
too poor, for he thinketh himself worthy of still more and greater honour
than can be rendered to him. And of all the men who serve him and are
subject to him, even if they be downright thieves and murderers, he saith
nevertheless, that they have faithful, noble hearts, and have great love and
faithfulness to the truth and to poor men. And such men are praised by him,
and he seeketh them and followeth after them wherever they be. But he who
doth not order himself according to the will of these high-minded men, nor
is subject unto them, is not sought after by them, nay, more likely blamed
and spoken ill of, even though he were as holy as St. Peter himself. And
seeing that this proud and puffed-up spirit thinketh that she needeth
neither Scripture, nor instruction, nor anything of the kind, therefore she
giveth no heed to the admonitions, order, laws and precepts of the holy
Christian Church, nor to the Sacraments, but mocketh at them and at all men
who walk according to these ordinances and hold them in reverence. Hereby we
may plainly see that those two sisters dwell together.
Moreover since this sheer pride thinketh to know and understand more than
all men besides, therefore she chooseth to prate more than all other men,
and would fain have her opinions and speeches to be alone regarded and
listened to, and counteth all that others think and say to be wrong, and
holdeth it in derision as a folly.
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CHAPTER XXVI
Touching Poorness of Spirit and true Humility and whereby we may discern the
true and lawful free Men whom the Truth hath made free.
But it is quite otherwise where there is poorness of spirit, and true
humility; and it is so because it is found and known of a truth that a man,
of himself and his own power, is nothing, hath nothing, can do and is
capable of nothing but only infirmity and evil. Hence followeth that the man
findeth himself altogether unworthy of all that hath been or ever will be
done for him, by God or the creatures, and that he is a debtor to God and
also to all the creatures in God’s stead, both to bear with, and to labour
for, and to serve them. And therefore he doth not in any wise stand up for
his own rights, but from the humility of his heart he saith, “It is just and
reasonable that God and all creatures should be against me, and have a right
over me, and to me, and that I should not be against any one, nor have a
right to anything.” Hence it followeth that the man doth not and will not
crave or beg for anything, either from God or the creatures, beyond mere
needful things, and for those only with shamefacedness, as a favour and not
as a right. And he will not minister unto or gratify his body or any of his
natural desires, beyond what is needful, nor allow that any should help or
serve him except in case of necessity, and then always in trembling; for he
hath no right to anything and therefore he thinketh himself unworthy of
anything. So likewise all his own discourse, ways, words and works seem to
this man a thing of nought and a folly. Therefore he speaketh little, and
doth not take upon himself to admonish or rebuke any, unless he be
constrained thereto by love or faithfulness towards God, and even then he
doth it in fear, and so little as may be.
Moreover, when a man hath this poor and humble spirit, he cometh to see and
understand aright, how that all men are bent upon themselves, and inclined
to evil and sin, and that on this account it is needful and profitable that
there be order, customs, law and precepts, to the end that the blindness and
foolishness of men may be corrected, and that vice and wickedness may be
kept under, and constrained to seemliness. For without ordinances, men would
be much more mischievous and ungovernable than dogs and cattle. And few have
come to the knowledge of the truth but what have begun with holy practices
and ordinances, and exercised themselves therein so long as they knew
nothing more nor better.
Therefore one who is poor in spirit and of a humble mind doth not despise or
make light of law, order, precepts and holy customs, nor yet of those who
observe and cleave wholly to them, but with loving pity and gentle sorrow,
crieth: “Almighty Father, Thou Eternal Truth, I make my lament unto Thee,
and it grieveth Thy Spirit too, that through man’s blindness, infirmity, and
sin, that is made needful and must be, which in deed and truth were neither
needful nor right.” For those who are perfect are under no law.
So order, laws, precepts and the like are merely an admonition to men who
understand nothing better and know and perceive not wherefore all law and
order is ordained. And the perfect accept the law along with such ignorant
men as understand and know nothing better, and practise it with them, to the
intent that they may be restrained thereby, and kept from evil ways, or if
it be possible, brought to something higher.
Behold! all that we have said of poverty and humility is so of a truth, and
we have the proof and witness thereof in the pure life of Christ, and in His
words. For He both practised and fulfilled every work of true humility and
all other virtues, as shineth forth in His holy life, and He saith also
expressly: “Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find
rest unto your souls.” [32] Moreover He did not despise and set at nought
the law and the commandments, nor yet the men who are under the law. He
saith: “I am not come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil.”
But he saith further, that to keep them is not enough, we must press forward
to what is higher and better, as is indeed true. He saith: “Except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven.” [33] For the law
forbiddeth evil works, but Christ condemneth also evil thoughts; the law
alloweth us to take vengeance on our enemies, but Christ commandeth us to
love them. The law forbiddeth not the good things of this world, but He
counselleth us to despise them. And He hath set His seal upon all He said,
with His own holy life; for He taught nothing that He did not fulfil in
work, and He kept the law and was subject unto it to the end of His mortal
life. Likewise St. Paul saith: “Christ was made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law.” [34] That is, that He might bring them to
something higher and nearer to Himself. He said again, “The Son of man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” [35]
In a word: in Christ’s life and words and works, we find nothing but true,
pure humility and poverty such as we have set forth. And therefore where God
dwelleth in a man, and the man is a true follower of Christ, it will be, and
must be, and ought to be the same. But where there is pride, and a haughty
spirit, and a light careless mind, Christ is not, nor any true follower of
His.
Christ said: “My soul is troubled, even unto death.” He meaneth His bodily
death. That is to say: from the time that He was born of Mary, until His
death on the cross, He had not one joyful day, but only trouble, sorrow and
contradiction. Therefore it is just and reasonable that His servants should
be even as their Master. Christ saith also: “Blessed are the poor in
spirit” (that is, those who are truly humble), “for theirs is the kingdom of
Heaven.” And thus we find it of a truth, where God is made man. For in
Christ and in all His true followers, there must needs be thorough humility
and poorness of spirit, a lowly retiring disposition, and a heart laden with
a secret sorrow and mourning, so long as this mortal life lasteth. And he
who dreameth otherwise is deceived, and deceiveth others with him as
aforesaid. Therefore nature and Self always avoid this life, and cling to a
life of false freedom and ease, as we have said.
Behold! now cometh an Adam or an Evil Spirit, wishing to justify himself and
make excuse, and saith: “Thou wilt almost have it that Christ was bereft of
self and the like, yet He spake often of Himself, and glorified Himself in
this and that.” Answer: when a man in whom the truth worketh, hath and ought
to have a will towards anything, his will and endeavour and works are for no
end, but that the truth may be seen and manifested; and this will was in
Christ, and to this end, words and works were needful. And what Christ did
because it was the most profitable and best means thereunto, He no more took
unto Himself than anything else that happened. Dost thou say now: “Then
there was a Wherefore in Christ”? I answer, if thou wert to ask the sun,
“Why shinest thou?” he would say: “I must shine, and cannot do otherwise,
for it is my nature and property; but this my property, and the light I
give, is not of myself, and I do not call it mine.” So likewise is it with
God and Christ and all who are godly and belong unto God. In them is no
willing, nor working nor desiring but has for its end, goodness as goodness,
for the sake of goodness, and they have no other Wherefore than this.
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[32] Matt. xi. 29.
[33] Matt. 5:20.
[34] Galat. 4:4.
[35] Matt. 20:28.
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CHAPTER XXVII
How we are to take Christ’s Words when He bade forsake all Things; and
wherein the Union with the Divine Will standeth.
Now, according to what hath been said, ye must observe that when we say, as
Christ also saith, that we ought to resign and forsake all things, this is
not to be taken in the sense that a man is neither to do nor to purpose
anything; for a man must always have something to do and to order so long as
he liveth. But we are to understand by it that the union with God standeth
not in any man’s powers, in his working or abstaining, perceiving or
knowing, nor in that of all the creatures taken together.
Now what is this union? It is that we should be of a truth purely, simply,
and wholly at one with the One Eternal Will of God, or altogether without
will, so that the created will should flow out into the Eternal Will, and be
swallowed up and lost therein, so that the Eternal Will alone should do and
leave undone in us. Now mark what may help or further us towards this end.
Behold, neither exercises, nor words, nor works, nor any creature nor
creature’s work can do this. In this wise therefore must we renounce and
forsake all things, that we must not imagine or suppose that any words,
works, or exercises, any skill or cunning or any created thing can help or
serve us thereto. Therefore we must suffer these things to be what they are,
and enter into the union with God. Yet outward things must be, and we must
do and refrain so far as is necessary, especially we must sleep and wake,
walk and stand still, speak and be silent and much more of the like. These
must go on so long as we live.
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CHAPTER XXVIII
How, after a Union with the Divine Will, the inward Man standeth immoveable,
the while the outward Man is moved hither and thither.
Now, when this union truly cometh to pass and becometh established, the
inward man standeth henceforward immoveable in this union; and God suffereth
the outward man to be moved hither and thither, from this to that, of such
things as are necessary and right. So that the outward man saith in
sincerity “I have no will to be or not to be, to live or die, to know or not
to know, to do or to leave undone and the like; but I am ready for all that
is to be, or ought to be, and obedient thereunto, whether I have to do or to
suffer.” And thus the outward man hath no Wherefore or purpose, but only to
do his part to further the Eternal Will. For it is perceived of a truth,
that the inward man shall stand immoveable, and that it is needful for the
outward man to be moved. And if the inward man have any Wherefore in the
actions of the outward man, he saith only that such things must be and ought
to be, as are ordained by the Eternal Will. And where God Himself dwelleth
in the man, it is thus; as we plainly see in Christ. Moreover, where there
is this union, which is the offspring of a Divine light and dwelleth in its
beams, there is no spiritual pride or irreverent spirit, but boundless
humility, and a lowly broken heart; also an honest blameless walk, justice,
peace, content, and all that is of virtue must needs be there. Where they
are not, there is no right union, as we have said. For just as neither this
thing nor that can bring about or further this union, so there is nothing
which hath power to frustrate or hinder it, save the man himself with his
self-will, that doeth him this great wrong. Of this be well assured.
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CHAPTER XXIX
How a Man may not attain so high before Death as not to be moved or touched
by outward Things.
There be some who affirm, that a man, while in this present time, may and
ought to be above being touched by outward things, and in all respects as
Christ was after His resurrection. This they try to prove and establish by
Christ’s words: “I go before you into Galilee there; shall ye see Me.” [36]
And again, “A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have.” [37]
These sayings they interpret thus: “As ye have seen Me, and been followers
of Me, in My mortal body and life, so also it behoveth you to see Me and
follow Me, as I go before you into Galilee; that is to say, into a state in
which nothing hath power to move or grieve the soul; on which state ye shall
enter, and live and continue therein, before that ye have suffered and gone
through your bodily death. And as ye see Me having flesh and bones, and not
liable to suffer, so shall ye likewise, while yet in the body and having
your mortal nature, cease to feel outward things, were it even the death of
the body.”
Now, I answer, in the first place, to this affirmation, that Christ did not
mean that a man should or could attain unto this state, unless he have first
gone through and suffered all that Christ did. Now, Christ did not attain
thereunto, before He had passed through and suffered His natural death, and
what things appertain thereto. Therefore no man can or ought to come to it
so long as he is mortal and liable to suffer. For if such a state were the
noblest and best, and if it were possible and right to attain to it, as
aforesaid, in this present time, then it would have been attained by Christ;
for the life of Christ is the best and noblest, the worthiest and loveliest
in God’s sight that ever was or will be. Therefore if it was not and could
not be so with Christ, it will never be so with any man. Therefore though
some may imagine and say that such a life is the best and noblest life, yet
it is not so.
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[36] Matt. 26:32, and 28:7-10.
[37] Luke 24:39.
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CHAPTER XXX
On what wise we may came to be beyond and above all Custom, Order, Law,
Precepts and the like.
Some say further, that we can and ought to get beyond all virtue, all custom
and order, all law, precepts and seemliness, so that all these should be
laid aside, thrown off and set at nought. Herein there is some truth, and
some falsehood. Behold and mark: Christ was greater than His own life, and
above all virtue, custom, ordinances and the like, and so also is the Evil
Spirit above them, but with a difference. For Christ was and is above them
on this wise, that His words, and works, and ways, His doings and
refrainings, His speech and silence, His sufferings, and whatsoever happened
to Him, were not forced upon Him, neither did He need them, neither were
they of any profit to Himself. It was and is the same with all manner of
virtue, order, laws, decency, and the like; for all that may be reached by
them is already in Christ to perfection. In this sense, that saying of St.
Paul is true and receiveth its fulfilment, “As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God,” “and are not under the law, but under
grace.” [38] That meaneth, man need not teach them what they are to do or
abstain from; for their Master, that is, the Spirit of God, shall verily
teach them what is needful for them to know. Likewise they do not need that
men should give them precepts, or command them to do right and not to do
wrong, and the like; for the same admirable Master who teacheth them what is
good or not good, what is higher and lower, and in short leadeth them into
all truth, He reigneth also within them, and biddeth them to hold fast that
which is good, and to let the rest go, and to Him they give ear. Behold! in
this sense they need not to wait upon any law, either to teach or to command
them. In another sense also they need no law; namely, in order to seek or
win something thereby or get any advantage for themselves. For whatever help
toward eternal life, or furtherance in the way everlasting, they might
obtain from the aid, or counsel, or words, or works of any creature, they
possess already beforehand. Behold! in this sense also it is true, that we
may rise above all law and virtue, and also above the works and knowledge
and powers of any creature.
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[38] Rom. 8:14, and 6:14.
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CHAPTER XXXI
How we are not to cast off the Life of Christ, but practise it diligently,
and walk in it until Death.
But that other thing which they affirm, how that we ought to throw off and
cast aside the life of Christ, and all laws and commandments, customs and
order and the like, and pay no heed to them, but despise and make light of
them, is altogether false and a lie. Now some may say; “Since neither Christ
nor others can ever gain anything, either by a Christian life, or by all
these exercises and ordinances, and the like, nor turn them to any account,
seeing that they possess already all that can be had through them, what
cause is there why they should not henceforth eschew them altogether? Must
they still retain and practise them?”
Behold, ye must look narrowly into this matter. There are two kinds of
Light; the one is true and the other is false. The true light is that
Eternal Light which is God; or else it is a created light, but yet divine,
which is called grace. And these are both the true Light. So is the false
light Nature or of Nature. But why is the first true, and the second false?
This we can better perceive than say or write. To God, as Godhead, appertain
neither will, nor knowledge, nor manifestation, nor anything that we can
name, or say, or conceive. But to God as God, [39] it belongeth to express
Himself, and know and love Himself, and to reveal Himself to Himself; and
all this without any creature. And all this resteth in God as a substance
but not as a working, so long as there is no creature. And out of this
expressing and revealing of Himself unto Himself, ariseth the distinction of
Persons. But when God as God is made man, or where God dwelleth in a godly
man, or one who is “made a partaker of the divine nature,” in such a man
somewhat appertaineth unto God which is His own, and belongeth to Him only
and not to the creature. And without the creature, this would lie in His own
Self as a Substance or well-spring, but would not be manifested or wrought
out into deeds. Now God will have it to be exercised and clothed in a form,
for it is there only to be wrought out and executed. What else is it for?
Shall it lie idle? What then would it profit? As good were it that it had
never been; nay better, for what is of no use existeth in vain, and that is
abhorred by God and Nature. However God will have it wrought out, and this
cannot come to pass (which it ought to do) without the creature. Nay, if
there ought not to be, and were not this and that—works, and a world full of
real things, and the like, —what were God Himself, and what had He to do,
and whose God would He be? Here we must turn and stop, or we might follow
this matter and grope along until we knew not where we were, nor how we
should find our way out again.
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[39] This is, as a Person—”God” being used here as a proper name.—Tr.
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CHAPTER XXXII
How God is a true, simple, perfect Good, and how He is a Light and a Reason
and all Virtues, and how what is highest and best, that is, God, ought to be
most loved by us.
In short, I would have you to understand, that God (in so far as He is good)
is goodness as goodness, and not this or that good. But here mark one thing.
Behold! what is sometimes here and sometimes there is not everywhere, and
above all things and places; so also, what is to-day, or to-morrow, is not
always, at all times, and above all time; and what is some thing, this or
that, is not all things and above all things. Now behold, if God were some
thing, this or that, He would not be all in all, and above all, as He is;
and so also, He would not be true Perfection. Therefore God is, and yet He
is neither this nor that which the creature, as creature, can perceive,
name, conceive or express. Therefore if God (in so far as He is good) were
this or that good, He would not be all good, and therefore He would not be
the One Perfect Good, which He is. Now God is also a Light and a Reason,
[40] the property of which is to give light and shine, and take knowledge;
and inasmuch as God is Light and Reason, He must give light and perceive.
And all this giving and perceiving of light existeth in God without the
creature; not as a work fulfilled, but as a substance or well-spring. But
for it to flow out into a work, something really done and accomplished, [41]
there must be creatures through whom this can come to pass. Look ye: where
this Reason and Light is at work in a creature, it perceiveth and knoweth
and teacheth what itself is; how that it is good in itself and neither this
thing nor that thing. This Light and Reason knoweth and teacheth men, that
it is a true, simple, perfect Good, which is neither this nor that special
good, but comprehendeth every kind of good.
Now, having declared that this Light teacheth the One Good, what doth it
teach concerning it? Give heed to this. Behold! even as God is the one Good
and Light and Reason, so is He also Will and Love and Justice and Truth, and
in short all virtues. But all these are in God one Substance, and none of
them can be put in exercise and wrought out into deeds without the creature,
for in God, without the creature, they are only as a Substance or
well-spring, not as a work. But where the One, who is yet all these, layeth
hold of a creature, and taketh possession of it, and directeth and maketh
use of it, so that He may perceive in it somewhat of His own, behold, in so
far as He is Will and Love, He is taught of Himself, seeing that He is also
Light and Reason, and He willeth nothing but that One thing which He is.
Behold! in such a creature, there is no longer anything willed or loved but
that which is good, because it is good, and for no other reason than that it
is good, not because it is this or that, or pleaseth or displeaseth such a
one, is pleasant or painful, bitter or sweet, or what not. All this is not
asked about nor looked at. And such a creature doth nothing for its own
sake, or in its own name, for it hath quitted all Self, and Me, and Mine,
and We and Ours, and the like, and these are departed. It no longer saith,
“I love myself, or this or that, or what not.” And if you were to ask Love,
“What lovest thou?” she would answer, “I love Goodness.” “Wherefore?”
“Because it is good, and for the sake of Goodness.” So it is good and just
and right to deem that if there were ought better than God, that must be
loved better than God. And thus God loveth not Himself as Himself, but as
Goodness. And if there were, and He knew, ought better than God, He would
love that and not Himself. Thus the Self and the Me are wholly sundered from
God, and belong to Him only in so far as they are necessary for Him to be a
Person.
Behold! all that we have said must indeed come to pass in a Godlike man, or
one who is truly “made a partaker of the divine nature”; for else he would
not be truly such.
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[40] Cognition is the word which comes nearest to the original Erkenntniss,
but would not harmonise with the style of the translation.
[41] Or, be realised.
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CHAPTER XXXIII
How when a Man is made truly Godlike, his Love is pure and unmixed, and he
loveth all Creatures, and doth his best for them.
Hence it followeth, that in a truly Godlike man, his love is pure and
unmixed, and full of kindness, insomuch that he cannot but love in sincerity
all men and things, and wish well, and do good to them, and rejoice in their
welfare. Yea, let them do what they will to such a man, do him wrong or
kindness, bear him love or hatred or the like, yea, if one could kill such a
man a hundred times over, and he always came to life again, he could not but
love the very man who had so often slain him, although he had been treated
so unjustly, and wickedly, and cruelly by him, and could not but wish well,
and do well to him, and show him the very greatest kindness in his power, if
the other would but only receive and take it at his hands. The proof and
witness whereof may be seen in Christ; for He said to Judas, when he
betrayed Him: “Friend, wherefore art thou come?” Just as if He had said:
“Thou hatest Me, and art Mine enemy, yet I love thee and am thy friend. Thou
desirest and rejoicest in My affliction, and dost the worst thou canst unto
Me; yet I desire and wish thee all good, and would fain give it thee, and do
it for thee, if thou wouldst but take and receive it.” As though God in
human nature were saying: “I am pure, simple Goodness, and therefore I
cannot will, or desire, or rejoice in, or do or give anything but goodness.
If I am to reward thee for thy evil and wickedness, I must do it with
goodness, for I am and have nothing else.” Hence therefore God, in a man who
is “made partaker of His nature,” desireth and taketh no revenge for all the
wrong that is or can be done unto Him. This we see in Christ, when He said:
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Likewise it is God’s property that He doth not constrain any by force to do
or not to do anything, but He alloweth every man to do and leave undone
according to his will, whether it be good or bad, and resisteth none. This
too we see in Christ, who would not resist or defend Himself when His
enemies laid hands on Him. And when Peter would have defended Him, He said
unto Peter: “Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which My Father hath
given Me, shall I not drink it?” Neither may a man who is made a partaker of
the divine nature, oppress or grieve any one. That is, it never entereth
into his thoughts, or intents, or wishes, to cause pain or distress to any,
either by deed or neglect, by speech or silence.
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CHAPTER XXXIV
How that if a Man will attain to that which is best, he must forswear his
own Will; and he who helpeth a Man to his own Will helpeth him to the worst
Thing he can.
Some may say: “Now since God willeth and desireth and doeth the best that
may be to every one, He ought so to help each man and order things for him,
that they should fall out according to his will and fulfil his desires, so
that one might be a Pope, another a Bishop, and so forth.” Be assured, he
who helpeth a man to his own will, helpeth him to the worst that he can. For
the more a man followeth after his own self-will, and self-will groweth in
him, the farther off is he from God, the true Good, for nothing burneth in
hell but self-will. Therefore it hath been said, “Put off thine own will,
and there will be no hell.” Now God is very willing to help a man and bring
him to that which is best in itself, and is of all things the best for man.
But to this end, all self-will must depart, as we have said. And God would
fain give man His help and counsel thereunto, for so long as a man is
seeking his own good, he doth not seek what is best for him, and will never
find it. For a man’s highest good would be and truly is, that he should not
seek himself nor his own things, nor be his own end in any respect, either
in things spiritual or things natural, but should seek only the praise and
glory of God and His holy will. This doth God teach and admonish us. Let him
therefore who wisheth that God should help him to what is best, and best for
him, give diligent heed to God’s counsels and teachings, and obey His
commandments; thus, and not else, will he have, and hath already, God’s
help. Now God teacheth and admonisheth man to forsake himself and all
things, and to follow Him only. “For he who loveth his soul,” [42] that is
himself, and will guard it and keep it, “he shall lose it”; that is, he who
seeketh himself and his own advantage in all things, in so doing loseth his
soul. “But he who hateth his soul for My sake shall keep it unto life
eternal”; that is, he who forsaketh himself and his own things, and giveth
up his own will, and fulfilleth God’s will, his soul will be kept and
preserved unto Life Eternal.
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[42] Mark 8:35. Our authorised version uses the word “life” in this verse,
but as that would not quite bring out the force of the original, I have
ventured to use the same word for yuch here, by which it is translated in
the two succeeding verses. Except in this and another passage, where, in
quoting John 3:8, pneuma is translated, as in Luther’s version, Spirit
instead of Wind, our authorised version has been always ahered to.—Tr.
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CHAPTER XXXV
How there is deep and true Humility and Poorness of Spirit in a Man who is
“made a Partaker of the Divine Nature.”
Moreover, in a man who is “made a partaker of the divine nature,” there is a
thorough and deep humility, and where this is not, the man hath not been
“made a partaker of the divine nature.” So Christ taught in words and
fulfilled in works. And this humility springeth up in the man, because in
the true Light he seeth (as it also really is) that Substance, Life,
Perceiving, Knowledge, Power, and what is thereof, do all belong to the True
Good, and not to the creature; but that the creature of itself is nothing
and hath nothing, and that when it turneth itself aside from the True Good
in will or in works, nothing is left to it but pure evil. And therefore it
is true to the very letter, that the creature, as creature, hath no
worthiness in itself, and no right to anything, and no claim over any one,
either over God or over the creature, and that it ought to give itself up to
God and submit to Him because this is just. And this is the chiefest and
most weighty matter.
Now, if we ought to be, and desire to be, obedient and submit unto God, we
must also submit to what we receive at the hands of any of His creatures, or
our submission is all false. From this latter article floweth true humility,
as indeed it doth also from the former. [43] And unless this verily ought to
be, and were wholly agreeable to God’s justice, Christ would not have taught
it in words, and fulfilled it in His life. And herein there is a veritable
manifestation of God; and it is so of a truth, that of God’s truth and
justice this creature shall be subject to God and all creatures, and no
thing or person shall be subject or obedient to her. God and all the
creatures have a right over her and to her, but she hath a right to nothing:
she is a debtor to all, and nothing is owing to her, so that she shall be
ready to bear all things from others, and also if needs be to do all things
for others. And out of this groweth that poorness of spirit of which Christ
said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (that is to say, the truly humble),
“for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” All this hath Christ taught in words
and fulfilled with His life.
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[43] Namely, God’s having a right to our obedience.
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CHAPTER XXXVI
How nothing is contrary to God but Sin only; and what Sin is in Kind and
Act.
Further ye shall mark: when it is said that such a thing or such a deed is
contrary to God, or that such a thing is hateful to God and grieveth His
Spirit, ye must know that no creature is contrary to God, or hateful or
grievous unto Him, in so far as it is, liveth, knoweth, hath power to do, or
produce ought, and so forth, for all this is not contrary to God. That an
evil spirit, or a man is, liveth, and the like, is altogether good and of
God; for God is the Being of all that are, and the Life of all that live,
and the Wisdom of all the wise; for all things have their being more truly
in God than in themselves, and also all their powers, knowledge, life, and
the rest; for if it were not so, God would not be all good; And thus all
creatures are good. Now what is good is agreeable to God, and He will have
it. Therefore it cannot be contrary to Him.
But what then is there which is contrary to God and hateful to Him? Nothing
but Sin. But what is Sin? Mark this: Sin is nothing else than that the
creature willeth otherwise than God willeth, and contrary to Him. Each of us
may see this in himself; for he who willeth otherwise than I, or whose will
is contrary to mine, is my foe; but he who willeth the same as I, is my
friend, and I love him. It is even so with God: and that is sin, and is
contrary to God, and hateful and grievous to Him. And he who willeth,
speaketh, or is silent, doeth or leaveth undone, otherwise than as I will,
is contrary to me, and an offence unto me. So it is also with God: when a
man willeth otherwise than God, or contrary to God, whatever he doeth or
leaveth undone, in short all that proceedeth from him, is contrary to God
and is sin. And whatsoever Will willeth otherwise than God, is against
God’s will. As Christ said: “He who is not with Me is against me.” Hereby
may each man see plainly whether or not he be without sin, and whether or
not he be committing sin, and what sin is, and how sin ought to be atoned
for, and wherewith it may be healed. And this contradiction to God’s will is
what we call, and is, disobedience. And therefore Adam, the I, the Self,
Self-will, Sin, or the Old Man, the turning aside or departing from God, do
all mean one and the same thing.
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CHAPTER XXXVII
How in God, as God, there can neither be Grief, Sorrow, Displeasure, nor the
like, but how it is otherwise in a Man who is “made a Partaker of the Divine
Nature.”
In God, as God, neither sorrow nor grief nor displeasure can have place, and
yet God is grieved on account of men’s sins. Now since grief cannot befall
God without the creature, this cometh to pass where He is made man, or when
He dwelleth in a Godlike man. And there, behold, sin is so hateful to God,
and grieveth Him so sore, that He would willingly suffer agony and death, if
one man’s sins might be thereby washed out. And if He were asked whether He
would rather live and that sin should remain, or die and destroy sin by His
death, He would answer that He would a thousand times rather die. For to God
one man’s sin is more hateful, and grieveth Him worse than His own agony and
death. Now if one man’s sin grieveth God so sore, what must the sins of all
men do? Hereby ye may consider, how greatly man grieveth God with his sins.
And therefore where God is made man, or when He dwelleth in a truly Godlike
man, nothing is complained of but sin, and nothing else is hateful; for all
that is, and is done, without sin, is as God will have it, and is His. But
the mourning and sorrow of a truly Godlike man on account of sin, must and
ought to last until death, should he live till the Day of Judgment, or for
ever. From this cause arose that hidden anguish of Christ, of which none can
tell or knoweth ought save Himself alone, and therefore is it called a
mystery.
Moreover, this is an attribute of God, which He will have, and is well
pleased to see in a man; and it is indeed God’s own, for it belongeth not
unto the man, he cannot make sin to be so hateful to himself. And where God
findeth this grief for sin, He loveth and esteemeth it more than ought else;
because it is, of all things, the bitterest and saddest that man can endure.
All that is here written touching this divine attribute, which God will have
man to possess, that it may be brought into exercise in a living soul, is
taught us by that true Light, which also teacheth the man in whom this
Godlike sorrow worketh, not to take it unto himself, any more than if he
were not there. For such a man feeleth in himself that he hath not made it
to spring up in his heart, and that it is none of his, but belongeth to God
alone.
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CHAPTER XXXVIII
How we are to put on the Life of Christ from Love, and not for the sake of
Reward, and how we must never grow careless concerning it, or cast it off.
Now, wherever a man hath been made a partaker of the divine nature, in him
is fulfilled the best and noblest life, and the worthiest in God’s eyes,
that hath been or can be. And of that eternal love which loveth Goodness as
Goodness and for the sake of Goodness, a true, noble, Christ-like life is so
greatly beloved, that it will never be forsaken or cast off. Where a man
hath tasted this life, it is impossible for him ever to part with it, were
he to live until the Judgment Day. And though he must die a thousand deaths,
and though all the sufferings that ever befell all creatures could be heaped
upon him, he would rather undergo them all, than fall away from this
excellent life; and if he could exchange it for an angel’s life, he would
not.
This is our answer to the question, “If a man, by putting on Christ’s life,
can get nothing more than he hath already, and serve no end, what good will
it do him?” This life is not chosen in order to serve any end, or to get
anything by it, but for love of its nobleness, and because God loveth and
esteemeth it so greatly. And whoever saith that he hath had enough of it,
and may now lay it aside, hath never tasted nor known it; for he who hath
truly felt or tasted it, can never give it up again. And he who hath put on
the life of Christ with the intent to win or deserve ought thereby, hath
taken it up as an hireling and not for love, and is altogether without it.
For he who doth not take it up for love, hath none of it at all; he may
dream indeed that he hath put it on, but he is deceived. Christ did not lead
such a life as His for the sake of reward, but out of love; and love maketh
such a life light and taketh away all its hardships, so that it becometh
sweet and is gladly endured. But to him who hath not put it on from love,
but hath done so, as he dreameth, for the sake of reward, it is utterly
bitter and a weariness, and he would fain be quit of it. And it is a sure
token of an hireling that he wisheth his work were at an end. But he who
truly loveth it, is not offended at its toil or suffering, nor the length of
time it lasteth. Therefore it is written, “To Serve God and live to Him, is
easy to him who doeth it.” Truly is so to him who doth it for love, but it
is hard and wearisome to him who doth it for hire. It is the same with all
virtue and good works, and likewise with order, laws, obedience to precepts,
and the like. But God rejoiceth more over one man who truly loveth, than
over a thousand hirelings.
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CHAPTER XXXIX
How God will have Order, Custom, Measure, and the like in the Creature,
seeing that He cannot have them without the Creature, and of four sorts of
Men who are concerned with this Order, Law, and Custom.
It is said, and truly, God is above and without custom, measure, and order,
and yet giveth to all things their custom, order, measure, fitness, and the
like. The which is to be thus understood. God will have all these to be, and
they cannot have a being in Himself without the creature, for in God, apart
from the creature, there is neither order nor disorder, custom nor chance,
and so forth; therefore He will have things so that these shall be, and
shall be put in exercise. For wherever there is word, work, or change, these
must be either according to order, custom, measure and fitness, or according
to unfitness and disorder. Now fitness and order are better and nobler than
their contraries.
But ye must mark: There are four sorts of men who are concerned with order,
laws, and customs. Some keep them neither for God’s sake, nor to serve their
own ends, but from constraint: these have as little to do with them as may
be, and find them a burden and heavy yoke. The second sort obey for the sake
of reward: these are men who know nothing beside, or better than, laws and
precepts, and imagine that by keeping them they may obtain the kingdom of
Heaven and Eternal Life, and not otherwise; and him who practiseth many
ordinances they think to be holy, and him who omitteth any tittle of them
they think to be lost. Such men are very much in earnest and give great
diligence to the work, and yet they find it a weariness. The third sort are
wicked, false-hearted men, who dream and declare that they are perfect and
need no ordinances, and make a mock of them.
The fourth are those who are enlightened with the True Light, who do not
practise these things for reward, for they neither look nor desire to get
anything thereby, but all that they do is from love alone. And these are not
so anxious and eager to accomplish much and with all speed as the second
sort, but rather seek to do things in peace and good leisure; and if some
not weighty matter be neglected, they do not therefore think themselves
lost, for they know very well that order and fitness are better than
disorder, and therefore they choose to walk orderly, yet know at the same
time that their salvation hangeth not thereon. Therefore they are not in so
great anxiety as the others. These men are judged and blamed by both the
other parties, for the hirelings say that they neglect their duties and
accuse them of being unrighteous, and the like; and the others (that is, the
Free Spirits [44] ) hold them in derision, and say that they cleave unto
weak and beggarly elements, and the like. But these enlightened men keep the
middle path, which is also the best; for a lover of God is better and dearer
to Him than a hundred thousand hirelings. It is the same with all their
doings.
Furthermore, ye must mark, that to receive God’s commands and His counsel
and all His teaching, is the privilege of the inward man, after that he is
united with God. And where there is such a union, the outward man is surely
taught and ordered by the inward man, so that no outward commandment or
teaching is needed. But the commandments and laws of men belong to the outer
man, and are needful for those men who know nothing better, for else they
would not know what to do and what to refrain from, and would become like
unto the dogs or other beasts.
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[44] This is evidently an allusion to the “Brethren of the Free Spirit,”
mentioned in the Historical Introduction.
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CHAPTER XL
A good Account of the False Light and its Kind.
Now I have said that there is a False Light; but I must tell you more
particularly what it is, and what belongeth thereunto. Behold, all that is
contrary to the True Light belongeth unto the False. To the True Light it
belongeth of necessity, that it seeketh not to deceive, nor consenteth that
any should be wronged or deceived, neither can it be deceived. But the false
is deceived and a delusion, and deceiveth others along with itself. For God
deceiveth no man, nor willeth that any should be deceived, and so it is with
His True Light. Now mark, the True Light is God or divine, but the False
Light is Nature or natural. Now it belongeth to God, that He is neither this
nor that, neither willeth nor desireth, nor seeketh anything in the man whom
He hath made a partaker of the divine nature, save Goodness as Goodness, and
for the sake of Goodness. This is the token of the True Light. But to the
Creature and Nature it belongeth to be somewhat, this or that, and to intend
and seek something, this or that, and not simply what is good without any
Wherefore. And as God and the True Light are without all self-will,
selfishness, and self-seeking, so do the I, the Me, the Mine, and the like,
belong unto the natural and false Light; for in all things it seeketh itself
and its own ends, rather than Goodness for the sake of Goodness. This is its
property, and the property of nature or the carnal man in each of us.
Now mark how it first cometh to be deceived. It doth not desire nor choose
Goodness as Goodness, and for the sake of Goodness, but desireth and
chooseth itself and its own ends, rather than the Highest Good; and this is
an error, and is the first deception.
Secondly, it dreameth itself to be that which it is not, for it dreameth
itself to be God, and is truly nothing but nature. And because it imagineth
itself to be God, it taketh to itself what belongeth to God; and not that
which is God’s, when He is made man, or dwelleth in a Godlike man, but that
which is God’s, and belongeth unto Him, as He is in eternity, without the
creature. For, as it is said, God needeth nothing, is free, not bound to
work, apart by Himself, above all things, and so forth (which is all true);
and God is unchangeable, not to be moved by anything, and is without
conscience, and what He doeth that is well done; “So will I be,” saith the
False Light, “for the more like God one is, the better one is, and therefore
I will be like God and will be God, and will sit and go and stand at His
right hand”: as Lucifer the Evil Spirit also said. [45] Now God in Eternity
is without contradiction, suffering and grief, and nothing can hurt or vex
Him of all that is or befalleth. But with God, when He is made Man, it is
otherwise.
In a word: all that can be deceived is deceived by this False Light. Now
since all is deceived by this False Light that can be deceived, and all that
is creature and nature, and all that is not God nor of God, may be deceived,
and since this False Light itself is nature, it is possible for it to be
deceived. And therefore it becometh and is deceived by itself, in that it
riseth and climbeth to such a height that it dreameth itself to be above
nature, and fancieth it to be impossible for nature or any creature to get
so high, and therefore it cometh to imagine itself God. And hence it taketh
unto itself all that belongeth unto God, and specially what is His as He is
in Eternity, and not as He is made Man. Therefore it thinketh and declareth
itself to be above all works, words, customs, laws and order, and above that
life which Christ led in the body which He possessed in His holy human
nature. So likewise it professeth to remain unmoved by any of the
creature’s works; whether they be good or evil, against God or not, is all
alike to it; and it keepeth itself apart from all things, like God in
Eternity, and all that belongeth to God and to no creature it taketh unto
itself, and vainly dreameth that this belongeth unto it; and deemeth itself
well worthy of all this, and that it is just and right that all creatures
should serve it, and do it homage. And thus no contradiction, suffering or
grief is left unto it; indeed nothing but a mere bodily and carnal
perceiving: this must remain until the death of the body, and what suffering
may accrue therefrom. Furthermore, this False Light imagineth, and saith,
that it has got beyond Christ’s life in the flesh, and that outward things
have lost all power to touch it or give it pain, as it was with Christ after
His resurrection, together with many other strange and false conceits which
arise and grow up from these.
And now since this False Light is nature, it possesseth the property of
nature, which is to intend and seek itself and its own in all things, and
what may be most expedient, easy and pleasant to nature and itself. And
because it is deceived, it imagineth and proclaimeth it to be best that each
should seek and do what is best for himself. It refuseth also to take
knowledge of any Good but its own, that which it vainly fancieth to be Good.
And if one speak to it of the One, true, everlasting Good, which is neither
this nor that, it knoweth nothing thereof, and thinketh scorn of it. And
this is not unreasonable, for nature as nature cannot attain thereunto. Now
this False Light is merely nature, and therefore it cannot attain thereunto.
Further, this False Light saith that it hath got above conscience and the
sense of sin, and that whatever it doeth is right, Yea, it was said by such
a false Free Spirit, who was in this error, that if he had killed ten men he
should have as little sense of guilt as if he had killed a dog. Briefly:
this false and deceived Light fleeth all that is harsh and contrary to
nature, for this belongeth to it, seeing that it is nature. And seeing also
that it is so utterly deceived as to dream that it is God, it were ready to
swear by all that is holy, that it knoweth truly what is best, and that both
in belief and practice it hath reached the very summit. For this cause it
cannot be converted or guided into the right path, even as it is with the
Evil Spirit.
Mark further: in so far as this Light imagineth itself to be God and taketh
His attributes unto itself, it is Lucifer, the Evil Spirit; but in so far as
it setteth at nought the life of Christ, and other things belonging to the
True Light, which have been taught and fulfilled by Christ, it is
Antichrist, for it teacheth contrary to Christ. And as this Light is
deceived by its own cunning and discernment, so all that is not God, or of
God, is deceived by it, that is, all men who are not enlightened by the True
Light and its love. For all who are enlightened by the True Light can never
more be deceived, but whoso hath it not and chooseth to walk by the False
Light, he is deceived.
This cometh herefrom, that all men in whom the True Light is not, are bent
upon themselves, and think much of themselves, and seek and propose their
own ends in all things, and whatever is most pleasant and convenient to
themselves they hold to be best. And whoso declareth the same to be best,
and helpeth and teacheth them to attain it, him they follow after, and
maintain to be the best and wisest of teachers. Now the False Light teacheth
them this very doctrine, and showeth them all the means to come by their
desire; therefore all those follow after it, who know not the True Light.
And thus they are together deceived.
It is said of Antichrist, that when he cometh, he who hath not the seal of
God in his forehead, followeth after him, but as many as have the seal
follow not after him. This agreeth with what hath been said. It is indeed
true, that it is good for a man that he should desire, or come by his own
good. But this cannot come to pass so long as a man is seeking, or purposing
his own good; for if he is to find and come by his own highest good, he must
lose it that he may find it. As Christ said: “He who loveth his life shall
lose it.” That is; he shall forsake and die to the desires of the flesh, and
shall not obey his own will nor the lusts of the body, but obey the commands
of God and those who are in authority over him, and not seek his own, either
in spiritual or natural things, but only the praise and glory of God in all
things. For he who thus loseth his life shall find it again in Eternal Life.
That is: all the goodness, help, comfort, and joy which are in the creature,
in heaven or on earth, a true lover of God findeth comprehended in God
Himself; yea, unspeakably more, and as much nobler and more perfect as God
the Creator is better, nobler, and more perfect than His creature. But by
these excellences in the creature the False Light is deceived, and seeketh
nothing but itself and its own in all things. Therefore it cometh never to
the right way.
Further, this False Light saith, that we should be without conscience or
sense of sin, and that it is a weakness and folly to have anything to do
with them: and this it will prove by saying that Christ was without
conscience or sense of sin. We may answer and say: Satan is also without
them, and is none the better for that. Mark what a sense of sin is. It is
that we perceive how man has turned away from God in his will (this is what
we call sin), and that this is man’s fault, not God’s, for God is guiltless
of sin. Now, who is there that knoweth himself to be free from sin save
Christ alone? Scarcely will any other affirm this. Now he who is without
sense of sin is either Christ or the Evil Spirit.
Briefly: where this True Light is, there is a true, just life such as God
loveth and esteemeth. And if the man’s life is not perfect as Christ’s was,
yet it is framed and builded after His, and his life is loved, together with
all that agreeth with decency, order, and all other virtues, and all
Self-will, I, Mine, Me, and the like, is lost; nothing is purposed or sought
but Goodness, for the sake of Goodness, and as Goodness. But where that
False Light is, there men become heedless of Christ’s life and all virtue,
and seek and intend whatever is convenient and pleasant to nature. From this
ariseth a false, licentious freedom, so that men grow regardless and
careless of everything. For the True Light is God’s seed, and therefore it
bringeth forth the fruits of God. And so likewise the False Light is the
seed of the Devil; and where that is sown, the fruits of the Devil spring
up—nay, the very Devil himself. This ye may understand by giving heed to
what hath been said.
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[45] Isaiah 14:13, 14.
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CHAPTER XLI
Now that he is to be called, and is truly, a Partaker of the Divine Nature,
who is illuminated with the Divine Light, and inflamed with Eternal Love,
and how Light and Knowledge are worth nothing without Love.
Some may ask, “What is it to be a ‘partaker of the divine nature,’ or a
Godlike man?” Answer: he who is imbued with or illuminated by the Eternal or
divine Light, and inflamed or consumed with Eternal or divine love, he is a
Godlike man and a partaker of the divine nature; and of the nature of this
True Light we have said somewhat already.
But ye must know that this Light or knowledge is worth nothing without Love.
This ye may see if ye call to mind, that though a man may know very well
what is virtue or wickedness, yet if he doth not love virtue, he is not
virtuous, for he obeyeth vice. But if he loveth virtue he followeth after
it, and his love maketh him an enemy to wickedness, so that he will not do
or practise it, and hateth it also in other men; and he loveth virtue so
that he would not leave a virtue unpractised even if he might, and this for
no reward, but simply for the love of virtue. And to him virtue is its own
reward, and he is content therewith, and would take no treasure or riches in
exchange for it. Such an one is already a virtuous man, or he is in the way
to be so. And he who is a truly virtuous man would not cease to be so, to
gain the whole world, yea, he would rather die a miserable death.
It is the same with justice. Many a man knoweth full well what is just or
unjust, and yet neither is nor ever will become a just man. For he loveth
not justice, and therefore he worketh wickedness and injustice. If he loved
justice, he would not do an unjust thing; for he would feel such hatred and
indignation towards injustice wherever he saw it, that he would do or suffer
anything that injustice might be put an end to, and men might become just.
And he would rather die than do an injustice, and all this for nothing but
the love of justice. And to him, justice is her own reward, and rewardeth
him with herself; and so there liveth a just man, and he would rather die a
thousand times over than live as an unjust man. It is the same with truth: a
man may know full well what is true or a lie, but if he loveth not the truth
he is not a true man; but if he loveth, it is with truth even as with
justice. Of justice speaketh Isaiah in the fifth chapter: “Woe unto them
that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light
for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
Thus may we perceive that knowledge and light profit nothing without Love.
We see this in the Evil Spirit; he perceiveth and knoweth good and evil,
right and wrong, and the like; but since he hath no love for the good that
he seeth, he becometh not good, as he would if he had any love for the truth
and other virtues which he seeth. It is indeed true that Love must be guided
and taught of Knowledge, but if Knowledge be not followed by love, it will
avail nothing. It is the same with God and divine things. Let a man know
much about God and divine things, nay, dream that he seeth and understandeth
what God Himself is, if he have not Love, he will never become like unto
God, or a “partaker of the divine nature.” But if there be true Love along
with his knowledge, he cannot but cleave to God, and forsake all that is not
God or of Him, and hate it and fight against it, and find it a cross and a
sorrow.
And this Love so maketh a man one with God, that he can nevermore be
separated from Him.
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CHAPTER XLII
A Question: whether we can know God and not love Him, and how there are two
kinds of Light and Love—a true and a false.
Here is an honest question; namely, it hath been said that he who knoweth
God and loveth Him not, will never be saved by his knowledge; the which
sounds as if we might know God and not love Him. Yet we have said elsewhere,
that where God is known, He is also loved, and whosoever knoweth God must
love Him. How may these things agree? Here ye must mark one thing. We have
spoken of two Lights—a True and a False. So also there are two kinds of
Love, a True and a False. And each kind of Love is taught or guided by its
own kind of Light or Reason. Now, the True Light maketh True Love, and the
False Light maketh False Love; for whatever Light deemeth to be best, she
delivereth unto Love as the best, and biddeth her love it, and Love obeyeth,
and fulfilleth her commands.
Now, as we have said, the False Light is natural, and is Nature herself.
Therefore every property belongeth unto it which belongeth unto nature, such
as the Me, the Mine, the Self, and the like; and therefore it must needs be
deceived in itself and be false; for no I, Me, or Mine, ever came to the
True Light or Knowledge undeceived, save once only; to wit, in God made Man.
And if we are to come to the knowledge of the simple Truth, all these must
depart and perish. And in particular it belongeth to the natural Light that
it would fain know or learn much, if it were possible, and hath great
pleasure, delight and glorying in its discernment and knowledge; and
therefore it is always longing to know more and more, and never cometh to
rest and satisfaction, and the more it learneth and knoweth, the more doth
it delight and glory therein. And when it hath come so high, that it
thinketh to know all things and to be above all things, it standeth on its
highest pinnacle of delight and glory, and then it holdeth Knowledge to be
the best and noblest of all things, and therefore it teacheth Love to love
knowledge and discernment as the best and most excellent of all things.
Behold, then knowledge and discernment come to be more loved than that which
is discerned, for the false natural Light loveth its knowledge and powers,
which are itself, more than that which is known. And were it possible that
this false natural Light should understand the simple Truth, as it is in God
and in truth, it still would not lose its own property, that is, it would
not depart from itself and its own things. Behold, in this sense there is
knowledge without the love of that which is or may be known.
Also this Light riseth and climbeth so high that it vainly thinketh that it
knoweth God and the pure, simple Truth, and thus it loveth itself in Him.
And it is true that God can be known only by God. Wherefore as this Light
vainly thinketh to understand God, it imagineth itself to be God, and giveth
itself out to be God, and wisheth to be accounted so, and thinketh itself to
be above all things, and well worthy of all things, and that it hath a right
to all things, and hath got beyond all things, such as commandments, laws,
and virtue, and even beyond Christ and a Christian life, and setteth all
these at nought, for it doth not set up to be Christ, but the Eternal God.
And this is because Christ’s life is distasteful and burdensome to nature,
therefore she will have nothing to do with it; but to be God in eternity and
not man, or to be Christ as He was after His resurrection, is all easy, and
pleasant, and comfortable to nature, and so she holdeth it to be best.
Behold, with this false and deluded Love, something may be known without
being loved, for the seeing and knowing is more loved than that which is
known. Further, there is a kind of learning which is called knowledge; to
wit, when, through hearsay, or reading, or great acquaintance with
Scripture, some fancy themselves to know much, and call it knowledge, and
say, “I know this or that.” And if you ask, “How dost thou know it?” they
answer, “I have read it in the Scriptures,” and the like. Behold, this they
call understanding, and knowing. Yet this is not knowledge, but belief, and
many things are known and loved and seen only with this sort of perceiving
and knowing.
There is also yet another kind of Love, which is especially false, to wit,
when something is loved for the sake of a reward, as when justice is loved
not for the sake of justice, but to obtain something thereby, and so on. And
where a creature loveth other creatures for the sake of something that they
have, or loveth God, for the sake of something of her own, it is all false
Love; and this Love belongeth properly to nature, for nature as nature can
feel and know no other love than this; for if ye look narrowly into it,
nature as nature loveth nothing beside herself. On this wise something may
be seen to be good and not loved.
But true Love is taught and guided by the true Light and Reason, and this
true, eternal and divine Light teacheth Love to love nothing but the One
true and Perfect Good, and that simply for its own sake, and not for the
sake of a reward, or in the hope of obtaining anything, but simply for the
Love of Goodness, because it is good and hath a right to be loved. And all
that is thus seen by the help of the True Light must also be loved of the
True Love. Now that Perfect Good, which we call God, cannot be perceived but
by the True Light; therefore He must be loved wherever He is seen or made
known.
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CHAPTER XLIII
Whereby we may know a Man who is made a partaker of the divine Nature, and
what belongeth unto him; and further, what is the token of a False Light,
and a False Free-Thinker.
Further mark ye; that when the True Love and True Light are in a man, the
Perfect Good is known and loved for itself and as itself; and yet not so
that it loveth itself of itself and as itself, but the one True and Perfect
Good can and will love nothing else, in so far as it is in itself, save the
one, true Goodness. Now if this is itself, it must love itself, yet not as
itself nor as of itself, but in this wise: that the One true Good loveth the
One Perfect Goodness, and the One Perfect Goodness is loved of the One, true
and Perfect Good. And in this sense that saying is true, that “God loveth
not Himself as Himself.” For if there were ought better than God, God would
love that, and not Himself. For in this True Light and True Love there
neither is nor can remain any I, Me, Mine, Thou, Thine, and the like, but
that Light perceiveth and knoweth that there is a Good which is all Good and
above all Good, and that all good things are of one substance in the One
Good, and that without that One, there is no good thing. And therefore,
where this Light is, the man’s end and aim is not this or that, Me or Thee,
or the like, but only the One, who is neither I nor Thou, this nor that, but
is above all I and Thou, this and that; and in Him all Goodness is loved as
One Good, according to that saying: “All in One as One, and One in All as
All, and One and all Good, is loved through the One in One, and for the sake
of the One, for the love that man hath to the One.”
Behold, in such a man must all thought of Self, all self-seeking, self-will,
and what cometh thereof, be utterly lost and surrendered and given over to
God, except in so far as they are necessary to make up a person. And
whatever cometh to pass in a man who is truly Godlike, whether he do or
suffer, all is done in this Light and this Love, and from the same, through
the same, unto the same again. And in his heart there is a content and a
quietness, so that he doth not desire to know more or less, to have, to
live, to die, to be, or not to be, or anything of the kind; these become all
one and alike to him, and he complaineth of nothing but of sin only. And
what sin is, we have said already, namely, to desire or will anything
otherwise than the One Perfect Good and the One Eternal Will, and apart from
and contrary to them, or to wish to have a will of one’s own. And what is
done of sin, such as lies, fraud, injustice, treachery, and all iniquity, in
short, all that we call sin, cometh hence, that man hath another will than
God and the True Good; for were there no will but the One Will, no sin could
ever be committed. Therefore we may well say that all self-will is sin, and
there is no sin but what springeth therefrom. And this is the only thing
which a truly Godlike man complaineth of; but to him, this is such a sore
pain and grief, that he would die a hundred deaths in agony and shame,
rather than endure it; and this his grief must last until death, and where
it is not, there be sure that the man is not truly Godlike, or a partaker of
the divine nature.
Now, seeing that in this Light and Love, all Good is loved in One and as
One, and the One in all things, and in all things as One and as All,
therefore all those things must be loved that rightly are of good report;
such as virtue, order, seemliness, justice, truth, and the like; and all
that belongeth to God is the true Good and is His own, is loved and praised;
and all that is without this Good, and contrary to it, is a sorrow and a
pain, and is hated as sin, for it is of a truth sin. And he who liveth in
the true Light and true Love, hath the best, noblest, and worthiest life
that ever was or will be, and therefore it cannot but be loved and praised
above any other life. This life was and is in Christ to perfection, else He
were not the Christ.
And the love wherewith the man loveth this noble life and all goodness,
maketh, that all which he is called upon to do, or suffer, or pass through,
and which must needs be, he doeth or endureth willingly and worthily,
however hard it may be to nature. Therefore saith Christ: “My yoke is easy,
and My burden is light.” [46] This cometh of the love which loveth this
admirable life. This we may see in the beloved Apostles and Martyrs; they
suffered willingly and gladly all that was done unto them, and never asked
of God that their suffering and tortures might be made shorter, or lighter
or fewer, but only that they might remain steadfast and endure to the end.
Of a truth all that is the fruit of divine Love in a truly Godlike man is so
simple, plain, and straightforward, that he can never properly give an
account of it by writing or by speech, but only say that so it is. And he
who hath it not doth not even believe in it; how then can he come to know
it?
On the other hand, the life of the natural man, where he hath a lively,
subtle, cunning nature, is so manifold and complex, and seeketh and
inventeth so many turnings and windings and falsehoods for its own ends, and
that so continually, that this also is neither to be uttered nor set forth.
Now, since all falsehood is deceived, and all deception beginneth in
self-deception, so is it also with this false Light and Life, for he who
deceiveth is also deceived, as we have said before. And in this false Light
and Life is found everything that belongeth to the Evil Spirit and is his,
insomuch that they cannot be discerned apart; for the false Light is the
Evil Spirit, and the Evil Spirit is this false Light. Hereby we may know
this. For even as the Evil Spirit thinketh himself to be God, or would fain
be God, or be thought to be God, and in all this is so utterly deceived that
he doth not think himself to be deceived, so is it also with this false
Light, and the Love and Life that is thereof. And as the Devil would fain
deceive all men, and draw them to himself and his works, and make them like
himself, and useth much art and cunning to this end, so is it also with this
false Light; and as no one may turn the Evil Spirit from his own way, so no
one can turn this deceived and deceitful Light from its errors. And the
cause thereof is, that both these two, the Devil and Nature, vainly think
that they are not deceived, and that it standeth quite well with them. And
this is the very worst and most mischievous delusion. Thus the Devil and
Nature are one, and where nature is conquered the Devil is also conquered,
and, in like manner, where nature is not conquered the Devil is not
conquered. Whether as touching the outward life in the world, or the inward
life of the spirit, this false Light continueth in its state of blindness
and falsehood, so that it is both deceived itself and deceiveth others with
it, wheresoever it may.
From what hath here been said, ye may understand and perceive more than hath
been expressly set forth. For whenever we speak of the Adam, and
disobedience, and of the old man, of self-seeking, self-will, and
self-serving, of the I, the Me, and the Mine, nature, falsehood, the Devil,
sin; it is all one and the same thing. These are all contrary to God, and
remain without God.
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[46] Matt. 11:30.
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CHAPTER XLIV
How nothing is contrary to God but Self-will and how he who seeketh his own
Good for his own sake, findeth it not; and how a Man of himself neither
knoweth nor can do any good Thing.
Now, it may be asked; is there aught which is contrary to God and the true
Good? I say, No. Likewise, there is nothing without God, except to will
otherwise than is willed by the Eternal Will; that is, contrary to the
Eternal Will. Now the Eternal Will willeth that nothing be willed or loved
but the Eternal Goodness. And where it is otherwise, there is something
contrary to Him, and in this sense it is true that he who is without God is
contrary to God; but in truth there is no Being contrary to God or the true
Good.
We must understand it as though God said: “He who willeth without Me, or
willeth not what I will, or otherwise than as I will, he willeth contrary to
Me, for My will is that no one should will otherwise than I, and that there
should be no will without Me, and without My will; even as without Me, there
is neither Substance, nor Life, nor this, nor that, so also there should be
no Will apart from Me, and without My will.” And even as in truth all beings
are one in substance in the Perfect Being, and all good is one in the One
Being, and so forth, and cannot exist without that One, so shall all wills
be one in the One Perfect Will, and there shall be no will apart from that
One. And whatever is otherwise is wrong, and contrary to God and His will,
and therefore it is sin. Therefore all will apart from God’s will (that is,
all self-will) is sin, and so is all that is done from self-will. So long as
a man seeketh his own will and his own highest Good, because it is His and
for his own sake, he will never find it; for so long as he doeth this, he is
not seeking his own highest Good, and how then should he find it? For so
long as he doeth this, he seeketh himself, and dreameth that he is himself
the highest Good; and seeing that he is not the highest Good, he seeketh not
the highest Good, so long as he seeketh himself. But whosoever seeketh,
loveth, and pursueth Goodness as Goodness and for the sake of Goodness, and
maketh that his end, for nothing but the love of Goodness, not for love of
the I, Me, Mine, Self, and the like, he will find the highest Good, for he
seeketh it aright, and they who seek it otherwise do err. And truly it is on
this wise that the true and Perfect Goodness seeketh and loveth and pursueth
itself, and therefore it findeth itself.
It is a great folly when a man, or any creature, dreameth that he knoweth or
can accomplish aught of himself, and above all when he dreameth that he
knoweth or can fulfil any good thing, whereby he may deserve much at God’s
hands, and prevail with Him. If he understood rightly, he would see that
this is to put a great affront upon God. But the True and Perfect Goodness
hath compassion on the foolish simple man who knoweth no better, and
ordereth things for the best for him, and giveth him as much of the good
things of God as he is able to receive. But as we have said afore, he
findeth and receiveth not the True Good so long as he remaineth unchanged;
for unless Self and Me depart, he will never find or receive it.
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CHAPTER XLV
How that where there is a Christian Life, Christ dwelleth, and how Christ’s
Life is the best and most admirable Life that ever hath been or can be.
He who knoweth and understandeth Christ’s life, knoweth and understandeth
Christ Himself; and in like manner, he who understandeth not His life, doth
not understand Christ Himself. And he who believeth on Christ, believeth
that His life is the best and noblest life that can be, and if a man believe
not this, neither doth he believe on Christ Himself. And in so far as a
man’s life is according to Christ, Christ Himself dwelleth in him, and if he
hath not the one neither hath he the other. For where there is the life of
Christ, there is Christ Himself, and where His life is not, Christ is not,
and where a man hath His life, he may say with St. Paul, “I live, yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me.” [47] And this is the noblest and best life; for in
him who hath it, God Himself dwelleth, with all goodness. So how could there
be a better life? When we speak of obedience, of the new man, of the True
Light, the True Love, or the life of Christ, it is all the same thing, and
where one of these is, there are they all, and where one is wanting, there
is none of them, for they are all one in truth and substance. And whatever
may bring about that new birth which maketh alive in Christ, to that let us
cleave with all our might and to nought else; and let us forswear and flee
all that may hinder it. And he who hath received this life in the Holy
Sacrament, hath verily and indeed received Christ, and the more of that life
he hath received, the more he hath received of Christ, and the less, the
less of Christ.
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[47] Galatians 2:20.
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CHAPTER XLVI
How entire Satisfaction and true Rest are to be found in God alone, and not
in any Creature; and how he who Will be obedient unto God, must also be
obedient to the Creatures, with all Quietness, and he who would love God,
must love all Things in One.
It is said, that he who is content to find all his satisfaction in God, hath
enough; and this is true. And he who findeth satisfaction in aught which is
this and that, findeth it not in God; and he who findeth it in God, findeth
it in nothing else, but in that which is neither this nor that, but is All.
For God is One and must be One, and God is All and must be All. And now what
is, and is not One, is not God; and what is, and is not All and above All,
is also not God, for God is One and above One, and All and above All. Now he
who findeth full satisfaction in God, receiveth all his satisfaction from
One source, and from One only, as One. And a man cannot find all
satisfaction in God, unless all things are One to him, and One is All, and
something and nothing are alike. [48] But where it should be thus, there
would be true satisfaction, and not else.
Therefore also, he who will wholly commit himself unto God and be obedient
to Him, must also resign himself to all things, and be willing to suffer
them, without resisting or defending himself or calling for succour. And he
who doth not thus resign or submit himself to all things in One as One, doth
not resign or submit himself to God. Let us look at Christ. And he who shall
and will lie still under God’s hand, must lie still under all things in One
as One, and in no wise withstand any suffering. Such an one were a Christ.
And he who fighteth against affliction, and refuseth to endure it, is truly
fighting against God. That is to say, we may not withstand any creature or
thing by force of war, either in will or works. But we may indeed, without
sin, prevent affliction, or avoid it, or flee from it.
Now he who shall or will love God, loveth all things in One as All, One and
All, and One in All as All in One; and he who loveth somewhat, this or that,
otherwise than in the One, and for the sake of the One, loveth not God; for
he loveth somewhat which is not God. Therefore he loveth it more than God.
Now he who loveth somewhat more than God or along with God, loveth not God,
for He must be and will be alone loved, and verily nothing ought to be loved
but God alone. And when the true divine Light and Love dwell in a man, he
loveth nothing else but God alone, for he loveth God as Goodness and for the
sake of Goodness, and all Goodness as One, and one as All; for, in truth,
All is One and One is All in God.
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[48] Literally aught and nought, itch und nicht; but aught means any thing,
the idea of the original is emphatically some thing, a part, not the
whole.—Tr.
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CHAPTER XLVII
A Question: Whether, if we ought to love all Things, we ought to love Sin
also?
Some may put a question here and say: “If we are to love all things, must we
then love sin too?” I answer: No. When I say “all things,” I mean all Good;
and all that is, is good, in so far as it hath Being. The Devil is good in
so far as he hath Being. In this sense nothing is evil, or not good. But sin
is to will, desire, or love otherwise than as God doth. And Willing is not
Being, therefore it is not good. Nothing is good except in so far as it is
in God and with God. Now all things have their Being in God, and more truly
in God than in themselves, and therefore all things are good in so far as
they have a Being, and if there were aught that had not its Being in God, it
would not be good. Now behold, the willing or desiring which is contrary to
God is not in God; for God cannot will or desire anything contrary to
Himself, or otherwise than Himself. Therefore it is evil or not good, and is
merely nought.
God loveth also works, but not all works. Which then? Such as are done from
the teaching and guidance of the True Light and the True Love; and what is
done from these and in these, is done in spirit and in truth, and what is
thereof, is God’s, and pleaseth Him well. But what is done of the false
Light and false Love, is all of the Wicked One; and especially what
happeneth, is done or left undone, wrought or suffered from any other will,
or desire, or love, than God’s will, or desire, or love. This is, and cometh
to pass, without God and contrary to God, and is utterly contrary to good
works, and is altogether sin.
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CHAPTER XLVIII
How we must believe certain Things of God’s Truth beforehand, ere we can
come to a true Knowledge and Experience thereof.
Christ said, “He that believeth not,” or will not or cannot believe, “shall
be damned.” It is so of a truth; for a man, while he is in this present
time, hath not knowledge; and he cannot attain unto it, unless he first
believe. And he who would know before he believeth, cometh never to true
knowledge. We speak not here of the articles of the Christian faith, for
every one believeth them, and they are common to every Christian man,
whether he be sinful or saved, good or wicked; and they must be believed in
the first place, for without that, one cannot come to know them. But we are
speaking of a certain Truth which it is possible to know by experience, but
which ye must believe in, before that ye know it by experience, else ye will
never come to know it truly. This is the faith of which Christ speaketh in
that saying of His.
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CHAPTER XLIX
Of Self-will, and how Lucifer and Adam fell away from God through Self-will.
It hath been said, that there is of nothing so much in hell as of self-will.
The which is true, for there is nothing else there than self-will, and if
there were no self-will, there would be no Devil and no hell. When it is
said that Lucifer fell from Heaven, and turned away from God and the like,
it meaneth nothing else than that he would have his own will, and would not
be at one with the Eternal Will. So was it likewise with Adam in Paradise.
And when we say Self-will, we mean, to will otherwise than as the One and
Eternal Will of God willeth.
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CHAPTER L
How this present Time is a Paradise and outer Court of Heaven, and how
therein there is only one Tree forbidden, that is, Self-will.
What is Paradise? All things that are; for all are goodly and pleasant, and
therefore may fitly be called a Paradise. It is said also, that Paradise is
an outer court of Heaven. Even so this world is verily an outer court of the
Eternal, or of Eternity, and specially whatever in Time, or any temporal
things or creatures, manifesteth or remindeth us of God or Eternity; for the
creatures are a guide and a path unto God and Eternity. Thus this world is
an outer court of Eternity, and therefore it may well be called a Paradise,
for it is such in truth. And in this Paradise, all things are lawful, save
one tree and the fruits thereof. That is to say: of all things that are,
nothing is forbidden and nothing is contrary to God but one thing only: that
is, Self-will, or to will otherwise than as the Eternal Will would have it.
Remember this. For God saith to Adam, that is, to every man, “Whatever thou
art, or doest, or leavest undone, or whatever cometh to pass, is all lawful
and not forbidden if it be not done from or according to thy will, but for
the sake of and according to My will. But all that is done from thine own
Will is contrary to the Eternal Will.”
It is not that every work which is thus wrought is in itself contrary to the
Eternal Will, but in so far as it is wrought from a different will, or
otherwise than from the Eternal and Divine Will.
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CHAPTER LI
Wherefore God hath created Self-will, seeing that it is so contrary to Him.
Now some may ask: “Since this tree, to wit, Self-will, is so contrary to God
and the Eternal Will, wherefore hath God created it, and set it in
Paradise?”
Answer: whatever man or creature desireth to dive into and understand the
secret counsel and will of God, so that he would fain know wherefore God
doeth this, or doeth not that, and the like, desireth the same as Adam and
the Devil. For this desire is seldom from aught else than that the man
taketh delight in knowing, and glorieth therein, and this is sheer pride.
And so long as this desire lasteth, the truth will never be known, and the
man is even as Adam or the Devil. A truly humble and enlightened man doth
not desire of God that He should reveal His secrets unto him, and ask
wherefore God doeth this or that, or hindereth or alloweth such a thing, and
so forth; but he desireth only to know how he may please God, and become as
nought in himself, having no will, and that the Eternal Will may live in
him, and have full possession of him, undisturbed by any other will, and how
its due may be rendered to the Eternal Will, by him and through him.
However, there is yet another answer to this question, for we may say: the
most noble and delightful gift that is bestowed on any creature is that of
perceiving, or Reason, and Will. And these two are so bound together, that
where the one is, there the other is also. And if it were not for these two
gifts, there would be no reasonable creatures, but only brutes and
brutishness; and that were a great loss, for God would never have His due,
and behold Himself and His attributes manifested in deeds and works; the
which ought to be, and is, necessary to perfection. Now, behold, Perception
and Reason are created and bestowed along with Will, to the intent that they
may instruct the will and also themselves, that neither perception nor will
is of itself, nor is nor ought to be unto itself, nor ought to seek or obey
itself. Neither shall they turn themselves to their own advantage, nor make
use of themselves to their own ends and purposes; for His they are from Whom
they do proceed, and unto Him shall they submit, and flow back into Him, and
become nought in themselves, that is, in their selfishness.
But here ye must consider more particularly, somewhat touching the Will.
There is an Eternal Will, which is in God a first Principle and substance,
apart from all works and effects, [49] and the same will is in Man, or the
creature, willing certain things, and bringing them to pass. For it
belongeth unto the Will, and is its property, that it shall will something.
What else is it for? For it were in vain, unless it had some work to do, and
this it cannot have without the creature. Therefore there must be creatures,
and God will have them, to the end that the Will may be put in exercise by
their means, and work, which in God is and must be without work. Therefore
the will in the creature, which we call a created will, is as truly God’s as
the Eternal Will, and is not of the creature.
And now, since God cannot bring His will into exercise, working and causing
changes, without the creature, therefore it pleaseth Him to do so in and
with the creature. Therefore the will is not given to be exerted by the
creature, but only by God, who hath a right to work out His own will by
means of the will which is in man, and yet is God’s. And in whatever man or
creature it should be purely and wholly thus, the will would be exerted not
by the man but by God, and thus it would not be self-will, and the man would
not will otherwise than as God willeth; for God Himself would move the will
and not man. And thus the will would be one with the Eternal Will, and flow
out into it, though the man would still keep his sense of liking and
disliking, pleasure and pain, and the like. For wherever the will is
exerted, there must be a sense of liking and disliking; for if things go
according to his will, the man liketh it, and if they do not, he disliketh
it, and this liking and disliking are not of the man’s producing, but of
God’s. For whatever is the source of the will, is the source of these also.
[50] Now the will cometh not of man but of God, therefore liking and
disliking come from Him also. But nothing is complained of, save only what
is contrary to God. So also there is no joy but of God alone, and that which
is His and belongeth unto Him. And as it is with the will, so is it also
with perception, reason, gifts, love, and all the powers of man; they are
all of God, and not of man. And wherever the will should be altogether
surrendered to God, the rest would of a certainty be surrendered likewise,
and God would have His right, and the man’s will would not be his own.
Behold, therefore hath God created the will, but not that it should be
self-will.
Now cometh the Devil or Adam, that is to say, false nature, and taketh this
will unto itself and maketh the same its own, and useth it for itself and
its own ends. And this is the mischief and wrong, and the bite that Adam
made in the apple, which is forbidden, because it is contrary to God. And
therefore, so long as there is any self-will, there will never be true love,
true peace, true rest. This we see both in man and in the Devil. And there
will never be true blessedness either in time or eternity, where this
self-will is working, that is to say, where man taketh the will unto himself
and maketh it his own. And if it be not surrendered in this present time,
but carried over into eternity, it may be foreseen that it will never be
surrendered, and then of a truth there will never be content, nor rest, nor
blessedness; as we may see by the Devil. If there were no reason or will in
the creatures, God were, and must remain for ever, unknown, unloved,
unpraised, and unhonoured, and all the creatures would be worth nothing, and
were of no avail to God. Behold thus the question which was put to us is
answered. [51] And if there were any who, by my much writing (which yet is
brief and profitable in God), might be led to amend their ways, this were
indeed well-pleasing unto God.
That which is free, none may call his own, and he who maketh it his own,
committeth a wrong. Now, in the whole realm of freedom, nothing is so free
as the will, and he who maketh it his own, and suffereth it not to remain in
its excellent freedom, and free nobility, and in its free exercise, doeth a
grievous wrong. This is what is done by the Devil and Adam and all their
followers. But he who leaveth the will in its noble freedom doeth right, and
this doth Christ with all His followers. And whoso robbeth the will of its
noble freedom and maketh it his own, must of necessity as his reward, be
laden with cares and troubles, with discontent, disquiet, unrest, and all
manner of wretchedness, and this will remain and endure in time and in
eternity. But he who leaveth the will in its freedom, hath content, peace,
rest, and blessedness in time and in eternity. Wherever there is a man in
whom the will is not enslaved, but continueth noble and free, there is a
true freeman not in bondage to any, one of those to whom Christ said: “The
truth shall make you free”; and immediately after, he saith: “If the Son
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” [52]
Furthermore, mark ye that where the will enjoyeth its freedom, it hath its
proper work, that is, willing. And where it chooseth whatever it will
unhindered, it always chooseth in all things what is noblest and best, and
all that is not noble and good it hateth, and findeth to be a grief and
offence unto it. And the more free and unhindered the will is, the more is
it pained by evil, injustice, iniquity, and in short all manner of
wickedness and sin, and the more do they grieve and afflict it. This we see
in Christ, whose will was the purest and the least fettered or brought into
bondage of any man’s that ever lived. So likewise was Christ’s human nature
the most free and single of all creatures, and yet felt the deepest grief,
pain, and indignation at sin that any creature ever felt. But when men claim
freedom for their own, so as to feel no sorrow or indignation at sin and
what is contrary to God, but say that we must heed nothing and care for
nothing, but be, in this present time, as Christ was after His resurrection,
and the like;—this is no true and divine freedom springing from the true
divine Light, but a natural, unrighteous, false, and deceitful freedom,
springing from a natural, false, and deluded light.
Were there no self-will, there would be also no ownership. In heaven there
is no ownership; hence there are found content, true peace, and all
blessedness. If any one there took upon him to call anything his own, he
would straightway be thrust out into hell, and would become an evil spirit.
But in hell everyone will have self-will, therefore there is all manner of
misery and wretchedness. So is it also here on earth. But if there were one
in hell who should get quit of his self-will and call nothing his own, he
would come out of hell into heaven. Now, in this present time, man is set
between heaven and hell, and may turn himself towards which he will. For the
more he hath of ownership, the more he hath of hell and misery; and the less
of self-will, the less of hell, and the nearer he is to the Kingdom of
Heaven. And could a man, while on earth, be wholly quit of self-will and
ownership, and stand up free and at large in God’s true light, and continue
therein, he would be sure of the Kingdom of Heaven. He who hath something,
or seeketh or longeth to have something of his own, is himself a slave; and
he who hath nothing of his own, nor seeketh nor longeth thereafter, is free
and at large, and in bondage to none.
All that hath here been said, Christ taught in words and fulfilled in works
for three-and-thirty years, and He teacheth it to us very briefly when He
saith: “Follow Me.” But he who will follow Him must forsake all things, for
He renounced all things so utterly as no man else hath ever done. Moreover,
he who will come after Him, must take up the cross, and the cross is nothing
else than Christ’s life, for that is a bitter cross to nature. Therefore He
saith: “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not
worthy of Me, and cannot be My disciple.” [53] But nature, in her false
freedom, weeneth she hath forsaken all things, yet she will have none of the
cross, and saith she hath had enough of it already, and needeth it no
longer, and thus she is deceived. For had she ever tasted the cross she
would never part with it again. He that believeth on Christ must believe all
that is here written.
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[49] Or realisation, wirklichkeit.
[50] This sentence is found in Luther’s edition, but not in that based on
the Wurtzburg Manuscript.
[51] Namely, why God hath created the will.
[52] John 8:32-36.
[53] Matt. 10:38, and Luke 14:27.
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CHAPTER LII
How we must take those two Sayings of Christ: “No Man cometh unto the
Father, but by Me,” and “No Man cometh unto Me, except the Father which hath
sent Me draw him.”
Christ saith: “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” [54] Now mark how
we must come unto the Father through Christ. The man shall set a watch over
himself and all that belongeth to him within and without, and shall so
direct, govern, and guard his heart, as far as in him lieth, that neither
will nor desire, love nor longing, opinion nor thought, shall spring up in
his heart, or have any abiding-place in him, save such as are meet for God
and would beseem him well, if God Himself were made Man. And whenever he
becometh aware of any thought or intent rising up within him that doth not
belong to God and were not meet for Him, he must resist it and root it out
as thoroughly and as Speedily as he may.
By this rule he must order his outward behaviour, whether he work or
refrain, speak or keep silence, wake or sleep, go or stand still. In short:
in all his ways and walks, whether as touching his own business, or his
dealings with other men, he must keep his heart with all diligence, lest he
do aught, or turn aside to aught, or suffer aught to spring up or dwell
within him or about him, or lest anything be done in him or through him,
otherwise than were meet for God, and would be possible and seemly if God
Himself were verily made Man.
Behold! he, in whom it should be thus, whatever he had within, or did
without, would be all of God, and the man would be in his life a follower of
Christ more truly than we can understand or set forth. And he who led such a
life would go in and out through Christ; for he would be a follower of
Christ: therefore also he would come with Christ and through Christ unto the
Father. And he would be also a servant of Christ, for he who cometh after
Him is His servant, as He Himself also saith: “If any man serve Me, let him
follow Me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be.” [55] And he who
is thus a servant and follower of Christ, cometh to that place where Christ
Himself is; that is, unto the Father. As Christ Himself saith: “Father, I
will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.” [56]
Behold, he who walketh in this path, “entereth in by the door into the
sheepfold,” that is, into eternal life; “and to him the porter openeth”;
[57] but he who entereth in by some other way, or vainly thinketh that he
would or can come to the Father or to eternal blessedness otherwise than
through Christ, is deceived; for he is not in the right Way, nor entereth in
by the right Door. Therefore to him the porter openeth not, for he is a
thief and a murderer, as Christ saith.
Now, behold and mark, whether one can be in the right Way, and enter in by
the right Door, if one be living in lawless freedom or license, or disregard
of ordinances, virtue or vice, order or disorder, and the like. Such liberty
we do not find in Christ, neither is it in any of His true followers.
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[54] John 14:6.
[55] John 12:26.
[56] John 17:24.
[57] John 10:1, 3.
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CHAPTER LIII
Considereth that other saying of Christ, “No Man can come unto Me, except
the Father, which hath sent Me, draw him.”
Christ hath also said: “No man cometh unto Me, except the Father, which hath
sent Me, draw him.” [58] Now mark: by the Father, I understand the Perfect,
Simple Good, which is All and above All, and without which and besides which
there is no true Substance, nor true Good, and without which no good work
ever was or will be done. And in that it is All, it must be in All and above
All. And it cannot be any one of those things which the creatures, as
creatures, can comprehend or understand. For whatever the creature, as
creature (that is, in her creature kind), can conceive of and understand, is
something, this or that, and therefore is some sort of creature. And now if
the Simple Perfect Good were somewhat, this or that, which the creature
understandeth, it would not be the All, nor the Only One, and therefore not
Perfect. Therefore also it cannot be named, seeing that it is none of all
the things which the creature as creature can comprehend, know, conceive, or
name. Now behold, when this Perfect Good, which is unnameable, floweth into
a Person able to bring forth, and bringeth forth the Only-begotten Son in
that Person, and itself in Him, we call it the Father.
Now mark how the Father draweth men unto Christ. When somewhat of this
Perfect Good is discovered and revealed within the soul of man, as it were
in a glance or flash, the soul conceiveth a longing to approach unto the
Perfect Goodness, and unite herself with the Father. And the stronger this
yearning groweth, the more is revealed unto her; and the more is revealed
unto her, the more is she drawn toward the Father, and her desire quickened.
Thus is the soul drawn and quickened into a union with the Eternal Goodness.
And this is the drawing of the Father, and thus the soul is taught of Him
who draweth her unto Himself, that she cannot enter into a union with Him
except she come unto Him by the life of Christ. Behold, now she putteth on
that life of which I have spoken afore.
Now see the meaning of these two sayings of Christ’s. The one, “No man
cometh unto the Father, but by Me”; that is, through My life, as hath been
set forth. The other saying, “No man cometh unto Me, except the Father draw
him”; that is, he doth not take My life upon him and come after Me, except
he be moved and drawn of My Father; that is, of the Simple and Perfect Good,
of which St. Paul saith; “when that which is Perfect is come, then that
which is in part shall be done away.” That is to say; in whatever soul this
Perfect Good is known, felt and tasted, so far as may be in this present
time, to that soul all created things are as nought compared with this
Perfect One, as in truth they are; for beside or without the Perfect One, is
neither true Good nor true Substance. Whosoever then hath, or knoweth, or
loveth, the Perfect One, hath and knoweth all goodness. What more then doth
he want, or what is all that “is in part” to him, seeing that all the parts
are united in the Perfect, in One Substance?
What hath here been said, concerneth the outward life, and is a good way or
access unto the true inward life; but the inward life beginneth after this.
When a man hath tasted that which is perfect as far as is possible in this
present time, all created things and even himself become as nought to him.
And when he perceiveth of a truth that the Perfect One is All and above All,
he needs must follow after Him, and ascribe all that is good, such as
Substance, Life, Knowledge, Reason, Power, and the like, unto Him alone and
to no creature. And hence followeth that the man claimeth for his own
neither Substance, Life, Knowledge, nor Power, Doing nor Refraining, nor
anything that we can call good. And thus the man becometh so poor, that he
is nought in himself, and so are also all things unto him which are
somewhat, that is, all created things. And then there beginneth in him a
true inward life, wherein from henceforward, God Himself dwelleth in the
man, so that nothing is left in him but what is God’s or of God, and nothing
is left which taketh anything unto itself. And thus God Himself, that is,
the One Eternal Perfectness, alone is, liveth, knoweth, worketh, loveth,
willeth, doeth and refraineth in the man. And thus, of a truth, it should
be, and where it is not so, the man hath yet far to travel, and things are
not altogether right with him.
Furthermore, it is a good way and access unto this life, to feel always that
what is best is dearest, and always to prefer the best, and cleave to it,
and unite oneself to it. First: in the creatures. But what is best in the
creatures? Be assured: that, in which the Eternal Perfect Goodness and what
is thereof, that is, all which belongeth thereunto, most brightly shineth
and worketh, and is best known and loved. But what is that which is of God,
and belongeth unto Him? I answer: whatever with justice and truth we do, or
might call good.
When therefore among the creatures the man cleaveth to that which is the
best that he can perceive, and keepeth steadfastly to that, in singleness of
heart, he cometh afterward to what is better and better, until, at last, he
findeth and tasteth that the Eternal Good is a Perfect Good, without measure
and number above all created good. Now if what is best is to be dearest to
us, and we are to follow after it, the One Eternal Good must be loved above
all and alone, and we must cleave to Him alone, and unite ourselves with Him
as closely as we may. And now if we are to ascribe all goodness to the One
Eternal Good, as of right and truth we ought, so must we also of right and
truth ascribe unto Him the beginning, middle, and end of our course, so that
nothing remain to man or the creature. So it should be of a truth, let men
say what they will.
Now on this wise we should attain unto a true inward life. And what then
further would happen to the soul, or would be revealed unto her, and what
her life would be henceforward, none can declare or guess. For it is that
which hath never been uttered by man’s lips, nor hath it entered into the
heart of man to conceive.
In this our long discourse, are briefly comprehended those things which
ought of right and truth to be fulfilled: to wit, that man should claim
nothing for his own, nor crave, will, love, or intend anything but God
alone, and what is like unto Him, that is to say, the One, Eternal, Perfect
Goodness.
But if it be not thus with a man, and he take, will, purpose, or crave,
somewhat for himself, this or that, whatever it may be, beside or other than
the Eternal and Perfect Goodness which is God Himself, this is all too much
and a great injury, and hindereth the man from a perfect life; wherefore he
can never reach the Perfect Good, unless he first forsake all things and
himself first of all. For no man can serve two masters, who are contrary the
one to the other; he who will have the one, must let the other go. Therefore
if the Creator shall enter in, the creature must depart. Of this be assured.
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[58] John 6:44.
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CHAPTER LIV
How a Man shall not seek his own, either in Things spiritual or natural but
the Honour of God only; and how he must enter in by the right Door, to wit,
by Christ, into Eternal Life.
If a man may attain thereunto, to be unto God as his hand is to a man, let
him be therewith content, and not seek farther. This is my faithful counsel,
and here I take my stand. That is to say, let him strive and wrestle with
all his might to obey God and His commandments so thoroughly at all times
and in all things, that in him there be nothing, spiritual or natural, which
opposeth God; and that his whole soul and body with all their members may
stand ready and willing for that to which God hath created them; as ready
and willing as his hand is to a man, which is so wholly in his power, that
in the twinkling of an eye, he moveth and turneth it whither he will. And
when we find it otherwise with us, we must give our whole diligence to amend
our state; and this from love and not from fear, and in all things
whatsoever, seek and intend the glory and praise of God alone. We must not
seek our own, either in things spiritual or in things natural. It must needs
be thus, if it is to stand well with us. And every creature oweth this of
right and truth unto God, and especially man, to whom, by the ordinance of
God, all creatures are made subject, and are servants, that he may be
subject to and serve God only.
Further, when a man hath come so far, and climbed so high, that he thinketh
and weeneth he standeth sure, let him beware lest the Devil strew ashes and
his own bad seed on his heart, and nature seek and take her own comfort,
rest, peace, and delight in the prosperity of his soul, and he fall into a
foolish, lawless freedom and licentiousness, which is altogether alien to,
and at war with, a true life in God. And this will happen to that man who
hath not entered, or refuseth to enter in by the right Way and the right
Door (which is Christ, as we have said), and imagineth that he would or
could come by any other way to the highest truth. He may perhaps dream that
he hath attained thereunto, but verily he is in error.
And our witness is Christ, who declareth: “Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some
other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” [59] A thief, for he robbeth
God of His honour and glory, which belong to God alone; he taketh them unto
himself, and seeketh and purposeth himself. A murderer, for he slayeth his
own soul, and taketh away her life, which is God. For as the body liveth by
the soul, even so the soul liveth by God. Moreover, he murdereth all those
who follow him, by his doctrine and example. For Christ saith: “I came down
from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.”
[60] And again: “Why call ye Me Lord, Lord?” [61] as if he would say, it
will avail you nothing to Eternal life. And again: “Not every one that saith
unto Me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that
doeth the will of My Father which is in Heaven.” [62] But He saith also: “If
thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” [63] And what are the
commandments? “To love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy
soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and to love thy
neighbour as thyself.” [64] And in these two commandments all others are
briefly comprehended.
There is nothing more precious to God, or more profitable to man, than
humble obedience. In His eyes, one good work, wrought from true obedience,
is of more value than a hundred thousand, wrought from self-will, contrary
to obedience. Therefore he who hath this obedience need not dread Him, for
such a man is in the right way, and following after Christ.
That we may thus deny ourselves, and forsake and renounce all things for
God’s sake, and give up our own wills, and die unto ourselves, and live unto
God alone and to His will, may He help us, who gave up His will to His
Heavenly Father,—Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be blessing for ever and
ever. Amen.
THE END
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[59] John 10:1.
[60] John 6:38.
[61] Luke 6:46.
[62] Matt. 7:21.
[63] Matt. 19:17.
[64] Luke 10:27.
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Indexes
_________________________________________________________________
Index of Scripture References
Psalms
[1]8:2 [2]14:6 [3]49 [4]49:8
Isaiah
[5]14:13 [6]14:14 [7]42:8 [8]57:21
Matthew
[9]5:20 [10]7:21 [11]10:20 [12]10:22 [13]10:38 [14]10:38
[15]11:29 [16]11:30 [17]12:30 [18]16:24 [19]19:17 [20]20:28
[21]26:32
Mark
[22]8:35
Luke
[23]6:46 [24]10:27 [25]14:26 [26]14:27 [27]24:39
John
[28]3:3 [29]3:8 [30]3:8 [31]6:38 [32]6:44 [33]8:32-36 [34]10:1
[35]10:1 [36]10:3 [37]12:26 [38]14:6 [39]14:27 [40]15:5
[41]15:15 [42]16:33 [43]17:24
Romans
[44]6:14 [45]8:14 [46]8:14
1 Corinthians
[47]4:7 [48]13:10 [49]13:10 [50]15:22
2 Corinthians
[51]3:5
Galatians
[52]2:20 [53]4:4
Ephesians
[54]4:22 [55]4:24
2 Peter
[56]1:4
Wisdom of Solomon
[57]10:21
_________________________________________________________________
This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
generated on demand from ThML source.
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