--- title: "Sermons, Collations and Tractates" author: "Meister Eckhart" translator: "C. de B. Evans" languages: [en] shelf: "Mystics" section: 45 of 132 url: https://scriptura.si/works/eckhart-sermons-evans/45/ cite: "Meister Eckhart, tr. C. de B. Evans, Sermons, Collations and Tractates, section 45. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/eckhart-sermons-evans/45/" --- # Sermons, Collations and Tractates *Meister Eckhart, tr. C. de B. Evans* A hundred and four sermons, the tractates and the Sayings, in Evans's 1924 English of Pfeiffer's German. ## 45. Sermon 45 · In All Things I Seek Rest Source: https://scriptura.si/works/eckhart-sermons-evans/45/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/eckhart-sermons-evans/45/#p-N [¶0] In omnibus requiem queesivi {Eccl, 24]). We find this in the Book of Wisdom. We may imagine Wisdom in friendly conversation with the soul, saying, ‘In all things I sought rest.’ To which the soul replies, ‘ He who created me rested in my tent.’ And Wisdom says again, ‘ My rest is in the holy city.’ If I were asked to say to what end the creator has created creatures, I should answer : rest. And were I asked a second time, what are all creatures seeking so eagerly by nature ? I should answer : rest. And if a third time I were asked what the soul seeks in all her agitations, once more I should say : rest. [¶1] Look how the face of divine nature turns foolish and demented all the powers of the soul with longing for it, so as to draw them to itself. God likes this so well, it pleases him so much that his entire God-nature is turned into this bent. He says, ‘ In the holy place likewise I repose.’ As the soul rests in God so God reposes in her. If she rests partly in God he rests partly in her. If she rests wholly in him he rests altogether in her. In those limpid souls where God can see the reflection of himself, God is reposing in the soul and the soul is reposing in God. To deprive God of this, though but in thought, is to deprive him, to deny to him, his Godhood who is seeking rest in all things, for God’s nature is rest. [¶2] Fourthly, whether they know it or not, creatures are all in search of rest. No one can shut or open his eyes without seeking rest : he is ridding himself of some hindrance or finding somewhere to rest. These are the two motives of all human action. As I often say, my love is placed where I most clearly see God’s likeness. But rest is more like God than any creature. [¶3] Mark how the soul must be for God to rest in her. She must be pure. What makes the soul pure ? Keeping to spiritual things. She is exalted too by these. The more she is exalted the purer she becomes in her intention and the more efficient in her work. As the philosopher says about the stars : they become less potent as they near the earth, being out of their true course In their proper orbit, though they are invisible on earth, they have more pull upon it. St Anselm apostrophises the soul, ‘ Withdraw thyself a little from the tumult of external things.’ And again, [¶4] ‘ Flee away and hide thee from the rush of inner thoughts which cause such great disquiet to the soul.’ [¶5] We can ask of God no better thing than rest. All God wants of man is a peaceful heart ; then he performs within the sqpl an act too Godlike for creature to attain to or yet see. The divine Wisdom is discreetly fond and lets no creature watch. As our Lord says, ‘ I will lead my bride into the desert and will speak to her in her heart/ into a solitude, that is, away from creatures. [¶6] Fourthly, he says the soul must rest in God. God cannot do divine work in the soul, for in the soul things are all ruled by measure. Measure means limit, within and without. There is none of this in God’s operations, which are infinite : openly enclosed in God’s revelation. David says, ‘ God sits above the Cherubim. He docs not say, above the Seraphim. Cherubim means wisdom, knowledge which brings God to the soul and leads the soul to God. But not into God. Not in her own intelligence does God perform his godly operation, because in her this is ruled by measure ; but he uses it as being God, divine. The highest power steps forth (that is, the will) and breaking into God, leads in the soul with her intelligence and all her powers and makes her one with God. Here God is acting above the power of the soul : not as in the soul but as in God. The soul now dowsed in God and in divine nature, receives divine life ; now she is subject to the law of God and is of the order of God. To take an illustration from natural philosophy. At the moment of conception the child in its mother’s womb has neither limbs nor colour. But when the soul is poured into the body it takes form and colour and becomes an entity (in virtue of the soul), with the created nature of the soul and the appearance of a living being. And the soul, when perfectly atoned with God and dowsed in his divinity, loses all her hindrances, her feebleness and instability, and suddenly renewed with divine life grows orderly in all her ways and virtues. Look at a light, the nearer the wick the duller and denser the glow ; as the flame shoots up from the wick it gets brighter and brighter. The more exalted the soul the better God can do in her his divine work in his own likeness. Like a mountain rising up two leagues above the earth, graven with magic runes and sacred characters which defy the winds and rain. Even so the really holy soul is uplifted into perfect calm, absolute and changeless in divine activity. That religious has good cause for shame who is moved so readily to glo#m or anger or desire. He is no true religious. [¶7] Lastly, creatures are all seeking rest whether they know it or not. Never is the stone bereft of motion while it is not lying on the ground. And similarly fire. All creatures also : they seek their natural place. The loving soul finds rest nowhere except in God. David says, ‘ God has ordained to everything its place : to fish the water, birds the air and beasts the earth and to the soul the Godhead.’ And Job declares in the same strain, ‘What is in God he gives us for our joy and bliss.’ God grant us peace and rest in him, So help us the eternal truth, which is himself. Amen