Lord God Almighty, all things are in thy power. Power and lordship lie in two things, in freedom and in the possession of many good things in peace. What is freedom ? A heathen philosopher says, ‘ That thing is free which cleaves to naught and to which naught cleaves.’ So there is nothing free but the first cause, that is, the cause of all things.
To lordship belongs the ])ossession of many good things and beautiful. God is all good in all ; hence he possesses himself in all. What God has, that is he in all. The love and will, the wisdom, the goodness we say that he has, these he is. If God is this, he is not naught, for God was prior to naught. God has no before nor after : but naught has a sequel ; its sequel is aught. Naught’s foregocr was God, for lie was prior to naught. Naught’s issue is aught. God then has no before nor after. Lo, the cause of all things, self-subsistcnt, discriminate light which is himself ! God is a light shining in itself in silent stillness. The one light, the one essence itself, which knows and understands itself. The understanding of this unique light is the light from the light, it is the eternal Person of the Son from the eternal Person of the Father. The Father spoke one Word, namely, his Son. In this only AVord he spoke all things. The Word of the Father is none other than his understanding of himself. The understanding of the Father understands that he understands, and that his understanding understands is the same as that he is who is understanding. That is, the light from the light.
Job says, God spake one Word ; this was his own conception of himself : it was his Son. In this one conception he conceives all things ; he sees them as issuing from nothing. They are that in themselves. But as subsisting eternally in him, they are without themselves. What they were (without) themselves, was he himself : God is nothing but God, for God is without other. All creatures are a light, for they are conceived in the light of unity
' See Pfeiffer, Zt.J. dtsch. Alt., Bd. 8 (2), 1850. For authorship see Preger’? Qeachichte, p. 319.
and eternity. Creatures flowing forth as light reveal the hidden light. As St James says, ‘ Every good gift and every perfeet gift come down from above from the Father of lights.’ We may deduce from this that all things are one light radiated by the Father for the purpose of revealing his own hidden light. And as all things have been one liglit proceeding forth, so also they are all one light which is flowing back, if they turn not away therefrom of their own free will. Those who are steadfast in the face of multiplicity, behold what light and grace are revealed to them ! For the sovran good is so ordered towards the soul that she receives it not except by means. As St Dionysius says, ‘ The means is light : grace that illumines understanding.’ What is understanding ? Understanding means seeing a thing quite clearly and without mistake. St Dionysius says, ‘ Disengage thyself entirely from things if thou wouldst understand the highest good, God namely.’ VVliat are we to understand by God ? That he is the one power. Let us therefore unify ourselves so that this one power may energise in us. He is also the good which moves things towards their good, namely himself, albeit he himself remains unmoved. And lie is perfect simplicity ; and the simpler the soul is the better she understands his simplicity. How can we be perfectly simple ? By departing from things and from ourselves, and knowing our own mind and all the working of the powers of the soul, except the chief one, understanding : leave that to God alone. The passive soul stands to lose all this and leave God to work without hindrance ; then he begets his perfect likeness in her and conforms her to himself. Then she understands with him and loves with him. This is perfection. It is sometimes asked. Do we love God with the love wherewith the Father and the Son love one another ? Let us consider.
Two kinds of love belong to us. One is the virtue. In this love we go on growing and any good we do in this love wins us eternal merit. But the love of the Father and the Son knows no increase for it is the Holy Ghost. Thus our love is as nothing compared with the love of the Father and the Son : it is the virtue that we grow with. The other love which is in us is the love of the Father and the Son. As St Paul says, ‘ God’s love is poured into our heart.’ In giving us his love God has given us his Holy Ghost so that we can love him with the love wherewith he loves himself. We love God with his own love ; awareness of it deifies us.
Intuition of the Sovran Good, that is God ! To have that is to have the life most worth of any creature. God is willing his own clear conception and his own delight. What is willing in the Godhead ? It is the Father watching the play of his own nature.
What is this play ? It is his eternal Son. There has always been this play going on in the Father-nature. Play and audience are the same. The Father’s view of his own nature is his Son. The Father embraces his own nature in the quiet darkness of his eternal essence which is known to none except himself. The glance returned by his own nature is his eternal Son. So the Son embraces the Father in his nature for he is the same as his Father in his nature. Thus from the Father’s embrace of his own nature there comes this eternal playing of the Son. This play was played eternally before all creatures. As it is written in the Book of Wisdom, ‘ Prior to creatures, in the eternal now, I have played before the Father in his eternal stillness.’ The Son has eternally been playing before the Father as the Father has before his Son. The playing of the twain is the Holy Ghost in whom they both disport themselves and he disports himself in both. Sport and players are the same. Their nature proceeding in itself. ‘ God is a fountain flowing into itself,’ as St Dionysius says. The Father has eternally been loving himself in his Son just as the Son has been loving himself in the Father eternally. Their mutual love is the Holy Ghost : the third Person, who proceeds from the other two as love. The essence of the Godhead begets not. The Father’s Person begets the Person of the Son eternally and together they pour forth their Holy Ghost : their mutual love. Father and Son are the pouring-in and the Holy Breath is the thing inpoured, identical in nature Avith them both. Did the essence of the Deity beget there would be more than one essence ; but there is not. There is one essence which gives all things life and being, for the Son is born out of the heart of the Father eternally and shall bring back into it again all things which issued forth therefrom in him. As (Christ declares, ‘ When I am exalted I will draw all things to me.’ The Floly Ghost proceeded forth as love to make our spirits one with him. The Son takes back with him all the things that issued forth in him and the Holy Ghost returns with all that he expired. St Dionysius says, ‘ Son and Holy Spirit are the light of the God-bearing Godhead.’ St Philip cried, ‘ Lord, show us the Father and we shall be satisfied.’ Our Lord answered and said, ‘ Philip, he who seeth me seeth my lather.’ The Son revealed the mysteries of the Father for he was like him in all things and of one nature with him. Nothing satisfies the soul except the Father who is altogether good and absolutely simple. The more simple the soul the more like God she is. God spake never a word but one : his simple understanding. If the soul is to be simple she must withdraAv from multiplicity into his one conception. That can happen here only noAV and then.
The soul has three understandings. First, the understanding of things that are above her. Next, the understanding of herself. From this knowledge she passes to the third : the one alone. Therein she loses herself speaking never a word but possessing herself in silence for God has rapt htr up above herself to him ; she is not and knows not by herself. What she understands she understands with him and even this she must forgo, must leave to that wherewith she understands it. As St Dionysius says, ‘ Make thyself passive, void of definition. One single glimpse of the abstraetion that God is, more unifies the soul with God than all the works of holy Christendom.’
Try diligently, therefore, to get some grasp of truth : in the conception of it thine own wont is altogetlier lost and thou dost live in truth. Those exalted ones who stand therein can never be disjoined from God. They are the blessed who know God in himself eternally. God is unchangeable, so these can never more be separated from him. It behoves us therefore to depart from all unlikencss to our highest good.