---
title: "Sermons, Collations and Tractates"
author: "Meister Eckhart"
translator: "C. de B. Evans"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Mystics"
section: 97 of 132
url: https://scriptura.si/works/eckhart-sermons-evans/97/
cite: "Meister Eckhart, tr. C. de B. Evans, Sermons, Collations and Tractates, section 97. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/eckhart-sermons-evans/97/"
---

# 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.

## 97. Sermon 97 · Dives

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/eckhart-sermons-evans/97/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/eckhart-sermons-evans/97/#p-N

[¶0] Homo quidam erat dives etc, (Ltic, IC). ‘ There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day and he had no name.’

[¶1] This will equally apply to the causeless Deity and to the loving soul. ‘ There was a rich man.’ Man means a rational entity. A heathen philosopher says, ‘ By man in the scriptures we mean God.’ And St Gregory says, if there were in God one thing nobler than another we should say it is his understanding ; for in understanding God is manifested to himself ; in understanding God is proceeding in himself ; in understanding God is proceeding forth into all things. Were there no understanding in God there would be no Trinity and no emanation of creatures.

[¶2] He had no name. And so is the threefold nature of God nameless ; such names as the soul gives him are gotten of her own understanding. As the heathen philosopher says in his book, The Light of Lights, ‘ God is superessential and super- rational and unintelligible,’ that is, to the natural understanding. I speak not of gracious understanding, for by grace we may be brought to know as much as St Paul did, who was caught up into the third heaven where he saw those things that he neither would nor could express. He could not express them as he saw them, for when we know a thing we know it either in its cause or in its mode or by its activity. God remains unknown because he is the first {i,e, he has no cause), he is unconditioned (i,e, unknowable) and he is inactive (in his hidden stillness). He is without the names that are applied to him. Moses enquired his name. God answered and said, ‘ He who is hath sent thee.’ He could not understand it in any other form. God as he is in himself he cannot give creatures to understand, not that he cannot do it but creature cannot understand. As the heathen philosopher says, ‘ God is beyond nature, beyond praise, beyond reason and beyond understanding.’

[¶3] ‘ This man was rich.’ And so is God rich in himself and in all things. Mark the plenitude of God. It is fivefold. First, he is the prime cause, so he pervades all things. — Next, he is essentially one, so he is universal. — Thirdly, he is the fountain-head, so he is flowing into all things. — Fourthly, he is unchangeable, so he is most desirable. — Fifthly, he is perfect, so he is most incomprehensible.

[¶4] Being the first cause he imparts himself. As the heathen philosopher observes, ‘ The First Cause pours into causes in general more than these secondary causes pour into their causes.’ Again, he is indivisible. Bishop Albcrtus says a thing is impartible which is intrinsically one without a second. And the sum of all partiblcs amounts to what he is. In him creatures are one in the same, they are God in God. In themselves they are naught. — Thirdly, being the fountain-head he is overflowing into all things. Bishop Albertus says : ‘ Into things in general he flows in three ways : in being, in life and in light ; and into the rational soul in particular as the potentiality of all things, the bringing back of creatures to their original source.’ To wit, the light of lights : ‘ All gifts and perfections flow from the Father of lights,’ as St James says. — Fourthly, being unchangeable he is most comfortable. Here note that God unites with things while keeping his intrinsic oneness, and all things are one in him. Hence Christ’s words, ‘ Ye shall be turned into me and I into you.’ Owing to his unchangeableness and the littleness of creatures. For as the prophet says, all things are to God as a drop to the ocean. And as the drop becomes the ocean not the ocean the drop so the soul imbibing God turns into God, not God into the soul. There the sold loses her name, her power and lier activity but not her existence. The soul abides in God as God is abiding in himself. Anent which Bishop Albertus declares that the will a man dies in he abides in eternally. — Fifthly, being perfect he is most incomprehensible. God is self-perfect and omni-perfect. What is perfection in God ? It means that he is brim-full of himself and is the sole good of all things. And because he is good he is the desired of all things.