Renovamini spiriiu mentis vestree (Kphes- 423 ). ‘ Be ye renewed in the spirit,’ here called mens or mind. Thus speaks St Paul. Now St Augustine says that in the highest part of the soul, there known as mem or the mind, there was created along with the soul a capacity called by philosophers the casket or shrine of niind-forrns or formless images. This power makes the Father comparable with the soul in his emanating deity whereof he has poured forth the whole hoard of divine being into the Son and into the Holy Ghost in distinction of Persons, just as the memory of the soul pours out treasure of ideas into the soul -powers. Now if with this faculty the soul sees form, whether she sec the form of an angel or her own form, it is an imperfection in her. But when all forms are detached from the soul and she sees nothing but the one alone, then the naked essence of the soul finds the naked, formless essence of the divine unity, the superessential being, passive, reposing in itself. O surpassing wonder, what lofty suffering is that, when the soul suffers nothing but the absolute unity of Gk)d !
Ye shall be renewed in the spirit, says St Paul. Renewal befalls all creatures under God ; but for God there is no renewal, only all eternity. What is eternity ? — It is characteristic of eternity that in it youth and being are the same, for eternity would not be eternal could it newly become and were not always. Now I maintain that renewal befalls the angels, that is, in their knowledge of the future, for an angel knows of future things only so much as God reveals to him. And renewal befalls the soul in so far as she is soul, and she is soul in so far as she gives life to the body and is the form of the body. And renewal befalls her too inasmuch as she is spirit. She is spirit in so far as she is detached from here and now and from cvcry thing that belongs to matter. But so far as she is the image of God and nameless as God is, no renewal befalls her but only eternity, as in God. Now mark ! God is nameless ; no one can know or say anything of him. A heathen philosopher says that what we know or predicate about the first cause is what we are ourselves rather than what the first cause is, for this transcends speech and knowledge. If I say God is good, it is not true : I am good, God is not good. I say more : I am better than God is, for what is good can be better and what is better can be best. But God is not good, therefore he cannot be better ; and since he cannot be better therefore he cannot be best. These three : good, better, best are remote from God who is above all. And if, again, I say that God is wise, it is not tme : I am wiser than he. Or if I say, God is a being, it is not true : he is a transcendental essence, a superessential nothing. St Augustine says, ‘ The finest thing a man can say of God is that he is silent from consciousness of interior fullness.’ Wherefore hold thy peace and prate not about God, for prating of him thou dost lie, committing sin. If thou wouldst be free from sin and perfect, babble not of God. Neither know anything of God, for God is beyond knowing. One' philosopher says. Had I a God that I could know I would have him for my God no longer. Know’st thou of him anything ? He is no such thing, and in that thou dost know of him anything at all thou are in ignorance, and ignorance leads to the condition of the brute ; for in creatures what is ignorant is brutish. If thou wouldst not be brutish then, know nothing of the unuttered God. — ‘ What then shall I do ? ’ — Thou shalt lose thy thy-ness and dissolve in his his-ness ; thy thine shall be his mine, so utterly one mine that thou in him shalt know eternalwise his is-ncss, free from becoming : his nameless nothingness.
‘ Be ye renewed in the spirit,’ says St Paul. If we have a mind to be renewed in spirit, then those six powers of the soul, the higher and the lower, must each wear a golden finger-ring all gilded over with the gold of divine love. Consider the lower powers, which are three. The first is called reason, rationale ; on this thou shalt wear a golden finger-ring : light, so that thy reason may be all the time timclessly irradiated with divine light. The second power is rage, irascihilis ; on it thou shalt wear the finger-ring, thy peace. And why ? Because, in peace, in God ; without peace, out of God. The third power is desire, concupis’ cihilis ; and on it thou shalt wear, enough, so that thou mayst have done with all creatures under God ; but with God thou shalt never have done, for of God thou eanst never have enough : the more thou hast of God the more thou wantest of him couldst thou have enough of him, could enough ever be applied to God, God were not God.
Also on each higher power thou shalt wear a golden fingerring. Of these higher powers there are likewise three. The first is the retentive faculty, memoria. This power is likened to the Father in the Trinity. On it thou shalt wear the golden fmgerring, remembrance, that all eternal things may be stored up in thee. The second one is understanding, intellectns. This power is likened to the Sou. On this, too, thou shalt wear a golden finger-ring, perception, that thou mayst be ever apprehending
God. ‘ In what way ? ’ — Thou shalt know him witliout image, without semblance and without means. ‘ But for me to know God thus, with nothing between, I must be all but he, he all but me.’ - I say, God must be very I, 1 very (iod, so consummately one that this he and this I are one is, in this is -ness working one work eternally ; but so long as this he and this I, to wit, God and the soul, are not one single here, one single now, the I cannot work with nor be one with that he. The third power is will, voluntas. This power is likened to the Holy Ghost. On it thou shalt wear the golden finger-ring, love, that thou mayst love God. But thou shalt love God apart from loveworthiness : not because he is worthy of love, for God is unloveworthy : he is superior to love and loveworthincss. — ‘ How then shall I love him ? ’ — Thou shalt love God non-spiritually, thy soul must be de-spiritualised : stripped of spirituality. For while thy soul is specifically spirit, she has form ; the while she has form she has neither unity nor union ; the while she lacks union she has never really loved God, for actual love lies in union. Wherefore let thy soul be de-spirited of all spirit ; let it be spiritless ; if thou lovest God as God, as spirit, as Person or as image, that must all go. — ‘ Then how shall I love him ? ’ — Love him as he is ; a not-God, a not-spirit, a not- Ferson, a not-image ; as sheer, pure, limpid unity, alien from all duality. And in this one let us sink down eternally from nothingness to nothingness. So help us God. Amen.