ASCENT OF MOUNT CARMEL
By St. John of the Cross
Treats of how the soul may prepare itself in order
to attain
in a short time to Divine union. Gives very
profitable counsels and instruction,
both to beginners and to proficients, that they
may know how
to disencumber themselves of all that is temporal
and not to encumber
themselves with the spiritual, and to remain in
complete detachment
and liberty of spirit, as is necessary for Divine
union.
All
the doctrine whereof I intend to treat in this Ascent of Mount Carmel is
included in the following stanzas, and in them is also described the manner of
ascending to the summit of the Mount, which is the high estate of perfection
which we here call union of the soul with God. And because I must continually
base upon them that which I shall say, I have desired to set them down here
together, to the end that all the substance of that which is to be written may
be seen and comprehended together; although it will be fitting to set down each
stanza separately before expounding it, and likewise the lines of each stanza,
according as the matter and the exposition require. The poem, then, runs as
follows:
STANZAS
Wherein the soul sings of
the happy chance which it had in passing through the dark night of faith, in
detachment and purgation of itself, to union with the Beloved.
1. On a dark night,
Kindled in love with
yearnings -- oh, happy chance! --
I went forth without being observed,
My house being now at
rest.
2. In darkness and
secure,
By the secret ladder,
disguised -- oh, happy chance! --
In darkness and in concealment,
My house being now at
rest.
3. In the happy night,
In secret, when none saw
me,
Nor I beheld aught,
Without light or guide,
save that which burned in my heart.
4. This light guided me
More surely than the
light of noonday,
To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me –
A place where none
appeared.
5. Oh, night that guided
me,
Oh, night more lovely
than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover,
Lover transformed in the
Beloved!
6. Upon my flowery
breast,
Kept wholly for himself
alone,
There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him,
And the fanning of the
cedars made a breeze.
7. The breeze blew from
the turret
As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand he wounded my neck
And caused all my senses
to be suspended.
8. I remained, lost in
oblivion;
My face I reclined on the
Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself,
Leaving my cares
forgotten among the lilies.
In
order to expound and describe this dark night, through which the soul passes in
order to attain to the Divine light of the perfect union of the love of God, as
far as is possible in this life, it would be necessary to have illumination of
knowledge and experience other and far greater than mine; for this darkness and
these trials, both spiritual and temporal, through which happy souls are wont
to pass in order to be able to attain to this high estate of perfection, are so
numerous and so profound that neither does human knowledge suffice for the
understanding of them, nor experience for the description of them; for only he
that passes this way can understand it, and even he cannot describe it.
2.
Therefore, in order to say a little about this dark night, I shall trust
neither to experience nor to knowledge, since both may fail and deceive; but,
while not omitting to make such use as I can of these two things, I shall avail
myself, in all that, with the Divine favour, I have to say, or at the least, in
that which is most important and dark to the understanding, of Divine
Scripture; for, if we guide ourselves by this, we shall be unable to stray,
since He Who speaks therein is the Holy Spirit. And if aught I stray, whether
through my imperfect understanding of that which is said in it or of matters
uncollected with it, it is not my intention to depart from the sound sense and
doctrine of our Holy Mother the Catholic Church; for in such a case I submit
and resign myself wholly, not only to her command, but to whatever better judgment
she may pronounce concerning it.
3.
To this end I have been moved, not by any possibility that I see in myself of
accomplishing so arduous a task, but by the confidence which I have in the Lord
that He will help me to say something to relieve the great necessity which is
experienced by many souls, who, when they set out upon the road of virtue, and
Our Lord desires to bring them into this dark night that they may pass through
it to Divine union, make no progress. At times this is because they have no desire
to enter it or to allow themselves to be led into it; at other times, because
they understand not themselves and lack competent and alert directors who will
guide them to the summit. And so it is sad to see many souls to whom God gives
both aptitude and favour with which to make progress (and who, if they would
take courage, could attain to this high estate), remaining in an elementary
stage of communion with God, for want of will, or knowledge, or because there
is none who will lead them in the right path or teach them how to get away from
these beginnings. And at length, although Our Lord grants them such favour as
to make them to go onward without this hindrance or that, they arrive at their
goal very much later, and with greater labour, yet with less merit, because
they have not conformed themselves to God, and allowed themselves to be brought
freely into the pure and sure road of union. For, although it is true that God
is leading them, and that He can lead them without their own help, they will not
allow themselves to be led; and thus they make less progress, because they
resist Him Who is leading them, and they have less merit, because they apply
not their will, and on this account they suffer more. For these are souls who,
instead of committing themselves to God and making use of His help, rather
hinder God by the indiscretion of their actions or by their resistance; like
children who, when their mothers desire to carry them in their arms, start
stamping and crying, and insist upon being allowed to walk, with the result
that they can make no progress; and, if they advance at all, it is only at the
pace of a child.
4.
Wherefore, to the end that all, whether beginners or proficients, may know how
to commit themselves to God's guidance, when His Majesty desires to lead them
onward, we shall give instruction and counsel, by His help, so that they may be
able to understand His will, or, at the least, allow Him to lead them. For some
confessors and spiritual fathers, having no light and experience concerning
these roads, are wont to hinder and harm such souls rather than to help them on
the road; they are like the builders of Babel, who, when told to furnish
suitable material, gave and applied other very different material, because they
understood not the language, and thus nothing was done. Wherefore, it is a
difficult and troublesome thing at such seasons for a soul not to understand
itself or to find none who understands it. For it will come to pass that God
will lead the soul by a most lofty path of dark contemplation and aridity,
wherein it seems to be lost, and, being thus full of darkness and trials,
constraints and temptations, will meet one who will speak to it like Job's
comforters, and say that it is suffering from melancholy, or low spirits, or a
morbid disposition, or that it may have some hidden sin, and that it is for
this reason that God has forsaken it. Such comforters are wont to declare
immediately that that soul must have been very evil, since such things as these
are befalling it.
5.
And there will likewise be those who tell the soul to retrace its steps, since
it is finding no pleasure or consolation in the things of God as it did
aforetime. And in this way they double the poor soul's trials; for it may well
be that the greatest affliction which it is feeling is that of the knowledge of
its own miseries, thinking that it sees itself, more clearly than daylight, to
be full of evils and sins, for God gives it that light of knowledge in that
night of contemplation, as we shall presently show. And, when the soul finds
someone whose opinion agrees with its own, and who says that these things must
be due to its own fault, its affliction and trouble increase infinitely and are
wont to become more grievous than death. And, not content with this, such
confessors, thinking that these things proceed from sin, make these souls go
over their lives and cause them to make many general confessions, and crucify
them afresh; not understanding that this may quite well not be the time for any
of such things, and that their penitents should be left in the state of
purgation which God gives them, and be comforted and encouraged to desire it
until God be pleased to dispose otherwise; for until that time, no matter what
the souls themselves may do and their confessors may say, there is no remedy
for them.
6.
This, with the Divine favour, we shall consider hereafter, and also how the
soul should conduct itself at such a time, and how the confessor must treat it,
and what signs there will be whereby it may be known if this is the purgation
of the soul; and, in such case, whether it be of sense or of spirit (which is
the dark night whereof we speak), and how it may be known if it be melancholy
or some other imperfection with respect to sense or to spirit. For there may be
some souls who will think, or whose confessors will think, that God is leading
them along this road of the dark night of spiritual purgation, whereas they may
possibly be suffering only from some of the imperfections aforementioned. And,
again, there are many souls who think that they have no aptitude for prayer,
when they have very much; and there are others who think that they have much
when they have hardly any.
7.
There are other souls who labour and weary themselves to a piteous extent, and
yet go backward, seeking profit in that which is not profitable, but is rather
a hindrance; and there are still others who, by remaining at rest and in
quietness, continue to make great progress. There are others who are hindered
and disturbed and make no progress, because of the very consolations and
favours that God is granting them in order that they may make progress. And
there are many other things on this road that befall those who follow it, both
joys and afflictions and hopes and griefs: some proceeding from the spirit of
perfection and others from imperfection. Of all these, with the Divine favour,
we shall endeavour to say something, so that each soul who reads this may be
able to see something of the road that he ought to follow, if he aspire to
attain to the summit of this Mount.
8.
And, since this introduction relates to the dark night through which the soul
must go to God, let not the reader marvel if it seem to him somewhat dark also.
This, I believe, will be so at the beginning when he begins to read; but, as he
passes on, he will find himself understanding the first part better, since one
part will explain another. And then, if he read it a second time, I believe it
will seem clearer to him and the instruction will appear sounder. And if any
persons find themselves disagreeing with this instruction, it will be due to my
ignorance and poor style; for in itself the matter is good and of the first
importance. But I think that, even were it written in a more excellent and
perfect manner than it is, only the minority would profit by it, for we shall
not here set down things that are very moral and delectable for all spiritual
persons who desire to travel toward God by pleasant and delectable ways, but
solid and substantial instruction, as well suited to one kind of person as to
another, if they desire to pass to the detachment of spirit which is here
treated.
9.
Nor is my principal intent to address all, but rather certain persons of our
sacred Order of Mount Carmel of the primitive observance, both friars and nuns
-- since they have desired me to do so -- to whom God is granting the favour of
setting them on the road to this Mount; who, as they are already detached from
the temporal things of this world, will better understand the instruction
concerning detachment of spirit.
BOOK THE FIRST
Wherein is described the nature of dark night and
how necessary it is to pass through it to Divine
union;
and in particular this book describes the dark
night of sense,
and desire, and the evils which these work in the
soul.
CHAPTER I
Sets down the first stanza. Describes two different nights through which spiritual persons pass, according to the two parts of man, the lower and the higher. Expounds the stanza which follows.
On a dark night,
Kindled in love with
yearnings -- oh, happy chance! –
I went forth without
being observed,
My house being now at
rest.
In
this first stanzas the soul sings of the happy fortune and chance which it
experienced in going forth from all things that are without, and from the
desires and imperfections that are in the sensual part of man because of the
disordered state of his reason. For the understanding of this it must be known
that, for a soul to attain to the state of perfection, it has ordinarily first
to pass through two principal kinds of night, which spiritual persons call
purgations or purifications of the soul; and here we call them nights, for in
both of them the soul journeys, as it were, by night, in darkness.
2.
The first night or purgation is of the sensual part of the soul, which is
treated in the present stanza, and will be treated in the first part of this
book. And the second is of the spiritual part; of this speaks the second
stanza, which follows; and of this we shall treat likewise, in the second and
the third part, with respect to the activity of the soul; and in the fourth
part, with respect to its passitivity.
3.
And this first night pertains to beginners, occurring at the time when God
begins to bring them into the state of contemplation; in this night the spirit
likewise has a part, as we shall say in due course. And the second night, or
purification, pertains to those who are already proficient, occurring at the
time when God desires to bring them to the state of union with God. And this latter
night is a more obscure and dark and terrible purgation, as we shall say
afterwards.
4.
Briefly, then, the soul means by this stanza that it went forth (being led by
God) for love of Him alone, enkindled in love of Him, upon a dark night, which
is the privation and purgation of all its sensual desires, with respect to all
outward things of the world and to those which were delectable to its flesh,
and likewise with respect to the desires of its will. This all comes to pass in
this purgation of sense; for which cause the soul says that it went forth while
its house was still at rest; which house is its sensual part, the desires being
at rest and asleep in it, as it is to them. For there is no going forth from
the pains and afflictions of the secret places of the desires until these be
mortified and put to sleep. And this, the soul says, was a happy chance for it
-- namely, its going forth without being observed: that is, without any desire
of its flesh or any other thing being able to hinder it. And likewise, because
it went out by night -- which signifies the privation of all these things
wrought in it by God, which privation was night for it.
5.
And it was a happy chance that God should lead it into this night, from which
there came to it so much good; for of itself the soul would not have succeeded
in entering therein, because no man of himself can succeed in voiding himself
of all his desires in order to come to God.
6.
This is, in brief, the exposition of the stanza; and we shall now have to go
through it, line by line, setting down one line after another, and expounding
that which pertains to our purpose. And the same method is followed in the
other stanzas, as I said in the Prologue -- namely, that each stanza will be
set down and expounded, and afterwards each line.
Explains the nature of this dark night through which the soul says that it has passed on the road to union.
We
may say that there are three reasons for which this journey made by the soul to
union with God is called night. The first has to do with the point from which
the soul goes forth, for it has gradually to deprive itself of desire for all
the worldly things which it possessed, by denying them to itself; the which
denial and deprivation are, as it were, night to all the senses of man. The
second reason has to do with the mean, or the road along which the soul must
travel to this union -- that is, faith, which is likewise as dark as night to
the understanding. The third has to do with the point to which it travels --
namely, God, Who, equally, is dark night to the soul in this life. These three
nights must pass through the soul -- or, rather, the soul must pass through
them -- in order that it may come to Divine union with God.
2.
In the book of the holy Tobias these three kinds of night were shadowed forth
by the three nights which, as the angel commanded, were to pass ere the youth
Tobias should be united with his bride. In the first he commanded him to burn
the heart of the fish in the fire, which signifies the heart that is
affectioned to, and set upon, the things of the world; which, in order that one
may begin to journey toward God, must be burned and purified from all that is
creature, in the fire of the love of God. And in this purgation the devil flees
away, for he has power over the soul only when it is attached to things
corporeal and temporal.
3.
On the second night the angel told him that he would be admitted into the
company of the holy patriarchs, who are the fathers of the faith. For, passing
through the first night, which is self-privation of all objects of sense, the
soul at once enters into the second night, and abides alone in faith to the
exclusion, not of charity, but of other knowledge acquired by the
understanding, as we shall say hereafter, which is a thing that pertains not to
sense.
4.
On the third night the angel told him that he would obtain a blessing, which is
God; Who, by means of the second night, which is faith, continually
communicates Himself to the soul in such a secret and intimate manner that He
becomes another night to the soul, inasmuch as this said communication is far
darker than those others, as we shall say presently. And, when this third night
is past, which is the complete accomplishment of the communication of God in
the spirit, which is ordinarily wrought in great darkness of the soul, there
then follows its union with the Bride, which is the Wisdom of God. Even so the
angel said likewise to Tobias that, when the third night was past, he should be
united with his bride in the fear of the Lord; for, when this fear of God is
perfect, love is perfect, and this comes to pass when the transformation of the
soul is wrought through its love.
5.
These three parts of the night are all one night; but, after the manner of
night, it has three parts. For the first part, which is that of sense, is
comparable to the beginning of night, the point at which things begin to fade
from sight. And the second part, which is faith, is comparable to midnight,
which is total darkness. And the third part is like the close of night, which
is God, the which part is now near to the light of day. And, that we may
understand this the better, we shall treat of each of these reasons separately
as we proceed.
Speaks of the first cause of this night, which is that of the privation of the desire in all things, and gives the reason for which it is called night.
We
here describe as night the privation of every kind of pleasure which belongs to
the desire; for, even as night is naught but the privation of light, and,
consequently, of all objects that can be seen by means of light, whereby the
visual faculty remains unoccupied and in darkness, even so likewise the
mortification of desire may be called night to the soul. For, when the soul is
deprived of the pleasure of its desire in all things, it remains, as it were,
unoccupied and in darkness. For even as the visual faculty, by means of light,
is nourished and fed by objects which can be seen, and which, when the light is
quenched, are not seen, even so, by means of the desire, the soul is nourished
and fed by all things wherein it can take pleasure according to its faculties;
and, when this also is quenched, or rather, mortified, the soul ceases to feed
upon the pleasure of all things, and thus, with respect to its desire, it
remains unoccupied and in darkness.
2.
Let us take an example from each of the faculties. When the soul deprives its
desire of the pleasure of all that can delight the sense of hearing, the soul
remains unoccupied and in darkness with respect to this faculty. And, when it
deprives itself of the pleasure of all that can please the sense of sight, it
remains unoccupied and in darkness with respect to this faculty also. And, when
it deprives itself of the pleasure of all the sweetness of perfumes which can
give it pleasure through the sense of smell, it remains equally unoccupied and
in darkness according to this faculty. And, if it also denies itself the
pleasure of all food that can satisfy the palate, the soul likewise remains
unoccupied and in darkness. And finally, when the soul mortifies itself with
respect to all the delights and pleasures that it can receive from the sense of
touch, it remains, in the same way, unoccupied and in darkness with respect to
this faculty. So that the soul that has denied and thrust away from itself the
pleasures which come from all these things, and has mortified its desire with
respect to them, may be said to be, as it were, in the darkness of night, which
is naught else than an emptiness within itself of all things.
3.
The reason for this is that, as the philosophers say, the soul, as soon as God
infuses it into the body, is like a smooth, blank board upon which nothing is
painted; and, save for that which it experiences through the senses, nothing is
communicated to it, in the course of nature, from any other source. And thus,
for as long as it is in the body, it is like one who is in a dark prison and
who knows nothing, save what he is able to see through the windows of the said
prison; and, if he saw nothing through them, he would see nothing in any other
way. And thus the soul, save for that which is communicated to it through the
senses, which are the windows of its prison, could acquire nothing, in the
course of nature, in any other way.
4.
Wherefore, if the soul rejects and denies that which it can receive through the
senses, we can quite well say that it remains, as it were, in darkness and
empty; since, as appears from what has been said, no light can enter it, in the
course of nature, by any other means of illumination than those aforementioned.
For, although it is true that the soul cannot help hearing and seeing and
smelling and tasting and touching, this is of no greater import, nor, if the
soul denies and rejects the object, is it hindered more than if it saw it not,
heard it not, etc. Just so a man who desires to shut his eyes will remain in
darkness, like the blind man who has not the faculty of sight. And to this
purpose David says these words: Pauper sum ego, et in laboribus a indenture
mea.85 Which signifies: I am poor and in labours from my youth.
He calls himself poor, although it is clear that he was rich, because his will
was not set upon riches, and thus it was as though he were really poor. But if
he had not been really poor and had not been so in his will, he would not have
been truly poor, for his soul, as far as its desire was concerned, would have
been rich and replete. For that reason we call this detachment night to the
soul, for we are not treating here of the lack of things, since this implies no
detachment on the part of the soul if it has a desire for them; but we are
treating of the detachment from them of the taste and desire, for it is this
that leaves the soul free and void of them, although it may have them; for it
is not the things of this world that either occupy the soul or cause it harm,
since they enter it not, but rather the will and desire for them, for it is
these that dwell within it.
5.
This first kind of night, as we shall say hereafter, belongs to the soul
according to its sensual part, which is one of the two parts, whereof we spoke
above, through which the soul must pass in order to attain to union.
6.
Let us now say how meet it is for the soul to go forth from its house into this
dark night of sense, in order to travel to union with God.
Wherein is declared how necessary it is for the soul truly to pass through this dark night of sense, which is mortification of desire, in order that it may journey to union with God.
The
reason for which it is necessary for the soul, in order to attain to Divine
union with God, to pass through this dark night of mortification of the desires
and denial of pleasures in all things, is because all the affections which it
has for creatures are pure darkness in the eyes of God, and, when the soul is
clothed in these affections, it has no capacity for being enlightened and
possessed by the pure and simple light of God, if it first cast them not from
it; for light cannot agree with darkness; since, as Saint John says: Tenebroe
eam non comprehenderunt.86 That is: The darkness could not
receive the light.
2.
The reason is that two contraries (even as philosophy teaches us) cannot
coexist in one person; and that darkness, which is affection set upon the
creatures, and light, which is God, are contrary to each other, and have no
likeness or accord between one another, even as Saint Paul taught the
Corinthians, saying: Quoe conventio luci ad tenebras? That is to say: What communion can there be
between light and darkness? Hence it is that the light of Divine union cannot
dwell in the soul if these affections first flee not away from it.
3.
In order that we may the better prove what has been said, it must be known that
the affection and attachment which the soul has for creatures renders the soul
like to these creatures; and, the greater is its affection, the closer is the
equality and likeness between them; for love creates a likeness between that
which loves and that which is loved. For which reason David, speaking of those
who set their affections upon idols, said thus: Similes illis fiant qui
faciunt ea: et omnes qui confidunt in eis.88 Which signifies:
Let them that set their heart upon them be like to them. And thus, he that
loves a creature becomes as low as that creature, and, in some ways, lower; for
love not only makes the lover equal to the object of his love, but even
subjects him to it. Hence in the same way it comes to pass that the soul that
loves anything else becomes incapable of pure union with God and transformation
in Him. For the low estate of the creature is much less capable of union with
the high estate of the Creator than is darkness with light. For all things of
earth and heaven, compared with God, are nothing, as Jeremias says in these
words: Aspexi terram, et ecce vacua erat, et nihil; et coelos, et non erat
lux in eis.89 'I beheld the earth,' he says, 'and it was void,
and it was nothing; and the heavens, and saw that they had no light.' In saying
that he beheld the earth void, he means that all its creatures were nothing,
and that the earth was nothing likewise. And, in saying that he beheld the
heavens and saw no light in them, he says that all the luminaries of heaven,
compared with God, are pure darkness. So that in this way all the creatures are
nothing; and their affections, we may say, are less than nothing, since they
are an impediment to transformation in God and the privation thereof, even as
darkness is not only nothing, but less than nothing, since it is privation of
light. And even as he that is in darkness comprehends not the light, so the
soul that sets its affection upon creatures will be unable to comprehend God;
and, until it be purged, it will neither be able to possess Him here below,
through pure transformation of love, nor yonder in clear vision. And, for
greater clarity, we will now speak in greater detail.
4.
All the being of creation, then, compared with the infinite Being of God, is
nothing. And therefore the soul that sets its affection upon the being of creation
is likewise nothing in the eyes of God, and less than nothing; for, as we have
said, love makes equality and similitude, and even sets the lover below the
object of his love. And therefore such a soul will in no wise be able to attain
to union with the infinite Being of God; for that which is not can have no
communion with that which is. And, coming down in detail to some examples, all
the beauty of the creatures, compared with the infinite beauty of God, is the
height of deformity even as Solomon says in the Proverbs: Fallax gratia, et
vana est pulchritudo.91 'Favour is deceitful and beauty is
vain.' And thus the soul that is affectioned to the beauty of any creature is
the height of deformity in the eyes of God. And therefore this soul that is
deformed will be unable to become transformed in beauty, which is God, since
deformity cannot attain to beauty; and all the grace and beauty of the
creatures, compared with the grace of God, is the height of misery and of
uncomeliness. Wherefore the soul that is ravished by the graces and beauties of
the creatures has only supreme misery and unattractiveness in the eyes of God;
and thus it cannot be capable of the infinite grace and loveliness of God; for
that which has no grace is far removed from that which is infinitely gracious;
and all the goodness of the creatures of the world, in comparison with the
infinite goodness of God, may be described as wickedness. 'For there is naught
good, save only God.' And therefore the soul that sets its heart upon the good
things of the world is supremely evil in the eyes of God. And, even as
wickedness comprehends not goodness, even so such a soul cannot be united with
God, Who is supreme goodness.
5.
All the wisdom of the world and all human ability, compared with the infinite
wisdom of God, are pure and supreme ignorance, even as Saint Paul writes ad
Corinthios, saying: Sapientia hujus mundi stultitia est apud Deum.95
'The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.' Wherefore any soul that
makes account of all its knowledge and ability in order to come to union with
the wisdom of God is supremely ignorant in the eyes of God and will remain far
removed from that wisdom; for ignorance knows not what wisdom is, even as Saint
Paul says that this wisdom seems foolishness to God; since, in the eyes of God,
those who consider themselves to be persons with a certain amount of knowledge
are very ignorant, so that the Apostle, writing to the Romans, says of them: Dicentes
enim se esse sapientes, stulti facti sunt. That is: Professing themselves
to be wise, they became foolish. And those alone acquire wisdom of God who are
like ignorant children, and, laying aside their knowledge, walk in His service
with love. This manner of wisdom Saint Paul taught likewise ad Corinthios:
Si quis videtur inter vos sapiens esse in hoc soeculo, stultus fiat ut sit
sapiens. Sapientia enim hujus mundi stultitia est apud Deum.97
That is: If any man among you seem to be wise, let him become ignorant that he
may be wise; for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. So that, in
order to come to union with the wisdom of God, the soul has to proceed rather
by unknowing than by knowing; and all the dominion and liberty of the world,
compared with the liberty and dominion of the Spirit of God, is the most abject
slavery, affliction and captivity.
6.
Wherefore the soul that is enamoured of prelacy, or of any other such office,
and longs for liberty of desire, is considered and treated, in the sight of
God, not as a son, but as a base slave and captive, since it has not been
willing to accept His holy doctrine, wherein He teaches us that whoso would be
greater must be less, and whoso would be less must be greater. And therefore
such a soul will be unable to attain to that true liberty of spirit which is attained
in His Divine union. For slavery can have no part with liberty; and liberty
cannot dwell in a heart that is subject to desires, for this is the heart of a
slave; but it dwells in the free man, because he has the heart of a son. It was
for this cause that Sara bade her husband Abraham cast out the bondwoman and
her son, saying that the son of the bondwoman should not be heir with the son
of the free woman.
7.
And all the delights and pleasures of the will in all the things of the world,
in comparison with all those delights which are God, are supreme affliction,
torment and bitterness. And thus he that sets his heart upon them is
considered, in the sight of God, as worthy of supreme affliction, torment and
bitterness; and thus he will be unable to attain to the delights of the embrace
of union with God, since he is worthy of affliction and bitterness. All the
wealth and glory of all creation, in comparison with the wealth which is God,
is supreme poverty and wretchedness. Thus the soul that loves and possesses
creature wealth is supremely poor and wretched in the sight of God, and for
that reason will be unable to attain to that wealth and glory which is the
state of transformation in God; for that which is miserable and poor is
supremely far removed from that which is supremely rich and glorious.
8. And therefore Divine Wisdom, grieving for such as these, who make themselves vile, low, miserable and poor, because they love the things in this world which seem to them so rich and beautiful, addresses an exclamation to them in the Proverbs, saying: O viri, ad vos clamito, et vox mea ad filios hominum. Intelligite, parvuli, astutiam, et insipientes, animadvertite. Audite quia de rebus magnis locutura sum. And farther on he continues: Mecum sunt divitoe, et gloria, opes superboe et justicia. Melior est fructus meus auro, et lapide pretioso, et genimina mea argento electo. In viis justitioe ambulo, in medio semitarum judicii, ut ditem diligentes me, et thesauros eorum repleam. Which signifies: O ye men, to you I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. Attend, little ones, to subtlety and sagacity; ye that are foolish, take notice. Hear, for I have to speak of great things. With me are riches and glory, high riches and justice. Better is the fruit that ye will find in me than gold and precious stones; and my generation -- namely, that which ye will engender of me in your souls -- is better than choice silver. I walk in the ways of justice, in the midst of the paths of judgment, that I may enrich those that love me and fill their treasures perfectly. -- Herein Divine Wisdom speaks to all those that set their hearts and affections upon anything of the world, according as we have already said. And she calls them 'little ones,' because they make themselves like to that which they love, which is little. And therefore she tells them to be subtle and to take note that she is treating of great things and not of things that are little like themselves. That the great riches and the glory that they love are with her and in her, and not where they think. And that high riches and justice dwell in her; for, although they think the things of this world to be all this, she tells them to take note that her things are better, saying that the fruit that they will find in them will be better for them than gold and precious stones; and that which she engenders in souls is better than the choice silver which they love; by which is understood any kind of affection that can be possessed in this life.