Chapter XVI — Part
1
Further tells of the six Points wherein is the highest communion between God and man, and shows forth the first four Points.
THE first is in what manner we are One with God in Love and in the Holy Spirit.
The second point is in what manner we are separate from God in grace and virtue.
The third is in what manner we make ourselves One with God beyond ourselves.
The fourth point is in what manner we abide in ourselves and cannot pass beyond.
The fifth point is in what manner we are in ourselves hungry and thirsty, and yet cannot apprehend God.
The sixth is in what manner, beyond ourselves, we are satisfied and fulfilled and blessed in Eternal Love.
Observe particularly these six points, for I pass on to their unravelling and explanation.
Behold, we are one life in God, in our eternal Archetype, beyond our created nature. We are also one Humanity, which God has created, and one Human nature, wherein He has impressed the image of His Trinity; and which He has assumed from very Love, so that He with us is God and Man. And this have all men alike received, both the just and the unjust; for this is the nobility and grandeur of our nature. Yet therewith are we neither holy nor blessed.
But when grace and virtue uplift us into the still and empty repose of our spirit, wherein God ruleth, there we find ourselves One with Him and with all saints, and there are we all fulfilled and perfected in the Love which is God, the beginning and the ending 38 of our Eternal Life.
And next, we are apart from God, and cannot become one, but abide always in separation whenever we remain in ourselves, each in his own personal life. There has God made us like to Himself in bare nature, after the mode of our highest powers; and although this likeness which God has given to us all in our common nature makes us neither holy nor blessed, yet grace and the gifts of God which descend from on high on us, give us a life of virtue, and so God lives in us, and we in Him.
And thus are we, above our nature, like to God, and so we abide like Him in grace and glory.
Hereafter follows the third Point, as to the manner in which we are, beyond ourselves, One with God; and, in ourselves abide in perpetual likeness to Him.
And this is taught us by the stirring of God, enlightening our reason, sending us forth with the entreaty that we should lead a life of virtue, and drawing us in with the entreaty that we should be One with Him.
And if we render an equal obedience to this double entreaty, we live according to the beloved Will of God.
This stirring is an eternal and living intermediary between us and God, of such a kind that we abide in perpetual likeness within ourselves, and, beyond all likeness, One with God.
Hereafter follows the fourth Point:
By virtue of the stirring of the Holy Ghost, we are altogether moved within, and we conceive an insatiable desire and a fierce craving, which neither reason nor any created thing can restrain or satisfy. For the Spirit of God urges our spirit, that we, wholly outside ourselves, should yield ourselves to Him; and, wholly within ourselves, should grasp and apprehend Him; and these two things are impossible for us. For we are not able to come out of ourselves in God, and to lose our created nature, and so we must for ever dwell, as created beings, apart from God; for no creature can become God, nor can God become creature.
And we can neither apprehend God within ourselves, Who is measureless Breadth, nor can we follow after Him nor tell of Him, Who is endless Length, fathomless Depth, and Height above all that He has created.
Yet that which is impossible for us is quite possible for Him; since, when our spirit and all its powers fail at their labour, the Spirit of Our Lord works beyond them and their works; and we are wrought on Thereby, enduring His workings beyond our workings; and in so enduring Him, we apprehend Him, and become apprehended by Him.
In our own labour we fail always, and therein we cannot apprehend Him; but, where He works and we endure, there, by that enduring, we apprehend Him beyond all our labour. And this is the apprehension of God after an in-apprehensible manner, by enduring without apprehending Him