The third Instruction shows man how he must take as his
Example, the peculiar Attributes and Names assigned to God, and to His Divine
Being; and how, on the other hand, he must bear his own nothingness, and then
contemplate the unknown wastes and deserts of the Divine Attributes in quiet
seclusion.
Because God is a Pure Being and a Waste of calm
seclusion, as Moses said: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is One Lord," yea
One God, even One God Only, still, some of the special Attributes and divers
Names that we assign to Him may serve as an example to us, while we compare our
nothingness with Him. For, as I have often said, man is apt to think of all
things in an earthly way, of our dear Lord's Birth, His Life, His Works and
Ways. Therefore we must lift up our minds, and learn to soar far above time, in
the Eternal Works of the Divine Being. Now man may reflect on these attributes
in his mind in a very real way, so that he will be able to see that God is a
Pure Being, that all beings are one, and yet that He is none of all these
things. In all things that exist, in all that is and has any being, there is
God. St Augustine says: "If thou seest a good man, a good Angel, a good Heaven,
take away the man, take away the Angel, and take away the Heaven, and then that
which remains is the Essence of Goodness, that is God; for He is in all things
and yet far above all things." All creatures, indeed, have some goodness and
love; but they are neither goodness nor love, but God only is the Essence of
Goodness, of Love and of all that can be named. Man must compare himself with
God, and then sink down with all his powers, with an intense and earnest gaze,
that he may receive and renew his own nothingness, and be united with the
Divine Being, Who only is the Life, the Soul and the Essence of all things.
Man must consider the attributes of this Oneness
of being; for God is the End of all unity, and in Him all diversities are
united, and become one in the One Only Being. His Being is His work, His
knowledge, His love, His reward, His mercy and His righteousness, all are one;
therefore go, and carry thereto all thy diversities which are so great and so
incomprehensible, that all may be made one in the Oneness of His Being.
Man should also consider God as one who hides
Himself; for He is known in all things, as Isaiah saith: "Verily, thou art a
hidden God." He is much nearer than anything is to itself in the depths of the
heart, hidden from all our senses and unknown in that heart, into which He
forces all thy outward thoughts, which are as far from themselves and from thy
inner life, as a beast which lives according to its nature, neither knowing,
tasting or experiencing anything. Hide thyself in this secret place from all
creatures, and from all that is strange to and unlike that Being. This must not
be done in a figurative or imaginary way, but in very deed, with all our
strength and desire, in a way which we cannot understand with our natural
senses.
Then man must look upon the desire of the Divine
attributes in a quiet solitude, where no word is really spoken. All there is so
still and mysterious and so desolate; for there is nothing there but God only,
and nothing strange. Neither creature, nor image, nor fancy has ever entered
there. This Wilderness was referred to by our Lord, when He spake by the
prophet Joel (Hosea): "I will allure her and lead her into the Wilderness, and
I will speak to her heart." This Wilderness is the quiet Desert of the Godhead,
into which He leads all who are to receive this inspiration of God, now or in
eternity. Bear thy foolish and barren heart into the Wilderness of the calm and
living Godhead, thy heart which is so full of overgrown weeds, bare of all
things good, and full of the wild beasts of thy animal nature. Then look upon
the Divine Darkness, which is dark from its surpassing brightness to the
comprehension of men and of Angels, as the shining of the sun on his course is
as darkness to weak eyes. For all created minds compared with the brightness of
nature are like the eyes of nightingales or swallows, in the bright sunlight.
Men must cast down their eyes in their ignorance and blindness, because they
are created beings. Bear thereto thine own deep darkness, robbed of all true
light, and let the Abyss of the Divine Darkness only be acknowledged, while all
other things remain unknown. The Abyss, which is unknown and has no name, is
Salvation; and it is more beloved and entices more souls than all that they can
know of Eternal Salvation in the Divine Being. May God bring us all to this
Salvation! Amen.
TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH