initial commit of ebook 14596HEADmain

1 files changed, 11649 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/14596-0.txt b/14596-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c03d506
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14596-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11649 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14596 ***
+
+CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM
+
+The Bampton Lectures, 1899
+
+Considered in Eight Lectures Delivered before the University of Oxford
+
+by
+
+WILLIAM RALPH INGE, D.D.
+Dean Of S. Paul's
+
+Methuen & Co. Ltd.
+36 Essex Street W.c.
+London
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Extract
+From The Last Will And Testament
+Of The Late
+Rev. John Bampton
+Canon Of Salisbury
+
+
+----"I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to the Chancellor,
+Masters, and Scholars of the University of Oxford for ever, to have
+and to hold all and singular the said Lands and Estates upon trust,
+and to the intents and purposes hereinafter mentioned; that is to say,
+I will and appoint that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of
+Oxford for the time being shall take and receive all the rents,
+issues, and profits thereof, and (after all taxes, reparations, and
+necessary deductions made) that he pay all the remainder to the
+endowment of eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, to be established for
+ever in the said University, and to be performed in the manner
+following:
+
+"I direct and appoint that upon the first Tuesday in Easter Term, a
+Lecturer be yearly chosen by the Heads of Colleges only, and by no
+others, in the room adjoining to the Printing-House, between the hours
+of ten in the morning and two in the afternoon, to preach eight
+Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year following, at St. Mary's in Oxford,
+between the commencement of the last month in Lent Term, and the end
+of the third week in Act Term.
+
+"Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity Lecture Sermons
+shall be preached upon either of the following Subjects--to confirm
+and establish the Christian Faith, and to confute all heretics and
+schismatics--upon the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures--upon
+the authority of the writings of the primitive Fathers, as to the
+faith and practice of the primitive Church--upon the Divinity of our
+Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ--upon the Divinity of the Holy
+Ghost--upon the Articles of the Christian Faith, as comprehended in
+the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.
+
+"Also I direct that thirty copies of the eight Divinity Lecture
+Sermons shall be always printed within two months after they are
+preached; and one copy shall be given to the Chancellor of the
+University, and one copy to the head of every College, and one copy to
+the Mayor of the City of Oxford, and one copy to be put into the
+Bodleian Library; and the expense of printing them shall be paid out
+of the revenue of the Land or Estates given for establishing the
+Divinity Lecture Sermons; and the Preacher shall not be paid, nor
+entitled to the revenue, before they are printed.
+
+"Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be qualified to
+preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, unless he hath taken the degree
+of Master of Arts at least, in one of the two Universities of Oxford
+or Cambridge; and that the same person shall never preach the Divinity
+Lecture Sermons twice."
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The first of the subjects which, according to the will of Canon
+Bampton, are prescribed for the Lecturers upon his foundation, is the
+confirmation and establishment of the Christian faith. This is the aim
+which I have kept in view in preparing this volume; and I should wish
+my book to be judged as a contribution to apologetics, rather than as
+a historical sketch of Christian Mysticism. I say this because I
+decided, after some hesitation, to adopt a historical framework for
+the Lectures, and this arrangement may cause my object to be
+misunderstood. It seemed to me that the instructiveness of tracing the
+development and operation of mystical ideas, in the forms which they
+have assumed as active forces in history, outweighed the disadvantage
+of appearing to waver between apology and narrative. A series of
+historical essays would, of course, have been quite unsuitable in the
+University pulpit, and, moreover, I did not approach the subject from
+that side. Until I began to prepare the Lectures, about a year and a
+half before they were delivered, my study of the mystical writers had
+been directed solely by my own intellectual and spiritual needs. I was
+attracted to them in the hope of finding in their writings a
+philosophy and a rule of life which would satisfy my mind and
+conscience. In this I was not disappointed; and thinking that others
+might perhaps profit by following the same path, I wished to put
+together and publish the results of my thought and reading. In such a
+scheme historical details are either out of place or of secondary
+value; and I hope this will be remembered by any historians who may
+take the trouble to read my book.
+
+The philosophical side of the subject is from my point of view of much
+greater importance. I have done my best to acquire an adequate
+knowledge of those philosophies, both ancient and modern, which are
+most akin to speculative Mysticism, and also to think out my own
+position. I hope that I have succeeded in indicating my general
+standpoint, and that what I have written may prove fairly consistent
+and intelligible; but I have felt keenly the disadvantage of having
+missed the systematic training in metaphysics given by the Oxford
+school of _Literæ Humaniores_, and also the difficulty (perhaps I
+should say the presumption) of addressing metaphysical arguments to an
+audience which included several eminent philosophers. I wish also that
+I had had time for a more thorough study of Fechner's works; for his
+system, so far as I understand it, seems to me to have a great
+interest and value as a scheme of philosophical Mysticism which does
+not clash with modern science.
+
+I have spoken with a plainness which will probably give offence of the
+debased supernaturalism which usurps the name of Mysticism in Roman
+Catholic countries. I desire to insult no man's convictions; and it
+is for this reason that I have decided not to print my analysis of
+Ribet's work (_La Mystique Divine, distinguée des Contrefaçons
+diaboliques_. Nouvelle Edition, Paris, 1895, 3 vols.), which I
+intended to form an Appendix. It would have opened the eyes of some of
+my readers to the irreconcilable antagonism between the Roman Church
+and science; but though I translated and summarised my author
+faithfully, the result had all the appearance of a malicious travesty.
+I have therefore suppressed this Appendix; but with regard to Roman
+Catholic "Mysticism" there is no use in mincing matters. Those who
+find edification in signs and wonders of this kind, and think that
+such "supernatural phenomena," even if they were well authenticated
+instead of being ridiculous fables, could possibly establish spiritual
+truths, will find little or nothing to please or interest them in
+these pages. But those who reverence Nature and Reason, and have no
+wish to hear of either of them being "overruled" or "suspended," will,
+I hope, agree with me in valuing highly the later developments of
+mystical thought in Northern Europe.
+
+There is another class of "mystics" with whom I have but little
+sympathy--the dabblers in occultism. "Psychical research" is, no
+doubt, a perfectly legitimate science; but when its professors invite
+us to watch the breaking down of the middle wall of partition between
+matter and spirit, they have, in my opinion, ceased to be scientific,
+and are in reality hankering after the beggarly elements of the later
+Neoplatonism.
+
+The charge of "pantheistic tendency" will not, I hope, be brought
+against me without due consideration. I have tried to show how the
+Johannine Logos-doctrine, which is the basis of Christian Mysticism,
+differs from Asiatic Pantheism, from Acosmism, and from (one kind of)
+evolutionary Idealism. Of course, speculative Mysticism is nearer to
+Pantheism than to Deism; but I think it is possible heartily to eschew
+Deism without falling into the opposite error.
+
+I have received much help from many kind friends; and though some of
+them would not wish to be associated with all of my opinions, I cannot
+deny myself the pleasure of thanking them by name. From my mother and
+other members of my family, and relations, especially Mr. W.W. How,
+Fellow of Merton, I have received many useful suggestions. Three past
+or present colleagues have read and criticised parts of my work--the
+Rev. H. Rashdall, now Fellow of New College; Mr. H.A. Prichard, now
+Fellow of Trinity; and Mr. H.H. Williams, Fellow of Hertford. Mr. G.L.
+Dickinson, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, lent me an unpublished
+dissertation on Plotinus. The Rev. C. Bigg, D.D., whose Bampton
+Lectures on the Christian Platonists are known all over Europe, did me
+the kindness to read the whole of the eight Lectures, and so added to
+the great debt which I owe to him for his books. The Rev. J.M. Heald,
+formerly Scholar of Trinity, Cambridge, lent me many books from his
+fine library, and by inquiring for me at Louvain enabled me to procure
+the books on Mysticism which are now studied in Roman Catholic
+Universities. The Rev. Dr. Lindsay, who has made a special study of
+the German mystics, read my Lectures on that period, and wrote me a
+very useful letter upon them. Miss G.H. Warrack of Edinburgh kindly
+allowed me to use her modernised version of Julian of Norwich.
+
+I have ventured to say in my last Lecture--and it is my earnest
+conviction--that a more general acquaintance with mystical theology
+and philosophy is very desirable in the interests of the English
+Church at the present time. I am not one of those who think that the
+points at issue between Anglo-Catholics and Anglo-Protestants are
+trivial: history has always confirmed Aristotle's famous dictum about
+parties--[Greek: gignontai ai staseis ou peri mikrôn all' ek mikrôn,
+stasiazousi de peri megalôn]--but I do not so far despair of our
+Church, or of Christianity, as to doubt that a reconciling principle
+must and will be found. Those who do me the honour to read these
+Lectures will see to what quarter I look for a mediator. A very short
+study would be sufficient to dispel some of the prejudices which still
+hang round the name of Mysticism--e.g., that its professors are
+unpractical dreamers, and that this type of religion is antagonistic
+to the English mind. As a matter of fact, all the great mystics have
+been energetic and influential, and their business capacity is
+specially noted in a curiously large number of cases. For instance,
+Plotinus was often in request as a guardian and trustee; St. Bernard
+showed great gifts as an organiser; St. Teresa, as a founder of
+convents and administrator, gave evidence of extraordinary practical
+ability; even St. Juan of the Cross displayed the same qualities; John
+Smith was an excellent bursar of his college; Fénelon ruled his
+diocese extremely well; and Madame Guyon surprised those who had
+dealings with her by her great aptitude for affairs. Henry More was
+offered posts of high responsibility and dignity, but declined them.
+The mystic is not as a rule ambitious, but I do not think he often
+shows incapacity for practical life, if he consents to mingle in it.
+And so far is it from being true that Great Britain has produced but
+few mystics, that I am inclined to think the subject might be
+adequately studied from English writers alone. On the more
+intellectual side we have (without going back to Scotus Erigena) the
+Cambridge Platonists, Law and Coleridge; of devotional mystics we have
+attractive examples in Hilton and Julian of Norwich; while in verse
+the lofty idealism[1] and strong religious bent of our race have
+produced a series of poet-mystics such as no other country can rival.
+It has not been possible in these Lectures to do justice to George
+Herbert, Vaughan "the Silurist," Quarles, Crashaw, and others, who
+have all drunk of the same well. Let it suffice to say that the
+student who desires to master the history of Mysticism in Britain will
+find plenty to occupy his time. But for the religious public in
+general the most useful thing would be a judicious selection from the
+mystical writers of different times and countries. Those who are more
+interested in the practical and devotional than the speculative side
+may study with great profit some parts of St. Augustine, the sermons
+of Tauler, the _Theologia Germanica_, Hilton's _Scale of Perfection_,
+the Life of Henry Suso, St. Francis de Sales and Fénelon, the Sermons
+of John Smith and Whichcote's _Aphorisms_, and the later works of
+William Law, not forgetting the poets who have been mentioned. I can
+think of no course of study more fitting for those who wish to revive
+in themselves and others the practical idealism of the primitive
+Church, which gained for it its greatest triumphs.
+
+I conclude this Preface with a quotation from William Law on the value
+of the mystical writers. "Writers like those I have mentioned," he
+says in a letter to Dr. Trapp, "there have been in all ages of the
+Church, but as they served not the ends of popular learning, as they
+helped no people to figure or preferment in the world, and were
+useless to scholastic controversial writers, so they dropt out of
+public uses, and were only known, or rather unknown, under the name of
+mystical writers, till at last some people have hardly heard of that
+very name: though, if a man were to be told what is meant by a
+mystical divine, he must be told of something as heavenly, as great,
+as desirable, as if he was told what is meant by a real, regenerate,
+living member of the mystical body of Christ; for they were thus
+called for no other reason than as Moses and the prophets, and the
+saints of the Old Testament, may be called the spiritual Israel, or
+the true mystical Jews. These writers began their office of teaching
+as John the Baptist did, after they had passed through every kind of
+mortification and self-denial, every kind of trial and purification,
+both inward and outward. They were deeply learned in the mysteries of
+the kingdom of God, not through the use of lexicons, or meditating
+upon critics, but because they had passed from death unto life. They
+highly reverence and excellently direct the true use of everything
+that is outward in religion; but, like the Psalmist's king's daughter,
+they are all glorious within. They are truly sons of thunder, and sons
+of consolation; they break open the whited sepulchres; they awaken the
+heart, and show it its filth and rottenness of death: but they leave
+it not till the kingdom of heaven is raised up within it. If a man has
+no desire but to be of the spirit of the gospel, to obtain all that
+renovation of life and spirit which alone can make him to be in Christ
+a new creature, it is a great unhappiness to him to be unacquainted
+with these writers, or to pass a day without reading something of what
+they wrote."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: It is really time that we took to burning that travesty
+of the British character--the John Bull whom our comic papers
+represent "guarding his pudding"--instead of Guy Fawkes. Even in the
+nineteenth century, amid all the sordid materialism bred of commercial
+ascendancy, this country has produced a richer crop of imaginative
+literature than any other; and it is significant that, while in
+Germany philosophy is falling more and more into the hands of the
+empirical school, our own thinkers are nearly all staunch idealists.]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+LECTURE
+
+     I. General Characteristics of Mysticism
+
+    II. The Mystical Element in the Bible
+
+   III. Christian Platonism and Speculative Mysticism--(1) In the East
+
+    IV. Christian Platonism and Speculative Mysticism--(2) In the West
+
+     V. Practical and Devotional Mysticism
+
+    VI. Practical and Devotional Mysticism--_continued_
+
+   VII. Nature-Mysticism and Symbolism
+
+  VIII. Nature-Mysticism--_continued_
+
+        APPENDIX A. Definitions of "Mysticism" and "Mystical Theology"
+
+        APPENDIX B. The Greek Mysteries and Christian Mysticism
+
+        APPENDIX C. The Doctrine of Deification
+
+        APPENDIX D. The Mystical Interpretation of the Song of Solomon
+
+        INDEX
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE I
+
+
+[Greek: "Hêmin de apodeikteon hôs ep' eutuchia tê megistê para Theôn
+hê toiautê mania didotai hê de dê apodeixis estai deinois men
+apistos, sophois de pistê"]
+
+PLATO, _Phædrus_, p. 245.
+
+
+  "_Thoas_. Es spricht kein Gott; es spricht dein eignes Herz.
+  _Iphigenia_. Sie reden nur durch unser Herz zu uns."
+
+GOETHE, _Iphigenie_.
+
+
+  "Si notre vie est moins qu'une journée
+   En l'éternel; si l'an qui fait le tour
+   Chasse nos jours sans espoir de retour;
+   Si périssable est toute chose née;
+   Que songes-tu, mon âme emprisonnée?
+   Pourquoi te plaît l'obscur de notre jour,
+   Si, pour voler en un plus clair séjour,
+   Tu as au dos l'aile bien empennée!
+   Là est le bien que tout esprit désire,
+   Là, le repos ou tout le monde aspire,
+   Là est l'amour, là le plaisir encore!
+   Là, ô mon âme, au plus haut ciel guidée,
+   Tu y pourras reconnaître l'idée
+   De la beauté qu'en ce monde j'adore!"
+
+OLD POET.
+
+
+
+GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MYSTICISM
+
+"Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest
+what we shall be. We know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be
+like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is."--I JOHN iii. 2, 3.
+
+
+No word in our language--not even "Socialism"--has been employed more
+loosely than "Mysticism." Sometimes it is used as an equivalent for
+symbolism or allegorism, sometimes for theosophy or occult science;
+and sometimes it merely suggests the mental state of a dreamer, or
+vague and fantastic opinions about God and the world. In Roman
+Catholic writers, "mystical phenomena" mean supernatural suspensions
+of physical law. Even those writers who have made a special study of
+the subject, show by their definitions of the word how uncertain is
+its connotation.[2] It is therefore necessary that I should make clear
+at the outset what I understand by the term, and what aspects of
+religious life and thought I intend to deal with in these Lectures.
+
+The history of the _word_ begins in close connexion with the Greek
+mysteries.[3] A mystic [Greek: mystês] is one who has been, or is
+being, initiated into some esoteric knowledge of Divine things, about
+which he must keep his mouth shut ([Greek: myein]); or, possibly, he is
+one whose _eyes_ are still shut, one who is not yet an [Greek:
+epoptês].[4] The word was taken over, with other technical terms of
+the mysteries, by the Neoplatonists, who found in the existing
+mysteriosophy a discipline, worship, and rule of life congenial to
+their speculative views. But as the tendency towards quietism and
+introspection increased among them, another derivation for "Mysticism"
+was found--it was explained to mean deliberately shutting the eyes to
+all external things.[5] We shall see in the sequel how this later
+Neoplatonism passed almost entire into Christianity, and, while
+forming the basis of mediæval Mysticism, caused a false association to
+cling to the word even down to the Reformation.[6]
+
+The phase of thought or feeling which we call Mysticism has its
+origin in that which is the raw material of all religion, and perhaps
+of all philosophy and art as well, namely, that dim consciousness of
+the _beyond_, which is part of our nature as human beings. Men have
+given different names to these "obstinate questionings of sense and
+outward things." We may call them, if we will, a sort of higher
+instinct, perhaps an anticipation of the evolutionary process; or an
+extension of the frontier of consciousness; or, in religious language,
+the voice of God speaking to us. Mysticism arises when we try to bring
+this higher consciousness into relation with the other contents of our
+minds. Religious Mysticism may be defined as the attempt to realise
+the presence of the living God in the soul and in nature, or, more
+generally, as _the attempt to realise, in thought and feeling, the
+immanence of the temporal in the eternal, and of the eternal in the
+temporal_. Our consciousness of the beyond is, I say, the raw material
+of all religion. But, being itself formless, it cannot be brought
+directly into relation with the forms of our thought. Accordingly, it
+has to express itself by symbols, which are as it were the flesh and
+bones of ideas. It is the tendency of all symbols to petrify or
+evaporate, and either process is fatal to them. They soon repudiate
+their mystical origin, and forthwith lose their religious content.
+Then comes a return to the fresh springs of the inner life--a revival
+of spirituality in the midst of formalism or unbelief. This is the
+historical function of Mysticism--it appears as an independent active
+principle, the spirit of reformations and revivals. But since every
+active principle must find for itself appropriate instruments,
+Mysticism has developed a speculative and practical system of its
+own. As Goethe says, it is "the scholastic of the heart, the dialectic
+of the feelings." In this way it becomes possible to consider it as a
+type of religion, though it must always be remembered that in becoming
+such it has incorporated elements which do not belong to its inmost
+being.[7] As a type of religion, then, Mysticism seems to rest on the
+following propositions or articles of faith:--
+
+First, _the soul_ (as well as the body) _can see and
+perceive_--[Greek: esti de psychês aisthêsis tis], as Proclus says.
+We have an organ or faculty for the discernment of spiritual truth,
+which, in its proper sphere, is as much to be trusted as the organs of
+sensation in theirs.
+
+The second proposition is that, since we can only know what is akin to
+ourselves,[8] _man, in order to know God, must be a partaker of the
+Divine nature_. "What we are, that we behold; and what we behold,
+that we are," says Ruysbroek. The curious doctrine which we find in
+the mystics of the Middle Ages, that there is at "the apex of the
+mind" a spark which is consubstantial with the uncreated ground of the
+Deity, is thus accounted for. We could not even begin to work out our
+own salvation if God were not already working in us. It is always "in
+His light" that "we see light." The doctrine has been felt to be a
+necessary postulate by most philosophers who hold that knowledge of
+God is possible to man. For instance, Krause says, "From finite reason
+as finite we might possibly explain the thought of itself, but not the
+thought of something that is outside finite reasonable beings, far
+less the absolute idea, in its contents infinite, of God. To become
+aware of God in knowledge we require certainly to make a freer use of
+our finite power of thought, but the thought of God itself is
+primarily and essentially an eternal operation of the eternal
+revelation of God to the finite mind." But though we are made in the
+image of God, our _likeness_ to Him only exists potentially.[9] The
+Divine spark already shines within us, but it has to be searched for
+in the innermost depths of our personality, and its light diffused
+over our whole being.
+
+This brings us to the third proposition--"_Without holiness no man may
+see the Lord_"; or, as it is expressed positively in the Sermon on the
+Mount, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."
+Sensuality and selfishness are absolute disqualifications for knowing
+"the things of the Spirit of God." These fundamental doctrines are
+very clearly laid down in the passage from St. John which I read as
+the text of this Lecture. The filial relation to God is already
+claimed, but the vision is inseparable from _likeness_ to Him, which
+is a hope, not a possession, and is only to be won by "purifying
+ourselves, even as He is pure."
+
+There is one more fundamental doctrine which we must not omit.
+Purification removes the obstacles to our union with God, but our
+guide on the upward path, _the true hierophant of the mysteries of
+God, is love_[10]. Love has been defined as "interest in its highest
+power";[11] while others have said that "it is of the essence of love
+to be disinterested." The contradiction is merely a verbal one. The
+two definitions mark different starting-points, but the two "ways of
+love" should bring us to the same goal. The possibility of
+disinterested love, in the ordinary sense, ought never to have been
+called in question. "Love is not love" when it asks for a reward. Nor
+is the love of man to God any exception. He who tries to be holy in
+order to be happy will assuredly be neither. In the words of the
+_Theologia Germanica_, "So long as a man seeketh his own highest good
+_because_ it is his, he will never find it." The mystics here are
+unanimous, though some, like St. Bernard, doubt whether perfect love
+of God can ever be attained, pure and without alloy, while we are in
+this life.[12] The controversy between Fénelon and Bossuet on this
+subject is well known, and few will deny that Fénelon was mainly in
+the right. Certainly he had an easy task in justifying his statements
+from the writings of the saints. But we need not trouble ourselves
+with the "mystic paradox," that it would be better to be with Christ
+in hell than without Him in heaven--a statement which Thomas à Kempis
+once wrote and then erased in his manuscript. For wherever Christ is,
+there is heaven: nor should we regard eternal happiness as anything
+distinct from "a true conjunction of the mind with God.[13]" "God is
+not without or above law: He _could_ not make men either sinful or
+miserable.[14]" To believe otherwise is to suppose an irrational
+universe, the one thing which a rational man cannot believe in.
+
+The mystic, as we have seen, makes it his life's aim to be transformed
+into the likeness of Him in whose image he was created.[15] He loves
+to figure his path as a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, which
+must be climbed step by step. This _scala perfectionis_ is generally
+divided into three stages. The first is called the purgative life,
+the second the illuminative, while the third, which is really the goal
+rather than a part of the journey, is called the unitive life, or
+state of perfect contemplation.[16] We find, as we should expect, some
+differences in the classification, but this tripartite scheme is
+generally accepted.
+
+The steps of the upward path constitute the ethical system, the rule
+of life, of the mystics. The first stage, the purgative life, we read
+in the _Theologia Germanica_, is brought about by contrition, by
+confession, by hearty amendment; and this is the usual language in
+treatises intended for monks. But it is really intended to include the
+civic and social virtues in this stage.[17] They occupy the lowest
+place, it is true; but this only means that they must be acquired by
+all, though all are not called to the higher flights of contemplation.
+Their chief value, according to Plotinus, is to teach us the meaning
+of _order_ and _limitation_ ([Greek: taxis] and [Greek: peras]), which
+are qualities belonging to the Divine nature. This is a very valuable
+thought, for it contradicts that aberration of Mysticism which calls
+God the Infinite, and thinks of Him as the Indefinite, dissolving all
+distinctions in the abyss of bare indetermination. When Ewald says,
+"the true mystic never withdraws himself wilfully from the business
+of life, no, not even from the smallest business," he is, at any rate,
+saying nothing which conflicts with the principles of Mysticism.[18]
+
+The purgative life necessarily includes self-discipline: does it
+necessarily include what is commonly known as asceticism? It would be
+easy to answer that asceticism means nothing but _training_, as men
+train for a race, or more broadly still, that it means simply "the
+acquisition of some greater power by practice.[19]" But when people
+speak of "asceticism," they have in their minds such severe
+"buffeting" of the body as was practised by many ancient hermits and
+mediæval monks. Is this an integral part of the mystic's "upward
+path"? We shall find reason to conclude that, while a certain degree
+of austere simplicity characterises the outward life of nearly all the
+mystics, and while an almost morbid desire to suffer is found in many
+of them, there is nothing in the system itself to encourage men to
+maltreat their bodies. Mysticism enjoins a dying life, not a living
+death. Moreover, asceticism, when regarded as a virtue or duty in
+itself, tends to isolate us, and concentrates our attention on our
+separate individuality. This is contrary to the spirit of Mysticism,
+which aims at realising unity and solidarity everywhere. Monkish
+asceticism (so far as it goes beyond the struggle to live unstained
+under unnatural conditions) rests on a dualistic view of the world
+which does not belong to the essence of Mysticism. It infected all the
+religious life of the Middle Ages, not Mysticism only.[20]
+
+The second stage, the illuminative life, is the concentration of all
+the faculties, will, intellect, and feeling, upon God. It differs from
+the purgative life, not in having discarded good works, but in having
+come to perform them, as Fénelon says, "no longer as virtues," that is
+to say, willingly and almost spontaneously. The struggle is now
+transferred to the inner life.
+
+The last stage of the journey, in which the soul presses towards the
+mark, and gains the prize of its high calling, is the unitive or
+contemplative life, in which man beholds God face to face, and is
+joined to Him. Complete union with God is the ideal limit of religion,
+the attainment of which would be at once its consummation and
+annihilation. It is in the continual but unending approximation to it
+that the life of religion subsists.[21] We must therefore beware of
+regarding the union as anything more than an infinite process, though,
+as its end is part of the eternal counsel of God, there is a sense in
+which it is already a fact, and not merely a thing desired. But the
+word deification holds a very large place in the writings of the
+Fathers, and not only among those who have been called mystics. We
+find it in Irenæus as well as in Clement, in Athanasius as well as in
+Gregory of Nyssa. St. Augustine is no more afraid of "deificari" in
+Latin than Origen of [Greek: theopoieisthai] in Greek. The subject is
+one of primary importance to anyone who wishes to understand mystical
+theology; but it is difficult for us to enter into the minds of the
+ancients who used these expressions, both because [Greek: theos] was a
+very fluid concept in the early centuries, and because our notions of
+_personality_ are very different from those which were prevalent in
+antiquity. On this latter point I shall have more to say presently;
+but the evidence for the belief in "deification," and its continuance
+through the Middle Ages, is too voluminous to be given in the body of
+these Lectures.[22] Let it suffice to say here that though such bold
+phrases as "God became man, that we might become God," were
+commonplaces of doctrinal theology at least till after Augustine, even
+Clement and Origen protest strongly against the "very impious" heresy
+that man is "a part of God," or "consubstantial with God.[23]" The
+attribute of Divinity which was chiefly in the minds of the Greek
+Fathers when they made these statements, was that of _imperishableness_.
+
+As to the means by which this union is manifested to the
+consciousness, there is no doubt that very many mystics believed in,
+and looked for, ecstatic revelations, trances, or visions. This,
+again, is one of the crucial questions of Mysticism.
+
+Ecstasy or vision begins when thought ceases, _to our consciousness_,
+to proceed from ourselves. It differs from dreaming, because the
+subject is awake. It differs from hallucination, because there is no
+organic disturbance: it is, or claims to be, a temporary enhancement,
+not a partial disintegration, of the mental faculties. Lastly, it
+differs from poetical inspiration, because the imagination is passive.
+
+That perfectly sane people often experience such visions there is no
+manner of doubt. St. Paul fell into a trance at his conversion, and
+again at a later period, when he seemed to be caught up into the third
+heaven. The most sober and practical of the mediæval mystics speak of
+them as common phenomena. And in modern times two of the sanest of our
+poets have recorded their experiences in words which may be worth
+quoting.
+
+Wordsworth, in his well-known "Lines composed above Tintern Abbey,"
+speaks of--
+
+
+                "That serene and blessed mood,
+  In which ... the breath of this corporeal frame,
+  And even the motion of our human blood,
+  Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
+  In body, and become a living soul:
+  While with an eye made quiet by the power
+  Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
+  We see into the life of things."
+
+
+And Tennyson says,[24] "A kind of waking trance I have often had,
+quite from boyhood, when I have been all alone. This has generally
+come upon me through repeating my own name two or three times to
+myself silently, till all at once, out of the intensity of the
+consciousness of individuality, the individual itself seemed to
+dissolve and fade away into boundless being: and this not a confused
+state, but the clearest of the clearest, and the surest of the surest,
+the weirdest of the weirdest, utterly beyond words, where death was an
+almost laughable impossibility, the loss of personality (if so it
+were) seeming no extinction, but the only true life."
+
+Admitting, then, that these psychical phenomena actually occur, we
+have to consider whether ecstasy and kindred states are an integral
+part of Mysticism. In attempting to answer this question, we shall
+find it convenient to distinguish between the Neoplatonic vision of
+the super-essential One, the Absolute, which Plotinus enjoyed several
+times, and Porphyry only once, and the visions and "locutions" which
+are reported in all times and places, especially where people have not
+been trained in scientific habits of thought and observation. The
+former was held to be an exceedingly rare privilege, the culminating
+point of the contemplative life. I shall speak of it in my third
+Lecture; and shall there show that it belongs, not to the essence of
+Mysticism, and still less to Christianity, but to the Asiatic leaven
+which was mixed with Alexandrian thought, and thence passed into
+Catholicism. As regards visions in general, they were no invention of
+the mystics. They played a much more important part in the life of the
+early Church than many ecclesiastical historians are willing to admit.
+Tertullian, for instance, says calmly, "The majority, almost, of men
+learn God from visions.[25]" Such implicit reliance was placed on the
+Divine authority of visions, that on one occasion an ignorant peasant
+and a married man was made Patriarch of Alexandria against his will,
+because his dying predecessor had a vision that the man who should
+bring him a present of grapes on the next day should be his successor!
+In course of time visions became rarer among the laity, but continued
+frequent among the monks and clergy. And so the class which furnished
+most of the shining lights of Mysticism was that in which these
+experiences were most common.
+
+But we do not find that the masters of the spiritual life attached
+very much importance to them, or often appealed to them as aids to
+faith.[26] As a rule, visions were regarded as special rewards
+bestowed by the goodness of God on the struggling saint, and
+especially on the beginner, to refresh him and strengthen him in the
+hour of need. Very earnest cautions were issued that no efforts must
+be made to induce them artificially, and aspirants were exhorted
+neither to desire them, nor to feel pride in having seen them. The
+spiritual guides of the Middle Ages were well aware that such
+experiences often come of disordered nerves and weakened digestion;
+they believed also that they are sometimes delusions of Satan. Richard
+of St. Victor says, "As Christ attested His transfiguration by the
+presence of Moses and Elias, so visions should not be believed unless
+they have the authority of Scripture." Albertus Magnus tries to
+classify them, and says that those which contain a sensuous element
+are always dangerous. Eckhart is still more cautious, and Tauler
+attaches little value to them. Avila, the Spanish mystic, says that
+only those visions which minister to our spiritual necessities, and
+make us _more humble_, are genuine. Self-induced visions inflate us
+with pride, and do irreparable injury to health of mind and body.[27]
+
+It hardly falls within my task to attempt to determine what these
+visions really are. The subject is one upon which psychological and
+medical science may some day throw more light. But this much I must
+say, to make my own position clear: I regard these experiences as
+neither more nor less "supernatural" than other mental phenomena. Many
+of them are certainly pathological;[28] about others we may feel
+doubts; but some have every right to be considered as real
+irradiations of the soul from the light that "for ever shines," real
+notes of the harmony that "is in immortal souls." In illustration of
+this, we may appeal to three places in the Bible where revelations of
+the profoundest truths concerning the nature and counsels of God are
+recorded to have been made during ecstatic visions. Moses at Mount
+Horeb heard, during the vision of the burning bush, a proclamation of
+God as the "I am"--the Eternal who is exalted above time. Isaiah, in
+the words "Holy, Holy, Holy," perceived dimly the mystery of the
+Trinity. And St. Peter, in the vision of the sheet, learned that God
+is no respecter of persons or of nationalities. In such cases the
+highest intuitions or revelations, which the soul can in its best
+moments just receive, but cannot yet grasp or account for, make a
+language for themselves, as it were, and claim the sanction of
+external authority, until the mind is elevated so far as to feel the
+authority not less Divine, but no longer external. We may find fairly
+close analogies in other forms of that "Divine madness," which Plato
+says is "the source of the chiefest blessings granted to men"--such as
+the rapture of the poet, or (as Plato adds) of the lover.[29] And
+even the philosopher or man of science may be surprised into some such
+state by a sudden realisation of the sublimity of his subject. So at
+least Lacordaire believed when he wrote, "All at once, as if by
+chance, the hair stands up, the breath is caught, the skin contracts,
+and a cold sword pierces to the very soul. It is the sublime which has
+manifested itself![30]" Even in cases where there is evident
+hallucination, e.g. when the visionary sees an angel or devil sitting
+on his book, or feels an arrow thrust into his heart, there need be no
+insanity. In periods when it is commonly believed that such things may
+and do happen, the imagination, instead of being corrected by
+experience, is misled by it. Those who honestly expect to see miracles
+will generally see them, without detriment either to their
+truthfulness or sanity in other matters.
+
+The mystic, then, is not, as such, a visionary; nor has he any interest
+in appealing to a faculty "above reason," if reason is used in its
+proper sense, as the logic of the whole personality. The desire to find
+for our highest intuitions an authority wholly external to reason and
+independent of it,--a "purely supernatural" revelation,--has, as
+Récéjac says, "been the cause of the longest and the most dangerous of
+the aberrations from which Mysticism has suffered." This kind of
+supernaturalism is destructive of _unity_ in our ideas of God, the
+world, and ourselves; and it casts a slur on the faculties which are the
+appointed organs of communication between God and man. A revelation
+absolutely transcending reason is an absurdity: no such revelation could
+ever be made. In the striking phrase of Macarius, "the human mind is the
+throne of the Godhead." The supremacy of the reason is the favourite
+theme of the Cambridge Platonists, two of whom, Whichcote and Culverwel,
+are never tired of quoting the text, "The spirit of man is the candle of
+the Lord." "Sir, I oppose not rational to spiritual," writes Whichcote
+to Tuckney, "for spiritual is most rational." And again, "Reason is the
+Divine governor of man's life: it is the very voice of God.[31]" What we
+can and must transcend, if we would make any progress in Divine
+knowledge, is not reason, but that shallow rationalism which regards the
+data on which we can reason as a fixed quantity, known to all, and which
+bases itself on a formal logic, utterly unsuited to a spiritual view of
+things. Language can only furnish us with poor, misleading, and wholly
+inadequate images of spiritual facts; it supplies us with abstractions
+and metaphors, which do not really represent what we know or believe
+about God and human personality. St. Paul calls attention to this
+inadequacy by a series of formal contradictions: "I live, yet not I";
+"dying, and behold we live"; "when I am weak, then I am strong," and so
+forth; and we find exactly the same expedient in Plotinus, who is very
+fond of thus showing his contempt for the logic of identity. When,
+therefore, Harnack says that "Mysticism is nothing else than rationalism
+applied to a sphere above reason," he would have done better to say that
+it is "reason applied to a sphere above rationalism.[32]"
+
+For Reason is still "king.[33]" Religion must not be a matter of
+_feeling_ only. St. John's command to "try every spirit" condemns all
+attempts to make emotion or inspiration independent of reason. Those
+who thus blindly follow the inner light find it no "candle of the
+Lord," but an _ignis fatuus_; and the great mystics are well aware of
+this. The fact is that the tendency to separate and half personify the
+different faculties--intellect, will, feeling--is a mischievous one.
+Our object should be so to _unify_ our personality, that our eye may
+be single, and our whole body full of light.
+
+We have considered briefly the three stages of the mystic's upward
+path. The scheme of life therein set forth was no doubt determined
+empirically, and there is nothing to prevent the simplest and most
+unlettered saint from framing his conduct on these principles. Many of
+the mediæval mystics had no taste for speculation or philosophy;[34]
+they accepted on authority the entire body of Church dogma, and
+devoted their whole attention to the perfecting of the spiritual life
+in the knowledge and love of God. But this cannot be said of the
+leaders. Christian Mysticism appears in history largely as an
+intellectual movement, the foster-child of Platonic idealism; and if
+ever, for a time, it forgot its early history, men were soon found to
+bring it back to "its old loving nurse the Platonic philosophy." It
+will be my task, in the third and fourth Lectures of this course, to
+show how speculative Christian Mysticism grew out of Neoplatonism; but
+we shall not be allowed to forget the Platonists even in the later
+Lectures. "The fire still burns on the altars of Plotinus," as
+Eunapius said.
+
+Mysticism is not itself a philosophy, any more than it is itself a
+religion. On its intellectual side it has been called "formless
+speculation.[35]" But until speculations or intuitions have entered
+into the forms of our thought, they are not current coin even for the
+thinker. The part played by Mysticism in philosophy is parallel to the
+part played by it in religion. As in religion it appears in revolt
+against dry formalism and cold rationalism, so in philosophy it takes
+the field against materialism and scepticism.[36] It is thus possible
+to speak of speculative Mysticism, and even to indicate certain
+idealistic lines of thought, which may without entire falsity be
+called the philosophy of Mysticism. In this introductory Lecture I
+can, of course, only hint at these in the barest and most summary
+manner. And it must be remembered that I have undertaken to-day to
+delineate the general characteristics of Mysticism, not of Christian
+Mysticism. I am trying, moreover, in this Lecture to confine myself to
+those developments which I consider normal and genuine, excluding the
+numerous aberrant types which we shall encounter in the course of our
+survey.
+
+The real world, according to thinkers of this school, is created by
+the thought and will of God, and exists in His mind. It is therefore
+spiritual, and above space and time, which are only the forms under
+which reality is set out as a process.
+
+When we try to represent to our minds the highest reality, the
+spiritual world, as distinguished from the world of appearance, we are
+obliged to form images; and we can hardly avoid choosing one of the
+following three images. We may regard the spiritual world as endless
+duration opposed to transitoriness, as infinite extension opposed to
+limitation in space, or as substance opposed to shadow. All these are,
+strictly speaking, symbols or metaphors,[37] for we cannot regard any
+of them as literally true statements about the nature of reality; but
+they are as near the truth as we can get in words. But when we think
+of time as a piece cut off from the beginning of eternity, so that
+eternity is only in the future and not in the present; when we think
+of heaven as a place somewhere else, and therefore not here; when we
+think of an upper ideal world which has sucked all the life out of
+this, so that we now walk in a vain shadow,--then we are paying the
+penalty for our symbolical representative methods of thought, and must
+go to philosophy to help us out of the doubts and difficulties in
+which our error has involved us. One test is infallible. Whatever view
+of reality deepens our sense of the tremendous issues of life in the
+world wherein we move, is _for us_ nearer the truth than any view
+which diminishes that sense. The truth is revealed to us that we may
+have _life_, and have it more abundantly.
+
+The world as it is, is the world as God sees it, not as we see it. Our
+vision is distorted, not so much by the limitations of finitude, as by
+sin and ignorance. The more we can raise ourselves in the scale of
+being, the more will our ideas about God and the world correspond to
+the reality. "Such as men themselves are, such will God Himself seem
+to them to be," says John Smith, the English Platonist. Origen, too,
+says that those whom Judas led to seize Jesus did not know who He was,
+for the darkness of their own souls was projected on His features.[38]
+And Dante, in a very beautiful passage, says that he felt that he was
+rising into a higher circle, because he saw Beatrice's face becoming
+more beautiful.[39]
+
+This view of reality, as a vista which is opened gradually to the
+eyes of the climber up the holy mount, is very near to the heart of
+Mysticism. It rests on the faith that the ideal not only ought to be,
+but _is_ the real. It has been applied by some, notably by that
+earnest but fantastic thinker, James Hinton, as offering a solution of
+the problem of evil. We shall encounter attempts to deal with this
+great difficulty in several of the Christian mystics. The problem
+among the speculative writers was how to reconcile the Absolute of
+philosophy, who is above all distinctions,[40] with the God of
+religion, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. They could not
+allow that evil has a substantial existence apart from God, for fear
+of being entangled in an insoluble Dualism. But if evil is derived
+from God, how can God be good? We shall find that the prevailing view
+was that "Evil has no substance." "There is nothing," says Gregory of
+Nyssa, "which falls outside of the Divine nature, except moral evil
+alone. And this, we may say paradoxically, has its being in not-being.
+For the genesis of moral evil is simply the privation of being.[41]
+That which, properly speaking, exists, is the nature of the good." The
+Divine nature, in other words, is that which excludes nothing, and
+contradicts nothing, except those attributes which are contrary to the
+nature of reality; it is that which harmonises everything except
+discord, which loves everything except hatred, verifies everything
+except falsehood, and beautifies everything except ugliness. Thus that
+which falls outside the notion of God, proves on examination to be
+not merely unreal, but unreality as such. But the relation of evil to
+the Absolute is not a religious problem. To our experience, evil
+exists as a positive force not subject to the law of God, though
+constantly overruled and made an instrument of good. On this subject
+we must say more later. Here I need only add that a sunny confidence
+in the ultimate triumph of good shines from the writings of most of
+the mystics, especially, I think, in our own countrymen. The Cambridge
+Platonists are all optimistic; and in the beautiful but little known
+_Revelations_ of Juliana of Norwich, we find in page after page the
+refrain of "All shall be well." "Sin is behovable,[42] but all shall
+be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."
+
+Since the universe is the thought and will of God expressed under the
+forms of time and space, everything in it reflects the nature of its
+Creator, though in different degrees. Erigena says finely, "Every
+visible and invisible creature is a theophany or appearance of God."
+The purest mirror in the world is the highest of created things--the
+human soul unclouded by sin. And this brings us to a point at which
+Mysticism falls asunder into two classes.
+
+The question which divides them is this--In the higher stages of the
+spiritual life, shall we learn most of the nature of God by close,
+sympathetic, reverent observation of the world around us, including
+our fellow-men, or by sinking into the depths of our inner
+consciousness, and aspiring after direct and constant communion with
+God? Each method may claim the support of weighty names. The former,
+which will form the subject of my seventh and eighth Lectures, is very
+happily described by Charles Kingsley in an early letter.[43] "The
+great Mysticism," he says, "is the belief which is becoming every day
+stronger with me, that all symmetrical natural objects ... are types
+of some spiritual truth or existence.... Everything seems to be full
+of God's reflex if we could but see it.... Oh, to see, if but for a
+moment, the whole harmony of the great system! to hear once the music
+which the whole universe makes as it performs His bidding! When I feel
+that sense of the mystery that is around me, I feel a gush of
+enthusiasm towards God, which seems its inseparable effect."
+
+On the other side stand the majority of the earlier mystics. Believing
+that God is "closer to us than breathing, and nearer than hands and
+feet," they are impatient of any intermediaries. "We need not search
+for His footprints in Nature, when we can behold His face in
+ourselves,[44]" is their answer to St. Augustine's fine expression
+that all things bright and beautiful in the world are "footprints of
+the uncreated Wisdom.[45]" Coleridge has expressed their feeling in
+his "Ode to Dejection"--
+
+
+        "It were a vain endeavour,
+         Though I should gaze for ever
+      On that green light that lingers in the West;
+      I may not hope from outward forms to win
+  The passion and the life whose fountains are within."
+
+
+"Grace works from within outwards," says Ruysbroek, "for God is nearer
+to us than our own faculties. Hence it cannot come from images and
+sensible forms." "If thou wishest to search out the deep things of
+God," says Richard of St. Victor, "search out the depths of thine own
+spirit."
+
+The truth is that there are two movements,--a _systole_ and _diastole_
+of the spiritual life,--an expansion and a concentration. The tendency
+has generally been to emphasise one at the expense of the other; but
+they must work together, for each is helpless without the other. As
+Shakespeare says[46]--
+
+
+              "Nor doth the eye itself,
+  That most pure spirit of sense, behold itself,
+  Not going from itself, but eye to eye opposed,
+  Salutes each other with each other's form:
+  For speculation turns not to itself
+  Till it hath travelled, and is mirrored there,
+  Where it may see itself."
+
+
+Nature is dumb, and our own hearts are dumb, until they are allowed to
+speak to each other. Then both will speak to us of God.
+
+Speculative Mysticism has occupied itself largely with these two great
+subjects--the immanence of God in nature, and the relation of human
+personality to Divine. A few words must be said, before I conclude, on
+both these matters.
+
+The Unity of all existence is a fundamental doctrine of Mysticism. God
+is in all, and all is in God. "His centre is everywhere, and His
+circumference nowhere," as St. Bonaventura puts it. It is often argued
+that this doctrine leads direct to Pantheism, and that speculative
+Mysticism is always and necessarily pantheistic. This is, of course,
+a question of primary importance. It is in the hope of dealing with it
+adequately that I have selected three writers who have been frequently
+called pantheists, for discussion in these Lectures. I mean Dionysius
+the Areopagite, Scotus Erigena, and Eckhart. But it would be
+impossible even to indicate my line of argument in the few minutes
+left me this morning.
+
+The mystics are much inclined to adopt, in a modified form, the old
+notion of an _anima mundi_. When Erigena says, "Be well assured that
+the Word--the second Person of the Trinity--is the Nature of all
+things," he means that the Logos is a cosmic principle, the
+Personality of which the universe is the external expression or
+appearance.[47]
+
+We are not now concerned with cosmological speculations, but the
+bearing of this theory on human personality is obvious. If the Son of
+God is regarded as an all-embracing and all-pervading cosmic
+principle, the "mystic union" of the believer with Christ becomes
+something much closer than an ethical harmony of two mutually
+exclusive wills. The question which exercises the mystics is not
+whether such a thing as fusion of personalities is possible, but
+whether, when the soul has attained union with its Lord, it is any
+longer conscious of a life distinct from that of the Word. We shall
+find that some of the best mystics went astray on this point. They
+teach a real _substitution_ of the Divine for human nature, thus
+depersonalising man, and running into great danger of a perilous
+arrogance. The mistake is a fatal one even from the speculative side,
+for it is only on the analogy of human personality that we can
+conceive of the perfect personality of God; and without personality
+the universe falls to pieces. Personality is not only the strictest
+unity of which we have any experience; it is the fact which creates
+the postulate of unity on which all philosophy is based.
+
+But it is possible to save personality without regarding the human
+spirit as a monad, independent and sharply separated from other
+spirits. Distinction, not separation, is the mark of personality; but
+it is separation, not distinction, that forbids union. The error,
+according to the mystic's psychology, is in regarding consciousness of
+self as the measure of personality. The depths of personality are
+unfathomable, as Heraclitus already knew;[48] the light of
+consciousness only plays on the surface of the waters. Jean Paul
+Richter is a true exponent of this characteristic doctrine when he
+says, "We attribute far too small dimensions to the rich empire of
+ourself, if we omit from it the unconscious region which resembles a
+great dark continent. The world which our memory peoples only
+reveals, in its revolution, a few luminous points at a time, while its
+immense and teeming mass remains in shade.... We daily see the
+conscious passing into unconsciousness; and take no notice of the bass
+accompaniment which our fingers continue to play, while our attention
+is directed to fresh musical effects.[49]" So far is it from being
+true that the self of our immediate consciousness is our true
+personality, that we can only attain personality, as spiritual and
+rational beings, by passing beyond the limits which mark us off as
+separate individuals. Separate individuality, we may say, is the bar
+which prevents us from realising our true privileges as persons.[50]
+And so the mystic interprets very literally that maxim of our Lord, in
+which many have found the fundamental secret of Christianity: "He that
+will save his life--his soul, his personality--shall lose it; and he
+that will lose his life for My sake shall find it." The false self
+must die--nay, must "die daily," for the process is gradual, and there
+is no limit to it. It is a process of infinite _expansion_--of
+realising new correspondences, new sympathies and affinities with the
+not-ourselves, which affinities condition, and in conditioning
+constitute, our true life as persons. The paradox is offensive only
+to formal logic. As a matter of experience, no one, I imagine, would
+maintain that the man who has practically realised, to the fullest
+possible extent, the common life which he draws from his Creator, and
+shares with all other created beings,--so realised it, I mean, as to
+draw from that consciousness all the influences which can play upon
+him from outside,--has thereby dissipated and lost his personality,
+and become less of a person than another who has built a wall round
+his individuality, and lived, as Plato says, the life of a
+shell-fish.[51]
+
+We may arrive at the same conclusion by analysing that unconditioned
+sense of duty which we call _conscience_. This moral sense cannot be a
+fixed code implanted in our consciousness, for then we could not
+explain either the variations of moral opinion, or the feeling of
+_obligation_ (as distinguished from necessity) which impels us to obey
+it. It cannot be the product of the existing moral code of society,
+for then we could not explain either the genesis of that public
+opinion or the persistent revolt against its limitations which we
+find in the greatest minds. The only hypothesis which explains the
+facts is that in conscience we feel the motions of the universal
+Reason which strives to convert the human organism into an organ of
+itself, a belief which is expressed in religious language by saying
+that it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do of His good
+pleasure.
+
+If it be further asked, Which is our personality, the shifting _moi_
+(as Fénelon calls it), or the ideal self, the end or the developing
+states? we must answer that it is both and neither, and that the root
+of mystical religion is in the conviction that it is at once both and
+neither.[52] The _moi_ strives to realise its end, but the end being
+an infinite one, no process can reach it. Those who have "counted
+themselves to have apprehended" have thereby left the mystical faith;
+and those who from the notion of a _progressus ad infinitum_ come to
+the pessimistic conclusion, are equally false to the mystical creed,
+which teaches us that we are already potentially what God intends us
+to become. The command, "Be ye perfect," is, like all Divine commands,
+at the same time a promise.
+
+It is stating the same paradox in another form to say that we can only
+achieve inner _unity_ by transcending mere individuality. The
+independent, impervious self shows its unreality by being inwardly
+discordant. It is of no use to enlarge the circumference of our life,
+if the fixed centre is always the _ego_. There are, if I may press the
+metaphor, other circles with other centres, in which we are vitally
+involved. And thus sympathy, or love, which is sympathy in its
+highest power, is the great _atoner_, within as well as without. The
+old Pythagorean maxim, that "a man must be _one_,[53]" is echoed by
+all the mystics. He must be one as God is one, and the world is one;
+for man is a microcosm, a living mirror of the universe. Here, once
+more, we have a characteristic mystical doctrine, which is perhaps
+worked out most fully in the "_Fons Vitæ_" of Avicebron (Ibn Gebirol),
+a work which had great influence in the Middle Ages. The doctrine
+justifies the use of _analogy_ in matters of religion, and is of great
+importance. One might almost dare to say that all conclusions about
+the world above us which are _not_ based on the analogy of our own
+mental experiences, are either false or meaningless.
+
+The idea of man as a microcosm was developed in two ways. Plotinus
+said that "every man is double," meaning that one side of his soul is
+in contact with the intelligible, the other with the sensible world.
+He is careful to explain that the doctrine of Divine Immanence does
+not mean that God _divides_ Himself among the many individuals, but
+that they partake of Him according to their degrees of receptivity, so
+that each one is potentially in possession of all the fulness of God.
+Proclus tries to explain how this can be. "There are three sorts of
+_Wholes_--the first, anterior to the parts; the second, composed of
+the parts; the third, knitting into one stuff the parts and the
+whole.[54]" In this third sense the whole resides in the parts, as
+well as the parts in the whole. St. Augustine states the same doctrine
+in clearer language.[55] It will be seen at once how this doctrine
+encourages that class of Mysticism which bids us "sink into the depths
+of our own souls" in order to find God.
+
+The other development of the theory that man is a microcosm is not
+less important and interesting. It is a favourite doctrine of the
+mystics that man, in his individual life, recapitulates the spiritual
+history of the race, in much the same way in which embryologists tell
+us that the unborn infant recapitulates the whole process of physical
+evolution. It follows that the Incarnation, the central fact of human
+history, must have its analogue in the experience of the individual.
+We shall find that this doctrine of the birth of an infant Christ in
+the soul is one of immense importance in the systems of Eckhart,
+Tauler, and our Cambridge Platonists. It is a somewhat perilous
+doctrine, as we shall see; but it is one which, I venture to think,
+has a future as well as a past, for the progress of modern science has
+greatly strengthened the analogies on which it rests. I shall show in
+my next Lecture how strongly St. Paul felt its value.
+
+This brief introduction will, I hope, have indicated the main
+characteristics of mystical theology and religion. It is a type which
+is as repulsive to some minds as it is attractive to others.
+Coleridge has said that everyone is born a Platonist or an
+Aristotelian, and one might perhaps adapt the epigram by saying that
+everyone is naturally either a mystic or a legalist. The
+classification does, indeed, seem to correspond to a deep difference
+in human characters; it is doubtful whether a man could be found
+anywhere whom one could trust to hold the scales evenly between--let
+us say--Fénelon and Bossuet. The cleavage is much the same as that
+which causes the eternal strife between tradition and illumination,
+between priest and prophet, which has produced the deepest tragedies
+in human history, and will probably continue to do so while the world
+lasts. The legalist--with his conception of God as the righteous Judge
+dispensing rewards and punishments, the "Great Taskmaster" in whose
+vineyard we are ordered to labour; of the Gospel as "the new law," and
+of the sanction of duty as a "categorical imperative"--will never find
+it easy to sympathise with those whose favourite words are St. John's
+triad--light, life, and love, and who find these the most suitable
+names to express what they know of the nature of God. But those to
+whom the Fourth Gospel is the brightest jewel in the Bible, and who
+can enter into the real spirit of St. Paul's teaching, will, I hope,
+be able to take some interest in the historical development of ideas
+which in their Christian form are certainly built upon those parts of
+the New Testament.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 2: See Appendix A for definitions of Mysticism and Mystical
+Theology.]
+
+[Footnote 3: See Appendix B for a discussion of the influence of the
+Greek mysteries upon Christian Mysticism.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Tholuck accepts the former derivation (cf. Suidas,
+[Greek: mystêria eklêthêsan para to tous akouontas myein to stoma
+kai mêdeni tauta exêgeisthai]); Petersen, the latter. There is no
+doubt that [Greek: myêsis] was opposed to [Greek: epopteia], and in
+this sense denoted _incomplete_ initiation; but it was also made to
+include the whole process. The prevailing use of the adjective [Greek:
+mystikos] is of something seen "through a glass darkly," some
+knowledge purposely wrapped up in symbols.]
+
+[Footnote 5: So Hesychius says, [Greek: Mystai, apo myô, myontes gar
+tas aisthêseis kai exô tôn sarkikôn phrontidôn genomenoi, outô tas
+theias analampseis edechonto.] Plotinus and Proclus both use [Greek:
+myô] of the "closed eye" of rapt contemplation.]
+
+[Footnote 6: I cannot agree with Lasson (in his book on Meister
+Eckhart) that "the connexion with the Greek mysteries throws no light
+on the subject." No writer had more influence upon the growth of
+Mysticism in the Church than Dionysius the Areopagite, whose main
+object is to present Christianity in the light of a Platonic
+mysteriosophy. The same purpose is evident in Clement, and in other
+Christian Platonists between Clement and Dionysius. See Appendix B.]
+
+[Footnote 7: It should also be borne in mind that every historical
+example of a mystical movement may be expected to exhibit
+characteristics which are determined by the particular forms of
+religious deadness in opposition to which it arises. I think that it
+is generally easy to separate these secondary, accidental
+characteristics from those which are primary and integral, and that we
+shall then find that the underlying substance, which may be regarded
+as the essence of Mysticism as a type of religion, is strikingly
+uniform.]
+
+[Footnote 8: The analogy used by Plotinus (_Ennead_ i. 6. 9) was often
+quoted and imitated: "Even as the eye could not behold the sun unless
+it were itself sunlike, so neither could the soul behold God if it
+were not Godlike." Lotze (_Microcosmus_, and cf. _Metaphysics_, 1st
+ed., p. 109) falls foul of Plotinus for this argument. "The reality of
+the external world is utterly severed from our senses. It is vain to
+call the eye sunlike, as if it needed a special occult power to copy
+what it has itself produced: fruitless are all mystic efforts to
+restore to the intuitions of sense, by means of a secret identity of
+mind with things, a reality outside ourselves." Whether the subjective
+idealism of this sentence is consistent with the subsequent dogmatic
+assertion that "nature is animated throughout," it is not my province
+to determine. The latter doctrine is held by a large school of
+mystics: the acosmistic tendency of the former has had only too much
+attraction for mystics of another school.]
+
+[Footnote 9: This distinction is drawn by Origen, and accepted by all
+the mystical writers.]
+
+[Footnote 10: Faith goes so closely hand in hand with love that the
+mystics seldom try to separate them, and indeed they need not be
+separated. William Law's account of their operation is characteristic.
+"When the seed of the new birth, called the inward man, has faith
+awakened in it, its faith is not a notion, but a real strong essential
+hunger, an attracting or magnetic desire of Christ, which as it
+proceeds from a seed of the Divine nature in us, so it attracts and
+unites with its like: it lays hold on Christ, puts on the Divine
+nature, and in a living and real manner grows powerful over all our
+sins, and effectually works out our salvation" (_Grounds and Reasons
+of Christian Regeneration_).]
+
+[Footnote 11: R.L. Nettleship, _Remains_.]
+
+[Footnote 12: "Nescio si a quoquam homine quartus (gradus) in hac vita
+perfecte apprehenditur, ut se scilicet diligat homo tantum propter
+Deum. Asserant hoc si qui experti sunt: mihi (fateor) impossibile
+videtur" (_De diligendo Deo_, xv.; _Epist_. xi. 8).]
+
+[Footnote 13: From a sermon by Smith, the Cambridge Platonist.
+Plotinus, too, says well, [Greek: ei tis allo eidos êdonês peri ton
+spoudaion bion zêtei, ou ton spoudaion bion zêtei] (_Ennead_ i. 4.
+12).]
+
+[Footnote 14: From Smith's sermons.]
+
+[Footnote 15: Pindar's [Greek: genoio oios essi mathôn] is a fine
+mystical maxim. (_Pyth._ 2. 131.)]
+
+[Footnote 16: Strictly, the unitive road (_via_) leads to the
+contemplative life (_vita_). Cf. Benedict, xiv., _De Servorum Dei
+beatific_., iii. 26, "Perfecta hæc mystica unio reperitur regulariter
+in perfecto contemplativo qui in vita purgativa et illuminativa, id
+est meditativa, et contemplativa diu versatus, ex speciali Dei favore
+ad infusam contemplativam evectus est." On the three ways, Suarez
+says, "Distinguere solent mystici tres vias, purgativam,
+illuminativam, et unitivam." Molinos was quite a heterodox mystic in
+teaching that there is but a "unica via, scilicet interna," and this
+proposition was condemned by a Bull of Innocent XI.]
+
+[Footnote 17: In Plotinus the civic virtues _precede_ the cathartic;
+but they are not, as with some perverse mystics, considered to lie
+_outside_ the path of ascent.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Tauler is careful to put social service on its true
+basis. "One can spin," he says, "another can make shoes; and all these
+are gifts of the Holy Ghost. I tell you, if I were not a priest, I
+should esteem it a great gift that I was able to make shoes, and would
+try to make them so well as to be a pattern to all." In a later
+Lecture I shall revert to the charge of indolent neglect of duties, so
+often preferred against the mystics.]
+
+[Footnote 19: R.L. Nettleship, _Remains_.]
+
+[Footnote 20: In a Roman Catholic manual I find: "Non raro sub nomine
+theologiæ mysticæ intelligitur etiam ascesis, sed immerito. Nam
+ascesis consuetas tantum et tritas perfectionis semitas ostendit,
+mystica autem adhuc excellentiorem viam demonstrat." This is to
+identify "mystical theology" with the higher rungs of the ladder. It
+has been used in this curious manner from the Middle Ages. Ribet says,
+"La mystique, comme science spéciale, fait partie de la théologie
+ascétique"; that part, namely, "dans lequel l'homme est réduit à la
+passivité par l'action souveraine de Dieu." "L'ascèse" is defined as
+"l'ascension de l'âme vers Dieu."]
+
+[Footnote 21: Cf. Professor W. Wallace's collected _Lectures and
+Essays_, p. 276.]
+
+[Footnote 22: See Appendix C on the Doctrine of Deification.]
+
+[Footnote 23: So Fénelon, after asserting the truth of mystical
+"transformation," adds: "It is false to say that transformation is a
+deification of the real and natural soul, or a hypostatic union, or an
+unalterable conformity with God."]
+
+[Footnote 24: _Life of Tennyson_, vol. i. p. 320. The curious
+experience, that the repetition of his own name induced a kind of
+trance, is used by the poet in his beautiful mystical poem, "The
+Ancient Sage." It would, indeed, have been equally easy to illustrate
+this topic from Wordsworth's prose and Tennyson's poetry.]
+
+[Footnote 25: See the very interesting note in Harnack, _History of
+Dogma_, vol. i. p. 53.]
+
+[Footnote 26: The Abbé Migne says truly, "Ceux qui traitent les
+mystiques de visionnaires seraient fort étonnés de voir quel peu de
+cas ils font des visions en elles-mémes." And St. Bonaventura says of
+visions, "Nec faciunt sanctum nec ostendunt: alioquin Balaam sanctus
+esset, _et asina_, quæ vidit Angelum."]
+
+[Footnote 27: The following passage from St. Francis de Sales is much
+to the same effect as those referred to in the text: "Les philosophes
+mesmes ont recogneu certaines espèces d'extases naturelles faictes par
+la véhémente application de l'esprit à la considération des choses
+relevées. Une marque de la bonne et sainete extase est qu'elle ne se
+prend ny attache jamais tant à l'entendement qu'à la volonté, laquelle
+elle esmeut, eschauffe, et remplit d'une puissante affection envers
+Dieu; de manière que si l'extase est plus belle que bonne, plus
+lumineuse qu'affective, elle est grandement douteuse et digne de
+soupçon."]
+
+[Footnote 28: Some of my readers may find satisfaction in the
+following passage of Jeremy Taylor: "Indeed, when persons have long
+been softened with the continual droppings of religion, and their
+spirits made timorous and apt for impression by the assiduity of
+prayer, and the continual dyings of mortification--the fancy, which is
+a very great instrument of devotion, is kept continually warm, and in
+a disposition and aptitude to take fire, and to flame out in great
+ascents; and when they suffer transportations beyond the burdens and
+support of reason, they suffer they know not what, and call it what
+they please." Henry More, too, says that those who would "make their
+whole nature desolate of all animal figurations whatever," find only
+"a waste, silent solitude, and one uniform parchedness and vacuity.
+And yet, while a man fancies himself thus wholly Divine, he is not
+aware how he is even then held down by his animal nature; and that it
+is nothing but the stillness and fixedness of melancholy that thus
+abuses him, instead of the true Divine principle."]
+
+[Footnote 29: Plato, _Phædrus_, 244, 245; Ion, 534.]
+
+[Footnote 30: Lacordaire, _Conférences_, xxxvii.]
+
+[Footnote 31: Compare, too, the vigorous words of Henry More, the most
+mystical of the group: "He that misbelieves and lays aside clear and
+cautious reason in things that fall under the discussion of reason,
+upon the pretence of hankering after some higher principle (which, a
+thousand to one, proves but the infatuation of melancholy, and a
+superstitious hallucination), is as ridiculous as if he would not use
+his natural eyes about their proper object till the presence of some
+supernatural light, or till he had got a pair of spectacles made of
+the crystalline heaven, or of the _cælum empyreum_, to hang upon his
+nose for him to look through."]
+
+[Footnote 32: There is, of course, a sense in which any strong feeling
+lifts us "above reason." But this is using "reason" in a loose
+manner.]
+
+[Footnote 33: [Greek: ho nous basileus], says Plotinus.]
+
+[Footnote 34: Roman Catholic writers can assert that "la plupart des
+contemplatifs étaient dépourvus de toute culture littéraire." But
+their notion of "contemplation" is the passive reception of
+"supernatural favours,"--on which subject more will be said in
+Lectures IV. and VII.]
+
+[Footnote 35: "Die Mystik ist formlose Speculation," Noack,
+_Christliche Mystik_, p. 18.]
+
+[Footnote 36: The Atomists, from Epicurus downwards, have been
+especially odious to the mystics.]
+
+[Footnote 37: The theory that time is real, but not space, leads us
+into grave difficulties. It is the root of the least satisfactory kind
+of evolutionary optimism, which forgets, in the first place, that the
+idea of perpetual progress in time is hopelessly at variance with what
+we know of the destiny of the world; and, in the second place, that a
+mere _progressus_ is meaningless. Every created thing has its fixed
+goal in the realisation of the idea which was immanent in it from the
+first.]
+
+[Footnote 38: Origen in _Matth._, Com. Series, 100; _Contra Celsum_,
+ii. 64. Referred to by Bigg, _Christian Platonists of Alexandria_, p.
+191.]
+
+[Footnote 39: _Paradiso_ viii. 13--
+
+  "Io non m'accorsi del salire in ella;
+   Ma d'esserv' entro mi fece assai fede
+   La donna mia ch'io vidi far più bella." ]
+
+[Footnote 40: "Deo nihil opponitur," says Erigena.]
+
+[Footnote 41: Compare Bradley, _Appearance and Reality_, where it is
+shown that the essential attributes of Reality are _harmony_ and
+_inclusiveness_.]
+
+[Footnote 42: I.e. "necessary" or "expedient."]
+
+[Footnote 43: _Life_, vol. i. p. 55.]
+
+[Footnote 44: J. Smith, _Select Discourses_, v. So Bernard says (_De
+Consid._ v. I), "quid opus est scalis tenenti iam solium?"]
+
+[Footnote 45: Aug. _De Libero Arbitrio_, ii. 16, 17.]
+
+[Footnote 46: _Troilus and Cressida_, Act III. Scene 3.]
+
+[Footnote 47: This idea of the world as a living being is found in
+Plotinus: and Origen definitely teaches that "as our body, while
+consisting of many members, is yet an organism which is held together
+by one soul, so the universe is to be thought of as an immense living
+being which is upheld by the power and the Word of God." He also holds
+that the sun and stars are spiritual beings. St. Augustine, too (_De
+Civitate Dei_, iv. 12, vii. 5), regards the universe as a living
+organism; and the doctrine reappears much later in Giordano Bruno.
+According to this theory, we are subsidiary members of an
+all-embracing organism, and there may be intermediate will-centres
+between our own and that of the universal Ego. Among modern systems,
+that of Fechner is the one which seems to be most in accordance with
+these speculations. He views life under the figure of a number of
+concentric circles of consciousness, within an all-embracing circle
+which represents the consciousness of God.]
+
+[Footnote 48: [Greek: psuchês peirata ouk an exeuroio pasan
+epiporeuomenos hodon outô bathyn logon echei], Frag. 71.]
+
+[Footnote 49: J.P. Richter, _Selina_. Compare, too, Lotze,
+_Microcosmus_: "Within us lurks a world whose form we imperfectly
+apprehend, and whose working, when in particular phases it comes under
+our notice, surprises us with foreshadowings of unknown depths in our
+being."]
+
+[Footnote 50: As Lotze says, "The finite being does not contain in
+itself the conditions of its own existence." It must struggle to
+attain to complete personality; or rather, since personality belongs
+unconditionally only to God, to such a measure of personality as is
+allotted to us. Eternal life is nothing than the attainment of full
+personality, a conscious existence in God.]
+
+[Footnote 51: J.A. Picton (_The Mystery of Matter_, p. 356) puts the
+matter well: "Mysticism consists in the spiritual realisation of a
+grander and a boundless unity, that humbles all self-assertion by
+dissolving it in a wider glory. It does not follow that the sense of
+individuality is necessarily weakened. But habitual contemplation of
+the Divine unity impresses men with the feeling that individuality is
+phenomenal only. Hence the paradox of Mysticism. For apart from this
+phenomenal individuality, we should not know our own nothingness, and
+personal life is good only through the bliss of being lost in God.
+[Rather, I should say, through the bliss of finding our true life,
+which is hid with Christ in God.] True religious worship doth not
+consist in the acknowledgment of a greatness which is estimated by
+comparison, but rather in the sense of a Being who surpasses all
+comparison, because He gives to phenomenal existences the only reality
+they can know. Hence the deepest religious feeling necessarily shrinks
+from thinking of God as a kind of gigantic Self amidst a host of minor
+selves. The very thought of such a thing is a mockery of the
+profoundest devotion."]
+
+[Footnote 52: See, further, Appendix C, pp. 366-7.]
+
+[Footnote 53: [Greek: hena genesthai ton anthrôpon dei]: Pythagoras
+quoted by Clement. Cf. Plotinus, _Enn._ vi. 9. I, [Greek: kai hugieia
+de, hotan eis hen syntachthê to sôma, kai kallos hotan hê tou henos ta
+moria kataschê physis, kai aretê de psychês hotan eis hen kai eis mian
+homologian henôthê].]
+
+[Footnote 54: Proclus, _in Tim._ 83. 265.]
+
+[Footnote 55: Aug. _Ep._ 187. 19: "Deus totus adesse rebus omnibus
+potest, _et singulis totus_, quamvis in quibus habitat habeant eum pro
+suæ capacitatis diversitate, alii amplius, alii minus." More clearly
+still, Bonaventura, _Itin. ment. ad Deum_, 5: "Totum intra omnia, et
+totum extra: ac per hoc est sphæra intelligibilis, cuius centrum est
+ubique, et circumferentia nusquam."]
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE II
+
+
+[Greek: "To eu zên edidaxen epiphaneis ôs didaskalos, hina to aei
+zên husteron ôs theos chorêgêsê."]
+
+CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.
+
+
+   "But souls that of His own good life partake
+    He loves as His own self: dear as His eye
+    They are to Him; He'll never them forsake:
+    When they shall die, then God Himself shall die:
+    They live, they live in blest eternity."
+
+HENRY MORE.
+
+
+   "Amor Patris Filiique,
+    Par amborum, et utrique
+      Compar et consimilis:
+    Cuncta reples, cuncta foves,
+    Astra regis, coelum moves,
+      Permanens immobilis.
+
+    "Te docente nil obscurum,
+    Te præsente nil impurum;
+      Sub tua præsentia
+    Gloriatur mens iucunda;
+    Per te læta, per te munda
+      Gaudet conscientia.
+
+    "Consolator et fundator,
+    Habitator et amator
+      Cordium humilium;
+    Pelle mala, terge sordes,
+    Et discordes fac concordes,
+      Et affer præsidium."
+
+ADAM OF ST. VICTOR
+
+
+
+THE MYSTICAL ELEMENT IN THE BIBLE
+
+"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; to the end that ye,
+being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all
+the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to
+know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled
+with all the fulness of God."--EPH. iii. 17-19.
+
+
+The task which now lies before me is to consider how far that type of
+religion and religious philosophy, which I tried in my last Lecture to
+depict in outline, is represented in and sanctioned by Holy Scripture.
+I shall devote most of my time to the New Testament, for we shall not
+find very much to help us in the Old. The Jewish mind and character,
+in spite of its deeply religious bent, was alien to Mysticism. In the
+first place, the religion of Israel, passing from what has been called
+Henotheism--the worship of a national God--to true Monotheism, always
+maintained a rigid notion of individuality, both human and Divine.
+Even prophecy, which is mystical in its essence, was in the early
+period conceived as unmystically as possible, Balaam is merely a
+mouthpiece of God; his message is external to his personality, which
+remains antagonistic to it. And, secondly, the Jewish doctrine of
+ideas was different from the Platonic. The Jew believed that the
+world, and the whole course of history, existed from all eternity in
+the mind of God, but as an unrealised purpose, which was actualised by
+degrees as the scroll of events was unfurled. There was no notion that
+the visible was in any way inferior to the invisible, or lacking in
+reality. Even in its later phases, after it had been partially
+Hellenised, Jewish idealism tended to crystallise as Chiliasm, or in
+"Apocalypses," and not, like Platonism, in the dream of a perfect
+world existing "yonder." In fact, the Jewish view of the external
+world was mainly that of naïve realism, but strongly pervaded by
+belief in an Almighty King and Judge. Moreover, the Jew had little
+sense of the Divine _in_ nature: it was the power of God _over_ nature
+which he was jealous to maintain. The majesty of the elemental forces
+was extolled in order to magnify the greater power of Him who made and
+could unmake them, and whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain. The
+weakness and insignificance of man, as contrasted with the tremendous
+power of God, is the reflection which the contemplation of nature
+generally produced in his mind. "How can a man be just with God?" asks
+Job; "which removeth the mountains, and they know it not; when He
+overturneth them in His anger; which shaketh the earth out of her
+place, and the pillars thereof tremble; which commandeth the sun, and
+it riseth not, and sealeth up the stars.... He is not a man, as I am,
+that I should answer Him, that we should come together in judgment.
+There is no daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both."
+Nor does the answer that came to Job out of the whirlwind give any
+hint of a "daysman" betwixt man and God, but only enlarges on the
+presumption of man's wishing to understand the counsels of the
+Almighty. Absolute submission to a law which is entirely outside of us
+and beyond our comprehension, is the final lesson of the book.[56] The
+nation exhibited the merits and defects of this type. On the one hand,
+it showed a deep sense of the supremacy of the moral law, and of
+personal responsibility; a stubborn independence and faith in its
+mission; and a strong national spirit, combined with vigorous
+individuality; but with these virtues went a tendency to externalise
+both religion and the ideal of well-being: the former became a matter
+of forms and ceremonies; the latter, of worldly possessions. It was
+only after the collapse of the national polity that these ideals
+became transmuted and spiritualised. Those disasters, which at first
+seemed to indicate a hopeless estrangement between God and His people,
+were the means of a deeper reconciliation. We can trace the process,
+from the old proverb that "to see God is death," down to that
+remarkable passage in Jeremiah where the approaching advent, or rather
+restoration, of spiritual religion, is announced with all the
+solemnity due to so glorious a message. "Behold, the days come, saith
+the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel,
+and with the house of Judah.... After those days, saith the Lord, I
+will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts;
+and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall
+teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother,
+saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of
+them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.[57]" That this
+knowledge of God, and the assurance of blessedness which it brings, is
+the reward of righteousness and purity, is the chief message of the
+great prophets and psalmists. "Who among us shall dwell with the
+devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He
+that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth
+the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of
+bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his
+eyes from seeing evil, he shall dwell on high; his place of defence
+shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given unto him; his
+waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty;
+they shall behold the land that is very far off.[58]"
+
+This passage of Isaiah bears a very close resemblance to the 15th and
+24th Psalms; and there are many other psalms which have been dear to
+Christian mystics. In some of them we find the "_amoris
+desiderium_"--the thirst of the soul for God--which is the
+characteristic note of mystical devotion; in others, that longing for
+a safe refuge from the provoking of all men and the strife of tongues,
+which drove so many saints into the cloister. Many a solitary ascetic
+has prayed in the words of the 73rd Psalm: "Whom have I in heaven but
+Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh
+and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my
+portion for ever." And verses like, "I will hearken what the Lord God
+will say concerning me," have been only too attractive to quietists.
+Other familiar verses will occur to most of us. I will only add that
+the warm faith and love which inspired these psalms is made more
+precious by the reverence for _law_ which is part of the older
+inheritance of the Israelites.
+
+There are many, I fear, to whom "the mystical element in the Old
+Testament" will suggest only the Cabbalistic lore of types and
+allegories which has been applied to all the canonical books, and with
+especial persistency and boldness to the Song of Solomon. I shall give
+my opinion upon this class of allegorism in the seventh Lecture of
+this course, which will deal with symbolism as a branch of Mysticism.
+It would be impossible to treat of it here without anticipating my
+discussion of a principle which has a much wider bearing than as a
+method of biblical exegesis. As to the Song of Solomon, its influence
+upon Christian Mysticism has been simply deplorable. A graceful
+romance in honour of true love was distorted into a precedent and
+sanction for giving way to hysterical emotions, in which sexual
+imagery was freely used to symbolise the relation between the soul and
+its Lord. Such aberrations are as alien to sane Mysticism as they are
+to sane exegesis.[59]
+
+In Jewish writings of a later period, composed under Greek influence,
+we find plenty of Platonism ready to pass into Mysticism. But the
+Wisdom of Solomon does not fall within our subject, and what is
+necessary to be said about Philo and Alexandria will be said in the
+next Lecture. In the New Testament, it will be convenient to say a
+very few words on the Synoptic Gospels first, and afterwards to
+consider St. John and St. Paul, where we shall find most of our
+material.
+
+The first three Gospels are not written in the religious dialect of
+Mysticism. It is all the more important to notice that the fundamental
+doctrines on which the system (if we may call it a system) rests, are
+all found in them. The vision of God is promised in the Sermon on the
+Mount, and promised only to those who are pure in heart. The
+indwelling presence of Christ, or of the Holy Spirit, is taught in
+several places; for instance--"The kingdom of God is within you";
+"Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in
+the midst of them"; "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the
+world." The unity of Christ and His members is implied by the words,
+"Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these My brethren,
+ye have done it unto Me." Lastly, the great law of the moral
+world,--the law of gain through loss, of life through death,--which is
+the corner-stone of mystical (and, many have said, of Christian)
+ethics, is found in the Synoptists as well as in St. John. "Whosoever
+shall seek to gain his life (or soul) shall lose it; but whosoever
+shall lose his life (or soul) shall preserve it."
+
+The Gospel of St. John--the "spiritual Gospel," as Clement already
+calls it--is the charter of Christian Mysticism. Indeed, Christian
+Mysticism, as I understand it, might almost be called Johannine
+Christianity; if it were not better to say that a Johannine
+Christianity is the ideal which the Christian mystic sets before
+himself. For we cannot but feel that there are deeper truths in this
+wonderful Gospel than have yet become part of the religious
+consciousness of mankind. Perhaps, as Origen says, no one can fully
+understand it who has not, like its author, lain upon the breast of
+Jesus. We are on holy ground when we are dealing with St. John's
+Gospel, and must step in fear and reverence. But though the breadth
+and depth and height of those sublime discourses are for those only
+who can mount up with wings as eagles to the summits of the spiritual
+life, so simple is the language and so large its scope, that even the
+wayfaring men, though fools, can hardly altogether err therein.
+
+Let us consider briefly, first, what we learn from this Gospel about
+the nature of God, and then its teaching upon human salvation.
+
+There are three notable expressions about God the Father in the Gospel
+and First Epistle of St. John: "God is Love"; "God is Light"; and "God
+is Spirit." The form of the sentences teaches us that these three
+qualities belong so intimately to the nature of God that they usher us
+into His immediate presence. We need not try to get behind them, or to
+rise above them into some more nebulous region in our search for the
+Absolute. Love, Light, and Spirit are for us names of God Himself. And
+observe that St. John does not, in applying these semi-abstract words
+to God, attenuate in the slightest degree His personality. God _is_
+Love, but He also exercises love. "God so loved the world." And He is
+not only the "white radiance" that "for ever shines"; He can "draw" us
+to Himself, and "send" His Son to bring us back to Him.
+
+The word "Logos" does not occur in any of the discourses. The
+identification of Christ with the "Word" or "Reason" of the
+philosophers is St. John's own. But the statements in the prologue are
+all confirmed by our Lord's own words as reported by the evangelist.
+These fall under two heads, those which deal with the relation of
+Christ to the Father, and those which deal with His relation to the
+world. The pre-existence of Christ in glory at the right hand of God
+is proved by several declarations: "What if ye shall see the Son of
+Man ascending where He was before?" "And now, O Father, glorify Me
+with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the
+world was." His exaltation above time is shown by the solemn
+statement, "Before Abraham was, I am." And with regard to the world,
+we find in St. John the very important doctrine, which has never made
+its way into popular theology, that the Word is not merely the
+Instrument in the original creation,--"by (or through) Him all things
+were made,"--but the central Life, the Being in whom life existed and
+exists as an indestructible attribute, an underived prerogative,[60]
+the Mind or Wisdom who upholds and animates the universe without being
+lost in it. This doctrine, which is implied in other parts of St.
+John, seems to be stated explicitly in the prologue, though the words
+have been otherwise interpreted. "That which has come into existence,"
+says St. John, "was in Him life" ([Greek: ho gegonen, en autô zôê
+ên.]) That is to say, the Word is the timeless Life, of which the
+temporal world is a manifestation. This doctrine was taught by many of
+the Greek Fathers, as well as by Scotus Erigena and other speculative
+mystics. Even if, with the school of Antioch and most of the later
+commentators, we transfer the words [Greek: ho gegonen] to the
+preceding sentence, the doctrine that Christ is the life as well as
+the light of the world can be proved from St. John.[61] The world is
+the poem of the Word to the glory of the Father: in it, and by means
+of it, He displays in time all the riches which God has eternally put
+within Him.
+
+In St. John, as in mystical theology generally, the Incarnation,
+rather than the Cross, is the central fact of Christianity. "The Word
+was made flesh, and tabernacled among us," is for him the supreme
+dogma. And it follows necessarily from the Logos doctrine, that the
+Incarnation, and all that followed it, is regarded primarily as a
+_revelation_ of life and light and truth. "That eternal life, which
+was with the Father, has been _manifested_ unto us," is part of the
+opening sentence of the first Epistle.[62] "This is the message which
+we have heard of Him and announce unto you, that God is Light, and in
+Him is no darkness at all." In coming into the world, Christ "came
+unto His own." He had, in a sense, only to show to them what was there
+already: Esaias, long before, had "seen His glory, and spoken of Him."
+The mysterious estrangement, which had laid the world under the
+dominion of the Prince of darkness, had obscured but not quenched the
+light which lighteth _every_ man--the inalienable prerogative of all
+who derive their being from the Sun of Righteousness. This central
+Light is Christ, and Christ only. He alone is the Way, the Truth, the
+Life, the Door, the Living Bread, and the True Vine. He is at once the
+Revealer and the Revealed, the Guide and the Way, the Enlightener and
+the Light. No man cometh unto the Father but by Him.
+
+The teaching of this Gospel on the office of the Holy Spirit claims
+special attention in our present inquiry. The revelation of God in
+Christ was complete: there can be no question that St. John claims for
+Christianity the position of the one eternally true revelation. But
+without the gradual illumination of the Spirit it is partly
+unintelligible and partly unobserved.[63] The purpose of the
+Incarnation was to reveal God _the Father_: "He that hath seen Me hath
+seen the Father." In these momentous words (it has been said) "the
+idea of God receives an abiding embodiment, and the Father is brought
+for ever within the reach of intelligent devotion.[64]" The purpose of
+the mission of the Comforter is to reveal _the Son_. He takes the
+place of the ascended Christ on earth as a living and active principle
+in the hearts of Christians. His office it is to bring to remembrance
+the teachings of Christ, and to help mankind gradually to understand
+them. There were also many things, our Lord said, which could not be
+said at the time to His disciples, who were unable to bear them. These
+were left to be communicated to future generations by the Holy Spirit.
+The doctrine of development had never before received so clear an
+expression; and few could venture to record it so clearly as St. John,
+who could not be suspected of contemplating a time when the teachings
+of the human Christ might be superseded.
+
+Let us now turn to the human side of salvation, and trace the upward
+path of the Christian life as presented to us in this Gospel. First,
+then, we have the doctrine of the new birth: "Except a man be born
+anew (or, from above), he cannot see the kingdom of God." This is
+further explained as a being born "of water and of the Spirit"--words
+which are probably meant to remind us of the birth of the world-order
+out of chaos as described in Genesis, and also to suggest the two
+ideas of purification and life. (Baptism, as a symbol of purification,
+was, of course, already familiar to those who first heard the words.)
+Then we have a doctrine of _faith_ which is deeper than that of the
+Synoptists. The very expression [Greek: pisteuein eis], "to believe
+_on_," common in St. John and rare elsewhere, shows that the word is
+taking a new meaning. Faith, in St. John, is no longer regarded
+chiefly as a condition of supernatural favours; or, rather, the
+mountains which it can remove are no material obstructions. It is an
+act of the whole personality, a self-dedication to Christ. It must
+precede knowledge: "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know
+of the teaching," is the promise. It is the "_credo ut intelligam_" of
+later theology. The objection has been raised that St. John's teaching
+about faith moves in a vicious circle. His appeal is to the inward
+witness; and those who cannot hear this inward witness are informed
+that they must first believe, which is just what they can find no
+reason for doing. But this criticism misses altogether the drift of
+St. John's teaching. Faith, for him, is not the acceptance of a
+proposition upon evidence; still less is it the acceptance of a
+proposition in the teeth of evidence. It is, in the first instance,
+the resolution "to stand or fall by the noblest hypothesis"; that is
+(may we not say?), to follow Christ wherever He may lead us. Faith
+begins with an experiment, and ends with an experience.[65] "He that
+believeth in Him hath the witness in himself"; that is the
+verification which follows the venture. That even the power to make
+the experiment is given from above; and that the experience is not
+merely subjective, but an universal law which has had its supreme
+vindication in history,--these are two facts which we learn
+afterwards. The converse process, which begins with a critical
+examination of documents, cannot establish what we really want to
+know, however strong the evidence may be. In this sense, and in this
+only, are Tennyson's words true, that "nothing worthy proving can be
+proven, nor yet disproven."
+
+Faith, thus defined, is hardly distinguishable from that mixture of
+admiration, hope, and love by which Wordsworth says that we live. Love
+especially is intimately connected with faith. And as the Christian
+life is to be considered as, above all things, a state of union with
+Christ, and of His members with one another, love of the brethren is
+inseparable from love of God. So intimate is this union, that hatred
+towards any human being cannot exist in the same heart as love to God.
+The mystical union is indeed rather a bond between Christ and the
+Church, and between man and man as members of Christ, than between
+Christ and individual souls. Our Lord's prayer is "that they all may
+be one, even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also
+may be one in us." The personal relation between the soul and Christ
+is not to be denied; but it can only be enjoyed when the person has
+"come to himself" as a member of a body. This involves an inward
+transit from the false isolated self to the larger life of sympathy
+and love which alone makes us persons. Those who are thus living
+according to their true nature are rewarded with an intense
+unshakeable conviction which makes them independent of external
+evidences. Like the blind man who was healed, they can say, "One thing
+I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." The words "we know" are
+repeated again and again in the first Epistle, with an emphasis which
+leaves no room for doubt that the evangelist was willing to throw the
+main weight of his belief on this inner assurance, and to attribute it
+without hesitation to the promised presence of the Comforter. We must
+observe, however, that this knowledge or illumination is
+_progressive_. This is proved by the passages already quoted about the
+work of the Holy Spirit. It is also implied by the words, "This is
+life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus
+Christ whom Thou hast sent." Eternal life is not [Greek: gnôsis],
+knowledge as a possession, but the state of acquiring knowledge
+([Greek: hina gignôskôsin]). It is significant, I think, that St. John,
+who is so fond of the verb "to know," never uses the substantive
+[Greek: gnôsis].
+
+The state of progressive unification, in which we receive "grace upon
+grace," as we learn more and more of the "fulness" of Christ, is
+called by the evangelist, in the verse just quoted and elsewhere,
+_eternal life_. This life is generally spoken of as a present
+possession rather than a future hope. "He that believeth on the Son
+_hath_ everlasting life"; "he _is passed_ from death unto life"; "we
+_are_ in Him that is true, even Jesus Christ. This _is_ the true God,
+and eternal life." The evangelist is constantly trying to transport us
+into that timeless region in which one day is as a thousand years, and
+a thousand years as one day.
+
+St. John's Mysticism is thus patent to all; it is stamped upon his
+very style, and pervades all his teaching. Commentators who are in
+sympathy with this mode of thought have, as we might expect, made the
+most of this element in the Fourth Gospel. Indeed, some of them, I
+cannot but think, have interpreted it so completely in the terms of
+their own idealism, that they have disregarded or explained away the
+very important qualifications which distinguish the Johannine theology
+from some later mystical systems. Fichte, for example, claims St. John
+as a supporter of his system of subjective idealism (if that is a
+correct description of it), and is driven to some curious bits of
+exegesis in his attempt to justify this claim. And Reuss (to give one
+example of his method) says that St. John cannot have used "the last
+day" in the ordinary sense, "because mystical theology has nothing to
+do with such a notion.[66]" He means, I suppose, that the mystic, who
+likes to speak of heaven as a state, and of eternal life as a present
+possession, has no business to talk about future judgment. I cannot
+help thinking that this is a very grave mistake. There is no doubt
+that those who believe space and time to be only forms of our thought,
+must regard the traditional eschatology as symbolical. We are not
+concerned to maintain that there will be, literally, a great assize,
+holden at a date and place which could be announced if we knew it. If
+that is all that Reuss means, perhaps he is right in saying that
+"mystical theology has nothing to do with such a notion." But if he
+means that such expressions as those referred to in St. John, about
+eternal life as something here and now, imply that judgment is now,
+_and therefore not in the future_, he is attributing to the
+evangelist, and to the whole array of religious thinkers who have used
+similar expressions, a view which is easy enough to understand, but
+which is destitute of any value, for it entirely fails to satisfy the
+religious consciousness. The feeling of the contrast between what
+ought to be and what is, is one of the deepest springs of faith in the
+unseen. It can only be ignored by shutting our eyes to half the facts
+of life. It is easy to say with Browning, "God's in His heaven: all's
+right with the world," or with Emerson, that justice is not deferred,
+and that everyone gets exactly his deserts in this life; but it would
+require a robust confidence or a hard heart to maintain these
+propositions while standing among the ruins of an Armenian village, or
+by the deathbed of innocence betrayed. There is no doubt a sense in
+which it may be said that the ideal is the actual; but only when we
+have risen in thought to a region above the antitheses of past,
+present, and future, where "_is_" denotes, not the moment which passes
+as we speak, but the everlasting Now in the mind of God. This is not a
+region in which human thought can live; and the symbolical eschatology
+of religion supplies us with forms in which it is possible to think.
+The basis of the belief in future judgment is that deep conviction of
+the rationality of the world-order, or, in religious language, of the
+wisdom and justice of God, which we cannot and will not surrender. It
+is authenticated by an instinctive assurance which is strongest in
+the strongest minds, and which has nothing to do with any desire for
+spurious "consolations";[67] it is a conviction, not merely a hope,
+and we have every reason to believe that it is part of the Divine
+element in our nature. This conviction, like other mystical
+intuitions, is formless: the forms or symbols under which we represent
+it are the best that we can get. They are, as Plato says, "a raft" on
+which we may navigate strange seas of thought far out of our depth. We
+may use them freely, as if they were literally true, only remembering
+their symbolical character when they bring us into conflict with
+natural science, or when they tempt us to regard the world of
+experience as something undivine or unreal.
+
+It is important to insist on this point, because the extreme
+difficulty (or rather impossibility) of determining the true relations
+of becoming and being, of time and eternity, is constantly tempting us
+to adopt some facile solution which really destroys one of the two
+terms. The danger which besets us if we follow the line of thought
+natural to speculative Mysticism, is that we may think we have solved
+the problem in one of two ways, neither of which is a solution at all.
+Either we may sublimate our notion of spirit to such an extent that
+our idealism becomes merely a sentimental way of looking at the
+actual; or, by paring down the other term in the relation, we may fall
+into that spurious idealism which reduces this world to a vain shadow
+having no relation to reality. We shall come across a good deal of
+"acosmistic" philosophy in our survey of Christian Platonism; and the
+sentimental rationalist is with us in the nineteenth century; but
+neither of the two has any right to appeal to St. John. Fond as he is
+of the present tense, he will not allow us to blot from the page
+either "unborn to-morrow or dead yesterday." We have seen that he
+records the use by our Lord of the traditional language about future
+judgment. What is even more important, he asserts in the strongest
+possible manner, at the outset both of his Gospel and Epistle, the
+necessity of remembering that the Christian revelation was conveyed by
+certain historical events. "The Word was made flesh, and tabernacled
+among us, and we have seen His glory." "That which was from the
+beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our
+eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word
+of Life ... that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you."
+And again in striking words he lays it down as the test whereby we may
+distinguish the spirit of truth from Antichrist or the spirit of
+error, that the latter "confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in
+the flesh." The later history of Mysticism shows that this warning was
+very much needed. The tendency of the mystic is to regard the Gospel
+history as only one striking manifestation of an universal law. He
+believes that every Christian who is in the way of salvation
+recapitulates "the whole process of Christ" (as William Law calls
+it)--that he has his miraculous birth, inward death, and
+resurrection; and so the Gospel history becomes for the Gnostic (as
+Clement calls the Christian philosopher) little more than a
+dramatisation of the normal psychological experience.[68] "Christ
+crucified is teaching for babes," says Origen, with startling
+audacity; and heretical mystics have often fancied that they can rise
+above the Son to the Father. The Gospel and Epistle of St. John stand
+like a rock against this fatal error, and in this feature some German
+critics have rightly discerned their supreme value to mystical
+theology.[69] "In all life," says Grau, "there is not an abstract
+unity, but an unity in plurality, an outward and inward, a bodily and
+spiritual; and life, like love, unites what science and philosophy
+separate." This co-operation of the sensible and spiritual, of the
+material and ideal, of the historical and eternal, is maintained
+throughout by St. John. "His view is mystical," says Grau, "because
+all life is mystical." It is true that the historical facts hold, for
+St. John, a subordinate place as _evidences_. His main _proof_ is, as
+I have said, experimental. But a spiritual revelation of God without
+its physical counterpart, an Incarnation, is for him an impossibility,
+and a Christianity which has cut itself adrift from the Galilean
+ministry is in his eyes an imposture. In no other writer, I think, do
+we find so firm a grasp of the "psychophysical" view of life which we
+all feel to be the true one, if only we could put it in an
+intelligible form.[70]
+
+There is another feature in St. John's Gospel which shows his affinity
+to Mysticism, though of a different kind from that which we have been
+considering. I mean his fondness for using visible things and events
+as symbols. This objective kind of Mysticism will form the subject of
+my last two Lectures, and I will here only anticipate so far as to say
+that the belief which underlies it is that "everything, in being what
+it is, is symbolic of something more." The Fourth Gospel is steeped in
+symbolism of this kind. The eight miracles which St. John selects are
+obviously chosen for their symbolic value; indeed, he seems to regard
+them mainly as acted parables. His favourite word for miracles is
+[Greek: sêmeia], "signs" or "symbols." It is true that he also calls
+them "works," but this is not to distinguish them as supernatural. All
+Christ's actions are "works," as parts of His one "work." As evidences
+of His Divinity, such "works" are inferior to His "words," being
+symbolic and external. Only those who cannot believe on the evidence
+of the words and their echo in the heart, may strengthen their weak
+faith by the miracles. But "blessed are they who have not seen, and
+yet have believed." And besides these "signs," we have, in place of
+the Synoptic parables, a wealth of allegories, in which Christ is
+symbolised as the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Door of
+the Sheep, the good Shepherd, the Way, and the true Vine. Wind and
+water are also made to play their part. Moreover, there is much
+unobtrusive symbolism in descriptive phrases, as when he says that
+Nicodemus came by night, that Judas went out into the night, and that
+blood and water flowed from our Lord's side; and the washing of the
+disciples' feet was a symbolic act which the disciples were to
+understand hereafter. Thus all things in the world may remind us of
+Him who made them, and who is their sustaining life.
+
+In treating of St. John, it was necessary to protest against the
+tendency of some commentators to interpret him simply as a speculative
+mystic of the Alexandrian type. But when we turn to St. Paul, we find
+reason to think that this side of his theology has been very much
+underestimated, and that the distinctive features of Mysticism are
+even more marked in him than in St. John. This is not surprising, for
+our blessed Lord's discourses, in which nearly all the doctrinal
+teaching of St. John is contained, are for all Christians; they rise
+above the oppositions which must always divide human thought and human
+thinkers. In St. Paul, large-minded as he was, and inspired as we
+believe him to be, we may be allowed to see an example of that
+particular type which we are considering.
+
+St. Paul states in the clearest manner that Christ _appeared_ to him,
+and that this revelation was the foundation of his Christianity and
+apostolic commission. "Neither did I receive the Gospel from man,[71]"
+he says, "nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of
+Jesus Christ." It appears that he did not at first[72] think it
+necessary to "confer with flesh and blood"--to collect evidence about
+our Lord's ministry, His death and resurrection; he had "seen" and
+felt Him, and that was enough. "It was the good pleasure of God to
+reveal His Son in me,[73]" he says simply, using the favourite
+mystical phraseology. The study of "evidences," in the usual sense of
+the term in apologetics, he rejects with distrust and contempt.[74]
+External revelation cannot make a man religious. It can put nothing
+new into him. If there is nothing answering to it in his mind, it will
+profit him nothing. Nor can philosophy make a man religious. "Man's
+wisdom," "the wisdom of the world," is of no avail to find spiritual
+truth. "God chose the foolish things of the world, to put to shame
+them that are wise." "The word of the Cross is, to them that are
+perishing, foolishness." By this language he, of course, does not mean
+that Christianity is irrational, and therefore to be believed on
+authority. That would be to lay its foundation upon external
+evidences, and nothing could be further from the whole bent of his
+teaching. What he does mean, and say very clearly, is that the carnal
+mind is disqualified from understanding Divine truths; "it cannot know
+them, because they are spiritually discerned." He who has not raised
+himself above "the world," that is, the interests and ideals of human
+society as it organises itself apart from God, and above "the flesh,"
+that is, the things which seem desirable to the "average sensual man,"
+does not possess in himself that element which can be assimilated by
+Divine grace. The "mystery" of the wisdom of God is necessarily hidden
+from him. St. Paul uses the word "mystery" in very much the same sense
+which St. Chrysostom[75] gives to it in the following careful
+definition: "A mystery is that which is everywhere proclaimed, but
+which is not understood by those who have not right judgment. It is
+revealed, not by cleverness, but by the Holy Ghost, as we are able to
+receive it. And so we may call a mystery a secret ([Greek:
+aporrêton]), for even to the faithful it is not committed in all its
+fulness and clearness." In St. Paul the word is nearly always found in
+connexion with words denoting revelation or publication[76]. The
+preacher of the Gospel is a hierophant, but the Christian mysteries
+are freely communicated to all who can receive them. For many ages
+these truths were "hid in God,[77]" but now all men may be
+"illuminated,[78]" if they will fulfil the necessary conditions of
+initiation. These are to "cleanse ourselves from all defilement of
+flesh and spirit,[79]" and to have love, without which all else will
+be unavailing. But there are degrees of initiation. "We speak wisdom
+among the perfect," he says (the [Greek: teleioi] are the fully
+initiated); but the carnal must still be fed with milk. Growth in
+knowledge, growth in grace, and growth in love, are so frequently
+mentioned together, that we must understand the apostle to mean that
+they are almost inseparable. But this knowledge, grace, and love is
+itself the work of the indwelling God, who is thus in a sense the
+organ as well as the object of the spiritual life. "The Spirit
+searcheth all things," he says, "yea, the deep things of God." The man
+who has the Spirit dwelling in him "has the mind of Christ." "He that
+is spiritual judgeth all things," and is himself "judged of no man."
+It is, we must admit frankly, a dangerous claim, and one which may
+easily be subversive of all discipline. "Where the Spirit of the Lord
+is, there is liberty"; but such liberty may become a cloak of
+maliciousness. The fact is that St. Paul had himself trusted in "the
+Law," and it had led him into grievous error. As usually happens in
+such cases, his recoil from it was almost violent. He exalts the inner
+light into an absolute criterion of right and wrong, that no corner of
+the moral life may remain in bondage to Pharisaism. The crucifixion of
+the Lord Jesus and the stoning of Stephen were a crushing condemnation
+of legal and ceremonial righteousness; the law written in the heart of
+man, or rather spoken there by the living voice of the Holy Spirit,
+could never so mislead men as to make them think that they were doing
+God service by condemning and killing the just. Such memories might
+well lead St. Paul to use language capable of giving encouragement
+even to fanatical Anabaptists. But it is significant that the boldest
+claims on behalf of liberty all occur in the _earlier_ Epistles.
+
+The subject of St. Paul's visions and revelations is one of great
+difficulty. In the Acts we have full accounts of the appearance in the
+sky which caused, or immediately preceded, his conversion. It is quite
+clear that St. Paul himself regarded this as an appearance of the same
+kind as the other Christophanies granted to apostles and "brethren,"
+and of a different kind from such visions as might be seen by any
+Christian. It was an unique favour, conferring upon him the apostolic
+prerogatives of an eye-witness. Other passages in the Acts show that
+during his missionary journeys St. Paul saw visions and heard voices,
+and that he believed himself to be guided by the "Spirit of Jesus."
+Lastly, in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians he records that "more
+than fourteen years ago" he was in an ecstasy, in which he was "caught
+up into the third heaven," and saw things unutterable. The form in
+which this experience is narrated suggests a recollection of
+Rabbinical pseudo-science; the substance of the vision St. Paul will
+not reveal, nor will he claim its authority for any of his
+teaching.[80] These recorded experiences are of great psychological
+interest; but, as I said in my last Lecture, they do not seem to me
+to belong to the essence of Mysticism.
+
+Another mystical idea, which is never absent from the mind of St.
+Paul, is that the individual Christian must live through, and
+experience personally, the redemptive process of Christ. The life,
+death, and resurrection of Christ were for him the revelation of a
+law, the law of redemption through suffering. The victory over sin and
+death was won _for_ us; but it must also be won _in_ us. The process
+is an universal law, not a mere event in the past.[81] It has been
+exemplified in history, which is a progressive unfurling or revelation
+of a great mystery, the meaning of which is now at last made plain in
+Christ.[82] And it must also appear in each human life. "We were
+buried with Him," says St. Paul to the Romans,[83] "through baptism
+into death," "that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the
+glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life." And
+again,[84] "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead
+dwell in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall
+quicken also your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in
+you." And, "If ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things
+that are above.[85]"
+
+The law of redemption, which St. Paul considers to have been
+triumphantly summed up by the death and resurrection of Christ,[86]
+would hardly be proved to be an universal law if the Pauline Christ
+were only the "heavenly man," as some critics have asserted. St.
+Paul's teaching about the Person of Christ was really almost identical
+with the Logos doctrine as we find it in St. John's prologue, and as
+it was developed by the mystical philosophy of a later period. Not
+only is His pre-existence "in the form of God" clearly taught,[87] but
+He is the agent in the creation of the universe, the vital principle
+upholding and pervading all that exists. "The Son," we read in the
+Epistle to the Colossians,[88] "is the image of the invisible God, the
+firstborn of all creation; for in Him were all things created, in the
+heavens and upon the earth; all things have been created through Him,
+and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things
+consist" (that is, "hold together," as the margin of the Revised
+Version explains it). "All things are summed up in Christ," he says to
+the Ephesians.[89] "Christ is _all_ and in all," we read again in the
+Colossians.[90] And in that bold and difficult passage of the 15th
+chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians he speaks of the
+"reign" of Christ as coextensive with the world's history. When time
+shall end, and all evil shall be subdued to good, Christ "will deliver
+up the kingdom to God, even the Father," "that God may be all in
+all.[91]" Very important, too, is the verse in which he says that the
+Israelites in the wilderness "drank of that spiritual rock which
+followed them, and that rock was Christ.[92]" It reminds us of
+Clement's language about the Son as the Light which broods over all
+history.
+
+The passage from the Colossians, which I quoted just now, contains
+another mystical idea besides that of Christ as the universal source
+and centre of life. He is, we are told, "the Image of the invisible
+God," and all created beings are, in their several capacities, images
+of Him. Man is essentially "the image and glory of God";[93] the
+"perfect man" is he who has come "to the measure of the stature of the
+fulness of Christ.[94]" This is our _nature_, in the Aristotelian
+sense of completed normal development; but to reach it we have to slay
+the false self, the old man, which is informed by an actively
+maleficent agency, "flesh" which is hostile to "spirit." This latter
+conception does not at present concern us; what we have to notice is
+the description of the upward path as an inner transit from the false
+isolation of the natural man into a state in which it is possible to
+say, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.[95]" In the Epistle
+to the Galatians he uses the favourite mystical phrase, "until Christ
+be formed in you";[96] and in the Second Epistle to the
+Corinthians[97] he employs a most beautiful expression in describing
+the process, reverting to the figure of the "mirror," dear to
+Mysticism, which he had already used in the First Epistle: "We all
+with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are
+transformed into the same image from glory to glory." Other passages,
+which refer primarily to the future state, are valuable as showing
+that St. Paul lends no countenance to that abstract idea of eternal
+life as freedom from all earthly conditions, which has misled so many
+mystics. Our hope, when the earthly house of our tabernacle is
+dissolved, is not that we may be unclothed, but that we may be
+_clothed upon_ with our heavenly habitation. The body of our
+humiliation is to be changed and glorified, according to the mighty
+working whereby God is able to subdue all things unto Himself. And
+therefore our whole spirit and soul _and body_ must be preserved
+blameless; for the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, not the
+prison-house of a soul which will one day escape out of its cage and
+fly away.
+
+St. Paul's conception of Christ as the Life as well as the Light of
+the world has two consequences besides those which have been already
+mentioned. In the first place, it is fatal to religious individualism.
+The close unity which joins us to Christ is not so much a unity of the
+individual soul with the heavenly Christ, as an organic unity of all
+men, or, since many refuse their privileges, of all Christians, with
+their Lord. "We, being many, are one body in Christ, and severally
+members one of another.[98]" There must be "no schism in the
+body,[99]" but each member must perform its allotted function. St.
+Augustine is thoroughly in agreement with St. Paul when he speaks of
+Christ and the Church as "unus Christus." Not that Christ is
+"divided," so that He cannot be fully present to any individual--that
+is an error which St. Paul, St. Augustine, and the later mystics all
+condemn; but as the individual cannot reach his real personality as an
+isolated unit, he cannot, as an isolated unit, attain to full
+communion with Christ.
+
+The second point is one which may seem to be of subordinate
+importance, but it will, I think, awaken more interest in the future
+than it has done in the past. In the 8th chapter of the Epistle to the
+Romans, St. Paul clearly teaches that the victory of Christ over sin
+and death is of import, not only to humanity, but to the whole of
+creation, which now groans and travails in pain together, but which
+shall one day be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the
+glorious liberty of the sons of God. This recognition of the
+spirituality of matter, and of the unity of all nature in Christ, is
+one which we ought to be thankful to find in the New Testament. It
+will be my pleasant task, in the last two Lectures of this course, to
+show how the later school of mystics prized it.
+
+The foregoing analysis of St. Paul's teaching has, I hope, justified
+the statement that all the essentials of Mysticism are to be found in
+his Epistles. But there are also two points in which his authority has
+been claimed for false and mischievous developments of Mysticism.
+These two points it will be well to consider before leaving the
+subject.
+
+The first is a contempt for the historical framework of Christianity.
+We have already seen how strongly St. John warns us against this
+perversion of spiritual religion. But those numerous sects and
+individual thinkers who have disregarded this warning, have often
+appealed to the authority of St. Paul, who in the Second Epistle to
+the Corinthians says, "Even though we have known Christ after the
+flesh, yet now we know Him so no more." Here, they say, is a distinct
+admission that the worship of the historical Christ, "the man Christ
+Jesus," is a stage to be passed through and then left behind. There is
+just this substratum of truth in a very mischievous error, that St.
+Paul _does_ tell us[100] that he _began_ to teach the Corinthians by
+giving them in the simplest possible form the story of "Jesus Christ
+and Him crucified." The "mysteries" of the faith, the "wisdom" which
+only the "perfect" can understand, were deferred till the converts had
+learned their first lessons. But if we look at the passage in
+question, which has shocked and perplexed many good Christians, we
+shall find that St. Paul is not drawing a contrast between the
+earthly and the heavenly Christ, bidding us worship the Second Person
+of the Trinity, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, and to cease
+to contemplate the Cross on Calvary. He is distinguishing rather
+between the sensuous presentation of the facts of Christ's life, and a
+deeper realisation of their import. It should be our aim to "know no
+man after the flesh"; that is to say, we should try to think of human
+beings as what they are, immortal spirits, sharers with us of a common
+life and a common hope, not as what they appear to our eyes. And the
+same principle applies to our thoughts about Christ. To know Christ
+after the flesh is to know Him, not as man, but as _a_ man. St. Paul
+in this verse condemns all religious materialism, whether it take the
+form of hysterical meditation upon the physical details of the
+passion, or of an over-curious interest in the manner of the
+resurrection. There is no trace whatever in St. Paul of any aspiration
+to rise above Christ to the contemplation of the Absolute--to treat
+Him as only a step in the ladder. This is an error of false Mysticism;
+the true mystic follows St. Paul in choosing as his ultimate goal the
+fulness of Christ, and not the emptiness of the undifferentiated
+Godhead.
+
+The second point in which St. Paul has been supposed to sanction an
+exaggerated form of Mysticism, is his extreme disparagement of
+external religion--of forms and ceremonies and holy days and the like.
+"One man hath faith to eat all things; but he that is weak eateth
+herbs.[101]" "One man esteemeth one day above another, another
+esteemeth every day alike." "He that eateth, eateth unto the Lord, and
+giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not,
+and giveth God thanks." "Why turn ye back to the weak and beggarly
+rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage again? Ye observe
+days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I
+have bestowed labour upon you in vain.[102]" "Why do ye subject
+yourselves to ordinances, handle not, nor taste, nor touch, after the
+precepts and doctrines of men?[103]" These are strongly-worded
+passages, and I have no wish to attenuate their significance. Any
+Christian priest who puts the observance of human ordinances--
+fast-days, for example--at all on the same level as such duties as
+charity, generosity, or purity, is teaching, not Christianity, but that
+debased Judaism against which St. Paul waged an unceasing polemic, and
+which is one of those dead religions which has to be killed again in
+almost every generation.[104] But we must not forget that these vigorous
+denunciations _do_ occur in a polemic against Judaism. They bear the
+stamp of the time at which they were written perhaps more than any other
+part of St. Paul's Epistles, except those thoughts which were connected
+with his belief in the approaching end of the world. St. Paul certainly
+did not intend his Christian converts to be anarchists in religious
+matters. There is evidence, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians,
+that his spiritual presentation of Christianity had already been made an
+excuse for disorderly licence. The usual symptoms of degenerate
+Mysticism had appeared at Corinth. There were men there who called
+themselves "spiritual persons[105]" or prophets, and showed an arrogant
+independence; there were others who wished to start sects of their own;
+others who carried antinomianism into the sphere of morals; others who
+prided themselves on various "spiritual gifts." As regards the last
+class, we are rather surprised at the half-sanction which the apostle
+gives to what reads like primitive Irvingism;[106] but he was evidently
+prepared to enforce discipline with a strong hand. Still, it may be
+fairly said that he trusts mainly to his personal ascendancy, and to his
+teaching about the organic unity of the Christian body, to preserve or
+restore due discipline and cohesion. There have been hardly any
+religious leaders, if we except George Fox, the founder of Quakerism,
+who have valued ceremonies so little. In this, again, he is a genuine
+mystic.
+
+Of the other books of the New Testament it is not necessary to say
+much. The Epistle to the Hebrews cannot be the work of St. Paul. It
+shows strong traces of Jewish Alexandrianism; indeed, the writer
+seems to have been well acquainted with the Book of Wisdom and with
+Philo. Alexandrian idealism is always ready to pass into speculative
+Mysticism, but the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews can hardly be
+called mystical in the sense in which St. Paul was a mystic. The most
+interesting side of his theology, from our present point of view, is
+the way in which he combines his view of religious ordinances as types
+and adumbrations of higher spiritual truths, with a comprehensive view
+of history as a progressive realisation of a Divine scheme. The
+keynote of the book is that mankind has been educated partly by
+ceremonial laws and partly by "promises." Systems of laws and
+ordinances, of which the Jewish Law is the chief example, have their
+place in history. They rightly claim obedience until the practical
+lessons which they can teach have been learned, and until the higher
+truths which they conceal under the protecting husk of symbolism can
+be apprehended without disguise. Then their task is done, and mankind
+is no longer bound by them. In the same way, the "promises" which were
+made under the old dispensation proved to be only symbols of deeper
+and more spiritual blessings, which in the moral childhood of humanity
+would not have appeared desirable; they were (not delusions, but)
+_illusions_, "God having prepared some better thing" to take their
+place. The doctrine is one of profound and far-reaching importance. In
+this Epistle it is certainly connected with the idealistic thought
+that all visible things are symbols, and that every truth apprehended
+by finite intelligences must be only the husk of a deeper truth. We
+may therefore claim the Epistle to the Hebrews as containing in
+outline a Christian philosophy of history, based upon a doctrine of
+symbols which has much in common with some later developments of
+Mysticism.
+
+In the Apocalypse, whoever the author may be, we find little or
+nothing of the characteristic Johannine Mysticism, and the influence
+of its vivid allegorical pictures has been less potent in this branch
+of theology than might perhaps have been expected.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 56: In referring thus to the Book of Job, I rest nothing on
+any theory as to its date. Whenever it was written, it illustrates
+that view of the relation of man to God with which Mysticism can never
+be content. But, of course, the antagonism between our personal claims
+and the laws of the universe must be done justice to before it can be
+surmounted.]
+
+[Footnote 57: Jer. xxxi. 31-34.]
+
+[Footnote 58: Isa. xxxiii. 14-17.]
+
+[Footnote 59: See Appendix D, on the devotional use of the Song of
+Solomon.]
+
+[Footnote 60: Leathes, _The Witness of St. John to Christ_, p. 244.]
+
+[Footnote 61: The punctuation now generally adopted was invented
+(probably) by the Antiochenes, who were afraid that the words "without
+Him was not anything made" might, if unqualified, be taken to include
+the Holy Spirit. Cyril of Alexandria comments on the older
+punctuation, but explains the verse wrongly. "The Word, as Life by
+nature, was in the things which have become, mingling Himself by
+participation in the things that are." Bp. Westcott objects to this,
+that "the one life is regarded as dispersed." Cyril, however, guards
+against this misconception ([Greek: ou kata merismon tina kai
+alloiôsin]). He says that created things share in "the one life as they
+are able." But some of his expressions are objectionable, as they seem
+to assume a material substratum, animated _ab extra_ by an infusion of
+the Logos. Augustine's commentary on the verse is based on the
+well-known passage of Plato's _Republic_ about the "ideal bed." "Arca
+in opere non est vita; arca in arte vita est. Sic Sapientia Dei, per
+quam facta sunt omnia, secundum artem continet omnia antequam fabricat
+omnia. Quæ fiunt ... foris corpora sunt, in arte vita sunt." Those who
+accept the common authorship of the Gospel and the Apocalypse will
+find a confirmation of the view that [Greek: ên] refers to ideal,
+extra-temporal existence, in Rev. iv. 11: "Thou hast created all
+things, and for Thy pleasure they _were_ ([Greek: êsan] is the true
+reading) and were created." There is also a very interesting passage
+in Eusebius (_Proep. Ev._ xi. 19): [Greek: kai outos ara ên ho logos
+kath' hon aei onta ta gignomena egeneto, hôsper Hêrakleitos an
+axiôseie.] This is so near to the words of St. John's prologue as to
+suggest that the apostle, writing at Ephesus, is here referring
+deliberately to the lofty doctrine of the great Ephesian idealist,
+whom Justin claims as a Christian before Christ, and whom Clement
+quotes several times with respect.]
+
+[Footnote 62: It will be seen that I assume that the first Epistle is
+the work of the evangelist.]
+
+[Footnote 63: Westcott on John xiv. 26.]
+
+[Footnote 64: Westcott.]
+
+[Footnote 65: Cf. _Theologia Germanica_, chap. 48: "He who would know
+before he believeth cometh never to true knowledge.... I speak of a
+certain truth which it is possible to know by experience, but which ye
+must believe in before ye know it by experience, else ye will never
+come to know it truly."]
+
+[Footnote 66: On the second coming of Christ, cf. John v. 25, xxi. 23;
+I John ii. 28, iii. 2. Scholten goes so far as to expunge v. 25 and
+28, 29 as spurious.]
+
+[Footnote 67: The allegation that the Christian persuades himself of a
+future life because it is the most comfortable belief to hold, seems
+to me utterly contemptible. Certain views about heaven and hell are no
+doubt traceable to shallow optimism; but the belief in immortality is
+in itself rather awful than consoling. Besides, what sane man would
+wish to be deceived in such a matter?]
+
+[Footnote 68: Henry More brings this charge against the Quakers. There
+are, he says, many good and wholesome things in their teaching, but
+they mingle with them a "slighting of the history of Christ, and
+making a mere allegory of it--tending to the utter overthrow of that
+warrantable, though more external frame of Christianity, which
+Scripture itself points out to us" (_Mastix, his letter to a Friend_,
+p. 306).]
+
+[Footnote 69: E.g. Strauss and Grau, quoted in Lilienfeld's _Thoughts
+on the Social Science of the Future_.]
+
+[Footnote 70: The intense moral dualism of St. John has been felt by
+many as a discordant note; and though it is not closely connected with
+his Mysticism, a few words should perhaps be added about it. It has
+been thought strange that the Logos, who is the life of all things
+that are, should have to invade His own kingdom to rescue it from its
+_de facto_ ruler, the Prince of darkness; and stranger yet, that the
+bulk of mankind should seemingly be "children of the devil," born of
+the flesh, and incapable of salvation. The difficulty exists, but it
+has been exaggerated. St. John does not touch either the metaphysical
+problem of the origin of evil, or predestination in the Calvinistic
+sense. The vivid contrasts of light and shade in his picture express
+his judgment on the tragic fate of the Jewish people, The Gospel is
+not a polemical treatise, but it bears traces of recent conflicts. St.
+John wishes to show that the rejection of Christ by the Jews was
+morally inevitable; that their blindness and their ruin followed
+naturally from their characters and principles. Looking back on the
+memories of a long life, he desires to trace the operation of uniform
+laws in dividing the wheat of humanity from the chaff. He is content
+to observe how [Greek: êthos anthrôpô daimôn], without speculating on
+the reason why characters differ. In offering these remarks, I am
+assuming, what seems to me quite certain, that St. John selected from
+our Lord's discourses those which suited his particular object, and
+that in the setting and arrangement he allowed himself a certain
+amount of liberty.]
+
+[Footnote 71: Gal. i. 12.]
+
+[Footnote 72: 1 Cor. xv. shows that he subsequently satisfied himself
+of the truth of the other Christophanies.]
+
+[Footnote 73: Gal, i. 15, 16.]
+
+[Footnote 74: 1 Cor. i. and ii.]
+
+[Footnote 75: Chrysostom _in_ I _Cor_., Hom. vii. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 76: See Lightfoot on Col. i. 26.]
+
+[Footnote 77: Eph. iii. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 78: 2 Tim. i. 10 ([Greek: phôtizein]); cf. Eph. i. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 79: 2 Cor. vii. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 80: In spite of this, he is attacked for this passage in the
+_Pseudo-Clementine Homilies_ (xvii. 19), where "Simon Magus" is asked,
+"Can anyone be made wise to teach through a vision?"]
+
+[Footnote 81: Compare a beautiful passage in R.L. Nettleship's
+_Remains_: "To live is to die into something more perfect.... God can
+only make His work to be truly _His_ work, by eternally dying,
+sacrificing what is dearest to Him."]
+
+[Footnote 82: Col. i. 26, ii. 2, iv. 3; Eph. iii. 2-9. I have allowed
+myself to quote from these Epistles because I am myself a believer in
+their genuineness. The Mysticism of St. Paul might be proved from the
+undisputed Epistles only, but we should then lose some of the most
+striking illustrations of it.]
+
+[Footnote 83: Rom. vi. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 84: Rom. viii. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 85: St. Paul's mystical language about death and
+resurrection has given rise to much controversy. On the one hand, we
+have writers like Matthew Arnold, who tell us that St. Paul
+unconsciously substitutes an ethical for a physical resurrection--an
+eternal life here and now for a future reward. On the other, we have
+writers like Kabisch (_Eschatologie des Paulus_), who argue that the
+apostle's whole conception was materialistic, his idea of a "spiritual
+body" being that of a body composed of very fine atoms (like those of
+Lucretius' "_anima_"), which inhabits the earthly body of the
+Christian like a kernel within its husk, and will one day (at the
+resurrection) slough off its muddy vesture of decay, and thenceforth
+exist in a form which can defy the ravages of time. Of the two views,
+Matthew Arnold's is much the truer, even though it should be proved
+that St. Paul sometimes pictures the "spiritual body" in the way
+described. But the key to the problem, in St. Paul as in St. John, is
+that pyscho-physical theory which demands that the laws of the
+spiritual world shall have their analogous manifestations in the world
+of phenomena. Death must, somehow or other, be conquered in the
+visible as well as in the invisible sphere. The law of life through
+death must be deemed to pervade every phase of existence. And as a
+mere prolongation of physical life under the same conditions is
+impossible, and, moreover, would not fulfil the law in question, we
+are bound to have recourse to some such symbol as "spiritual body." It
+will hardly be disputed that the Christian doctrine of the
+resurrection of the whole man has taken a far stronger hold of the
+religious consciousness of mankind than the Greek doctrine of the
+immortality of the soul, or that this doctrine is plainly taught by
+St. Paul. All attempts to turn his eschatology into a rationalistic
+(Arnold) or a materialistic (Kabisch) theory must therefore be
+decisively rejected.]
+
+[Footnote 86: Col. iii. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 87: Phil. ii. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 88: Col. i. 15-17.]
+
+[Footnote 89: Eph. i. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 90: Col. iii. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 91: 1 Cor. xv. 24-28.]
+
+[Footnote 92: 1 Cor. x. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 93: 1 Cor. xi. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 94: Eph. iv. 13.]
+
+[Footnote 95: Gal. ii. 20.]
+
+[Footnote 96: Gal. iv. 19.]
+
+[Footnote 97: 2 Cor. iii. 18.]
+
+[Footnote 98: Rom. xii. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 99: 1 Cor. xii. 25.]
+
+[Footnote 100: 1 Cor. ii. 1, 2.]
+
+[Footnote 101: Rom. xiv.]
+
+[Footnote 102: Gal. iv. 9-11.]
+
+[Footnote 103: Col. ii. 20-22.]
+
+[Footnote 104: I have been reminded that great tenderness is due to
+the "sancta simplicitas" of the "anicula Christiana," whose religion
+is generally of this type. I should agree, if the "anicula" were not
+always so ready with her faggot when a John Huss is to be burnt.]
+
+[Footnote 105: 1 Cor. xiv. 37.]
+
+[Footnote 106: There seem to have been two conceptions of the
+operations of the Spirit in St. Paul's time: (a) He comes fitfully,
+with visible signs, and puts men beside themselves; (b) He is an
+abiding presence, enlightening, guiding, and strengthening. St. Paul
+lays weight on the latter view, without repudiating the former. See H.
+Gunkel, _Die Wirkungen des H. Geistes nach der popul. Anschauung d.
+apostol. Zeit und d. Lehre der Paulus._]
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE III
+
+
+[Greek: "Dio dê dikaiôs monê pteroutai hê tou philosophou dianoia
+pros gar ekeinois aei esti mnêmê kata dunamin, pros oisper theos ôn
+theios esti. tois de dê toioutois anêr hupomnêmasin orthôs
+chrômenos, teleous aei teletas teloumenos, teleos ontôs monos
+gignetai."]
+
+PLATO, _Phædrus_, p. 249.
+
+
+  LICHT UND FARBE
+
+   "Wohne, du ewiglich Eines, dort bei dem ewiglich Einen!
+     Farbe, du wechselnde, komm' freundlich zum Menschen herab!"
+
+SCHILLER.
+
+
+   "Nel suo profondo vidi che s'interna,
+      Legato con amore in un volume,
+      Ciò che per l'universo si squaderna;
+    Sustanzia ed accidente, e lor costume,
+      Tutti conflati insieme par tal modo,
+      Che ciò ch'io dico è un semplice lume."
+
+DANTE, _Paradiso_, c. 33.
+
+
+
+CHRISTIAN PLATONISM AND SPECULATIVE MYSTICISM
+
+I. IN THE EAST
+
+"That was the true Light, which lighteth every man coming into the
+world."--JOHN i. 9.
+
+"He made darkness His hiding place, His pavilion round about Him;
+darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies."--Ps. xviii. 11.
+
+
+I have called this Lecture "Christian Platonism and Speculative
+Mysticism." Admirers of Plato are likely to protest that Plato himself
+can hardly be called a mystic, and that in any case there is very
+little resemblance between the philosophy of his dialogues and the
+semi-Oriental Mysticism of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. I do not
+dispute either of these statements; and yet I wish to keep the name of
+Plato in the title of this Lecture. The affinity between Christianity
+and Platonism was very strongly felt throughout the period which we
+are now to consider. Justin Martyr claims Plato (with Heraclitus[107]
+and Socrates) as a Christian before Christ; Athenagoras calls him the
+best of the forerunners of Christianity, and Clement regards the
+Gospel as perfected Platonism.[108] The Pagans repeated so
+persistently the charge that Christ borrowed from Plato what was true
+in His teaching, that Ambrose wrote a treatise to confute them. As a
+rule, the Christians did not deny the resemblance, but explained it by
+saying that Plato had plagiarised from Moses--a curious notion which
+we find first in Philo. In the Middle Ages the mystics almost
+canonised Plato: Eckhart speaks of him, quaintly enough, as "the great
+priest" (_der grosse Pfaffe_); and even in Spain, Louis of Granada
+calls him "divine," and finds in him "the most excellent parts of
+Christian wisdom." Lastly, in the seventeenth century the English
+Platonists avowed their intention of bringing back the Church to "her
+old loving nurse the Platonic philosophy." These English Platonists
+knew what they were talking of; but for the mediæval mystics Platonism
+meant the philosophy of Plotinus adapted by Augustine, or that of
+Proclus adapted by Dionysius, or the curious blend of Platonic,
+Aristotelian, and Jewish philosophy which filtered through into the
+Church by means of the Arabs. Still, there was justice underlying this
+superficial ignorance. Plato is, after all, the father of European
+Mysticism.[109] Both the great types of mystics may appeal to
+him--those who try to rise through the visible to the invisible,
+through Nature to God, who find in earthly beauty the truest symbol of
+the heavenly, and in the imagination--the image-making faculty--a raft
+whereon we may navigate the shoreless ocean of the Infinite; and
+those who distrust all sensuous representations as tending "to nourish
+appetites which we ought to starve," who look upon this earth as a
+place of banishment, upon material things as a veil which hides God's
+face from us, and who bid us "flee away from hence as quickly as may
+be," to seek "yonder," in the realm of the ideas, the heart's true
+home. Both may find in the real Plato much congenial teaching--that
+the highest good is the greatest likeness to God--that the greatest
+happiness is the vision of God--that we should seek holiness not for
+the sake of external reward, but because it is the health of the soul,
+while vice is its disease--that goodness is unity and harmony, while
+evil is discord and disintegration--that it is our duty and happiness
+to rise above the visible and transitory to the invisible and
+permanent. It may also be a pleasure to some to trace the fortunes of
+the positive and negative elements in Plato's teaching--of the
+humanist and the ascetic who dwelt together in that large mind; to
+observe how the world-renouncing element had to grow at the expense of
+the other, until full justice had been done to its claims; and then
+how the brighter, more truly Hellenic side was able to assert itself
+under due safeguards, as a precious thing dearly purchased, a treasure
+reserved for the pure and humble, and still only to be tasted
+carefully, with reverence and godly fear. There is, of course, no
+necessity for connecting this development with the name of Plato. The
+way towards a reconciliation of this and other differences is more
+clearly indicated in the New Testament; indeed, nothing can
+strengthen our belief in inspiration so much as to observe how the
+whole history of thought only helps us to _understand_ St. Paul and
+St. John better, never to pass beyond their teaching. Still, the
+traditional connexion between Plato and Mysticism is so close that we
+may, I think, be pardoned for keeping, like Ficinus, a lamp burning in
+his honour throughout our present task.
+
+It is not my purpose in these Lectures to attempt a historical survey
+of Christian Mysticism. To attempt this, within the narrow limits of
+eight Lectures, would oblige me to give a mere skeleton of the
+subject, which would be of no value, and of very little interest. The
+aim which I have set before myself is to give a clear presentation of
+an important type of Christian life and thought, in the hope that it
+may suggest to us a way towards the solution of some difficulties
+which at present agitate and divide us. The path is beset with
+pitfalls on either side, as will be abundantly clear when we consider
+the startling expressions which Mysticism has often found for itself.
+But though I have not attempted to give even an outline of the history
+of Mysticism, I feel that the best and safest way of studying this or
+any type of religion is to consider it in the light of its historical
+development, and of the forms which it has actually assumed. And so I
+have tried to set these Lectures in a historical framework, and, in
+choosing prominent figures as representatives of the chief kinds of
+Mysticism, to observe, so far as possible, the chronological order.
+The present Lecture will carry us down to the Pseudo-Dionysius, the
+influence of whose writings during the next thousand years can hardly
+be overestimated. But if we are to understand how a system of
+speculative Mysticism, of an Asiatic rather than European type, came
+to be accepted as the work of a convert of St. Paul, and invested with
+semi-apostolic authority, we must pause for a few minutes to let our
+eyes rest on the phenomenon called Alexandrianism, which fills a large
+place in the history of the early Church.
+
+We have seen how St. Paul speaks of a _Gnosis_ or higher knowledge,
+which can be taught with safety only to the "perfect" or "fully
+initiated";[110] and he by no means rejects such expressions as the
+_Pleroma_ (the totality of the Divine attributes), which were
+technical terms of speculative theism. St. John, too, in his prologue
+and other places, brings the Gospel into relation with current
+speculation, and interprets it in philosophical language. The movement
+known as Gnosticism, both within and without the Church, was an
+attempt to complete this reconciliation between speculative and
+revealed religion, by systematising the symbols of transcendental
+mystical theosophy.[111] The movement can only be understood as a
+premature and unsuccessful attempt to achieve what the school of
+Alexandria afterwards partially succeeded in doing. The anticipations
+of Neoplatonism among the Gnostics would probably be found to be very
+numerous, if the victorious party had thought their writings worth
+preserving. But Gnosticism was rotten before it was ripe. Dogma was
+still in such a fluid state, that there was nothing to keep
+speculation within bounds; and the Oriental element, with its
+insoluble dualism, its fantastic mythology and spiritualism, was too
+strong for the Hellenic. Gnosticism presents all the features which we
+shall find to be characteristic of degenerate Mysticism. Not to speak
+of its oscillations between fanatical austerities and scandalous
+licence, and its belief in magic and other absurdities, we seem, when
+we read Irenæus' description of a Valentinian heretic, to hear the
+voice of Luther venting his contempt upon some "_Geisterer_" of the
+sixteenth century, such as Carlstadt or Sebastian Frank. "The fellow
+is so puffed up," says Irenæus, "that he believes himself to be
+neither in heaven nor on earth, but to have entered within the Divine
+Pleroma, and to have embraced his guardian angel. On the strength of
+which he struts about as proud as a cock. These are the self-styled
+'spiritual persons,' who say they have already reached perfection."
+The later Platonism could not even graft itself upon any of these
+Gnostic systems, and Plotinus rejects them as decisively as Origen.
+
+Still closer is the approximation to later speculation which we find
+in Philo, who was a contemporary of St. Paul. Philo and his Therapeutæ
+were genuine mystics of the monastic type. Many of them, however, had
+not been monks all their life, but were retired men of business, who
+wished to spend their old age in contemplation, as many still do in
+India. They were, of course, not Christians, but Hellenised Jews,
+though Eusebius, Jerome, and the Middle Ages generally thought that
+they were Christians, and were well pleased to find monks in the first
+century.[112]
+
+Philo's object is to reconcile religion and philosophy--in other
+words, Moses and Plato.[113] His method[114] is to make Platonism a
+development of Mosaism, and Mosaism an implicit Platonism. The claims
+of orthodoxy are satisfied by saying, rather audaciously, "All this is
+Moses' doctrine, not mine." His chief instrument in this difficult
+task is allegorism, which in his hands is a bad specimen of that
+pseudo-science which has done so much to darken counsel in biblical
+exegesis. His speculative system, however, is exceedingly interesting.
+
+God, according to Philo, is unqualified and pure Being, but _not_
+superessential. He is emphatically [Greek: ho ôn], the "I am," and the
+most _general_ ([Greek: to genikôtaton]) of existences. At the same
+time He is without qualities ([Greek: apoios]), and ineffable
+([Greek: arrêtos]). In His inmost nature He is inaccessible; as it
+was said to Moses, "Thou shalt see what is behind Me, but My face
+shall not be seen." It is best to contemplate God in silence, since we
+can compare Him to nothing that we know. All our knowledge of God is
+really God dwelling in us. He has breathed into us something of His
+nature, and is thus the archetype of what is highest in ourselves. He
+who is truly inspired "may with good reason be called God." This
+blessed state may, however, be prepared for by such mediating agencies
+as the study of God's laws in nature; and it is only the highest class
+of saints--the souls "born of God"--that are exalted above the need of
+symbols. It would be easy to show how Philo wavers between two
+conceptions of the Divine nature--God as simply transcendent, and God
+as immanent. But this is one of the things that make him most
+interesting. His Judaism will not allow him really to believe in a God
+"without qualities."
+
+The Logos dwells with God as His Wisdom (or sometimes he calls Wisdom,
+figuratively, the mother of the Logos). He is the "second God," the
+"Idea of Ideas"; the other Ideas or Powers are the forces which he
+controls--"the Angels," as he adds, suddenly remembering his Judaism.
+The Logos is also the mind of God expressing itself in act: the Ideas,
+therefore, are the content of the mind of God. Here he anticipates
+Plotinus; but he does not reduce God to a logical point. His God is
+self-conscious, and reasons. By the agency of the Logos the worlds
+were made: the intelligible world, the [Greek: kosmos noêtos], is
+the Logos acting as Creator. Indeed, Philo calls the intelligible
+universe "the only and beloved Son of God"; just as Erigena says, "Be
+assured that the Word is the Nature of all things." The Son represents
+the world before God as High Priest, Intercessor, and Paraclete. He is
+the "divine Angel" that guides us; He is the "bread of God," the "dew
+of the soul," the "convincer of sin": no evil can touch the soul in
+which He dwells: He is the eternal image of the Father, and we, who
+are not yet fit to be called sons of God, may call ourselves His
+sons.
+
+Philo's ethical system is that of the later contemplative Mysticism.
+Knowledge and virtue can be obtained only by renunciation of self.
+Contemplation is a higher state than activity. "The soul should cut
+off its right hand." "It should shun the whirlpool of life, and not
+even touch it with the tip of a finger." The highest stage is when a
+man leaves behind his finite self-consciousness, and sees God face to
+face, standing in Him from henceforward, and knowing Him not by
+reason, but by clear certainty. Philo makes no attempt to identify the
+Logos with the Jewish Messiah, and leaves no room for an Incarnation.
+
+This remarkable system anticipates the greater part of Christian and
+Pagan Neoplatonism. The astonishing thing is that Philo's work
+exercised so little influence on the philosophy of the second century.
+It was probably regarded as an attempt to evolve Platonism out of the
+Pentateuch, and, as such, interesting only to the Jews, who were at
+this period becoming more and more unpopular.[115] The same prejudice
+may possibly have impaired the influence of Numenius, another
+semi-mystical thinker, who in the age of the Antonines evolved a kind
+of Trinity, consisting of God, whom he also calls Mind; the Son, the
+maker of the world, whom he does _not_ call the Logos; and the world,
+the "grandson," as he calls it. His Jewish affinities are shown by his
+calling Plato "an Atticising Moses."
+
+It was about one hundred and fifty years after Philo that St. Clement
+of Alexandria tried to do for Christianity what Philo had tried to do
+for Judaism. His aim is nothing less than to construct a philosophy of
+religion--a Gnosis, "knowledge," he calls it--which shall "initiate"
+the educated Christian into the higher "mysteries" of his creed. The
+Logos doctrine, according to which Christ is the universal
+Reason,[116] the Light that lighteth every man, here asserts its full
+rights. Reasoned belief is the superstructure of which faith[117] is
+the foundation.
+
+"Knowledge," says Clement, "is more than faith." "Faith is a summary
+knowledge of urgent truths, suitable for people who are in a hurry;
+but knowledge is scientific faith." "If the Gnostic (the philosophical
+Christian) had to choose between the knowledge of God and eternal
+salvation, and it were possible to separate two things so inseparably
+connected, he would choose without the slightest hesitation the
+knowledge of God." On the wings of this "knowledge" the soul rises
+above all earthly passions and desires, filled with a calm
+disinterested love of God. In this state a man can distinguish truth
+from falsehood, pure gold from base metal, in matters of belief; he
+can see the connexion of the various dogmas, and their harmony with
+reason; and in reading Scripture he can penetrate beneath the literal
+to the spiritual meaning. But when Clement speaks of reason or
+knowledge, he does not mean merely intellectual training. "He who
+would enter the shrine must be pure," he says, "and purity is to
+think holy things." And again, "The more a man loves, the more deeply
+does he penetrate into God." Purity and love, to which he adds
+diligent study of the Scriptures, are all that is _necessary_ to the
+highest life, though mental cultivation may be and ought to be a great
+help.[118]
+
+History exhibits a progressive training of mankind by the Logos.
+"There is one river of truth," he says, "which receives tributaries
+from every side."
+
+All moral evil is caused either by ignorance or by weakness of will.
+The cure for the one is knowledge, the cure for the other is
+discipline.[119]
+
+In his doctrine of God we find that he has fallen a victim to the
+unfortunate negative method, which he calls "analysis." It is the
+method which starts with the assertion that since God is exalted above
+Being, we cannot say what He is, but only what He is not. Clement
+apparently objects to saying that God is above Being, but he strips
+Him of all attributes and qualities till nothing is left but a
+nameless point; and this, too, he would eliminate, for a point is a
+numerical unit, and God is above the idea of the Monad. We shall
+encounter this argument far too often in our survey of Mysticism, and
+in writers more logical than Clement, who allowed it to dominate their
+whole theology and ethics.
+
+The Son is the Consciousness of God. The Father only sees the world as
+reflected in the Son. This bold and perhaps dangerous doctrine seems
+to be Clement's own.
+
+Clement was not a deep or consistent thinker, and the task which he
+has set himself is clearly beyond his strength. But he gathers up most
+of the religious and philosophical ideas of his time, and weaves them
+together into a system which is permeated by his cultivated, humane,
+and genial personality.
+
+Especially interesting from the point of view of our present task is
+the use of mystery-language which we find everywhere in Clement. The
+Christian revelation is "the Divine (or holy) mysteries," "the Divine
+secrets," "the secret Word," "the mysteries of the Word"; Jesus Christ
+is "the Teacher of the Divine mysteries"; the ordinary teaching of the
+Church is "the lesser mysteries"; the higher knowledge of the Gnostic,
+leading to full initiation ([Greek: epopteia]) "the great mysteries."
+He borrows _verbatim_ from a Neopythagorean document a whole sentence,
+to the effect that "it is not lawful to reveal to profane persons the
+mysteries of the Word"--the "Logos" taking the place of "the
+Eleusinian goddesses." This evident wish to claim the Greek
+mystery-worship, with its technical language, for Christianity, is
+very interesting, and the attempt was by no means unfruitful. Among
+other ideas which seem to come direct from the mysteries is the notion
+of _deification by the gift of immortality_. Clement[120] says
+categorically, [Greek: to mê phtheiresthai theiotêtos metechein
+esti]. This is, historically, the way in which the doctrine of
+"deification" found its way into the scheme of Christian Mysticism.
+The idea of immortality as the attribute constituting Godhead was, of
+course, as familiar to the Greeks as it was strange to the Jews.[121]
+
+Origen supplies some valuable links in the history of speculative
+Mysticism, but his mind was less inclined to mystical modes of thought
+than was Clement's. I can here only touch upon a few points which bear
+directly upon our subject.
+
+Origen follows Clement in his division of the religious life into two
+classes or stages, those of faith and knowledge. He draws too hard a
+line between them, and speaks with a professorial arrogance of the
+"popular, irrational faith" which leads to "somatic Christianity," as
+opposed to the "spiritual Christianity" conferred by Gnosis or
+Wisdom.[122] He makes it only too clear that by "somatic Christianity"
+he means that faith which is based on the gospel history. Of teaching
+founded upon the historical narrative, he says, "What better method
+could be devised to assist the masses?" The Gnostic or Sage no longer
+needs the crucified Christ. The "eternal" or "spiritual" Gospel, which
+is his possession, "shows clearly all things concerning the Son of God
+Himself, both the mysteries shown by His words, and the things of
+which His acts were the symbols.[123]" It is not that he denies or
+doubts the truth of the Gospel history, but he feels that events which
+only happened once can be of no importance, and regards the life,
+death, and resurrection of Christ as only one manifestation of an
+universal law, which was really enacted, not in this fleeting world
+of shadows, but in the eternal counsels of the Most High. He
+considers that those who are thoroughly convinced of the universal
+truths revealed by the Incarnation and Atonement, need trouble
+themselves no more about their particular manifestations in time.
+
+Origen, like the Neoplatonists, says that God is above or beyond
+Being; but he is sounder than Clement on this point, for he attributes
+self-consciousness[124] and reason to God, who therefore does not
+require the Second Person in order to come to Himself. Also, since God
+is not wholly above reason, He can be approached by reason, and not
+only by ecstatic vision.
+
+The Second Person of the Trinity is called by Origen, as by Clement,
+"the Idea of Ideas." He is the spiritual activity of God, the
+World-Principle, the One who is the basis of the manifold. Human souls
+have fallen through sin from their union with the Logos, who became
+incarnate in order to restore them to the state which they have lost.
+
+Everything spiritual is indestructible; and therefore every spirit
+must at last return to the Good. For the Good alone exists; evil has
+no existence, no substance. This is a doctrine which we shall meet
+with again. Man, he expressly asserts, cannot be consubstantial with
+God, for man can change, while God is immutable. He does not see,
+apparently, that, from the point of view of the Platonist, his
+universalism makes man's freedom to change an illusion, as belonging
+to time only and not to eternity.
+
+While Origen was working out his great system of ecclesiastical
+dogmatic, his younger contemporary Plotinus, outside the Christian
+pale, was laying the coping-stone on the edifice of Greek philosophy
+by a scheme of idealism which must always remain one of the greatest
+achievements of the human mind.[125] In the history of Mysticism he
+holds a more undisputed place than Plato; for some of the most
+characteristic doctrines of Mysticism, which in Plato are only thrown
+out tentatively, are in Plotinus welded into a compact whole. Among
+the doctrines which first receive a clear exposition in his writings
+are, his theory of the Absolute, whom he calls the One, or the Good;
+and his theory of the Ideas, which differs from Plato's; for Plato
+represents the mind of the World-Artist as immanent in the Idea of the
+Good, while Plotinus makes the Ideas immanent in the universal mind;
+in other words, the real world (which he calls the "intelligible
+world," the sphere of the Ideas) is in the mind of God. He also, in
+his doctrine of Vision, attaches an importance to _revelation_ which
+was new in Greek philosophy. But his psychology is really the centre
+of his system, and it is here that the Christian Church and Christian
+Mysticism, in particular, is most indebted to him.
+
+The _soul_ is with him the meeting-point of the intelligible and the
+phenomenal. It is diffused everywhere.[126] Animals and vegetables
+participate in it;[127] and the earth has a soul which sees and
+hears.[128] The soul is immaterial and immortal, for it belongs to the
+world of real existence, and nothing that _is_ can cease to be.[129]
+The body is in the soul, rather than the soul in the body. The soul
+creates the body by imposing form on matter, which in itself is
+No-thing, pure indetermination, and next door to absolute
+non-existence.[130] Space and time are only forms of our thought. The
+concepts formed by the soul, by classifying the things of sense, are
+said to be "Ideas unrolled and separate," that is, they are conceived
+as separate in space and time, instead of existing all together in
+eternity. The nature of the soul is triple; it is presented under
+three forms, which are at the same time the three stages of perfection
+which it can reach.[131] There is first and lowest the animal and
+sensual soul, which is closely bound up with the body; then there is
+the logical, reasoning soul, the distinctively _human_ part; and,
+lastly, there is the superhuman stage or part, in which a man "thinks
+himself according to the higher intelligence, with which he has become
+identified, knowing himself no longer as a man, but as one who has
+become altogether changed, and has transferred himself into the higher
+region." The soul is thus "made one with Intelligence without losing
+herself; so that they two are both one and two." This is exactly
+Eckhart's doctrine of the _funkelein_, if we identify Plotinus'
+[Greek: Nous] with Eckhart's "God," as we may fairly do. The soul is
+not altogether incarnate in the body; part of it remains above, in the
+intelligible world, whither it desires to return in its entirety.
+
+The world is an image of the Divine Mind, which is itself a reflection
+of the One. It is therefore not bad or evil. "What more beautiful
+image of the Divine could there be," he asks, "than this world, except
+the world yonder?" And so it is a great mistake to shut our eyes to
+the world around us, "and all beautiful things.[132]" The love of
+beauty will lead us up a long way--up to the point when the love of
+the Good is ready to receive us. Only we must not let ourselves be
+entangled by sensuous beauty. Those who do not quickly rise beyond
+this first stage, to contemplate "ideal form, the universal mould,"
+share the fate of Hylas; they are engulfed in a swamp, from which they
+never emerge.
+
+The universe resembles a vast chain, of which every being is a link.
+It may also be compared to rays of light shed abroad from one centre.
+Everything flowed from this centre, and everything desires to flow
+back towards it. God draws all men and all things towards Himself as
+a magnet draws iron, with a constant unvarying attraction. This theory
+of emanation is often sharply contrasted with that of evolution, and
+is supposed to be discredited by modern science; but that is only true
+if the emanation is regarded as a process in time, which for the
+Neoplatonist it is not.[133] In fact, Plotinus uses the word
+"evolution" to explain the process of nature.[134]
+
+The whole universe is one vast organism,[135] and if one member
+suffer, all the members suffer with it.[136] This is why a "faint
+movement of sympathy[137]" stirs within us at the sight of any living
+creature. So Origen says, "As our body, while consisting of many
+members, is yet held together by one soul, so the universe is to be
+thought of as an immense living being, which is held together by one
+soul--the power and the Logos of God." All existence is drawn upwards
+towards God by a kind of centripetal attraction, which is unconscious
+in the lower, half conscious in the higher organisms.
+
+Christian Neoplatonism tended to identify the Logos, as the Second
+Person of the Trinity, with the [Greek: Nous], "Mind" or
+"Intelligence," of Plotinus, and rightly; but in Plotinus the word
+Logos has a less exalted position, being practically what we call
+"law," regarded as a vital force.[138]
+
+Plotinus' Trinity are the One or the Good, who is above existence,
+God as the Absolute; the Intelligence, who occupies the sphere of real
+existence, organic unity comprehending multiplicity--the One-Many, as
+he calls it, or, as we might call it, God as thought, God existing in
+and for Himself; and the Soul, the One and Many, occupying the sphere
+of appearance or imperfect reality--God as action. Soulless matter,
+which only exists as a logical abstraction, is arrived at by looking
+at things "in disconnexion, dull and spiritless." It is the sphere of
+the "merely many," and is zero, as "the One who is not" is Infinity.
+
+The Intelligible World is timeless and spaceless, and contains the
+archetypes of the Sensible World. The Sensible World is _our_ view of
+the Intelligible World. When we say it does not exist, we mean that we
+shall not always see it in this form. The "Ideas" are the ultimate
+form in which things are regarded by Intelligence, or by God. [Greek:
+Nous] is described as at once [Greek: stasis] and [Greek:
+kinêsis], that is, it is unchanging itself, but the whole cosmic
+process, which is ever in flux, is eternally present to it as a
+process.
+
+Evil is disintegration.[139] In its essence it is not merely unreal,
+but unreality as such. It can only _appear_ in conjunction with some
+low degree of goodness which suggests to Plotinus the fine saying that
+"vice at its worst is still human, being mixed with something
+opposite to itself.[140]"
+
+The "lower virtues," as he calls the duties of the average
+citizen,[141] are not only purgative, but teach us the principles of
+_measure_ and _rule_, which are Divine characteristics. This is
+immensely important, for it is the point where Platonism and Asiatic
+Mysticism finally part company.[142]
+
+But in Plotinus, as in his Christian imitators, they do _not_ part
+company. The "marching orders" of the true mystic are those given by
+God to Moses on Sinai, "See that thou make all things according to the
+pattern showed thee in the mount.[143]" But Plotinus teaches that, as
+the sensible world is a shadow of the intelligible, so is action a
+shadow of contemplation, suited to weak-minded persons.[144] This is
+turning the tables on the "man of action" in good earnest; but it is
+false Platonism and false Mysticism. It leads to the heartless
+doctrine, quite unworthy of the man, that public calamities are to the
+wise man only stage tragedies--or even stage comedies.[145] The moral
+results of this self-centred individualism are exemplified by the
+mediæval saint and visionary, Angela of Foligno, who congratulates
+herself on the deaths of her mother, husband, and children, "who were
+great obstacles in the way of God."
+
+A few words must be said about the doctrine of ecstasy in Plotinus. He
+describes the conditions under which the vision is granted in exactly
+the same manner as some of the Christian mystics, e.g. St. Juan of the
+Cross. "The soul when possessed by intense love of Him divests herself
+of all form which she has, even of that which is derived from
+Intelligence; for it is impossible, when in conscious possession of
+any other attribute, either to behold or to be harmonised with Him.
+Thus the soul must be neither good nor bad nor aught else, that she
+may receive Him only, Him alone, she alone.[146]" While she is in this
+state, the One suddenly appears, "with nothing between," "and they are
+no more two but one; and the soul is no more conscious of the body or
+of the mind, but knows that she has what she desired, that she is
+where no deception can come, and that she would not exchange her bliss
+for all the heaven of heavens."
+
+What is the source of this strange aspiration to rise above Reason and
+Intelligence, which is for Plotinus the highest category of Being, and
+to come out "on the other side of Being" [Greek: epekeina tês
+ousias]? Plotinus says himself elsewhere that "he who would rise above
+Reason, falls outside it"; and yet he regards it as the highest
+reward of the philosopher-saint to converse with the hypostatised
+Abstraction who transcends all distinctions. The vision of the One is
+no part of his philosophy, but is a mischievous accretion. For though
+the "superessential Absolute" may be a logical necessity, we cannot
+make it, even in the most transcendental manner, an object of sense,
+without depriving it of its Absoluteness. What is really apprehended
+is not the Absolute, but a kind of "form of formlessness," an idea not
+of the Infinite, but of the Indefinite.[147] It is then impossible to
+distinguish "the One," who is said to be above all distinctions, from
+undifferentiated matter, the formless No-thing, which Plotinus puts at
+the lowest end of the scale.
+
+I believe that the Neoplatonic "vision" owes its place in the system
+to two very different causes. First, there was the direct influence of
+Oriental philosophy of the Indian type, which tries to reach the
+universal by wiping out all the boundary-lines of the particular, and
+to gain infinity by reducing self and the world to zero. Of this we
+shall say more when we come to Dionysius. And, secondly, the blank
+trance was a real psychical experience, quite different from the
+"visions" which we have already mentioned. Evidence is abundant; but I
+will content myself with one quotation.[148] In Amiel's _Journal_[149]
+we have the following record of such a trance: "Like a dream which
+trembles and dies at the first glimmer of dawn, all my past, all my
+present, dissolve in me, and fall away from my consciousness at the
+moment when it returns upon myself. I feel myself then stripped and
+empty, like a convalescent who remembers nothing. My travels, my
+reading, my studies, my projects, my hopes, have faded from my mind.
+All my faculties drop away from me like a cloak that one takes off,
+like the chrysalis case of a larva. I feel myself returning into a
+more elementary form." But Amiel, instead of expecting the advent of
+"the One" while in this state, feels that "the pleasure of it is
+deadly, inferior in all respects to the joys of action, to the
+sweetness of love, to the beauty of enthusiasm, or to the sacred
+savour of accomplished duty.[149]"
+
+We may now return to the Christian Platonists. We find in Methodius
+the interesting doctrine that the indwelling Christ constantly repeats
+His passion in remembrance, "for not otherwise could the Church
+continually conceive believers, and bear them anew through the bath of
+regeneration, unless Christ were repeatedly to die, emptying Himself
+for the sake of each individual." "Christ must be born mentally
+([Greek: moêtôs]) in every individual," and each individual saint,
+by participating in Christ, "is born as a Christ." This is exactly the
+language of Eckhart and Tauler, and it is first clearly heard in the
+mouth of Methodius.[150] The new features are the great prominence
+given to _immanence_--the mystical union as an _opus operatum_, and
+the individualistic conception of the relation of Christ to the soul.
+
+Of the Greek Fathers who followed Athanasius, I have only room to
+mention Gregory of Nyssa, who defends the historical incarnation in
+true mystical fashion by an appeal to spiritual experience. "We all
+believe that the Divine is in everything, pervading and embracing it,
+and dwelling in it. Why then do men take offence at the dispensation
+of the mystery taught by the Incarnation of God, who is not, even now,
+outside of mankind?... If the _form_ of the Divine presence is not now
+the same, we are as much agreed that God is among us to-day, as that
+He was in the world then." He argues in another place that all other
+species of spiritual beings must have had their Incarnations of
+Christ; a doctrine which was afterwards condemned, but which seems to
+follow necessarily from the Logos doctrine. These arguments show very
+clearly that for the Greek theologians Christ is a cosmic principle,
+immanent in the world, though not confined by it; and that the scheme
+of salvation is regarded as part of the constitution of the universe,
+which is animated and sustained by the same Power who was fully
+manifested in the Incarnation.
+
+The question has been much debated, whether the influence of Persian
+and Indian thought can be traced in Neoplatonism, or whether that
+system was purely Greek.[151] It is a quite hopeless task to try to
+disentangle the various strands of thought which make up the web of
+Alexandrianism. But there is no doubt that the philosophers of Asia
+were held in reverence at this period. Origen, in justifying an
+esoteric mystery-religion for the educated, and a mythical religion
+for the vulgar, appeals to the example of the "Persians and Indians."
+And Philostratus, in his life of Apollonius of Tyana, says, or makes
+his hero say, that while all wish to live in the presence of God, "the
+Indians alone succeed in doing so." And certainly there are parts of
+Plotinus, and still more of his successors, which strongly suggest
+Asiatic influences.[152] When we turn from Alexandria to Syria, we
+find Orientalism more rampant. Speculation among the Syrian monks of
+the third, fourth, and fifth centuries was perhaps more unfettered
+and more audacious than in any other branch of Christendom at any
+period. Our knowledge of their theories is very limited, but one
+strange specimen has survived in the book of Hierotheus,[153] which
+the canonised Dionysius praises in glowing terms as an inspired
+oracle--indeed, he professes that his own object in writing was merely
+to popularise the teaching of his master. The book purports to be the
+work of Hierotheus, a holy man converted by St. Paul, and an
+instructor of the real Dionysius the Areopagite. A strong case has
+been made out for believing the real author to be a Syrian mystic,
+named Stephen bar Sudaili, who lived late in the fifth century. If
+this theory is correct, the date of Dionysius will have to be moved
+somewhat later than it has been the custom to fix it. The book of the
+holy Hierotheus on "the hidden mysteries of the Divinity" has been but
+recently discovered, and only a summary of it has as yet been made
+public. But it is of great interest and importance for our subject,
+because the author has no fear of being accused of Pantheism or any
+other heresy, but develops his particular form of Mysticism to its
+logical conclusions with unexampled boldness. He will show us better
+even than his pupil Dionysius whither the method of "analysis" really
+leads us.
+
+The system of Hierotheus is not exactly Pantheism, but Pan-Nihilism.
+Everything is an emanation from the Chaos of bare indetermination
+which he calls God, and everything will return thither. There are
+three periods of existence--(1) the present world, which is evil, and
+is characterised by motion; (2) the progressive union with Christ, who
+is all and in all--this is the period of rest; (3) the period of
+fusion of all things in the Absolute. The three Persons of the
+Trinity, he dares to say, will then be swallowed up, and even the
+devils are thrown into the same melting-pot. Consistently with
+mystical principles, these three world-periods are also phases in the
+development of individual souls. In the first stage the mind aspires
+towards its first principles; in the second it becomes Christ, the
+universal Mind; in the third its personality is wholly merged. The
+greater part of the book is taken up with the adventures of the Mind
+in climbing the ladder of perfection; it is a kind of theosophical
+romance, much more elaborate and fantastic than the "revelations" of
+mediæval mystics. The author professes to have himself enjoyed the
+ecstatic union more than once, and his method of preparing for it is
+that of the Quietists: "To me it seems right to speak without words,
+and understand without knowledge, that which is above words and
+knowledge; this I apprehend to be nothing but the mysterious silence
+and mystical quiet which destroys consciousness and dissolves forms.
+Seek, therefore, silently and mystically, that perfect and primitive
+union with the Arch-Good."
+
+We cannot follow the "ascent of the Mind" through its various
+transmutations. At one stage it is crucified, "with the soul on the
+right and the body on the left"; it is buried for three days; it
+descends into Hades;[154] then it ascends again, till it reaches
+Paradise, and is united to the tree of life: then it descends below
+all essences, and sees a formless luminous essence, and marvels that
+it is _the same essence_ that it has seen on high. Now it comprehends
+the truth, that God is consubstantial with the Universe, and that
+there are no real distinctions anywhere. So it ceases to wander. "All
+these doctrines," concludes the seer, "which are unknown even to
+angels, have I disclosed to thee, my son" (Dionysius, probably).
+"Know, then, that all nature will be confused with the Father--that
+nothing will perish or be destroyed, but all will return, be
+sanctified, united, and confused. Thus God will be all in all.[155]"
+
+There can be no difficulty in classifying this Syrian philosophy of
+religion. It is the ancient religion of the Brahmins, masquerading in
+clothes borrowed from Jewish allegorists, half-Christian Gnostics,
+Manicheans, Platonising Christians, and pagan Neoplatonists. We will
+now see what St. Dionysius makes of this system, which he accepts as
+from the hand of one who has "not only learned, but felt the things of
+God.[156]"
+
+The date and nationality of Dionysius are still matters of
+dispute.[157] Mysticism changes so little that it is impossible to
+determine the question by internal evidence, and for our purposes it
+is not of great importance. The author was a monk, perhaps a Syrian
+monk: he probably perpetrated a deliberate fraud--a pious fraud, in
+his own opinion--by suppressing his own individuality, and fathering
+his books on St. Paul's Athenian convert. The success of the imposture
+is amazing, even in that uncritical age, and gives much food for
+reflection. The sixth century saw nothing impossible in a book
+full of the later Neoplatonic theories--those of Proclus rather
+than Plotinus[158]--having been written in the first century.
+And the mediæval Church was ready to believe that this strange
+semi-pantheistic Mysticism dropped from the lips of St. Paul.[159]
+
+Dionysius is a theologian, not a visionary like his master Hierotheus.
+His main object is to present Christianity in the guise of a Platonic
+mysteriosophy, and he uses the technical terms of the mysteries
+whenever he can.[160] His philosophy is that of his day--the later
+Neoplatonism, with its strong Oriental affinities.
+
+Beginning with the Trinity, he identifies God the Father with the
+Neoplatonic Monad, and describes Him as "superessential
+Indetermination," "super-rational Unity," "the Unity which unifies
+every unity," "superessential Essence," "irrational Mind," "unspoken
+Word," "the absolute No-thing which is above all existence.[161]"
+Even now he is not satisfied with the tortures to which he has
+subjected the Greek language. "No monad or triad," he says, "can
+express the all-transcending hiddenness of the all-transcending
+super-essentially super-existing super-Deity.[162]" But even in the
+midst of this barbarous jargon he does not quite forget his Plato.
+"The Good and Beautiful," he says, "are the cause of all things that
+are; and all things love and aspire to the Good and Beautiful, which
+are, indeed, the sole objects of their desire." "Since, then, the
+Absolute Good and Beautiful is honoured by eliminating all qualities
+from it, the non-existent also ([Greek: to mê on]) must
+participate in the Good and Beautiful." This pathetic absurdity shows
+what we are driven to if we try to graft Indian nihilism upon the
+Platonic doctrine of ideas. Plotinus tried hard to show that his First
+Person was very different from his lowest category--non-existent
+"matter"; but if we once allow ourselves to define the Infinite as the
+Indefinite, the conclusion which he deprecated cannot long be averted.
+
+"God is the Being of all that is." Since, then, Being is identical
+with God or Goodness, evil, as such, does not exist; it only exists by
+its participation in good. Evil, he says, is not in things which
+exist; a good tree cannot bear evil fruit; it must, therefore, have
+another origin. But this is dualism, and must be rejected.[163] Nor
+is evil in God, nor of God; nor in the angels; nor in the human soul;
+nor in the brutes; nor in inanimate nature; nor in matter. Having thus
+hunted evil out of every corner of the universe, he asks--Is evil,
+then, simply privation of good? But privation is not evil in itself.
+No; evil must arise from "disorderly and inharmonious motion." As dirt
+has been defined as matter in the wrong place, so evil is good in the
+wrong place. It arises by a kind of accident; "all evil is done with
+the object of gaining some good; no one does evil as evil." Evil in
+itself is that which is "nohow, nowhere, and no thing"; "God sees evil
+as good." Students of modern philosophy will recognise a theory which
+has found influential advocates in our own day: that evil needs only
+to be supplemented, rearranged, and transmuted, in order to take its
+place in the universal harmony.[164]
+
+All things flow out from God, and all will ultimately return to Him. The
+first emanation is the Thing in itself ([Greek: auto to einai]), which
+corresponds to the Plotinian [Greek: Nous], and to the Johannine Logos.
+He also calls it "Life in itself" and "Wisdom in itself" ([Greek:
+autozôê, autosophia]). Of this he says, "So then the Divine Wisdom in
+knowing itself will know all things. It will know the material
+immaterially, and the divided inseparably, and the many as one ([Greek:
+heniaiôs]), knowing all things by the standard of absolute unity." These
+important speculations are left undeveloped by Dionysius, who merely
+states them dogmatically. The universe is evolved from the Son, whom he
+identifies with the "Thing in itself," "Wisdom," or "Life in itself." In
+creation "the One is said to become multiform." The world is a necessary
+process of God's being. He created it "as the sun shines," "without
+premeditation or purpose." The Father is simply One; the Son has also
+plurality, namely, the words (or reasons) which make existence ([Greek:
+tous ousiopoious logous]), which theology calls fore-ordinations
+([Greek: proorismous]). But he does not teach that all separate
+existences will ultimately be merged in the One. The highest Unity gives
+to all the power of striving, on the one hand, to share in the One; on
+the other, to persist in their own individuality. And in more than one
+passage he speaks of God as a Unity comprehending, not abolishing
+differences.[165] "God is before all things"; "Being is in Him, and He
+is not in Being." Thus Dionysius tries to safeguard the transcendence of
+God, and to escape Pantheism. The outflowing process is appropriated by
+the mind by the _positive_ method--the downward path through finite
+existences: its conclusion is, "God is All." The return journey is by
+the _negative_ road, that of ascent to God by abstraction and analysis:
+its conclusion is, "All is not God.[166]" The negative path is the high
+road of a large school of mystics; I will say more about it presently.
+The mystic, says Dionysius, "must leave behind all things both in the
+sensible and in the intelligible worlds, till he enters into the
+darkness of nescience that is truly mystical." This "Divine darkness,"
+he says elsewhere, "is the light unapproachable" mentioned by St. Paul,
+"a deep but dazzling darkness," as Henry Vaughan calls it. It is dark
+through excess of light[167]. This doctrine really renders nugatory what
+he has said about the persistence of distinctions after the restitution
+of all things; for as "all colours agree in the dark," so, for us, in
+proportion as we attain to true knowledge, all distinctions are lost in
+the absolute.
+
+The soul is bipartite. The higher portion sees the "Divine images"
+directly, the lower by means of symbols. The latter are not to be
+despised, for they are "true impressions of the Divine characters,"
+and necessary steps, which enable us to "mount to the one undivided
+truth by analogy." This is the way in which we should use the
+Scriptures. They have a symbolic truth and beauty, which is
+intelligible only to those who can free themselves from the "puerile
+myths[168]" (the language is startling in a saint of the Church!) in
+which they are sometimes embedded.
+
+Dionysius has much to say about love[169], but he uses the word
+[Greek: erôs], which is carefully avoided in the New Testament. He
+admits that the Scriptures "often use" [Greek: agapê], but justifies
+his preference for the other word by quoting St. Ignatius, who says of
+Christ, "My Love [Greek: erôs] is crucified.[170]" Divine Love, he
+finely says, is "an eternal circle, from goodness, through goodness,
+and to goodness."
+
+The mediæval mystics were steeped in Dionysius, though his system
+received from them certain modifications under the influence of
+Aristotelianism. He is therefore, for us, a very important figure; and
+there are two parts of his scheme which, I think, require fuller
+consideration than has been given them in this very slight sketch. I
+mean the "negative road" to God, and the pantheistic tendency.
+
+The theory that we can approach God only by analysis or abstraction has
+already been briefly commented on. It is no invention of Dionysius.
+Plotinus uses similar language, though his view of God as the fulness of
+all _life_ prevented him from following the negative path with
+thoroughness. But in Proclus we find the phrases, afterwards so common,
+about "sinking into the Divine Ground," "forsaking the manifold for the
+One," and so forth. Basilides, long before, evidently carried the
+doctrine to its extremity: "We must not even call God ineffable," he
+says, "since this is to make an assertion about Him; He is above every
+name that is named.[171]" It was a commonplace of Christian instruction
+to say that "in Divine matters there is great wisdom in confessing our
+ignorance"--this phrase occurs in Cyril's catechism.[172] But confessing
+our ignorance is a very different thing from refusing to make any
+positive statements about God. It is true that all our language about
+God must be inadequate and symbolic; but that is no reason for
+discarding all symbols, as if we could in that way know God as He knows
+Himself. At the bottom, the doctrine that God can be described only by
+negatives is neither Christian nor Greek, but belongs to the old
+religion of India. Let me try to state the argument and its consequence
+in a clear form. Since God is the Infinite, and the Infinite is the
+antithesis of the finite, every attribute which can be affirmed of a
+finite being may be safely denied of God. Hence God can only be
+_described_ by negatives; He can only be _discovered_ by stripping off
+all the qualities and attributes which veil Him; He can only be
+_reached_ by divesting ourselves of all the distinctions of personality,
+and sinking or rising into our "uncreated nothingness"; and He can only
+be _imitated_ by aiming at an abstract spirituality, the passionless
+"apathy" of an universal which is nothing in particular. Thus we see
+that the whole of those developments of Mysticism which despise symbols,
+and hope to see God by shutting the eye of sense, hang together. They
+all follow from the false notion of God as the abstract Unity
+transcending, or rather excluding, all distinctions. Of course, it is
+not intended to _exclude_ distinctions, but to rise above them; but the
+process of abstraction, or subtraction, as it really is, can never lead
+us to "the One.[173]" The only possible unification with such an
+Infinite is the [Greek: atermôn nêgretos hupnos] of Nirvana.[174] Nearly
+all that repels us in mediæval religious life--its "other-worldliness"
+and passive hostility to civilisation--the emptiness of its ideal
+life--its maltreatment of the body--its disparagement of family
+life--the respect which it paid to indolent contemplation--springs from
+this one root. But since no one who remains a Christian can exhibit the
+results of this theory in their purest form, I shall take the liberty of
+quoting a few sentences from a pamphlet written by a native Indian judge
+who I believe is still living. His object is to explain and commend to
+Western readers the mystical philosophy of his own country:[175]--"He
+who in perfect rest rises from the body and attains the highest light,
+comes forth in his own proper form. This is the immortal soul. The
+ascent is by the ladder of one's thoughts. To know God, one must first
+know one's own spirit in its purity, unspotted by thought. The soul is
+hidden behind the veil of thought, and only when thought is worn off,
+becomes visible to itself. This stage is called knowledge of the soul.
+Next is realised knowledge of God, who rises from the bosom of the soul.
+This is the end of progress; differentiation between self and others has
+ceased. All the world of thought and senses is melted into an ocean
+without waves or current. This dissolution of the world is also known as
+the death of the sinful or worldly 'I,' which veils the true Ego. Then
+the formless Being of the Deity is seen in the regions of pure
+consciousness beyond the veil of thought. Consciousness is wholly
+distinct from thought and senses; it knows them; they do not know it.
+The only proof is an appeal to spiritual experience." In the highest
+stage one is absolutely inert, "knowing nothing in particular.[176]"
+
+Most of this would have been accepted as precious truth by the
+mediæval Church mystics.[177] The words nakedness, darkness,
+nothingness, passivity, apathy, and the like, fill their pages. We
+shall find that this time-honoured phraseology was adhered to long
+after the grave moral dangers which beset this type of Mysticism had
+been recognised. Tauler, for instance, who lays the axe to the root of
+the tree by saying, "Christ never arrived at the emptiness of which
+these men talk," repeats the old jargon for pages together. German
+Mysticism really rested on another basis, and when Luther had the
+courage to break with ecclesiastical tradition, the _via negativa_
+rapidly disappeared within the sphere of his influence.
+
+But it held sway for a long time--so long that we cannot complain if
+many have said, "This is the essence of Mysticism." Mysticism is such
+a vague word, that one must not quarrel with any "private
+interpretation" of it; but we must point out that this limitation
+excludes the whole army of symbolists, a school which, in Europe at
+least, has shown more vitality than introspective Mysticism. I regard
+the _via negativa_ in metaphysics, religion, and ethics as the great
+accident of Christian Mysticism. The break-up of the ancient
+civilisation, with the losses and miseries which it brought upon
+humanity, and the chaos of brutal barbarism in which Europe weltered
+for some centuries, caused a widespread pessimism and world-weariness
+which is foreign to the temper of Europe, and which gave way to
+energetic and full-blooded activity in the Renaissance and
+Reformation. Asiatic Mysticism is the natural refuge of men who have
+lost faith in civilisation, but will not give up faith in God. "Let us
+fly hence to our dear country!" We hear the words already in
+Plotinus--nay, even in Plato. The sun still shone in heaven, but on
+earth he was eclipsed. Mysticism cuts too deep to allow us to live
+comfortably on the surface of life; and so all "the heavy and the
+weary weight of all this unintelligible world" pressed upon men and
+women till they were fain to throw it off, and seek peace in an
+invisible world of which they could not see even a shadow round about
+them.
+
+But I do not think that the negative road is a pure error. There is a
+negative side in religion, both in thought and practice. We are first
+impelled to seek the Infinite by the limitations of the finite, which
+appear to the soul as bonds and prison walls. It is natural first to
+think of the Infinite as that in which these barriers are done away.
+And in practice we must die daily, if our inward man is to be daily
+renewed. We must die to our lower self, not once only but continually,
+so that we may rise on stepping stones of many dead selves to higher
+things.[178] We must die to our first superficial views of the world
+around us, nay, even to our first views of God and religion, unless
+the childlike in our faith is by arrest of growth to become the
+childish. All the good things of life have first to be renounced, and
+then given back to us, before they can be really ours. It was
+necessary that these truths should be not only taught, but lived
+through. The individual has generally to pass through the quagmire of
+the "everlasting No," before he can set his feet on firm ground; and
+the Christian races, it seems, were obliged to go through the same
+experience. Moreover, there is a sense in which all moral effort aims
+at destroying the conditions of its own existence, and so ends
+logically in self-negation. Our highest aim as regards ourselves is to
+eradicate, not only sin, but temptation. We do not feel that we have
+won the victory until we no longer wish to offend. But a being who was
+entirely free from temptation would be either more or less than a
+man--"either a beast or a God," as Aristotle says.[179] There is,
+therefore, a half truth in the theory that the goal of earthly
+striving is negation and absorption. But it at once becomes false if
+we forget that it is a goal which cannot be reached in time, and which
+is achieved, not by good and evil neutralising each other, but by
+death being swallowed up in victory. If morality ceases to be moral
+when it has achieved its goal, it must pass into something which
+includes as well as transcends it--a condition which is certainly not
+fulfilled by contemplative passivity.[180]
+
+These thoughts should save us from regarding the saints of the
+cloister with impatience or contempt. The limitations incidental to
+their place in history do not prevent them from being glorious
+pioneers among the high passes of the spiritual life, who have scaled
+heights which those who talk glibly about "the mistake of asceticism"
+have seldom even seen afar off.
+
+We must next consider briefly the charge of Pantheism, which has been
+flung rather indiscriminately at nearly all speculative mystics, from
+Plotinus to Emerson. Dionysius, naturally enough, has been freely
+charged with it. The word is so loosely and thoughtlessly used, even
+by writers of repute, that I hope I may be pardoned if I try to
+distinguish (so far as can be done in a few words) between the various
+systems which have been called pantheistic.
+
+True Pantheism must mean the identification of God with the totality
+of existence, the doctrine that the universe is the complete and only
+expression of the nature and life of God, who on this theory is only
+immanent and not transcendent. On this view, everything in the world
+belongs to the Being of God, who is manifested equally in everything.
+Whatever is real is perfect; reality and perfection are the same
+thing. Here again we must go to India for a perfect example. "The
+learned behold God alike in the reverend Brahmin, in the ox and in the
+elephant, in the dog and in him who eateth the flesh of dogs.[181]" So
+Pope says that God is "as full, as perfect, in a hair as heart." The
+Persian Sufis were deeply involved in this error, which leads to all
+manner of absurdities and even immoralities. It is inconsistent with
+any belief in _purpose_, either in the whole or in the parts. Evil,
+therefore, cannot exist for the sake of a higher good: it must be
+itself good. It is easy to see how this view of the world may pass
+into pessimism or nihilism; for if everything is equally real and
+equally Divine, it makes no difference, except to our tempers, whether
+we call it everything or nothing, good or bad.
+
+None of the writers with whom we have to deal can fairly be charged
+with this error, which is subversive of the very foundations of true
+religion. Eckhart, carried away by his love of paradox, allows himself
+occasionally to make statements which, if logically developed, would
+come perilously near to it; and Emerson's philosophy is more seriously
+compromised in this direction. Dionysius is in no such danger, for the
+simple reason that he stands too near to Plato. The pantheistic
+tendency of mediæval Realism requires a few words of explanation,
+especially as I have placed the name of Plato at the head of this
+Lecture. Plato's doctrine of ideas aimed at establishing the
+transcendence of the highest Idea--that of God. But the mediæval
+doctrine of ideas, as held by the extreme Realists, sought to find
+room in the _summum genus_ for a harmonious coexistence of all
+things. It thus tended towards Pantheism;[182] while the Aristotelian
+Realists maintained the substantial character of individuals outside
+the Being of God. "This view," says Eicken, "which quite inverted the
+historical and logical relation of the Platonic and Aristotelian
+philosophies, was maintained till the close of the Middle Ages."
+
+We may also call pantheistic any system which regards the cosmic
+process as a real _becoming_ of God. According to this theory, God
+comes to Himself, attains full self-consciousness, in the highest of
+His creatures, which are, as it were, the organs of His self-unfolding
+Personality. This is not a philosophy which commends itself specially
+to speculative mystics, because it involves the belief that _time_ is
+an ultimate reality. If in the cosmic process, which takes place in
+time, God becomes something which He was not before, it cannot be said
+that He is exalted above time, or that a thousand years are to Him as
+one day. I shall say in my fourth Lecture that this view cannot justly
+be attributed to Eckhart. Students of Hegel are not agreed whether it
+is or is not part of their master's teaching.[183]
+
+The idea of _will_ as a world-principle--not in Schopenhauer's sense
+of a blind force impelling from within, but as the determination of a
+conscious Mind--lifts us at once out of Pantheism.[184] It sets up the
+distinction between what is and what ought to be, which Pantheism
+cannot find room for, and at the same time implies that the cosmic
+process is already complete in the consciousness of God, which cannot
+be held if He is subordinated to the category of time.
+
+God is more than the All, as being the perfect Personality, whose Will
+is manifested in creation under necessarily imperfect conditions. He
+is also in a sense less than the All, since pain, weakness, and sin,
+though known to Him as infinite Mind, can hardly be felt by Him as
+infinite Perfection. The function of evil in the economy of the
+universe is an inscrutable mystery, about which speculative Mysticism
+merely asserts that the solution cannot be that of the Manicheans. It
+is only the Agnostic[185] who will here offer the dilemma of Dualism
+or Pantheism, and try to force the mystic to accept the second
+alternative.
+
+There are two other views of the universe which have been called
+pantheistic, but incorrectly.
+
+The first is that properly called _Acosmism_, which we have
+encountered as Orientalised Platonism. Plato's theory of ideas was
+popularised into a doctrine of two separate worlds, related to each
+other as shadow and substance. The intelligible world, which is in the
+mind of God, alone exists; and thus, by denying reality to the visible
+world, we get a kind of idealistic Pantheism. But the notion of God as
+abstract Unity, which, as we have seen, was held by the later
+Neoplatonists and their Christian followers, seems to make a real
+world impossible; for bare Unity cannot create, and the metaphor of
+the sun shedding his rays explains nothing. Accordingly the
+"intelligible world," the sphere of reality, drops out, and we are
+left with only the infra-real world and the supra-real One. So we are
+landed in nihilism or Asiatic Mysticism[186].
+
+The second is the belief in the _immanence_ of a God who is also
+transcendent. This should be called _Panentheism_, a useful word
+coined by Krause, and not Pantheism. In its true form it is an
+integral part of Christian philosophy, and, indeed, of all rational
+theology. But in proportion as the indwelling of God, or of Christ, or
+the Holy Spirit in the heart of man, is regarded as an _opus
+operatum_, or as complete _substitution_ of the Divine for the human,
+we are in danger of a self-deification which resembles the maddest
+phase of Pantheism[187].
+
+Pantheism, as I understand the word, is a pitfall for Mysticism to
+avoid, not an error involved in its first principles. But we need not
+quarrel with those who have said that speculative Mysticism is the
+Christian form of Pantheism. For there is much truth in Amiel's
+dictum, that "Christianity, if it is to triumph over Pantheism, must
+absorb it." Those are no true friends to the cause of religion who
+would base it entirely upon dogmatic supernaturalism. The passion for
+facts which are objective, isolated, and past, often prevents us from
+seeing facts which are eternal and spiritual. We cry, "Lo here," and
+"Lo there," and forget that the kingdom of God is within us and
+amongst us. The great service rendered by the speculative mystics to
+the Christian Church lies in their recognition of those truths which
+Pantheism grasps only to destroy.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 107: The mention of Heraclitus is very interesting. It shows
+that the Christians had already recognised their affinity with the
+great speculative mystic of Ephesus, whose fragments supply many
+mottoes for essays on Mysticism. The identification of the Heraclitean
+[Greek: nous-logos] with the Johannine Logos appears also in Euseb.
+_Præp. Ev_. xi. 19, quoted above.]
+
+[Footnote 108: [Greek: ho panta aristos Platôn--oion pheothoroumenos],
+he calls him.]
+
+[Footnote 109: "Mysticism finds in Plato all its texts," says Emerson
+truly.]
+
+[Footnote 110: The doctrine of reserve in religious teaching, which
+some have thought dishonest, rests on the self-evident proposition
+that it takes two to tell the truth--one to speak, and one to hear.]
+
+[Footnote 111: "Man kann den Gnosticismus des zweiten Jahrhunderts als
+theologisch-transcendente Mystik, und die eigentliche Mystik als
+substantiell-immanente Gnosis bezeichnen" (Noack).]
+
+[Footnote 112: See Conybeare's interesting account of the Therapeutæ
+in his edition of Philo, _On the Contemplative Life_, and his
+refutation of the theory of Lucius, Zeller, etc., that the Therapeutæ
+belong to the end of the third century.]
+
+[Footnote 113: _Stoical_ influence is also strong in Philo.]
+
+[Footnote 114: The Jewish writer Aristobulus (about 160 B.C.) is said
+to have used the same argument in an exposition of the Pentateuch
+addressed to Ptolemy Philometor.]
+
+[Footnote 115: Compare Philo's own account (_in Flaceum_) of the
+anti-Semitic outrages at Alexandria.]
+
+[Footnote 116: There is a very explicit identification of Christ with
+[Greek: Nous] in the second book of the _Miscellanies_: "He says, Whoso
+hath ears to hear, let him hear. And who is 'He'? Let Epicharmus
+answer: [Greek: Nous hora]," etc.]
+
+[Footnote 117: See Bigg, _Christian Platonists of Alexandria_,
+especially pp. 92, 93.]
+
+[Footnote 118: [Greek: Pistis] is here used in the familiar sense
+(which falls far short of the Johannine) of assent to particular
+dogmas. [Greek: Gnôsis] welds these together into a consistent
+whole, and at the same time confers a more immediate apprehension of
+truth.]
+
+[Footnote 119: [Greek: askêsis] or [Greek: praxis].]
+
+[Footnote 120: _Strom_, v. 10. 63.]
+
+[Footnote 121: See, further, Appendices B and C.]
+
+[Footnote 122: In Origen, [Greek: sophia] is a higher term than
+[Greek: gnôsis].]
+
+[Footnote 123: The Greek word is [Greek: ainigmata] "riddles." On the
+whole subject see Harnack, _History of Dogma_, vol. ii. p. 342.]
+
+[Footnote 124: God, he says (_Tom. in Matth_. xiii. 569), is not the
+absolutely unlimited; for then He could not have self-consciousness:
+His omnipotence is limited by His goodness and wisdom (cf. _Cels_. iii.
+493).]
+
+[Footnote 125: I hope it is not necessary to apologise for devoting a
+few pages to Plotinus in a work on Christian Mysticism. Every treatise
+on religious thought in the early centuries of our era must take
+account of the parallel developments of religious philosophy in the
+old and the new religions, which illustrate and explain each other.]
+
+[Footnote 126: _Enn_. i. 8. 14, [Greek: ouden estin ho amoiron esti
+psychês].]
+
+[Footnote 127: _Enn_. iii. 2. 7; iv. 7. 14.]
+
+[Footnote 128: _Enn_. iv. 4. 26.]
+
+[Footnote 129: _Enn_. iv. 1. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 130: Matter is [Greek: alogos, skia logou kai ekptôsis]
+_Enn_. vi. 3. 7; [Greek: eidôlon kai phantasma ogkou kai hopostaseôs
+ephesis] _Enn_. iii. 6. 7. If matter were _nothing_, it could not
+desire to be something; it is only no-thing--[Greek: apeiria,
+aoristia].]
+
+[Footnote 131: These three stages correspond to the three stages in
+the mystical ladder which appear in nearly all the Christian mystics.]
+
+[Footnote 132: The passages in which Plotinus (following Plato) bids
+us mount by means of the beauty of the external world, do not
+contradict those other passages in which he bids us "turn from things
+without to look within" (_Enn_. iv. 8. 1). Remembering that postulate
+of all Mysticism, that we only know a thing by _becoming_ it, we see
+that we can only know the world by finding it in ourselves, that is,
+by cherishing those "best hours of the mind" (as Bacon says) when we
+are lifted above ourselves into union with the world-spirit.]
+
+[Footnote 133: Plotinus guards against this misconception of his
+meaning, _Enn_. v. 1. 6, [Greek: ekpodôn de êmin estô genesis hê en
+chronô].]
+
+[Footnote 134: [Greek: zôê exelittomenê], _Enn_. i. 4. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 135: See especially _Enn_. iv. 4. 32, 45.]
+
+[Footnote 136: _Enn_. iv. 5. 3, [Greek: sympathes to zôon tode to
+pan heautô]; iv. 9. 1, [Greek: hôste emou pathontos synaisthanesthai
+to pan].]
+
+[Footnote 137: _Enn_. iv. 5. 2, [Greek: sympatheia amydra].]
+
+[Footnote 138: See Bigg, _Neoplatonism_, pp. 203, 204. He shows that
+with the Stoics, who were Pantheists, the Logos was regarded as a
+first cause; while with the Neoplatonists, who were Theists and
+Transcendentalists, it was a secondary cause. In Plotinus, the
+Intelligence ([Greek: Nous]) is "King" (_Enn_. v. 3. 3), and "the
+law of Being" (_Enn_. v. 9. 5). But the Johannine Logos is both
+immanent and transcendent. When Erigena says, "Certius cognoscas
+verbum Naturam omnium esse," he gives a true but incomplete account of
+the Nature of the Second Person of the Trinity.]
+
+[Footnote 139: See especially the interesting passage, _Enn_. i. 8.
+3.]
+
+[Footnote 140: _Enn_. i. 8. 13, [Greek: eti anthrôpikon hê kakia,
+memigmenê tini enantiô].]
+
+[Footnote 141: The "civil virtues" are the four cardinal virtues.
+Plotinus says that justice is mainly "minding one's business" [Greek:
+oikeiopagia]. "The purifying virtues" deliver us from sin; but [Greek:
+hê spoudê ouk exô hamartias einai, alla theon einai].]
+
+[Footnote 142: Compare Hegel's criticism of Schelling, in the latter's
+Asiatic period, "This so-called wisdom, instead of being yielded up to
+the influence of Divinity _by its contempt of all proportion and
+definiteness_, does really nothing but give full play to accident and
+caprice. Nothing was ever produced by such a process better than mere
+dreams" (_Vorrede zur Phänomenologie_, p. 6).]
+
+[Footnote 143: Heb. viii. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 144: _Enn_. iii. 8. 4, [Greek: hotan asthenêsôsin eis to
+theôrein, skian theôrias kai logou tên praxin poiountai]. Cf. Amiel's
+_Journal_, p. 4, "action is coarsened thought."]
+
+[Footnote 145: _Enn_. iii. 2. 15, [Greek: hypokriseis] and [Greek:
+paignion]; and see iv. 3. 32, on love of family and country.]
+
+[Footnote 146: _Enn_. vi. 7. 34.]
+
+[Footnote 147: It would be an easy and rather amusing task to
+illustrate these and other aberrations of speculative Mysticism from
+Herbert Spencer's philosophy. E.g., he says that, though we cannot
+know the Absolute, we may have "an indefinite consciousness of it."
+"It is impossible to give to this consciousness any qualitative or
+quantitative expression whatever," and yet it is quite certain that we
+have it. Herbert Spencer's Absolute is, in fact, _matter without
+form_. This would seem to identify it rather with the all but
+non-existing "matter" of Plotinus (see Bigg, _Neoplatonism_, p. 199),
+than with the superessential "One"; but the later Neoplatonists found
+themselves compelled to call _both_ extremes [Greek: to mê on].
+Plotinus struggles hard against this conclusion, which threatens to
+make shipwreck of his Platonism. "Hierotheus," whose sympathies are
+really with Indian nihilism, welcomes it.]
+
+[Footnote 148: The following advice to directors, quoted by Ribet, may
+be added: "Director valde attendat ad personas languidæ valetudinis.
+Si tales personæ a Deo in quamdam quietis orationem eleventur,
+contingit ut in omnibus exterioribus sensibus certum defectum ac
+speciem quamdam deliquii experiantur cum magna interna suavitate, quod
+extasim aut raptum esse facillime putant. Cum Dei Spiritui resistere
+nolint, deliquio illi totas se tradunt, et per multas horas, cum
+gravissimo valetudinis præiudicio in tali mentis stupiditate
+persistunt." Genuine ecstasy, according to these authorities, seldom
+lasted more than half an hour, though one Spanish writer speaks of an
+hour.]
+
+[Footnote 149: Mrs. Humphry Ward's translation, p. 72.]
+
+[Footnote 150: But we should not forget that the author of the
+_Epistle to Diognetus_ speaks of the Logos as [Greek: pantote neos en
+hagiôn kardiais gennômenos]. In St. Augustine we find it in a rather
+surprisingly bold form; cf. _in Joh. tract._ 21, n. 8: "Gratulemur et
+grates agamus non solum nos Christianos factos esse, sed Christum ...
+Admiramini, gaudete: Christus facti sumus." But this is really quite
+different from saying, "Ego Christus factus sum."]
+
+[Footnote 151: "Greek" must here be taken to include the Hellenised
+Jews. Those who are best qualified to speak on Jewish philosophy
+believe that it exercised a strong influence at Alexandria.]
+
+[Footnote 152: Proclus used to say that a philosopher ought to show no
+exclusiveness in his worship, but to be the hierophant of the whole
+world. This eclecticism was not confined to cultus.]
+
+[Footnote 153: This account of "Hierotheus" is, of course, taken from
+Frothingham's most interesting monograph.]
+
+[Footnote 154: So Ruysbroek says, "We must not remain on the top of
+the ladder, but must descend."]
+
+[Footnote 155: Another description of the process of [Greek: haplôsis]
+may be found in the curious work of Ibn Tophail, translated by Ockley,
+and much valued by the Quakers, _The Improvement of Human Reason,
+exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Tophail, newly translated by Simon
+Ockley_, 1708.]
+
+[Footnote 156: [Greek: ou monon mathôn alla kai pathôn ta theia.]]
+
+[Footnote 157: See Harnack, vol. iv. pp. 282, 283. Frothingham's
+theory necessitates a later date for Dionysius than that which Harnack
+believes to be most probable; the latter is in favour of placing him
+in the second half of the fourth century. The writings of Dionysius
+are quoted not much later than 500.]
+
+[Footnote 158: E.g., he agrees with Iamblichus and Proclus (in
+opposition to Plotinus) that "the One" is exalted above "Goodness."]
+
+[Footnote 159: At the present time the more pious opinion among
+Romanists seems to be that the writings are genuine; but Schram admits
+that "there is a dispute" about their date, and some Roman Catholic
+writers frankly give them up.]
+
+[Footnote 160: E.g., [Greek: katharsis, phôtismos, myêsis, epopteia,
+theôsis; hierotelestai] and [Greek: mystagôgoi] (of the bishops),
+[Greek: phôtistikoi] (of the priests), [Greek: kathartikoi] (of the
+deacons).]
+
+[Footnote 161: [Greek: hyperousios aoristia--hyper noun
+hynotês--henas henopoios hapasês henados--hyperousios ousia kai nous
+anoêtos kai logos arrêtos--alogia kai anoêsia kai anônymia--auto de
+mê on ôs pasês ousias epekeina.]]
+
+[Footnote 162: [Greek: oudemia ê monas ê trias exagei tên hyper
+panta krypsiotêta tês hyper panta hyperousiôs hyperousês
+hypertheotêtos.]]
+
+[Footnote 163: [Greek: monas estai pasês dyados archê] is stated by
+Dionysius as an axiom.]
+
+[Footnote 164: See especially Bradley's _Appearance and Reality_, some
+chapters of which show a certain sympathy with Oriental speculative
+Mysticism. The theory set forth in the text must not be confounded
+with true pantheism, to which every phenomenon is equally Divine as it
+stands. See below, at the end of this Lecture.]
+
+[Footnote 165: See _De Div. Nom._ iv. 8; xi. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 166: Dionysius distinguishes _three_ movements of the human
+mind--the _circular_, wherein the soul returns in upon itself; the
+_oblique_, which includes all knowledge acquired by reasoning,
+research, etc.; and the _direct_, in which we rise to higher truths by
+using outward things as symbols. The last two he regards as inferior
+to the "circular" movement, which he also calls "simplification"
+[Greek: haplôsis].]
+
+[Footnote 167: The highest stage (he says) is to reach [Greek: ton
+hyperphôton gnophon kai di' ablepsias kai agnôsias idein kai gnônai].]
+
+[Footnote 168: [Greek: tolmôsa theoplasia] and [Greek: paidariôdês
+phantasia] are phrases which he applies to Old Testament narratives.]
+
+[Footnote 169: As a specimen of his language, we may quote [Greek:
+esti de ekstatikos ho theios erôs, ouk eôn eautôn einai tous erastas,
+alla tôn erômenôn] (_De Div. Nom_. iv. 13).]
+
+[Footnote 170: I am inclined to agree with Dr. Bigg (_Bampton
+Lectures_, Introduction, pp. viii, ix), that Dionysius and the later
+mystics are right in their interpretation of this passage. Bishop
+Lightfoot and some other good scholars take it to mean, "My earthly
+affections are crucified." See the discussion in Lightfoot's edition
+of Ignatius, and in Bigg's Introduction. I am not aware how the
+vindicators of "Dionysius" explain the curious fact that he had read
+Ignatius!]
+
+[Footnote 171: See Harnack, vol. iii. pp. 242, 243. St. Augustine
+accepts this statement, which he repeats word for word.]
+
+[Footnote 172: Compare also Hooker: "Of Thee our fittest eloquence is
+silence, while we confess without confessing that Thy glory is
+unsearchable and beyond our reach."]
+
+[Footnote 173: Unity is a characteristic or simple condition of real
+being, but it is not in itself a principle of being, so that "the One"
+could exist substantially by itself. To personify the barest of
+abstractions, call it God, and then try to imitate it, would seem too
+absurd a fallacy to have misled any one, if history did not show that
+it has had a long and vigorous life.]
+
+[Footnote 174: Cf. Sir W. Hamilton (_Discussions_, p. 21): "By
+abstraction we annihilate the object, and by abstraction we annihilate
+the subject of consciousness. But what remains? Nothing. When we
+attempt to conceive it as reality, we hypostatise the zero."]
+
+[Footnote 175: The Hon. P. Ramanathan, C.M.G., Attorney-General of
+Ceylon, _The Mystery of Godliness_. This interesting essay was brought
+to my notice by the kindness of the Rev. G.U. Pope, D.D., University
+Teacher in Tamil and Telugu at Oxford.]
+
+[Footnote 176: Hunt's summary of the philosophy of the Vedanta Sara
+(_Pantheism and Christianity_, p. 19) may help to illustrate further
+this type of thought. "Brahma is called the universal soul, of which
+all human souls are a part. These are likened to a succession of
+sheaths, which envelop each other like the coats of an onion. The
+human soul frees itself by knowledge from the sheath. But what is this
+knowledge? To know that the human intellect and all its faculties are
+ignorance and delusion. This is to take away the sheath, and to find
+that God is all. Whatever is not Brahma is nothing. So long as a man
+perceives himself to be anything, he is nothing. When he discovers
+that his supposed individuality is no individuality, then he has
+knowledge. Man must strive to rid himself of himself as an object of
+thought. He must be only a subject. As subject he is Brahma, while the
+objective world is mere phenomenon."]
+
+[Footnote 177: We may compare with them the following maxims, which,
+enclosed in an outline of Mount Carmel, form the frontispiece to an
+early edition of St. Juan of the Cross:--
+
+"To enjoy Infinity, do not desire to taste of finite things.
+
+"To arrive at the knowledge of Infinity, do not desire the knowledge
+of finite things.
+
+"To reach to the possession of Infinity, desire to possess nothing.
+
+"To be included in the being of Infinity, desire to be thyself nothing
+whatever.
+
+"The moment that thou art resting in a creature, thou art ceasing to
+advance towards Infinity.
+
+"In order to unite thyself to Infinity, thou must surrender finite
+things without reserve."
+
+After reading such maxims, we shall probably be inclined to think that
+"the Infinite" as a name for God might be given up with advantage.
+There is nothing Divine about a _tabula rasa_.]
+
+[Footnote 178: Cf. Richard of St. Victor, _de Præp. Anim._ 83,
+"ascendat per semetipsum super semetipsum."]
+
+[Footnote 179: The same is true of our attitude towards external
+nature. We are always trying to rise from the shadow to the substance,
+from the symbol to the thing symbolised, and so far the followers of
+the negative road are right; but the life of Mysticism (on this side)
+consists in the process of spiritualising our impressions; and to
+regard the process as completed is to lose shadow and substance
+together.]
+
+[Footnote 180: It may be objected that I have misused the term _via
+negativa_, which is merely the line of argument which establishes the
+transcendence of God, as the "affirmative road" establishes His
+immanence. I am far from wishing to depreciate a method which when
+rightly used is a safeguard against Pantheism, but the whole history
+of mediæval Mysticism shows how mischievous it is when followed
+exclusively.]
+
+[Footnote 181: See Vaughan, _Hours with the Mystics_, vol. i. p. 58.]
+
+[Footnote 182: Seth, _Hegelianism and Personality_, states this more
+strongly. He argues that "the ultimate goal of Realism is a
+thorough-going Pantheism." God is regarded as the _summum genus_, the
+ultimate Substance of which all existing things are accidents. The
+genus inheres in the species, and the species in individuals, as an
+entity common to all and _identical in each_, an entity to which
+individual differences adhere as accidents.]
+
+[Footnote 183: McTaggart, _Studies in Hegelian Dialectic_, p. 159 sq.,
+argues that Hegel means that the Absolute Idea exists eternally in its
+full perfection. There can be no _real_ development in time. "Infinite
+time is a false infinite of endless aggregation." The whole discussion
+is very instructive and interesting.]
+
+[Footnote 184: So Lasson says well, in his book on Meister Eckhart,
+"Mysticism views everything from the standpoint of teleology, while
+Pantheism generally stops at causality."]
+
+[Footnote 185: As, for instance, Leslie Stephen tries to do in his
+_Agnostic's Apology_.]
+
+[Footnote 186: The system of Spinoza, based on the canon, "Omnis
+determinatio est negatio," proceeds by wiping out all dividing lines,
+which he regards as illusions, in order to reach the ultimate truth of
+things. This, as Hegel showed, is acosmism rather than Pantheism, and
+certainly not "atheism." The method of Spinoza should have led him, as
+the same method led Dionysius, to define God as [Greek: hyperousios
+aoristia]. He only escapes this conclusion by an inconsistency. See E.
+Caird, _Evolution of Religion_, vol. i. pp. 104, 105.]
+
+[Footnote 187: There is a third system which is called pantheistic;
+but as it has nothing to do with Mysticism, I need not try to
+determine whether it deserves the name or not. It is that which
+deifies physical law. Sometimes it is "materialism grown sentimental,"
+as it has been lately described; sometimes it issues in stern
+Fatalism. This is Stoicism; and high Calvinism is simply Christian
+Stoicism. It has been called pantheistic, because it admits only one
+Will in the universe.]
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE IV
+
+
+[Greek: "Edizêsamên emeôuton."]
+
+HERACLITUS.
+
+
+"La philosophie n'est pas philosophie si elle ne touche à l'abîme;
+mais elle cesse d'être philosophie si elle y tombe."
+
+COUSIN.
+
+
+   "Denn Alles muss in Nichts zerfallen,
+    Wenn es im Sein beharren will."
+
+GOETHE.
+
+
+   "Seek no more abroad, say I,
+    House and Home, but turn thine eye
+    Inward, and observe thy breast;
+    There alone dwells solid Rest.
+    Say not that this House is small,
+    Girt up in a narrow wall:
+    In a cleanly sober mind
+    Heaven itself full room doth find.
+    Here content make thine abode
+    With thyself and with thy God.
+    Here in this sweet privacy
+    May'st thou with thyself agree,
+    And keep House in peace, tho' all
+    Th' Universe's fabric fall."
+
+JOSEPH BEAUMONT.
+
+
+   "The One remains, the many change and pass:
+      Heaven's light for ever shines; earth's shadows fly:
+    Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,
+      Stains the white radiance of Eternity."
+
+SHELLEY.
+
+
+
+CHRISTIAN PLATONISM AND SPECULATIVE MYSTICISM
+
+2. IN THE WEST
+
+"Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God
+dwelleth in you?"--1 COR. iii. 16.
+
+
+We have seen that Mysticism, like most other types of religion, had
+its cradle in the East. The Christian Platonists, whom we considered
+in the last Lecture, wrote in Greek, and we had no occasion to mention
+the Western Churches. But after the Pseudo-Dionysius, the East had
+little more to contribute to Christian thought. John of Damascus, in
+the eighth century, half mystic and half scholastic, need not detain
+us. The Eastern Churches rapidly sank into a deplorably barbarous
+condition, from which they have never emerged. We may therefore turn
+away from the Greek-speaking countries, and trace the course of
+Mysticism in the Latin and Teutonic races.
+
+Scientific Mysticism in the West did not all pass through Dionysius.
+Victorinus, a Neoplatonic philosopher, was converted to Christianity
+in his old age, about 360 A.D. The story of his conversion, and the
+joy which it caused in the Christian community, is told by St.
+Augustine[188]. He was a deep thinker of the speculative mystical
+type, but a clumsy and obscure writer, in spite of his rhetorical
+training. His importance lies in his position as the first Christian
+Neoplatonist who wrote in Latin.
+
+The Trinitarian doctrine of Victorinus anticipates in a remarkable
+manner that of the later philosophical mystics. The Father,
+he says, eternally knows Himself in the Son. The Son is the
+self-objectification of God, the "_forma_" of God[189], the utterance
+of the Absolute. The Father is "_cessatio_," "_silentium_," "_quies_";
+but He is also "_motus_" while the Son is "_motio_." There is no
+contradiction between "_motus_" and "_cessatio_" since "_motus_" is
+not the same as "_mutatio_." "Movement" belongs to the "being" of God;
+and this eternal "movement" is the generation of the Son. This eternal
+generation is exalted above time. All life is _now_: we live always in
+the present, not in the past or future; and thus our life is a symbol
+of eternity, to which all things are for ever present[190]. The
+generation of the Son is at the same time the creation of the
+archetypal world; for the Son is the cosmic principle[191], through
+whom all that potentially _is_ is actualised. He even says that the
+Father is to the Son as [Greek: ho mê ôn] to [Greek: ho ôn], thus
+taking the step which Plotinus wished to avoid, and applying the same
+expression to the superessential God as to infra-essential
+matter.[192]
+
+This actualisation is a self-limitation of God,[193] but involves no
+degradation. Victorinus uses language implying the subordination of
+the Son, but is strongly opposed to Arianism.
+
+The Holy Ghost is the "bond" (_copula_) of the Trinity, joining in
+perfect love the Father and the Son. Victorinus is the first to use
+this idea, which afterwards became common. It is based on the
+Neoplatonic triad of _status, progressio, regressus_ ([Greek: monê,
+proodos, epistrophê]). In another place he symbolises the Holy Ghost
+as the female principle, the "Mother of Christ" in His eternal life.
+This metaphor is a relic of Gnosticism, which the Church wisely
+rejected.
+
+The second Person of the Trinity contains in Himself the archetypes of
+everything. He is the "_elementum_," "_habitaculum_," "_habitator_,"
+"_locus_" of the universe. The material world was created for man's
+probation. All spirits pre-existed, and their partial immersion in an
+impure material environment is a degradation from which they must
+aspire to be delivered. But the whole mundane history of a soul is
+only the realisation of the idea which had existed from all eternity
+in the mind of God. These doctrines show that Victorinus is involved
+in a dualistic view of matter, and in a form of predestinarianism; but
+he has no definite teaching on the relation of sin to the ideal
+world.
+
+His language about Christ and the Church is mystical in tone. "The
+Church is Christ," he says; "The resurrection of Christ is our
+resurrection"; and of the Eucharist, "The body of Christ is life."
+
+We now come to St. Augustine himself, who at one period of his life
+was a diligent student of Plotinus. It would be hardly justifiable to
+claim St. Augustine as a mystic, since there are important parts of
+his teaching which have no affinity to Mysticism; but it touched him
+on one side, and he remained half a Platonist. His natural sympathy
+with Mysticism was not destroyed by the vulgar and perverted forms of
+it with which he was first brought in contact. The Manicheans and
+Gnostics only taught him to distinguish true Mysticism from false: he
+soon saw through the pretensions of these sectaries, while he was not
+ashamed to learn from Plotinus. The mystical or Neoplatonic element in
+his theology will be clearly shown in the following extracts. In a few
+places he comes dangerously near to some of the errors which we found
+in Dionysius.
+
+God is above all that can be said of Him. We must not even call Him
+ineffable;[194] He is best adored in silence,[195] best known by
+nescience,[196] best described by negatives.[197] God is absolutely
+immutable; this is a doctrine on which he often insists, and which
+pervades all his teaching about predestination. The world pre-existed
+from all eternity in the mind of God; in the Word of God, by whom all
+things were made, and who is immutable Truth, all things and events
+are stored up together unchangeably, and all are one. God sees the
+time-process not as a process, but gathered up into one harmonious
+whole. This seems very near to acosmism, but there are other passages
+which are intended to guard against this error. For instance, in the
+_Confessions_[198] he says that "things above are better than things
+below; but all creation together is better than things above"; that is
+to say, true reality is something higher than an abstract
+spirituality.[199]
+
+He is fond of speaking of the _Beauty_ of God; and as he identifies
+beauty with symmetry,[200] it is plain that the formless "Infinite" is
+for him, as for every true Platonist, the bottom and not the top of
+the scale of being. Plotinus had perhaps been the first to speak of
+the Divine nature as the meeting-point of the Good, the True, and the
+Beautiful; and this conception, which is of great value, appears also
+in Augustine. There are three grades of beauty, they both say,
+corporeal, spiritual, and divine,[201] the first being an image of the
+second, and the second of the third.[202] "Righteousness is the truest
+beauty,[203]" Augustine says more than once. "All that is beautiful
+comes from the highest Beauty, which is God." This is true Platonism,
+and points to Mysticism of the symbolic kind, which we must consider
+later. St. Augustine is on less secure ground when he says that evil
+is simply the splash of dark colour which gives relief to the picture;
+and when in other places he speaks of it as simple privation of good.
+But here again he closely follows Plotinus.[204]
+
+St. Augustine was not hostile to the idea of a World-Soul; he regards
+the universe as a living organism;[205] but he often warns his readers
+against identifying God and the world, or supposing that God is merely
+immanent in creation. The Neoplatonic teaching about the relation of
+individual souls to the World-Soul may have helped him to formulate
+his own teaching about the mystical union of Christians with Christ.
+His phrase is that Christ and the Church are "_una persona_."
+
+St. Augustine arranges the ascent of the soul in seven stages.[206]
+But the higher steps are, as usual, purgation, illumination, and
+union. This last, which he calls "the vision and contemplation of
+truth," is "not a step, but the goal of the journey." When we have
+reached it, we shall understand the wholesomeness of the doctrines
+with which we were fed, as children with milk; the meaning of such
+"hard sayings" as the resurrection of the body will become plain to
+us. Of the blessedness which attends this state he says
+elsewhere,[207] "I entered, and beheld with the mysterious eye of my
+soul the light that never changes, above the eye of my soul, above my
+intelligence. It was something altogether different from any earthly
+illumination. It was higher than my intelligence because it made me,
+and I was lower because made by it. He who knows the truth knows that
+light, and he who knows that light knows eternity. Love knows that
+light." And again he says,[208] "What is this which flashes in upon
+me, and thrills my heart without wounding it? I tremble and I burn; I
+tremble, feeling that I am unlike Him; I burn, feeling that I am like
+Him."
+
+One more point must be mentioned before we leave St. Augustine. In
+spite of, or rather because of, his Platonism, he had nothing but
+contempt for the later Neoplatonism, the theurgic and theosophic
+apparatus of Iamblichus and his friends. I have said nothing yet about
+the extraordinary development of magic in all its branches, astrology,
+necromancy, table-rapping, and other kinds of divination, charms and
+amulets and witchcraft, which brought ridicule upon the last struggles
+of paganism. These aberrations of Nature-Mysticism will be dealt with
+in their later developments in my seventh Lecture. St. Augustine,
+after mentioning some nonsensical incantations of the "abracadabra"
+kind, says, "A Christian old woman is wiser than these philosophers."
+In truth, the spirit of Plato lived in, and not outside Christianity,
+even in the time of Porphyry. And on the cultus of angels and spirits,
+which was closely connected with theurgic superstition, St.
+Augustine's judgment is very instructive. "Whom should I find," he
+asks, "to reconcile me to Thee? Should I approach the angels? With
+what prayers, with what rites? Many, as I hear, have tried this
+method, and have come to crave for curious visions, and have been
+deceived, as they deserved.[209]"
+
+In spite of St. Augustine's Platonism and the immense influence which
+he exercised, the Western Church was slow in developing a mystical
+theology. The Greek Mysticism, based on emanation, was not congenial
+to the Western mind, and the time of the German, with its philosophy
+of immanence, was not yet. The tendency of Eastern thinkers is to try
+to gain a view of reality as a whole, complete and entire: the form
+under which it most readily pictures it is that of _space_. The West
+seeks rather to discover the universal laws which in every part of the
+universe are working out their fulfilment. The form under which it
+most readily pictures reality is that of _time_.[210] Thus
+Neoplatonism had to undergo certain modifications before it could
+enter deeply into the religious consciousness of the West.
+
+The next great name is that of John Scotus Erigena,[211] an English or
+Irish monk, who in the ninth century translated Dionysius into Latin.
+Erigena is unquestionably one of the most remarkable figures of the
+Middle Ages. A bold and independent thinker, he made it his aim to
+elucidate the vague theories of Dionysius, and to present them as a
+consistent philosophical system worked out by the help of Aristotle
+and perhaps Boethius.[212] He intends, of course, to keep within the
+limits permitted to Christian speculation; but in reality he does not
+allow dogma to fetter him. The Christian Alexandrians were, on the
+whole, more orthodox than their language; Erigena's language partially
+veils the real audacity of his speculation. He is a mystic only by his
+intellectual affinities;[213] the warmth of pious aspiration and love
+which makes Dionysius, amid all his extravagance, still a religious
+writer, has cooled entirely in Erigena. He can pray with fervour and
+eloquence for intellectual enlightenment; but there was nothing of the
+prophet or saint about him, to judge from his writings. Still, though
+one might dispute his title to be called either a Christian or a
+mystic, we must spare a few minutes to this last flower of
+Neoplatonism, which bloomed so late on our northern islands.
+
+God, says Erigena, is called Essence or Being; but, strictly speaking,
+He is not "Being";[214] for Being arises in opposition to not-Being,
+and there is no opposition to the Absolute, or God. Eternity, the
+abode or nature of God, is homogeneous and without parts, one, simple,
+and indivisible. "God is the totality of all things which are and are
+not, which can and cannot be. He is the similarity of the similar, the
+dissimilarity of the dissimilar, the opposition of opposites, and the
+contrariety of contraries. All discords are resolved when they are
+considered as parts of the universal harmony." All things begin from
+unity and end in unity: the Absolute can contain nothing
+self-contradictory. And so God cannot be called Goodness, for Goodness
+is opposed to Badness, and God is above this distinction. Goodness,
+however is a more comprehensive term than Being. There may be Goodness
+without Being, but not Being without Goodness; for Evil is the
+negation of Being. "The Scripture openly pronounces this," says
+Erigena; "for we read, God saw all things; and _not_, lo, they were,
+but, lo, they were very good." All things are, in so far as they are
+good. "But the things that are not are also called good, and are far
+better than those which are." Being, in fact, is a defect, "since it
+separates from the superessential Good." The feeling which prompts
+this strange expression is that since time and space are themselves
+onesided appearances, a fixed limit must be set to the amount of
+goodness and reality which can be represented under these conditions.
+Erigena therefore thinks that to enter the time-process must be to
+contract a certain admixture of unreality or evil. In so far as life
+involves _separateness_ (not distinction), this must be true; but the
+manifold is only evil when it is discordant and antagonistic to unity.
+That the many-in-one should appear as the one-in-many, is the effect
+of the forms of time and space in which it appears; the statement that
+"the things which are not are far better than those which are," is
+only true in the sense that the world of appearance is permeated by
+evil as yet unsubdued, which in the Godhead exists only as something
+overcome or transmuted.
+
+Erigena says that God is above all the categories, including that of
+relation. It follows that the Persons of the Trinity, which are only
+"relative names," are fused in the Absolute.[215] We may make
+statements about God, if we remember that they are only metaphors; but
+whatever we deny about Him, we deny truly.[216] This is the "negative
+road" of Dionysius, from whom Erigena borrows a number of uncouth
+compounds. But we can see that he valued this method mainly as
+safeguarding the transcendence of God against pantheistic theories of
+immanence. The religious and practical aspects of the doctrine had
+little interest for him.
+
+The destiny of all things is to "rest and be quiet" in God. But he
+tries to escape the conclusion that all distinctions must disappear;
+rather, he says, the return to God raises creatures into a higher
+state, in which they first attain their true being. All individual
+types will be preserved in the universal. He borrows an illustration,
+not a very happy one, from Plotinus. "As iron, when it becomes
+red-hot, seems to be turned into pure fire, but remains no less iron
+than before; so when body passes into soul, and rational substances
+into God, they do not lose their identity, but preserve it in a higher
+state of being."
+
+Creation he regards as a necessary self-realisation of God. "God was
+not," he says, "before He made the universe." The Son is the Idea of
+the World; "be assured," he says, "that the Word is the nature of all
+things." The primordial causes or ideas--Goodness, Being, Life, etc.,
+_in themselves_, which the Father made in the Son--are in a sense the
+creators of the world, for the order of all things is established
+according to them. God created the world, not out of nothing, nor out
+of something, but out of Himself.[217] The creatures have always
+pre-existed "yonder" in the Word; God has only caused them to be
+realised in time and space.
+
+"Thought and Action are identical in God." "He sees by working and
+works by seeing."
+
+Man is a microcosm. The fivefold division of nature--corporeal, vital,
+sensitive, rational, intellectual--is all represented in his
+organisation. The corruptible body is an "accident," the consequence
+of sin. The original body was immortal and incorruptible. This body
+will one day be restored.
+
+Evil has no substance, and is destined to disappear. "Nothing contrary
+to the Divine goodness and life and blessedness can be coeternal with
+them." The world must reach perfection, when all will ultimately be
+God. "The loss and absence of Christ is the torment of the whole
+creation, nor do I think that there is any other." There is no "place
+of punishment" anywhere.
+
+Erigena is an admirable interpreter of the Alexandrians and of
+Dionysius, but he emphasises their most dangerous tendencies. We
+cannot be surprised that his books were condemned; it is more strange
+that the audacious theories which they repeat from Dionysius should
+have been allowed to pass without censure for so long. Indeed, the
+freedom of speculation accorded to the mystics forms a remarkable
+exception to the zeal for exact orthodoxy which characterised the
+general policy of the early Church. The explanation is that in the
+East Mysticism has seldom been revolutionary, and has compensated for
+its speculative audacity by the readiness of its outward conformity.
+Moreover, the theories of Dionysius about the earthly and heavenly
+hierarchies were by no means unwelcome to sacerdotalism. In the West
+things were different. Mysticism there has always been a spirit of
+reform, generally of revolt. There is much even in Erigena, whose main
+affinities were with the East, which forecasts the Reformation. He is
+the father, not only of Western Mysticism and scholasticism, but of
+rationalism as well.[218] But the danger which lurked in his
+speculations was not at first recognised. His book on predestination
+was condemned in 855 and 859 for its universalist doctrine,[219] and
+two hundred years later his Eucharistic doctrine, revived by Berengar,
+was censured.[220] But it was not till the thirteenth century that a
+general condemnation was passed upon him. This judgment followed the
+appearance of a strongly pantheistic or acosmistic school of mystics,
+chief among whom was Amalric of Bena, a master of theology at Paris
+about 1200. Amalric is a very interesting figure, for his teaching
+exhibits all the features which are most characteristic of extravagant
+Mysticism in the West--its strong belief in Divine immanence, not
+only in the Church, but in the individual; its uncompromising
+rationalism, contempt for ecclesiastical forms, and tendency to
+evolutionary optimism. Among the doctrines attributed to Amalric and
+his followers are a pantheistic identification of man with God, and a
+negation of matter; they were said to teach that unconsecrated bread
+was the body of Christ, and that God spoke through Ovid (a curious
+choice!), as well as through St. Augustine. They denied the
+resurrection of the body, and the traditional eschatology, saying that
+"he who has the knowledge of God in himself has paradise within him."
+They insisted on a progressive historical revelation--the reign of the
+Father began with Abraham, that of the Son with Christ, that of the
+Spirit with themselves. They despised sacraments, believing that the
+Spirit works without means. They taught that he who lives in love can
+do no wrong, and were suspected, probably truly, of the licentious
+conduct which naturally follows from such a doctrine. This
+antinomianism is no part of true Mysticism; but it is often found in
+conjunction with mystical speculation among the half-educated. It is
+the vulgar perversion of Plotinus' doctrine that matter is nothing,
+and that the highest part of our nature can take no stain.[221] We
+find evidence of immorality practised "in nomine caritatis" among the
+Gnostics and Manicheans of the first centuries, and these heresies
+never really became extinct. The sects of the "Free Spirit," who
+flourished later in the thirteenth century, had an even worse
+reputation than the Amalricians. They combined with their Pantheism a
+Determinism which destroyed all sense of responsibility. On the other
+hand, the followers of Ortlieb of Strassburg, about the same period,
+advocated an extreme asceticism based on a dualistic or Manichean view
+of the world; and they combined with this error an extreme
+rationalism, teaching that the historical Christ was a mere man; that
+the Gospel history has only a symbolical truth; that the soul only,
+without the body, is immortal; and that the Pope and his priests are
+servants of Satan.
+
+The problem for the Church was how to encourage the warm love and
+faith of the mystics without giving the rein to these mischievous
+errors. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries produced several famous
+writers, who attempted to combine scholasticism and Mysticism.[222]
+The leaders in this attempt were Bernard,[223] Hugo and Richard of St.
+Victor, Bonaventura, Albertus Magnus, and (later) Gerson. Their works
+are not of great value as contributions to religious philosophy, for
+the Schoolmen were too much afraid of their authorities--Catholic
+tradition and Aristotle--to probe difficulties to the bottom; and the
+mystics, who, by making the renewed life of the soul their
+starting-point, were more independent, were debarred, by their
+ignorance of Greek, from a first-hand knowledge of their intellectual
+ancestors. But in the history of Mysticism they hold an important
+place.[224] Speculation being for them restricted within the limits of
+Church-dogma, they were obliged to be more psychological and less
+metaphysical than Dionysius or Erigena. The Victorines insist often on
+self-knowledge as the way to the knowledge of God and on
+self-purification as more important than philosophy. "The way to
+ascend to God," says Hugo, "is to descend into oneself.[225]" "The
+ascent is through self above self," says Richard; we are to rise on
+stepping-stones of our dead selves to higher things. "Let him that
+thirsts to see God clean his mirror, let him make his own spirit
+bright," says Richard again. The Victorines do not disparage reason,
+which is the organ by which mankind in general apprehend the things of
+God; but they regard ecstatic contemplation as a supra-rational state
+or faculty, which can only be reached _per mentis excessum_, and in
+which the naked truth is seen, no longer in a glass darkly.[226]
+
+This highest state, in which "Reason dies in giving birth to Ecstasy,
+as Rachel died in giving birth to Benjamin," is not on the high road
+of the spiritual life. It is a rare gift, bestowed by supernatural
+grace. Richard says that the first stage of contemplation is an
+expansion of the soul, the second an exaltation, the third an
+_alienation_. The first arises from human effort, the second from
+human effort assisted by Divine grace, the third from Divine grace
+alone. The predisposing conditions for the third state are devotion
+(_devotio_), admiration (_admiratio_), and joy (_exaltatio_); but
+these cannot _produce_ ecstasy, which is a purely supernatural
+infusion.
+
+This sharp opposition between the natural and the supernatural, which
+is fully developed first by Richard of St. Victor, is the
+distinguishing feature of Catholic Mysticism. It is an abandonment of
+the great aim which the earlier Christian idealists had set before
+themselves, namely, to find spiritual law in the normal course of
+nature, and the motions of the Divine Word in the normal processes of
+mind. St. John's great doctrine of the Logos as a cosmic principle is
+now dropped. Roman Catholic apologists[227] claim that Mysticism was
+thus set free from the "idealistic pantheism" of the Neoplatonist, and
+from the "Gnostic-Manichean dualism" which accompanies it. The world
+of space and time (they say) is no longer regarded, as it was by the
+Neoplatonist, as a fainter effluence from an ideal world, nor is human
+individuality endangered by theories of immanence. Both nature and man
+regain a sort of independence. We once more tread as free men on solid
+ground, while occasional "supernatural phenomena" are not wanting to
+testify to the existence of higher powers.
+
+We have seen that the Logos-doctrine (as understood by St. Clement) is
+exceptionally liable to perversion; but the remedy of discarding it is
+worse than the disease. The unscriptural[228] and unphilosophical
+cleft between natural and supernatural introduces a more intractable
+dualism than that of Origen. The faculty which, according to this
+theory, possesses immediate intuition into the things of God is not
+only irresponsible to reason, but stands in no relation to it. It
+ushers us into an entirely new world, where the familiar criteria of
+truth and falsehood are inapplicable. And what it reveals to us is not
+a truer and deeper view of the actual, but a wholly independent cosmic
+principle which invades the world of experience as a disturbing force,
+spasmodically subverting the laws of nature in order to show its power
+over them.[229] For as soon as the formless intuition of
+contemplation begins to express itself in symbols, these symbols, when
+untested by reason, are transformed into hallucinations. The warning
+of Plotinus, that "he who tries to rise above reason falls outside of
+it," receives a painful corroboration in such legends as that of St.
+Christina, who by reason of her extreme saintliness frequently soared
+over the tops of trees. The consideration of these alleged "mystical
+phenomena" belongs to objective Mysticism, which I hope to deal with
+in a later Lecture. Here I will only say that the scholastic-mystical
+doctrine of "supernatural" interventions, which at first sight seems
+so attractive, has led in practice to the most barbarous and
+ridiculous superstitions.[230]
+
+Another good specimen of scholastic Mysticism is the short treatise,
+_De adhærendo Deo_, of Albertus Magnus. It shows very clearly how the
+"negative road" had become the highway of mediæval Catholicism, and
+how little could be hoped for civilisation and progress from the
+continuance of such teaching. "When St. John says that God is a
+Spirit," says Albert in the first paragraph of his treatise, "and that
+He must be worshipped in spirit, he means that the mind must be
+cleared of all images. When thou prayest, shut thy door--that is, the
+doors of thy senses ... keep them barred and bolted against all
+phantasms and images.... Nothing pleases God more than a mind free
+from all occupations and distractions.... Such a mind is in a manner
+transformed into God, for it can think of nothing, and understand
+nothing, and love nothing, except God: other creatures and itself it
+only sees in God.... He who penetrates into himself, and so transcends
+himself, ascends truly to God.... He whom I love and desire is above
+all that is sensible and all that is intelligible; sense and
+imagination cannot bring us to Him, but only the desire of a pure
+heart. This brings us into the darkness of the mind, whereby we can
+ascend to the contemplation even of the mystery of the Trinity.... Do
+not think about the world, nor about thy friends, nor about the past,
+present, or future; but consider thyself to be outside the world and
+alone with God, as if thy soul were already separated from the body,
+and had no longer any interest in peace or war, or the state of the
+world. Leave thy body, and fix thy gaze on the uncreated light.... Let
+nothing come between thee and God.... The soul in contemplation views
+the world from afar off, just as, when we proceed to God by the way of
+abstraction, we deny Him, first all bodily and sensible attributes,
+then intelligible qualities, and, lastly, that _being_ (_esse_) which
+keeps Him among created things. This, according to Dionysius, is the
+best mode of union with God."
+
+Bonaventura resembles Albertus in reverting more decidedly than the
+Victorines to the Dionysian tradition. He expatiates on the passivity
+and nakedness of the soul which is necessary in order to enter into
+the Divine darkness, and elaborates with tiresome pedantry his
+arbitrary schemes of faculties and stages. However, he gains something
+by his knowledge of Aristotle, which he uses to correct the
+Neoplatonic doctrine of God as abstract Unity. "God is 'ideo
+omnimodum,'" he says finely, "quia summe unum." He is "totum intra
+omnia et totum extra"--a succinct statement that God is both immanent
+and transcendent. His proof of the Trinity is original and profound.
+It is the nature of the Good to impart itself, and so the highest Good
+must be "summe diffusivum sui," which can only be in hypostatic union.
+
+The last great scholastic mystic is Gerson, who lived from 1363 to
+1429. He attempts to reduce Mysticism to an exact science, tabulating
+and classifying all the teaching of his predecessors. A very brief
+summary of his system is here given.
+
+Gerson distinguishes symbolical, natural, and mystical theology,
+confining the last to the method which rests on inner experiences, and
+proceeds by the negative road. The experiences of the mystic have a
+greater certainty than any external revelations can possess.
+
+Gerson's psychology may be given in outline as follows: The cognitive
+power has three faculties: (1) simple intelligence or natural light,
+an outflow from the highest intelligence, God Himself; (2) the
+understanding, which is on the frontier between the two worlds; (3)
+sense-consciousness. To each of these three faculties answers one of
+the affective faculties: (1) synteresis;[231] (2) understanding,
+rational desire; (3) sense-affections. To these again correspond three
+_activities_: (1) contemplation; (2) meditation;[232] (3) thought.
+
+Mystical theology differs from speculative (i.e. scholastic), in that
+mystical theology belongs to the affective faculties, not the
+cognitive; that it does not depend on logic, and is therefore open
+even to the ignorant; that it is _not_ open to the unbelieving, since
+it rests upon faith and love; and that it brings peace, whereas
+speculation breeds unrest.
+
+The "means of mystical theology" are seven: (i.) the call of God;
+(ii.) certainty that one is called to the contemplative life--all are
+not so; (iii.) freedom from encumbrances; (iv.) concentration of
+interests upon God; (v.) perseverance; (vi.) asceticism; but the body
+must not be maltreated if it is to be a good servant; (vii.) shutting
+the eye to all sense perceptions.[233]
+
+Such teaching as this is of small value or interest. Mysticism itself
+becomes arid and formal in the hands of Gerson. The whole movement was
+doomed to failure, inasmuch as scholasticism was philosophy in chains,
+and the negative road was Mysticism blindfolded. No fruitful
+reconciliation between philosophy and piety could be thus achieved.
+The decay of scholasticism put an end to these attempts at compromise.
+Henceforward the mystics either discard metaphysics, and develop their
+theology on the devotional and ascetic side--the course which was
+followed by the later Catholic mystics; or they copy Erigena in his
+independent attitude towards tradition.
+
+In this Lecture we are following the line of speculative Mysticism,
+and we have now to consider the greatest of all speculative mystics,
+Meister Eckhart, who was born soon after the middle of the thirteenth
+century.[234] He was a Dominican monk, prior of Erfurt and vicar of
+Thuringen, and afterwards vicar-general for Bohemia. He preached a
+great deal at Cologne about 1325; and before this period had come into
+close relations with the Beghards and Brethren of the Free
+Spirit--societies of men and women who, by their implicit faith in the
+inner light, resembled the Quakers, though many of them, as has been
+said, were accused of immoral theories and practices. His teaching
+soon attracted the attention of the Inquisition, and some of his
+doctrines were formally condemned by the Pope in 1329, immediately
+after his death.
+
+The aim of Eckhart's religious philosophy is to find a speculative basis
+for the doctrines of the Church, which shall at the same time satisfy
+the claims of spiritual religion. His aims are purely constructive, and
+he shows a distaste for polemical controversy. The writers whom he
+chiefly cites by name are Dionysius, Augustine, Gregory, and Boethius;
+but he must have read Erigena, and probably Averroes, writers to whom a
+Catholic could hardly confess his obligations.[235] He also frequently
+introduces quotations with the words, "A master saith." The "master" is
+nearly always Thomas Aquinas, to whom Eckhart was no doubt greatly
+indebted, though it would be a great mistake to say, as some have done,
+that all Eckhart can be found in the _Summa_. For instance, he sets
+himself in opposition to Thomas about the "spark," which Thomas regarded
+as a faculty of the soul, while Eckhart, in his later writings, says
+that it is uncreated.[236] His double object leads him into some
+inconsistencies. Intellectually, he is drawn towards a semi-pantheistic
+idealism; his heart makes him an Evangelical Christian. But though it is
+possible to find contradictions in his writings, his transparent
+intellectual honesty and his great powers of thought, combined with deep
+devoutness and childlike purity of soul, make him one of the most
+interesting figures in the history of Christian philosophy.
+
+Eckhart wrote in German; that is to say, he wrote for the public, and
+not for the learned only. His desire to be intelligible to the general
+reader led him to adopt an epigrammatic antithetic style, and to omit
+qualifying phrases. This is one reason why he laid himself open to so
+many accusations of heresy.[237]
+
+Eckhart distinguishes between "the Godhead" and "God." The Godhead is
+the abiding potentiality of Being, containing within Himself all
+distinctions, as yet undeveloped. He therefore cannot be the object of
+knowledge, nor of worship, being "Darkness" and "Formlessness.[238]"
+The Triune God is evolved from the Godhead. The Son is the Word of
+the Father, His uttered thought; and the Holy Ghost is "the Flower of
+the Divine Tree," the mutual love which unites the Father and the Son.
+Eckhart quotes the words which St. Augustine makes Christ say of
+Himself: "I am come as a Word from the heart, as a ray from the sun,
+as heat from the fire, as fragrance from the flower, as a stream from
+a perennial fountain." He insists that the generation of the Son is a
+continual process.
+
+The universe is the expression of the whole thought of the Father; it
+is the language of the Word. Eckhart loves startling phrases, and says
+boldly, "Nature is the lower part of the Godhead," and "Before
+creation, God was not God." These statements are not so crudely
+pantheistic as they sound. He argues that without the Son the Father
+would not be God, but only undeveloped potentiality of being. The
+three Persons are not merely accidents and modes of the Divine
+Substance, but are inherent in the Godhead.[239] And so there can
+never have been a time when the Son was not. But the generation of the
+Son necessarily involves the creation of an ideal world; for the Son
+is Reason, and Reason is constituted by a cosmos of ideas. When
+Eckhart speaks of creation and of the world which had no beginning, he
+means, not the world of phenomena, but the world of ideas, in the
+Platonic sense. The ideal world is the complete expression of the
+thought of God, and is above space and time. He calls it "non-natured
+nature," as opposed to "diu genâ-tûrte nâtûre," the world of
+phenomena.[240] Eckhart's doctrine here differs from that of Plotinus
+in a very important particular. The Neoplatonists always thought of
+emanation as a diffusion of rays from a sun, which necessarily
+decrease in heat and brightness as they recede from the central focus.
+It follows that the second Person of the Trinity, the [Greek: Nous] or
+Intelligence, is subordinate to the First, and the Third to the
+Second. But with Eckhart there is no subordination. The Son is the
+pure brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His
+Person. "The eternal fountain of things is the Father; the image of
+things in Him is the Son, and love for this Image is the Holy Ghost."
+All created things abide "formless" (as possibilities) in the ground
+of the Godhead, and all are realised in the Son. The Alexandrian
+Fathers, in identifying the Logos with the Platonic [Greek: Nous], the
+bearer of the World-Idea, had found it difficult to avoid
+subordinating Him to the Father. Eckhart escapes this heresy, but in
+consequence his view of the world is more pantheistic. For his
+intelligible world is really God--it is the whole content of the
+Divine mind.[241] The question has been much debated, whether Eckhart
+really falls into pantheism or not. The answer seems to me to depend
+on what is the obscurest part of his whole system--the relation of the
+phenomenal world to the world of ideas. He offers the Christian dogma
+of the Incarnation of the Logos as a kind of explanation of the
+passage of the "prototypes" into "externality." When God "speaks" His
+ideas, the phenomenal world arises. This is an incarnation. But the
+process by which the soul emancipates itself from the phenomenal and
+returns to the intelligible world, is also called a "begetting of the
+Son." Thus the whole process is a circular one--from God and back to
+God again. Time and space, he says, were created with the world.
+Material things are outside each other, spiritual things in each
+other. But these statements do not make it clear how Eckhart accounts
+for the imperfections of the phenomenal world, which he is precluded
+from explaining, as the Neoplatonists did, by a theory of emanation.
+Nor can we solve the difficulty by importing modern theories of
+evolution into his system. The idea of the world-history as a gradual
+realisation of the Divine Personality was foreign to Eckhart's
+thought. Stöckl, indeed, tries to father upon him the doctrine that
+the human mind is a necessary organ of the self-development of God.
+But this theory cannot be found in Eckhart. The "necessity" which
+impels God to "beget His Son" is not a physical but a moral necessity.
+"The good must needs impart itself," he says.[242] The fact is that
+his view of the world is much nearer to acosmism than to pantheism.
+"Nothing hinders us so much from the knowledge of God as time and
+place," he says. He sees in phenomena only the negation of being, and
+it is not clear how he can also regard them as the abode of the
+immanent God.[243] It would probably be true to say that, like most
+mediæval thinkers, he did not feel himself obliged to give a permanent
+value to the transitory, and that the world, except as the temporary
+abode of immortal spirits, interested him but little. His neglect of
+history, including the earthly life of Christ, is not at all the
+result of scepticism about the miraculous. It is simply due to the
+feeling that the Divine process in the "everlasting Now" is a fact of
+immeasurably greater importance than any occurrence in the external
+world can be.
+
+When a religious writer is suspected of pantheism, we naturally turn
+to his treatment of the problem of evil. To the true pantheist all is
+equally divine, and everything for the best or for the worst, it does
+not much matter which.[244] Eckhart certainly does not mean to
+countenance this absurd theory, but there are passages in his writings
+which logically imply it; and we look in vain for any elucidation, in
+his doctrine of sin, of the dark places in his doctrine of God.[245]
+In fact, he adds very little to the Neoplatonic doctrine of the nature
+of evil. Like Dionysius, he identifies Being with Good, and evil, as
+such, with not-being. Moral evil is self-will: it is the attempt, on
+the part of the creature, to be a particular This or That outside of
+God.
+
+But what is most distinctive in Eckhart's ethics is the new importance
+which is given to the doctrine of immanence. The human soul is a
+microcosm, which in a manner contains all things in itself. At the
+"apex of the mind" there is a Divine "spark," which is so closely akin
+to God that it is one with Him, and not merely united to Him.[246] In
+his teaching about this "ground of the soul" Eckhart wavers. His
+earlier view is that it is created, and only the medium by which God
+transforms us to Himself. But his later doctrine is that it is
+uncreated, the immanence of the Being and Nature of God Himself.
+"Diess Fünkelein, das ist Gott," he says once. This view was adopted
+by Ruysbroek, Suso, and (with modifications by) Tauler, and became one
+of their chief tenets.[247] This spark is the organ by which our
+personality holds communion with God and knows Him. It is with
+reference to it that Eckhart uses the phrase which has so often been
+quoted to convict him of blasphemous self-deification--"the eye with
+which I see God is the same as that with which He sees me.[248]" The
+"uncreated spark" is really the same as the grace of God, which raises
+us into a Godlike state. But this grace, according to Eckhart (at
+least in his later period), is God Himself acting like a human faculty
+in the soul, and transforming it so that "man himself becomes grace."
+
+The following is perhaps the most instructive passage: "There is in
+the soul something which is above the soul, Divine, simple, a pure
+nothing; rather nameless than named, rather unknown than known. Of
+this I am accustomed to speak in my discourses. Sometimes I have
+called it a power, sometimes an uncreated light, and sometimes a
+Divine spark. It is absolute and free from all names and all forms,
+just as God is free and absolute in Himself. It is higher than
+knowledge, higher than love, higher than grace. For in all these there
+is still _distinction_. In this power God doth blossom and flourish
+with all His Godhead, and the Spirit flourisheth in God. In this
+power the Father bringeth forth His only-begotten Son, as essentially
+as in Himself; and in this light ariseth the Holy Ghost. This spark
+rejecteth all creatures, and will have only God, simply as He is in
+Himself. It rests satisfied neither with the Father, nor with the Son,
+nor with the Holy Ghost, nor with the three Persons, so far as each
+existeth in its particular attribute. It is satisfied only with the
+superessential essence. It is determined to enter into the simple
+Ground, the still Waste, the Unity where no man dwelleth. Then it is
+satisfied in the light; then it is one: it is one in itself, as this
+Ground is a simple stillness, and in itself immovable; and yet by this
+immobility are all things moved."
+
+It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good
+pleasure; but our own nature and personality remain intact. It is
+plain that we could not see God unless our personality remained
+distinct from the personality of God. Complete fusion is as
+destructive of the possibility of love and knowledge as complete
+separation[249].
+
+Eckhart gives to "the highest reason[250]" the primacy among our
+faculties, and in his earlier period identifies it with "the spark."
+He asserts the absolute supremacy of reason more strongly than anyone
+since Erigena. His language on this subject resembles that of the
+Cambridge Platonists. "Reasonable knowledge is eternal life," he says.
+"How can any external revelation help me," he asks, "unless it be
+verified by inner experience? The last appeal must always be to the
+deepest part of my own being, and that is my reason." "The reason," he
+says, "presses ever upwards. It cannot rest content with goodness or
+wisdom, nor even with God Himself; it must penetrate to the Ground
+from whence all goodness and wisdom spring."
+
+Thus Eckhart is not content with the knowledge of God which is
+mediated by Christ, but aspires to penetrate into the "Divine
+darkness" which underlies the manifestation of the Trinity. In fact,
+when he speaks of the imitation of Christ, he distinguishes between
+"the way of the manhood," which has to be followed by all, and "the
+way of the Godhead," which is for the mystic only. In this overbold
+aspiration to rise "from the Three to the One," he falls into the
+error which we have already noticed, and several passages in his
+writings advocate the quietistic self-simplification which belongs to
+this scheme of perfection. There are sentences in which he exhorts us
+to strip off all that comes to us from the senses, and to throw
+ourselves upon the heart of God, there to rest for ever, "hidden from
+all creatures[251]." But there are many other passages of an opposite
+tendency. He tells us that "the way of the manhood," which, of course,
+includes imitation of the active life of Christ, must be trodden first
+by all; he insists that in the state of union the faculties of the
+soul will act in a new and higher way, so that the personality is
+restored, not destroyed; and, lastly, he teaches that contemplation is
+only the means to a higher activity, and that this is, in fact, its
+object; "what a man has taken in by contemplation, that he pours out
+in love." There is no contradiction in the desire for rest combined
+with the desire for active service; for rest can only be defined as
+unimpeded activity; but in Eckhart there is, I think, a real
+inconsistency. The traditions of his philosophy pointed towards
+withdrawal from the world and from outward occupations--towards the
+monkish ideal, in a word; but the modern spirit was already astir
+within him. He preached in German to the general public, and his
+favourite themes are the present living operation of the Spirit, and
+the consecration of life in the world. There is, he shows, no
+contradiction between the active and the contemplative life; the
+former belongs to the faculties of the soul, the latter to its
+essence. In commenting on the story of Martha and Mary, those
+favourite types of activity and contemplation[252], he surprises us by
+putting Martha first. "Mary hath _chosen_ the good part; that is," he
+says, "she is striving to be as holy as her sister. Mary is still at
+school: Martha has learnt her lesson. It is better to feed the hungry
+than to see even such visions as St. Paul saw." "Besser ein
+Lebemeister als tausend Lesemeister." He discourages monkish
+religiosity and external badges of saintliness--"avoid everything
+peculiar," he says, "in dress, food, and language." "You need not go
+into a desert and fast; a crowd is often more lonely than a
+wilderness, and small things harder to do than great." "What is the
+good of the dead bones of saints?" he asks, in the spirit of a
+sixteenth century reformer; "the dead can neither give nor take[253]."
+This double aspect of Eckhart's teaching makes him particularly
+interesting; he seems to stand on the dividing-line between mediæval
+and modern Christianity.
+
+Like other mystics, he insists that love, when perfect, is independent
+of the hope of reward, and he shows great freedom in handling
+Purgatory, Hell, and Heaven. They are states, not places; separation
+from God is the misery of hell, and each man is his own judge. "We
+would spiritualise everything," he says, with especial reference to
+Holy Scripture.[254]
+
+In comparing the Mysticism of Eckhart with that of his predecessors,
+from Dionysius downwards, and of the scholastics down to Gerson, we
+find an obvious change in the disappearance of the long ladders of
+ascent, the graduated scales of virtues, faculties, and states of
+mind, which fill so large a place in those systems. These lists are
+the natural product of the imagination, when it plays upon the theory
+of _emanation_. But with Eckhart, as we have seen, the fundamental
+truth is the _immanence_ of God Himself, not in the faculties, but in
+the ground of the soul. The "spark of the soul" is for him really
+"divinæ particula auræ." "God begets His Son in me," he is fond of
+saying: and there is no doubt that, relying on a verse in the
+seventeenth chapter of St. John, he regards this "begetting" as
+analogous to the eternal generation of the Son.[255] This birth of the
+Son in the soul has a double aspect--the "eternal birth," which is
+unconscious and inalienable,[256] but which does not confer
+blessedness, being common to good and bad alike; and the assimilation
+of the faculties of the soul by the pervading presence of Christ, or
+in other words by grace, "quæ lux quædam deiformis est," as Ruysbroek
+says. The deification of our nature is therefore a thing to be striven
+for, and not given complete to start with; but it is important to
+observe that Eckhart places no intermediaries between man and God.
+"The Word is very nigh thee," nearer than any object of sense, and any
+human institutions; sink into thyself, and thou wilt find Him. The
+heavenly and earthly hierarchies of Dionysius, with the reverence for
+the priesthood which was built upon them, have no significance for
+Eckhart. In this as in other ways, he is a precursor of the
+Reformation.
+
+With Eckhart I end this Lecture on the speculative Mysticism of the
+Middle Ages. His successors, Ruysbroek, Suso, and Tauler, much as they
+resemble him in their general teaching, differ from him in this, that
+with none of them is the intellectual, philosophical side of primary
+importance. They added nothing of value to the speculative system of
+Eckhart; their Mysticism was primarily a _religion of the heart_ or a
+rule of life. It is this side of Mysticism to which I shall next
+invite your attention. It should bring us near to the centre of our
+subject: for a speculative religious system is best known by its
+fruits.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 188: _Conf._ viii. 2-5. The best account of the theology of
+Victorinus is Gore's article in the _Dictionary of Christian
+Biography_.]
+
+[Footnote 189: So Synesius calls the Son [Greek: patros morphê].]
+
+[Footnote 190: "Non enim vivimus præteritum aut vivimus futurum, sed
+semper præsenti utimur." "Æternitas semper per præsentiam habet omnia
+et hæc semper."]
+
+[Footnote 191: "Effectus est omnia," Victorinus says plainly.]
+
+[Footnote 192: Victorinus must have got this phrase from some Greek
+Neoplatonist. It was explained that [Greek: to mê on] may be used in
+four senses, and that it is not intended to identify the two extremes.
+But the very remarkable passage in Hierotheus (referred to in Lecture
+III.) shows that the two categories of [Greek: aoristia] cannot be
+kept apart.]
+
+[Footnote 193: "Ipse se ipsum circumterminavit."]
+
+[Footnote 194: _De Trin_. vii. 4. 7; _de Doctr. Christ_. i. 5. 5;
+_Serm_. 52. 16; _De Civ. Dei_, ix. 16.]
+
+[Footnote 195: _Contr. Adim. Man._ 11.]
+
+[Footnote 196: _De Ord._ ii. 16. 44, 18. 47.]
+
+[Footnote 197: _Enarrat. in Ps._ 85. 12.]
+
+[Footnote 198: _Conf._ vii. 13 _ad fin._]
+
+[Footnote 199: Compare with this sentence of the _Confessions_ the
+statement of Erigena quoted below, that "the things which are not are
+far better than those which are."]
+
+[Footnote 200: _Ep._ 120. 20. St. Augustine wrote in early life an
+essay "On the Beautiful and Fit," which he unhappily took no pains to
+preserve.]
+
+[Footnote 201: _De Ord._ ii. 16. 42, 59; Plot. _Enn._ i. 6. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 202: _De Lib. Arb._ ii. 16. 41; Plot. _Enn._ i. 6. 8, iii.
+8. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 203: _Enarr. in Ps._ xliv. 3; _Ep._ 120. 20. Plot. _Enn._ i.
+6. 4, says with more picturesqueness than usual [Greek: kalon to tês
+dikaiosynês kai sôphrosynês prosôpon, kai oute hesperos oute eôos
+outô kala]. (From Aristotle, _Eth._ v. 1. 15.)]
+
+[Footnote 204: _Ench._ iii. "etiam illud quod malum dicitur bene
+ordinatum est loco suo positum; eminentius commendat bona." St.
+Augustine also says (_Ench._ xi.), "cum omnino mali nomen non sit nisi
+privationis boni"; cf. Plot. _Enn._ iii. 2. 5, [Greek: holôs de to
+kakon elleipsin tou agathou theteon.] St. Augustine praises Plotinus
+for his teaching on the universality of Providence.]
+
+[Footnote 205: _De Civ. Dei_, iv. 12, vii. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 206: _De Quantitate Animæ_, xxx.]
+
+[Footnote 207: _Conf._ vii. 10. I have quoted Bigg's translation.]
+
+[Footnote 208: _Conf._ xi. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 209: St. Augustine does not reject the belief that visions
+are granted by the mediation of angels, but he expresses himself with
+great caution on the subject. Cf. _De Gen. ad litt._ xii. 30, "Sunt
+quædam excellentia et merito divina, quæ demonstrant angeli miris
+modis: utrum visa sua facili quadam et præpotenti iunctione vel
+commixtione etiam nostra esse facientes, an scientes nescio quo modo
+nostram in spiritu nostro informar visionem, difficilis perceptu et
+difficilior dictu res est."]
+
+[Footnote 210: See Lotze, _Microcosmus_, bk. viii. chap. 4, and other
+places. We may perhaps compare the Johannine [Greek: kosmos] with the
+Synoptic [Greek: aiôn] as examples of the two modes of envisaging
+reality.]
+
+[Footnote 211: Eriugena is, no doubt, the more correct spelling, but I
+have preferred to keep the name by which he is best known.]
+
+[Footnote 212: Erigena quotes also Origen, the two Gregorys, Basil,
+Maximus, Ambrose, and Augustine. Of pagan philosophers he puts Plato
+first, but holds Aristotle in high honour.]
+
+[Footnote 213: Stöckl calls him "ein fälscher Mystiker," because the
+Neoplatonic ("gnostic-rationalistic") element takes, for him, the
+place of supernaturalism. This, as will be shown later, is in
+accordance with the Roman Catholic view of Mysticism, which is not
+that adopted in these Lectures. For us, Erigena's defect as a mystic
+is rather to be sought in his extreme intellectualism.]
+
+[Footnote 214: "Dum vero (divina bonitas) incomprehensibilis
+intelligitur, per excellentiam non immerito _nihilum_ vocitatur."]
+
+[Footnote 215: This is really a revival of "modalism." The unorthodoxy
+of the doctrine becomes very apparent in some of Erigena's
+successors.]
+
+[Footnote 216: _De Div. Nat._ i. 36: "Iamdudum inter nos est confectum
+omnia quæ vel sensu corporeo vel intellectu vel ratione cognoscuntur
+de Deo merito creatore omnium, posse prædicari, dum nihil eorum quæ de
+se prædicantur pura veritatis contemplatio eum approbat esse." All
+affirmations about God are made "non proprie sed translative"; all
+negations "non translative sed proprie." Cf. also _ibid._ i. 1. 66,
+"verius fideliusque negatur in omnibus quam affirmatur"; and
+especially _ibid._ i. 5. 26, "theophanias autem dico visibilium et
+invisibilium species, quarum ordine et pulcritudine cognoscitur Deus
+esse et invenitur _non quid est, sed quia solummodo est._" Erigena
+tries to say (in his atrocious Latin) that the external world can
+teach us nothing about God, except the bare fact of His existence. No
+passage could be found to illustrate more clearly the real tendencies
+of the negative road, and the purely subjective Mysticism connected
+with it. Erigena will not allow us to infer, from the order and beauty
+of the world, that order and beauty are Divine attributes.]
+
+[Footnote 217: But it must be remembered that Erigena calls God
+"nihilum." His words about creation are, "Ac sic de nihilo facit
+omnia, de sua videlicet superessentialitate producit essentias, de
+supervitalitate vitas, de superintellectualitate intellectus, de
+negatione omnium quæ sunt et quæ non sunt, affirmationes omnium quæ
+sunt et quæ non sunt."]
+
+[Footnote 218: So Kaulich shows in his monograph on the speculative
+system of Erigena.]
+
+[Footnote 219: Erigena was roused by a work on predestination, written
+by Gotteschalk, and advocating Calvinistic views, to protest against
+the doctrine that God, who is life, can possibly predestine anyone to
+eternal death.]
+
+[Footnote 220: Berengar objected to the crudely materialistic theories
+of the real presence which were then prevalent. He protested against
+the statement that the transmutation of the elements takes place "vere
+et sensualiter," and that "portiunculæ" of the body of Christ lie upon
+the altar. "The mouth," he said, "receives the _sacrament_, the inner
+man the true body of Christ."]
+
+[Footnote 221: Similar teaching from the sacred books of the East is
+quoted by E. Caird, _Evolution of Religion_, vol. i. p. 355.]
+
+[Footnote 222: This is the accepted phrase for the work of the twelfth
+and thirteenth century theologians. We might also say that they
+modified uncompromising Platonic Realism by Aristotelian science. Cf.
+Harnack, _History of Dogma_, vol. vi. p. 43 (English translation):
+"Under what other auspices could this great structure be erected than
+under those of that Aristotelian Realism, which was at bottom a
+dialectic between the Platonic Realism and Nominalism; and which was
+represented as capable of uniting immanence and transcendence, history
+and miracle, the immutability of God and mutability, Idealism and
+Realism, reason and authority."]
+
+[Footnote 223: The great importance of Bernard in the history of
+Mysticism does not lie in the speculative side of his teaching, in
+which he depends almost entirely upon Augustine. His great achievement
+was to recall devout and loving contemplation to the image of the
+crucified Christ, and to found that worship of our Saviour as the
+"Bridegroom of the Soul," which in the next centuries inspired so much
+fervid devotion and lyrical sacred poetry. The romantic side of
+Mysticism, for good and for evil, received its greatest stimulus in
+Bernard's Poems and in his Sermons on the Canticles. This subject is
+dealt with in Appendix E.]
+
+[Footnote 224: Stöckl says of Hugo that the course of development of
+mediæval Mysticism cannot be understood without a knowledge of his
+writings. Stöckl's own account is very full and clear.]
+
+[Footnote 225: The "eye of contemplation" was given us "to see God
+within ourselves"; this eye has been blinded by sin. The "eye of
+reason" was given us "to see ourselves"; this has been injured by sin.
+Only the "eye flesh" remains in its pristine clearness. In things
+"above reason" we must trust to faith, "quæ non adiuvatur ratione
+ulla, quoniam non capit ea ratio."]
+
+[Footnote 226: Richard, who is more ecstatic than Hugo, gives the
+following account of this state: "Per mentis excessum extra semetipsum
+ductus homo ... lumen non per speculum in ænigmate sed in simplici
+veritate contemplatur." In this state "we forget all that is without
+and all that is within us." Reason and all other faculties are
+obscured. What then is our security against delusions? "The
+transfigured Christ," he says, "must be accompanied by Moses and
+Elias"; that is to say, visions must not be believed which conflict
+with the authority of Scripture.]
+
+[Footnote 227: See, especially, Stöckl, _Geschichte der Philosophie
+des Mittelalters_, vol. i. pp. 382-384.]
+
+[Footnote 228: It is hardly necessary to point out that St. Paul's
+distinction between natural and spiritual (see esp. 1 Cor. ii.) is
+wholly different.]
+
+[Footnote 229: Contrast the Plotinian doctrine of ecstasy with the
+following: "Dieu élève à son grè aux plus hauts sommets, sans aucun
+mérite préalable. Osanne de Mantoue reçoit le don de la contemplation
+à peine agée de six ans. Christine est fiancée à dix ans, pendant une
+extase de trois jours; Marie d'Agrèda reçut des illuminations dès sa
+première enfance" (Ribet). Since Divine favours are believed to be
+bestowed in a purely arbitrary manner, the fancies of a child left
+alone in the dark are as good as the deepest intuitions of saint,
+poet, or philosopher. Moreover, God sometimes "asserts His liberty" by
+"elevating souls suddenly and without transition from the abyss of sin
+to the highest summits of perfection, just as in nature He asserts it
+by miracles" (Ribet). Such teaching is interesting as showing how the
+admission of caprice in the world of phenomena reacts upon the moral
+sense and depraves our conception of God and salvation. The faculty of
+contemplation, according to Roman Catholic teaching, is acquired
+"_either_ by virtue _or_ by gratuitous favour." The dualism of natural
+and supernatural thus allows men to claim independent merit, while the
+interventions of God are arbitrary and unaccountable.]
+
+[Footnote 230: Those who are interested to see how utterly defenceless
+this theory leaves us against the silliest delusions, may consult with
+advantage the _Dictionary of Mysticism_, by the Abbé Migne (_passim_),
+or, if they wish to ascend nearer to the fountain-head of these
+legends, there are the sixty folio volumes of _Acta Sanctorum_,
+compiled by the Bollandists. Görres and Ribet are also very full of
+these stories.]
+
+[Footnote 231: See Appendix C.]
+
+[Footnote 232: The difference between contemplation and meditation is
+explained by all the mediæval mystics. Meditation is "discursive,"
+contemplation is "mentis in Deum suspensæ elevatio." Richard of St.
+Victor states the distinction epigrammatically--"per meditationem
+rimamur, per contemplationem miramur." ("Admiratio est actus
+consequens contemplationem sublimis veritatis."--Thomas Aquinas.)]
+
+[Footnote 233: This arbitrary schematism is very characteristic of
+this type of Mysticism, and shows its affinity to Indian philosophy.
+Compare "the eightfold path of Buddha," and a hundred other similar
+classifications in the sacred books of the East.]
+
+[Footnote 234: The date usually given, 1260, is probably too late; but
+the exact year cannot be determined.]
+
+[Footnote 235: Prof. Karl Pearson (_Mina_, 1886) says, "The Mysticism
+of Eckhart owes its leading ideas to Averroes." He traces the doctrine
+of the [Greek: Nous poiêtikos] from Aristotle, _de Anima_, through
+the Arabs to Eckhart, and finds a close resemblance between the
+"prototypes" or "ideas" of Eckhart and the "Dinge an sich" of Kant.
+But Eckhart's affinities with Plotinus and Hegel seem to me to be
+closer than those which he shows with Aristotle and Kant. On the
+connexion with Averroes, Lasson says that while there is a close
+resemblance between the Eckhartian doctrine of the "Seelengrund" and
+Averroes' _Intellectus Agens_ as the universal principle of reason in
+all men (monopsychism), they differ in this--that with Averroes
+personality is a phase or accident, but with Eckhart the eternal is
+immanent in the personality in such a way that the personality itself
+has a part in eternity (_Meister Eckhart der Mystiker_, pp. 348, 349).
+Personality is for Eckhart the eternal ground-form of all true being,
+and the notion of Person is the centre-point of his system. He says,
+"The word _I am_ none can truly speak but God alone." The individual
+must try to become a person, as the Son of God is a Person.]
+
+[Footnote 236: Denifle has devoted great pains to proving that Eckhart
+in his Latin works is very largely dependent upon Aquinas. His
+conclusions are welcomed and gladly adopted by Harnack, who, like
+Ritschl, has little sympathy with the German mystics, and considers
+that Christian Mysticism is really "Catholic piety." "It will never be
+possible," he says, "to make Mysticism Protestant without flying in
+the face of history and Catholicism." No one certainly would be guilty
+of the absurdity of "making Mysticism Protestant"; but it is, I think,
+even more absurd to "make it (Roman) Catholic," though such a view may
+unite the suffrages of Romanists and Neo-Kantians. See Appendix A, p.
+346.]
+
+[Footnote 237: Preger (vol. iii. p. 140) says that Eckhart did _not_
+try to be popular. But it is clear, I think, that he did try to make
+his philosophy intelligible to the average educated man, though his
+teaching is less ethical and more speculative than that of Tauler.]
+
+[Footnote 238: Sometimes he speaks of the Godhead as above the
+opposition of being and not being; but at other times he regards the
+Godhead as the universal Ground or Substance of the ideal world. "All
+things in God are one thing." "God is neither this nor that." Compare,
+too, the following passage: "(Gottes) einfeltige natur ist von formen
+formlos, von werden werdelos, von wesen wesenlos, und von sachen
+sachelos, und darum entgeht sie in allen werdenden dingen, und die
+endliche dinge müssen da enden."]
+
+[Footnote 239: I here agree with Preger against Lasson. It seems to me
+to be one of the most important and characteristic parts of Eckhart's
+system, that the Trinity is _not_ for him (as it was for Hierotheus)
+an emanation or appearance of the Absolute. But it is not to be denied
+that there are passages in Eckhart which support the other view.]
+
+[Footnote 240: Compare Spinoza's "natura naturata."]
+
+[Footnote 241: The ideas are "uncreated creatures"; they are "creatures
+in God but not in themselves." Preger states Eckhart's doctrine thus:
+"Gott denkt sein Wesen in untergeordnete Weise nachahmbar, und der
+Reflex dieses Denkens in dem göttlichen Bewusstsein, die Vorstellungen
+hievon, sind die Ideen." But in what sense is the ideal world
+"subordinate"? The Son in Eckhart holds quite a different relation to
+the Father from that which the [Greek: Noûs] holds to "the One" in
+Plotinus, as the following sentence will show: "God is for ever working
+in one eternal Now; this working of His is giving birth to His Son; He
+bears Him at every moment. From this birth proceed all things. God has
+such delight therein that _He uses up all His power in the process_. He
+bears Himself out of Himself into Himself. He bears Himself continually
+in the Son; in Him He speaks all things." The following passage from
+Ruysbroek is an attempt to define more precisely the nature of the
+Eckhartian Ideas: Before the temporal creation God saw the creatures,
+"et agnovit distincte in seipso in alteritate quadam--non tamen omnimoda
+alteritate; quidquid enim in Deo est Deus est." Our eternal life remains
+"perpetuo in divina essentia sine discretione," but continually flows
+out "per æternam Verbi generationem." Ruysbroek also says clearly that
+creation is the embodiment of the _whole_ mind of God: "Whatever lives
+in the Father hidden in the unity, lives in the Son 'in emanatione
+manifesta.'"]
+
+[Footnote 242: It is true that Eckhart was censured for teaching "Deum
+sine ipso nihil facere posse"; but the notion of a real _becoming_ of
+God in the human mind, and the attempt to solve the problem of evil on
+the theory of evolutionary optimism, are, I am convinced, alien to his
+philosophy. See, however, on the other side, Carrière, _Die
+philosophische Weltanschauung der Reformationszeit_, pp. 152-157.]
+
+[Footnote 243: See Lasson, _Meister Eckhart_, p. 351. Eckhart protests
+vigorously against the misrepresentation that he made the phenomenal
+world the _Wesen_ of God, and uses strongly acosmistic language in
+self-defence. But there seems to be a real inconsistency in this side
+of his philosophy.]
+
+[Footnote 244: I mean that a pantheist may with equal consistency call
+himself an optimist or a pessimist, or both alternately.]
+
+[Footnote 245: As when he says, "In God all things are one, from angel
+to spider." The inquisitors were not slow to lay hold of this error.
+Among the twenty-six articles of the gravamen against Eckhart we find,
+"Item, in omni opere, etiam malo, manifestatur et relucet _æqualiter_
+gloria Dei." The word _æqualiter_ the stamp of true pantheism.
+Eckhart, however, whether consistently or not, frequently asserts the
+transcendence of God. "God is in the creatures, but above them." "He
+is above all nature, and is not Himself nature," etc. In dealing with
+_sin_, he is confronted with the obvious difficulty that if it is the
+nature of all phenomenal things to return to God, from whom they
+proceeded, the process which he calls the birth of the Son ought
+logically to occur in every conscious individual, for all have a like
+phenomenal existence. He attempts to solve this puzzle by the
+hypothesis of a double aspect of the new birth (see below). But I fear
+there is some justice in Professor Pearson's comment, "Thus his
+phenomenology is shattered upon his practical theology."]
+
+[Footnote 246: Other scholastics and mystics had taught that there is
+a _residue_ of the Godlike in man. The idea of a central point of the
+soul appears in Plotinus and Augustine, and the word _scintilla_ had
+been used of this faculty before Eckhart. The "synteresis" of
+Alexander of Hales, Bonaventura, Albertus Magnus, and Thomas Aquinas,
+was substantially the same. But there is this difference, that while
+the earlier writers regard this resemblance to God as only a
+_residue_, Eckhart regards it as the true _Wesen_ of the soul, into
+which all its faculties may be transformed.]
+
+[Footnote 247: The following passage from Amiel (p. 44 of English
+edition) is an admirable commentary on the mystical doctrine of
+immanence:--"The centre of life is neither in thought nor in feeling
+nor in will, nor even in consciousness, so far as it thinks, feels, or
+wishes. For moral truth may have been penetrated and possessed in all
+these ways, and escape us still. Deeper even than consciousness, there
+is our being itself, our very substance, our nature. Only those truths
+which have entered into this last region, which have become ourselves,
+become spontaneous and involuntary, instinctive and unconscious, are
+really our life--that is to say, something more than our property. So
+long as we are able to distinguish any space whatever between the
+truth and us, we remain outside it. The thought, the feeling, the
+desire, the consciousness of life, are not yet quite life. But peace
+and repose can nowhere be found except in life and in eternal life,
+and the eternal life is the Divine life, is God. To become Divine is,
+then, the aim of life: then only can truth be said to be ours beyond
+the possibility of loss, because it is no longer outside of us, nor
+even in us, but we are it, and it is we; we ourselves are a truth, a
+will, a work of God. Liberty has become nature; the creature is one
+with its Creator--one through love."]
+
+[Footnote 248: No better exposition of the religious aspect of
+Eckhart's doctrine of immanence can be found than in Principal Caird's
+_Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion_, pp. 244, 245, as the
+following extract will show: "There is therefore a sense in which we
+can say that the world of finite intelligence, though distinct from
+God, is still, in its ideal nature, one with Him. That which God
+creates, and by which He reveals the hidden treasures of His wisdom
+and love, is still not foreign to His own infinite life, but one with
+it. In the knowledge of the minds that know Him, in the self-surrender
+of the hearts that love Him, it is no paradox to affirm that He knows
+and loves Himself. As He is the origin and inspiration of every true
+thought and pure affection, of every experience in which we forget and
+rise above ourselves, so is He also of all these the end. If in one
+point of view religion is the work of man, in another it is the work
+of God. Its true significance is not apprehended till we pass beyond
+its origin in time and in the experience of a finite spirit, to see in
+it the revelation of the mind of God Himself. In the language of
+Scripture, 'It is God that worketh in us to will and to do of His good
+pleasure: all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself.'"]
+
+[Footnote 249: Eckhart sees this (cf. Preger, vol. i. p. 421):
+"Personality in Eckhart is neither the faculties, nor the form
+(_Bild_), nor the essence, nor the nature of the Godhead, but it is
+rather the spirit which rises out of the essence, and is born by the
+irradiation of the form in the essence, which mingles itself with our
+nature and works by its means." The obscurity of this conception is
+not made any less by the distinction which Eckhart draws between the
+outer and inner consciousness in the personality. The outer
+consciousness is bound up with the earthly life; to it all images must
+come through sense; but in this way it can have no image of itself.
+But the higher consciousness is supra-temporal. The potential ground
+of the soul is and remains sinless; but the personality is also united
+to the bodily nature; its guilt is that it inclines to its sinful
+nature instead of to God.]
+
+[Footnote 250: Eckhart distinguishes the _intellectus agens_ (_diu
+wirkende Vernunft_) from the passive (_lîdende_) intellect. The office
+of the former is to present perceptions to the latter, set out under
+the forms of time and space. In his Strassburg period, the spark or
+_Ganster_, the _intellectus agens, diu oberste Vernunft_, and
+_synteresis_, seem to be identical; but later he says, "The active
+intellect cannot give what it has not got. It cannot see two ideas
+together, but only one after another. But if God works in the place of
+the active intellect, He begets (in the mind) many ideas in one
+point." Thus the "spark" becomes supra-rational and uncreated--the
+Divine essence itself.]
+
+[Footnote 251: The following sentence, for instance, is in the worst
+manner of Dionysius: "Thou shalt love God as He is, a non-God, a
+non-Spirit, a non-Person, a non-Form: He is absolute bare Unity." This
+is Eckhart's theory of the Absolute ("the Godhead") as distinguished
+from God. In these moods he wishes, like the Asiatic mystics, to sink
+in the bottomless sea of the Infinite. He also aspires to absolute
+[Greek: apatheia] (_Abgeschiedenheit_). "Is he sick? He is as fain to
+be sick as well. If a friend should die--in the name of God. If an eye
+should be knocked out--in the name of God." The soul has returned to
+its pre-natal condition, having rid itself of all "creatureliness."]
+
+[Footnote 252: Many passages might be quoted. The ordinary conclusion
+is that Mary chose the better part, because activity is confined to
+this life, while contemplation lasts for ever. Augustine treats the
+story of Leah and Rachel in the same way (_Contra Faust. Manich_.
+xxii. 52): "Lia interpretatur Laborans, Rachel autem Visum principium,
+sive Verbum ex quo videtur principium. Actio ergo humanæ mortalisque
+vitæ ... ipsa est Lia prior uxor Jacob; ac per hoc et infirmis oculis
+fuisse commemoratur. Spes vero æternæ contemplationis Dei, habens
+certam et delectabilem intelligentiam veritatis, ipsa est Rachel, unde
+etiam dicitur bona facie et pulcra specie," etc.]
+
+[Footnote 253: Moreover, he is never tired of insisting that the
+_Will_ is everything. "If your will is right, you cannot go wrong," he
+says. "With the will I can do everything." "Love resides in the
+will--the more will, the more love." "There is nothing evil but the
+evil will, of which sin is the appearance." "The value of human life
+depends entirely on the aim which it sets before itself." This
+over-insistence on purity of intention as the end, as well as the
+beginning, of virtue, is no doubt connected with Eckhart's denial of
+reality and importance to the world of time; he tries to show that it
+does not logically lead to Antinomianism. His doctrine that good works
+have no value in themselves differs from those of Abelard and Bernard,
+which have a superficial resemblance to it. Eckhart really regards the
+Catholic doctrine of good works much as St. Paul treated the Pharisaic
+legalism; but he is as unconscious of the widening gulf which had
+already opened between Teutonic and Latin Christianity, as of the
+discredit which his own writings were to help to bring upon the
+monkish view of life.]
+
+[Footnote 254: As an example of his free handling of the Old
+Testament, I may quote, "Do not suppose that when God made heaven and
+earth and all things, He made one thing to-day and another to-morrow.
+Moses says so, of course, but he knew better; he only wrote that for
+the sake of the populace, who could not have understood otherwise. God
+merely _willed_ and the world _was_."]
+
+[Footnote 255: E.g. "Da der vatter seynen sun in mir gebirt, da byn
+ich der selb sun und nitt eyn ander."]
+
+[Footnote 256: So Hermann of Fritslar says that the soul has two
+faces, the one turned towards this world, the other immediately to
+God. In the latter God flows and shines eternally, whether man is
+conscious of it or not. It is therefore according to man's nature as
+possessed of this Divine ground, to seek God, his original; and even
+in hell the suffering there has its source in hopeless contradiction
+of this indestructible tendency. See Vaughan, vol. i. p. 256; and the
+same teaching in Tauler, p. 185.]
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE V
+
+
+[Greek: "Ho thronos tês theiotêtos ho nous estin êmôn."]
+
+MACARIUS.
+
+
+   "Thou comest not, thou goest not;
+      Thou wert not, wilt not be;
+    Eternity is but a thought
+      By which we think of Thee."
+
+FABER.
+
+
+   "Werd als ein Kind, werd taub und blind,
+    Dein eignes Icht muss werden nicht:
+      All Icht, all Nicht treib ferne nur;
+    Lass Statt, lass Zeit, auch Bild lass weit,
+    Geh ohne Weg den schmalen Steg,
+      So kommst du auf der Wüste Spur.
+    O Seele mein, aus Gott geh ein,
+    Sink als ein Icht in Gottes Nicht,
+      Sink in die ungegründte Fluth.
+    Flich ich von Dir, du kommst zu mir,
+    Verlass ich mich, so find ich Dich,
+      O überwesentliches Gut!"
+
+_Mediæval German Hymn_.
+
+
+  "Quid cælo dabimus? quantum est quo veneat omne?
+  Impendendus homo est, Deus esse ut possit in ipso."
+
+MANILIUS.
+
+
+
+PRACTICAL AND DEVOTIONAL MYSTICISM
+
+"We all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the
+Lord, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory."--2
+COR. iii. 18.
+
+
+The school of Eckhart[257] in the fourteenth century produced the
+brightest cluster of names in the history of Mysticism. In Ruysbroek,
+Suso, Tauler, and the author of the _Theologia Germanica_ we see
+introspective Mysticism at its best. This must not be understood to
+mean that they improved upon the philosophical system of Eckhart, or
+that they are entirely free from the dangerous tendencies which have
+been found in his works. On the speculative side they added nothing of
+value, and none of them rivals Eckhart in clearness of intellect. But
+we find in them an unfaltering conviction that our communion with God
+must be a fact of experience, and not only a philosophical theory.
+With the most intense earnestness they set themselves to live through
+the mysteries of the spiritual life, as the only way to understand and
+prove them. Suso and Tauler both passed through deep waters; the
+history of their inner lives is a record of heroic struggle and
+suffering. The personality of the men is part of their message, a
+statement which could hardly be made of Dionysius or Erigena, perhaps
+not of Eckhart himself.
+
+John of Ruysbroek, "doctor ecstaticus," as the Church allowed him to
+be called, was born in 1293, and died in 1381. He was prior of the
+convent of Grünthal, in the forest of Soignies, where he wrote most of
+his mystical treatises, under the direct guidance, as he believed, of
+the Holy Spirit. He was the object of great veneration in the later
+part of his life. Ruysbroek was not a learned man, or a clear
+thinker.[258] He knew Dionysius, St. Augustine, and Eckhart, and was
+no doubt acquainted with some of the other mystical writers; but he
+does not write like a scholar or a man of letters. He resembles Suso
+in being more emotional and less speculative than most of the German
+school.
+
+Ruysbroek reverts to the mystical tradition, partially broken by
+Eckhart, of arranging almost all his topics in three or seven
+divisions, often forming a progressive scale. For instance, in the
+treatise "On the Seven Grades of Love," we have the following series,
+which he calls the "Ladder of Love": (1) goodwill; (2) voluntary
+poverty; (3) chastity; (4) humility; (5) desire for the glory of God;
+(6) Divine contemplation, which has three properties--intuition,
+purity of spirit, and nudity of mind; (7) the ineffable, unnameable
+transcendence of all knowledge and thought. This arbitrary schematism
+is the weakest part of Ruysbroek's writings, which contain many deep
+thoughts. His chief work, _Ordo spiritualium nuptiarum_, is one of the
+most complete charts of the mystic's progress which exist. The three
+stages are here the active life (_vita actuosa_), the internal,
+elevated, or affective life, to which all are not called, and the
+contemplative life, to which only a few can attain. The three parts of
+the soul, sensitive, rational, and spiritual, correspond to these
+three stages. The motto of the active life is the text, "_Ecce sponsus
+venit; exite obviam ei_." The Bridegroom "comes" three times: He came
+in the flesh; He comes into us by grace; and He will come to judgment.
+We must "go out to meet Him," by the three virtues of humility, love,
+and justice: these are the three virtues which support the fabric of
+the active life. The ground of all the virtues is humility; thence
+proceed, in order, obedience, renunciation of our own will, patience,
+gentleness, piety, sympathy, bountifulness, strength and impulse for
+all virtues, soberness and temperance, chastity. "This is the active
+life, which is necessary for us all, if we wish to follow Christ, and
+to reign with Him in His everlasting kingdom."
+
+Above the active rises the inner life. This has three parts. Our
+intellect must be enlightened with supernatural clearness; we must
+behold the inner coming of the Bridegroom, that is, the eternal truth;
+we must "go out" from the exterior to the inner life; we must go to
+_meet_ the Bridegroom, to enjoy union with His Divinity.
+
+Finally, the spirit rises from the inner to the contemplative life.
+"When we rise above ourselves, and in our ascent to God are made so
+simple that the love which embraces us is occupied only with itself,
+above the practice of all the virtues, then we are transformed and die
+in God to ourselves and to all separate individuality." God unites us
+with Himself in eternal love, which is Himself. "In this embrace and
+essential unity with God all devout and inward spirits are one with
+God by living immersion and melting away into Him; they are by grace
+one and the same thing with Him, because the same essence is in both."
+"For what we are, that we intently contemplate; and what we
+contemplate, that we are; for our mind, our life, and our essence are
+simply lifted up and united to the very truth, which is God. Wherefore
+in this simple and intent contemplation we are one life and one spirit
+with God. And this I call the contemplative life. In this highest
+stage the soul is united to God without means; it sinks into the vast
+darkness of the Godhead." In this abyss, he says, following his
+authorities, "the Persons of the Trinity transcend themselves";
+"_there_ is only the eternal essence, which is the substance of the
+Divine Persons, where we are all one and uncreated, according to our
+prototypes." Here, "so far as distinction of persons goes, there is no
+more God nor creature"; "we have lost ourselves and been melted away
+into the unknown darkness." And yet we remain eternally distinct from
+God. The creature remains a creature, and loses not its
+creatureliness. We must be conscious of ourselves in God, and
+conscious of ourselves in ourselves. For eternal life consists in the
+knowledge of God, and there can be no knowledge without
+self-consciousness. If we could be blessed without knowing it, a
+stone, which has no consciousness, might be blessed.
+
+Ruysbroek, it is plain, had no qualms in using the old mystical
+language without qualification. This is the more remarkable, because
+he was fully aware of the disastrous consequences which follow from
+the method of negation and self-deification. For Ruysbroek was an
+earnest reformer of abuses. He spares no one--popes, bishops, monks,
+and the laity are lashed in vigorous language for their secularity,
+covetousness, and other faults; but perhaps his sharpest castigation
+is reserved for the false mystics. There are some, he says, who
+mistake mere laziness for holy abstraction; others give the rein to
+"spiritual self-indulgence"; others neglect all religious exercises;
+others fall into antinomianism, and "think that nothing is forbidden
+to them"--"they will gratify any appetite which interrupts their
+contemplation": these are "by far the worst of all." "There is another
+error," he proceeds, "of those who like to call themselves
+'theopaths.' They take every impulse to be Divine, and repudiate all
+responsibility. Most of them live in inert sloth." As a corrective to
+these errors, he very rightly says, "Christ must be the rule and
+pattern of all our lives"; but he does not see that there is a deep
+inconsistency between the imitation of Christ as the living way to the
+Father, and the "negative road" which leads to vacancy.[259]
+
+Henry Suso, whose autobiography is a document of unique importance
+for the psychology of Mysticism, was born in 1295[260]. Intellectually
+he is a disciple of Eckhart, whom he understands better than
+Ruysbroek; but his life and character are more like those of the
+Spanish mystics, especially St. Juan of the Cross. The text which is
+most often in his mouth is, "Where I am, there shall also My servant
+be"; which he interprets to mean that only those who have embraced to
+the full the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, can hope to be united
+to Him in glory. "No cross, no crown," is the law of life which Suso
+accepts in all the severity of its literal meaning. The story of the
+terrible penances which he inflicted on himself for part of his life
+is painful and almost repulsive to read; but they have nothing in
+common with the ostentatious self-torture of the fakir. Suso's deeply
+affectionate and poetical temperament, with its strong human loves and
+sympathies, made the life of the cloister very difficult for him. He
+accepted it as the highest life, and strove to conform himself to its
+ideals; and when, after sixteen years of cruel austerities, he felt
+that his "refractory body" was finally tamed, he discontinued his
+mortifications, and entered upon a career of active usefulness. In
+this he had still heavier crosses to carry, for he was persecuted and
+falsely accused, while the spiritual consolations which had cheered
+him in his early struggles were often withdrawn. In his old age,
+shortly before his death in 1365, he published the history of his
+life, which is one of the most interesting and charming of all
+autobiographies. Suso's literary gift is very remarkable. Unlike most
+ecstatic mystics, who declare on each occasion that "tongue cannot
+utter" their experiences, Suso's store of glowing and vivid language
+never fails. The hunger and thirst of the soul for God, and the
+answering love of Christ manifested in the inner man, have never found
+a more pure and beautiful expression. In the hope of inducing more
+readers to become acquainted with this gem of mediæval literature, I
+will give a few extracts from its pages.
+
+"The servitor of the eternal Wisdom," as he calls himself throughout
+the book, made the first beginning of his perfect conversion to God in
+his eighteenth year. Before that, he had lived as others live, content
+to avoid deadly sin; but all the time he had felt a gnawing reproach
+within him. Then came the temptation to be content with gradual
+progress, and to "treat himself well." But "the eternal Wisdom" said
+to him, "He who seeks with tender treatment to conquer a refractory
+body, wants common sense. If thou art minded to forsake all, do so to
+good purpose." The stern command was obeyed.[261] Very soon--it is the
+usual experience of ascetic mystics--he was encouraged by rapturous
+visions. One such, which came to him on St. Agnes' Day, he thus
+describes:--"It was without form or mode, but contained within itself
+the most entrancing delight. His heart was athirst and yet satisfied.
+It was a breaking forth of the sweetness of eternal life, felt as
+present in the stillness of contemplation. Whether he was in the body
+or out of the body, he knew not." It lasted about an hour and a half;
+but gleams of its light continued to visit him at intervals for some
+time after.
+
+Suso's loving nature, like Augustine's, needed an object of affection.
+His imagination concentrated itself upon the eternal Wisdom,
+personified in the Book of Proverbs in female form as a loving
+mistress, and the thought came often to him, "Truly thou shouldest
+make trial of thy fortune, whether this high mistress, of whom thou
+hast heard so much, will become thy love; for in truth thy wild young
+heart will not remain without a love." Then in a vision he saw her,
+radiant in form, rich in wisdom, and overflowing with love; it is she
+who touches the summit of the heavens, and the depths of the abyss,
+who spreads herself from end to end, mightily and sweetly disposing
+all things. And she drew nigh to him lovingly, and said to him
+sweetly, "My son, give me thy heart."
+
+At this season there came into his soul a flame of intense fire, which
+made his heart burn with Divine love. And as a "love token," he cut
+deep in his breast the name of Jesus, so that the marks of the
+letters remained all his life, "about the length of a finger-joint."
+
+Another time he saw a vision of angels, and besought one of them to
+show him the manner of God's secret dwelling in the soul. An angel
+answered, "Cast then a joyous glance into thyself, and see how God
+plays His play of love with thy loving soul." He looked immediately,
+and saw that his body over his heart was as clear as crystal, and that
+in the centre was sitting tranquilly, in lovely form, the eternal
+Wisdom, beside whom sat, full of heavenly longing, the servitor's own
+soul, which leaning lovingly towards God's side, and encircled by His
+arms, lay pressed close to His heart.
+
+In another vision he saw "the blessed master Eckhart," who had lately
+died in disfavour with the rulers of the Church. "He signified to the
+servitor that he was in exceeding glory, and that his soul was quite
+transformed, and made Godlike in God." In answer to questions, "the
+blessed Master" told him that "words cannot tell the manner in which
+those persons dwell in God who have really detached themselves from
+the world, and that the way to attain this detachment is to die to
+self, and to maintain unruffled patience with all men."
+
+Very touching is the vision of the Holy Child which came to him in
+church on Candlemas Day. Kneeling down in front of the Virgin, who
+appeared to him, "he prayed her to show him the Child, and to suffer
+him also to kiss it. When she kindly offered it to him, he spread out
+his arms and received the beloved One. He contemplated its beautiful
+little eyes, he kissed its tender little mouth, and he gazed again and
+again at all the infant members of the heavenly treasure. Then,
+lifting up his eyes, he uttered a cry of amazement that He who bears
+up the heavens is so great, and yet so small, so beautiful in heaven
+and so childlike on earth. And as the Divine Infant moved him, so did
+he act toward it, now singing now weeping, till at last he gave it
+back to its mother."
+
+When at last he was warned by an angel, he says, to discontinue his
+austerities, "he spent several weeks very pleasantly," often weeping
+for joy at the thought of the grievous sufferings which he had
+undergone. But his repose was soon disturbed. One day, as he sat
+meditating on "life as a warfare," he saw a vision of a comely youth,
+who vested him in the attire of a knight,[262] saying to him,
+"Hearken, sir knight! Hitherto thou hast been a squire; now God wills
+thee to be a knight. And thou shalt have fighting enough!" Suso cried,
+"Alas, my God! what art Thou about to do unto me? I thought that I had
+had enough by this time. Show me how much suffering I have before me."
+The Lord said, "It is better for thee not to know. Nevertheless I will
+tell thee of three things. Hitherto thou hast stricken thyself. Now I
+will strike thee, and thou shalt suffer publicly the loss of thy good
+name. Secondly, where thou shalt look for love and faithfulness, there
+shalt thou find treachery and suffering. Thirdly, hitherto thou hast
+floated in Divine sweetness, like a fish in the sea; this will I now
+withdraw from thee, and thou shalt starve and wither. Thou shalt be
+forsaken both by God and the world, and whatever thou shalt take in
+hand to comfort thee shall come to nought." The servitor threw himself
+on the ground, with arms outstretched to form a cross, and prayed in
+agony that this great misery might not fall upon him. Then a voice
+said to him, "Be of good cheer, I will be with thee and aid thee to
+overcome."
+
+The next chapters show how this vision or presentiment was verified.
+The journeys which he now took exposed him to frequent dangers, both
+from robbers and from lawless men who hated the monks. One adventure
+with a murderer is told with delightful simplicity and vividness. Suso
+remains throughout his life thoroughly human, and, hard as his lot had
+been, he is in an agony of fear at the prospect of a violent death.
+The story of the outlaw confessing to the trembling monk how, besides
+other crimes, he had once pushed into the Rhine a priest who had just
+heard his confession, and how the wife of the assassin comforted Suso
+when he was about to drop down from sheer fright, forms a quaint
+interlude in the saint's memoirs. But a more grievous trial awaited
+him. Among other pastoral work, he laboured much to reclaim fallen
+women; and a pretended penitent, whose insincerity he had detected,
+revenged herself by a slander which almost ruined him.[263] Happily,
+the chiefs of his order, whose verdict he had greatly dreaded,
+completely exonerated him, after a full investigation, and his last
+years seem to have been peaceful and happy. The closing chapters of
+the Life are taken up by some very interesting conversations with his
+spiritual "daughter," Elizabeth Stäglin, who wished to understand the
+obscurer doctrines of Mysticism. She asks him about the doctrine of
+the Trinity, which he expounds on the general lines of Eckhart's
+theology. She, however, remembers some of the bolder phrases in
+Eckhart, and says, "But there are some who say that, in order to
+attain to perfect union, we must divest ourselves of God, and turn
+only to the inwardly-shining light." "That is false," replies Suso,
+"if the words are taken in their ordinary sense. But the common belief
+about God, that He is a great Taskmaster, whose function is to reward
+and punish, _is_ cast out by perfect love; and in this sense the
+spiritual man _does_ divest himself of God, as conceived of by the
+vulgar. Again, in the highest state of union, the soul takes no note
+of the Persons _separately_; for it is not the Divine Persons taken
+singly that confer bliss, but the Three in One." Suso here gives a
+really valuable turn to one of Eckhart's rashest theses. "_Where_ is
+heaven?" asks his pupil next. "The intellectual _where_" is the
+reply, "is the essentially-existing unnameable nothingness. So we
+must call it, because we can discover no mode of being, under which to
+conceive of it. But though it seems to us to be no-thing, it deserves
+to be called something rather than nothing." Suso, we see, follows
+Dionysius, but with this proviso. The maiden now asks him to give her
+a figure or image of the self-evolution of the Trinity, and he gives
+her the figure of concentric circles, such as appear when we throw a
+stone into a pond. "But," he adds, "this is as unlike the formless
+truth as a black Moor is unlike the beautiful sun." Soon after, the
+holy maiden died, and Suso saw her in a vision, radiant and full of
+heavenly joy, showing him how, guided by his counsels, she had found
+everlasting bliss. When he came to himself, he said, "Ah, God! blessed
+is the man who strives after Thee alone! He may well be content to
+suffer, whose pains Thou rewardest thus. God help us to rejoice in
+this maiden, and in all His dear friends, and to enjoy His Divine
+countenance eternally!" So ends Suso's autobiography. His other chief
+work, a Dialogue between the eternal Wisdom and the Servitor, is a
+prose poem of great beauty, the tenor of which may be inferred from
+the above extracts from the Life. Suso believed that the Divine Wisdom
+had indeed spoken through his pen; and few, I think, will accuse him
+of arrogance for the words which conclude the Dialogue. "Whosoever
+will read these writings of mine in a right spirit, can hardly fail to
+be stirred in his heart's depths, either to fervent love, or to new
+light, or to longing and thirsting for God, or to detestation and
+loathing of his sins, or to that spiritual aspiration by which the
+soul is renewed in grace."
+
+John Tauler was born at Strassburg about 1300, and entered a Dominican
+convent in 1315. After studying at Cologne and Paris, he returned to
+Strassburg, where, as a Dominican, he was allowed to officiate as a
+priest, although the town was involved in the great interdict of 1324.
+In 1339, however, he had to fly to Basel, which was the headquarters
+of the revivalist society who called themselves "the Friends of God."
+About 1346 he returned to Strassburg, and was devoted in his
+ministrations during the "black death" in 1348. He appears to have
+been strongly influenced by one of the Friends of God, a mysterious
+layman, who has been identified, probably wrongly, with Nicholas of
+Basel,[264] and, according to some, dated his "conversion" from his
+acquaintance with this saintly man. Tauler continued to preach to
+crowded congregations till his death in 1361.
+
+Tauler is a thinker as well as a preacher. Though in most points his
+teaching is identical with that of Eckhart,[265] he treats all
+questions in an independent manner, and sometimes, as for instance in
+his doctrine about the uncreated ground of the soul,[266] he differs
+from his master. There is also a perceptible change in the stress
+laid upon certain parts of the system, which brings Tauler nearer than
+Eckhart to the divines of the Reformation. In particular, his sense of
+sin is too deep for him to be satisfied with the Neoplatonic doctrine
+of its negativity, which led Eckhart into difficulties.[267]
+
+The little book called the _German Theology_, by an unknown author,
+also belongs to the school of Eckhart. It is one of the most precious
+treasures of devotional literature, and deserves to be better known
+than it is in this country. In some ways it is superior to the famous
+treatise of à Kempis, _On the Imitation of Christ_, since the
+self-centred individualism is less prominent. The author thoroughly
+understands Eckhart, but his object is not to view everything _sub
+specie oeternitatis_, but to give a practical religious turn to his
+master's speculations. His teaching is closely in accordance with that
+of Tauler, whom he quotes as an authority, and whom he joins in
+denouncing the followers of the "false light," the erratic mystics of
+the fourteenth century.
+
+The practical theology of these four German mystics of the fourteenth
+century--Ruysbroek, Suso, Tauler, and the writer of the _German
+Theology_, is so similar that it is possible to consider it in detail
+without taking each author separately. It is the crowning achievement
+of Christian Mysticism before the Reformation, except in the English
+Platonists of the seventeenth century, we shall not find anywhere a
+sounder and more complete scheme of doctrine built upon this
+foundation.
+
+The distinction drawn by Eckhart between the Godhead and God is
+maintained in the _German Theology_, and by Ruysbroek. The latter, as
+we have seen,[268] does not shrink from following the path of analysis
+to the end, and says plainly that in the Abyss there is no distinction
+of Divine and human persons, but only the eternal essence. Tauler also
+bids us "put out into the deep, and let down our nets"; but his "deep"
+is in the heart, not in the intellect. "My children, you should not
+ask about these great high problems," he says; and he prefers not to
+talk much about them, "for no teacher can teach what he has not lived
+through himself." Still he speaks, like Dionysius and Eckhart, of the
+"Divine darkness," "the nameless, formless nothing," "the wild waste,"
+and so forth; and says of God that He is "the Unity in which all
+multiplicity is transcended," and that in Him are gathered up both
+becoming and being, eternal rest and eternal motion. In this deepest
+ground, he says, the Three Persons are implicit, not explicit. The Son
+is the Form of all forms, to which the "eternal, reasonable form
+created after God's image" (the Idea of mankind) longs to be
+conformed.
+
+The creation of the world, according to Tauler, is rather consonant
+with than necessary to the nature of God. The world, before it became
+actual, existed in its Idea in God, and this ideal world was set forth
+by means of the Trinity. It is in the Son that the Ideas exist "from
+all eternity." The Ideas are said to be "living," that is, they work
+as forms, and after the creation of matter act as universals above and
+in things. Tauler is careful to show that he is not a pantheist. "God
+is the Being of all beings," he says; "but He is none of all things."
+God is all, but all is not God; He far transcends the universe in
+which He is immanent.
+
+We look in vain to Tauler for an explanation of the obscurest point in
+Eckhart's philosophy, as to the relations of the phenomenal to the
+real. We want clearer evidence that temporal existence is not regarded
+as something illusory or accidental, an error which may be
+inconsistent with the theory of immanence as taught by the school of
+Eckhart, but which is too closely allied with other parts of their
+scheme.
+
+The indwelling of God in the soul is the real centre of Tauler's
+doctrine, but his psychology is rather intricate and difficult. He
+speaks of three phases of personal life, the sensuous nature, the
+reason, and the "third man"--the spiritual life or pure substance of
+the soul. He speaks also of an "uncreated ground," which is the abyss
+of the Godhead, but yet "in us," and of a "created ground," which he
+uses in a double sense, now of the empirical self, which is imperfect
+and must be purified, and now of the ideal man, as God intended him to
+be. This latter is "the third man," and is also represented by the
+"spark" at the "apex of the soul," which is to transform the rest of
+the soul into its own likeness. The "uncreated ground," in Tauler,
+works upon us through the medium of the "created ground," and not as
+in Eckhart, immediately. The "created ground," in this sense, he calls
+"the Image," which is identical with Eckhart's "spark." It is a
+creative principle as well as created, like the "Ideas" of Erigena.
+
+The _German Theology_ says that "the soul has two eyes,[269]" one of
+which, the right eye, sees into eternity, the other sees time and the
+creatures. The "right eye" is practically the same as Eckhart's
+"spark" and Tauler's "image." It is significant that the author tells
+us that we cannot see with both eyes together; the left eye must be
+shut before we can use the right.[270] The passage where this precept
+is given shows very plainly that the author, like the other fourteenth
+century mystics,[271] was still under the influence of mediæval
+dualism--the belief that the Divine begins where the earthly leaves
+off. It is almost the only point in this "golden little treatise," as
+Henry More calls it, to which exception must be taken.[272]
+
+The essence of sin is self-assertion or self-will, and consequent
+separation from God. Tauler has, perhaps, a deeper sense of sin than
+any of his predecessors, and he revives the Augustinian
+(anti-Pelagian) teaching on the miserable state of fallen humanity.
+Sensuality and pride, the two chief manifestations of self-will, have
+invaded the _whole_ of our nature. Pride is a sin of the spirit, and
+the poison has invaded "even the ground"--the "created ground," that
+is, as the unity of all the faculties. It will be remembered that the
+Neoplatonic doctrine was that the spiritual part of our nature can
+take no defilement. Tauler seems to believe that under one aspect the
+"created ground" is the transparent medium of the Divine light, but in
+this sense it is only potentially the light of our whole body. He will
+not allow the sinless _apex mentis_ to be identified with the
+personality. Separation from God is the source of all misery. Therein
+lies the pain of hell. The human soul can never cease to yearn and
+thirst after God; "and the greatest pain" of the lost "is that this
+longing can never be satisfied." In the _German Theology_, the
+necessity of rising above the "I" and "mine" is treated as the great
+saving truth. "When the creature claimeth for its own anything good,
+it goeth astray." "The more of self and me, the more of sin and
+wickedness. Be simply and wholly bereft of self." "So long as a man
+seeketh his own highest good _because_ it is his, he will never find
+it. For so long as he doeth this, he seeketh himself, and deemeth that
+he himself is the highest good." (These last sentences are almost
+verbally repeated in a sermon by John Smith, the Cambridge Platonist.)
+
+The three stages of the mystic's ascent appear in Tauler's sermons. We
+have first to practise self-control, till all our lower powers are
+governed by our highest reason. "Jesus cannot speak in the temple of
+thy soul till those that sold and bought therein are cast out of it."
+In this stage we must be under strict rule and discipline. "The old
+man must be subject to the old law, till Christ be born in him of a
+truth." Of the second stage he says, "Wilt thou with St. John rest on
+the loving breast of our Lord Jesus Christ, thou must be transformed
+into His beauteous image by a constant, earnest contemplation
+thereof." It is possible that God may will to call thee higher still;
+then let go all forms and images, and suffer Him to work with thee as
+His instrument. To some the very door of heaven has been opened--"this
+happens to some with a convulsion of the mind, to others calmly and
+gradually." "It is not the work of a day nor of a year." "Before it
+can come to pass, nature must endure many a death, outward and
+inward."
+
+In the first stage of the "dying life," he says elsewhere, we are much
+oppressed by the sense of our infirmities, and by the fear of hell.
+But in the third, "all our griefs and joys are a sympathy with Christ,
+whose earthly life was a mingled web of grief and joy, and this life
+He has left as a sacred testament to His followers."
+
+These last extracts show that the Cross of Christ, and the imitation
+of His life on earth, have their due prominence in Tauler's teaching.
+It is, of course, true that for him, as for all mystics, Christ _in_
+us is more than Christ _for_ us. But it is unfair to put it in this
+way, as if the German mystics wished to contrast the two views of
+redemption, and to exalt one at the expense of the other. Tauler's
+wish is to give the historical redemption its true significance, by
+showing that it is an universal as well as a particular fact. When he
+says, "We should worship Christ's humanity only in union with this
+divinity," he is giving exactly the same caution which St. Paul
+expresses in the verse about "knowing Christ after the flesh."
+
+In speaking of the highest of the three stages, passages were quoted
+which advocate a purely passive state of the will and intellect.[273]
+This quietistic tendency cannot be denied in the fourteenth century
+mystics, though it is largely counteracted by maxims of an opposite
+kind. "God draws us," says Tauler, "in three ways, first, by His
+creatures; secondly, by His voice in the soul, when an eternal truth
+mysteriously suggests itself, as happens not infrequently in morning
+sleep." (This is interesting, being evidently the record of personal
+experience.) "Thirdly, without resistance or means, when the will is
+quite subdued." "What is given through means is tasteless; it is seen
+through a veil, and split up into fragments, and bears with it a
+certain sting of bitterness." There are other passages in which he is
+obviously under the influence of Dionysius; as when he speaks of
+"dying to all distinctions"; in fact, he at times preaches
+"simplification" in an unqualified form. But, on the other hand, no
+Christian teachers have made more of the _active will_ than these
+pupils of Eckhart.[274] "Ye are as holy as ye truly will to be holy,"
+says Ruysbroek. "With the will one may do everything," we read in
+Tauler. And against the perversion of the "negative road" he says, "we
+must lop and prune vices, not nature, which is in itself good and
+noble." And "Christ Himself never arrived at the 'emptiness' of which
+these men (the false mystics) talk." Of contemplation he says,
+"Spiritual enjoyments are the food of the soul, and are only to be
+taken for nourishment and support to help us in our active work."
+"Sloth often makes men fain to be excused from their work and set to
+contemplation. Never trust in a virtue that has not been put into
+practice." These pupils of Eckhart all led strenuous lives themselves,
+and were no advocates of pious indolence. Tauler says, "Works of love
+are more acceptable to God than lofty contemplation": and, "All kinds
+of skill are gifts of the Holy Ghost.[275]"
+
+The process of deification is thus described by Ruysbroek and by
+Tauler. Ruysbroek writes: "All men who are exalted above their
+creatureliness into a contemplative life are one with this Divine
+glory--yea, _are_ that glory. And they see and feel and find in
+themselves, by means of this Divine light, that they are the same
+simple Ground as to their uncreated nature, since the glory shineth
+forth without measure, after the Divine manner, and abideth within
+them simply and without mode, according to the simplicity of the
+essence. Wherefore contemplative men should rise above reason and
+distinction, beyond their created substance, and gaze perpetually by
+the aid of their inborn light, and so they become transformed, and one
+with the same light, by means of which they see, and which they see.
+Thus they arrive at that eternal image after which they were created,
+and contemplate God and all things without distinction, in a simple
+beholding, in Divine glory. This is the loftiest and most profitable
+contemplation to which men attain in this life." Tauler, in his sermon
+for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, says: "The kingdom is seated
+in the inmost recesses of the spirit. When, through all manner of
+exercises, the outward man has been converted into the inward
+reasonable man, and thus the two, that is to say, the powers of the
+senses and the powers of the reason, are gathered up into the very
+centre of the man's being,--the unseen depths of his spirit, wherein
+lies the image of God,--and thus he flings himself into the Divine
+Abyss, in which he dwelt eternally before he was created; then when
+God finds the man thus firmly down and turned towards Him, the Godhead
+bends and nakedly descends into the depths of the pure waiting soul,
+and transforms the created soul, drawing it up into the uncreated
+essence, so that the spirit becomes one with Him. Could such a man
+behold himself, he would see himself so noble that he would fancy
+himself God, and see himself a thousand times nobler than he is in
+himself, and would perceive all the thoughts and purposes, words and
+works, and have all the knowledge of all men that ever were." Suso and
+the _German Theology_ use similar language.
+
+The idea of deification startles and shocks the modern reader. It
+astonishes us to find that these earnest and humble saints at times
+express themselves in language which surpasses the arrogance even of
+the Stoics. We feel that there must be something wrong with a system
+which ends in obliterating the distinction between the Creator and His
+creatures. We desire in vain to hear some echo of Job's experience, so
+different in tone: "I have heard Thee by the hearing of the ear, but
+now mine eye seeth Thee; _therefore_ I abhor myself, and repent in
+dust and ashes." The proper effect of the vision of God is surely that
+which Augustine describes in words already quoted: "I tremble, and I
+burn. I tremble, in that I am unlike Him; I burn, in that I am like
+Him." Nor is this only the beginner's experience: St. Paul had almost
+"finished his course" when he called himself the chief of sinners. The
+joy which uplifts the soul, when it feels the motions of the Holy
+Spirit, arises from the fact that in such moments "the spirit's true
+endowments stand out plainly from its false ones"; we then see the
+"countenance of our genesis," as St. James calls it--the man or woman
+that God meant us to be, and know that we could _not_ so see it if we
+were wholly cut off from its realisation. But the clearer the vision
+of the ideal, the deeper must be our self-abasement when we turn our
+eyes to the actual. We must not escape from this sharp and humiliating
+contrast by mentally annihilating the self, so as to make it
+impossible to say, "Look on this picture, and on _this_." Such false
+humility leads straight to its opposite--extreme arrogance. Moreover,
+to regard deification as an accomplished fact, involves, as I have
+said (p. 33), a contradiction. The process of unification with the
+Infinite _must_ be a _progressus ad infinitum_. The pessimistic
+conclusion is escaped by remembering that the highest reality is
+supra-temporal, and that the destiny which God has designed for us has
+not merely a contingent realisation, but is in a sense already
+accomplished. There are, in fact, two ways in which we may abdicate
+our birthright, and surrender the prize of our high calling: we may
+count ourselves already to have apprehended, which must be a grievous
+delusion, or we may resign it as unattainable, which is also a
+delusion.
+
+These truths were well known to Tauler and his brother-mystics, who
+were saints as well as philosophers. If they retained language which
+appears to us so objectionable, it must have been because they felt
+that the doctrine of union with God enshrined a truth of great value.
+And if we remember the great Mystical paradox, "He that will lose his
+life shall save it," we shall partly understand how they arrived at
+it. It is quite true that the nearer we approach to God, the wider
+seems to yawn the gulf that separates us from Him, till at last we
+feel it to be infinite. But does not this conviction itself bring with
+it unspeakable comfort? How could we be aware of that infinite
+distance, if there were not something within us which can span the
+infinite? How could we feel that God and man are incommensurable, if
+we had not the witness of a higher self immeasurably above our lower
+selves? And how blessed is the assurance that this higher self gives
+us access to a region where we may leave behind not only external
+troubles and "the provoking of all men," but "the strife of tongues"
+in our own hearts, the chattering and growling of the "ape and tiger"
+within us, the recurring smart of old sins repented of, and the
+dragging weight of innate propensities! In this state the will,
+desiring nothing save to be conformed to the will of God, and
+separating itself entirely from all lower aims and wishes, claims the
+right of an immortal spirit to attach itself to eternal truth alone,
+having nothing in itself, and yet possessing all things in God. So
+Tauler says, "Let a man lovingly cast all his thoughts and cares, and
+his sins too, as it were, on that unknown Will. O dear child! in the
+midst of all these enmities and dangers, sink thou into thy ground and
+nothingness. Let the tower with all its bells fall on thee; yea, let
+all the devils in hell storm out upon thee; let heaven and earth and
+all the creatures assail thee, all shall but marvellously serve thee;
+sink thou into thy nothingness, and the better part shall be thine."
+This hope of a real transformation of our nature by the free gift of
+God's grace is the _only_ message of comfort for those who are tied
+and bound by the chain of their sins.
+
+The error comes in, as I have said before, when we set before
+ourselves the idea of God the Father, or of the Absolute, instead of
+Christ, as the object of imitation. Whenever we find such language as
+that quoted from Ruysbroek, about "rising above all distinctions," we
+may be sure that this error has been committed. Mystics of all times
+would have done well to keep in their minds a very happy phrase which
+Irenæus quotes from some unknown author, "He spoke well who said that
+the infinite (_immensum_) Father is _measured_ (_mensuratum_) in the
+Son: _mensura enim Patris Filius_.[276]" It is to this "measure," not
+to the immeasureable, that we are bidden to aspire.
+
+Eternity is, for Tauler, "the everlasting Now"; but in his popular
+discourses he uses the ordinary expressions about future reward and
+punishment, even about hell fire; though his deeper thought is that
+the hopeless estrangement of the soul from God is the source of all
+the torments of the lost.
+
+Love, says Tauler, is the "beginning, middle, and end of virtue." Its
+essence is complete self-surrender. We must lose ourselves in the love
+of God as a drop of water is lost in the ocean.
+
+It only remains to show how Tauler combats the fantastic errors into
+which some of the German mystics had fallen in his day. The author of
+the _German Theology_ is equally emphatic in his warnings against the
+"false light"; and Ruysbroek's denunciation of the Brethren of the
+Free Spirit has already been quoted. Tauler, in an interesting
+sermon[277], describes the heady arrogance, disorderly conduct, and
+futile idleness of these fanatics, and then gives the following
+maxims, by which we may distinguish the false Mysticism from the true.
+"Now let us know how we may escape these snares of the enemy. No one
+can be free from the observance of the laws of God and the practice of
+virtue. No one can unite himself to God in emptiness without true love
+and desire for God. No one can be holy without becoming holy, without
+good works. No one may leave off doing good works. No one may rest in
+God without love for God. No one can be exalted to a stage which he
+has not longed for or felt." Finally, he shows how the example of
+Christ forbids all the errors which he is combating.
+
+The _Imitation of Christ_ has been so often spoken of as the finest
+flower of Christian Mysticism, that it is impossible to omit all
+reference to it in these Lectures. And yet it is not, properly
+speaking, a mystical treatise. It is the ripe fruit of mediæval
+Christianity as concentrated in the life of the cloister, the last and
+best legacy, in this kind, of a system which was already decaying; but
+we find in it hardly a trace of that independence which made Eckhart a
+pioneer of modern philosophy, and the fourteenth century mystics
+forerunners of the Reformation. Thomas à Kempis preaches a
+Christianity of the _heart_; but he does not exhibit the
+distinguishing characteristics of Mysticism. The title by which the
+book is known is really the title of the first section only, and it
+does not quite accurately describe the contents of the book.
+Throughout the treatise we feel that we are reading a defence of the
+recluse and his scheme of life. Self-denial, renunciation of the
+world, prayer and meditation, utter humility and purity, are the road
+to a higher joy, a deeper peace, than anything which the world can
+give us. There are many sentences which remind us of the Roman Stoics,
+whose main object was by detachment from the world to render
+themselves invulnerable. Not that Thomas à Kempis shrinks from bearing
+the Cross. The Cross of Christ is always before him, and herein he is
+superior to those mystics who speak only of the Incarnation. But the
+monk of the fifteenth century was perhaps more thrown back upon
+himself than his predecessors in the fourteenth. The monasteries were
+no longer such homes of learning and centres of activity as they had
+been. It was no longer evident that the religious orders were a
+benefit to civilisation. That indifference to human interests, which
+we feel to be a weak spot in mediæval thought generally, and in the
+Neoplatonists to whom mediæval thought was so much indebted, reaches
+its climax in Thomas à Kempis. Not only does he distrust and disparage
+all philosophy, from Plato to Thomas Aquinas, but he shuns society and
+conversation as occasions of sin, and quotes with approval the pitiful
+epigram of Seneca, "Whenever I have gone among men, I have returned
+home less of a man." It is, after all, the life of the "shell-fish,"
+as Plato calls it, which he considers the best. The book cannot safely
+be taken as a guide to the Christian life as a whole. What we do find
+in it, set forth with incomparable beauty and unstudied dignity, are
+the Christian graces of humility, simplicity, and purity of heart.
+
+It is very significant that the mystics, who had undermined
+sacerdotalism, and in many other ways prepared the Reformation, were
+shouldered aside when the secession from Rome had to be organised. The
+Lutheran Church was built by other hands. And yet the mystics of
+Luther's generation, Carlstadt and Sebastian Frank, are far from
+deserving the contemptuous epithets which Luther showered upon them.
+Carlstadt endeavoured to deepen the Lutheran notion of faith by
+bringing it into closer connexion with the love of God to man and of
+man to God; Sebastian Frank developed the speculative system of
+Eckhart and Tauler in an original and interesting manner. But
+speculative Mysticism is a powerful solvent, and Protestant Churches
+are too ready to fall to pieces even without it. "I will not even
+answer such men as Frank," said Luther in 1545; "I despise them too
+much. If my nose does not deceive me, he is an enthusiast or
+spiritualist, who is content with nothing but Spirit, spirit, spirit,
+and cares not at all for Bible, Sacrament, or Preaching." The teaching
+which the sixteenth century spurned so contemptuously was almost
+identical with that of Eckhart and Tauler, whose names were still
+revered. But it was not wanted just then. It was not till the next
+generation, when superstitious veneration for the letter of Scripture
+was bringing back some of the evils of the unreformed faith, that
+Mysticism in the person of Valentine Weigel was able to resume its
+true task in the deepening and spiritualising of religion in Germany.
+
+But instead of following any further the course of mystical theology
+in Germany, I wish to turn for a few minutes to our own country. I am
+the more ready to do so, because I have come across the statement,
+repeated in many books, that England has been a barren field for
+mystics. It is assumed that the English character is alien to
+Mysticism--that we have no sympathy, as a nation, for this kind of
+religion. Some writers hint that it is because we are too practical,
+and have too much common sense. The facts do not bear out this view.
+There is no race, I think, in which there is a richer vein of
+idealism, and a deeper sense of the mystery of life, than our own. In
+a later Lecture I hope to illustrate this statement from our national
+poetry. Here I wish to insist that even the Mysticism of the cloister,
+which is the least satisfying to the energetic and independent spirit
+of our countrymen, might be thoroughly and adequately studied from the
+works of English mystics alone. I will give two examples of this
+mediæval type. Both of them lived before the Reformation, near the end
+of the fourteenth century; but in them, as in Tauler, we find very few
+traces of Romish error.
+
+Walter Hilton or Hylton[278], a canon of Thurgarton, was the author of
+a mystical treatise, called _The Scale (or Ladder) of Perfection_. The
+following extracts, which are given as far as possible in his own
+words, will show in what manner he used the traditional mystical
+theology.
+
+There are two lives, the active and the contemplative, but in the
+latter there are many stages. The highest state of contemplation a man
+cannot enjoy always, "but only by times, when he is visited"; "and, as
+I gather from the writings of holy men, the time of it is very short."
+"This part of contemplation God giveth where He will." Visions and
+revelations, of whatever kind, "are not true contemplation, but merely
+secondary. The devil may counterfeit them"; and the only safeguard
+against these impostures is to consider whether the visions have
+helped or hindered us in devotion to God, humility, and other virtues.
+
+"In the third stage of contemplation," he says finely, "reason is
+turned into light, and will into love."
+
+"Spiritual prayer," by which he means vocal prayer not in set words,
+belongs to the second part of contemplation. "It is very wasting to
+the body of him who uses it much, wounding the soul with the blessed
+sword of love." "The most vicious or carnal man on earth, were he once
+strongly touched with this sharp sword, would be right sober and grave
+for a great while after." The highest kind of prayer of all is the
+prayer of quiet, of which St. Paul speaks, "I will pray with the
+understanding also[279]." But this is not for all; "a pure heart,
+indeed, it behoveth him to have who would pray in this manner."
+
+We must fix our affections first on the humanity of Christ. Since our
+eyes cannot bear the unclouded light of the Godhead, "we must live
+under the shadow of His manhood as long as we are here below." St.
+Paul tells his converts that he first preached to them of the
+humanity and passion of Christ, but afterwards of the Godhead, how
+that Christ is the power and wisdom of God[280].
+
+"Christ is lost, like the piece of money in the parable; but where? In
+thy house, that is, in thy soul. Thou needest not run to Rome or
+Jerusalem to seek Him. He sleepeth in thy heart, as He did in the
+ship; awaken Him with the loud cry of thy desire. Howbeit, I believe
+that thou sleepest oftener to Him than He to thee." Put away
+"distracting noises," and thou wilt hear Him. First, however, find the
+image of sin, which thou bearest about with thee. It is no bodily
+thing, no real thing--only a lack of light and love. It is a false,
+inordinate love of thyself, from whence flow all the deadly sins.
+
+"Fair and foul is a man's soul--foul without like a beast, fair within
+like an angel." "But the sensual man doth not bear about the image of
+sin, but is borne by it."
+
+The true light is love of God, the false light is love of the world.
+But we must pass through darkness to go from one to the other. "The
+darker the night is, the nearer is the true day." This is the
+"darkness" and "nothing" spoken of by the mystics, "a rich nothing,"
+when the soul is "at rest as to thoughts of any earthly thing, but
+very busy about thinking of God." "But the night passeth away; the day
+dawneth." "Flashes of light shine through the chinks of the walls of
+Jerusalem; but thou art not there yet." "But now beware of the midday
+fiend, that feigneth light as if it came from Jerusalem. This light
+appears between two black rainy clouds, whereof the upper one is
+presumption and self-exaltation, and the lower a disdaining of one's
+neighbour. This is not the light of the true sun." This darkness,
+through which we must pass, is simply the death of self-will and all
+carnal affections; it is that dying to the world which is the only
+gate of life.
+
+The way in which Hilton conceives the "truly mystical darkness" of
+Dionysius is very interesting. As a psychical experience, it has its
+place in the history of the inner life. The soul _does_ enter into
+darkness, and the darkness is not fully dispelled in this world; "thou
+art not there yet," as he says. But the psychical experience is in
+Hilton _entirely dissociated_ from the metaphysical idea of absorption
+into the Infinite. The chains of Asiatic nihilism are now at last
+shaken off, easily and, it would seem, unconsciously. The "darkness"
+is felt to be only the herald of a brighter dawn: "the darker the
+night, the nearer is the true day." It is, I think, gratifying to
+observe how our countryman strikes off the fetters of the
+time-honoured Dionysian tradition, the paralysing creed which blurs
+all distinctions, and the "negative road" which leads to darkness and
+not light; and how in consequence his Mysticism is sounder and saner
+than even that of Eckhart or Tauler. Before leaving Hilton, it may be
+worth while to quote two or three isolated maxims of his, as examples
+of his wise and pure doctrine.
+
+"There are two ways of knowing God--one chiefly by the imagination,
+the other by the understanding. The understanding is the mistress, and
+the imagination is the maid."
+
+"What is heaven to a reasonable soul? Nought else but Jesus God."
+
+"Ask of God nothing but this gift of love, which is the Holy Ghost.
+For there is no gift of God that is both the giver and the gift, but
+this gift of love."
+
+My other example of English Mysticism in the Middle Ages is Julian or
+Juliana of Norwich,[281] to whom were granted a series of
+"revelations" in the year 1373, she being then about thirty years old.
+She describes with evident truthfulness the manner in which the
+visions came to her. She ardently desired to have a "bodily sight" of
+her Lord upon the Cross, "like other that were Christ's lovers"; and
+she prayed that she might have "a grievous sickness almost unto
+death," to wean her from the world and quicken her spiritual sense.
+The sickness came, and the vision; for they thought her dying, and
+held the crucifix before her, till the figure on the Cross changed
+into the semblance of the living Christ. "All this was showed by three
+parts--that is to say, by bodily sight, and by words formed in my
+understanding, and by ghostly sight.[282]" "But the ghostly sight I
+cannot nor may not show it as openly nor as fully as I would." Her
+later visions came to her sometimes during sleep, but most often when
+she was awake. The most pure and certain were wrought by a "Divine
+illapse" into the spiritual part of the soul, the mind and
+understanding, for these the devil cannot counterfeit. Juliana was
+certainly perfectly honest and perfectly sane. The great charm of her
+little book is the sunny hopefulness and happiness which shines from
+every page, and the tender affection for her suffering Lord which
+mingles with her devotion without ever becoming morbid or irreverent.
+It is also interesting to see how this untaught maiden (for she shows
+no traces of book learning) is led by the logic of the heart straight
+to some of the speculative doctrines which we have found in the
+philosophical mystics. The brief extracts which follow will illustrate
+all these statements.
+
+The crucified Christ is the one object of her devotion. She refused to
+listen to "a proffer in my reason," which said, "Look up to heaven to
+His Father." "Nay, I may not," she replied, "for Thou art my heaven.
+For I would liever have been in that pain till Doomsday than to come
+to heaven otherwise than by Him." "Me liked none other heaven than
+Jesus, which shall be my bliss when I come there." And after
+describing a vision of the crucifixion, she says, "How might any pain
+be more than to see Him that is all my life and all my bliss suffer?"
+
+Her estimate of the value of means of grace is very clear and sound.
+"In that time the custom of our praying was brought to mind, how we
+use, for lack of understanding and knowing of love, to make [use of]
+many means. Then saw I truly that it is more worship to God and more
+very delight that we faithfully pray to Himself of His goodness, and
+cleave thereto by His grace, with true understanding and steadfast by
+love, than if we made [use of] all the means that heart can think. For
+if we made [use of] all these means, it is too little, and not full
+worship to God; but in His goodness is all the whole, and _there_
+faileth right nought. For this, as I shall say, came into my mind. In
+the same time we pray to God for [the sake of] His holy flesh and
+precious blood, His holy passion, His dearworthy death and wounds: and
+all the blessed kinship, the endless life that we have of all this, is
+His goodness. And we pray Him for [the sake of] His sweet mother's
+love, that Him bare; and all the help that we have of her is of His
+goodness." And yet "God of His goodness hath advanced means to help
+us, full fair and many; of which the chief and principal mean is the
+blessed nature that He took of the maid, with all the means that go
+afore and come after which belong to our redemption and to endless
+salvation. Wherefore it pleaseth Him that we seek Him and worship Him
+through means, understanding and knowing that He is the goodness of
+all. For the goodness of God is the highest prayer, and it cometh down
+to the lowest part of our need. It quickeneth our soul, and bringeth
+it on life, and maketh it for to wax in grace and virtue. It is
+nearest in nature and readiest in grace; for it is the same grace that
+the soul seeketh, and ever shall seek till we know verily that He hath
+us all in Himself beclosed."
+
+"After this our Lord showed concerning Prayers. In which showing I see
+two conditions signified by our Lord; one is rightfulness, another is
+assured trust. But oftentimes our trust is not full; for we are not
+sure that God heareth us, as we think because of our unworthiness, and
+because we feel right nought; for we are as barren and dry oftentimes
+after our prayers as we were before.... But our Lord said to me, 'I am
+the ground of thy beseechings: first, it is My will that thou have it;
+and then I make thee to wish for it; and then I make thee to beseech
+it, and thou beseechest it. How then should it be that thou shouldest
+not have thy beseeching?' ... For it is most impossible that we should
+beseech mercy and grace and not have it. For all things that our good
+Lord maketh us to beseech, Himself hath ordained them to us from
+without beginning. Here may we see that our beseeching is not the
+cause of God's goodness; and that showed He soothfastly in all these
+sweet words which He saith: 'I am the ground.' And our good Lord
+willeth that this be known of His lovers in earth; and the more that
+we know it the more should we beseech, if it be wisely taken; and so
+is our Lord's meaning. Merry and joyous is our Lord of our prayer, and
+He looketh for it; and He willeth to have it; because with His grace
+He would have us like to Himself in condition as we are in kind.
+Therefore saith He to us 'Pray inwardly, although thou think it has no
+savour to thee: for it is profitable, though thou feel not, though
+thou see not, yea, though thou think thou canst not.'"
+
+"And also to prayer belongeth thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a true
+inward knowing, with great reverence and lovely dread turning
+ourselves with all our mights unto the working that our good Lord
+stirreth us to, rejoicing and thanking inwardly. And sometimes for
+plenteousness it breaketh out with voice and saith: Good Lord! great
+thanks be to Thee: blessed mote Thou be."
+
+"Prayer is a right understanding of that fulness of joy that is to
+come, with great longing and certain trust.... Then belongeth it to us
+to do our diligence, and when we have done it, then shall we yet think
+that it is nought; and in sooth it is. But if we do as we can, and
+truly ask for mercy and grace, all that faileth us we shall find in
+Him. And thus meaneth He where He saith: 'I am the ground of thy
+beseeching.' And thus in this blessed word, with the Showing, I saw a
+full overcoming against all our weakness and all our doubtful dreads."
+
+Juliana's view of human personality is remarkable, as it reminds us of
+the Neoplatonic doctrine that there is a higher and a lower self, of
+which the former is untainted by the sins of the latter. "I saw and
+understood full surely," she says, "that in every soul that shall be
+saved there is a godly will that never assented to sin, nor ever
+shall; which will is so good that it may never work evil, but evermore
+continually it willeth good, and worketh good in the sight of God....
+We all have this blessed will whole and safe in our Lord Jesus
+Christ." This "godly will" or "substance" corresponds to the spark of
+the German mystics.
+
+"I saw no difference," she says, "between God and our substance, but,
+as it were, all God. And yet my understanding took, that our substance
+is _in_ God--that is to say, that God is God, and our substance a
+creature in God. Highly ought we to enjoy that God dwelleth in our
+soul, and much more highly, that our soul dwelleth in God.... Thus was
+my understanding led to know, that our soul is _made_ Trinity, like to
+the unmade Blessed Trinity, known and loved from without beginning,
+and in the making oned to the Maker. This sight was full sweet and
+marvellous to behold, peaceable and restful, sure and delectable."
+
+"As anent our substance and our sense-part, both together may rightly
+be called our soul; and that is because of the oneing that they have
+in God. The worshipful City that our Lord Jesus sitteth in, it is our
+sense-soul, in which He is enclosed, and our natural substance is
+beclosed in Jesus, sitting with the blessed soul of Christ at rest in
+the Godhead." Our soul cannot reach its full powers until our
+sense-nature by the virtue of Christ's passion be "brought up to the
+substance." This fulfilment of the soul "is grounded in nature. That
+is to say, our reason is grounded in God, which is substantial
+Naturehood; out of this substantial Nature mercy and grace spring and
+spread into us, working all things in fulfilling of our joy: these
+are our ground, in which we have our increase and our fulfilling. For
+in nature we have our life and our being, and in mercy and grace we
+have our increase and our fulfilling."
+
+In one of her visions she was shown our Lord "scorning the fiend's
+malice, and noughting his unmight." "For this sight I laught mightily,
+and that made them to laugh that were about me. But I saw not Christ
+laugh. After this I fell into graveness, and said, 'I see three
+things: I see game, scorn, and earnest. I see game, that the fiend is
+overcome; I see scorn, in that God scorneth him, and he shall be
+scorned; and I see earnest, in that he is overcome by the blissful
+passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, that was done in full
+earnest and with sober travail.'"
+
+Alternations of mirth and sadness followed each other many times, "to
+learn me that it is speedful to some souls to feel on this wise." Once
+especially she was left to herself, "in heaviness and weariness of my
+life, and irksomeness of myself, that scarcely I could have pleasure
+to live.... For profit of a man's soul he is sometimes left to
+himself; although sin is not always the cause; for in that time I
+sinned not, wherefore I should be so left to myself; for it was so
+sudden. Also, I deserved not to have this blessed feeling. But freely
+our Lord giveth when He will, and suffereth us to be in woe sometime.
+And both is one love."
+
+Her treatment of the problem of evil is very characteristic. "In my
+folly, often I wondered why the beginning of sin was not letted; but
+Jesus, in this vision, answered and said, 'Sin is behovable,[283] but
+all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing
+shall be well.' In this naked word _sin_ our Lord brought to my mind
+generally all that is not good.... But I saw not sin; for I believe it
+had no manner of substance, nor any part of being, nor might it be
+known but by the pain that is caused thereof; and this pain ...
+purgeth and maketh us to know ourself, and ask mercy. In these same
+words ('all shall be well') I saw an high and marvellous privity hid
+in God." She wondered _how_ "all shall be well," when Holy Church
+teacheth us to believe that many shall be lost. But "I had no other
+answer but this, 'I shall save my word in all things, and I shall make
+all thing well.'" "This is the great deed that our Lord God shall do;
+but what the deed shall be, and how it shall be done, there is no
+creature beneath Christ that knoweth it, ne shall wit it till it is
+done."
+
+"I saw no wrath but on man's party," she says, "and that forgiveth He
+in us. It is the most impossible that may be, that God should be
+wroth.... Our life is all grounded and rooted in love.... Suddenly is
+the soul oned to God, when it is truly peaced in itself; for in Him is
+found no wrath. And thus I saw, when we be all in peace and love, we
+find no contrariousness, nor no manner of letting, through that
+contrariousness which is now in us; nay, our Lord God of His goodness
+maketh it to us full profitable." No visions of hell were ever showed
+to her. In place of the hideous details of torture which some of the
+Romish visionaries describe almost with relish, Juliana merely
+reports, "To me was showed none harder hell than sin."
+
+Again and again she rings the changes on the words which the Lord said
+to her, "I love thee and thou lovest Me, and our love shall never be
+disparted in two." "The love wherein He made us was in Him from
+without beginning; in which love," she concludes, "we have our
+beginning, and all this shall be seen in God without end."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 257: The indebtedness of the fourteenth century mystics to
+Eckhart is now generally recognised, at any rate in Germany; but
+before Pfeiffer's work his name had been allowed to fall into most
+undeserved obscurity. This was not the fault of his scholars, who, in
+spite of the Papal condemnation of his writings, speak of Eckhart with
+the utmost reverence, as the "great," "sublime," or "holy" master.]
+
+[Footnote 258: "Vir ut ferunt devotus sed parum litteratus," says the
+Abbé Trithême (_ap._ Gessner, _Biblioth._). "Rusbrochius cum idiota
+esset" (_Dyon. Carth._ Serm. i.). Compare Rousselot, _Les Mystiques
+Espagnols_, p. 493.]
+
+[Footnote 259: Maeterlinck, Ruysbroek's latest interpreter, is far too
+complimentary to the intellectual endowments of his fellow-countryman.
+"Ce moine possédait un des plus sages, des plus exacts, et des plus
+subtils organes philosophiques qui aient jamais existé." He thinks it
+marvellous that "il sait, à son insu, le platonisme de la Grèce, le
+soufisme de la Perse, le brahmanisme de I'Inde et le bouddhisme de
+Thibet," etc. In reality, Ruysbroek gets all his philosophy from
+Eckhart, and his manner of expounding it shows no abnormal acuteness.
+But Maeterlinck's essay in _Le Trésor des Humbles_ contains some good
+things--e.g. "Les verités mystiques ne peuvent ni vieillir ni
+mourir.... Une oeuvre ne vieillit qu'en proportion de son
+antimysticisme."]
+
+[Footnote 260: So Preger, probably rightly. Noack places his birth
+five years later. The chronology of the _Life_ is very loose.]
+
+[Footnote 261: The extreme asceticism which was practised by Suso, and
+(though to a less degree) by Tauler, is not enjoined by them as a
+necessary part of a holy life. "We are to kill our passions, not our
+flesh and blood," as Tauler says.]
+
+[Footnote 262: It would be very interesting to trace the influence of
+the chivalric idea on religious Mysticism. Chivalry, the worship of
+idealised womanhood, is itself a mystical cult, and its relation to
+religious Mysticism appears throughout the "Divine Comedy" and "Vita
+Nuova" (see especially the incomparable paragraph which concludes this
+latter), and in the sonnet of M. Angelo translated by Wordsworth, "No
+mortal object did these eyes behold," etc.]
+
+[Footnote 263: Nothing in the book is more touching than the scene
+when the baby, deserted by its mother, Suso's false accuser, is
+brought to him. Suso takes the child in his arms, and weeps over it
+with affectionate words, while the infant smiles up at him. In spite
+of the calumny which he knew was being spread wherever it would most
+injure him, he insists on paying for the child's maintenance, rather
+than leave it to die from neglect. The Italian mystic Scupoli, the
+author of a beautiful devotional work called the _Spiritual Combat_,
+was calumniated in a similar manner.]
+
+[Footnote 264: By Schmidt, whose researches formed the basis of
+several popular accounts of Tauler's life. Preger and Denifle both
+reject the identification of the mysterious stranger with Nicholas;
+Denifle doubts his existence altogether. The subject is very fully
+discussed by Preger]
+
+[Footnote 265: Tauler was well read in the earlier mystics. He cites
+Proclus, Augustine (frequently), Dionysius, Bernard, and the
+Victorines; also Aristotle and Aquinas.]
+
+[Footnote 266: Tauler adheres to the doctrine of an "uncreated
+ground," but he holds that it must always act upon us through the
+medium of the "created ground." He evidently considered Eckhart's
+later doctrine as too pantheistic. See below, p. 183.]
+
+[Footnote 267: See p. 155. In my estimate of Tauler's doctrine, I have
+made no use of the treatise on _The Imitation of the Poverty of
+Christ_, which Noack calls his masterpiece, and the kernel of his
+Mysticism. The work is not by Tauler.]
+
+[Footnote 268: See above, p. 170.]
+
+[Footnote 269: This expression is found first, I think, in Richard of
+St. Victor; but St. Augustine speaks of "oculus interior atque
+intelligibilis" (_De div. quæst._ 46).]
+
+[Footnote 270: But Christ, he says, could see with both eyes at once;
+the left in no way hindered the right.]
+
+[Footnote 271: Tauler often uses similar language; as, for instance,
+when he says, "The natural light of the reason must be entirely
+brought to nothing, if God is to enter with His light."]
+
+[Footnote 272: Stöckl criticises the _Theologia Germanica_ in a very
+hostile spirit. He finds it in "pantheism," by which he means
+acosmism, and also "Gnostic-Manichean dualism," the latter being his
+favourite charge against the Lutherans and their forerunners. He
+considers that this latter tendency is more strongly marked in the
+_German Theology_ than in the other works of the Eckhartian school, in
+that the writer identifies "the false light" with the light of nature,
+and selfhood with sin; "devil, sin, Adam, old man, disobedience,
+selfhood, individuality, mine, me, nature, self-will, are all the
+same; they all represent what is against God and without God."
+Accordingly, salvation consists in annihilation of the self, and
+substitution for God for it. There is no doubt that the writer of this
+treatise is deeply impressed with the belief that the root of sin is
+self-will, and that the new birth must be a complete transformation;
+but it must be remembered that the language of piety is less guarded
+than that of dogmatic disputation, and that the theology of such a
+book must be judged by its whole tendency. My own judgment is that,
+taken as a whole, it is safer than Tauler or Ruysbroek, and much safer
+than Eckhart. The strongly-marked "ethical dualism" is of very much
+the same kind as that which we find in St. John's Gospel. Taken as a
+theory of the origin and nature of evil, it no doubt does hold out a
+hand to Manicheism; but I do not think that the writer meant it to be
+so taken, any more than St. John did.]
+
+[Footnote 273: Throughout the fourteenth century, and still more in
+the fifteenth, we can trace an increasing prominence given to
+subjugation of the _will_ in mystical theology. This change is to be
+attributed partly to the influence of the Nominalist science of Duns
+Scotus, which gradually gained (at least this point) the ascendancy
+over the school of Aquinas. It may be escribed as a transition from
+the more speculative Mysticism towards quietism. In the fourteenth
+century writings, such as the _Theologia Germanica_, we merely welcome
+a new and valuable aspect of the religious life; since the change is
+connected with a distrust of reason, and a return to standpoint of
+harsh legalism, we cannot regard it as an improvement.]
+
+[Footnote 274: Compare p. 161, for similar teaching in Eckhart
+himself.]
+
+[Footnote 275: See the quotation on p. 11, note.]
+
+[Footnote 276: Irenæus, _Contra Har_. iv. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 277: No. 31. on Psalm xci. 13.]
+
+[Footnote 278: Hilton's book has been reprinted from the edition of
+1659, with an introduction by the Rev. J.B. Dalgairns. Very little is
+known about the author's life, but his book was widely read, and was
+"chosen to be the guide of good Christians in the courts of kings and
+in the world." The mother of Henry VII. valued it very highly. I have
+also used Mr. Guy's edition in my quotations from _The Scale of
+Perfection_.]
+
+[Footnote 279: 1 Cor. xiv. 15. This text was also appealed to by the
+Quietists of the post-Reformation period.]
+
+[Footnote 280: The texts to which he refers are those which Origen
+uses in the same manner. Compare 1 Cor. i. 23, ii. 2, Gal. vi. 14,
+with 1 Cor. i. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 281: Julian (born 1343) was probably a Benedictine nun of
+Carrow, near Norwich, but lived for the greater part of her life in an
+anchorage in the churchyard of St. Julian at Norwich. There is a copy
+of her _Revelations_ in the British Museum. Editions by Cressy, 1670;
+reprint issued 1843; by Collins, 1877. See, further, in the
+_Dictionary of National Biography_. In my quotations from her, I have
+used an unpublished version kindly lent me by Miss G.H. Warrack. It is
+just so far modernised as to be intelligible to those who are not
+familiar with fourteenth century English.]
+
+[Footnote 282: This was a recognised classification. Scaramelli says,
+"Le visioni corporce sono favori propri dei principianti, che
+incomminciano a camminare nella via dello spirito.... Le visioni
+immaginari sono proprie dei principianti e dei proficienti, che non
+sono ancor bene purgati.... Le visioni intellectuali sono proprie di
+quelli che si trovano gia in istato di perfezione." It comes
+originally from St. Augustine (_De Gen. ad litt._ xii. 7, n. 16): "Hæc
+sunt tria genera visionum.... Primum ergo appellemus corporale, quia
+per corpus percipitur, et corporis sensibus exhibetur. Secundum
+spirituale: quidquid enim corpus non est, et tamen aliquid est, iam
+recte dicitur spiritus; et utique non est corpus, quamvis corpori
+similis sit, imago absentis corporis, nee ille ipse obtutus quo
+cernitur. Tertium vero intellectuale, ab intellectu."]
+
+[Footnote 283: That is, "necessary" or "profitable."]
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE VI
+
+
+   "O heart, the equal poise of Love's both parts,
+    Big alike with wounds and darts,
+    Live in these conquering leaves, live still the same,
+    And walk through all tongues one triumphant flame!
+    Live here, great heart, and love and die and kill,
+    And bleed, and wound, and yield, and conquer still.
+    Let this immortal life, where'er it comes,
+    Walk in a crowd of loves and martyrdoms.
+    Let mystic deaths wait on it, and wise souls be
+    The love-slain witnesses of this life of thee.
+    O sweet incendiary! show here thy art
+    Upon this carcase of a hard, cold heart;
+    Let all thy scattered shafts of light, that play
+    Among the leaves of thy large books of day,
+    Combined against this breast at once break in,
+    And take away from me myself and sin;
+    This glorious robbery shall thy bounty be,
+    And my best fortunes such fair spoils of me.
+    O thou undaunted daughter of desires!
+    By all thy dower of lights and fires,
+    By all the eagle in thee, all the dove,
+    By all thy lives and deaths of love,
+    By thy large draughts of intellectual day,
+    And by thy thirsts of love more large than they;
+    By all thy brim-fill'd bowls of fierce desire,
+    By thy last morning's draught of liquid fire,
+    By the full kingdom of that final kiss
+    That seized thy parting soul and seal'd thee His;
+    By all the heavens thou hast in Him,
+    Fair sister of the seraphim!
+    By all of Him we have in Thee,
+    Leave nothing of myself in me:
+    Let me so read thy life, that I
+    Unto all life of mine may die."
+
+CRASHAW, _On St. Teresa_.
+
+
+           "In a dark night,
+    Burning with ecstasies wherein I fell,
+            Oh happy plight,
+    Unheard I left the house wherein I dwell,
+    The inmates sleeping peacefully and well.
+
+           "Secure from sight;
+    By unknown ways, in unknown robes concealed,
+           Oh happy plight;
+    And to no eye revealed,
+    My home in sleep as in the tomb was sealed.
+
+    "Sweet night, in whose blessed fold
+    No human eye beheld me, and mine eye
+           None could behold.
+    Only for Guide had I
+    His Face whom I desired so ardently."
+
+ST. JUAN OF THE CROSS (translated by Hutchings).
+
+
+
+PRACTICAL AND DEVOTIONAL MYSTICISM--_continued_
+
+"Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I
+desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the
+strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."--Ps. lxxiii. 25, 26.
+
+
+We have seen that the leaders of the Reformation in Germany thrust
+aside speculative Mysticism with impatience. Nor did Christian
+Platonism fare much better in the Latin countries. There were students
+of Plotinus in Italy in the sixteenth century, who fancied that a
+revival of humane letters, and a better acquaintance with philosophy,
+were the best means of combating the barbaric enthusiasms of the
+North. But these Italian Neoplatonists had, for the most part, no deep
+religious feelings, and they did not exhibit in their lives that
+severity which the Alexandrian philosophers had practised. And so,
+when Rome had need of a Catholic mystical revival to stem the tide of
+Protestantism, she could not find what she required among the scholars
+and philosophers of the Papal court. The Mysticism of the
+counter-Reformation had its centre in Spain.
+
+It has been said that "Mysticism is the philosophy of Spain.[284]"
+This does not mean that idealistic philosophy flourished in the
+Peninsula, for the Spanish race has never shown any taste for
+metaphysics. The Mysticism of Spain is psychological; its point of
+departure is not the notion of Being or of Unity, but the human soul
+seeking reconcilation with God. We need not be on our guard against
+pantheism in reading the Spanish mystics; they show no tendency to
+obliterate the dividing lines of personality, or to deify sinful
+humanity. The cause of this peculiarity is to be sought partly in the
+strong individualism of the Spanish character, and partly in external
+circumstances.[285] Free thought in Spain was so sternly repressed,
+that those tendencies of mystical religion which are antagonistic to
+Catholic discipline were never allowed to display themselves. The
+Spanish mystics remained orthodox Romanists, subservient to their
+"directors" and "superiors," and indefatigable in making recruits for
+the cloister. Even so, they did not escape the attention of the
+Inquisition; and though two among them, St. Teresa and St. Juan of the
+Cross, were awarded the badge of sanctity, the fate of Molinos showed
+how Rome had come to dread even the most submissive mystics.
+
+The early part of the sixteenth century was a period of high culture
+in Spain. The universities of Salamanca and Alcala were famous
+throughout Europe; the former is said (doubtless with great
+exaggeration) to have contained at one time fourteen thousand
+students. But the Inquisition, which had been founded to suppress Jews
+and Mahometans, was roused to a more baneful activity by the
+appearance of Protestantism in Spain. Before the end of the sixteenth
+century, the Spanish people, who up to that time had been second to
+none in love of liberty and many-sided energy, had been changed into
+sombre fanatics, sunk in ignorance and superstition, and retaining
+hardly a trace of their former buoyancy and healthy independence.[286]
+The first _Index Expurgatorius_ was published in 1546; the burning of
+Protestants began in 1559. Till then, Eckhart, Tauler, Suso, and
+Ruysbroek had circulated freely in Spain. But the Inquisition
+condemned them all, except Ruysbroek. The same rigour was extended to
+the Arabian philosophers, and so their speculations influenced Spanish
+theology much less than might have been expected from the long sojourn
+of the Moors in the Peninsula. Averroism was known in Spain chiefly
+through the medium of the _Fons Vitæ_ of Ibn Gebirol (Avicebron).
+Dionysius and the scholastic mystics of the Middle Ages were, of
+course, allowed to be read. But besides these, the works of Plato and
+Plotinus were accessible in Latin translations, and were highly valued
+by some of the Spanish mystics. This statement may surprise those who
+have identified Spanish Mysticism with Teresa and Juan of the Cross,
+and who know how little Platonism is to be found in their theology.
+But these two militant champions of the counter-Reformation numbered
+among their contemporaries mystics of a different type, whose
+writings, little known in this country, entitle them to an honourable
+place in the roll of Christian Platonists.
+
+We find in them most of the characteristic doctrines of Christian
+Neoplatonism: the radiation of all things from God and their return to
+God; the immanence of God in all things;[287] the notion of man as a
+microcosm, vitally connected with all the different orders of
+creation;[288] the Augustinian doctrine of Christ and His members as
+"one Christ";[289] insistence upon disinterested love;[290] and
+admonitions to close the eye of sense.[291] This last precept, which,
+as I have maintained, is neither true Platonism nor true Mysticism,
+must be set against others in which the universe is said to be a copy
+of the Divine Ideas, "of which Plotinus has spoken divinely," the
+creation of Love, which has given form to chaos, and stamped it with
+the image of the Divine beauty; and in which we are exhorted to rise
+through the contemplation of nature to God.[292] Juan de Angelis, in
+his treatise on the spiritual nuptials, quotes freely, not only from
+Plato, Plotinus, and Virgil, but from Lucretius, Ovid, Tibullus, and
+Martial.
+
+But this kind of humanism was frowned upon by the Church, in Spain as
+elsewhere. These were not the weapons with which Lutheranism could be
+fought successfully. Juan d'Avila was accused before the Inquisition
+in 1534, and one of his books was placed on the Index of 1559; Louis
+de Granada had to take refuge in Portugal; Louis de Leon, who had the
+courage to say that the Song of Solomon is only a pastoral idyll, was
+sent to a dungeon for five years.[293] Even St. Teresa narrowly
+escaped imprisonment at Seville; and St. Juan of the Cross passed nine
+months in a black hole at Toledo.
+
+Persecution, when applied with sufficient ruthlessness, seldom fails
+of its immediate object. It took only about twelve years to destroy
+Protestantism in Spain; and the Holy Office was equally successful in
+binding Mysticism hand and foot.[294] And so we must not expect to
+find in St. Teresa or St. Juan any of the characteristic independence
+of Mysticism. The inner light which they sought was not an
+illumination of the intellect in its search for truth, but a consuming
+fire to burn up all earthly passions and desires. Faith presented
+them with no problems; all such questions had been settled once for
+all by Holy Church. They were ascetics first and Church Reformers
+next; neither of them was a typical mystic.[295]
+
+The life of St. Teresa[296] is more interesting than her teaching. She
+had all the best qualities of her noble Castilian ancestors--
+simplicity, straightforwardness, and dauntless courage; and the record
+of her self-denying life is enlivened by numerous flashes of humour,
+which make her character more lovable. She is best known as a visionary,
+and it is mainly through her visions that she is often regarded as one
+of the most representative mystics. But these visions do not occupy a
+very large space in the story of her life. They were frequent during the
+first two or three years of her convent life, and again between the ages
+of forty and fifty: there was a long gap between the two periods, and
+during the last twenty years of her life, when she was actively engaged
+in founding and visiting religious houses, she saw them no more. This
+experience was that of many other saints of the cloister. Spiritual
+consolations seem to be frequently granted to encourage young
+beginners;[297] then they are withdrawn, and only recovered after a long
+period of dryness and darkness; but in later life, when the character is
+fixed, and the imagination less active, the vision fades into the light
+of common day. In considering St. Teresa's visions, we must remember
+that she was transparently honest and sincere; that her superiors
+strongly disliked and suspected, and her enemies ridiculed, her
+spiritual privileges; that at the same time they brought her great fame
+and influence; that she was at times haunted by doubts whether she ever
+really saw them; and, lastly, that her biographers have given them a
+more grotesque and materialistic character than is justified by her own
+descriptions.
+
+She tells us herself that her reading of St. Augustine's
+_Confessions_, at the age of forty-one, was a turning-point in her
+life. "When I came to his conversion," she says, "and read how he
+heard the voice in the garden, it was just as if the Lord called me."
+It was after this that she began again to see visions--or rather to
+have a sudden sense of the presence of God, with a suspension of all
+the faculties. In these trances she generally heard Divine
+"locutions." She says that "the words were very clearly formed, and
+unmistakable, though not heard by the bodily ear. They are quite
+unlike the words framed by the imagination, which are muffled" (_cosa
+sorda_). She describes her visions of Christ very carefully. First He
+stood beside her while she was in prayer, and she heard and saw Him,
+"though not with the eyes of the body, nor of the soul." Then by
+degrees "His sacred humanity was completely manifested to me, as it is
+painted after the Resurrection." (This last sentence suggests that
+sacred pictures, lovingly gazed at, may have been the source of some
+of her visions.) Her superiors tried to persuade her that they were
+delusions; but she replied, "If they who said this told me that a
+person who had just finished speaking to me, whom I knew well, was not
+that person, but they knew that I fancied it, doubtless I should
+believe them, rather than what I had seen; but if this person left
+behind him some jewels as pledges of his great love, and I found
+myself rich having been poor, I could not believe it if I wished. And
+these jewels I could show them. For all who knew me saw clearly that
+my soul was changed; the difference was great and palpable." The
+answer shows that for Teresa the question was not whether the
+manifestations were "subjective" or "objective," but whether they were
+sent by God or Satan.
+
+One of the best chapters in her autobiography, and perhaps the most
+interesting from our present point of view, is the allegory under
+which she describes the different kinds of prayer. The simile is not
+original--it appears in St. Augustine and others; but it is more fully
+worked out by St. Teresa, who tells us "it has always been a great
+delight to me to think of my soul as a garden, and of the Lord as
+walking in it." So here she says, "Our soul is like a garden, rough
+and unfruitful, out of which God plucks the weeds, and plants flowers,
+which we have to water by prayer. There are four ways of doing
+this--First, by drawing the water from a well; this is the earliest
+and most laborious process. Secondly, by a water-wheel which has its
+rim hung round with little buckets. Third, by causing a stream to flow
+through it. Fourth, by rain from heaven. The first is ordinary prayer,
+which is often attended by great sweetness and comfort. But sometimes
+the well is dry. What then? The love of God does not consist in being
+able to weep, nor yet in delights and tenderness, but in serving with
+justice, courage, and humility. The other seems to me rather to
+receive than to give. The second is the prayer of quiet, when the soul
+understands that God is so near to her that she need not talk aloud to
+Him." In this stage the Will is absorbed, but the Understanding and
+Memory are still active. (Teresa, following the scholastic mystics,
+makes these the three faculties of the soul.) In the third stage God
+becomes, as it were, the Gardener. "It is a sleep of the faculties,
+which are not entirely suspended, nor yet do they understand how they
+work." In the fourth stage, the soul labours not at all; all the
+faculties are quiescent. As she pondered how she might describe this
+state, "the Lord said these words to me: She (the soul) unmakes
+herself, my daughter, to bring herself closer to Me. It is no more she
+that lives, but I. As she cannot comprehend what she sees,
+understanding she ceases to understand." Years after she had attained
+this fourth stage, Teresa experienced what the mystics call "the great
+dereliction," a sense of ineffable loneliness and desolation, which
+nevertheless is the path to incomparable happiness. It was accompanied
+by a kind of catalepsy, with muscular rigidity and cessation of the
+pulses.
+
+These intense joys and sorrows of the spirit are the chief events of
+Teresa's life for eight or ten years. They are followed by a period of
+extreme practical activity, when she devoted herself to organising
+communities of bare-footed Carmelites, whose austerity and devotion
+were to revive the glories of primitive Christianity. In this work she
+showed not only energy, but worldly wisdom and tact in no common
+degree. Her visions had certainly not impaired her powers as an
+organiser and ruler of men and women. Her labours continued without
+intermission till, at the age of sixty-seven, she was struck down by
+her last illness. "This _saint_ will be no longer wanted," she said,
+with a sparkle of her old vivacity, when she knew that she was to die.
+
+It is not worth while to give a detailed account of St. Teresa's
+mystical theology. Its cardinal points are that the religious life
+consists in complete conformity to the will of God, so that at last
+the human will becomes purely "passive" and "at rest"; and the belief
+in Christ as the sole ground of salvation, on which subject she uses
+language which is curiously like that of the Lutheran Reformers. Her
+teaching about passivity and the "prayer of quiet" is identical with
+that which the Pope afterwards condemned in Molinos; but it is only
+fair to remember that Teresa was not canonised for her theology, but
+for her life, and that the Roman Church is not committed to every
+doctrine which can be found in the writings of her saints. The real
+character of St. Teresa's piety may be seen best in some of her
+prayers, such as this which follows:--
+
+"O Lord, how utterly different are Thy thoughts from our thoughts!
+From a soul which is firmly resolved to love Thee alone, and which has
+surrendered her whole will into Thy hands, Thou demandest only that
+she should hearken, strive earnestly to serve Thee, and desire only to
+promote Thine honour. She need seek and choose no path, for Thou
+doest that for her, and her will follows Thine; while Thou, O Lord,
+takest care to bring her to fuller perfection."
+
+In theory, it may not be easy to reconcile "earnest striving" with
+complete surrender and abrogation of the will, but the logic of the
+heart does not find them incompatible. Perhaps no one has spoken
+better on this matter than the Rabbi Gamaliel, of whom it is reported
+that he prayed, "O Lord, grant that I may do Thy will as if it were my
+will, that Thou mayest do my will as if it were Thy will." But
+quietistic Mysticism often puts the matter on a wrong basis. Self-will
+is to be annihilated, not (as St. Teresa sometimes implies) because
+our thoughts are so utterly different from God's thoughts that they
+cannot exist in the same mind, but because self-interest sets up an
+unnatural antagonism between them. The will, like the other faculties,
+only realises itself in its fulness when God worketh in us both to
+will and to do of His good pleasure.
+
+St. Juan of the Cross, the fellow-workman of St. Teresa in the reform
+of monasteries, is a still more perfect example of the Spanish type of
+Mysticism. His fame has never been so great as hers; for while
+Teresa's character remained human and lovable in the midst of all her
+austerities, Juan carried self-abnegation to a fanatical extreme, and
+presents the life of holiness in a grim and repellent aspect. In his
+disdain of all compromise between the claims of God and the world, he
+welcomes every kind of suffering, and bids us choose always that which
+is most painful, difficult, and humiliating. His own life was divided
+between terrible mortifications and strenuous labour in the
+foundation of monasteries. Though his books show a tendency to
+Quietism, his character was one of fiery energy and unresting
+industry. Houses of "discalced" Carmelites sprang up all over Spain as
+the result of his labours. These monks and nuns slept upon bare
+boards, fasted eight months in the year, never ate meat, and wore the
+same serge dress in winter and summer. In some of these new
+foundations the Brethren even vied with each other in adding voluntary
+austerities to this severe rule. It was all part of the campaign
+against Protestantism. The worldliness and luxury of the Renaissance
+period were to be atoned for by a return to the purity and devotion of
+earlier centuries. The older Catholic ideal--the mediæval type of
+Christianity--was to be restored in all its completeness in the
+seventeenth century. This essentially militant character of the
+movement among the Carmelites must not be lost sight of: the two great
+Spanish mystics were before all things champions of the
+counter-Reformation.
+
+The two chief works of St. Juan are _The Ascent of Mount Carmel_, and
+_The Obscure Night of the Soul_. Both are treatises on quietistic
+Mysticism of a peculiar type. At the beginning of _La Subida de Monte
+Carmelo_ he says, "The journey of the soul to the Divine union is
+called _night_ for three reasons: the point of departure is privation
+of all desire, and complete detachment from the world; the road is by
+faith, which is like night to the intellect; the goal, which is God,
+is incomprehensible while we are in this life."
+
+The soul in its ascent passes from one realm of darkness to another.
+First there is the "night of sense," in which the things of earth
+become dark to her. This must needs be traversed, for "the creatures
+are only the crumbs that fall from God's table, and none but dogs will
+turn to pick them up." "One desire only doth God allow--that of
+obeying Him, and carrying the Cross." All other desires weaken,
+torment, blind, and pollute the soul. Until we are completely detached
+from all such, we cannot love God. "When thou dwellest upon anything,
+thou hast ceased to cast thyself upon the All." "If thou wilt keep
+anything with the All, thou hast not thy treasure simply in God."
+"Empty thy spirit of all created things, and thou wilt walk in the
+Divine light, for God resembles no created thing." Such is the method
+of traversing the "night of sense." Even at this early stage the forms
+and symbols of eternity, which others have found in the visible works
+of God, are discarded as useless. "God has no resemblance to any
+creature." The dualism or acosmism of mediæval thought has seldom
+found a harsher expression.
+
+In the night of sense, the understanding and reason are not blind; but
+in the second night, the night of faith, "all is darkness." "Faith is
+midnight"; it is the deepest darkness that we have to pass; for in the
+"third night, the night of memory and will," the dawn is at hand.
+"Faith" he defines as "the assent of the soul to what we have
+heard"--as a blind man would receive a statement about the colour of
+an object. We must be totally blind, "for a partially blind man will
+not commit himself wholly to his guide." Thus for St. Juan the whole
+content of revelation is removed from the scope of the reason, and is
+treated as something communicated from outside. We have, indeed,
+travelled far from St. Clement's happy confidence in the guidance of
+reason, and Eckhart's independence of tradition. The soul has three
+faculties--intellect, memory, and will. The imagination (_fantasia_)
+is a link between the sensitive and reasoning powers, and comes
+between the intellect and memory.[298] Of these faculties, "faith (he
+says) blinds the intellect, hope the memory, and love the will." He
+adds, "to all that is not God"; but "God in this life is like night."
+He blames those who think it enough to deny themselves "without
+annihilating themselves," and those who "seek for satisfaction in
+God." This last is "spiritual gluttony." "We ought to seek for
+bitterness rather than sweetness in God," and "to choose what is most
+disagreeable, whether proceeding from God or the world." "The way of
+God consisteth not in ways of devotion or sweetness, though these may
+be necessary to beginners, but in giving ourselves up to suffer." And
+so we must fly from all "mystical phenomena" (supernatural
+manifestations to the sight, hearing, and the other senses) "without
+examining whether they be good or evil." "For bodily sensations bear
+no proportion to spiritual things"; since the distance "between God
+and the creature is infinite," "there is no essential likeness or
+communion between them." Visions are at best "childish toys"; "the fly
+that touches honey cannot fly," he says; and the probability is that
+they come from the devil. For "neither the creatures, nor intellectual
+perceptions, natural or supernatural, can bring us to God, there
+being no proportion between them. Created things cannot serve as a
+ladder; they are only a hindrance and a snare."
+
+There is something heroic in this sombre interpretation of the maxim
+of our Lord, "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he
+hath, he cannot be My disciple." All that he hath--"yea, and his own
+life also"--intellect, reason, and memory--all that is most Divine in
+our nature--are cast down in absolute surrender at the feet of Him who
+"made darkness His secret place, His pavilion round about Him with
+dark water, and thick clouds to cover Him.[299]"
+
+In the "third night"--that of memory and will--the soul sinks into a
+holy inertia and oblivion (_santa ociosidad y olvido_), in which the
+flight of time is unfelt, and the mind is unconscious of all
+particular thoughts. St. Juan seems here to have brought us to
+something like the torpor of the Indian Yogi or of the hesychasts of
+Mount Athos. But he does not intend us to regard this state of trance
+as permanent or final. It is the last watch of the night before the
+dawn of the supernatural state, in which the human faculties are
+turned into Divine attributes, and by a complete transformation the
+soul, which was "at the opposite extreme" to God, "becomes, by
+participation, God." In this beatific state "one might say, in a
+sense, that the soul gives God to God, for she gives to God all that
+she receives of God; and He gives Himself to her. This is the
+mystical love-gift, wherewith the soul repayeth all her debt." This
+is the infinite reward of the soul who has refused to be content with
+anything short of infinity (_no se llenan menos que con lo Infinito_).
+With what yearning this blessed hope inspired St. Juan, is shown in
+the following beautiful prayer, which is a good example of the
+eloquence, born of intense emotion, which we find here and there in
+his pages: "O sweetest love of God, too little known; he who has found
+Thee is at rest; let everything be changed, O God, that we may rest in
+Thee. Everywhere with Thee, O my God, everywhere all things with Thee;
+as I wish, O my Love, all for Thee, nothing for me--nothing for me,
+everything for Thee. All sweetness and delight for Thee, none for
+me--all bitterness and trouble for me, none for Thee. O my God, how
+sweet to me Thy presence, who art the supreme Good! I will draw near
+to Thee in silence, and will uncover Thy feet,[300] that it may please
+Thee to unite me to Thyself, making my soul Thy bride; I will rejoice
+in nothing till I am in Thine arms. O Lord, I beseech Thee, leave me
+not for a moment, because I know not the value of mine own soul."
+
+Such faith, hope, and love were suffered to cast gleams of light upon
+the saint's gloomy and thorn-strewn path. But nevertheless the text of
+which we are most often reminded in reading his pages is the verse of
+Amos: "Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light? even
+very dark, and no brightness in it?" It is a terrible view of life and
+duty--that we are to denude ourselves of everything that makes us
+citizens of the world--that _nothing_ which is natural is capable of
+entering into relations with God--that all which is human must die,
+and have its place taken by supernatural infusion. St. Juan follows to
+the end the "negative road" of Dionysius, without troubling himself at
+all with the transcendental metaphysics of Neoplatonism. His nihilism
+or acosmism is not the result of abstracting from the notion of Being
+or of unity; its basis is psychological. It is "subjective" religion
+carried _almost_ to its logical conclusion. The Neoplatonists were led
+on by the hope of finding a reconciliation between philosophy and
+positive religion; but no such problems ever presented themselves to
+the Spaniards. We hear nothing of the relation of the creation to God,
+or _why_ the contemplation of it should only hinder instead of helping
+us to know its Maker. The world simply does not exist for St. Juan;
+nothing exists save God and human souls. The great human society has
+no interest for him; he would have us cut ourselves completely adrift
+from the aims and aspirations of civilised humanity, and, "since
+nothing but the Infinite can satisfy us," to accept nothing until our
+nothingness is filled with the Infinite. He does not escape from the
+quietistic attitude of passive expectancy which belongs to this view
+of life; and it is only by a glaring inconsistency that he attaches
+any value to the ecclesiastical symbolism, which rests on a very
+different basis from that of his teaching. But St. Juan's Mysticism
+brought him no intellectual emancipation, either for good or evil.
+Faith with him was the antithesis, not to _sight_, as in the Bible,
+but to reason. The sacrifice of reason was part of the crucifixion of
+the old man. And so he remained in an attitude of complete
+subservience to Church tradition and authority, and even to his
+"director," an intermediary who is constantly mentioned by these
+post-Reformation mystics. Even this unqualified submissiveness did not
+preserve him from persecution during his lifetime, and suspicion
+afterwards. His books were only authorised twenty-seven years after
+his death, which occurred in 1591; and his beatification was delayed
+till 1674. His orthodoxy was defended largely by references to St.
+Teresa, who had already been canonised. But it could not be denied
+that the quietists of the next century might find much support for
+their controverted doctrines in both writers.
+
+St. Juan's ideal of saintliness was as much of an anachronism as his
+scheme of Church reform. But no one ever climbed the rugged peaks of
+Mount Carmel with more heroic courage and patience. His life shows
+what tremendous moral force is generated by complete self-surrender to
+God. And happily neither his failure to read the signs of the times,
+nor his one-sided and defective grasp of Christian truth, could
+deprive him of the reward of his life of sacrifice--the reward, I
+mean, of feeling his fellowship with Christ in suffering. He sold "all
+that he had" to gain the pearl of great price, and the surrender was
+not made in vain.
+
+The later Roman Catholic mystics, though they include some beautiful
+and lovable characters, do not develop any further the type which we
+have found in St. Teresa and St. Juan. St. Francis de Sales has been a
+favourite devotional writer with thousands in this country. He
+presents the Spanish Mysticism softened and polished into a graceful
+and winning pietism, such as might refine and elevate the lives of
+the "honourable women" who consulted him. The errors of the quietists
+certainly receive some countenance from parts of his writings, but
+they are neutralised by maxims of a different tendency, borrowed
+eclectically from other sources.[301]
+
+A more consistent and less fortunate follower of St. Teresa was Miguel
+de Molinos, a Spanish priest, who came to Rome about 1670. His piety
+and learning won him the favour of Pope Innocent XI., who, according
+to Bishop Burnet, "lodged him in an apartment of the palace, and put
+many singular marks of his esteem upon him." In 1675 he published in
+Italian his _Spiritual Guide_, a mystical treatise of great interest.
+
+Molinos begins by saying that there are two ways to the knowledge of
+God--meditation or discursive thought, and "pure faith" or
+contemplation. Contemplation has two stages, active and passive, the
+latter being the higher.[302] Meditation he also calls the "exterior
+road"; it is good for beginners, he says, but can never lead to
+perfection. The "interior road," the goal of which is union with God,
+consists in complete resignation to the will of God, annihilation of
+all self-will, and an unruffled tranquillity or passivity of soul,
+until the mystical grace is supernaturally "infused." Then "we shall
+sink and lose ourselves in the immeasurable sea of God's infinite
+goodness, and rest there steadfast and immovable.[303]" He gives a
+list of tokens by which we may know that we are called from meditation
+to contemplation; and enumerates four means, which lead to perfection
+and inward peace--prayer, obedience, frequent communions, and inner
+mortification. The best kind of prayer is the prayer of silence;[304]
+and there are three silences, that of words, that of desires, and that
+of thought. In the last and highest the mind is a blank, and God alone
+speaks to the soul.[305] With the curious passion for subdivision
+which we find in nearly all Romish mystics, he distinguishes three
+kinds of "infusa contemplazione"--(1) satiety, when the soul is filled
+with God and conceives a hatred for all worldly things; (2) "un
+mentale eccesso" or elevation of the soul, born of Divine love and its
+satiety; (3) "security." In this state the soul would willingly even
+go to hell, if it were God's will. "Happy is the state of that soul
+which has slain and annihilated itself." It lives no longer in itself,
+for God lives in it. "With all truth we may say that it is deified."
+
+Molinos follows St. Juan of the Cross in disparaging visions, which
+he says are often snares of the devil. And, like him, he says much of
+the "horrible temptations and torments, worse than any which the
+martyrs of the early Church underwent," which form part of "purgative
+contemplation." He resembles the Spanish mystics also in his
+insistence on outward observances, especially "daily communion, when
+possible," but thinks frequent confession unnecessary, except for
+beginners.
+
+"The book was no sooner printed," says Bishop Burnet, "than it was
+much read and highly esteemed, both in Italy and Spain. The
+acquaintance of the author came to be much desired. Those who seemed
+in the greatest credit at Rome seemed to value themselves upon his
+friendship. Letters were writ to him from all places, so that a
+correspondence was settled between him and those who approved of his
+method, in many different places of Europe." "It grew so much to be
+the vogue in Rome, that all the nuns, except those who had Jesuits to
+their confessors, began to lay aside their rosaries and other
+devotions, and to give themselves much to the practice of mental
+prayer."
+
+Molinos had written with the object of "breaking the fetters" which
+hindered souls in their upward course. Unfortunately for himself, he
+also loosened some of the fetters in which the Roman priesthood
+desires to keep the laity[306]. And so, instead of the honours which
+had been grudgingly and suspiciously bestowed on his predecessors,
+Molinos ended his days in a dungeon[307]. His condemnation was
+followed by a sharp persecution of his followers in Italy, who had
+become very numerous; and, in France, Bossuet procured the
+condemnation and imprisonment of Madame Guyon, a lady of high
+character and abilities, who was the centre of a group of quietists.
+Madame de Guyon need not detain us here. Her Mysticism is identical
+with that of Saint Teresa, except that she was no visionary, and that
+her character was softer and less masculine. Her attractive
+personality, and the cruel and unjust treatment which she experienced
+during the greater part of her life, arouse the sympathy of all who
+read her story; but since my present object is not to exhibit a
+portrait gallery of eminent mystics, but to investigate the chief
+types of mystical thought, it will not be necessary for me to describe
+her life or make extracts from her writings. The character of her
+quietism may be illustrated by one example--the hymn on "The
+Acquiescence of Pure Love," translated by Cowper:--
+
+
+  "Love! if Thy destined sacrifice am I,
+     Come, slay thy victim, and prepare Thy fires;
+   Plunged in Thy depths of mercy, let me die
+     The death which every soul that loves desires!
+
+   "I watch my hours, and see them fleet away;
+     The time is long that I have languished here;
+   Yet all my thoughts Thy purposes obey,
+     With no reluctance, cheerful and sincere.
+
+   "To me 'tis equal, whether Love ordain
+     My life or death, appoint me pain or ease
+   My soul perceives no real ill in pain;
+     In ease or health no real good she sees.
+
+   "One Good she covets, and that Good alone;
+     To choose Thy will, from selfish bias free
+   And to prefer a cottage to a throne,
+     And grief to comfort, if it pleases Thee.
+
+   "That we should bear the cross is Thy command
+     Die to the world, and live to self no more;
+   Suffer unmoved beneath the rudest hand,
+     As pleased when shipwrecked as when safe on shore."
+
+
+Fénelon was also a victim of the campaign against the quietists,
+though he was no follower of Molinos. He was drawn into the
+controversy against his will by Bossuet, who requested him to endorse
+an unscrupulous attack upon Madame Guyon. This made it necessary for
+Fénelon to define his position, which he did in his famous _Maxims of
+the Saints_. The treatise is important for our purposes, since it is
+an elaborate attempt to determine the limits of true and false
+Mysticism concerning two great doctrines--"disinterested love" and
+"passive contemplation."
+
+On the former, Fénelon's teaching may be summarised as follows:
+Self-interest must be excluded from our love of God, for self-love is
+the root of all evil. This predominant desire for God's glory need not
+be always explicit--it need only become so on extraordinary occasions;
+but it must always be implicit. There are five kinds of love for God:
+(i.) purely servile--the love of God's gifts apart from Himself; (ii.)
+the love of mere covetousness, which regards the love of God only as
+the condition of happiness; (iii.) that of hope, in which the desire
+for our own welfare is still predominant; (iv.) interested love, which
+is still mixed with self-regarding motives; (v.) disinterested love.
+He mentions here the "three lives" of the mystics, and says that in
+the purgative life love is mixed with the fear of hell; in the
+illuminative, with the hope of heaven; while in the highest stage "we
+are united to God in the peaceable exercise of pure love." "If God
+were to will to send the souls of the just to hell--so Chrysostom and
+Clement suggest--souls in the third state would not love Him
+less[308]." "Mixed love," however, is not a sin: "the greater part of
+holy souls never reach perfect disinterestedness in this life." We
+ought to wish for our salvation, because it is God's will that we
+should do so. Interested love coincides with resignation,
+disinterested with holy indifference. "St. Francis de Sales says that
+the disinterested heart is like wax in the hands of its God."
+
+We must continue to _co-operate_ with God's grace, even in the highest
+stage, and not cease to resist our impulses, as if all came from God.
+"To speak otherwise is to speak the language of the tempter." (This
+is, of course, directed against the immoral apathy attributed to
+Molinos.) The only difference between the vigilance of pure and that
+of interested love, is that the former is simple and peaceable, while
+the latter has not yet cast out fear. It is false teaching to say that
+we should hate ourselves; _we should be in charity with ourselves as
+with others_.[309]
+
+Spontaneous, unreflecting good acts proceed from what the mystics call
+the apex of the soul. "In such acts St. Antony places the most perfect
+prayer--unconscious prayer."
+
+Of prayer he says, "We pray as much as we desire, and we desire as
+much as we love." Vocal prayer cannot be (as the extreme quietists
+pretend) useless to contemplative souls; "for Christ has taught us a
+vocal prayer."
+
+He then proceeds to deal with "passive contemplation," and refers
+again to the "unconscious prayer" of St. Antony. But "pure
+contemplation is never unintermittent in this life." "Bernard, Teresa,
+and John say that their periods of pure contemplation lasted not more
+than half an hour." "Pure contemplation," he proceeds, "is negative,
+being occupied with no sensible image, no distinct and nameable idea;
+it stops only at the purely intellectual and abstract idea of being."
+Yet this idea includes, "as distinct objects," all the attributes of
+God--"as the Trinity, the humanity of Christ, and all His mysteries."
+"To deny this is to annihilate Christianity under pretence of
+purifying it, and to confound God with _néant_. It is to form a kind
+of deism which at once falls into atheism, wherein all real idea of
+God as distinguished from His creatures is rejected." Lastly, it is to
+advance two impieties--(i.) To suppose that there is or may be on the
+earth a contemplative who is no longer a traveller, and who no longer
+needs the way, since he has reached his destination. (ii.) To ignore
+that Jesus Christ is the way as well as the truth and the life, the
+finisher as well as the author of our faith.
+
+This criticism of the formless vision is excellent, but there is a
+palpable inconsistency between the definition of "negative
+contemplation" and the inclusion in it of "all the attributes of God
+as distinct objects." Contradictions of this sort abound in Fénelon,
+and destroy the value of his writings as contributions to religious
+philosophy, though in his case, as in many others, we may speak of
+"noble inconsistencies" which do more credit to his heart than
+discredit to his intellect. We may perhaps see here the dying spasm of
+the "negative method," which has crossed our path so often in this
+survey.
+
+The image of Jesus Christ, Fénelon continues, is not clearly seen by
+contemplatives at first, and may be withdrawn while the soul passes
+through the last furnace of trial; but we can never cease to need Him,
+"though it is true that the most eminent saints are accustomed to
+regard Him less as an exterior object than as the interior principle
+of their lives." They are in error who speak of possessing God in His
+supreme simplicity, and of no more knowing Christ after the flesh.
+Contemplation is called passive because it excludes the _interested_
+activity of the soul, not because it excludes real action. (Here again
+Fénelon is rather explaining away than explaining his authorities.)
+The culmination of the "passive state" is "transformation," in which
+love is the life of the soul, as it is its being and substance.
+"Catherine of Genoa said, I find no more _me_; there is no longer any
+other _I_ but God." "But it is false to say that transformation is a
+deification of the real and natural soul, or a hypostatic union, or an
+unalterable conformity with God.[310]" In the passive state we are
+still liable to mortal sin. (It is characteristic of Fénelon that he
+contradicts, without rejecting, the substitution-doctrine plainly
+stated in the sentence from Catherine of Genoa.)
+
+In his letter to the Pope, which accompanies the "Explanation of the
+Maxims," Fénelon thus sums up his distinctions between true and false
+Mysticism:--
+
+1. The "permanent act" (i.e. an indefectible state of union with God)
+is to be condemned as "a poisoned source of idleness and internal
+lethargy."
+
+2. There is an indispensable necessity of the distinct exercise of
+each virtue.
+
+3. "Perpetual contemplation," making venial sins impossible, and
+abolishing the distinction of virtues, is impossible.
+
+4. "Passive prayer," if it excludes the co-operation of free-will, is
+impossible.
+
+5. There can be no "quietude" except the peace of the Holy Ghost,
+which acts in a manner so uniform that these acts seem, _to
+unscientific persons_, not distinct acts, but a single and permanent
+unity with God.
+
+6. That the doctrine of pure love may not serve as an asylum for the
+errors of the Quietists, we assert that hope must always abide, as
+saith St. Paul.
+
+7. The state of pure love is very rare, and it is intermittent.
+
+In reply to this manifesto, the "Three Prelates[311]" rejoin that
+Fénelon keeps the name of hope but takes away the thing; that he
+really preaches indifference to salvation; that he is in danger of
+regarding contemplation of Christ as a descent from the heights of
+pure contemplation; that he unaccountably says nothing of the "love of
+gratitude" to God and our Redeemer; that he "erects the rare and
+transient experiences of a few saints into a rule of faith."
+
+In this controversy about disinterested love, our sympathies are
+chiefly, but not entirely, with Fénelon. The standpoint of Bossuet is
+not religious at all. "Pure love," he says almost coarsely, "is
+opposed to the essence of love, which always desires the enjoyment of
+its object, as well as to the nature of man, who necessarily desires
+happiness." Most of us will rather agree with St. Bernard, that love,
+as such, desires nothing but reciprocation--"verus amor se ipso
+contentus est: habet præmium, sed id quod amatur." If the question had
+been simply whether religion is or is not in its nature mercenary, we
+should have felt no doubt on which side the truth lay. Self-regarding
+hopes and schemes may be schoolmasters to bring us to Christ; it
+seems, indeed, to be part of our education to form them, and then see
+them shattered one after another, that better and deeper hopes may be
+constructed out of the fragments; but a selfish Christianity is a
+contradiction in terms. But Fénelon, in his teaching about
+disinterested love, goes further than this. "A man's self," he says,
+"is his own greatest cross." "We must therefore become strangers to
+this self, this _moi._" Resignation is not a remedy; for "resignation
+suffers in suffering; one is as two persons in resignation; it is only
+pure love that loves to suffer." This is the thought with which many
+of us are familiar in James Hinton's _Mystery of Pain_. It is at
+bottom Stoical or Buddhistic, in spite of the emotional turn given to
+it by Fénelon. Logically, it should lead to the destruction of love;
+for love requires two living factors,[312] and the person who has
+attained a "holy indifference," who has passed wholly out of self, is
+as incapable of love as of any other emotion. The attempt "to wind
+ourselves too high for mortal man" has resulted, as usual, in two
+opposite errors. We find, on the one hand, some who try to escape the
+daily sacrifices which life demands, by declaring themselves bankrupt
+to start with. And, on the other hand, we find men like Fénelon, who
+are too good Christians to wish to shift their crosses in this way;
+but who allow their doctrines of "holy indifference" and "pure love"
+to impart an excessive sternness to their teaching, and demand from us
+an impossible degree of detachment and renunciation.
+
+The importance attached to the "prayer of quiet" can only be
+understood when we remember how much mechanical recitation of forms of
+prayer was enjoined by Romish "directors." It is, of course, possible
+for the soul to commune with God without words, perhaps even without
+thoughts;[313] but the recorded prayers of our Blessed Lord will not
+allow us to regard these ecstatic states as better than vocal prayer,
+when the latter is offered "with the spirit, and with the
+understanding also."
+
+The quietistic controversy in France was carried on in an atmosphere
+of political intrigues and private jealousies, which in no way concern
+us. But the great fact which stands out above the turmoil of calumny
+and misrepresentation is that the Roman Church, which in sore straits
+had called in the help of quietistic Mysticism to stem the flood of
+Protestantism, at length found the alliance too dangerous, and
+disbanded her irregular troops in spite of their promises to submit to
+discipline. In Fénelon, Mysticism had a champion eloquent and learned,
+and not too logical to repudiate with honest conviction consequences
+which some of his authorities had found it necessary to accept. He
+remained a loyal and submissive son of the Church, as did Molinos; and
+was, in fact, more guarded in his statements than Bossuet, who in his
+ignorance of mystical theology often blundered into dangerous
+admissions[314]. But the Jesuits saw with their usual acumen that
+Mysticism, even in the most submissive guise, is an independent and
+turbulent spirit; and by condemning Fénelon as well as Molinos, they
+crushed it out as a religious movement in the Latin countries.
+
+To us it seems that the Mysticism of the counter-Reformation was bound
+to fail, because it was the revival of a perverted, or at best a
+one-sided type. The most consistent quietists were perhaps those who
+brought the doctrine of quietism into most discredit, such as the
+hesychasts of Mount Athos. For at bottom it rests upon that dualistic
+or rather acosmistic view of life which prevailed from the decay of
+the Roman Empire till the Renaissance and Reformation. Its cosmology
+is one which leaves this world out of account except as a training
+ground for souls; its theory of knowledge draws a hard and fast line
+between natural and supernatural truths, and then tries to bring them
+together by intercalating "supernatural phenomena" in the order of
+nature; and in ethics it paralyses morality by teaching with St.
+Thomas Aquinas that "to love God _secundum se_ is more meritorious
+than to love our neighbour.[315]" All this is not of the essence of
+Mysticism, but belongs to mediæval Catholicism. It was probably a
+necessary stage through which Christianity, and Mysticism with it, had
+to pass. The vain quest of an abstract spirituality at any rate
+liberated the religious life from many base associations; the
+"negative road" is after all the holy path of self-sacrifice; and the
+maltreatment of the body, which began among the hermits of the
+Thebaid, was largely based on an instinctive recoil against the poison
+of sensuality, which had helped to destroy the old civilisation. But
+the resuscitation of mediæval Mysticism after the Renaissance was an
+anachronism; and except in the fighting days of the sixteenth century,
+it was not likely to appeal to the manliest or most intelligent
+spirits. The world-ruling papal polity, with its incomparable army of
+officials, bound to poverty and celibacy, and therefore invulnerable,
+was a _reductio ad absurdum_ of its world-renouncing doctrines, which
+Europe was not likely to forget. Introspective Mysticism had done its
+work--a work of great service to the human race. It had explored all
+the recesses of the lonely heart, and had wrestled with the angel of
+God through the terrors of the spiritual night even till the morning.
+"Tell me now Thy name" ... "I will not let Thee go until Thou bless
+me." These had been the two demands of the contemplative mystic--the
+only rewards which his soul craved in return for the sacrifice of
+every earthly delight. The reward was worth the sacrifice; but "God
+reveals Himself in many ways," and the spiritual Christianity of the
+modern epoch is called rather to the consecration of art, science, and
+social life than to lonely contemplation. In my last two Lectures I
+hope to show how an important school of mystics, chiefly between the
+Renaissance and our own day, have turned to the religious study of
+nature, and have found there the same illumination which the mediæval
+ascetics drew from the deep wells of their inner consciousness.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 284: Rousselot, _Les Mystiques Espagnols_, p. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 285: Among the latter must be mentioned the growth of
+Scotist Nominalism, on which see a note on p. 187. Ritschl was the
+first to point out how strongly Nominalism influenced the later
+Mysticism, by giving it its quietistic character. See Harnack,
+_History of Dogma_ (Eng. tr.), vol. vi. p. 107.]
+
+[Footnote 286: Cf. the beginning of the _Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes,
+corregida y emendada por Juan de Luna_ (Paris, 1620). "The ignorance
+of the Spaniards is excusable. The Inquisitors are the cause. They are
+dreaded, not only by the people, but by the great lords, to such an
+extent that the mere mention of the Inquisition makes every head
+tremble like a leaf in the wind."]
+
+[Footnote 287: Pedro Malon de Chaide: "Las cosas en Dios son mismo
+Dios."]
+
+[Footnote 288: Alejo Venegas in Rousselot, p. 78: Louis de Leon, who
+is indebted to the _Fons Vitæ_.]
+
+[Footnote 289: Louis de Leon: "The members and the head are one
+Christ."]
+
+[Footnote 290: Diego de Stella affirms the mystic paradox, that it is
+better to be in hell with Christ than in glory without Him (_Medit._
+iii.).]
+
+[Footnote 291: Juan d'Avila: "Let us put a veil between ourselves and
+all created things."]
+
+[Footnote 292: This side of Platonism appears in Pedro Malon, and
+especially in Louis de Granada. Compare also the beautiful ode of
+Louis de Leon, entitled "Noche Serena," where the eternal peace of the
+starry heavens is contrasted with the turmoil of the world--
+
+  "Quien es el que esto mira,
+   Y precia la bajeza de la tierra,
+   Y no gime y suspira
+   Y rompe lo que encierra
+   El alma, y destos bienes la destierra?
+   Aqui vive al contento,
+   Aqui reina la paz, aqui asentado
+   En rico y alto asiento
+   Esta el amor sagrado
+   De glorias y deleites rodeado."  ]
+
+[Footnote 293: After his release he was suffered to resume his
+lectures. A crowd of sympathisers assembled to hear his first
+utterance; but he began quietly with his usual formula, "Deciamos
+ahora," "We were saying just now."]
+
+[Footnote 294: The heresy of the "Alombrados" (Illuminati), which
+appeared in the sixteenth century, and was ruthlessly crushed by the
+Inquisition, belonged to the familiar type of degenerate Mysticism.
+Its adherents taught that the prayers of the Church were worthless,
+the only true prayer being a kind of ecstasy, without words or mental
+images. The "illuminated" need no sacraments, and can commit no sins.
+The mystical union once achieved is an abiding possession. There was
+another outbreak of the same errors in 1623, and a corresponding sect
+of _Illuminés_ in Southern France.]
+
+[Footnote 295: The real founder of Spanish quietistic Mysticism was
+Pedro of Alcantara (d. 1562). He was confessor to Teresa. Teresa is
+also indebted to Francisco de Osuna, in whose writings the principles
+of quietism are clearly taught. Cf. Heppe, _Geschichte der
+quietistichen Mystik_, p. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 296: The fullest and best account of St. Teresa is in Mrs.
+Cunninghame Graham's _Life and Times of Santa Teresa_ (2 vols.).]
+
+[Footnote 297: "Hæ imaginariæ visiones regulariter eveniunt vel
+incipientibus vel proficientibus nondum bene purgatis, ut communiter
+tenent mystæ" (_Lucern. Myst. Tract_, v. 3).]
+
+[Footnote 298: So in Plotinus [Greek: phantasia] comes between [Greek:
+physis] (the lower soul) and the perfect apprehension of [Greek:
+nous].]
+
+[Footnote 299: St. Juan follows the mediæval mystics in distinguishing
+between "meditation" and "contemplation." "Meditation," from which
+external images are not excluded, is for him an early and imperfect
+stage; he who is destined to higher things will soon discover signs
+which indicate that it is time to abandon it.]
+
+[Footnote 300: The reference is to Ruth iii. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 301: The somewhat feminine temper of Francis leads him to
+attach more value to fanciful symbolism than would have been approved
+by St. Juan, or even by St. Teresa. And we miss in him that steady
+devotion to the Person of Christ, and to Him alone, which gives the
+Spaniards, in spite of themselves, a sort of kinship with evangelical
+Christianity. St. Juan could never have written, "Honorez, reverez, et
+respectez d'un amour special la sacrée et glorieuse Vierge Marie. Elle
+est mère de nostre souverain père et par consequent nostre grand'mère"
+(!).]
+
+[Footnote 302: The three parts into which the book is divided deal
+respectively with the "darkness and dryness" by which God purifies the
+heart; the second stage, in which he insists, complete obedience to a
+spiritual director is essential; and the stage of higher
+illumination.]
+
+[Footnote 303: "Colà c' ingolfiano e ci perdiamo nel mare immenso
+dell' infinita sua bontà in cui restiamo stabili ed immobili."]
+
+[Footnote 304: It is interesting to find the "prayer of quiet" even in
+Plotinus. Cf. _Enn_. v. 1. 6: "Let us call upon God Himself before we
+thus answer--not with uttered words, but reaching forth our souls in
+prayer to Him; for thus alone can we pray, alone to Him who is
+alone."]
+
+[Footnote 305: He speaks, too, of "inner recollection" (il
+raccoglimento interiore), "mirandolo dentro te medesima nel più intimo
+del' anima tua, senza forma, specie, modo ò figura, in vista e
+generate notitia di fede amorosa ed oscura, senza veruna distinzione
+di perfezione ò attributo."]
+
+[Footnote 306: Cf. Bp. Burnet: "In short, everybody that was thought
+either sincerely devout, or that at least affected the reputation of
+it, came to be reckoned among the Quietists; and if these persons were
+observed to become more strict in their lives, more retired and
+serious in their mental devotions, yet there appeared less zeal in
+their whole deportment as to the exterior parts of the religion of
+that Church. They were not so assiduous at Mass, nor so earnest to
+procure Masses to be said for their friends; nor were they so
+frequently either at confession or in processions, so that the trade
+of those that live by these things was terribly sunk."]
+
+[Footnote 307: The _Spiritual Guide_ was well received at first in
+high quarters; but in 1681 a Jesuit preacher published a book on "the
+prayer of quiet," which raised a storm. The first commission of
+inquiry exonerated Molinos; but in 1685 the Jesuits and Louis XIV.
+brought strong pressure to bear on the Pope, and Molinos was accused
+of heresy. Sixty-eight false propositions were extracted from his
+writings, and formally condemned. They include a justification of
+disgraceful vices, which Molinos, who was a man of saintly character,
+could never have taught. But though the whole process against the
+author of the _Spiritual Guide_ was shamefully unfair, the book
+contains some highly dangerous teaching, which might easily be pressed
+into the service of immorality. Molinos saved his life by recanting
+all his errors, but was imprisoned till his death, about 1696. In 1687
+the Inquisition arrested 200 persons for "quietist" opinions.]
+
+[Footnote 308: This "mystic paradox" has been mentioned already. It
+is developed at length in the _Meditations_ of Diego de Stella.
+Fénelon says that it is found in Cassian, Gregory of Nazianzus,
+Augustine, Anselm, "and a great number of saints." It is an
+unfortunate attempt to improve upon Job's fine saying, "Though He slay
+me, yet will I trust in Him," or the line in Homer which has been
+often quoted--[Greek: en de phaei kai olesson, epei ny toi euaden
+outôs.] But unless we form a very unworthy idea of heaven and hell,
+the proposition is not so much extravagant as self-contradictory.]
+
+[Footnote 309: The doctrine here condemned is Manichean, says Fénelon
+rightly.]
+
+[Footnote 310: St. Bernard (_De diligendo Deo_, x. 28) gives a careful
+statement of the deification-doctrine as he understands it: "Quomodo
+omnia in omnibus erit Deus, si in homine de homine quicquam supererit?
+_Manebit substantia sed in alia forma._" See Appendix C.]
+
+[Footnote 311: The Archbishop of Paris, the Bishop of Meaux (Bossuet),
+and the Bishop of Chartres.]
+
+[Footnote 312: If two beings are separate, they cannot influence each
+other inwardly. If they are not distinct, there can be no relations
+between them. Man is at once organ and organism, and this is why love
+between man and God is possible. The importance of maintaining that
+action between man and God must be reciprocal, is well shown by
+Lilienfeld, _Gedanken über die Socialwissenschaft der Zukunft_, vol.
+v. p. 472 sq.]
+
+[Footnote 313: "Thought was not," says Wordsworth of one in a state of
+rapture; and again, "All his thoughts were steeped in feeling."]
+
+[Footnote 314: E.g., he writes to Madame Guyon, "Je n'ai jamais hesité
+un seul moment sur les états de Sainte Thérèse, parceque je n'y ai
+rien trouvé, que je ne trouvasse aussi dans l'ecriture." It is
+doubtful whether Bossuet had really read much of St. Teresa. Fénelon
+says much more cautiously, "Quelque respect et quelque admiration que
+j'aie pour Sainte Thérèse, je n'aurais jamais voulu donner au public
+tout ce qu'elle a écrit."]
+
+[Footnote 315: Of course there is a sense in which this is true; but I
+am speaking of the way in which it was understood by mediæval
+Catholicism.]
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE VII
+
+[Greek: En pasi tois physikois enesti ti thaumaston; kathaper
+Hêrakleitos legetai eipein; einai kai entautha theous.]
+
+ARISTOTLE, _de Partibus Animalium_, i. 5.
+
+
+                          "What if earth
+    Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein
+    Each to other like, more than on earth is thought?"
+
+MILTON.
+
+
+   "God is not dumb, that He should speak no more.
+    If thou hast wanderings in the wilderness,
+    And find'st not Sinai, 'tis thy soul is poor;
+    There towers the mountain of the voice no less,
+    Which whoso seeks shall find; but he who bends,
+    Intent on manna still and mortal ends,
+    Sees it not, neither hears its thundered lore."
+
+LOWELL.
+
+
+"Of the Absolute in the theoretical sense I do not venture to speak;
+but this I maintain, that if a man recognises it in its
+manifestations, and always keeps his eye fixed upon it, he will reap a
+very great reward."
+
+GOETHE.
+
+
+
+NATURE-MYSTICISM AND SYMBOLISM
+
+"The creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of
+corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of
+God."--ROM. viii. 21.
+
+
+It would be possible to maintain that all our happiness consists in
+finding sympathies and affinities underlying apparent antagonisms, in
+bringing harmony out of discord, and order out of chaos. Even the
+lowest pleasures owe their attractiveness to a certain temporary
+correspondence between our desires and the nature of things.
+Selfishness itself, the prime source of sin, misery, and ignorance,
+cannot sever the ties which bind us to each other and to nature; or if
+it succeeds in doing so, it passes into madness, of which an
+experienced alienist has said, that its essence is "concentrated
+egoism." Incidentally I may say that the peculiar happiness which
+accompanies every glimpse of insight into truth and reality, whether
+in the scientific, æsthetic, or emotional sphere, seems to me to have
+a greater apologetic value than has been generally recognised. It is
+the clearest possible indication that the true is for us the good, and
+forms the ground of a reasonable faith that all things, if we could
+see them as they are, would be found to work together for good to
+those who love God.
+
+"The true Mysticism," it has been lately said with much truth, "is
+the belief that everything, in being what it is, is symbolic of
+something more.[316]" All Nature (and there are few more pernicious
+errors than that which separates man from Nature) is the language in
+which God expresses His thoughts; but the thoughts are far more than
+the language.[317] Thus it is that the invisible things of God from
+the creation of the world may be clearly seen and understood from the
+things that are made; while at the same time it is equally true that
+here we see through a glass darkly, and know only in part. Nature half
+conceals and half reveals the Deity; and it is in this sense that it
+may be called a symbol of Him.
+
+The word "symbol," like several other words which the student of
+Mysticism has to use, has an ill-defined connotation, which produces
+confusion and contradictory statements. For instance, a French writer
+gives as his definition of Mysticism "the tendency to approach the
+Absolute, morally, by means of symbols.[318]" On the other hand, an
+English essayist denies that Mysticism is symbolic.[319] Mysticism, he
+says, differs from symbolism in that, while symbolism treats the
+connexion between symbol and substance as something accidental or
+subjective, Mysticism is based on a positive belief in the existence
+of life within life, of deep correspondences and affinities, not less
+real than those to which the common superficial consciousness of
+mankind bears witness. I agree with this statement about the basis of
+Mysticism, but I prefer to use the word symbol of that which has a
+real, and not merely a conventional affinity to the thing
+symbolised.[320] The line is by no means easy to draw. An aureole is
+not, properly speaking, a _symbol_ of saintliness,[321] nor a crown of
+royal authority, because in these instances the connexion of sign with
+significance is conventional. A circle is perhaps not a symbol of
+eternity, because the comparison appeals only to the intellect. But
+falling leaves are a symbol of human mortality, a flowing river of the
+"stream" of life, and a vine and its branches of the unity of Christ
+and the Church, because they are examples of the same law which
+operates through all that God has made. And when the Anglian noble, in
+a well-known passage of Bede, compares the life of man to the flight
+of a bird which darts quickly through a lighted hall out of darkness,
+and into darkness again, he has found a symbol which is none the less
+valid, because light and darkness are themselves only symbolically
+connected with life and death. The writer who denies that Mysticism is
+symbolic, means that the discovery of arbitrary and fanciful
+resemblances or types is no part of healthy Mysticism.[322] In this he
+is quite right; and the importance of the distinction which he wishes
+to emphasise will, I hope, become clear as we proceed. It is not
+possible always to say dogmatically, "_This_ is genuine Symbolism, and
+_that_ is morbid or fantastic"; but we do assert that there is a true
+and a false Symbolism, of which the true is not merely a legitimate,
+but a necessary mode of intuition; while the latter is at best a
+frivolous amusement, and at worst a degrading superstition.[323]
+
+But we shall handle our subject very inadequately if we consider only
+the symbolical value which may be attached to external objects. Our
+thoughts and beliefs about the spiritual world, so far as they are
+conceived under forms, or expressed in language, which belong properly
+only to things of time and space, are of the nature of symbols. In
+this sense it has been said that the greater part of dogmatic theology
+is the dialectical development of mystical symbols. For instance, the
+paternal relation of the First Person of the Trinity to the Second is
+a symbol; and the representation of eternity as an endless period of
+time stretching into futurity, is a symbol. We believe that the forms
+under which it is natural and necessary for us to conceive of
+transcendental truths have a real and vital relation to the ideas
+which they attempt to express; but their inadequacy is manifest if we
+treat them as facts of the same order as natural phenomena, and try to
+intercalate them, as is too often done, among the materials with which
+an abstract science has to deal.
+
+The two great sacraments are typical symbols, if we use the word in
+the sense which I give to it, as something which, in being what it is,
+is a sign and vehicle of something higher and better. This is what the
+early Church meant when it called the sacraments symbols.[324] A
+"symbol" at that period implied a mystery, and a "mystery" implied a
+revelation. The need of sacraments is one of the deepest convictions
+of the religious consciousness. It rests ultimately on the instinctive
+reluctance to allow any spiritual fact to remain without an external
+expression. It is obvious that all morality depends on the application
+of this principle to conduct. All voluntary external acts are symbolic
+of (that is, vitally connected with) internal states, and cannot be
+divested of this their essential character. It may be impossible to
+show how an act of the material body can purify or defile the
+immaterial spirit; but the correspondence between the outward and
+inward life cannot be denied without divesting morality of all
+meaning. The maxim of Plotinus, that "the mind can do no wrong," when
+transferred from his transcendental philosophy to matters of conduct,
+is a sophism no more respectable than that which Euripides puts into
+the mouth of one of his characters: "The tongue hath sworn; the heart
+remains unsworn." Every act of the will is the expression of a state
+of the soul; and every state of the soul must seek to find expression
+in an act of the will. Love, as we should all admit, is not love, so
+long as it is content to be only in thought, or "in word and in
+tongue"; it is only when it is love "in deed" that it is love "in
+truth.[325]" And it is the same with all other virtues, which are in
+this sense symbolic, as implying something beyond the external act.
+Nearly all the states or motions of the soul can find their
+appropriate expression in action. Charity in its manifold forms need
+not seek long for an object; and thankfulness and penitence, though
+they drive us first to silent prayer, are not satisfied till they have
+borne fruit in some act of gratitude or humility. But that deepest
+sense of communion with God, which is the very heart of religion, is
+in danger of being shut up in thought and word, which are inadequate
+expressions of any spiritual state. No doubt this highest state of the
+soul may find indirect expression in good works; but these fail to
+express the _immediacy_ of the communion which the soul has felt. The
+want of symbols to express these highest states of the soul is
+supplied by sacraments. A sacrament is a symbolic act, not arbitrarily
+chosen, but resting, to the mind of the recipient, on Divine
+authority, which has no ulterior object except to give expression to,
+and in so doing to effectuate,[326] a relation which is too purely
+spiritual to find utterance in the customary activities of life. There
+are three requisites (on the human side) for the validity of a
+sacramental act. The symbol must be appropriate; the thing symbolised
+must be a spiritual truth; and there must be the intention to perform
+the act _as_ a sacrament.
+
+The sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper fulfil these
+conditions. Both are symbols of the mystical union between the
+Christian and his ascended Lord. Baptism symbolises that union in its
+inception, the Eucharist in its organic life. Baptism is received but
+once, because the death unto sin and the new birth unto righteousness
+is a definite entrance into the spiritual life, rather than a gradual
+process. The fact that in Christian countries Baptism in most cases
+precedes conversion does not alter the character of the sacrament;
+indeed, infant Baptism is by far the most appropriate symbol of our
+adoption into the Divine Sonship, to which we only consent after the
+event. It is only because we are already sons that we can say, "I will
+arise, and go unto my Father." The Holy Communion is the symbol of the
+maintenance of the mystical union, and of the "strengthening and
+refreshing of our souls," which we derive from the indwelling presence
+of our Lord. The Church claims an absolute prerogative for its duly
+ordained ministers in the case of this sacrament, because the common
+meal is the symbol of the organic unity of Christ and the Church as
+"unus Christus," a doctrine which the schismatic, as such,
+denies.[327] The communicant who believes only in an individual
+relation between Christ and separate persons, or in an "invisible
+Church," does not understand the meaning of the sacrament of the
+Lord's Supper, and can hardly be said to participate in it.
+
+There are two views of this sacrament which the "plain man" has always
+found much easier to understand than the symbolic view which is that
+of our Church. One is that it is a miracle or magical performance, the
+other is that it is a mere commemoration. Both are absolutely
+destructive of the idea of a sacrament. The latter view, that of some
+Protestant sects, was quite foreign to the early Church, so far as our
+evidence goes; the former, it is only just to say, is found in many of
+the Fathers, not in the grossly materialistic form which it afterwards
+assumed, but in such phrases as "the medicine of immortality" applied
+to the consecrated elements, where we are meant to understand that the
+elements have a mysterious power of preserving the receiver from the
+natural consequences of death.[328] But when we find that the same
+writers who use compromising phrases about the change that comes over
+the elements,[329] also use the language of symbolism, and remember,
+too, that a "miracle" was a very different thing to those who knew of
+no inflexible laws in the natural world from what it is to us, we
+shall not be ready to agree with those who have accused the third and
+fourth century Fathers of degrading the Lord's Supper into a magical
+ceremony.
+
+Most of the errors which have so grievously obscured the true nature
+of this sacrament have proceeded from attempts to answer the question,
+"How does the reception of the consecrated elements affect the inner
+state of the receiver?" To those who hold the symbolic view, as I
+understand it, it seems clear that the question of cause and effect
+must be resolutely cast aside. The reciprocal action of spirit and
+matter is the one great mystery which, to all appearance, must remain
+impenetrable to the finite intelligence. We do not ask whether the
+soul is the cause of the body, or the body of the soul; we only know
+that the two are found, in experience, always united. In the same way
+we should abstain, I think, from speculating on the effect of the
+sacraments, and train ourselves instead to consider them as
+divinely-ordered symbols, by which the Church, as an organic whole,
+and we as members of it, realise the highest and deepest of our
+spiritual privileges.
+
+There are other religious forms for which no Divine institution is
+claimed, but which have a quasi-sacramental value. And those who,
+"whether they eat, or drink, or whatever they do," do all to the glory
+of God, may be said to turn the commonest acts into sacraments. To the
+true mystic, life itself is a sacrament. It is natural, but
+unfortunate, that some of those who have felt this most strongly have
+shown a tendency to disparage observances which are simply acts of
+devotion, "mere forms," as they call them. The attempt to distinguish
+between conventional ceremonies, which have no essential connexion
+with the truth symbolised, and actions which are in themselves moral
+or immoral, is no doubt justifiable, but it should be remembered that
+this is the way in which antinomianism takes its rise. Many have begun
+by saying, "The heart, the motive, is all, the external act nothing;
+the spirit is all, the letter nothing. What can it matter whether I
+say my prayers in church or at home, on my knees or in bed, in words
+or in thought only? What can it matter whether the Eucharistic bread
+and wine are consecrated or not? whether I actually eat and drink or
+not?" And so on. The descent to Avernus is easy by this road. Perhaps
+no sect that has professed contempt for all ceremonial forms has
+escaped at least the imputation of scandalous licentiousness, with the
+honourable exception of the Quakers. The truth is that the need of
+symbols to express or represent our highest emotions is inwoven with
+human nature, and indifference to them is not, as many have supposed,
+a sign of enlightenment or of spirituality. It is, in fact, an
+unhealthy symptom. We do not credit a man with a warm heart who does
+not care to show his love in word and act; nor should we commend the
+common sense of a soldier who saw in his regimental colours only a rag
+at the end of a pole. It is one of the points in which we must be
+content to be children, and should be thankful that we may remain
+children with a clear conscience.
+
+I do not shrink from expressing my conviction that the true meaning
+of our sacramental system, which in its external forms is so strangely
+anticipated by the Greek mysteries, and in its inward significance
+strikes down to the fundamental principles of mystical Christianity,
+can only be understood by those who are in some sympathy with
+Mysticism. But it has not been possible to say much about the
+sacraments sooner than this late stage of our inquiry. We have
+hitherto been dealing with the subjective or introspective type of
+Mysticism, and it is plain that this form, when carried to its logical
+conclusion, is inconsistent with sacramental religion. Those who seek
+to ascend to God by the way of abstraction, the negative road, must
+regard all symbols as veils between our eyes and reality, and must
+wish to get rid of them as soon as possible. From this point of view,
+sacraments, like other ceremonial forms, can only be useful at a very
+early stage in the upward path, which leads us ultimately into a
+Divine darkness, where no forms can be distinguished. It is true that
+some devout mystics of this type have both observed and exacted a
+punctilious strictness in using all the appointed means of grace; but
+this inconsistency is easily accounted for.[330] The pressure of
+authority, loyalty to the established order, and human nature, which
+is stronger than either, has prevented them from casting away the
+time-honoured symbols and vehicles of Divine love. But a true
+appreciation of sacraments belongs only to those who can sympathise
+with the other branch of Mysticism--that which rests on belief in
+symbolism. To this branch of my subject I now invite your attention.
+If we expect to find ourselves at once in a larger air when we have
+taken leave of the monkish mystics, we shall be disappointed. The
+objective or symbolical type of Mysticism is liable to quite as many
+perversions as the subjective. If in the latter we found a tendency to
+revert to the apathy of the Indian Yogi, we shall observe in the
+former too many survivals of still more barbarous creeds. Indeed, I
+feel that it is almost necessary, as an introduction to this part of
+my subject, to consider very briefly the stages through which the
+religious consciousness of mankind has passed in its attempts to
+realise Divine immanence in Nature, for this is, of course, the
+foundation of all religious symbolism.
+
+The earliest belief seems to be that which has been called _Animism_,
+the belief that all natural forces are conscious living beings like
+ourselves. This is the primitive form of natural religion; and though
+it leads to some deplorable customs, it is not a morbid type, but a
+very early effort on the lines of true development[331].
+
+The perverted form of primitive Animism is called _Fetishism_, which
+is the belief that supernatural powers reside in some visible object,
+which is the home or most treasured possession of a god or demon. The
+object may be a building, a tree, an animal, a particular kind of
+food, or indeed anything. Unfortunately this belief is not peculiar to
+savages. A degraded form of it is exhibited by the so-called
+neo-mystical school of modern France, and in the baser types of Roman
+Catholicism everywhere[332].
+
+Primitive Animism believes in no natural laws. The next stage is to
+believe in laws which are frequently suspended by the intervention of
+an independent and superior power. Mediæval dualism regarded every
+breach of natural law as a vindication of the power of spirit over
+matter--not always, however, of Divine power, for evil spirits could
+produce very similar disturbances of the physical order. Thus arose
+that persistent tendency to "seek after a sign," in which the religion
+of the vulgar, even in our own day, is deeply involved. Miracle, in
+some form or other, is regarded as the real basis of belief in God. At
+this stage people never ask themselves whether any spiritual truth, or
+indeed anything worth knowing, could possibly be communicated or
+authenticated by thaumaturgic exhibitions. What attracts them at first
+is the evidence which these beliefs furnish, that the world in which
+they live is not entirely under the dominion of an unconscious or
+inflexible power, but that behind the iron mechanism of cause and
+effect is a will more like their own in its irregularity and
+arbitrariness. Afterwards, as the majesty of law dawns upon them,
+miracles are no longer regarded as capricious exercises of power, but
+as the operation of higher physical laws, which are only active on
+rare occasions. A truer view sees in them a materialisation of
+mystical symbols, the proper function of which is to act as
+interpreters between the real and the apparent, between the spiritual
+and material worlds. When they crystallise as portents, they lose all
+their usefulness. Moreover, the belief in celestial visitations has
+its dark counterpart in superstitious dread of the powers of evil,
+which is capable of turning life into a long nightmare, and has led to
+dreadful cruelties[333]. The error has still enough vitality to
+create a prejudice against natural science, which appears in the light
+of an invading enemy wresting province after province from the empire
+of the supernatural.
+
+But we are concerned with thaumaturgy only so far as it has affected
+Mysticism. At first sight the connexion may seem very slight; and
+slight indeed it is. But just as Mysticism of the subjective type is
+often entangled in theories which sublimate matter till only a vain
+shadow remains, so objective Mysticism has been often pervaded by
+another kind of false spiritualism--that which finds edification in
+palpable supernatural manifestations. These so-called "mystical
+phenomena" are so much identified with "Mysticism" in the Roman
+Catholic Church of to-day, that the standard treatises on the subject,
+now studied in continental universities, largely consist of grotesque
+legends of "levitation," "bilocation," "incandescence," "radiation,"
+and other miraculous tokens of Divine favour[334]. The great work of
+Görres, in five volumes, is divided into Divine, Natural, and
+Diabolical Mysticism. The first contains stories of the miraculous
+enhancement of sight, hearing, smell, and so forth, which results from
+extreme holiness; and tells us how one saint had the power of becoming
+invisible, another of walking through closed doors, and a third of
+flying through the air. "Natural Mysticism" deals with divination,
+lycanthropy, vampires, second sight, and other barbarous
+superstitions. "Diabolical Mysticism" includes witchcraft, diabolical
+possession, and the hideous stories of incubi and succubæ. It is not
+my intention to say any more about these savage survivals, as I do not
+wish to bring my subject into undeserved contempt[335]. "These
+terrors, and this darkness of the mind," as Lucretius says, "must be
+dispelled, not by the bright shafts of the sun's light, but by the
+study of Nature's laws[336]."
+
+Some of these fables are quite obviously due to a materialisation of
+conventional symbols. These symbols are the picture language into
+which the imagination translates what the soul has felt. A typical
+case is that of the miniature image of Christ, which is said to have
+been found embedded in the heart of a deceased saint. The supposed
+miracle was, of course, the work of imagination; but this does not
+mean that those who reported it were deliberate liars. We know now
+that we must distinguish between observation and imagination, between
+the language of science and that of poetical metaphor; but in an age
+which abhorred rationalism this was not so clear[337]. Rationalism has
+its function in proving that such mystical symbols are not physical
+facts. But when it goes on to say that they are related to physical
+facts as morbid hallucinations to realities, it has stepped outside
+its province.
+
+Proceeding a little further as we trace the development of natural or
+objective religion, we come to the belief in _magic_, which in
+primitive peoples is closely associated with their first attempts at
+experimental science. What gives magic its peculiar character is that
+it is based on fanciful, and not on real correspondences. The
+uneducated mind cannot distinguish between associations of ideas which
+are purely arbitrary and subjective, and those which have a more
+universal validity. Not, of course, that all the affinities seized
+upon by primitive man proved illusory; but those which were not so
+ceased to be magical, and became scientific. The savage draws no
+distinction between the process by which he makes fire and that by
+which his priest calls down rain, except that the latter is a
+professional secret; drugs and spells are used indifferently to cure
+the sick; astronomy and astrology are parts of the same science. There
+is, however, a difference between the magic which is purely
+naturalistic and that which makes mystical claims. The magician
+sometimes claims that the spirits are subject to him, not because he
+has learned how to wield the forces which they must obey, but because
+he has so purged his higher faculties that the occult sympathies of
+nature have become apparent to him. His theosophy claims to be a
+spiritual illumination, not a scientific discovery. The error here is
+the application of spiritual clairvoyance to physical relations. The
+insight into reality, which is unquestionably the reward of the pure
+heart and the single eye, does not reveal to us in detail how nature
+should be subdued to our needs. No spirits from the vasty deep will
+obey our call, to show us where lies the road to fortune or to ruin.
+Physical science is an abstract inquiry, which, while it keeps to its
+proper subject--the investigation of the relations which prevail in
+the phenomenal world--is self-sufficient, and can receive nothing on
+external authority. Still less can the adept usurp Divine powers, and
+bend the eternal laws of the universe to his puny will.
+
+The turbid streams of theurgy and magic flowed into the broad river
+of Christian thought by two channels--the later Neoplatonism, and
+Jewish Cabbalism. Of the former something has been said already. The
+root-idea of the system was that all life may be arranged in a
+descending scale of potencies, forming a kind of chain from heaven to
+earth. Man, as a microcosm, is in contact with every link in the
+chain, and can establish relations with all spiritual powers, from the
+superessential One to the lower spirits or "dæmons." The
+philosopher-saint, who had explored the highest regions of the
+intelligence, might hope to dominate the spirits of the air, and
+compel them to do his bidding. Thus the door was thrown wide open for
+every kind of superstition. The Cabbalists followed much the same
+path. The word Cabbala means "oral tradition," and is defined by
+Reuchlin as "the symbolic reception of a Divine revelation handed down
+for the saving contemplation of God and separate forms.[338]" In
+another place he says, "The Cabbala is nothing else than symbolic
+theology, in which not only are letters and words symbols of things,
+but things are symbols of other things." This method of symbolic
+interpretation was held to have been originally communicated by
+revelation,[339] in order that persons of holy life might by it
+attain to a mystical communion with God, or deification. The
+Cabbalists thus held much the same relation to the Talmudists as the
+mystics to the scholastics in the twelfth century. But, as Jews, they
+remained faithful to the two doctrines of an inspired tradition and an
+inspired book, which distinguish them from Platonic mystics.[340]
+
+Pico de Mirandola (born 1463) was the first to bring the Cabbala into
+Christian philosophy, and to unite it with his Neoplatonism. Very
+characteristic of his age is the declaration that "there is no natural
+science which makes us so certain of the Divinity of Christ as Magic
+and the Cabbala.[341]" For there was at that period a curious
+alliance of Mysticism and natural science against scholasticism, which
+had kept both in galling chains; and both mystics and physicists
+invoked the aid of Jewish theosophy. Just as Pythagoras, Plato, and
+Proclus were set up against Aristotle, so the occult philosophy of the
+Jews, which on its speculative side was mere Neoplatonism, was set up
+against the divinity of the Schoolmen. In Germany, Reuchlin
+(1455-1522) wrote a treatise, _On the Cabbalistic Art_, in which a
+theological scheme resembling those of the Neoplatonists and
+speculative mystics was based on occult revelation. The book
+captivated Pope Leo X. and the early Reformers alike.
+
+The influence of Cabbalism at this period was felt not only in the
+growth of magic, but in the revival of the science of _allegorism_,
+which resembles magic in its doctrine of occult sympathies, though
+without the theurgic element. According to this view of nature,
+everything in the visible world has an emblematic meaning. Everything
+that a man saw, heard, or did--colours, numbers, birds, beasts, and
+flowers, the various actions of life--was to remind him of something
+else.[342] The world was supposed to be full of sacred cryptograms,
+and every part of the natural order testified in hieroglyphics[343] to
+the truths of Christianity. Thus the shamrock bears witness to the
+Trinity, the spider is an emblem of the devil, and so forth. This
+kind of symbolism was and is extensively used merely as a
+picture-language, in which there is no pretence that the signs are
+other than artificial or conventional. The language of signs may be
+used either to instruct those who cannot understand words, or to
+baffle those who can. Thus, a crucifix may be as good as a sermon to
+an illiterate peasant; while the sign of a fish was used by the early
+Christians because it was unintelligible to their enemies. This is not
+symbolism in the sense which I have given to the word in this
+Lecture.[344] But it is otherwise when the type is used as a _proof_
+of the antitype. This latter method had long been in use in biblical
+exegesis. Pious persons found a curious satisfaction in turning the
+most matter of fact statements into enigmatic prophecies. Every verse
+must have its "mystical" as well as its natural meaning, and the
+search for "types" was a recognised branch of apologetics. Allegorism
+became authoritative and dogmatic, which it has no right to be. It
+would be rash to say that this pseudo-science, which has proved so
+attractive to many minds, is entirely valueless. The very absurdity of
+the arguments used by its votaries should make us suspect that there
+is a dumb logic of a more respectable sort behind them. There is,
+underlying this love of types and emblems, a strong conviction that
+if "one eternal purpose runs" through the ages, it must be discernible
+in small things as well as in great. Everything in the world, if we
+could see things as they are, must be symbolic of the Divine Power
+which made it and maintains it in being. We cannot believe that
+anything in life is meaningless, or has no significance beyond the
+fleeting moment. Whatever method helps us to realise this is useful,
+and in a sense true. So far as this we may go with the allegorists,
+while at the same time we may be thankful that the cobwebs which they
+spun over the sacred texts have now been cleared away, so that we can
+at last read our Bible as its authors intended it to be read.[345]
+
+Theosophical and magical Mysticism culminated in the sixteenth and
+seventeenth centuries. Just as the idealism of Plotinus lost itself in
+the theurgic system of Iamblichus, so the doctrine of Divine immanence
+preached by Eckhart and his school was followed by the Nature-Mysticism
+of Cornelius Agrippa[346] and Paracelsus.[347] The "negative road" had
+been discredited by Luther's invective, and Mysticism, instead of
+shutting her eyes to the world of phenomena, stretched forth her hands
+to conquer and annex it. The old theory of a World-Spirit, the
+pulsations of whose heart are felt in all the life of the universe, came
+once more into favour. Through all phenomena, it was believed, runs an
+intricate network of sympathies and antipathies, the threads of which,
+could they be disentangled, would furnish us with a clue through all the
+labyrinths of natural and supernatural science. The age was impatient to
+enter on the inheritance from which humanity had long been debarred; the
+methods of experimental science seemed tame and slow; and so we find,
+especially in Germany, an extraordinary outburst of Nature-Mysticism--
+astrology, white magic, alchemy, necromancy, and what not--such as
+Christianity had not witnessed before. These pseudo-sciences (with which
+was mingled much real progress in medicine, natural history, and kindred
+sciences) were divided under three provinces or "vincula"--those of the
+Spiritual World, which were mainly magical invocations, diagrams, and
+signs; those of the Celestial World, which were taught by astrology; and
+those of the Elemental World, which consisted in the sympathetic
+influence of material objects upon each other. These secrets (it was
+held) are all discoverable by man; for man is a microcosm, or epitome of
+the universe, and there is nothing in it with which he cannot claim an
+affinity. In knowing himself, he knows both God and all the other works
+that God has made.
+
+The subject of Nature-Mysticism is a fascinating one; but I must here
+confine myself to its religious aspects. An attempt was soon made, by
+Valentine Weigel (1533-1588), Lutheran pastor at Tschopau, to bring
+together the new objective Mysticism--freed from its superstitious
+elements--and the traditional subjective Mysticism which the Middle
+Ages had handed down from Dionysius and the Neoplatonists. Weigel's
+cosmology is based on that of Paracelsus; and his psychology also
+reminds us of him. Man is a microcosm, and his nature has three
+parts--the outward material body, the astral spirit, and the immortal
+soul, which bears the image of God. The three faculties of the soul
+correspond to these three parts; they are sense, reason (_Vernunft_),
+and understanding (_Verstand_). These are the "three eyes" by which we
+get knowledge. The sense perceives material things; the reason,
+natural science and art; the understanding, which he also calls the
+spark, sees the invisible and Divine. He follows the scholastic
+mystics in distinguishing between natural and supernatural knowledge,
+but his method of distinguishing them is, I think, original. Natural
+knowledge, he says, is not conveyed by the object; it is the
+percipient subject which creates knowledge out of itself. The object
+merely provokes the consciousness into activity. In natural knowledge
+the subject is "active, not passive"; all that appears to come from
+without is really evolved from within. In supernatural knowledge the
+opposite is the case. The eye of the "understanding," which sees the
+Divine, is the spark in the centre of the soul where lies the Divine
+image. In this kind of cognition the subject must be absolutely
+passive; its thoughts must be as still as if it were dead. Just as in
+natural knowledge the object does not co-operate, so in supernatural
+knowledge the subject does not co-operate. Yet this supernatural
+knowledge does not come from without. The Spirit and Word of God are
+_within_ us. God is Himself the eye and the light in the soul, as well
+as the object which the eye sees by this light. Supernatural knowledge
+flows from within outwards, and in this way resembles natural
+knowledge. But since God is both the eye that sees and the object
+which it sees, it is not we who know God, so much as God who knows
+Himself in us. Our inner man is a mere instrument of God.
+
+Thus Weigel, who begins with Paracelsus, leaves off somewhere near
+Eckhart--and Eckhart in his boldest mood. But his chief concern is to
+attack the Bibliolaters (_Buchstabentheologen_) in the Lutheran
+Church, and to protest against the unethical dogma of imputed
+righteousness. We need not follow him into either of these
+controversies, which give a kind of accidental colouring to his
+theology. Speculative Mysticism, which is always the foe of formalism
+and dryness in religion, attacks them in whatever forms it finds them;
+and so, when we try to penetrate the essence of Mysticism by
+investigating its historical manifestations, we must always consider
+what was the system which in each case it was trying to purify and
+spiritualise. Weigel's Mysticism moves in the atmosphere of Lutheran
+dogmatics. But it also marks a stage in the general development of
+Christian Mysticism, by giving a positive value to scientific and
+natural knowledge as part of the self-evolution of the human soul.
+"Study nature," he says, "physics, alchemy, magic, etc.; for _it is
+all in you, and you become what you have learnt_." It is true that his
+religious attitude is rigidly quietistic; but this position is so
+inconsistent with the activity which he enjoins on the "reason," that
+he may claim the credit of having exhibited the contradiction between
+the positive and negative methods in a clear light; and to prove a
+contradiction is always the first step towards solving it.
+
+A more notable effort in the same direction was that of Jacob Böhme,
+who, though he had studied Weigel, brought to his task a philosophical
+genius which was all his own.
+
+Böhme was born in 1575 near Görlitz, where he afterwards settled as a
+shoemaker and glover. He began to write in 1612, and in spite of
+clerical opposition, which silenced him for five years, he produced a
+number of treatises between that date and his death in 1624.
+
+Böhme professed to write only what he had "seen" by Divine
+illumination. His visions are not (with insignificant exceptions)
+authenticated by any marvellous signs; he simply asserts that he has
+been allowed to see into the heart of things, and that the very Being
+of God has been laid open to his spiritual sight.[348] His was that
+type of mind to which every thought becomes an image, and a logical
+process is like an animated photograph. "I am myself my own book," he
+says; and in writing, he tries to transcribe on paper the images which
+float before his mind's eye. If he fails, it is because he cannot find
+words to describe what he is seeing. Böhme was an unlearned man; but
+when he is content to describe his visions in homely German, he is
+lucid enough. Unfortunately, the scholars who soon gathered round him
+supplied him with philosophical terms, which he forthwith either
+personified--for instance the word "Idea" called forth the image of a
+beautiful maiden--or used in a sense of his own. The study of
+Paracelsus obscured his style still more, filling his treatises with a
+bewildering mixture of theosophy and chemistry. The result is
+certainly that much of his work is almost unreadable; the nuggets of
+gold have to be dug out from a bed of rugged stone; and we cannot be
+surprised that the unmystical eighteenth century declared that
+"Behmen's works would disgrace Bedlam at full moon.[349]" But German
+philosophers have spoken with reverence of "the father of Protestant
+Mysticism," who "perhaps only wanted learning and the gift of clear
+expression to become a German Plato"; and Sir Isaac Newton shut
+himself up for three months to study Böhme, whose teaching on
+attraction and the laws of motion seemed to him to have great
+value.[350]
+
+For us, he is most interesting as marking the transition from the
+purely subjective type of Mysticism to Symbolism, or rather as the
+author of a brilliant attempt to fuse the two into one system. In my
+brief sketch of Böhme's doctrines I shall illustrate his teaching from
+the later works of William Law, who is by far its best exponent. Law
+was an enthusiastic admirer of Böhme, and being, unlike his master, a
+man of learning and a practised writer, was able to bring order out
+of the chaos in which Böhme left his speculations. In strength of
+intellect Law was Böhme's equal, and as a writer of clear and forcible
+English he has few superiors.
+
+Böhme's doctrine of God and the world resembles that of other
+speculative mystics, but he contributes a new element in the great
+stress which he lays on _antithesis_ as a law of being. "In Yes and No
+all things consist," he says. No philosopher since Heraclitus and
+Empedocles had asserted so strongly that "Strife is the father of all
+things." Even in the hidden life of the unmanifested Godhead he finds
+the play of Attraction and Diffusion, the resultant of which is a
+Desire for manifestation felt in the Godhead. As feeling this desire,
+the Godhead becomes "Darkness"; the light which illumines the darkness
+is the Son. The resultant is the Holy Spirit, in whom arise the
+archetypes of creation. So he explains Body, Soul, and Spirit as
+thesis, antithesis, and synthesis; and the same formula serves to
+explain Good, Evil, and Free Will; Angels, Devils, and the World. His
+view of Evil is not very consistent; but his final doctrine is that
+the object of the cosmic process is to exhibit the victory of Good
+over Evil, of Love over Hatred.[351] He at least has the merit of
+showing that strife is so inwoven with our lives here that we cannot
+possibly soar above the conflict between Good and Evil. It must be
+observed that Böhme repudiated the doctrine that there is any
+evolution of God in time. "I say not that Nature is God," he says:
+"He Himself is all, and communicates His power to all His works." But
+the creation of the archetypes was not a temporal act.
+
+Like other Protestant mystics, he lays great stress on the indwelling
+presence of Christ. And, consistently with this belief, he revolts
+against the Calvinistic doctrine of imputed righteousness, very much
+as did the Cambridge Platonists a little later. "That man is no
+Christian," he says, "who doth merely comfort himself with the
+suffering, death, and satisfaction of Christ, and doth impute it to
+himself as a gift of favour, remaining himself still a wild beast and
+unregenerate.... If this said sacrifice is to avail for me, it must be
+wrought _in_ me. The Father must beget His Son in my desire of faith,
+that my faith's hunger may apprehend Him in His word of promise. Then
+I put Him on, in His entire process of justification, in my inward
+ground; and straightway there begins in me the killing of the wrath of
+the devil, death, and hell, from the inward power of Christ's death. I
+am inwardly dead, and He is my life; I live in Him, and not in my
+selfhood. I am an instrument of God, wherewith He doeth what He will."
+To the same effect William Law says, "Christ given _for_ us is neither
+more nor less than Christ given _into_ us. He is in no other sense our
+full, perfect, and sufficient Atonement, than as His nature and spirit
+are born and formed in us." Law also insists that the Atonement was
+the effect, not of the wrath, but of the love of God. "Neither reason
+nor scripture," he says, "will allow us to bring wrath into God
+Himself, as a temper of His mind, who is only infinite, unalterable,
+overflowing Love." "Wrath is atoned when sin is extinguished." This
+revolt against the forensic theory of the Atonement is very
+characteristic of Protestant Mysticism.[352]
+
+The disparagement of external rites and ordinances, which we have
+found in so many mystics, appears in William Law, though he was
+himself precise in observing all the rules of the English Church.
+"This pearl of eternity is the Church, a temple of God _within_ thee,
+the consecrated place of Divine worship, where alone thou canst
+worship God in spirit and in truth. In _spirit_, because thy spirit is
+that alone in thee which can unite and cleave unto God, and receive
+the working of the Divine Spirit upon thee. In _truth_, because this
+adoration in spirit is that truth and reality of which all outward
+forms and rites, though instituted by God, are only the figure for a
+time; but this worship is eternal. Accustom thyself to the holy
+service of this inward temple. In the midst of it is the fountain of
+living water, of which thou mayst drink and live for ever. There the
+mysteries of thy redemption are celebrated, or rather opened in life
+and power. There the supper of the Lamb is kept; the bread that came
+down from heaven, that giveth life to the world, is thy true
+nourishment: all is done, and known in real experience, in a living
+sensibility of the work of God on the soul. There the birth, the life,
+the sufferings, the death, the resurrection and ascension of Christ,
+are not merely remembered, but inwardly found and enjoyed as the real
+states of thy soul, which has followed Christ in the regeneration.
+When once thou art well grounded in this inward worship, thou wilt
+have learnt to live unto God above time and place. For every day will
+be Sunday to thee, and wherever thou goest thou wilt have a priest, a
+church, and an altar along with thee.[353]"
+
+In his teaching about faith and love, Law follows the best mystical
+writers; but none before him, I think, attained to such strong and
+growing eloquence in setting it forth. "There is but one salvation for
+all mankind, and the way to it is one; and that is, the desire of the
+soul turned to God. This desire brings the soul to God, and God into
+the soul; it unites with God, it co-operates with God, and is one life
+with God. O my God, just and true, how great is Thy love and mercy to
+mankind, that heaven is thus everywhere open, and Christ thus the
+common Saviour to all that turn the desire of their hearts to Thee!"
+And of love he says: "No creature can have any union or communion with
+the goodness of the Deity till its life is a spirit of love. This is
+the one only bond of union betwixt God and His creature." "Love has no
+by-ends, wills nothing but its own increase: everything is as oil to
+its flame. The spirit of love does not want to be rewarded, honoured,
+or esteemed; its only desire is to propagate itself, and become the
+blessing and happiness of everything that wants it."
+
+The doctrine of the Divine spark (_synteresis_) is held by Law, but in
+a more definitely Christian form than by Eckhart. "If Christ was to
+raise a new life like His own in every man, then every man must have
+had originally in the inmost spirit of his life a seed of Christ, or
+Christ as a seed of heaven, lying there in a state of insensibility,
+out of which it could not arise but by the mediatorial power of
+Christ.... For what could begin to deny self, if there were not
+something in man different from self?... The Word of God is the hidden
+treasure of every human soul, immured under flesh and blood, till as a
+day-star it arises in our hearts, and changes the son of an earthly
+Adam into a son of God." Is not this the Platonic doctrine of
+_anamnesis_, Christianised in a most beautiful manner?
+
+Very characteristic of the later Mysticism is the language which both
+Böhme and Law use about the future state. "The soul, when it departs
+from the body," Böhme writes, "needeth not to go far; for where the
+body dies, there is heaven and hell. God is there, and the devil; yea,
+each in his own kingdom. There also is Paradise; and the soul needeth
+only to enter through the deep door in the centre." Law is very
+emphatic in asserting that heaven and hell are states, not places, and
+that they are "no foreign, separate, and imposed states, adjudged to
+us by the will of God." "Damnation," he says, "is the natural,
+essential state of our own disordered nature, which is impossible, in
+the nature of the thing, to be anything else but our own hell, both
+here and hereafter." "There is nothing that is supernatural," he says
+very finely, "in the whole system of our redemption. Every part of it
+has its ground in the workings and powers of nature, and all our
+redemption is only nature set right, or made to be that which it
+ought to be.[354] There is nothing that is supernatural but God
+alone.... Right and wrong, good and evil, true and false, happiness
+and misery, are as unchangeable in nature as time and space. Nothing,
+therefore, can be done to any creature supernaturally, or in a way
+that is without or contrary to the powers of nature; but every thing
+or creature that is to be helped, that is, to have any good done to
+it, or any evil taken out of it, can only have it done so far as the
+powers of nature are able, and rightly directed to effect it.[355]"
+
+It is difficult to abstain from quoting more passages like this, in
+which Faith, which had been so long directed only to the unseen and
+unknown, sheds her bright beams over this earth of ours, and claims
+all nature for her own. The laws of nature are now recognised as the
+laws of God, and for that very reason they cannot be broken or
+arbitrarily suspended. Redemption is a law of life. There will come a
+time[356], "the time of the lilies," as Böhme calls it, when all
+nature will be delivered from bondage. "All the design of Christian
+redemption," says Law, "is to remove everything that is unheavenly,
+gross, dark, wrathful, and disordered from every part of this fallen
+world." No text is oftener in his mouth than the words of St. Paul
+which I read as the text of this Lecture. That "dim sympathy" of the
+human spirit with the life of nature which Plotinus felt, but which
+mediæval dualism had almost quenched, has now become an intense and
+happy consciousness of community with all living things, as subjects
+of one all-embracing and unchanging law, the law of perfect love.
+Magic and portents, apparitions and visions, the raptures of "infused
+contemplation" and their dark Nemesis of Satanic delusions, can no
+more trouble the serenity of him who has learnt to see the same God in
+nature whom he has found in the holy place of his own heart.
+
+It was impossible to separate Law from the "blessed Behmen," whose
+disciple he was proud to profess himself. But in putting them together
+I have been obliged to depart from the chronological order, for the
+Cambridge Platonists, as they are usually called, come between. This,
+however, need cause no confusion, for the Platonists had no direct
+influence upon Law. Law, Nonjuror as well as mystic, remained a High
+Churchman by sympathy, and hated Rationalism; while the Platonists
+sprang from an Evangelical school, were never tired of extolling
+Reason, and regarded Böhme as a fanciful "enthusiast.[357]" And yet,
+we find so very much in common between the Platonists and William Law,
+that these party differences seem merely superficial. The same exalted
+type of Mysticism appears in both.
+
+The group of philosophical divines, who had their centre in some of
+the Cambridge colleges towards the middle of the seventeenth century,
+furnishes one of the most interesting and important chapters in the
+history of our Church. Never since the time of the early Greek Fathers
+had any orthodox communion produced thinkers so independent and yet so
+thoroughly loyal to the Church. And seldom has the Christian temper
+found a nobler expression than in the lives and writings of such men
+as Whichcote and John Smith.[358]
+
+These men made no secret of their homage to Plato. And let it be
+noticed that they were students of Plato and Plotinus more than of
+Dionysius and his successors. Their Platonism is not of the debased
+Oriental type, and is entirely free from self-absorbed quietism. The
+_via negativa_ has disappeared as completely in their writings as in
+those of Böhme; the world is for them as for him the mirror of the
+Deity; but, being philosophers and not physicists, they are most
+interested in claiming for religion the whole field of _intellectual_
+life. They are fully convinced that there can be no ultimate
+contradiction between philosophy or science and Christian faith; and
+this accounts not only for their praise of "reason," but for the happy
+optimism which appears everywhere in their writings. The luxurious and
+indolent Restoration clergy, whose lives were shamed by the simplicity
+and spirituality of the Platonists, invented the word "Latitudinarian"
+to throw at them, "a long nickname which they have taught their
+tongues to pronounce as roundly as if it were shorter than it is by
+four or five syllables"; but they could not deny that their enemies were
+loyal sons of the Church of England.[359] What the Platonists meant
+by making reason the seat of authority may be seen by a few
+quotations from Whichcote and Smith, who for our purpose are, I think,
+the best representatives of the school. Whichcote answers Tuckney, who
+had remonstrated with him for "a vein of doctrine, in which reason
+hath too much given to it in the mysteries of faith";--"Too much" and
+"too often" on these points! "The Scripture is full of such truths,
+and I discourse on them too much and too often! Sir, I oppose not
+rational to spiritual, for spiritual is most rational." Elsewhere he
+writes, "He that gives reason for what he has said, has done what is
+fit to be done, and the most that can be done." "Reason is the Divine
+Governor of man's life; it is the very voice of God." "When the
+doctrine of the Gospel becomes the reason of our mind, it will be the
+principle of our life." "It ill becomes us to make our intellectual
+faculties Gibeonites.[360]" How far this teaching differs from the
+frigid "common-sense" morality prevalent in the eighteenth century,
+may be judged from the following, which stamps Whichcote as a genuine
+mystic. "Though liberty of judgment be everyone's right, yet how few
+there are that make use of this right! For the use of this right doth
+depend upon self-improvement by meditation, consideration,
+examination, prayer, and the like. These are things antecedent and
+prerequisite." John Smith, in a fine passage too long to quote in
+full, says: "Reason in man being _lumen de lumine_, a light flowing
+from the Fountain and Father of lights ... was to enable man to work
+out of himself all those notions of God which are the true groundwork
+of love and obedience to God, and conformity to Him.... But since
+man's fall from God, the inward virtue and vigour of reason is much
+abated, the soul having suffered a [Greek: pterorryêsis], as Plato
+speaks, a _defluvium pennarum_.... And therefore, besides the truth of
+natural inscription, God hath provided the truth of Divine
+revelation.... But besides this outward revelation, there is also an
+inward impression of it ... which is in a more special manner
+attributed to God.... God only can so shine upon our glassy
+understandings, as to beget in them a picture of Himself, and turn the
+soul like wax or clay to the seal of His own light and love. He that
+made our souls in His own image and likeness can easily find a way
+into them. The Word that God speaks, having found a way into the soul,
+imprints itself there as with the point of a diamond.... It is God
+alone that acquaints the soul with the truths of revelation, and also
+strengthens and raises the soul to better apprehensions even of
+natural truth, God being that in the intellectual world which the sun
+is in the sensible, as some of the ancient Fathers love to speak, and
+the ancient philosophers too, who meant God by their _Intellectus
+Agens_[361] whose proper work they supposed to be not so much to
+enlighten the object as the faculty."
+
+The Platonists thus lay great stress on the inner light, and identify
+it with the purified reason. The best exposition of their teaching on
+this head is in Smith's beautiful sermon on "The True Way or Method of
+attaining to Divine Knowledge." "Divinity," he says, "is a Divine life
+rather than a Divine science, to be understood rather by a spiritual
+sensation than by any verbal description. A good life is the
+_prolepsis_ of Divine science--the fear of the Lord is the beginning
+of wisdom. Divinity is a true efflux from the eternal light, which,
+like the sunbeams, does not only enlighten, but also heat and enliven;
+and therefore our Saviour hath in His beatitudes connext purity of
+heart to the beatific vision." "Systems and models furnish but a poor
+wan light," compared with that which shines in purified souls. "To
+seek our divinity merely in books and writings is to seek the living
+among the dead"; in these, "truth is often not so much enshrined as
+entombed." "That which enables us to know and understand aright the
+things of God, must be a living principle of holiness within us. The
+sun of truth never shines into any unpurged souls.... Such as men
+themselves are, such will God Himself seem to be.... Some men have too
+bad hearts to have good heads.... He that will find truth must seek it
+with a free judgment and a sanctified mind."
+
+Smith was well read in mystical theology, and was aware how much his
+ideal differed from that of Dionysian Mysticism. His criticism of the
+_via negativa_ is so admirable that I must quote part of it. "Good men
+... are content and ready to deny themselves for God. I mean not that
+they should deny their own reason, as some would have it, for that
+were to deny a beam of Divine light, and so to deny God, instead of
+denying ourselves for Him.... By self-denial, I mean the soul's
+quitting all its own interest in itself, and an entire resignation of
+itself to Him as to all points of service and duty; and thus the soul
+loses itself in God, and lives in the possession not so much of its
+own being as of the Divinity, desiring only to be great in God, to
+glory in His light, and spread itself in His fulness; to be filled
+always by Him, and to empty itself again into Him; to receive all from
+Him, and to expend all for Him; and so to live, not as its own, but as
+God's." Wicked men "maintain a _meum_ and _tuum_ between God and
+themselves," but the good man is able to make a full surrender of
+himself, "triumphing in nothing more than in his own nothingness, and
+in the allness of the Divinity. But, indeed, this his being nothing is
+the only way to be all things; this his having nothing the truest way
+of possessing all things.... The spirit of religion is always
+ascending upwards; and, spreading itself through the whole essence of
+the soul, loosens it from a self-confinement and narrowness, and so
+renders it more capacious of Divine enjoyment.... The spirit of a good
+man is always drinking in fountain-goodness, and fills itself more and
+more, till it be filled with all the fulness of God." "It is not a
+melancholy kind of sitting still, and slothful waiting, that speaks
+men enlivened by the Spirit and power of God. It is not religion to
+stifle and smother those active powers and principles which are within
+us.... Good men do not walk up and down the world merely like ghosts
+and shadows; but they are indeed living men, by a real participation
+from Him who is indeed a quickening Spirit."
+
+"Neither were it an happiness worth the having for a mind, like an
+hermit sequestered from all things else, to spend an eternity in
+self-converse and the enjoyment of such a diminutive superficial
+nothing as itself is.... We read in the Gospel of such a question of
+our Saviour's, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? We may
+invert it, What do you return within to see? A soul confined within
+the private and narrow cell of its own particular being? Such a soul
+deprives itself of all that almighty and essential glory and goodness
+which shines round about it, which spreads itself throughout the whole
+universe; I say, it deprives itself of all this, for the enjoying of
+such a poor, petty, and diminutive thing as itself is, which yet it
+can never enjoy truly in such retiredness."
+
+The English Platonists are equally sound on the subject of ecstasy.
+Whichcote says: "He doth not know God at all as He is, nor is he in a
+good state of religion, who doth not find in himself at times
+ravishings with sweet and lovely considerations of the Divine
+perfections." And Smith: "Who can tell the delights of those
+mysterious converses with the Deity, when reason is turned into sense,
+and faith becomes vision? The fruit of this knowledge is sweeter than
+honey and the honeycomb.... By the Platonists' leave, this life and
+knowledge (that of the 'contemplative man') peculiarly belongs to the
+true and sober Christian. This life is nothing else but an
+infant-Christ formed in his soul. But we must not mistake: this
+knowledge is here but in its infancy." While we are here, "our own
+imaginative powers, which are perpetually attending the best acts of
+our souls, will be breathing a gross dew upon the pure glass of our
+understandings."
+
+"Heaven is first a temper, then a place," says Whichcote, and Smith
+says the same about hell. "Heaven is not a thing without us, nor is
+happiness anything distinct from a true conjunction of the mind with
+God." "Though we could suppose ourselves to be at truce with heaven,
+and all Divine displeasure laid asleep; yet would our own sins, if
+they continue unmortified, make an Ætna or Vesuvius within us.[362]"
+This view of the indissoluble connexion between holiness and
+blessedness, as between sin and damnation, leads Smith to reject
+strenuously the doctrine of imputed, as opposed to imparted,
+righteousness. "God does not bid us be warmed and filled," he says,
+"and deny us those necessities which our starving and hungry souls
+call for.... I doubt sometimes, some of our dogmata and notions about
+justification may puff us up in far higher and goodlier conceits of
+ourselves than God hath of us, and that we profanely make the
+unspotted righteousness of Christ to serve only as a covering wherein
+to wrap our foul deformities and filthy vices, and when we have done,
+think ourselves in as good credit and repute with God as we are with
+ourselves, and that we are become Heaven's darlings as much as we are
+our own.[363]"
+
+These extracts will show that the English Platonists breathe a larger
+air than the later Romish mystics, and teach a religion more
+definitely Christian than Erigena and Eckhart. I shall now show how
+this happy result was connected with a more truly spiritual view of
+the external world than we have met with in the earlier part of our
+survey. That the laws of nature are the laws of God, that "man, as
+man, is averse to what is evil and wicked," that "evil is unnatural,"
+and a "contradiction of the law of our being," which is only found in
+"wicked men and devils," is one of Whichcote's "gallant themes." And
+Smith sets forth the true principles of Nature-Mysticism in a splendid
+passage, with which I will conclude this Lecture:--
+
+"God made the universe and all the creatures contained therein as so
+many glasses wherein He might reflect His own glory. He hath copied
+forth Himself in the creation; and in this outward world we may read
+the lovely characters of the Divine goodness, power, and wisdom....
+But how to find God here, and feelingly to converse with Him, and
+being affected with the sense of the Divine glory shining out upon the
+creation, how to pass out of the sensible world into the intellectual,
+is not so effectually taught by that philosophy which professed it
+most, as by true religion. That which knits and unites God and the
+soul together can best teach it how to ascend and descend upon those
+golden links that unite, as it were, the world to God. That Divine
+Wisdom, that contrived and beautified this glorious structure, can
+best explain her own art, and carry up the soul back again in these
+reflected beams to Him who is the Fountain of them.... Good men may
+easily find every creature pointing out to that Being whose image and
+superscription it bears, and climb up from those darker resemblances
+of the Divine wisdom and goodness, shining out in different degrees
+upon several creatures, till they sweetly repose themselves in the
+bosom of the Divinity; and while they are thus conversing with this
+lower world ... they find God many times secretly flowing into their
+souls, and leading them silently out of the court of the temple into
+the Holy Place.... Thus religion, where it is in truth and power,
+renews the very spirit of our minds, and doth in a manner spiritualise
+this outward creation to us.... It is nothing but a thick mist of
+pride and self-love that hinders men's eyes from beholding that sun
+which enlightens them and all things else.... A good man is no more
+solicitous whether this or that good thing be mine, or whether my
+perfections exceed the measure of this or that particular creature;
+for whatsoever good he beholds anywhere, he enjoys and delights in it
+as much as if it were his own, and whatever he beholds in himself, he
+looks not upon it as his property, but as a common good; for all these
+beams come from one and the same Fountain and Ocean of light in whom
+he loves them all with an universal love.... Thus may a man walk up
+and down the world as in a garden of spices, and suck a Divine
+sweetness out of every flower. There is a twofold meaning in every
+creature, a literal and a mystical, and the one is but the ground of
+the other; and as the Jews say of their law, so a good man says of
+everything that his senses offer to him--it speaks to his lower part,
+but it points out something above to his mind and spirit. It is the
+drowsy and muddy spirit of superstition which is fain to set some idol
+at its elbow, something that may jog it and put it in mind of God.
+Whereas true religion never finds itself out of the infinite sphere of
+the Divinity ... it beholds itself everywhere in the midst of that
+glorious unbounded Being who is indivisibly everywhere. A good man
+finds every place he treads upon holy ground; to him the world is
+God's temple; he is ready to say with Jacob, 'How dreadful is this
+place! this is none other than the house of God, this is the gate of
+heaven.'"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 316: In R.L. Nettleship's _Remains_.]
+
+[Footnote 317: In addition to passages quoted elsewhere, the following
+sentence from Luthardt is a good statement of the symbolic theory:
+"Nature is a world of symbolism, a rich hieroglyphic book: everything
+visible conceals an invisible mystery, and the last mystery of all is
+God." Goethe's "Alles vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichniss" would be
+better without the "nur," from our point of view.]
+
+[Footnote 318: Récéjac, _Essai sur les Fondements de la Connaissance
+Mystique_.]
+
+[Footnote 319: In the _Edinburgh Review_, October 1896. The article
+referred to, on "The Catholic Mystics of the Middle Ages," is
+beautifully written, and should be read by all who are interested in
+the subject.]
+
+[Footnote 320: This is Kant's use of the word. See Bosanquet, _History
+of Æsthetic_, p. 273: "A symbol is for Kant a perception or
+presentation which represents a conception neither conventionally as a
+mere sign, nor directly, but in the abstract, as a scheme, but
+indirectly though appropriately through a similarity between the rules
+which govern our reflection in the symbol and in the thing (or idea)
+symbolised." "In this sense beauty is a symbol of the moral order."
+Goethe's definition is also valuable: "That is true symbolism where
+the more particular represents the more general, not as a dream or
+shade, but as a vivid, instantaneous revelation of the inscrutable."]
+
+[Footnote 321: Or rather of power and dignity; for in some early
+Byzantine works even Satan is represented with a nimbus.]
+
+[Footnote 322: Emerson says rightly, "Mysticism (in a bad sense)
+consists in the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an
+universal one."]
+
+[Footnote 323: The distinction which Ruskin draws between the _fancy_
+and the _imagination_ may help us to discern the true and the false in
+Symbolism. "Fancy has to do with the outsides of things, and is
+content therewith. She can never _feel_, but is one of the most purely
+and simply intellectual of the faculties. She cannot be made serious;
+no edge-tool, but she will play with: whereas the imagination is in
+all things the reverse. She cannot but be serious; she sees too far,
+too darkly, too solemnly, too earnestly, ever to smile.... There is
+reciprocal action between the intensity of moral feeling and the power
+of imagination. Hence the powers of the imagination may always be
+tested by accompanying tenderness of emotion.... Imagination is quiet,
+fancy restless; fancy details, imagination suggests.... All egotism is
+destructive of imagination, whose play and power depend altogether on
+our being able to forget ourselves.... Imagination has no respect for
+sayings or opinions: it is independent" (_Modern Painters_, vol. ii.
+chap. iii.).]
+
+[Footnote 324: Cf. Harnack, _History of Dogma_, vol. ii. p. 144: "What
+we nowadays understand by 'symbols' is a thing which is not that which
+it represents; at that time (in the second century) 'symbol' denoted a
+thing which, in some kind of way, is that which it signifies; but, on
+the other hand, according to the ideas of that period, the really
+heavenly element lay either in or behind the visible form without
+being identical with it. Accordingly, the distinction of a symbolic
+and realistic conception of the Lord's Supper is altogether to be
+rejected." And vol. iv. p. 289: "The 'symbol' was never a mere type or
+sign, but always embodied a mystery." So Justin Martyr uses [Greek:
+symbolikôs eipein] and [Greek: eipein en mystêriô] as interchangeable
+terms; and Tertullian says that the name of Joshua was _nominis futuri
+sacramentum_.]
+
+[Footnote 325: So some thinkers have felt that "the Word" is not the
+best expression for the creative activity of God. The passage of
+Goethe where Faust rejects "Word," "Thought," and "Power," and finally
+translates, "In the beginning was the _Act_," is well known. And
+Philo, in a very interesting passage, says that Nature is the language
+in which God speaks; "but there is this difference, that while the
+human voice is made to be _heard_, the voice of God is made to be
+_seen_: what God says consists of acts, not of words" (_De Decem
+Orac_. II).]
+
+[Footnote 326: Aquinas says of the sacraments, "efficiunt quod
+figurant." The Thomists held that the sacraments are "causæ" of
+grace; the Scotists (Nominalists), that grace is their inseparable
+concomitant. The maintenance of a real correspondence between sign and
+significance seems to be essential to the idea of a sacrament, but
+then the danger of degrading it into magic lies close at hand.]
+
+[Footnote 327: In the case of irregular Baptism, the maxim holds:
+"Fieri non debuit; factum valet." Cf. Bp. Churton, _The Missionary's
+Foundation of Doctrine_, p. 129. The reason for this difference
+between the two sacraments is quite clear.]
+
+[Footnote 328: It is, of course, difficult to decide how far such
+statements were meant to be taken literally. But there is no doubt
+that both Baptism and the Eucharist were supposed to _confer_
+immortality. Cf. Tert. _de Bapt._ 2 (621, Oehl.), "nonne mirandum est
+lavacro dilui mortem?"; Gregory of Nyssa, _Or. cat. magn._ 35, [Greek:
+mê dynasthai de phêmi dicha tês kata to loutron anagennêseôs en
+anastasei genesthai ton anthrôpon]. Basil, too, calls Baptism [Greek:
+dynamis eis tên anastasin]. Of the Eucharist, Ignatius uses the
+phrase quoted, [Greek: pharmakon tês athanasias], and [Greek:
+antidotos tou mê apothanein]; and Gregory of Nyssa uses the same
+language as about Baptism. See, further, in Appendices B and C.]
+
+[Footnote 329: E.g. [Greek: metallaxis] (Theodoret), [Greek:
+metabolê] (Cyril), [Greek: metapoiêsis] (Gregory Naz.), [Greek:
+metastoicheiôsis] (Theophylact). The last-named goes on to say that
+"we are in the same way _transelementated_ into Christ." The Christian
+Neoplatonists naturally regard the sacrament as symbolic. Origen is
+inclined to hold that _every_ action should be sacramental, and that
+material symbols, such as bread and wine, and participation in a
+ceremonial, cannot be necessary vehicles of spiritual grace; this is
+in accordance with the excessive idealism and intellectualism of his
+system. Dionysius calls the elements [Greek: symbola, eikones,
+antitypa, aisthêta tina anti noêtôn metalambanomena]; and Maximus,
+his commentator, defines a symbol as [Greek: aisthêton ti anti
+noêtou metalambanomenon].]
+
+[Footnote 330: Harnack (_History of Dogma_, vol. vi. p. 102, English
+edition) says: "In the centuries before the Reformation, a growing
+value was attached not only to the sacraments, but to crosses,
+amulets, relics, holy places, etc. As long as what the soul seeks is
+not the rock of assurance, but means for inciting to piety, it will
+create for itself a thousand holy things. It is therefore an extremely
+superficial view that regards the most inward Mysticism and the
+service of idols as contradictory. The opposite view, rather, is
+correct." I have seldom found myself able to agree with this writer's
+judgments upon Mysticism; and this one is no exception. The "most
+inward Mysticism" does not occupy itself much with external
+"incitements to piety," nor is this the motive with which a mystic
+could ever (e.g.) receive the Eucharist. The use of amulets, etc.,
+which Harnack finds to have been spreading before the Reformation, and
+which was certainly very prevalent in the sixteenth and seventeenth
+centuries, had very little to do with "the most inward Mysticism." My
+view as to the place of magic in the history of Mysticism is given in
+this Lecture; I protest against identifying it with the essence of
+Mysticism. Symbolic Mysticism soon outgrew it; introspective Mysticism
+never valued it. The use of visible things as stimulants to piety is
+another matter; it has its place in the systems of the Catholic
+mystics, but as a very early stage in the spiritual ascent. What I
+have said as to the inconsistency of a high sacramental doctrine with
+the favourite injunctions to "cast away all images," which we find in
+the mediæval mystics, is, I think, indisputable.]
+
+[Footnote 331: The most recent developments of German idealistic
+philosophy, as set forth in the cosmology of Lotze, and still more of
+Fechner, may perhaps be described as an attempt to preserve the truth
+of Animism on a much higher plane, without repudiating the
+universality of law.]
+
+[Footnote 332: I refer especially to Huysmans' two "mystical" novels,
+_En Route_ and _La Cathédrale_. The naked Fetishism of the latter book
+almost passes belief. We have a Madonna who is good-natured at Lourdes
+and cross-grained at La Salette; who likes "pretty speeches and little
+coaxing ways" in "paying court" to her, and who at the end is
+apostrophised as "our Lady of the Pillar," "our Lady of the Crypt." It
+may perhaps be excusable to resort to such expedients as these in the
+conversion of savages; but there is something singularly repulsive in
+the picture (drawn apparently from life) of a profligate man of
+letters seeking salvation in a Christianity which has lowered itself
+far beneath educated paganism. At any rate, let not the name of
+Mysticism be given to such methods.]
+
+[Footnote 333: I refer especially to the horrors connected with the
+belief in witchcraft, on which see Lecky, _Rationalism in Europe_,
+vol. i. "Remy, a judge of Nancy, boasted that he had put to death
+eight hundred witches in sixteen years." "In the bishopric of
+Wartzburg, nine hundred were burnt in one year." As late as 1850, some
+French peasants burnt alive a woman named Bedouret, whom they supposed
+to be a witch.]
+
+[Footnote 334: The degradation of Mysticism in the Roman Church since
+the Reformation may be estimated by comparing the definitions of
+Mysticism and Mystical Theology current in the Middle Ages with the
+following from Ribet, who is recognised as a standard authority on the
+subject: "La Theologie mystique, au point de vue subjectif et
+experimental, nous semble pouvoir être définie; une attraction
+surnaturelle et passive de l'âme vers Dieu, provenant d'une
+illumination et d'un embrasement intérieurs, qui préviennent la
+réflexion, surpassent l'effort humain, _et peuvent avoir sur le corps
+un retentissement merveilleux et irresistible_." "Au point de vue
+doctrinal et objectif, la mystique peut se définir: la science qui
+traite _des phénomènes surnaturels_, soit intimes, _soit extérieurs_,
+qui preparent, accompagnent, et suivent la contemplation divine." The
+time is past, if it ever existed, when such superstitions could be
+believed without grave injury to mental and moral health.]
+
+[Footnote 335: This language about the teaching of the Roman Church
+may be considered unseemly by those who have not studied the subject.
+Those who have done so will think it hardly strong enough. In
+self-defence, I will quote one sentence from Schram, whose work on
+"Mysticism" is considered authoritative, and is studied in the great
+Catholic university of Louvain: "Quæri potest utrum dæmon per turpem
+concubitum possit violenter opprimere marem vel feminam cuius obsessio
+permissa sit ob finem perfectionis et contemplationis acquirendæ." The
+answer is in the affirmative, and the evidence is such as could hardly
+be transcribed, even in Latin. Schram's book is mainly intended for
+the direction of confessing priests, and the evidence shows, as might
+have been expected, that the subjects of these "phenomena" are
+generally poor nuns suffering from hysteria.]
+
+[Footnote 336: At a time when many are hoping to find in the study of
+the obscurer psychical phenomena a breach in the "middle wall of
+partition" between the spiritual and material worlds, I may seem to
+have brushed aside too contemptuously the floating mass of popular
+beliefs which "spiritualists" think worthy of serious investigation. I
+must therefore be allowed to say that in my opinion psychical research
+has already established results of great value, especially in helping
+to break down that view of the _imperviousness_ of the ego which is
+fatal to Mysticism, and (I venture to think) to any consistent
+philosophy. Monadism, we may hope, is doomed. But the more popular
+kind of spiritualism is simply the old hankering after supernatural
+manifestations, which are always dear to semi-regenerate minds.]
+
+[Footnote 337: It is, I think, significant that the word "imagination"
+was slow in making its way into psychology. [Greek: Phantasia] is
+defined by Aristotle (_de Anima_, iii. 3) as [Greek: kinêsis hypo tês
+aisthêseôs tês kat energeian gignomenê], but it is not till
+Philostratus that the creative imagination is opposed to [Greek:
+mimêsis]. Cf. _Vit. Apoll._ vi. 19, [Greek: mimêsis men
+dêmiourgêsei ho eiden, phantasia de kai ho mê eiden].]
+
+[Footnote 338: Reuchlin, _De arte cabbalistica_: "Est enim Cabbala
+divinæ revelationis ad salutiferam Dei et formarum separatarum
+contemplationem traditæ symbolica receptio, quam qui coelesti
+sortiumtur afflatu recto nomine Cabbalici dicuntur, eorum vero
+discipulos cognomento Cabbalæos appellabimus, et qui alioquin eos
+imitari conantur, Cabbalistæ nominandi sunt."]
+
+[Footnote 339: The mystical Rabbis ascribe the Cabbala to the angel
+Razael, the reputed teacher of Adam in Paradise, and say that this
+angel gave Adam the Cabbala as his lesson-book. There is a clear and
+succinct account of the main Cabbalistic docrines in Hunt, _Pantheism
+and Christianity_, pp. 84-88.]
+
+[Footnote 340: But the notion that the deepest mysteries should not be
+entrusted to writing is found in Clement and Origen; cf. Origen,
+_Against Celsus_, vi. 26: [Greek: ouk akindynon tên tôn toioutôn
+saphêneian pisteusai graphê]. And Clement says: [Greek: ta aporrêta,
+kathaper ho theos, logô pisteuetai ou grammati]. The curious legend of
+an oral tradition also appears in Clement (_Hypolyp. Fragm._ in
+Eusebius, _H.E._ ii. I. 4): [Greek: Iakôbô tô dikaiô kai Iôanê kai
+Petrô meta tên anastasin paredôke tên gnôsin ho kyrios, outoi tois
+loipois apostolois paredôkan, oi de loipoi apostoloi tois
+hebdomêkonta, ôn eis ên kai Barnabas.] Origen, too, speaks of "things
+spoken in private to the disciples."]
+
+[Footnote 341: The following extract from Pico's _Apology_ may be
+interesting, as illustrating the close connexion between magic and
+science at this period: "One of the chief charges against me is that I
+am a magician. Have I not myself distinguished two kinds of magic?
+One, which the Greeks call [Greek: goêteia], depends entirely on alliance
+with evil spirits, and deserves to be regarded with horror, and to be
+punished; the other is magic in the proper sense of the word. The
+former subjects man to the evil spirits, the latter makes them serve
+him. The former is neither an art nor a science; the latter embraces
+the deepest mysteries, and the knowledge of the whole of Nature with
+her powers. While it connects and combines the forces scattered by God
+through the whole world, it does not so much work miracles as come to
+the help of working nature. Its researches into the sympathies of
+things enable it to bring to light hidden marvels from the secret
+treasure-houses of the world, just as if it created them itself. As
+the countryman trains the vine upon the elm, so the magician marries
+the earthly objects to heavenly bodies. His art is beneficial and
+Godlike, for it brings men to wonder at the works of God, than which
+nothing conduces more to true religion."]
+
+[Footnote 342: This was a very old theory. Cf. Lecky, _Rationalism in
+Europe_, vol. i. p. 264. "The _Clavis_ of St. Melito, who was bishop
+of Sardis, it is said, in the beginning of the second century,
+consists of a catalogue of many hundreds of birds, beasts, plants, and
+minerals that were symbolical of Christian virtues, doctrines, and
+personages."]
+
+[Footnote 343: The analogy between allegorism in religion and the
+hieroglyphic writing is drawn out by Clement, _Strom._ v. 4 and 7.]
+
+[Footnote 344: The distinction, however, would be unintelligible to
+the savage mind. To primitive man a _name_ is a symbol in the
+strictest sense. Hence, "the knowledge, invocation, and vain
+repetition of a deity's name constitutes in itself an actual, if
+mystic, union with the deity named" (Jevons, _Introduction to the
+History of Religion_, p. 245). This was one of the chief reasons for
+making a secret of the cultus, and even of the name of a patron-deity.
+To reveal it was to admit strangers into the tutelage of the national
+god.]
+
+[Footnote 345: I do not find it possible to give a more honourable
+place than this to a system of biblical exegesis which has still a few
+defenders. It was first developed in Christian times by the Gnostics,
+and was eagerly adopted by Origen, who fearlessly applied it to the
+Gospels, teaching that "Christ's actions on earth were enigmas
+([Greek: ainigmata]), to be interpreted by Gnosis." The method was
+often found useful in dealing with moral and scientific difficulties
+in the Old Testament; it enabled Dionysius to use very bold language
+about the literal meaning, as I showed in Lecture III. The Christian
+Platonists of Alexandria meant it to be an esoteric method: Clement
+calls it [Greek: symbolikôs philosophein]. It was held that [Greek: ta
+mystêria mystikôs paradidotai]; and even that Divine truths are
+honoured by enigmatic treatment ([Greek: hê krypsis hê mystikê
+semnopoiei to theion]). But the main use of allegorism was pietistic;
+and to this there can be no objection, unless the piety is morbid, as
+is the case in many commentaries on the Song of Solomon. Still, it can
+hardly be disputed that the countless books written to elaborate the
+principles of allegorism contain a mass of futility such as it would
+be difficult to match in any other class of literature. The best
+defence of the method is perhaps to be found in Keble's Tract (No. 89)
+on the "Mysticism" of the early Fathers. Keble's own poetry contains
+many beautiful examples of the true use of symbolism; but as an
+apologist of allegorism he does not distinguish between its use and
+abuse. Yet surely there is a vast difference between seeing in the
+"glorious sky embracing all" a type of "our Maker's love," and
+analysing the 153 fish caught in the Sea of Galilee into the square of
+the 12 Apostles + the square of the 3 Persons of the Trinity.
+
+The history of the doctrine of "signatures," which is the cryptogram
+theory applied to medicine, is very curious and interesting, "Citrons,
+according to Paracelsus, are good for heart affections, because they
+are heart-shaped; the _saphena riparum_ is to be applied to fresh
+wounds, because its leaves are spotted as with flecks of blood. A
+species of _dentaria_, whose roots resemble teeth, is a cure for
+toothache and scurvy."--Vaughan, _Hours with the Mystics_, vol. ii. p.
+77. It is said that some traces of this quaint superstition survive
+even in the modern materia medica. The alliance between medicine and
+Mysticism subsisted for a long time, and forms a curious chapter of
+history.]
+
+[Footnote 346: Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim, a contemporary of
+Reuchlin, studied Cabbalism mainly as a magical science. He was
+nominally a Catholic, but attacked Rome and scholasticism quite in the
+spirit of Luther. His three chief works are, _On the Threefold Way of
+Knowing God, On the Vanity of Arts and Sciences_ (a ferocious attack
+on most of the professions), and _On Occult Philosophy_ (treating of
+natural, celestial, and religious magic). The "magician," he says,
+"must study three sciences--physics, mathematics, and theology."
+Agrippa's adventurous life ended in 1533.]
+
+[Footnote 347: Theophrastus Paracelsus (Philippus Bombastus von
+Hohenheim) was born in 1493, and died in 1541. His writings are a
+curious mixture of theosophy and medical science: "medicine," he
+taught, "has four pillars--philosophy, astronomy (or rather
+astrology), alchemy, and religion." He lays great stress on the
+doctrine that man is a microcosm, and on the law of Divine
+manifestation _by contraries_--the latter is a new feature which was
+further developed by Böhme.]
+
+[Footnote 348: "I saw," he says, "the Being of all Beings, the Ground
+and the Abyss; also, the birth of the Holy Trinity; the origin and
+first state of the world and of all creatures. I saw in myself the
+three worlds--the Divine or angelic world; the dark world, the
+original of Nature; and the external world, as a substance spoken
+forth out of the two spiritual worlds.... In my inward man I saw it
+well, as in a great deep; for I saw right through as into a chaos
+where everything lay wrapped, but I could not unfold it. Yet from time
+to time it opened itself within me, like a growing plant. For twelve
+years I carried it about within me, before I could bring it forth in
+any external form; till afterwards it fell upon me, like a bursting
+shower that killeth wheresoever it lighteth, as it will. Whatever I
+could bring into outwardness, that I wrote down. The work is none of
+mine; I am but the Lord's instrument, wherewith He doeth what He
+will."]
+
+[Footnote 349: This is from Bp. Warburton. "Sublime nonsense,
+inimitable bombast, fustian not to be paralleled," is John Wesley's
+verdict.]
+
+[Footnote 350: See Overton, _Life of William Law_, p. 188.]
+
+[Footnote 351: I have omitted Böhme's gnostical theories as to the
+seven _Quellgeister_ as belonging rather to theosophy than to
+Mysticism. The resemblance to Basilides is here rather striking, but
+it must be a pure coincidence.]
+
+[Footnote 352: And of English Mysticism before the Reformation; cf. p.
+208.]
+
+[Footnote 353: From the _Spirit of Prayer_. The sect of Behmenists in
+Germany, unlike Law, attended no church, and took no part in the
+Lord's Supper.--Overton, _Life of William Law_, p. 214.]
+
+[Footnote 354: This stimulating doctrine, that the soul, when freed
+from impediments, ascends naturally and inevitably to its "own place,"
+is put into the mouth of Beatrice by Dante (_Paradiso_, i. 136)--
+
+  "Non dei più ammirar, se bene stimo,
+   Lo tuo salir, se non come d'un rivo
+   Se d'alto monte scende giuso ad imo.
+   Maraviglia sarebbe in te, se privo
+   D'impedimento giu ti fossi assiso,
+   Com' a terra quieto fuoco vivo.
+   Quinci rivolce inver lo cielo il viso."  ]
+
+[Footnote 355: It may be interesting to compare the following passage
+from George Fox, which dramatises the irruption of natural science,
+with its faith in fixed laws, into the sphere of the religious
+consciousness:--"One morning, while I was sitting by the fire, a great
+cloud came over me, a temptation beset me; and I sat still. It was
+said, _All things come by Nature_; and the elements and stars came
+over me, so that I was in a manner quite clouded by it. And as I sat
+still under it and let it alone, a living hope and a true voice arose
+in me, which said, _There is a living God who made all things_.
+Immediately the cloud and temptation vanished away, and life rose over
+it all; my heart was glad, and I praised the living God."]
+
+[Footnote 356: So we may fairly say, if we remember that we are
+speaking of what transcends time. Neither Böhme nor Law looks forward
+to a golden age on this earth.]
+
+[Footnote 357: Henry More's judgment is as follows: "Jacob Behmen, I
+conceive, is to be reckoned in the number of those whose imaginative
+faculty has the pre-eminence above the rational; and though he was a
+good and holy man, his natural complexion, notwithstanding, was not
+destroyed, but retained its property still; and, therefore, his
+imagination being very busy about Divine things, he could not without
+a miracle fail of becoming an enthusiast, and of receiving Divine
+truths upon the account of the strength and vigour of his fancy;
+which, being so well qualified with holiness and sanctity, proved not
+unsuccessful in sundry apprehensions, but in others it fared with him
+after the manner of men, the sagacity of his imagination failing him,
+as well as the anxiety of reason does others of like integrity with
+himself."]
+
+[Footnote 358: Canon G.G. Perry, in his _Students' English Church
+History_, disposes of this noble group of men in one contemptuous
+paragraph, as a "class of divines who were neither Puritans nor High
+Churchmen," and makes the astounding statement that "to the school
+thus commenced, the deadness, carelessness, and indifference prevalent
+in the eighteenth century are in large measure to be attributed." It
+is of these very same men that Bishop Burnet writes, that if they had
+not appeared to combat the "laziness and negligence," the "ease and
+sloth" of the Restoration clergy, "the Church had quite lost her
+esteem over the nation." Alexander Knox (_Works_, vol. iii. p. 199)
+speaks of the rise of this school as a great instance of the design
+of Providence to supply to the Church what had never before been
+produced, writers who do "full honour at once to the elevation and the
+rationality of Christian piety.... In their writings we are invited to
+ascend, by having a prospect opened before us as luminous as it is
+sublime.... They are such writers as had never before existed.... No
+Church but the English Church could have produced them." Of John Smith
+he says, "My value for him is beyond what words can do justice to."
+The works of Whichcote, Smith, Cudworth, and Culverwel are happily
+accessible enough, and I beg my readers to study them at first hand. I
+do not believe that any Christian could rise from the perusal of the
+two first-named without having gained a lasting benefit in the
+deepening of his spiritual life and heightening of his faith.]
+
+[Footnote 359: A writer who signs himself S.P. (probably Simon
+Patrick, bishop of Ely), in a pamphlet called _A Brief Account of the
+new Sect of Latitude Men_ (1662), vindicates their attachment to the
+"virtuous mediocrity" of the Church of England, as distinguished from
+the "meretricious gaudiness of the Church of Rome, and the squalid
+sluttery of fanatic conventicles."]
+
+[Footnote 360: Compare with these extracts the words of Leibnitz: "To
+despise reason in matters of religion is to my eyes certain proof
+either of an obstinacy that borders on fanaticism, or, what is worse,
+of hypocrisy."]
+
+[Footnote 361: See Appendix C.]
+
+[Footnote 362: The classical reader will be reminded of Lucretius,
+iii. 979-1036. Smith, however, would not have relished this
+comparison. He devotes part of one sermon to a refutation of the
+Epicurean poet, in whom he sees a precursor of his _bête noire_,
+Hobbes!]
+
+[Footnote 363: Compare with this the following passage of Jean de
+Labadie (1610-1674), the founder of a mystical school on the
+Continent: "Plusieurs sont bien aises d'ouyr dire qu'ils sont
+justifiés par Jesus-Christ, lavés de leurs péchés en son sang par la
+foí, par la repentance et par le baptême chrestien, et volontiers ils
+I'embrasent comme Justificateur, comme crucifié et mort pour eux; mais
+peu prennent part à sa croix, à sa mort, pour se faire spirituellement
+mourir avec Luy, crucifier leur chair avec la sienne, et porter en
+eux-mêmes les vives marques de sa croix et de sa mort. Peu le goutent
+comme Justificateur au dedans par l'Esprit consacrant et immolant le
+vieil homme à Dieu et par une pratique vraiment sainte, laquelle
+dompte le péché."]
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE VIII
+
+
+   "For nothing worthy proving can be proven,
+    Nor yet disproven; wherefore thou be wise,
+    Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt,
+    And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith!
+    She reels not in the storm of warring words,
+    She brightens at the clash of Yes and No,
+    She sees the Best that glimmers through the Worst,
+    She feels the sun is hid but for a night,
+    She spies the summer thro' the winter bud,
+    She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls,
+    She hears the lark within the songless egg,
+    She finds the fountain where they wail'd 'Mirage!'"
+
+TENNYSON, _The Ancient Sage_.
+
+
+"Of true religions there are only two: one of them recognises and
+worships the Holy that without form or shape dwells in and around us;
+and the other recognises and worships it in its fairest form.
+Everything that lies between these two is idolatry."
+
+GOETHE.
+
+
+"My wish is that I may perceive the God whom I find everywhere in the
+external world, in like manner within and inside me."
+
+KEPLER.
+
+
+   "Getrost, das Leben schreitet
+      Zum ew'gen Leben hin;
+    Von innrer Gluth geweitet
+      Verklärt sich unser Sinn.
+    Die Sternwelt wird zerfliessen
+      Zum goldnen Lebenswein,
+    Wir werden sie geniessen
+      Und lichte Sterne sein.
+
+    "Die Lieb' ist freigegeben
+      Und keine Trennung mehr
+    Es wogt das volle Leben
+      Wie ein unendlich Meer.
+    Nur eine Nacht der Wonne,
+      Ein ewiges Gedicht!
+    Und unser Aller Sonne
+      Ist Gottes Angesicht."
+
+NOVALIS.
+
+
+
+NATURE-MYSTICISM--_continued_
+
+"The invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are
+clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made, even
+His everlasting power and Divinity."--ROM. i. 20.
+
+
+In my last Lecture I showed how the later Mysticism emancipated itself
+from the mischievous doctrine that the spiritual eye can only see when
+the eye of sense is closed. After the Reformation period the mystic
+tries to look with both eyes; his aim is to see God in all things, as
+well as all things in God. He returns with better resources to the
+task of the primitive religions, and tries to find spiritual law in
+the natural world. It is true that a strange crop of superstitions,
+the seeds of which had been sown long before, sprang up to mock his
+hopes. In necromancy, astrology, alchemy, palmistry, table-turning,
+and other delusions, we have what some count the essence, and others
+the reproach, of Mysticism. But these are, strictly speaking,
+scientific and not religious errors. From the standpoint of religion
+and philosophy, the important change is that, in the belief of these
+later mystics, the natural and the spiritual are, somehow or other, to
+be reconciled; the external world is no longer regarded as a place of
+exile from God, or as a delusive appearance; it is the living vesture
+of the Deity; and its "discordant harmony,[364]" though "for the many
+it needs interpreters,[365]" yet "has a voice for the wise" which
+speaks of things behind the veil. The glory of God is no longer
+figured as a blinding white light in which all colours are combined
+and lost; but is seen as a "many-coloured wisdom[366]" which shines
+everywhere, its varied hues appearing not only in the sanctuary of the
+lonely soul, but in all the wonders that science can discover, and all
+the beauties that art can interpret. Dualism, with the harsh
+asceticism which belongs to it, has given way to a brighter and more
+hopeful philosophy; men's outlook upon the world is more intelligent,
+more trustful, and more genial; only for those who perversely seek to
+impose the ethics of selfish individualism upon a world which obeys no
+such law, science has in reserve a blacker pessimism than ever brooded
+over the ascetic of the cloister.
+
+We shall not meet, in this chapter, any finer examples of the
+Christian mystic than John Smith and William Law. But these men, and
+their intellectual kinsmen, were far from exhausting the treasure of
+Nature-Mysticism. The Cambridge Platonists, indeed, somewhat
+undervalued the religious lessons of Nature. They were scholars and
+divines, and what lay nearest their heart was the consecration of the
+reason--that is, of the whole personality under the guidance of its
+highest faculty--to the service of truth and goodness. And Law, in his
+later years, was too much under the influence of Böhme's fantastic
+theosophy to bring to Nature that childlike spirit which can best
+learn her lessons.
+
+The Divine in Nature has hitherto been discerned more fully by the
+poet than by the theologian or the naturalist; and in this concluding
+Lecture I must deal chiefly with Christian poetry. The attitude
+towards Nature which we have now to consider is more contemplative
+than practical; it studies analogies in order to _know_ the unseen
+powers which surround us, and has no desire to bend them or make them
+its instruments.
+
+Our Lord's precept, "Consider the lilies," sanctions this religious
+use of Nature; and many of His parables, such as that of the Sower,
+show us how much we may learn from such analogies. And be it observed
+that it is the normal and regular in Nature which in these parables is
+presented for our study; the yearly harvest, not the three years'
+famine; the constant care and justice of God, not the "special
+providence" or the "special judgment." We need not wait for
+catastrophes to trace the finger of God. As for Christian poetry and
+art, we do not expect to find any theory of æsthetic in the New
+Testament; but we may perhaps extract from the precept quoted above
+the canon that the highest beauty that we can discern resides in the
+real and natural, and only demands the seeing eye to find it.
+
+In the Greek Fathers we find great stress laid on the glories of
+Nature as a revelation of God. Cyril says, "The wider our
+contemplation of creation, the grander will be our conception of God."
+And Basil uses the same language. We find, indeed, in these writers a
+marked tendency to exalt the religious value of natural beauty, and to
+disparage the function of art--a premonition, perhaps, of iconoclasm.
+Pagan art, which was decaying before the advent of Christ, could not,
+it appears, be quietly Christianised and carried on without a break.
+
+The true Nature-Mysticism is prominent in St. Francis of Assisi. He
+loves to see in all around him the pulsations of one life, which
+sleeps in the stones, dreams in the plants, and wakens in man. "He
+would remain in contemplation before a flower, an insect, or a bird,
+and regarded them with no dilettante or egoistic pleasure; he was
+interested that the plant should have its sun, the bird its nest; that
+the humblest manifestations of creative force should have the
+happiness to which they are entitled.[367]" So strong was his
+conviction that all living things are children of God, that he would
+preach to "my little sisters the birds," and even undertook the
+conversion of "the ferocious wolf of Agobio."
+
+This tender reverence for Nature, which is a mark of all true
+Platonism, is found, as we have seen, in Plotinus. It is also
+prominent in the Platonists of the Renaissance, such as Bruno and
+Campanella,[368] and in Petrarch, who loved to offer his evening
+prayers among the moonlit mountains. Suso has at least one beautiful
+passage on the sights and sounds of spring, and exclaims, "O tender
+God, if Thou art so loving in Thy creatures, how fair and lovely must
+Thou be in Thyself![369]" The Reformers, especially Luther and
+Zwingli, are more alive than might have been expected to the value of
+Nature's lessons; and the French mystics, Francis de Sales and
+Fénelon, write gracefully about the footprints of the Divine wisdom
+and beauty which may be traced everywhere in the world around us.
+
+But natural religion is not to be identified with Mysticism, and it
+would not further our present inquiry to collect passages, in prose or
+poetry, which illustrate the aids to faith which the book of Nature
+may supply. Nor need we dwell on such pure Platonism as we find in
+Spenser's "Hymn of Heavenly Beauty," or some of Shelley's poems, in
+which we are bidden to gaze upon the world as a mirror of the Divine
+Beauty, since our mortal sight cannot endure the "white radiance" of
+the eternal archetypes.[370] We have seen how this view of the world
+as a pale reflection of the Ideas leads in practice to a contempt for
+visible things; as, indeed, it does in Spenser's beautiful poem. He
+invites us, after learning Nature's lessons, to
+
+
+"Look at last up to that sovereign light,
+ From whose pure beams all perfect beauty springs;
+ That kindleth love in every godly spright,
+ Even the love of God; which loathing brings
+ Of this vile world and these gay-seeming things;
+ With whose sweet pleasures being so possessed,
+ Thy straying thoughts henceforth for ever rest."
+
+
+This is not the keynote of the later Nature-Mysticism. We now expect
+that every new insight into the truth of things, every enlightenment
+of the eyes of our understanding, which may be granted us as the
+reward of faith, love, and purity of heart, will make the world around
+us appear, not viler and baser, but more glorious and more Divine. It
+is not a proof of spirituality, but of its opposite, if God's world
+seems to us a poor place. If we could see it as God sees it, it would
+be still, as on the morning of creation, "very good." The hymn
+which is ever ascending from the earth to the throne of God is to be
+listened for, that we may join in it. The laws by which all creation
+lives are to be studied, that we too may obey them. As for the beauty
+which is everywhere diffused so lavishly, it seems to be a gift of
+God's pure bounty, to bring happiness to the unworldly souls who alone
+are able to see and enjoy it.
+
+The greatest prophet of this branch of contemplative Mysticism is
+unquestionably the poet Wordsworth. It was the object of his life to
+be a religious teacher, and I think there is no incongruity in placing
+him at the end of the roll of mystical divines who have been dealt
+with in these Lectures. His intellectual kinship with the acknowledged
+representatives of Nature-Mysticism will, I hope, appear very plainly.
+
+Wordsworth was an eminently sane and manly spirit. He found his
+philosophy of life early, and not only preached but lived it
+consistently. A Platonist by nature rather than by study, he is
+thoroughly Greek in his distrust of strong emotions and in his love of
+all which the Greeks included under [Greek: sôphrosynê]. He was a
+loyal Churchman, but his religion was really almost independent of any
+ecclesiastical system. His ecclesiastical sonnets reflect rather the
+dignity of the Anglican Church than the ardent piety with which our
+other poet-mystics, such as Herbert, Vaughan, and Crashaw, adorn the
+offices of worship. His cast of faith, intellectual and contemplative
+rather than fervid, and the solitariness of his thought, forbade him
+to find much satisfaction in public ceremonial. He would probably
+agree with Galen, who in a very remarkable passage says that the study
+of nature, if prosecuted with the same earnestness and intensity which
+men bring to the contemplation of the "Mysteries," is even more fitted
+than they to reveal the power and wisdom of God; for "_the symbolism
+of the mysteries is more obscure than that of nature_."
+
+He shows his affinity with the modern spirit in his firm grasp of
+natural _law_. Like George Fox and William Law, he had to face the
+shock of giving up his belief in arbitrary interferences. There was a
+period when he lost his young faculty of generalisation; when he bowed
+before the inexorable dooms of an unknown Lawgiver--"the categorical
+imperative," till the gift of intuition was restored to him in fuller
+measure. This experience explains his attitude towards natural
+science. His reverence for _facts_ never failed him; "the sanctity and
+truth of nature," he says, "must not be tricked out with accidental
+ornaments"; but he looked askance at the science which tries to erect
+itself into a philosophy. Physics, he saw plainly, is an abstract
+study: its view of the world is an abstraction for certain purposes,
+and possesses less truth than the view of the poet.[371] And yet he
+looked forward to a time when science, too, shall be touched with fire
+from the altar;--
+
+
+  "Then her heart shall kindle; her dull eye,
+   Dull and inanimate, no more shall hang
+   Chained to its object in brute slavery."
+
+
+And in a remarkable passage of the "Prefaces" he says "If the time
+should ever come when that which is now called science shall be ready
+to put on as it were a form of flesh and blood, the poet will lend his
+Divine spirit to aid the transformation, and will welcome the Being
+thus produced as a dear and genuine inmate of the household of man."
+He feels that the loving and disinterested study of nature's laws must
+at last issue, not in materialism, but in some high and spiritual
+faith, inspired by the Word of God, who is Himself, as Erigena said,
+"the Nature of all things."
+
+In aloofness and loneliness of mind he is exceeded by no mystic of the
+cloister. It may be said far more truly of him than of Milton, that
+"his soul was like a star, and dwelt apart." In his youth he confesses
+that human beings had only a secondary interest for him;[372] and
+though he says that Nature soon led him to man, it was to man as a
+"unity," as "one spirit," that he was drawn, not to men as
+individuals.[373] Herein he resembled many other contemplative
+mystics; but it has been said truly that "it is easier to know man in
+general than a man in particular.[374]" The sage who "sits in the
+centre" of his being, and there "enjoys bright day,[375]" does not
+really know human beings as persons.
+
+It will be interesting to compare the steps in the ladder of
+perfection, as described by Wordsworth, with the schemes of
+Neoplatonism and introspective Mysticism. The three stages of the
+mystical ascent have been already explained. We find that Wordsworth,
+too, had his purgative, disciplinary stage. He began by deliberately
+crushing, not only the ardent passions to which he tells us that he
+was naturally prone, but all ambition and love of money, determining
+to confine himself to "such objects as excite no morbid passions, no
+disquietude, no vengeance, and no hatred," and found his reward in a
+settled state of calm serenity, in which all the thoughts flow like a
+clear fountain, and have forgotten how to hate and how to
+despise.[376]
+
+Wordsworth is careful to inculcate several safeguards for those who
+would proceed to the contemplative life. First, there must be
+strenuous aspiration to reach that infinitude which is our being's
+heart and home; we must press forward, urged by "hope that can never
+die, effort, and expectation, and desire, and something evermore about
+to be.[377]" The mind which is set upon the unchanging will not
+"praise a cloud,[378]" but will "crave objects that endure." In the
+spirit of true Platonism, as contrasted with its later aberrations,
+Wordsworth will have no blurred outlines. He tries always to see in
+Nature distinction without separation; his principle is the exact
+antithesis of Hume's atheistic dictum, that "things are conjoined, but
+not connected.[379]" The importance of this caution has been fully
+demonstrated in the course of our inquiry. Then, too, he knows that to
+imperfect man reason is a crown "still to be courted, never to be
+won." Delusions may affect "even the very faculty of sight," whether a
+man "look forth," or "dive into himself.[380]" Again, he bids us seek
+for real, and not fanciful analogies; no "loose types of things
+through all degrees"; no mythology; and no arbitrary symbolism. The
+symbolic value of natural objects is not that they remind us of
+something that they are not, but that they help us to understand
+something that they in part are. They are not intended to transport us
+away from this earth into the clouds. "This earth is the world of all
+of us," he says boldly, "in which we find our happiness or not at
+all.[381]" Lastly, and this is perhaps the most important of all, he
+recognises that the still small voice of God breathes not out of
+nature alone, nor out of the soul alone, but from the contact of the
+soul with nature. It is the marriage of the intellect of man to "this
+goodly universe, in love and holy passion," which produces these
+raptures. "Intellect" includes Imagination, which is but another name
+for Reason in her most exalted mood;[382] these must assist the eye of
+sense.
+
+Such is the discipline, and such are the counsels, by which the
+priest of Nature must prepare himself to approach her mysteries. And
+what are the truths which contemplation revealed to him?
+
+The first step on the way that leads to God was the sense of the
+_boundless_, growing out of musings on the finite; and with it the
+conviction that the Infinite and Eternal alone can be our being's
+heart and home--"we feel that we are greater than we know.[383]" Then
+came to him--
+
+
+                   "The sense sublime
+  Of something far more deeply interfused,
+  Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
+  And the round ocean and the living air,
+  And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
+  A motion and a spirit, that impels
+  All thinking things, all objects of all thoughts,
+  And rolls through all things.[384]"
+
+
+The worldliness and artificiality which set us out of tune with all
+this is worse than paganism.[385] Then this "higher Pantheism"
+developed into the sense of an all-pervading Personality, "a soul that
+is the eternity of thought." And with this heightened consciousness of
+the nature of God came also a deeper knowledge of his own personality,
+a knowledge which he describes in true mystical language as a "sinking
+into self from thought to thought." This may continue till man can at
+last "breathe in worlds to which the heaven of heavens is but a
+veil," and perceive "the forms whose kingdom is where time and space
+are not." These last lines describe a state analogous to the [Greek:
+opsis] of the Neoplatonists, and the _excessus mentis_ of the Catholic
+mystics. At this advanced stage the priest of Nature may surrender
+himself to ecstasy without mistrust. Of such minds he says--
+
+
+                  "The highest bliss
+  That flesh can know is theirs--the consciousness
+  Of whom they are, habitually infused
+  Through every image and through every thought,
+  And all affections by communion raised
+  From earth to heaven, from human to divine;...
+  Thence cheerfulness for acts of daily life,
+  Emotions which best foresight need not fear,
+  Most worthy then of trust when most intense.[386]"
+
+
+There are many other places where he describes this "bliss ineffable,"
+when "all his thoughts were steeped in feeling," as he listened to the
+song which every form of creature sings "as it looks towards the
+uncreated with a countenance of adoration and an eye of love,[387]"
+that blessed mood--
+
+
+  "In which the affections gently lead us on,--
+   Until, the breath of this corporeal frame,
+   And even the motion of our human blood
+   Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
+   In body, and become a living soul:
+   While with an eye made quiet by the power
+   Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
+   We see into the life of things.[388]"
+
+
+Is it not plain that the poet of Nature amid the Cumberland hills, the
+Spanish ascetic in his cell, and the Platonic philosopher in his
+library or lecture-room, have been climbing the same mountain from
+different sides? The paths are different, but the prospect from the
+summit is the same. It is idle to speak of collusion or insanity in
+the face of so great a cloud of witnesses divided by every
+circumstance of date, nationality, creed, education, and environment.
+The Carmelite friar had no interest in confirming the testimony of the
+Alexandrian professor; and no one has yet had the temerity to question
+the sanity of Wordsworth, or of Tennyson, whose description of the
+Vision in his "Ancient Sage" is now known to be a record of personal
+experience. These explorers of the high places of the spiritual life
+have only one thing in common--they have observed the conditions laid
+down once for all for the mystic in the 24th Psalm, "Who shall ascend
+into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He
+that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his
+soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing
+from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation." The
+"land which is very far off" is always visible to those who have
+climbed the holy mountain. It may be scaled by the path of prayer and
+mortification, or by the path of devout study of God's handiwork in
+Nature (and under this head I would wish to include not only the way
+traced out by Wordsworth, but that hitherto less trodden road which
+should lead the physicist to God); and, lastly, by the path of
+consecrated life in the great world, which, as it is the most exposed
+to temptations, is perhaps on that account the most blessed of the
+three.[389]
+
+It has been said of Wordsworth, as it has been said of other mystics,
+that he averts his eyes "from half of human fate." Religious writers
+have explained that the neglected half is that which lies beneath the
+shadow of the Cross. The existence of positive evil in the world, as a
+great fact, and the consequent need of redemption, is, in the opinion
+of many, too little recognised by Wordsworth, and by Mysticism in
+general. This objection has been urged both from the scientific and
+from the religious side. It is held by many students of Nature that
+her laws affirm a Pessimism and not an Optimism. "Red in tooth and
+claw with ravine," she shrieks against the creed that her Maker is a
+God of love. The only morality which she inculcates is that of a tiger
+in the jungle, or at best that of a wolf-pack. "It is not strange
+(says Lotze) that no nature-religions have raised their adherents to
+any high pitch of morality or culture.[390]" The answer to this is
+that Nature includes man as well as the brutes, and the merciful and
+moral man as well as the savage. Physical science, at any rate, can
+exclude nothing from the domain of Nature. And the Christian may say
+with all reverence that Nature includes, or rather is included by,
+Christ, the Word of God, by whom it was made. And the Word was made
+flesh to teach us that vicarious suffering, which we see to be the law
+of Nature, is a law of God, a thing not foreign to His own life, and
+therefore for all alike a condition of perfection, not a _reductio ad
+absurdum_ of existence. The _reductio ad absurdum_ is not of Nature,
+but of selfish individualism, which suffers shipwreck alike in
+objective and in subjective religion. It is precisely because the
+shadow of the Cross lies across the world, that we can watch Nature at
+work with "admiration, hope, and love," instead of with horror and
+disgust.
+
+The religious objection amounts to little more than that Mysticism has
+not succeeded in solving the problem of evil, which no philosophy has
+ever attacked with even apparent success. It is, however, with some
+reason that this difficulty has been pressed against the mystics; for
+they are bound by their principles to attempt some solution, and their
+tendency has been to attenuate the positive character of evil to a
+somewhat dangerous degree. But if we sift the charges often brought
+by religious writers against Mysticism, we shall generally find that
+there lies at the bottom of their disapproval a residuum of mediæval
+dualism, which wishes to see in Christ the conquering invader of a
+hostile kingdom. In practice, at any rate, the great mystics have not
+taken lightly the struggle with the law of sin in our members, or
+tried to "heal slightly" the wounds of the soul.[391]
+
+It is quite true that the later mystics have been cheerful and
+optimistic. But those who have found a kingdom in their own minds, and
+who have enough strength of character "to live by reason and not by
+opinion," as Whichcote says (in a maxim which was anticipated by that
+arch-enemy of Mysticism--Epicurus), are likely to be happier than
+other men. And, moreover, Wordsworth teaches us that almost, if not
+quite, every evil may be so transmuted by the "faculty which abides
+within the soul," that those "interpositions which would hide and
+darken" may "become contingencies of pomp, and serve to exalt her
+native brightness"; even as the moon, "rising behind a thick and lofty
+grove, turns the dusky veil into a substance glorious as her own." So
+the happy warrior is made "more compassionate" by the scenes of horror
+which he is compelled to witness. Whether this healing and purifying
+effect of sorrow points the way to a solution of the problem of evil
+or not, it is a high and noble faith, the one and only consolation
+which we feel not to be a mockery when we are in great trouble.
+
+These charges, then, do not seem to form a grave indictment against
+the type of Mysticism of which Wordsworth is the best representative.
+But he _does_ fall short of the ideal held up by St. John for the
+Christian mystic, in that his love and sympathy for inanimate Nature
+were (at any rate in his poetry) deeper than for humanity. And if
+there is any accusation which may justly be brought against the higher
+order of mystics (as opposed to representatives of aberrant types), I
+think it is this: that they have sought and found God in their own
+souls and in Nature, but not so often in the souls of other men and
+women: theirs has been a lonely religion. The grand old maxim, "Vides
+fratrem, vides Dominum tuum," has been remembered by them only in acts
+of charity. But in reality the love of human beings must be the
+shortest road to the vision of God. Love, as St. John teaches us, is
+the great hierophant of the Christian mysteries. It gives wings to
+contemplation and lightens the darkness which hides the face of God.
+When our emotions are deeply stirred, even Nature speaks to us with
+voices unheard before; while the man who is without human affection is
+either quite unmoved by her influences, or misreads all her lessons.
+
+The spiritualising power of human love is the redeeming principle in
+many sordid lives. Teutonic civilisation, which derives half of its
+restless energy from ideals which are essentially anti-Christian, and
+tastes which are radically barbarous, is prevented from sinking into
+moral materialism by its high standard of domestic life. The sweet
+influences of the home deprive even mammon-worship of half its
+grossness and of some fraction of its evil. As a schoolmaster to bring
+men and women to Christ, natural affection is without a rival. It is
+in the truest sense a symbol of our union with Him from whom every
+family in heaven and earth is named. It is needless to labour a thesis
+on which nearly all are agreed; but it may be worth pointing out that,
+though St. Paul felt the unique value of Christian marriage as a
+symbol of the mystical union of Christ and the Church, this truth was
+for the most part lost sight of by the mediæval mystics, who as monks
+and priests were, of course, cut off from domestic life. The romances
+of true love which the Old Testament contains were treated as
+prophecies wrapped up in riddling language, or as models for ecstatic
+contemplation. Wordsworth, though his own home was a happy one, does
+not supply this link in the mystical chain. The most noteworthy
+attempt to do so is to be found in the poetry of Robert Browning,
+whose Mysticism is in this way complementary to that of
+Wordsworth.[392] He resembles Wordsworth in always trying "to see the
+infinite in things," but considers that "little else (than the
+development of a soul) is worth study." This is not exactly a return
+to subjective Mysticism, for Browning is as well aware as Goethe that
+if "a talent grows best in solitude," a character is perfected only
+"in the stream of the world." With him the friction of active life,
+and especially the experience of human love, are necessary to realise
+the Divine in man. Quite in the spirit of St. John he asks, "How can
+that course be safe, which from the first produces carelessness to
+human love?" "Do not cut yourself from human weal ... there are
+strange punishments for such" as do so.[393] Solitude is the death of
+all but the strongest virtue, and in Browning's view it also deprives
+us of the strongest inner witness to the existence of a loving Father
+in heaven. For he who "finds love full in his nature" cannot doubt
+that in this, as in all else, the Creator must far surpass the
+creature.[394] Since, then, in knowing love we learn to know God, and
+since the object of life is to know God (this, the mystic's minor
+premiss, is taken for granted by Browning), it follows that love is
+the meaning of life; and he who finds it not "loses what he lived for,
+and eternally must lose it.[395]" "The mightiness of love is curled"
+inextricably round all power and beauty in the world. The worst fate
+that can befall us is to lead "a ghastly smooth life, dead at
+heart.[396]" Especially interesting is the passage where he chooses or
+chances upon Eckhart's image of the "spark" in the centre of the soul,
+and gives it a new turn in accordance with his own Mysticism--
+
+
+  "It would not be because my eye grew dim
+   Thou could'st not find the love there, thanks to Him
+   Who never is dishonoured in the spark
+   He gave us from His fire of fires, and bade
+   Remember whence it sprang, nor be afraid
+   While that burns on, though all the rest grow dark.[397]"
+
+
+Our language has no separate words to distinguish Christian love
+([Greek: agapê]--_caritas_) from sexual love ([Greek: erôs]--_amor_);
+"charity" has not established itself in its wider meaning. Perhaps this
+is not to be regretted--at any rate Browning's poems could hardly be
+translated into any language in which this distinction exists. But let
+us not forget that the _ascetic_ element is as strong in Browning as in
+Wordsworth. Love, he seems to indicate, is no exception to the rule that
+our joys may be "three parts pain," for "where pain ends gain ends
+too.[398]"
+
+
+              "Not yet on thee
+  Shall burst the future, as successive zones
+  Of several wonder open on some spirit
+  Flying secure and glad from heaven to heaven;
+  But thou shalt painfully attain to joy,
+  While hope and fear and love shall keep thee man.[399]"
+
+
+He even carries this law into the future life, and will have none of a
+"joy which is crystallised for ever." Felt imperfection is a proof of
+a higher birthright:[400] if we have arrived at the completion of our
+nature as men, then "begins anew a tendency to God." This faith in
+unending progress as the law of life is very characteristic of our own
+age.[401] It assumes a questionable shape sometimes; but Browning's
+trust in real success through apparent disappointments--a trust even
+_based_ on the consciousness of present failure--is certainly one of
+the noblest parts of his religious philosophy.
+
+I have decided to end my survey of Christian Mysticism with these two
+English poets. It would hardly be appropriate, in this place, to
+discuss Carlyle's doctrine of symbols, as the "clothing" of religious
+and other kinds of truth. His philosophy is wanting in some of the
+essential features of Mysticism, and can hardly be called Christian
+without stretching the word too far. And Emerson, when he deals with
+religion, is a very unsafe guide. The great American mystic, whose
+beautiful character was as noble a gift to humanity as his writings,
+is more liable than any of those whom we have described to the
+reproach of having turned his back on the dark side of life. Partly
+from a fastidiousness which could not bear even to hear of bodily
+ailments, partly from the natural optimism of the dweller in a new
+country, and partly because he made a principle of maintaining an
+unruffled cheerfulness and serenity, he shut his eyes to pain, death,
+and sin, even more resolutely than did Goethe. The optimism which is
+built on this foundation has no message of comfort for the stricken
+heart. To say that "evil is only good in the making," is to repeat an
+ancient and discredited attempt to solve the great enigma. And to
+assert that perfect justice is meted out to individuals in this world,
+is surely mere dreaming. Moreover, we can hardly acquit him of playing
+with pantheistic Mysticism of the Oriental type, without seeing, or
+without caring, whither such speculations logically lead. "Within
+man," he tells us, "is the soul of the whole, the wise silence, the
+universal beauty, to which every part and particle is _equally_
+related--the eternal One." This is genuine Pantheism, and should carry
+with it the doctrine that all actions are equally good, bad, or
+indifferent. Emerson says that his wife kept him from antinomianism;
+but this is giving up the defence of his philosophy. He also differs
+from Christianity, and agrees with many Hegelians, in teaching that
+God, "the Over-Soul," only attains to self-consciousness in man; and
+this, combined with his denial of _degrees_ in Divine immanence, leads
+him to a self-deification of an arrogant and shocking kind, such as we
+find in the Persian Sufis, and in some heretical mystics of the Middle
+Ages. "I, the imperfect, adore my own Perfect. I am receptive of the
+great soul. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all.
+The currents of the universal Being circulate through me. I am part of
+God"; and much more to the same effect. This is not the language of
+those who have travelled up the mystical ladder, instead of only
+writing about it. It is far more objectionable than the bold phrases
+about deification which I quoted in my fifth Lecture from the
+fourteenth century mystics; because with them the passage into the
+Divine glory is the final reward, only to be attained "by all manner
+of exercises"; while for Emerson it seems to be a state already
+existing, which we can realise by a mere act of intellectual
+apprehension. And the phrase, "Man is a part of God,"--as if the
+Divine Spirit were _divided_ among the organs which express its
+various activities,--has been condemned by all the great speculative
+mystics, from Plotinus downwards. Emerson is perhaps at his best when
+he applies his idealism to love and friendship. The spiritualising and
+illuminating influence of pure comradeship has never been better or
+more religiously set forth. And though it is necessary to be on our
+guard against the very dangerous tendency of some of his teaching, we
+shall find much to learn from the brave and serene philosopher whose
+first maxim was, "Come out into the azure; love the day," and who
+during his whole life fixed his thoughts steadily on whatsoever things
+are pure, lovely, noble, and of good report.
+
+The constructive task which lies before the next century is, if I may
+say so without presumption, to spiritualise science, as morality and
+art have already been spiritualised. The vision of God should appear
+to us as a triple star of truth, beauty, and goodness.[402] These are
+the three objects of all human aspiration; and our hearts will never
+be at peace till all three alike rest in God. Beauty is the chief
+mediator between the good and the true;[403] and this is why the great
+poets have been also prophets. But Science at present lags behind; she
+has not found her God; and to this is largely due the "unrest of the
+age." Much has already been done in the right direction by divines,
+philosophers, and physicists, and more still, perhaps, by the great
+poets, who have striven earnestly to see the spiritual background
+which lies behind the abstractions of materialistic science. But much
+yet remains to be done. We may agree with Hinton that "Positivism
+bears a new Platonism in its bosom"; but the child has not yet come to
+the birth.[404]
+
+Meanwhile, the special work assigned to the Church of England would
+seem to be the development of a _Johannine_ Christianity, which shall
+be both Catholic and Evangelical without being either Roman or
+Protestant. It has been abundantly proved that neither Romanism nor
+Protestantism, regarded as alternatives, possesses enough of the truth
+to satisfy the religious needs of the present day. But is it not
+probable that, as the theology of the Fourth Gospel acted as a
+reconciling principle between the opposing sections in the early
+Church, so it may be found to contain the teaching which is most
+needed by both parties in our own communion? In St. John and St. Paul
+we find all the principles of a sound and sober Christian Mysticism;
+and it is to these "fresh springs" of the spiritual life that we must
+turn, if the Church is to renew her youth.
+
+I attempted in my second Lecture to analyse the main elements of
+Christian Mysticism as found in St. Paul and St. John. But since in
+the later Lectures I have been obliged to draw from less pure sources,
+and since, moreover, I am most anxious not to leave the impression
+that I have been advocating a vague spirituality tempered by
+rationalism, I will try in a few words to define my position
+apologetically, though I am well aware that it is a hazardous and
+difficult task.
+
+The principle, "Cuique in sua arte credendum est," applies to those
+who have been eminent for personal holiness as much as to the leaders
+in any other branch of excellence. Even in dealing with arts which
+are akin to each other, we do not invite poets to judge of music, or
+sculptors of architecture. We need not then be disturbed if we
+occasionally find men illustrious in other fields, who are as
+insensible to religion as to poetry. Our reverence for the character
+and genius of Charles Darwin need not induce us to lay aside either
+our Shakespeare or our New Testament.[405] The men to whom we
+naturally turn as our best authorities in spiritual matters, are those
+who seem to have been endowed with an "anima naturaliter Christiana,"
+and who have devoted their whole lives to the service of God and the
+imitation of Christ.
+
+Now it will be found that these men of acknowledged and pre-eminent
+saintliness agree very closely in what they tell us about God. They
+tell us that they have arrived gradually at an unshakable conviction,
+not based on inference but on immediate experience, that God is a
+Spirit with whom the human spirit can hold intercourse; that in Him
+meet all that they can imagine of goodness, truth, and beauty; that
+they can see His footprints everywhere in nature, and feel His
+presence within them as the very life of their life, so that in
+proportion as they come to themselves they come to Him. They tell us
+that what separates us from Him and from happiness is, first,
+self-seeking in all its forms; and, secondly, sensuality in all its
+forms; that these are the ways of darkness and death, which hide from
+us the face of God; while the path of the just is like a shining
+light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. As they have
+toiled up the narrow way, the Spirit has spoken to them of Christ, and
+has enlightened the eyes of their understandings, till they have at
+least _begun_ to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and
+to be filled with all the fulness of God.
+
+So far, the position is unassailable. But the scope of the argument
+has, of course, its fixed limits. The inner light can only testify to
+spiritual truths. It always speaks in the present tense; it cannot
+guarantee any historical event, past or future. It cannot guarantee
+either the Gospel history or a future judgment. It can tell us that
+Christ is risen, and that He is alive for evermore, but not that He
+rose again the third day. It can tell us that the gate of everlasting
+life is open, but not that the dead shall be raised incorruptible. We
+have other faculties for investigating the evidence for past events;
+the inner light cannot certify them immediately, though it can give a
+powerful support to the external evidence. For though we are in no
+position to dogmatise about the relations of the temporal to the
+eternal, one fact does seem to stand out,--that the two are, _for us_,
+bound together. If, when we read the Gospels, "the Spirit itself
+beareth witness with our spirit" that here are the words of eternal
+life, and the character which alone in history is absolutely flawless,
+then it is natural for us to believe that there has been, at that
+point of time, an Incarnation of the Word of God Himself. That the
+revelation of Christ is an absolute revelation, is a dogmatic
+statement which, strictly speaking, only the Absolute could make. What
+_we_ mean by it is that after two thousand years we are unable to
+conceive of its being ever superseded in any particular. And if anyone
+finds this inadequate, he may be invited to explain what higher degree
+of certainty is within our reach. With regard to the future life, the
+same consideration may help us to understand why the Church has clung
+to the belief in a literal second coming of Christ to pronounce the
+dooms of all mankind. But our Lord Himself has taught us that in "that
+day and that hour" lies hidden a more inscrutable mystery than even He
+Himself, as man, could reveal.
+
+There is one other point on which I wish to make my position clear.
+The fact that human love or sympathy is the guide who conducts us to
+the heart of life, revealing to us God and Nature and ourselves, is
+proof that part of our life is bound up with the life of the world,
+and that if we live in these our true relations we shall not entirely
+die so long as human beings remain alive upon this earth. The progress
+of the race, the diminution of sin and misery, the advancing kingdom
+of Christ on earth,--these are matters in which we have a _personal_
+interest. The strong desire that we feel--and the best of us feel it
+most strongly--that the human race may be better, wiser, and happier
+in the future than they are now or have been in the past, is neither
+due to a false association of ideas, nor to pure unselfishness. There
+is a sense in which death would not be the end of everything for us,
+even though in this life only we had hope in Christ.
+
+But when this comforting and inspiring thought is made to form the
+basis of a new Chiliasm--a belief in a millennium of perfected
+humanity on this earth, and when this belief is substituted for the
+Christian belief in an eternal life beyond our bourne of time and
+place, it is necessary to protest that this belief entirely fails to
+satisfy the legitimate hopes of the human race, that it is bad
+philosophy, and that it is flatly contrary to what science tells us of
+the destiny of the world and of mankind. The human spirit beats
+against the bars of space and time themselves, and could never be
+satisfied with any earthly utopia. Our true home must be in some
+higher sphere of existence, above the contradictions which make it
+impossible for us to believe that time and space are ultimate
+realities, and out of reach of the inevitable catastrophe which the
+next glacial age must bring upon the human race.[406] This world of
+space and time is to resemble heaven as far as it can; but a fixed
+limit is set to the amount of the Divine plan which can be realised
+under these conditions. Our hearts tell us of a higher form of
+existence, in which the doom of death is not merely deferred but
+abolished. This eternal world we here see through a glass darkly: at
+best we can apprehend but the outskirts of God's ways, and hear a
+small whisper of His voice; but our conviction is that, though our
+earthly house be dissolved (as dissolved it must be), we have a home
+not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. In this hope we may
+include all creation; and trust that in some way neither more nor less
+incomprehensible than the deliverance which we expect for ourselves,
+all God's creatures, according to their several capacities, may be set
+free from the bondage of corruption and participate in the final
+triumph over death and sin. Most firmly do I believe that this faith
+in immortality, though formless and inpalpable as the air we breathe,
+and incapable of definite presentation except under inadequate and
+self-contradictory symbols, is nevertheless enthroned in the centre of
+our being, and that those who have steadily set their affections on
+things above, and lived the risen life even on earth, receive in
+themselves an assurance which robs death of its sting, and is an
+earnest of a final victory over the grave.
+
+It is not claimed that Mysticism, even in its widest sense, is, or can
+ever be, the whole of Christianity. Every religion must have an
+institutional as well as a mystical element. Just as, if the feeling
+of immediate communion with God has faded, we shall have a dead Church
+worshipping "a dead Christ," as Fox the Quaker said of the Anglican
+Church in his day; so, if the seer and prophet expel the priest, there
+will be no discipline and no cohesion. Still, at the present time, the
+greatest need seems to be that we should return to the fundamentals of
+spiritual religion. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that both the
+old seats of authority, the infallible Church and the infallible
+book, are fiercely assailed, and that our faith needs reinforcements.
+These can only come from the depths of the religious consciousness
+itself; and if summoned from thence, they will not be found wanting.
+The "impregnable rock" is neither an institution nor a book, but a
+life or experience. Faith, which is an affirmation of the basal
+personality, is its own evidence and justification. Under normal
+conditions, it will always be strongest in the healthiest minds. There
+is and can be no appeal from it. If, then, our hearts, duly prepared
+for the reception of the Divine Guest, at length say to us, "This I
+know, that whereas I was blind, now I see," we may, in St. John's
+words, "have confidence towards God."
+
+The objection may be raised--"But these beliefs change, and merely
+reflect the degree of enlightenment or its opposite, which every man
+has reached." The conscience of the savage tells him emphatically that
+there are some things which he _must not do_; and blind obedience to
+this "categorical imperative" has produced not only all the complex
+absurdities of "taboo," but crimes like human sacrifice, and faith in
+a great many things that are not. "Perhaps we are leaving behind the
+theological stage, as we have already left behind those superstitions
+of savagery." Now the study of primitive religions does seem to me to
+prove the danger of resting religion and morality on unreasoning
+obedience to a supposed revelation; but that is not my position. The
+two forces which kill mischievous superstitions are the knowledge of
+nature, and the moral sense; and we are quite ready to give both free
+play, confident that both come from the living Word of God. The fact
+that a revelation is progressive is no argument that it is not Divine:
+it is, in fact, only when the free current of the religious life is
+dammed up that it turns into a swamp, and poisons human society. Of
+course we must be ready to admit with all humility, that _our_ notions
+of God are probably unworthy and distorted enough; but that is no
+reason why we should not follow the light which we have, or mistrust
+it on the ground that it is "too _good_ to be true."
+
+Nor would it be fair to say that this argument makes religion depend
+merely on _feeling_. A theology based on mere feeling is (as Hegel
+said) as much contrary to revealed religion as to rational knowledge.
+The fact that God is present to our feeling is no proof that He
+exists; our feelings include imaginations which have no reality
+corresponding to them. No, it is not feeling, but the _heart_ or
+_reason_ (whichever term we prefer), which speaks with authority. By
+the heart or reason I mean the whole personality acting in concord, an
+abiding mood of thinking, willing, and feeling. The life of the spirit
+perhaps begins with mere feeling, and perhaps will be consummated in
+mere feeling, when "that which is in part shall be done away"; but
+during its struggles to enter into its full inheritance, it gathers up
+into itself the activities of all the faculties, which act
+harmoniously together in proportion as the organism to which they
+belong is in a healthy state.
+
+Once more, this reliance on the inner light does not mean that every
+man must be his own prophet, his own priest, and his own saviour. The
+individual is not independent of the Church, nor the Church of the
+historical Christ. But the Church is a _living_ body and the
+Incarnation and Atonement are _living_ facts still in operation. They
+are part of the eternal counsels of God; and whether they are enacted
+in the Abyss of the Divine Nature, or once for all in their fulness on
+the stage of history, or in miniature, as it were, in your soul and
+mine, the process is the same, and the tremendous importance of those
+historical facts which our creeds affirm is due precisely to the fact
+that they are _not_ unique and isolated portents, but the supreme
+manifestation of the grandest and most universal laws.
+
+These considerations may well have a calming and reassuring influence
+upon those who, from whatever cause, are troubled by religious doubts.
+The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord
+knoweth, and is known by, them that are His. But we must not expect
+that "religious difficulties" will ever cease. Every truth that we
+know is but the husk of a deeper truth; and it may be that the Holy
+Spirit has still many things to say to us, which we cannot bear now.
+Each generation and each individual has his own problem, which has
+never been set in exactly the same form before: we must all work out
+our own salvation, for it is God who worketh in us. If we have
+realised the meaning of these words of St. Paul, which I have had
+occasion to quote so often in these Lectures, we cannot doubt that,
+though we now see through a glass darkly, and know only in part, we
+shall one day behold our Eternal Father face to face, and know Him
+even as we are known.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 364: Horace, _Ep._ i. 12. 19.]
+
+[Footnote 365: [Greek: polypoikilos sophia], Eph. iii. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 366: Pindar, _Olymp._ ii. 154.]
+
+[Footnote 367: Barine in _Revue des Deux Mondes_, April 1891.]
+
+[Footnote 368: The latter, like Fechner in our own century, holds that
+the stars are living organisms, whose "sensibility is full of
+pleasure."]
+
+[Footnote 369: See Illingworth's _Divine Immanence_, where this and
+other interesting passages are quoted. But Suso was, of course, _not_
+a "Protestant mystic." And I cannot agree with the author when he says
+that Lucretius found no religious inspiration in Nature. The poet of
+the _Nature of Things_ shows himself to have been a lonely man, who
+had pondered much among the hills and by the sea, and who loved to
+taste the pure delights of the spring. Thence came to him the "holy
+joy and dread" ("quædam divina voluptas atque horror") which pulsates
+through his great poem as he shatters the barbarous mythology of
+paganism, and then, in the spirit of a priest rather than of a
+philosopher, turns the "bright shafts of day" upon the folly and
+madness of those who are slaves to the world or the flesh. The spirit
+of Lucretius is the spirit of modern science, which tends neither to
+materialism nor to atheism, whatever its friends and enemies may say.]
+
+[Footnote 370: Christian Platonism has never been more beautifully set
+forth than in the poem of Spenser named above. Compare, especially,
+the following stanzas:--
+
+
+  "The means, therefore, which unto us is lent
+   Him to behold, is on His works to look,
+   Which He hath made in beauty excellent,
+   And in the same, as in a brazen book
+   To read enregistered in every nooke
+   His goodness, which His beauty doth declare:
+   For all that's good is beautiful and fair.
+
+   "Thence gathering plumes of perfect speculation,
+   To imp the wings of thy high-flying mind,
+   Mount up aloft through heavenly contemplation,
+   From this dark world, whose damps the soul do blind,
+   On that bright Sun of glory fix thine eyes,
+   Cleared from gross mists of frail infirmities."
+
+
+Shelley sums up a great deal of Plotinus in the following stanza of
+"Adonais":--
+
+
+  "The One remains; the many change and pass;
+   Heaven's light for ever shines; earth's shadows fly;
+   Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,
+   Stains the white radiance of eternity."
+
+
+Compare, too, the opening lines of "Alastor."]
+
+[Footnote 371: Compare the following sentences in Bradley's
+_Appearance and Reality_: "Nature viewed materialistically is only an
+abstraction for certain purposes, and has not a high degree of truth
+or reality. The poet's nature has much more.... Our principle, that
+the abstract is the unreal, moves us steadily upward.... It compels us
+in the end to credit nature with our higher emotions. That process can
+only cease when nature is quite absorbed into spirit, and at every
+stage of the process we find increase in reality."]
+
+[Footnote 372: "Prelude," viii. 340 sq.]
+
+[Footnote 373: "Prelude," viii. 668.]
+
+[Footnote 374: La Rochefoucauld.]
+
+[Footnote 375: These words, from Milton's "Comus," are applied to
+Wordsworth by Hazlitt.]
+
+[Footnote 376: "Prelude," iv. 1207-1229. The ascetic element in
+Wordsworth's ethics should by no means be forgotten by those who envy
+his brave and unruffled outlook upon life. As Hutton says excellently
+(_Essays_, p. 81), "there is volition and self-government in every
+line of his poetry, and his best thoughts come from the steady
+resistance he opposes to the ebb and flow of ordinary desires and
+regrets. He contests the ground inch by inch with all despondent and
+indolent humours, and often, too, with movements of inconsiderate and
+wasteful joy--turning defeat into victory, and victory into defeat."
+See the whole passage.]
+
+[Footnote 377: "Prelude," vi. 604-608.]
+
+[Footnote 378: "Miscell. Sonnets," xii.]
+
+[Footnote 379: See the Essay in which he deals with Macpherson: "In
+nature everything is distinct, yet nothing defined into absolute
+independent singleness. In Macpherson's work it is exactly the
+reverse--everything is defined, insulated, dislocated, deadened--yet
+nothing distinct."]
+
+[Footnote 380: "Excursion," v. 500-514.]
+
+[Footnote 381: This seemed flat blasphemy to Shelley, whose idealism
+was mixed with Byronic misanthropy. "Nor was there aught the world
+contained of which he could approve."]
+
+[Footnote 382: "Prelude," xiv. 192. Wordsworth's psychology is very
+interesting. "Imagination" is for him ("Miscellaneous Sonnets," xxxv.)
+a "glorious faculty," whose function it is to elevate the
+more-than-reasoning mind; "'tis hers to pluck the amaranthine flower
+of Faith," and "colour life's dark cloud with orient rays." This
+faculty is at once "more than reason," and identical with "Reason in
+her most exalted mood." I have said (p.21) that "Mysticism is reason
+applied to a sphere above rationalism" and this appears to be exactly
+Wordsworth's doctrine.]
+
+[Footnote 383: "Sonnets on the River Duddon," xxxiv.]
+
+[Footnote 384: "Lines composed above Tintern Abbey," 95-102.]
+
+[Footnote 385: "Miscell. Sonnets," xxxiii.]
+
+[Footnote 386: "Prelude," xiv. 112-129.]
+
+[Footnote 387: "Prelude," ii. 396-418.]
+
+[Footnote 388: "Lines composed above Tintern Abbey," 35-48.]
+
+[Footnote 389: Wordsworth's Mysticism contains a few subordinate
+elements which are of more questionable value. The "echoes from beyond
+the grave," which "the inward ear" sometimes catches, are dear to most
+of us; but we must not be too confident that they always come from
+God. Still less can we be sure that presentiments are "heaven-born
+instincts." Again, when the lonely thinker feels himself surrounded by
+"huge and mighty forms, that do not move like living men," it is a
+sign that the "dim and undetermined sense of unknown modes of being"
+has begun to work not quite healthily upon his imagination. And the
+doctrine of pre-existence, which appears in the famous Ode, is one
+which it has been hitherto impossible to admit into the scheme of
+Christian beliefs, though many Christian thinkers have dallied with
+it. Perhaps the true lesson of the Ode is that the childish love of
+nature, beautiful and innocent as it is, has to die and be born again
+in the consciousness of the grown man. That Wordsworth himself passed
+through this experience, we know from other passages in his writings.
+In his case, at any rate, the "light of common day" was, for a time at
+least, more splendid than the roseate hues of his childish imagination
+can possibly have been; and there seems to be no reason for holding
+the gloomy view that spiritual insight necessarily becomes dimmer as
+we travel farther from our cradles, and nearer to our graves. What
+fails us as we get older is only that kind of vision which is
+analogous to the "consolations" often spoken of by monkish mystics as
+the privilege of beginners. Amiel expresses exactly the same regret as
+Wordsworth: "Shall I ever enjoy again those marvellous reveries of
+past days?..." See the whole paragraph on p. 32 of Mrs. Humphry Ward's
+translation.]
+
+[Footnote 390: These objections are pressed by Lotze, and not only by
+avowed Pessimists. Lotze abhors what he calls "sentimental symbolism"
+because it interferes with his monadistic doctrines. I venture to say
+that any philosophy which divides man, as a being _sui generis_, from
+the rest of Nature, is inevitably landed either in Acosmism or in
+Manichean Dualism.]
+
+[Footnote 391: This is perhaps the best place to notice the mystical
+treatise of James Hinton, entitled _Man and his Dwelling-place_, which
+is chiefly remarkable for its attempt to solve the problem of evil.
+This writer pushes to an extremity the favourite mystical doctrine
+that we surround ourselves with a world after our own likeness, and
+considers that all the evil which we see in Nature is the "projection
+of our own deadness." Apart from the unlikelihood of a theory which
+makes man--"the roof and crown of things"--the only diseased and
+discordant element in the universe, the writer lays himself open to
+the fatal rejoinder, "Did Christ, then, see no sin or evil in the
+world?" The doctrines of sacrifice (vicarious suffering) as a blessed
+law of Nature ("the secret of the universe is learnt on Calvary"), and
+of the necessity of annihilating "the self" as the principle of evil,
+are pressed with a harsh and unnatural rigour. Our blessed Lord laid
+no such yoke upon us, nor will human nature consent to bear it. The
+"atonement" of the world by love is much better delineated by R.L.
+Nettleship, in a passage which seems to me to exhibit the very kernel
+of Christian Mysticism in its social aspect. "Suppose that all human
+beings felt permanently to each other as they now do occasionally to
+those they love best. All the pain of the world would be swallowed up
+in doing good. So far as we can conceive of such a state, it would be
+one in which there would be no 'individuals' at all, but an universal
+being in and for another; where being took the form of consciousness,
+it would be the consciousness of 'another' which was also 'oneself'--a
+_common_ consciousness. Such would be the 'atonement' of the world."]
+
+[Footnote 392: Charles Kingsley is another mystic of the same school.]
+
+[Footnote 393: Browning, _Paracelsus_, Act i.]
+
+[Footnote 394: Browning, "Saul," xvii.]
+
+[Footnote 395: Browning, "Cristina."]
+
+[Footnote 396: Browning, "Christmas Eve and Easter Day," xxx.,
+xxxiii.]
+
+[Footnote 397: Browning, "_Any Wife to any Husband._"]
+
+[Footnote 398: Compare Plato's well-known sentence: [Greek: di
+algêdonôn kai odynôn gignetai hê ôpheleia, ou gar oion te
+allôs adikias apallattesthai].]
+
+[Footnote 399: Browning, _Paracelsus_.]
+
+[Footnote 400: Compare Pascal: "No one is discontented at not being a
+king, except a discrowned king."]
+
+[Footnote 401: It is almost as prominent in Tennyson as in Browning:
+"Give her the wages of going on, and not to die," is his wish for the
+human soul.]
+
+[Footnote 402: I had written these words before the publication of
+Principal Caird's _Sermons_, which contain, in my judgment, the most
+powerful defence of what I have called Christian Mysticism that has
+appeared since William Law. On p. 14 he says: "Of all things good and
+fair and holy there is a spiritual cognisance which precedes and is
+independent of that knowledge which the understanding conveys." He
+shows how in the contemplation of nature it is "by an organ deeper
+than intellectual thought" that "the revelation of material beauty
+flows in upon the soul." "And in like manner there is an apprehension
+of God and Divine things which comes upon the spirit as a living
+reality which it immediately and intuitively perceives." ... "There is
+a capacity of the soul, by which the truths of religion may be
+apprehended and appropriated." See the whole sermon, entitled, _What
+is Religion?_ and many other parts of the book.]
+
+[Footnote 403: Cf. Hegel (_Philosophy of Religion_, vol. ii. p. 8):
+"The Beautiful is essentially the Spiritual making itself known
+sensuously, presenting itself in sensuous concrete existence, but in
+such a manner that that existence is wholly and entirely permeated by
+the Spiritual, so that the sensuous is not independent, but has its
+meaning solely and exclusively in the Spiritual and through the
+Spiritual, and exhibits not itself, but the Spiritual."]
+
+[Footnote 404: Some reference ought perhaps to be made to Drummond's
+_Natural Law in the Spiritual World_. But Mysticism seeks rather to
+find spiritual law in the natural world--and some better law than
+Drummond's Calvinism. (And I cannot help thinking that, though
+Evolution explains much and contradicts nothing in Christianity, it is
+in danger of proving an _ignis fatuus_ to many, especially to those
+who are inclined to idealistic pantheism. There can be no progress or
+development in God, and the cosmic process as we know it cannot have a
+higher degree of reality than the categories of time and place under
+which it appears. As for the millennium of perfected humanity on this
+earth, which some Positivists and others dream of,--Christianity has
+nothing to say against it, but science has a great deal.) See below,
+p. 328.]
+
+[Footnote 405: In the Life of Charles Darwin there is an interesting
+letter, in which he laments the gradual decay of his taste for poetry,
+as his mind became a mere "machine for grinding out general laws" from
+a mass of observations. The decay of religious _feeling_ in many men
+of high character may be accounted for in the same way. The really
+great man is conscious of the sacrifice which he is making. "It is an
+accursed evil to a man," Darwin wrote to Hooker, "to become so
+absorbed in any subject as I am in mine." The common-place man is
+_not_ conscious of it: he obtains his heart's desire, if he works hard
+enough, and God sends leanness withal into his soul.]
+
+[Footnote 406: The metaphysical problem about the reality of time in
+relation to evolution is so closely bound up with speculative
+Mysticism, that I have been obliged to state my own opinion upon it.
+It is, of course, one of the vexed questions of philosophy at the
+present time; and I could not afford the space, even if I had the
+requisite knowledge and ability, to argue it. The best discussion of
+it that I know is in M'Taggart's _Studies in Hegelian Dialectic_, pp.
+159-202. Cf. note on p. 23.]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDICES
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX A
+
+Definitions Of "Mysticism" And "Mystical Theology"
+
+
+The following definitions are given only as specimens. The list might
+be made much longer by quoting from other Roman Catholic theologians,
+but their definitions for the most part agree closely enough with
+those which I have transcribed from Corderius, John a Jesu Maria, and
+Gerson.
+
+1. _Corderius_. "Theologia mystica est sapientia experimentalis, Dei
+affectiva, divinitus infusa, quæ mentem ab omni inordinatione puram
+per actus supernaturales fidei spei et caritatis cum Deo intime
+coniungit.... Mystica theologia, si vim nominis attendas, designat
+quandam sacram et arcanam de Deo divinisque rebus notitiam."
+
+2. _John a Jesu Maria_. "[Theologia mystica] est cælestis quædam Dei
+notitia per unionem voluntatis Deo inhærentis elicita vel lumine
+cælitus immisso producta."
+
+3. _Bonaventura_ (adopted also by Gerson). "Est animi extensio in Deum
+per amoris desiderium."
+
+4. _Gerson_. "Theologia mystica est motio anagogica in Deum per amorem
+fervidum et purum. Aliter sic: Theologia mystica est experimentalis
+cognitio habita de Deo per amoris unitivi complexum. Aliter sic: est
+sapientia, id est sapida notio habita de Deo, dum ei supremus apex
+affectivæ potentiæ rationalis per amorem iungitur et unitur."
+
+5. _Scaramelli_. "La theologia mistica esperimentale, secondo il suo
+atto principale e più proprio, è una notizia pura di Dio che l' anima
+d'ordinario riceve nella caligine luminosa, o per di meglio nel chiaro
+oscuro d' un' alta contemplazione, insieme con un amore esperimentale
+si intimo, che la fa perdere tutta a sè stessa per unirla e
+transformarla in Dio."
+
+6. _Ribet_. "La théologie mystique, au point de vue subjectif et
+expérimental, nous semble pouvoir être définie: une attraction
+surnaturelle et passive de l'âme vers Dieu, provenant d'une
+illumination et d'un embrasement intérieurs, qui préviennent la
+réflexion, surpassent l'effort humain, et pouvent avoir sur le corps
+un retentissement merveilleux et irrésistible.... Au point de vue
+doctrinal objectif, la mystique peut se définir: la science qui traite
+des phénomènes surnaturels, qui préparent, accompagnent, et suivent
+l'attraction passive des âmes vers Dieu et par Dieu, c'est à dire la
+contemplation divine; qui les coordonne et les justifie par l'autorité
+de l'Écriture, des docteurs et de la raison; les distingue des
+phénomènes parallèles dus a l'action de Satan, et des faits analogues
+purement naturels; enfin, qui trace des règles pratiques pour la
+conduite des âmes dans ces ascensions sublimes mais périlleuses."
+
+7. _L'Abbé Migne_. "La mystique est la science d'état sur naturel de
+l'âme humaine manifesté dans le corps et dans l'ordre des choses
+visibles par des effets également surnaturels."
+
+In these scholastic and modern Roman Catholic definitions we may
+observe (a) that the earlier definitions supplement without
+contradicting each other, representing different aspects of Mysticism,
+as an experimental science, as a living sacrifice of the will, as an
+illumination from above, and as an exercise of ardent devotion; (b)
+that symbolic or objective Mysticism is not recognised; (c) that the
+sharp distinction between natural and supernatural, which is set up by
+the scholastic mystics, carries with it a craving for physical
+"mystical phenomena" to support the belief in supernatural
+interventions. These miracles, though not mentioned in the earlier
+definitions, have come to be considered an integral part of Mysticism,
+so that Migne and Ribet include them in their definitions; (d)
+lastly, that those who take this view of "la mystique divine" are
+constrained to admit by the side of true mystical facts a parallel
+class of "contrefaçons diaboliques."
+
+8. _Von Hartmann_. "Mysticism is the filling of the consciousness with
+a content (feeling, thought, desire), by an involuntary emergence of
+the same out of the unconscious."
+
+Von Hartmann's hypostasis of the Unconscious has been often and
+justly criticised. But his chapter on Mysticism is of great value. He
+begins by asking, "What is the _Wesen_ of Mysticism?" and shows that
+it is not quietism (disproved by mystics like Böhme, and by many
+active reformers), nor ecstasy (which is generally pathological), nor
+asceticism, nor allegorism, nor fantastic symbolism, nor obscurity of
+expression, nor religion generally, nor superstition, nor the sum of
+these things. It is healthy in itself, and has been of high value to
+individuals and to the race. It prepared for the Gospel of St. John,
+for the revolt against arid scholasticism in the Middle Ages, for the
+Reformation, and for modern German philosophy. He shows the mystical
+element in Hamann, Jacobi, Fichte, and Schelling; and quotes with
+approval the description of "intellectual intuition" given by the last
+named. We must not speak of thought as an antithesis to experience,
+"for thought (including immediate or mystical knowledge) is itself
+experience." This knowledge is not derived from sense-perception,--the
+conscious will has nothing to do with it,--"it can only have arisen
+through inspiration from the Unconscious." He would extend the name of
+mystic to "eminent art-geniuses who owe their productions to
+inspirations of genius, and not to the work of their consciousness
+(e.g. Phidias, Æeschylus, Raphael, Beethoven)", and even to every
+"truly original" philosopher, for every high thought has been first
+apprehended by the glance of genius. Moreover, the relation of the
+individual to the Absolute, an essential theme of philosophy, can
+_only_ be mystically apprehended. "This feeling is the content of
+Mysticism [Greek: kat exochên], because it finds its existence _only_
+in it." He then shows with great force how religious and philosophical
+systems have full probative force only for the few who are able to
+reproduce mystically in themselves their underlying suppositions, the
+truth of which can only be mystically apprehended. "Hence it is that
+those systems which rejoice in most adherents are just the poorest of
+all and most unphilosophical (e.g. materialism and rationalistic
+Theism)."
+
+9. _Du Prel_. "If the self is not wholly contained in
+self-consciousness, if man is a being dualised by the threshold of
+sensibility, then is Mysticism possible; and if the threshold of
+sensibility is movable, then Mysticism is necessary." "The mystical
+phenomena of the soul-life are anticipations of the biological
+process." "Soul is our spirit within the self-consciousness, spirit is
+the soul beyond the self-consciousness."
+
+This definition, with which should be compared the passage from J.P.
+Ritcher, quoted in Lecture I., assumes that Mysticism may be treated
+as a branch of experimental psychology. Du Prel attaches great
+importance to somnambulism and other kindred psychical phenomena,
+which (he thinks) give us glimpses of the inner world of our _Ego_, in
+many ways different from our waking consciousness. "As the moon turns
+to us only half its orb, so our Ego." He distinguishes between the Ego
+and the subject. The former will perish at death. It arises from the
+free act of the subject, which enters the time-process as a
+discipline. "The self-conscious Ego is a projection of the
+transcendental subject, and resembles it." "We should regard this
+earthly existence as a transitory phenomenal form in correspondence
+with our transcendental interest." "Conscience is transcendental
+nature." (This last sentence suggests thoughts of great interest.) Du
+Prel shows how Schopenhauer's pessimism may be made the basis of a
+higher optimism. "The path of biological advance leads to the merging
+of the Ego in the subject." "The biological aim for the race coincides
+with the transcendental aim for the individual." "The whole content of
+Ethics is that the Ego must subserve the Subject." The disillusions of
+experience show that earthly life has no value for its own sake, and
+is only a means to an end; it follows that to make pleasure our end is
+the one fatal mistake in life. These thoughts are mixed with
+speculations of much less value; for I cannot agree with Du Prel that
+we shall learn much about higher and deeper modes of life by studying
+abnormal and pathological states of the consciousness.
+
+10. _Goethe_. "Mysticism is the scholastic of the heart, the dialectic
+of the feelings."
+
+11. _Noack_. "Mysticism is formless speculation."
+
+Noack's definition is, perhaps, not very happily phrased, for the
+essence of Mysticism is not speculation but intuition; and when it
+begins to speculate, it is obliged at once to take to itself "forms."
+Even the ultimate goal of the _via negativa_ is apprehended as "a kind
+of form of formlessness." Goethe's definition regards Mysticism as a
+system of religion or philosophy, and from this point of view
+describes it accurately.
+
+12. _Ewald_. "Mystical theology begins by maintaining that man is
+fallen away from God, and craves to be again united with Him."
+
+13. _Canon Overton_. "That we bear the image of God is the
+starting-point, one might almost say the postulate, of all Mysticism.
+The complete union of the soul with God is the goal of all Mysticism."
+
+14. _Pfleiderer_. "Mysticism is the immediate feeling of the unity of
+the self with God; it is nothing, therefore, but the fundamental
+feeling of religion, the religious life at its very heart and centre.
+But what makes the mystical a special tendency inside religion, is the
+endeavour to fix the immediateness of the life in God as such, as
+abstracted from all intervening helps and channels whatever, and find
+a permanent abode in the abstract inwardness of the life of pious
+feeling. In this God-intoxication, in which self and the world are
+alike forgotten, the subject knows himself to be in possession of the
+highest and fullest truth; but this truth is only possessed in the
+quite undeveloped, simple, and bare form of monotonous feeling; what
+truth the subject possesses is not filled up by any determination in
+which the simple unity might unfold itself, and it lacks therefore the
+clearness of knowledge, which is only attained when thought harmonises
+differences with unity."
+
+15. _Professor A. Seth_. "Mysticism is a phase of thought, or rather,
+perhaps, of feeling, which from its very nature is hardly susceptible
+of exact definition. It appears in connexion with the endeavour of the
+human mind to grasp the Divine essence or the ultimate reality of
+things, and to enjoy the blessedness of actual communion with the
+highest. The first is the philosophic side of Mysticism; the second,
+its religious side. The thought that is most intensely present with
+the mystic is that of a supreme, all-pervading, and indwelling Power,
+in whom all things are one. Hence the speculative utterances of
+Mysticism are always more or less pantheistic in character. On the
+practical side, Mysticism maintains the possibility of direct
+intercourse with this Being of beings. God ceases to be an object, and
+becomes an experience."
+
+This carefully-worded statement of the essence of Mysticism is
+followed by a hostile criticism. Professor Seth considers quietism the
+true conclusion from the mystic's premisses. "It is characteristic of
+Mysticism, that it does not distinguish between what is metaphorical
+and what is susceptible of a literal interpretation. Hence it is prone
+to treat a relation of ethical harmony as if it were one of
+substantial identity or chemical fusion; and, taking the sensuous
+language of religious feeling literally, it bids the individual aim at
+nothing less than an interpenetration of essence. And as this goal is
+unattainable while reason and the consciousness of self remain, the
+mystic begins to consider these as impediments to be thrown aside....
+Hence Mysticism demands a faculty above reason, by which the subject
+shall be placed in immediate and complete union with the object of his
+desire, a union in which the consciousness of self has disappeared,
+and in which, therefore, subject and object are one." To this, I
+think, the mystic might answer: "I know well that interpenetration and
+absorption are words which belong to the category of space, and are
+only metaphors or symbols of the relation of the soul to God; but
+separateness, impenetrability, and isolation, which you affirm of the
+_ego_, belong to the same category, and are no whit less metaphorical.
+The question is, which of the two sets of words best expresses the
+relation of the ransomed soul to its Redeemer? In my opinion, your
+phrase 'ethical harmony' is altogether inadequate, while the New
+Testament expressions, 'membership,' 'union,' 'indwelling,' are as
+adequate as words can be." The rest of the criticism is directed
+against the "negative road," which I have no wish to defend, since I
+cannot admit that it follows logically from the first principles of
+Mysticism.
+
+16. _Récéjac_. "Mysticism is the tendency to approach the Absolute
+morally, and by means of symbols."
+
+Récéjac's very interesting _Essai sur les Fondements de la
+Connaissance mystique_ has the great merit of emphasising the symbolic
+character of all mystical phenomena, and of putting all such
+experiences in their true place, as neither hallucinations nor
+invasions of the natural order, but symbols of a higher reality. "Les
+apparitions et autres phénomènes mystiques n'existent que dans
+l'esprit du voyant, et ne perdent rien pour cela de leur prix ni de
+leur vérité.... Et alors n'y a-t-il pas au fond des symboles autant
+_d'être_ que sous les phénomènes? Bien plus encore: car l'être
+phénoménal, le réel, se pose dans la conscience par un enchaînement de
+faits tellement successif que nous ne tenons jamais 'le même'; tandis
+que sous les symboles, si nous tenons quelque chose, c'est l'identique
+et le permanent." Récéjac also insists with great force that the
+motive power of Mysticism is neither curiosity nor self-interest, but
+love: the intrusion of alien motives is at once fatal to it. "Its
+logic consists in having confidence in the rationality of the moral
+consciousness and its desires." This agrees with what I have
+said--that Reason is, or should be, the logic of our entire
+personality, and that if Reason is so defined, it does not come into
+conflict with Mysticism. Récéjac also has much to say upon Free Will
+and Determinism. He says that Mysticism is an alliance between the
+Practical Reason (which he identifies with "la Liberté") and
+Imagination. "Determinism is the opposite, not of 'Liberty,' but of
+'indifference.' Liberty, as Fouillée says, is only a higher form of
+Determinism." "The modern idea of liberty, and the mystical conception
+of Divine will, may be reconciled in the same way as inspiration and
+reason, on condition that both are discovered in the same fact
+interior to us, and that, far from being opposed to each other, they
+are fused and distinguished together _dans quelque implicite
+réellement présent a la conscience_." Récéjac throughout appeals to
+Kant instead of to Hegel as his chief philosophical authority, in this
+differing from the majority of those who are in sympathy with
+Mysticism.
+
+17. _Bonchitté_. "Mysticism consists in giving to the spontaneity of
+the intelligence a larger part than to the other faculties."
+
+18. _Charles Kingsley_. "The great Mysticism is the belief which is
+becoming every day stronger with me, that all symmetrical natural
+objects are types of some spiritual truth or existence. When I walk
+the fields, I am oppressed now and then with an innate feeling that
+everything I see has a meaning, if I could but understand it. And this
+feeling of being surrounded with truths which I cannot grasp, amounts
+to indescribable awe sometimes. Everything seems to be full of God's
+reflex, if we could but see it. Oh, how I have prayed to have the
+mystery unfolded, at least hereafter! To see, if but for a moment, the
+whole harmony of the great system! To hear once the music which the
+whole universe makes as it performs His bidding! Oh, that heaven! The
+thought of the first glance of creation from thence, when we know even
+as we are known. And He, the glorious, the beautiful, the incarnate
+Ideal shall be justified in all His doings, and in all, and through
+all, and over all.... All day, glimpses from the other world, floating
+motes from that inner transcendental life, have been floating across
+me.... Have you not felt that your real soul was imperceptible to your
+mental vision, except at a few hallowed moments? That in everyday life
+the mind, looking at itself, sees only the brute intellect, grinding
+and working, not the Divine particle, which is life and immortality,
+and on which the Spirit of God most probably works, as being most
+cognate to Deity" (_Life_, vol. i. p. 55). Again he says: "This earth
+is the next greatest fact to that of God's existence."
+
+Kingsley's review of Vaughan's _Hours with the Mystics_ shows that he
+retained his sympathy with Mysticism at a later period of his life. It
+would be impossible to find any consistent idealistic philosophy in
+Kingsley's writings; but the sentences above quoted are interesting as
+a profession of faith in Mysticism of the _objective_ type.
+
+19. _R.L. Nettleship_. "The cure for a wrong Mysticism is to realise
+the facts, not particular facts or aspects of facts, but the whole
+fact: true Mysticism is the consciousness that everything that we
+experience is an element, and only an element, in fact; i.e. that in
+being what it is, it is symbolic of something more."
+
+The _obiter dicta_ on Mysticism in Nettleship's _Remains_ are of great
+value.
+
+20. _Lasson_. "The essence of Mysticism is the assertion of an
+intuition which transcends the temporal categories of the
+understanding, relying on speculative reason. Rationalism cannot
+conduct us to the essence of things; we therefore need intellectual
+vision. But Mysticism is not content with symbolic knowledge, and
+aspires to see the Absolute by pure spiritual apprehension.... There
+is a contradiction in regarding God as the immanent Essence of all
+things, and yet as an abstraction transcending all things. But it is
+inevitable. Pure immanence is unthinkable, if we are to maintain
+distinctions in things.... Strict 'immanence' doctrine tends towards
+the monopsychism of Averroes.... Mysticism is often associated with
+pantheism, but the religious character of Mysticism views everything
+from the standpoint of teleology, while pantheism generally stops at
+causality.... Mysticism, again, is often allied with rationalism, but
+their ground-principles are different, for rationalism is deistic, and
+rests on this earth, being based on the understanding [as opposed to
+the higher faculty, the reason].... Nothing can be more perverse than
+to accuse Mysticism of _vagueness_. Its danger is rather an
+overvaluing of reason and knowledge.... Mysticism is only religious so
+long as it remembers that we can here only see through a glass darkly;
+when it tries to represent the eternal _adequately_, it falls into a
+new and dangerous retranslation of thought into images, or into bare
+negation.... Religion is a relation of person to person, a life, which
+in its form is an analogy to the earthly, while its content is pure
+relation to the eternal. Dogmatic is the skeleton, Mysticism the
+life-blood, of the Christian body.... Since the Reformation,
+philosophy has taken over most of the work which the speculative
+mystics performed in the Middle Ages" (_Essay on the Essence and Value
+of Mysticism_).
+
+21. _Nordau_. "The word Mysticism describes a state of mind in which
+the subject imagines that he perceives or divines unknown and
+inexplicable relations among phenomena, discerns in things hints at
+mysteries, and regards them as symbols by which a dark power seeks to
+unveil, or at least to indicate, all sorts of marvels.... It is always
+connected with strong emotional excitement.... Nearly all our
+perceptions, ideas, and conceptions are connected more or less closely
+through the association of ideas. But to make the association of ideas
+fulfil its function, one more thing must be added--_attention_, which
+is the faculty to suppress one part of the memory-images and maintain
+another part." We must select the strongest and most direct images,
+those directly connected with the afferent nerves; "this Ribot calls
+adaptation of the whole organism to a predominant idea.... Attention
+presupposes strength of will. Unrestricted play of association, the
+result of an exhausted or degenerate brain, gives rise to Mysticism.
+Since the mystic cannot express his cloudy thoughts in ordinary
+language, he loves mutually exclusive expressions. Mysticism blurs
+outlines, and makes the transparent opaque."
+
+The Germans have two words for what we call Mysticism--_Mystik_ and
+_Mysticismus_, the latter being generally dyslogistic. The long chapter
+in Nordau's _Degeneration_, entitled "Mysticism," treats it throughout
+as a morbid state. It will be observed that the last sentence quoted
+flatly contradicts one of the statements copied from Lasson's essay. But
+Nordau is not attacking religious Mysticism, so much as that unwholesome
+development of symbolic "science, falsely so called," which has usurped
+the name in modern France. Those who are interested in Mysticism should
+certainly study the pathological symptoms which counterfeit mystical
+states, and from this point of view the essay in _Degeneration_ is
+valuable. The observations of Nordau and other alienists must lead us to
+suspect very strongly the following kinds of symbolical representation,
+whether the symbols are borrowed from the external world, or created by
+the imagination:--(a) All those which include images of a sexual
+character. It is unnecessary to illustrate this. The visions of monks
+and nuns are often, as we might expect, unconsciously tinged with a
+morbid element of this kind. (b) Those which depend on mere verbal
+resemblances or other fortuitous correspondences. Nordau shows that the
+diseased brain is very ready to follow these false trains of
+association. (c) Those which are connected with the sense of smell,
+which seems to be morbidly developed in this kind of degeneracy. (d)
+Those which in any way minister to pride or self-sufficiency.
+
+22. _Harnack_. "Mysticism is rationalism applied to a sphere above
+reason."
+
+I have criticised this definition in my first Lecture, and have
+suggested that the words "rationalism" and "reason" ought to be
+transposed. Elsewhere Harnack says that the distinctions between
+"Scholastic, Roman, German, Catholic, Evangelical, and Pantheistic
+Mysticism" are at best superficial, and in particular that it is a
+mistake to contrast "Scholasticism and Mysticism" as opposing forces
+in the Middle Ages. "Mysticism," he proceeds, "is Catholic piety in
+general, so far as this piety is not merely ecclesiastical obedience,
+that is, _fides implicita_. The Reformation element which is ascribed
+to it lies simply in this, that Mysticism, when developed in a
+particular direction, is led to discern the inherent responsibility of
+the soul, of which no authority can again deprive it." The conflicts
+between Mysticism and Church authority, he thinks, in no way militate
+against _both_ being Catholic ideals, just as asceticism and
+world-supremacy are both Catholic ideals, though contradictory. The
+German mystics he disparages. "I give no extracts from their
+writings," he says, "because I do not wish even to seem to countenance
+the error that they expressed anything that one cannot read in Origen,
+Plotinus, the Areopagite, Augustine, Erigena, Bernard, and Thomas, or
+that they represented religious progress." "It will never be possible
+to make Mysticism Protestant without flying in the face of history and
+Catholicism." "A mystic who does not become a Catholic is a
+dilettante."
+
+Before considering these statements, I will quote from another attack
+upon Mysticism by a writer whose general views are very similar to
+those of Harnack.
+
+23. _Herrmann_ (_Verkehr des Christen mit Gott_). "The most
+conspicuous features of the Roman Catholic rule of life are obedience
+to the laws of cultus and of doctrine on the one side, and Neoplatonic
+Mysticism on the other.... The essence of Mysticism lies in this: when
+the influence of God upon the soul is sought and found solely in an
+inward experience of the individual; when certain excitements of the
+emotions are taken, with no further question, as evidence that the
+soul is possessed by God: when at the same time nothing external to
+the soul is consciously and clearly perceived and firmly grasped; when
+no thoughts that elevate the spiritual life are aroused by the
+positive contents of an idea that rules the soul,--then that is the
+piety of Mysticism.... Mysticism is not that which is common to all
+religion, but a particular species of religion, namely a piety which
+feels that which is historical in the positive religion to be
+burdensome, and so rejects it."
+
+These extracts from Harnack and Herrmann represent the attitude
+towards Mysticism of the Ritschlian school in Germany, of which Kaftan
+is another well-known exponent. They are neo-Kantians, whose religion
+is an austere moralism, and who seem to regard Christianity as a
+primitive Puritanism, spoiled by the Greeks, who brought into it their
+intellectualism and their sacramental mysteries. True Christianity,
+they say, is faith in the historic Christ. "In the human Jesus," says
+Herrmann, "we have met with a fact, the content of which is
+incomparably richer than that of any feelings which arise within
+ourselves,--a fact, moreover, which makes us so certain of God that,
+our reason and conscience being judges, our conviction is only
+confirmed that we are in communion with Him." "The mystic's experience
+of God is a delusion. If the Christian has learnt how Christ alone has
+lifted him above all that he had even been before, he cannot believe
+that another man might reach the same end by simply turning inward
+upon himself." "The piety of the mystic is such that at the highest
+point to which it leads Christ must vanish from the soul along with
+all else that is external." This curious view of Christianity quite
+fails to explain how "our reason and conscience" can detect the
+"incomparable richness" of a revelation altogether unlike "the
+feelings which arise within ourselves." It entirely ignores the
+Pauline and Johannine doctrine of the mystical union, according to
+which Christ is _not_ "external" to the redeemed soul, and most
+assuredly can never "vanish" from it. Instead of the "Lo I am with you
+alway" of our blessed Lord, we are referred to "history"--that is,
+primarily, the four Gospels confirmed by "a fifth," "the united
+testimony of the first Christian community" (Harnack, _Christianity
+and History_). We are presented with a Christianity without knowledge
+(Gnosis), without discipline, without sacraments, resting partly on a
+narrative which these very historical critics tear in pieces, each in
+his own fashion, and partly on a categorical imperative which is
+really the voice of "irreligious moralism," as Pfleiderer calls it.
+The words are justified by such a sentence as this from Herrmann:
+"Religious faith in God is, rightly understood, just the medium by
+which the universal law becomes individualised for the particular man
+in his particular place in the world's life, so as to enable him to
+recognise its absoluteness as the ground of his self-certainty, and
+the ideal drawn in it as his own personal end." Thus the school which
+has shown the greatest animus against Mysticism unconsciously
+approaches very near to the atheism of Feuerbach. Indeed, what worse
+atheism can there be, than such disbelief in the rationality of our
+highest thoughts as is expressed in this sentence: "Metaphysics is an
+impassioned endeavour to obtain recognition for thoughts, the contents
+of which have no other title to be recognised than their value for
+us"? As if faith in God had any other meaning than a confidence that
+what is of "value for us" is the eternally and universally good and
+true! Herrmann's attitude towards reason can only escape atheism by
+accepting in preference the crudest dualism, "behind which" (to quote
+Pfleiderer again) lies concealed simply "the scepticism of a
+disintegrating Nominalism."
+
+24. _Victor Cousin_. "Mysticism is the pretension to know God without
+intermediary, and, so to speak, face to face. For Mysticism, whatever
+is between God and us hides Him from us." "Mysticism consists in
+substituting direct inspiration for indirect, ecstasy for reason,
+rapture for philosophy."
+
+25. _R.A. Vaughan_. "Mysticism is that form of error which mistakes
+for a Divine manifestation the operations of a merely human faculty."
+
+This poor definition is the only one (except "Mysticism is the romance
+of religion") to be found in _Hours with the Mystics_, the solitary
+work in English which attempts to give a history of Christian
+Mysticism. The book has several conspicuous merits. The range of the
+author's reading is remarkable, and he has a wonderful gift of
+illustration. But he was not content to trust to the interest of the
+subject to make his book popular, and tried to attract readers by
+placing it in a most incongruous setting. There is something almost
+offensive in telling the story of men like Tauler, Suso, and Juan of
+the Cross, in the form of smart conversations at a house-party, and
+the jokes cracked at the expense of the benighted "mystics" are not
+always in the best taste. Vaughan does not take his subject quite
+seriously enough. There is an irritating air of superiority in all his
+discussions of the lives and doctrines of the mystics, and his hatred
+and contempt for the Roman Church often warp his judgment. His own
+philosophical standpoint is by no means clear, and this makes his
+treatment of speculative Mysticism less satisfactory than the more
+popular parts of the book. It is also a pity that he has neglected the
+English representatives of Mysticism; they are quite as interesting in
+their way as Madame Guyon, whose story he tells at disproportionate
+length. At the same time, I wish to acknowledge considerable
+obligations to Vaughan, whose early death probably deprived us of even
+better work than the book which made his reputation.
+
+26. _James Hinton_. "Mysticism is an assertion of a means of knowing
+that must not be tried by ordinary rules of evidence--the claiming
+authority for our own impressions."
+
+Another poor and question-begging definition, on the same lines as the
+last.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX B
+
+The Greek Mysteries And Christian Mysticism
+
+
+The connexion between the Greek Mysteries and Christian Mysticism is
+marked not only by the name which the world has agreed to give to that
+type of religion (though it must be said that [Greek: mystêria] is not
+the commonest name for the Mysteries--[Greek: orgia, teletai, telê]
+are all, I think, more frequent), but by the evident desire on the
+part of such founders of mystical Christianity as Clement and
+Dionysius the Areopagite, to emphasise the resemblance. It is not
+without a purpose that these writers, and other Platonising
+theologians from the third to the fifth century, transfer to the faith
+and practice of the Church almost every term which was associated with
+the Eleusinian Mysteries and others like them. For instance, the
+sacraments are regularly [Greek: mystêria]; baptism is [Greek:
+mystikon loutron] (Gregory of Nyssa); unction, [Greek: chrisma
+mystikon] (Athanasius); the elements, [Greek: mystis edôdê] (Gregory
+Naz.); and participation in them is [Greek: mystikê metalêpsis].
+Baptism, again, is "initiation" [Greek: myêsis]; a baptized person is
+[Greek: memyêmenos], [Greek: mystês] or [Greek: symmystês] (Gregory Ny.
+and Chrysostom), an unbaptized person is [Greek: amyêtos]. The
+celebrant is [Greek: mystêriôn lanthanontôn mystagôgos] (Gregory Ny.);
+the administration is [Greek: paradosis], as at Eleusis. The
+sacraments are also [Greek: teletê] or [Greek: telê], regular
+Mystery-words; as are [Greek: teleiôsis, teleiousthai, teleiopoios],
+which are used in the same connexion. Secret formulas (the notion of
+secret formulas itself comes from the Mysteries) were [Greek:
+aporrêta]. (Whether the words [Greek: phôtismos] and [Greek: sphragis]
+in their sacramental meaning come from the Mysteries seems doubtful,
+in spite of Hatch, _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 295.) Nor is the language of
+the Mysteries applied only to the sacraments. Clement calls purgative
+discipline [Greek: ta katharsia], and [Greek: ta mikra mystêria], and
+the highest stage in the spiritual life [Greek: epopteia]. He also
+uses such language as the following: "O truly sacred mysteries! O
+stainless light! My way is lighted with torches, and I survey the
+heavens and God! I am become holy while I am being initiated. The Lord
+is my hierophant," etc. (_Protr._ xii. 120). Dionysius, as I have
+shown in a note on Lecture III., uses the Mystery words frequently,
+and gives to the orders of the Christian ministry the names which
+distinguished the officiating priests at the Mysteries. The aim of
+these writers was to prove that the Church offers a mysteriosophy
+which includes all the good elements of the old Mysteries without
+their corruptions. The alliance between a Mystery-religion and
+speculative Mysticism within the Church was at this time as close as
+that between the Neoplatonic philosophy and the revived pagan Mystery
+cults. But when we try to determine the amount of direct _influence_
+exercised by the later paganism on Christian usages and thought, we
+are baffled both by the loss of documents, and by the extreme
+difficulty of tracing the pedigree of religious ideas and customs. I
+shall here content myself with calling attention to certain features
+which were common to the Greek Mysteries and to Alexandrian
+Christianity, and which may perhaps claim to be in part a legacy of
+the old religion to the new. My object is not at all to throw
+discredit upon modes of thought which may have been unfamiliar to
+Palestinian Jews. A doctrine or custom is not necessarily un-Christian
+because it is "Greek" or "pagan." I know of no stranger perversity
+than for men who rest the whole weight of their religion upon
+"history," to suppose that our Lord meant to raise an universal
+religion on a purely Jewish basis.
+
+The Greek Mysteries were perhaps survivals of an old-world ritual,
+based on a primitive kind of Nature-Mysticism. The "public Mysteries,"
+of which the festival at Eleusis was the most important, were so
+called because the State admitted strangers by initiation to what was
+originally a national cult. (There were also private Mysteries,
+conducted for profit by itinerant priests [Greek: agyrtai] from the
+East, who as a class bore no good reputation.) The main features of
+the ritual at Eleusis are known. The festival began at Athens, where
+the _mystæ_ collected, and, after a fast of several days, were
+"driven" to the sea, or to two salt lakes on the road to Eleusis, for
+a purifying bath. This kind of baptism washed away the stains of their
+former sins, the worst of which they were obliged to confess before
+being admitted to the Mysteries. Then, after sacrifices had been
+offered, the company went in procession to Eleusis, where
+Mystery-plays were performed in a great hall, large enough to hold
+thousands of people, and the votaries were allowed to handle certain
+sacred relics. A sacramental meal, in which a mixture of mint,
+barley-meal, and water was administered to the initiated, was an
+integral part of the festival. The most secret part of the ceremonies
+was reserved for the [Greek: epoptai] who had passed through the
+ordinary initiation in a previous year. It probably culminated in the
+solemn exhibition of a corn-ear, the symbol of Demeter. The obligation
+of silence was imposed not so much because there were any secrets to
+reveal, but that the holiest sacraments of the Greek religion might
+not be profaned by being brought into contact with common life. This
+feeling was strengthened by the belief that _words_ are more than
+conventional symbols of things. A sacred formula must not be taken in
+vain, or divulged to persons who might misuse it.
+
+The evidence is strong that the Mysteries had a real spiritualising
+and moralising influence on large numbers of those who were initiated,
+and that this influence was increasing under the early empire. The
+ceremonies may have been trivial, and even at times ludicrous; but the
+discovery had been made that the performance of solemn acts of
+devotion in common, after ascetical preparation, and with the aid of
+an impressive ritual, is one of the strongest incentives to piety.
+Diodorus is not alone in saying (he is speaking of the Samothracian
+Mysteries) that "those who have taken part in them are said to become
+more pious, more upright, and in every way better than their former
+selves."
+
+The chief motive force which led to the increased importance of
+Mystery-religion in the first centuries of our era, was the desire for
+"salvation" ([Greek: sôtêria]), which both with pagans and Christians
+was very closely connected with the hope of everlasting life.
+Happiness after death was the great promise held out in the Mysteries.
+The initiated were secure of blessedness in the next world, while the
+uninitiated must expect "to lie in darkness and mire after their
+death" (cf. Plato, _Phædrus_, 69).
+
+How was this "salvation" attained or conferred? We find that several
+conflicting views were held, which it is impossible to keep rigidly
+separate, since the human mind at one time inclines to one of them, at
+another time to another.
+
+(a) Salvation is imparted by _revelation_. This makes it to depend
+upon _knowledge_; but this knowledge was in the Mysteries conveyed by
+the spectacle or drama, not by any intellectual process. Plutarch (_de
+Defect. Orac._ 22) says that those who had been initiated could
+produce no demonstration or proof of the beliefs which they had
+acquired. And Synesius quotes Aristotle as saying that the initiated
+do not _learn_ anything, but rather receive impressions ([Greek: ou
+mathein ti dein alla pathein]). The old notion that monotheism was
+taught as a secret dogma rests on no evidence, and is very unlikely.
+There was a good deal of [Greek: theokrasia], as the ancients called
+it, and some departures from the current theogonies, but such doctrine
+as there was, was much nearer to pantheism than to monotheism. Certain
+truths about nature and the facts of life were communicated in the
+"greatest mysteries," according to Clement, and Cicero says the same
+thing. And sometimes the [Greek: gnôsis sôtêrias] includes knowledge
+about the whence and whither of man ([Greek: tines esmen kai ti
+gegonamen], Clem. _Exc. ex Theod._ 78). Some of the mystical formulæ
+were no doubt susceptible of deep and edifying interpretations,
+especially in the direction of an elevated nature-worship.
+
+(b) Salvation was regarded, as in the Oriental religions, as
+emancipation from the fetters of human existence. Doctrines of this
+kind were taught especially in the Orphic Mysteries, where it was a
+secret doctrine ([Greek: aporrêtos logos], Plat. _Phædr._ 62) that
+"we men are here in a kind of prison," or in a tomb ([Greek: sêma
+tines to sôma einai tês psychês, ôs tethammenês en tô paronti],
+Plat. _Crat._ 400). They also believed in transmigration of souls, and
+in a [Greek: kuklos tês geneseôs] (rota fati et generationis). The
+"Orphic life," or rules of conduct enjoined upon these mystics,
+comprised asceticism, and, in particular, abstinence from flesh; and
+laid great stress on "following of God" [Greek: epesthai] or
+[Greek: akolouthein tô theô] as the goal of moral endeavour. This cult,
+however, was tinged with Thracian barbarism; its heaven was a kind of
+Valhalla ([Greek: methê aiônios], Plat. _Rep._ ii. 363). Very similar
+was the rule of life prescribed by the Pythagorean brotherhood, who
+were also vegetarians, and advocates of virginity. Their system of
+purgation, followed by initiation, liberated men "from the grievous
+woeful circle" ([Greek: kyklou d'exeptan Barypentheos argaleoio] on a
+tombstone), and entitled them "to a happy life with the gods." (For
+the conception of salvation as deification, see Appendix C.) Whether
+these sects taught that our separate individuality must be merged is
+uncertain; but among the Gnostics, who had much in common with the
+Orphic _mystæ_, the formula, "I am thou, and thou art I," was common
+(_Pistis Sophia_; formulæ of the Marcosians; also in an invocation of
+Hermes: [Greek: to son onoma emon kai to emon son. egô gar eimi to
+eidôlon son]. Rohde, _Psyche_, vol. ii. p. 61). A foretaste of this
+deliverance was given by initiation, which conducts the mystic to
+_ecstasy_, an [Greek: oligochronios mania] (Galen), in which "animus
+ita solutus est et vacuus ut ei plane nihil sit cum corpore" (Cic. _De
+Divin._ i. I. 113); which was otherwise conceived as [Greek:
+enthousiasmos] ([Greek: enthousiôsês kai ouketi ousês en eautê dianoias],
+Philo).
+
+(c) The imperishable Divine nature is infused by mechanical means.
+Sacraments and the like have a magical or miraculous potency. The
+Homeric hymn to Demeter insists only on _ritual_ purity as the
+condition of salvation, and we hear that people trusted to the mystic
+baptism to wash out all their previous sins. Similarly the baptism of
+blood, the _taurobolium_, was supposed to secure eternal happiness,
+at any rate if death occurred within twenty years after the ceremony;
+when that interval had elapsed, it was common to renew the rite. (We
+find on inscriptions such phrases as "arcanis perfusionibus in
+æternum renatus.") So mechanical was the operation of the Mysteries
+supposed to be, that rites were performed for the dead (Plat. _Rep._
+364. St. Paul seems to refer to a similar custom in 1 Cor. xv. 29),
+and infants were appointed "priests," and thoroughly initiated, that
+they might be clean from their "original sin." Among the Gnostics, a
+favourite phrase was that initiation releases men "from the fetters of
+fate and necessity"; the gods of the intelligible world ([Greek:
+theoi noêtoi]) with whom we hold communion in the Mysteries being
+above "fate."
+
+(d) Salvation consists of moral regeneration. The efficacy of
+initiation without moral reformation naturally appeared doubtful to
+serious thinkers. Diogenes is reported to have asked, "What say you?
+Will Patæcion the thief be happier in the next world than
+Epaminondas, because he has been initiated?" And Philo says, "It often
+happens that good men are not initiated, but that robbers, and
+murderers, and lewd women are, if they pay money to the initiators and
+hierophants." Ovid protests against the immoral doctrine of mechanical
+purgation with more than his usual earnestness (_Fasti_, ii. 35):--
+
+
+  "Omne nefas omnemque mali purgamina causam
+     Credebant nostri tollere posse senes.
+   Græcia principium moris fuit; ilia nocentes
+     Impia lustratos ponere facta putat.
+   A! nimium faciles, qui tristia crimina cædis
+     Fluminea tolli posse putetis aqua!"
+
+
+Such passages show that abuses existed, but also that it was felt to
+be a scandal if the initiated person failed to exhibit any moral
+improvement.
+
+These different conceptions of the office of the Mysteries cannot, as
+I have said, be separated historically. They all reappear in the
+history of the Christian sacraments. The main features of the
+Mystery-system which passed into Catholicism are the notions of
+secrecy, of symbolism, of mystical brotherhood, of sacramental grace,
+and, above all, of the three stages in the spiritual life, ascetic
+purification, illumination, and [Greek: epopteia] as the crown.
+
+The secrecy observed about creeds and liturgical forms had not much to
+do with the development of Mysticism, except by associating sacredness
+with obscurity (cf. Strabo, x. 467, [Greek: hê krypsis hê mystikê
+semnopoiei to theion, mimoumenê tên physin autou ekpheugousan tên
+aisthêsin]), a tendency which also showed itself in the love of
+symbolism. This certainly had a great influence, both in the form of
+allegorism (cf. Clem. _Strom_, i. 1. 15, [Greek: esti de ha kai
+ainixetai moi hê graphê; peirasetai de kai ganthanousa eipein kai
+epikryptomenê ekphênai kai deixai siôpôsa]), which Philo calls "the
+method of the Greek Mysteries," and in the various kinds of
+Nature-Mysticism. The great value of the Mysteries lay in the facilities
+which they offered for free symbolical interpretation.
+
+The idea of mystical union by means of a common meal was, as we have
+seen, familiar to the Greeks. For instance, Plutarch says (_Non fosse
+suav. vivi sec. Epic._ 21), "It is not the wine or the cookery that
+delights us at these feasts, but good hope, and the belief that God is
+present with us, and that He accepts our service graciously." There
+have always been two ideas of sacrifice, alike in savage and civilised
+cults--the mystical, in which it is a _communion_, the victim who is
+slain and eaten being himself the god, or a symbol of the god; and the
+commercial, in which something valuable is offered to the god in the
+hope of receiving some benefit in exchange. The Mysteries certainly
+encouraged the idea of communion, and made it easier for the Christian
+rite to gather up into itself all the religious elements which can be
+contained in a sacrament of this kind.
+
+But the scheme of ascent from [Greek: katharsis] to [Greek: myêsis], and
+from [Greek: myêsis] to [Greek: epopteia], is the great contribution of
+the Mysteries to Christian Mysticism. Purification began, as we have seen,
+with confession of sin; it proceeded by means of fasting (with which was
+combined [Greek: agneia apo synousias]) and meditation, till the second
+stage, that of illumination, was reached. The majority were content with
+the partial illumination which belonged to this stage, just as in books of
+Roman Catholic divinity "mystical theology" is a summit of perfection to
+which "all are not called." The elect advance, after a year's interval at
+least, to the full contemplation ([Greek: epopteia]). This highest truth
+was conveyed in various ways--by visible symbols dramatically displayed,
+by solemn words of mysterious import; by explanations of enigmas and
+allegories and dark speeches (cf. Orig. _Cels._ vii. 10), and perhaps
+by "visions and revelations." It is plain that this is one of the
+cases in which Christianity conquered Hellenism by borrowing from it
+all its best elements; and I do not see that a Christian need feel any
+reluctance to make this admission.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX C
+
+The Doctrine Of Deification
+
+
+The conception of salvation as the acquisition by man of Divine
+attributes is common to many forms of religious thought. It was widely
+diffused in the Roman Empire at the time of the Christian revelation,
+and was steadily growing in importance during the first centuries of
+our era. The Orphic Mysteries had long taught the doctrine. On
+tombstones erected by members of the Orphic brotherhoods we find such
+inscriptions as these: "Happy and blessed one! Thou shalt be a god
+instead of a mortal" ([Greek: olbie kai makariste theos d' esê anti
+brotoio]); "Thou art a god instead of a wretched man" ([Greek: theos
+ei eleeinou ex anthrôpou]). It has indeed been said that "deification
+was the idea of salvation taught in the Mysteries" (Harnack).
+
+To modern ears the word "deification" sounds not only strange, but
+arrogant and shocking. The Western consciousness has always tended to
+emphasise the distinctness of individuality, and has been suspicious
+of anything that looks like juggling with the rights of persons, human
+or Divine. This is especially true of thought in the Latin countries.
+_Deus_ has never been a fluid concept like [Greek: theos]. St.
+Augustine no doubt gives us the current Alexandrian philosophy in a
+Latin dress; but this part of his Platonism never became acclimatised
+in the Latin-speaking countries. The Teutonic genius is in this matter
+more in sympathy with the Greek; but we are Westerns, while the later
+"Greeks" were half Orientals, and there is much in their habits of
+thought which is strange and unintelligible to us. Take, for instance,
+the apotheosis of the emperors. This was a genuinely Eastern mode of
+homage, which to the true European remained either profane or
+ridiculous. But Vespasian's last joke, "_Voe! puto Deus fio!_" would
+not sound comic in Greek. The associations of the word [Greek: theos]
+were not sufficiently venerable to make the idea of deification
+([Greek: theopoiêsis]) grotesque. We find, as we should expect, that
+this vulgarisation of the word affected even Christians in the
+Greek-speaking countries. Not only were the "barbarous people" of
+Galatia and Malta ready to find "theophanies" in the visits of
+apostles, or any other strangers who seemed to have unusual powers,
+but the philosophers (except the "godless Epicureans") agreed in
+calling the highest faculty of the soul Divine, and in speaking of
+"the God who dwells within us." There is a remarkable passage of
+Origen (quoted by Harnack) which shows how elastic the word [Greek:
+theos] was in the current dialect of the educated. "In another sense
+God is said to be an immortal, rational, moral Being. In this sense
+every gentle ([Greek: asteia]) soul is God. But God is otherwise
+defined as the self-existing immortal Being. In this sense the souls
+that are enclosed in wise men are not gods." Clement, too, speaks of
+the soul as "training itself to be God." Even more remarkable than
+such language (of which many other examples might be given) is the
+frequently recurring accusation that bishops, teachers, martyrs,
+philosophers, etc., are venerated with Divine or semi-Divine honours.
+These charges are brought by Christians against pagans, by pagans
+against Christians, and by rival Christians against each other. Even
+the Epicureans habitually spoke of their founder Epicurus as "a god."
+If we try to analyse the concept of [Greek: theos], thus loosely and
+widely used, we find that the prominent idea was that exemption from
+the doom of death was the prerogative of a Divine Being (cf. 1 Tim.
+vi. 16, "Who _only_ hath immortality"), and that therefore the gift of
+immortality is itself a deification. This notion is distinctly adopted
+by several Christian writers. Theophilus says (_ad Autol._ ii. 27)
+"that man, by keeping the commandments of God, may receive from him
+immortality as a reward ([Greek: misthon]), _and become God._" And
+Clement (_Strom._ v. 10. 63) says, "To be imperishable ([Greek: to mê
+phtheiresthai]) is to share in Divinity." To the same effect
+Hippolytus (_Philos._ x. 34) says, "Thy body shall be immortal and
+incorruptible as well as thy soul. For _thou hast become God_. All the
+things that follow upon the Divine nature God has promised to supply
+to thee, for _thou wast deified in being born to immortality_." With
+regard to later times, Harnack says that "after Theophilus, Irenæus,
+Hippolytus, and Origen, the idea of deification is found in all the
+Fathers of the ancient Church, and that in a primary position. We have
+it in Athanasius, the Cappadocians, Apollinaris, Ephraem Syrus,
+Epiphanius, and others, as also in Cyril, Sophronius, and late Greek
+and Russian theologians. In proof of it, Ps. lxxxii. 6 ('I said, Ye
+are gods') is very often quoted." He quotes from Athanasius, "He
+became man that we might be deified"; and from Pseudo-Hippolytus, "If,
+then, man has become immortal, he will be God."
+
+This notion grew within the Church as chiliastic and apocalyptic
+Christianity faded away. A favourite phrase was that the Incarnation,
+etc., "abolished death," and brought mankind into a state of
+"incorruption" ([Greek: aphtharsia]) This transformation of human
+nature, which is also spoken of as [Greek: theopoiêsis] is the
+highest work of the Logos. Athanasius makes it clear that what he
+contemplates is no pantheistic merging of the personality in the
+Deity, but rather a renovation after the original type.
+
+But the process of deification may be conceived of in two ways: (a)
+as essentialisation, (b) as substitution. The former may perhaps be
+called the more philosophical conception, the latter the more
+religious. The former lays stress on the high calling of man, and his
+potential greatness as the image of God; the latter, on his present
+misery and alienation, and his need of redemption. The former was the
+teaching of the Neoplatonic philosophy, in which the human mind was
+the throne of the Godhead; the latter was the doctrine of the
+Mysteries, in which salvation was conceived of realistically as
+something imparted or infused.
+
+The notion that salvation or deification consists in realising our
+true nature, was supported by the favourite doctrine that like only
+can know like. "If the soul were not essentially Godlike ([Greek:
+theoeidês]), it could never know God." This doctrine might seem to
+lead to the heretical conclusion that man is [Greek: omoousios tô
+Patri] in the same sense as Christ. This conclusion, however, was
+strongly repudiated both by Clement and Origen. The former (_Strom._
+xvi. 74) says that men are _not_ [Greek: meros theou kai tô theô
+omoousioi]; and Origen (_in Joh._ xiii. 25) says it is very impious to
+assert that we are [Greek: omoousioi] with "the unbegotten nature."
+But for those who thought of Christ mainly as the Divine Logos or
+universal Reason, the line was not very easy to draw. Methodius says
+that every believer must, through participation in Christ, be born as
+a Christ,--a view which, if pressed logically (as it ought not to be),
+implies either that our nature is at bottom identical with that of
+Christ, or that the life of Christ is substituted for our own. The
+difficulty as to whether the human soul is, strictly speaking, "divinæ
+particula auræ," is met by Proclus in the ingenious and interesting
+passage quoted p. 34; "There are," he says, "three sorts of _wholes_,
+(1) in which the whole is anterior to the parts, (2) in which the
+whole is composed of the parts, (3) which knits into one stuff the
+parts and the whole ([Greek: hê tois holois ta merê sunyphainousa])."
+This is also the doctrine of Plotinus, and of Augustine. God is not
+split up among His creatures, nor are they essential to Him in the
+same way as He is to them. Erigena's doctrine of deification is
+expressed (not very clearly) in the following sentence (_De Div. Nat._
+iii. 9): "Est igitur participatio divinæ essentiæ assumptio.
+Assumptio vero eius divinæ sapientiæ fusio quæ est omnium substantia
+et essentia, et quæcumque in eis naturaliter intelliguntur."
+According to Eckhart, the _Wesen_ of God transforms the soul into
+itself by means of the "spark" or "apex of the soul" (equivalent to
+Plotinus' [Greek: kentron psychês], _Enn._ vi. 9. 8), which is "so
+akin to God that it is one with God, and not merely united to Him."
+
+The history of this doctrine of the spark, and of the closely
+connected word _synteresis_, is interesting. The word "spark" occurs
+in this connexion as early as Tatian, who says (_Or._ 13): "In the
+beginning the spirit was a constant companion of the soul, but forsook
+it because the soul would not follow it; yet it retained, as it were,
+a spark of its power," etc. See also Tertullian, _De Anima_, 41. The
+curious word _synteresis_ (often misspelt _sinderesis_), which plays a
+considerable part in mediæval mystical treatises, occurs first in
+Jerome (on _Ezech._ i.): "Quartamque ponunt quam Græci vocant [Greek:
+syntêrêsin], quæ scintilla conscientiæ in Cain quoque pectore non
+exstinguitur, et qua victi voluptatibus vel furore nos peccare
+sentimus.... In Scripturis [eam] interdum vocari legimus Spiritum."
+Cf. Rom. viii. 26; 2 Cor. ii. 11. Then we find it in Alexander of
+Hales, and in Bonaventura, who (_Itinerare_, c. I) defines it as "apex
+mentis seu scintilla"; and more precisely (_Breviloquium, Pars_ 2, c.
+11): "Benignissimus Deus quadruplex contulit ei adiutorium, scilicet
+duplex naturæ et duplex gratiæ. Duplicem enim indidit rectitudinem
+ipsi naturæ, videlicet unam ad recte iudicandum, et hæc est rectitudo
+conscientiæ, aliam ad recte volendum, et hæc est synteresis, cuius est
+remurmurare contra malum et stimulare ad bonum." Hermann of Fritslar
+speaks of it as a power or faculty in the soul, wherein God works
+immediately, "without means and without intermission." Ruysbroek
+defines it as the natural will towards good implanted in us all, but
+weakened by sin. Giseler says: "This spark was created with the soul
+in all men, and is a clear light in them, and strives in every way
+against sin, and impels steadily to virtue, and presses ever back to
+the source from which it sprang." It has, says Lasson, a double
+meaning in mystical theology, (a) the ground of the soul; (b) the
+highest ethical faculty. In Thomas Aquinas it is distinguished from
+"intellectus principiorum," the former being the highest activity of
+the moral sense, the latter of the intellect. In Gerson, "synteresis"
+is the highest of the affective faculties, the organ of which is the
+intelligence (an emanation from the highest intelligence, which is God
+Himself), and the activity of which is contemplation. Speaking
+generally, the earlier scholastic mystics regard it as a remnant of
+the sinless state before the fall, while for Eckhart and his school it
+is the core of the soul.
+
+There is another expression which must be considered in connexion with
+the mediæval doctrine of deification. This is the _intellectus agens_,
+or [Greek: nous poiêtikos], which began its long history in
+Aristotle (_De Anima_, iii. 5). Aristotle there distinguishes two forms
+of Reason, which are related to each other as form and matter. Reason
+_becomes_ all things, for the matter of anything is potentially the
+whole class to which it belongs; but Reason also _makes_ all things,
+that is to say, it communicates to things those categories by which
+they become objects of thought. This higher Reason is separate and
+impassible ([Greek: chôristos kai amigês kai apathês]); it is
+eternal and immortal; while the passive reason perishes with the body.
+The creative Reason is immanent both in the human mind and in the
+external world; and thus only is it possible for the mind to know
+things. Unfortunately, Aristotle says very little more about his
+[Greek: nous poiêtikos], and does not explain how the two Reasons
+are related to each other, thereby leaving the problem for his
+successors to work out. The most fruitful attempt to form a consistent
+theory, on an idealistic basis, out of the ambiguous and perhaps
+irreconcilable statements in the _De Anima_, was made by Alexander of
+Aphrodisias (about 200 A.D.), who taught that the Active Reason "is
+not a part or faculty of our soul, but comes to us from without"--it
+is, in fact, identified with the Spirit of God working in us. Whether
+Aristotle would have accepted this interpretation of his theory may be
+doubted; but the commentary of Alexander of Aphrodisias was translated
+into Arabic, and this view of the Active Reason became the basis of
+the philosophy of Averroes. Averroes teaches that it is possible for
+the passive reason to unite itself with the Active Reason, and that
+this union may be attained or prepared for by ascetic purification and
+study. But he denies that the passive reason is perishable, not
+wishing entirely to depersonalise man. Herein he follows, he says,
+Themistius, whose views he tries to combine with those of Alexander.
+Avicenna introduces a celestial hierarchy, in which the higher
+intelligences shed their light upon the lower, till they reach the
+Active Reason, which lies nearest to man, "a quo, ut ipse dicit,
+effluunt species intelligibiles in animas nostras" (Aquinas). The
+doctrine of "monopsychism" was, of course, condemned by the Church.
+Aquinas makes both the Active and Passive Reason parts of the human
+soul. Eckhart, as I have said in the fourth Lecture, at one period of
+his teaching expressly identifies the "intellectus agens" with the
+"spark," in reference to which he says that "here God's ground is my
+ground, and my ground God's ground." This doctrine of the Divinity of
+the ground of the soul is very like the Cabbalistic doctrine of the
+Neschamah, and the Neoplatonic doctrine of [Greek: Nous] (cf.
+Stöckl, vol. ii. p. 1007). Eckhart was condemned for saying, "aliquid
+est in anima quod est increatum et increabile; si tota anima esset
+talis, esset increata et increabilis. Hoc est intellectus." Eckhart
+certainly says explicitly that "as fire turns all that it touches into
+itself, so the birth of the Son of God in the soul turns us into God,
+so that God no longer knows anything in us but His Son." Man thus
+becomes "filius naturalis Dei," instead of only "filius adoptivus." We
+have seen that Eckhart, towards the end of his life, inclined more and
+more to separate the spark, the organ of Divine contemplation, from
+the reason. This is, of course, an approximation to the _other_ view
+of deification--that of substitution or miraculous infusion from
+_without_, unless we see in it a tendency to divorce the personality
+from the reason. Ruysbroek states his doctrine of the Divine spark
+very clearly: "The unity of our spirit in God exists in two ways,
+essentially and actively. The essential existence of the soul, _quæ
+secundum æternam ideam in Deo nos sumus, itemque quam in nobis
+habemus, medii ac discriminis expers est_. Spiritus Deum in nuda
+natura essentialiter possidet, et spiritum Deus. Vivit namque in Deo
+et Deus in ipso; et _secundum supremam sui partem_ Dei claritatem
+suscipere absque medio idoneus est; quin etiam per æterni exemplaris
+sui claritudinem _essentialiter ac personaliter in ipso lucentis,
+secundum supremam vivacitatis suæ portionem, in divinam sese demittit
+ac demergit essentiam_, ibidemque perseveranter secundum ideam manendo
+æternam suam possidet beatitudinem; rursusque cum creaturis omnibus
+per æternam Verbi generationem inde emanans, in esse suo creato
+constituitur." The "natural union," though it is the first cause of
+all holiness and blessedness, does not make us holy and blessed, being
+common to good and bad alike. "Similitude" to God is the work of
+grace, "quæ lux quædam deiformis est." We cannot lose the "unitas,"
+but we can lose the "similitudo quæ est gratia." The highest part of
+the soul is capable of receiving a perfect and immediate impression of
+the Divine essence; by this "apex mentis" we may "sink into the Divine
+essence, and by a new (continuous) creation return to our created
+being according to the idea of God." The question whether the "ground
+of the soul" is created or not is obviously a form of the question
+which we are now discussing. Giseler, as I have said, holds that it
+was created with the soul. Sterngassen says: "That which God has in
+eternity in uncreated wise, that has the soul in time in created
+wise." But the author of the _Treatise on Love_, which belongs to this
+period, speaks of the spark as "the Active Reason, _which is God_."
+And again, "This is the _Uncreated_ in the soul of which Master
+Eckhart speaks." Suso seems to imply that he believed the ground of
+the soul to be uncreated, an emanation of the Divine nature; and
+Tauler uses similar language. Ruysbroek, in the last chapter of the
+_Spiritual Nuptials_, says that contemplative men "see that they are
+_the same simple ground as to their uncreated nature_, and are one
+with the same light by which they see, and which they see." The later
+German mystics taught that the Divine essence is the material
+substratum of the world, the creative will of God having, so to speak,
+_alienated_ for the purpose a portion of His own essence. If, then,
+the created form is broken through, God Himself becomes the ground of
+the soul. Even Augustine countenances some such notion when he says,
+"From a good man, or from a good angel, take away 'man' or 'angel,'
+and you find God." But one of the chief differences between the older
+and later Mysticism is that the former regarded union with God as
+achieved through the faculties of the soul, the latter as inherent in
+its essence. The doctrine of _immanence_, more and more emphasised,
+tended to encourage the belief that the Divine element in the soul is
+not merely something potential, something which the faculties may
+acquire, but is immanent and basal. Tauler mentions both views, and
+prefers the latter. Some hesitation may be traced in the _Theologia
+Germanica_ on this point (p. 109, "Golden Treasury" edition): "The
+true light is that eternal Light which is God; _or else_ it is a
+created light, but yet Divine, which is called grace." Our Cambridge
+Platonists naturally revived this Platonic doctrine of deification,
+much to the dissatisfaction of some of their contemporaries. Tuckney
+speaks of their teaching as "a kind of moral divinity minted only with
+a little tincture of Christ added. Nay, _a Platonic faith unites to
+God!_" Notwithstanding such protests, the Platonists persisted that
+all true happiness consists in a participation of God; and that "we
+cannot enjoy God by any external conjunction with Him."
+
+The question was naturally raised, "If man by putting on Christ's life
+can get nothing more than he has already, what good will it do him?"
+The answer in the _Theologia Germanica_ is as follows: "This life is
+not chosen in order to serve any end, or to get anything by it, but
+for love of its nobleness, and because God loveth and esteemeth it so
+greatly." It is plain that any view which regards man as essentially
+Divine has to face great difficulties when it comes to deal with
+theodicy.
+
+The other view of deification, that of a _substitution_ of the Divine
+Will, or Life, or Spirit, for the human, cannot in history be sharply
+distinguished from the theories which have just been mentioned. But
+the idea of substitution is naturally most congenial to those who feel
+strongly "the corruption of man's heart," and the need of deliverance,
+not only from our ghostly enemies, but from the tyranny of self. Such
+men feel that there must be a _real_ change, affecting the very depths
+of our personality. Righteousness must be imparted, not merely
+imputed. And there is a death to be died as well as a life to be
+lived. The old man must die before the new man, which is "not I but
+Christ," can be born in us. The "birth of God (or Christ) in the soul"
+is a favourite doctrine of the later German mystics. Passages from the
+fourteenth century writers have been quoted in my fourth and fifth
+Lectures. The following from Giseler may be added: "God will be born,
+not in the Reason, not in the Will, but in the most inward part of the
+essence, and all the faculties of the soul become aware thereof.
+Thereby the soul passes into mere passivity, and lets God work." They
+all insist on an immediate, substantial, personal indwelling, which is
+beyond what Aquinas and the Schoolmen taught. The Lutheran Church
+condemns those who teach that only the gifts of God, and not God
+Himself, dwell in the believer; and the English Platonists, as we have
+seen, insist that "an infant Christ" is really born in the soul. The
+German mystics are equally emphatic about the annihilation of the old
+man, which is the condition of this indwelling Divine life. In
+quietistic (Nominalist) Mysticism the usual phrase was that the will
+(or, better, "self-will") must be utterly destroyed, so that the
+Divine Will may take its place. But Crashaw's "leave nothing of myself
+in me," represents the aspiration of the later Catholic Mysticism
+generally. St. Juan of the Cross says, "The soul must lose entirely
+its human knowledge and human feelings, in order to receive Divine
+knowledge and Divine feelings"; it will then live "as it were outside
+itself," in a state "more proper to the future than to the present
+life." It is easy to see how dangerous such teaching may be to weak
+heads. A typical example, at a much earlier date, is that of Mechthild
+of Hackeborn (about 1240). It was she who said, "My soul swims in the
+Godhead like a fish in water!" and who believed that, in answer to her
+prayers, God had so united Himself with her that she saw with His
+eyes, and heard with His ears, and spoke with His mouth. Many similar
+examples might be found among the mediæval mystics.
+
+Between the two ideas of essentialisation and of substitution comes
+that of gradual _transformation_, which, again, cannot in history be
+separated from the other two. It has the obvious advantage of not
+regarding deification as an _opus operatum_, but as a process, as a
+hope rather than a fact. A favourite maxim with mystics who thought
+thus, was that "love changes the lover into the beloved." Louis of
+Granada often recurs to this thought.
+
+The best mystics rightly see in the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ
+the best safeguard against the extravagances to which the notion of
+deification easily leads. Particularly instructive here are the
+warnings which are repeated again and again in the _Theologia
+Germanica_. "The false light dreameth itself to be God, and taketh to
+itself what belongeth to God as God is in eternity without the
+creature. Now, God in eternity is without contradiction, suffering,
+and grief, and nothing can hurt or vex Him. But with God when He is
+made man it is otherwise." "Therefore the false light thinketh and
+declareth itself to be above all works, words, customs, laws, and
+order, and above that life which Christ led in the body which He
+possessed in His holy human nature. So likewise it professeth to
+remain unmoved by any of the creature's works; whether they be good or
+evil, against God or not, is all alike to it; and it keepeth itself
+apart from all things, like God in eternity; and all that belongeth to
+God and to no creature it taketh to itself, and vainly dreameth that
+this belongeth to it." "It doth not set up to be Christ, but the
+eternal God. And this is because Christ's life is distasteful and
+burdensome to nature, therefore it will have nothing to do with it;
+but to be God in eternity and not man, or to be Christ as He was after
+His resurrection, is all easy and pleasant and comfortable to nature,
+and so it holdeth it to be best."
+
+These three views of the manner in which we may hope to become
+"partakers of the Divine nature," are all aspects of the truth. If we
+believe that we were made in the image of God, then in becoming like
+Him we are realising our true idea, and entering upon the heritage
+which is ours already by the will of God. On the other hand, if we
+believe that we have fallen very far from original righteousness, and
+have no power of ourselves to help ourselves, then we must believe in
+a deliverance from _outside_, an acquisition of a righteousness not
+our own, which is either imparted or imputed to us. And, thirdly, if
+we are to hope for a real change in our relations to God, there must
+be a real change _in_ our personality,--a progressive transmutation,
+which without breach of continuity will bring us to be something
+different from what we were. The three views are not mutually
+exclusive. As Vatke says, "The influence of Divine grace does not
+differ from the immanent development of the deepest Divine germ of
+life in man, only that it here stands over-against man regarded as a
+finite and separate being--as something external to himself. If the
+Divine image is the true nature of man, and if it only possesses
+reality in virtue of its identity with its type or with the Logos,
+then there can be no true self-determination in man which is not at
+the same time a self-determination of the type in its image." We
+cannot draw a sharp line between the operations of our own personality
+and those of God in us. Personality escapes from all attempts to limit
+and define it. It is a concept which stretches into the infinite, and
+therefore can only be represented to thought symbolically. The
+personality must not be identified with the "spark," the "Active
+Reason," or whatever we like to call the highest part of our nature.
+Nor must we identify it with the changing _Moi_ (as Fénelon calls it).
+The personality, as I have said in Lecture I. (p. 33), is both the
+end--the ideal self, and the changing _Moi_, and yet neither. If
+either thesis is held divorced from its antithesis, the thought ceases
+to be mystical. The two ideals of self-assertion and self-sacrifice
+are both true and right, and both, separately, unattainable. They are
+opposites which are really necessary to each other. I have quoted from
+Vatke's attempt to reconcile grace and free-will: another extract from
+a writer of the same school may perhaps be helpful. "In the growth of
+our experience," says Green, "an animal organism, which has its
+history in time, gradually becomes the vehicle of an eternally
+complete consciousness. What we call our mental history is not a
+history of this consciousness, which in itself can have no history,
+but a history of the process by which the animal organism becomes its
+vehicle. 'Our consciousness' may mean either of two things: either a
+function of the animal organism, which is being made, gradually and
+with interruptions, a vehicle of the eternal consciousness; or that
+eternal consciousness itself, as making the animal organism its
+vehicle and subject to certain limitations in so doing, but retaining
+its essential characteristic as independent of time, as the
+determinant of becoming, which has not and does not itself become. The
+consciousness which varies from moment to moment ... is consciousness
+in the former sense. It consists in what may properly be called
+phenomena.... The latter consciousness ... constitutes our knowledge"
+(_Prolegomena to Ethics_, pp. 72, 73). Analogous is our _moral_
+history. But no Christian can believe that our life, mental or moral,
+is or ever can be _necessary_ to God in the same sense in which He is
+necessary to our existence. For practical religion, the symbol which
+we shall find most helpful is that of a progressive transformation of
+our nature after the pattern of God revealed in Christ; a process
+which has as its end a real union with God, though this end is, from
+the nature of things, unrealisable in time. It is, as I have said in
+the body of the Lectures, a _progessus ad infinitum_, the consummation
+of which we are nevertheless entitled to claim as already ours in a
+transcendental sense, in virtue of the eternal purpose of God made
+known to us in Christ.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX D
+
+The Mystical Interpretation Of The Song Of Solomon
+
+
+The headings to the chapters in the Authorised Version give a sort of
+authority to the "mystical" interpretation of Solomon's Song, a poem
+which was no doubt intended by its author to be simply a romance of
+true love. According to our translators, the Lover of the story is
+meant for Christ, and the Maiden for the Church. But the tendency of
+Catholic Mysticism has been to make the individual soul the bride of
+Christ, and to treat the Song of Solomon as symbolic of "spiritual
+nuptials" between Him and the individual "contemplative." It is this
+latter notion, the growth of which I wish to trace.
+
+Erotic Mysticism is no part of Platonism. That "sensuous love of the
+unseen" (as Pater calls it), which the Platonist often seems to aim
+at, has more of admiration and less of tenderness than the emotion
+which we have now to consider. The notion of a spiritual marriage
+between God and the soul seems to have come from the Greek Mysteries,
+through the Alexandrian Jews and Gnostics. Representations of
+"marriages of gods" were common at the Mysteries, especially at those
+of the least reputable kind (cf. Lucian, _Alexander_, 38). In other
+instances the ceremony of initiation was made to resemble a marriage,
+and the [Greek: mystês] was greeted with the words [Greek: chaire,
+nymphie]. And among the Jews of the first century there existed a
+system of Mysteries, probably copied from Eleusis. They had their
+greater and their lesser Mysteries, and we hear that among their
+secret doctrines was "marriage with God." In Philo we find strange and
+fantastic speculations on this subject. For instance, he argues that
+as the Bible does not mention Abraham, Jacob, and Moses as [Greek:
+gnôrizontas tas gynaikas], we are meant to believe that their children
+were not born naturally. But he allegorises the women of the
+Pentateuch in such a way ([Greek: logô men eisi gynaikes, ergô de
+aretai]) that it is difficult to say what he wishes us to believe in a
+literal sense. The Valentinian Gnostics seem to have talked much of
+"spiritual marriage," and it was from them that Origen got the idea of
+elaborating the conception. But, curiously enough, it is Tertullian
+who first argues that the body as well as the soul is the bride of
+Christ. "If the soul is the bride," he says, "the flesh is the dowry"
+(_de Resurr._ 63). Origen, however, really began the mischief in his
+homilies and commentary on the Song of Solomon. The prologue of the
+commentary in Rufinus commences as follows: "Epithalamium libellus
+hic, id est nuptiale carmen, dramatis in modum mihi videtur a Salomone
+conscriptus, quem cecinit instar nubentis sponsæ, et erga sponsum suum
+qui est sermo Dei cælesti amore flagrantis. Adamavit enim eum _sive
+anima_, quæ ad imaginem eius facta est, sive ecclesia." Harnack says
+that Gregory of Nyssa exhibits the conception in its purest and most
+attractive form in the East, and adds, "We can point to very few Greek
+Fathers in whom the figure does not occur." (There is a learned note
+on the subject by Louis de Leon, which corroborates this statement of
+Harnack. He refers to Chrysostom, Theodoret, Irenæus, Hilary, Cyprian,
+Augustine, Tertullian, Ignatius, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril, Leo,
+Photius, and Theophylact as calling Christ the bridegroom of souls.)
+In the West, we find it in Ambrose, less prominently in Augustine and
+Jerome. Dionysius seizes on the phrase of Ignatius, "My love has been
+crucified," to justify erotic imagery in devotional writing.
+
+Bernard's homilies on the Song of Solomon gave a great impetus to this
+mode of symbolism; but even he says that the Church and not the
+individual is the bride of Christ. There is no doubt that the enforced
+celibacy and virginity of the monks and nuns led them, consciously or
+unconsciously, to transfer to the human person of Christ (and to a
+much slighter extent, to the Virgin Mary) a measure of those feelings
+which could find no vent in their external lives. We can trace this,
+in a wholesome and innocuous form, in the visions of Juliana of
+Norwich. Quotations from Ruysbroek's _Spiritual Nuptials_, and from
+Suso, bearing on the same point, are given in the body of the
+Lectures. Good specimens of devotional poetry of this type might be
+selected from Crashaw and Quarles. (A few specimens are included in
+Palgrave's _Golden Treasury of Sacred Song_.) Fénelon's language on
+the subject is not quite so pleasing; it breathes more of
+sentimentality than of reverence. The contemplative, he says, desires
+"une simple présence de Dieu purement amoureuse," and speaks to Christ
+always "comme l'épouse à l'époux."
+
+The Sufis or Mohammedan mystics use erotic language very freely, and
+appear, like true Asiatics, to have attempted to give a sacramental or
+symbolic character to the indulgence of their passions. From this
+degradation the mystics of the cloister were happily free; but a
+morbid element is painfully prominent in the records of many mediæval
+saints, whose experiences are classified by Ribet. He enumerates--(1)
+"Divine touches," which Scaramelli defines as "real but purely
+spiritual sensations, by which the soul feels the intimate presence of
+God, and tastes Him with great delight"; (2) "The wound of love," of
+which one of his authorities says, "hæc poena tam suavis est quod
+nulla sit in hac vita delectatio quæ magis satisfaciat." It is to this
+experience that Cant. ii. 5 refers: "Fulcite me floribus, stipate me
+malis, quia amore langueo." Sometimes the wound is not purely
+spiritual: St. Teresa, as was shown by a post-mortem examination, had
+undergone a miraculous "transverberation of the heart": "et pourtant
+elle survécut près de vingt ans à cette blessure mortelle"! (3)
+Catherine of Siena was betrothed to Christ with a ring, which remained
+always on her fingers, though visible to herself alone. Lastly, in the
+revelations of St. Gertrude we read: "Feria tertia Paschæ dum
+communicatura desideraret a Domino ut per idem sacramentum vivificum
+renovare dignaretur in anima eius matrimonium spirituale quod ipsi in
+spiritu erat desponsata per fidem et religionem, necnon per virginalis
+pudicitiæ integritatem, Dominus blanda serenitate respondit: hoc,
+inquiens, indubitanter faciam. Sic inclinatus ad eam blandissimo
+affectu eam ad se stringens osculum prædulce animæ eius infixit," etc.
+
+The employment of erotic imagery to express the individual relation
+between Christ and the soul is always dangerous; but this objection
+does not apply to the statement that "the Church is the bride of
+Christ." Even in the Old Testament we find the chosen people so spoken
+of (cf. Isa. liv. 5; Jer. iii. 14). Professor Cheyne thinks that the
+Canticles were interpreted in this sense, and that this is why the
+book gained admission into the Canon. In the New Testament, St. Paul
+uses the symbol of marriage in Rom. vii. 1-4; 1 Cor. xi. 3; Eph. v.
+23-33. On the last passage Canon Gore says: "The love of Christ--the
+removal of obstacles to His love by atoning sacrifice--the act of
+spiritual purification--the gradual sanctification--the consummated
+union in glory; these are the moments of the Divine process of
+redemption, viewed from the side of Christ, which St. Paul specifies."
+This use of the "sacrament" of marriage (as a symbol of the mystical
+union between Christ and the Church), which alone has the sanction of
+the New Testament, is one which, we hope, the Church will always
+treasure. The more personal relation also exists, and the fervent
+devotion which it elicits must not be condemned; though we are forced
+to remember that in our mysteriously constituted minds the highest and
+lowest emotions lie very near together, and that those who have chosen
+a life of detachment from earthly ties must be especially on their
+guard against the "occasional revenges" which the lower nature, when
+thwarted, is always plotting against the higher.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14596 ***