WE read in the Gospels that Our Lord fed many people with five loaves and two fishes. Speaking parabolically, we may say that the first loaf was--that we should know ourselves, what we have been everlastingly to God, and what we now are to Him. The second--that we should pity our fellow Christian who is blinded; his loss should grieve us as much as our own. The third--that we should know our Lord Jesus Christ's life, and follow it to the utmost of our capacity. The fourth--that we should know the judgments of God. All that may be said of the pains of hell is true. St Dionysius saith, "To be separated from God is hell, and the sight of God's countenance is heaven." The fifth is--that we should know the Godhead which has flowed into the Father and filled Him with joy, and which has flowed into the Son and filled Him with wisdom, and the Two are essentially one. Therefore said Christ, "Where I am, there is My Father, and where My Father is, there am I" And They have flowed into the Holy Ghost and filled Him with good will. Therefore said Christ, "I and My Father have one Spirit," and the Holy Ghost has flowed into the soul.
The soul has by nature two capacities. The one is intelligence, which may comprehend the Holy Trinity with all its works and be contained by It as water is by a vessel. When the vessel is full, it has enclosed all that is contained in it, and is united with that which it has enclosed, and of which it is full. Thus intelligence becomes one with that which it has understood and comprehended. It is united therewith by grace, as the Son is one with the Father.
The second capacity is Will. That is a nobler one,
and its essential characteristic is to plunge into the Unknown which is God.
There the Will lays hold of God in a mysterious manner, and the Unknown God
imparts His impress to the Will. The Will draws thought and all the powers of
the soul after it in its train, so that the soul becomes one with God by grace,
as the Holy Ghost is one with the Father and with the Son by nature. In God it
is more worthy to be loved, than it is in itself. Therefore St Augustine saith
that the soul is greater by its love-giving power than by its life-giving power.
If man might only abide in this union, and do all the works which have ever been
done by creatures, he would be no other than God, if his higher powers so
brought
Adam possessed that union with God which we have spoken of, and while he had it, his capacity contained the capacities of all creatures. The load-stone attracts the needle, and the needle receives the magnetic power, so that it can also attract other needles and draw them to the load-stone. But if one draws the first needle away, all the other needles come with it. Thus was it with Adam: when, in his highest capacity, he was separated from God all his capacities deteriorated. Thence came also discord and the clashing of oppugnant wills among the lower creation, and deterioration of their powers down to the lowest. It is necessary, therefore, for all the creatures which issued forth from God to co-operate earnestly with all their powers to form a Man who may again attain that union with God which Adam enjoyed before he fell, and who may again restore to the creatures their forfeited powers. This is fulfilled in Christ as He Himself said, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." He means, if He is exalted in our knowledge, He will draw us unto Himself. In Him human nature grew divine, and thanked God and loved Him with immeasurable love. This also befits God that he loves human nature with so great love. I counsel you, sisters and brothers, that you grow in knowledge, and thank God, while you are in time, that He brought you out of non-existence to existence, and united you with the Divine Nature. But if the Divine Nature be beyond your comprehension, believe simply on Christ;� follow His holy example and remain steadfast. Convert Jews, heathen, heretics, bad Christians, and all who do not enjoy your knowledge of God, and are still astray.
Now rejoice, all ye powers of my soul, that you are so united with God that no one may separate you from Him. I cannot fully praise nor love Him therefore must I die, and cast myself into the divine void, till I rise from non-existence to existence. If I should remain entombed in flesh till the judgment day and suffer the pains of hell, that would be for me a small thing to bear for my beloved Lord Jesus Christ, if I had the certainty at last of not being separated from Him. While I am here, He is in me; after this life, I am in Him. All things are therefore possible to me, if I am united to Him Who can do all things. Previously I could not distinguish whether we were divine by nature or by grace. Then came Jesus and enlightened me so that I recognized in the Divine Nature Three Persons, and that the Father was the Bringer-Forth of all things, as St James says, "every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights."
The Father and the Son have one Will, and that Will is the Holy Ghost, Who
gives Himself to the soul so that the Divine Nature permeates the powers of
the soul so that it can only do God-like works. Just as a spring, which
perpetually flows and waters the roots of the flowers, so that the flowers
bloom and receive their colours from the water of the spring, so the Godhead
imparts Itself to the capacities of the soul that it may grow in the likeness
of God. The more that the soul receives of the Divine Nature, the more it
grows like It, and the closer becomes its union with God. It may arrive at
such an intimate union that God at last draws it to Himself altogether, so
that there is no distinction left, in the soul's consciousness, between
itself and God, though God still regards it as a creature. Wherefore let
yourselves not be misled by the light of nature. The higher the degree of
knowledge which the soul attains to in the light of grace, the darker seems to
it the light of nature. If the soul would know the real truth it must examine
itself, whether it has withdrawn from all things, whether it has lost itself,
whether it loves God purely with His love and nothing of its own at the same time,
so that it may not be separated from Him by anything, and whether God alone
dwells in it. If it has lost itself, it is as when the Virgin Mary lost
Christ. She sought Him for three days, and yet was sure that she would find
Him. All the while Christ was in the highest class in the school of His
Father, unconscious of His
mother's seeking Him. Thus happens it to the noble soul which goes to God to
school, and learns there what God is in His essence, and what He is in the
Trinity, and what He is in man, and what is most acceptable to Him. St
Augustine saith that the righteousness of God in the Godhead and in the
Trinity and in all creatures is the source of the chief joy which is in
heaven. God in human nature is a lamp of living light, and "the light
shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not." The darkness
must ever more flee the light, as the night flees day. Thus the soul learns to
know God's will. St Paul saith, "This is God's will, our
sanctification." And this is our sanctification, to know what we were
before time; what we are in time, and what we shall be after time. Thus the
soul loses itself in these three, and recketh naught of the body, till it
comes to it in the temple, and obeys it without murmuring. The Father is a
revelation of the Godhead, the Son is an image and countenance of the Father,
and the Holy Ghost is an effulgence of that countenance, and a mutual love
between Them, and these properties They have always possessed in Themselves.
The Three Persons have stooped out of pity down to human nature, and the Son
became man, and was the most despised man on the earth, and suffered pain at
the hands of the