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    "slug": "eckhart",
    "name": "Meister Eckhart"
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      "name": "Rhineland Mystics",
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 2,
    "slug": "01-tractates",
    "title": "Tractates",
    "of": 4,
    "words": 76757,
    "text": "## Tractates\n\n\nII\n\nTHE KINGDOM OF GOD\n\n' Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God and his righteousness\nand all things shall be added unto you.' Since Christ bids us seek\nthe kingdom of God it is our duty to know what this kingdom is.\nKnow then that God's kingdom is himself and his perfect nature.\nSecondly, there is God's kingdom in the soul. He himself says :\n\n' The kingdom of God is within you.'\n\nConsider this first kingdom. Thcologists say that God's\nkingdom is unity of essence in a trinity of Persons. The question\nis, where is God happiest ? I answer that God's happiness is all\nalike in him according to his unity but according to our under-\nstanding God is far happier in his unity of essence than in his\ntrinity of Persons, as we will prove. According to some theolo-\ngists there arc three kinds of distinctions in the Godhead. First,\nrational distinctions ; secondly, formal distinctions ; and thirdly\nreal distinctions, to wit, the mutual relations of the Persons.\nOthers say the Godhead has no more than two kinds of distinc-\ntions, rational and real.\n\nTake first the distinction of Persons. St John says ; ' In the\nbeginning was the Word.' This beginning or origin is the Father,\nas St Augustine says. The question is, has the Father a begin-\nning ? The answer is ; yes, his beginning is primary not pro-\nceeding, as I will show. Thcologists teach that we must distin-\nguish in the Godhead between essence and being (i.e, nature).\nBeing in the Godhead is deity itself and is the first thing we\napprehend about God. Deity is the whole basis of divine per-\nfection. The Godhead in itself is motionless unity and balanced\nstillness and is the source of all emanations. Hence I assume a\npassive welling-up. We call this first utterance heing^ for the most\nintrinsic utterance, the first formal assumption in the Godhead is\nbeing : being as essential word. God is being, but being is not God.\n\nNow the origin of the Father is necessarily involved in this\nassumption of a passive welling-up. In other words, the deity\nbeing in itself intelligence, therefore the divine nature steps forth\n\n^ Jostes, No. 82.\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\ninto relation of otherness : other but not another, for this distinc-\ntion is rational not real. Thus the first Person arises in the\nGodhead passively, not from any active beginning. Hence its\nbeginning is without property (or, Person).\n\nThe question is, what is the Person of the Father ? I answer\nthat it is being in the Godhead, not according to essence but\naccording to paternity which is the formal notion specifically\ndetermining the Father. The Father is the beginning of the God-\nhead. Hence, some theologists assert that if there were neither\nSon nor Holy Ghost in the Godhead there would still be the Person\nof the Father. When, therefore, St John says ; ' In the beginning\nwas the Word,' we must not understand this beginning to be\nGod's essence or his nature, for the Father alone is the active\norigin of the Son.\n\nMark how the Son is in the Father. Theologists say that the\nFather looking into himself actually conceives in himself his own\nimpartible exuberant nature. There follows the characteristic of\nthat nature. The same nature which in the Father is active is\nreceptive in the Son, for they participate it according to their\nproperties.\n\nAncnt this divine birth theologists teach that this word is to\nbe taken in a two-fold sense : essential and j^ersonal. The first\nor essential word every Person possesses visually, but the Father\npossesses it both visually and really. And this same Word in\nPerson is the Son. The same power which is active in the Father\nis passive in the Son, the Son receiving his divinity from the\nFather. Wc must understand the passivity begotten of passivity,\ndivinity of divinity, as properties of the Persons by which the\nessence is determined. For saints and doctors teach that the\nPersons proceed from the essence as origin, the essence being\ndetermined by the Persons and the Persons by their properties.\nAs paternity is the formal notion which specifically determines\nthe Person of the Father, so filiation is the formal notion which\ndistinguishes the Person of the Son. These formal notions\nsignify the relationship of the Persons. And this property, this\nformal relationship of paternity and filiation, is the final attribute\nof divinity. Paternity and filiation are divine accidents and\ndependent properties.\n\nMark how in this birth from the Father the Word remains\nwithin as essence and goes forth as Person. Philosophers teach\nthat to every rational concept there succeeds an intelligible word.\nNow when the Father conceives himself in himself, his own nature\nis the object of his understanding. The Father observes himself\nand his nature has another property, that of being observed.\nAccordingly the Son remains within as essence and goes forth as\n\nPerson. Corresponding with the divided nature of this act the\nSon is born and proceeds out of the paternal heart. Thus saith\nthe Eternal Wisdom : ' I proceeded out of the mouth of the\nMost High,' to wit, out of the natural conception of the essential\nword of the divine Father. Not that there are in the Godhead\ntwo words really but only logically.\n\n' The Word was with God.' That means, as a Person distinct\nfrom the Father, as here demonstrated.\n\nObserve further concerning these two how they bring forth the\nHoly Ghost. Theologists teach that the Father, pouring himself\nout as love into the Son, there his love is as it were reflected, the\nSon pouring himself back into the Father. This mutual outpour-\ning of love is the common spiration of the Father and the Son.\nIt might be thought that this spiration is identical in the two\nPersons but it is not. For according to its formal origin this\nspirative force is different in Father and Son, the Father being\nformally something other than the Son. But taking it, this\nspiration, both formally and really, it is the formal notion and the\nproperty which distinguishes the Person of the Holy Ghost.\nHence the Holy Ghost proceeds from two formal sources as from\none active origin.\n\nThen comes the question whether this property (Person) of\nthe Holy Ghost results from the (divine) nature in the same way\nas the property of the Son does ? The answer is : no, for were\nthat so the Holy Ghost must proceed by an act of nature, like the\nSon ; which is not the case, l^or then there would be two Sons in\nthe Godhead. But the divine nature is posterior to the property of\nthe Holy Ghost which proceeds by spiration of the free-will.\nHence were it possible to separate the nature from the Person\nof the Holy Ghost in the Godhead, the Holy Ghost would never-\ntheless continue to subsist in itself apart from the nature. With\nthe Son this would not be possible seeing that the Son emanates\nfrom the Father as an intelligible word proceeding from the act\nof the exuberant nature of the Father ; hence he could not exist\napart from that nature. And as the nature is posterior to the\nPerson of the Holy Ghost and as the Holy Ghost docs not subsist\napart from that nature, so on the other hand it is true that the\nPerson of the Son is posterior to the nature. The nature does\nnot exist apart from the Son, for the Son is the image of the Father\nfrom whom he emanates naturally ; which the Holy Ghost does\nnot, seeing that it emanates from his free-will. It follows that\nthere is reciprocity only between paternity and flliation ; not the\nHoly Ghost. Howbeit the reciprocity of the spirative power\ncommon to the paternity and filiation is rational not real. Herein,\nnoble soul, seek with understanding the kingdom of God.\n\n*270\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nSt John says : * And God was the word,' signifying unity of\nnature. Up, noble soul, arise in divine wonder at this exalted\nfellowship : the three Persons united in one impartible nature !\nThe prophet says : ' The Lord shall reign for ever and beyond.'\nGod reigns (for ever) in distinetion of Persons, but his reign in the\nbeyond is in unity of nature. There God is the kingdom of himself,\nbeing super-essential.\n\nThen comes the question : Can the divine essence as essence,\napart from those formal distinctions which philosophers call the\neternal eternities, be God's happiness or that of creatures ? We\nanswer : No ! Essence as essence is the same in God and crea-\ntures, but God's happiness and the soul's also lies in the divine\nnature. For the divine nature subsists in itself with all its per-\nfections, to wit, the eternal eternities which are intrinsic in it.\nSome teach that it is possible for the soul to attain happiness in\nthe knowledge of one of these formal relations regardless of the\nrest. But that is not true ; if it were, each of these formal\nrelations must be established in itself apart from the others and\ndetached from its divine nature, which is impossible ; hence this\nopinion is false. But the soul's beatitude consists in compre-\nhending all together, in one property, these eternal eternities\nwhich are the formal expression of the divine nature. For here\nis no division ; God is the superessential one, his own beatitude\nand that of all creatures in the actuality of his Godhead. Be sure\nthat in this unity God knows distinctions but as one impartible\nproperty.\n\nIn this unity God is idle. The Godhead effects neither this nor\nthat ; it is God who effects all things. God in activity is manifold\nand knows multiplicity. God as one is absolutely free from activity.\nIn this unity God knows nothing save that he superessentially\nis in his own self.\n\nHence we understand : ' God was the word ' to refer to the\nunity of the essence. ' The same was in the beginning with God,'\nhis equal in wisdom, in truth, in goodness and in all the essential\nperfections, to wit, the eternal eternities, the formal modes, the\nfullness of the divine essence. This superessential unity is what is\nmeant by the divine kingdom which the spirit seeks with know-\nledge and with love.\n\nSecondly, by this kingdom of God we understand the soul, for\nthe soul is of like nature with the Godhead. Hence all that has\nbeen said here about the kingdom of God, how God is himself\nthe kingdom, may be said with equal truth about the soul.\n\nSt John says : ' All things were made by him.' This refers\nto the soul, for the soul is all things. The soul is all things in that\nshe is an image of God and as such she is also the kingdom of\n\nGod ; as God is essentially in himself without beginning so in the\nkingdom of the soul he is, as essence, without end. ' God,' says\none philosopher, ' is in the soul in such a fashion that his whole\nGodhead hangs upon her.' It is far better for God to be in the\nsoul than for the soul to be in God. The soul is not happy because\nshe is in God, she is happy because God is in her. Rely upon it,\nGod himself is happy in the soul, for God, when he broke out and\nwrought the soul, so far maintained his ground in her as to conceal\nin her his divine treasure, his heavenly kingdom. Hence Christ\nsays : ' The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hid in a field.'\nThis field is the soul, wherein lies hidden the treasure of the divine\nkingdom. Accordingly God and all creatures are happy in the\nsoul. What we say of the soul applies to her as being an image of\nGod.\n\nLet us sec therefore wherein this image lies. One theologist\nsays it lies in her powers, and this is commonly held to be true.\nAnd it is true when rightly understood. If it is taken to mean\nthat her powers are diverse there is no ultimate truth in it, but if\nthe powers are understood to be one at the summit of her activity\nthen it is true. In this divine activity the soul looks back immedi-\nately, intellectually, in the divine nature. In this divine act she\nconceives her own nature superessentially in God. In this act all is\ndivine to the highest image, which in its proper activity it is very\nGod and happy — formally, not objectively. For gazing into itself\nit simultaneously conceives God in himself, without means. Hence\nit is happy in him formally, and objectively owing to the divine\nnature. One doctor says that this supernal light flows immediately\nout of God and at the same instant by an act of intellection is\ngotten without means into God. Hence its going out of and\npersistence in God are one intellectual conception, the impartible\nnature of the same intelligent act. In God, be sure, the soul in\nits highest prototype has never known creature as creature nor\nhas she ever therein possessed cither time or space. For in this\nimage everything is God : sour and sweet, good and bad, small\nand great, all are one in this image. This image is no more changed\nby anything in time than the divine nature is changed by anything\nthat is creature ; for it apprehends and uses all things according\nto the law of godhood.\n\nNow it may be asked : If this kingdom is in us why is it unknown\nto us ? To which I answer that, owing to the soul's natural\ndisposition towards creatures, all her acts are bound to originate\nin creaturely images ; hence these acts are thought by some to\nbe the seat of this image in the soul, though this is not the case.\nThese persons little know the nobility of the soul, whose activity\nin her ordinary understanding originates in an intelligible image\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nin highest thought (or, memory), begotten there as to form by\nphantasmal images and as to essence by the supernal, God-behold-\ning image whence the soul receives power to understand all truth.\nIn the train of this understanding comes the ordinary will, which\nis nothing but the bias of the mind. Now since the ordinary\nunderstanding takes things for true and the will takes them for\ngood, things are the object of both these activities which are alien\nand remote from God. For God is neither good nor true. And\nas God is detached and free from all that creatures can understand,\nso also is the highest image of the Godhead.\n\nIt is a question whether there is mutual regard between God\nand creatures ? I answer that, God has no regard to creatures,\nfor God has no regard except towards himself ; but creatures have\nregard to God, for everything that ever issued from him is ever\ngazing back towards him. Apply this to the highest image. The\ninstant it glanced out from God this highest image looked back\nagain, with countenance unveiled conceiving the divine nature\nwithout means. From this act is gotten its whole existence.\nIn this act this prototype is God and is called the image of God ;\nin its breaking forth it is a creature and is called the image of the\nsoul.\n\nConsider then thyself, O noble soul, and the nobility within thee,\nfor thou are honoured above all creatures in that thou art an\nimage of God ; and despise what is mean for thou art destined to\ngreatness !\n\nThat is what is meant by the soul being the kingdom of God.\n\n' Seek first the kingdom of God.' It should be our only care,\nour only quest, to know the nobility of God and the nobility of the\nsoul. Let us see then how to seek the kingdom of God.\n\nIn the Book of Love it is written : ' Knowest thou not thyself,\nO fairest among women ? Then go forth and follow after the\nfootsteps of thy flocks ! ' These words refer to the soul ; she is\nthe fairest of all creatures and she shall go forth in perceiving her\nown beauty. Now observe in the soul three sorts of going-forth\nout of three sorts of nature which she has. The first is her crea-\nturely nature. The second is the nature she has in the personal\nWord of the Trinity. The third is that which belongs to her in\nthe exuberant nature functioning in the Father, the beginning\nof all creatures.\n\nTaking this first exodus, note how she has got to go out of her\ncreaturely nature. Christ says ; ' If any man will come after\nme let him deny himself and follow me.' As surely as God lives,\nno man will ever go forth into the negation of himself until he is\nas free from his own self as he was when he was not. Doctors\ndeclare that man is to be knoA?m in two ways : as outward man and\n\nas inward man. The outward whose works are bodily and the\ninward whose works are ghostly. By the inner man God is sought\nin the contemplative life, by the outer man God is sought in the\nactive life. Now mark my words. I say again what I have\nsaid before : outward disciplines arc of little worth ; they are\nuseful only in subduing natures that are still uncontrolled. Know\nthat the discipline of outward acts, though it subdue nature,\ncannot kill it. Nature dies by ghostly acts. There are many\nto be found who, with the best intentions, cling on to themselves,\nnot denying themselves. Verily I say, these persons are mistaken,\nfor it is contrary to human reason, contrary to the habit of grace\nand against the nature of the Holy Ghost. As for those who see\ntheir salvation in outward practices, I do not say they will be lost,\nbut they will get to God only through hot cleansing fires ; for they\nfollow not God who quit not themselves ; keeping hold of them-\nselves they follow their own darkness. God is no more to be\nfound in any bodily exercise than in sin. Nevertheless those\nwho make much practice of outward disciplines are greatly\nregarded by the eyes of the world ; which follows by analogy, for\nthose who understand only that which is bodily esteem highly\nthe life they can grasp with the senses. None but a fool would\nprize any other !\n\nSecondly, the work of the inner man is vision in knowing and\nloving. In this work lies the beginning of the holy life. These\ntwo activities define the nature of the soul. Doctors declare that\nevery nature exists for the sake of its proper activity. Now since\nthis nature (the soul) can be apprehended only in these two\nactivities, therefore they are the noblest activities in man. I have\nsaid before that virtue is a mean between vice and perfection ;\nnow love is the form of virtue without which no virtue is virtue.\nWhensoever a person practises a virtue the works of the virtue are\nworks of love, not of the person ; each work of virtue having\npower in love to bring the person to God. St Dionysius says, it\nis the nature of love to change a man into that which he loves.\nWherefore we ought so to live that our whole life is love. In this\ndisposition all practices are praiseworthy, outward or inward.\nDavid says : ' They shall go from virtue to virtue, then shall the\nGod of Gods be seen in Sion.' The vision of God transcends\nvirtues. Virtue, as I said, is a mean between vice and perfection\nand the fruit of virtue — the end and object of virtue, that is to\nsay — will never be obtained until the soul is caught up above the\nvirtues. Be sure that as long as a man holds fast himself as\nthrall to virtue he will never taste the fruit of virtue, which is\nnothing else than seeing the God of Gods in Sion. God is not seen\nin Jacob, the practice of virtue, but God is seen in Sion. Sion\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nis as it were a polished mirror and stands for unveiled vision\nwith the single eye of the divine nature. Rely upon it, virtue\nhas never seen this sight.\n\nNow it may be asked, are we to abandon virtue altogether ?\nTo which I answer : no, we are to practise virtue, not possess it.\nThe perfection of virtue is freedom from virtues. Thus Christ\nsays : ' When ye have done all that is possible to you, say : we\nare unprofitable servants.'\n\nThat is what is meant by the soul dying to her own works.\nThe question we must now consider is how she loses her own\nnature. Doctors declare that everything made by God is ordered\nin such an excellent way that nothing can wish it did not exist.\nYet the soul is to relinquish her existence. This means the death\nof the spirit. And in order to accomplish this death the soul must\nlet go of herself and all things, retaining of herself and things\nno more than when she was not. Christ says : ' Except a corn\nof wheat die it abideth alone.' To die is to be wholly deprived\nof life, so that while a man lives, as long as there is life in him,\nbe sure that he knows nothing of this death. St Paul says :\n' I no longer live.' Some people interpret this death to mean\nthat one must live neither in God nor in oneself nor yet in any\ncreature. And so it does, for death is the loss of all life. But I\nsay more : a man may be dead to everything, to God and crea-\ntures, yet if God still finds in his soul a place that he can live in,\nthen the soul is not yet dead and gone out into that which follows\ncreated existence. For to die is, properly speaking, to lose\neverythfng. I do not say the soul is brought so utterly to naught\nas it was before it was created ; this naughting applies to holding\nand possessing. In this respect the soul suffers total loss — God\nas well as creatures.\n\nIt sounds strange to say the soul must lose her God, yet I affirm\nthat in a way it is more necessary to perfection that the soul\nlose God than that she lose creatures. Everything must go.\nThe soul must subsist in absolute nothingness. It is the full\nintention of God that the soul shall lose her God, for as long as the\nsoul possesses God, is aware of God, knows God, she is aloof from\nGod. God desires to annihilate himself in the soul in order that\nthe soul may lose herself. For that God is God he gets from\ncreatures. When the soul became a creature she obtained a God.\nWhen she lets slip her creaturehood, God remains to himself that\nhe is, and the soul honours God most in being quit of God and\nleaving him to himself.\n\nThis is the lowest death of the soul on her way to divinity.\nSuch souls are hardly to be recognised for, as St Paul says : ' Ye\nare dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.' If it be ques-\n\ntioned whether the unique virtue of these souls finds no outward\nexpression, I answer : Yes, just as Christ, the pattern of perfection,\nwas unindigent and a shining light to all mankind, so these men\nare turned towards humanity by reason of their selfless wisdom\nand godlike frame of mind.\n\nSo much for the first exodus in which the soul goes out of her\ncreaturely nature seeking the kingdom of God.\n\nSecondly, she must go out of the nature she has in her eternal\nprototype. Theologists teach that the prototype of the soul is\nthe divine understanding. The divine understanding is the Person\nof the Son. Hence the Son is the exemplar of all creatures and\nthe image of the Father in which image broods the nature of all\ncreatures. Now when the soul strips off her created nature there\nflashes out its uncreated prototype wherein the soul discovers\nherself in uncreatedness, for things arc all one in this prototype\naccording to the property of the (eternal) image.\n\nAnd now the soul fares forth out of this same prototype wherein\nshe discovers her nature according to the uncreatedness of the\nimage and this she does in the divine death. The soul is conscious\nthat what she seeks is neither her exemplar nor its nature, wherein\nshe perceives herself to be in multiplicity and separation. For\nthis final attribute of divinity is multiplicity. And since the eternal\nnature wherein the soul now finds herself in her exemplar is\ncharacterised by multiplicity — the Persons being in separation —\ntherefore the soul breaks through her eternal exemplar to get to\nwhere God is a kingdom in unity. One philosopher declares that\nthe soul's breaking-through is more noble than her emanation.\nNow Christ says : ' No man cometh to the Father but through\nme.' Christ is the eternal exemplar. Though the soul's abiding-\nplace is not in him yet she must, as he says, go through him.\nThis breaking-through is the second death of the soul and is far\nmore momentous than the first. Of it St John says : ' Blessed\nare the dead that die in the Lord,' that is, in God.\n\nO surpassing wonder ! How can there be death in him who\nsays of himself that he is the life ? To which we answer : In the\nbirth of the Son all creatures went forth receiving life and being,\nhence all things are lively imaged in the Son. Now when the soul\nreturns again within she loses the Son. Theologists declare that\nwhen the Son returns to unity of nature he is neither Person nor\nits property : the Son is lost in the unity of the essence. Likewise\nI say concerning the soul : when the soul breaks through and\nloses herself in her eternal prototype that is the death the soul\ndies in God. St Dionysius says ; ' When God exists not for the\nsoul there exists not for her either the eternal prototype, her source.'\nEquality belongs to the soul in her exemplar, for the Son is equal\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nwith the Father. But in that they are one in nature they are not\nequal, for equality resides in separation. Accordingly I say con-\ncerning the soul : if she is to enter the divine unity she must lose\nthe equality she has in her eternal exemplar. Dionysius declares\nthat the soul's supreme delight is the nothingness of her prototype.\nAnd a heathen philosopher says : ' God's naught fills everywhere\nand his aught is nowhere.' God's aught, then, is not discovered\nby the soul till she has come to naught as regards finding or being\nable to find herself, created or uncreated as we have shown her\neternal prototype to be.\n\nThis is the second death and second exodus, the soul going forth\nout of the nature which is hers in her eternal prototype to seek\nthe kingdom of God. ' He who desires to come to God,' says one\nphilosopher, ' let him come with naught.'\n\nThe third nature out of which the soul goes is the exuberant\ndivine nature energising in the Father. According to some\ntheologists the Father always perceived within himself tokens of\nemanation before he brought forth the Word. They all agree\nthat God the Father conceived his own nature in originating the\neternal Word and all creatures. Doctors distinguish between\nnature and essence. Essence, in as far as it is active in the Father,\nis nature. The distinction is therefore a logical one. From God\nin activity all creatures look forth potentially. But this is not\nthe summit of divine union so it is not the soul's abiding place.\n\nIt must be clearly understood that the soul has got to die to all\nthe activity connoted by the divine nature if she is to enter the\ndivine essence where God is altogether idle ; this highest prototype\nof soul beholds without means the essence of the Godhead abso-\nlutely free from activity. This supernal image is the paradigm\nwhereto the soul is brought by her dying.\n\nNow mark ! The Godhead, self-poised, is self-sufiicient. God\nas Godhead transcends all that creature as creature ever compre-\nhended or can ever comprehend. As St Paul says : ' God dwells\nin light inaccessible.' Now when the soul has gone out of her\ncreated nature and out of her uncreated nature wherein she dis-\ncovers herself in her eternal prototype and, entering into the divine\nnature, still fails to grasp the kingdom of God, then, recognising\nthat thereinto no creature can ever get, she forfeits her very self\nand going her own way seeks God no more ; thus she dies her\nhighest death. In this death the soul loses every desire and image\nand all understanding and form and is bereft of any nature.\nAnd as God lives it is true that the soul, being spiritually dead,\ncan no more manifest to any man any mode or image than the\ndead can stir being bodily dead. This spirit is dead and buried\nin the Godhead and the Godhead lives for none other than itself.\n\nAh, noble soul, prove thy nobility ! But while it is the case\nwith thee that thou lettest not go thine own self altogether to\ndrown in the bottomless sea of the Godhead, verily thou canst\nnot know this divine death. The wise man says : ' The Lord\npossessed me in the beginning in his own way.' God possesses\nall things in his Godhead's way, not in the soul's way, for God\nnever received creature nor can creature ever get to him, as\ncreature.\n\nNow when the soul has lost herself in every way, as here set\nforth, she finds herself to be the very thing she vainly sought.\nHerself the soul finds in the supernal image wherein God really\nis in all his Godhead, where he is the kingdom in himself. There\nthe soul recognises her own beauty. Thence she must go out\nto get into her very self and realise that she and God are one\nfelicity ; the kingdom which, without seeking, she has found.\nAs saith the prophet : ' I poured out my soul into myself.' That\nis the meaning of : ' Knowest thou not thyself thou fairest among\nwomen ? Then go forth,' The soul has to go forth, as we have\nseen, in order to enter into herself, where she finds, without\nseeking, the kingdom of God. St Paul says : ' I reckon as worth-\nless temporal suffering in comparison with the future glory which\nshall be revealed to us.'\n\nLook you. I said of old, and say again, that I have now all that\nI shall possess eternally, for God in his felicity and in the fullness\nof his Godhead is enjoyed by my supernal prototype though this\nis hidden from the soul. As the prophet says : ' Indeed Lord,\nthou art a hidden God ! ' This treasure of God's kingdom is\nhidden by time and multiplicity by the soul's own activity and\nby her creaturehood. The more the soul departs from all this\nmultiplicity the more God's kingdom is revealed in her. But the\nsoul is not able for this without the help of grace. An she find it,,\nit is grace that has aided her thereto, for grace is innate in her\nhighest prototype. There the soul is God, using and enjoying\nall things God-fashion. There the soul no more receives either\nfrom God or creatures, for she is what she contains and takes all\nthings from her own. Soul and Godhead are one : there the soul\nfinds that she is the kingdom of God.\n\nIt may be asked what discipline best enables the soul to reach\nthis end ? I answer : This, that the soul remain in death, not\nshrinking from death. St Paul says : ' Christ was obedient to\nthe Father even unto the death of the cross. Therefore he hath\nexalted him and hath given him a name above every name.' And\nI say about the soul : if she remain obedient to God in death he\nwill exalt her likewise and will give her a new name above every\nname. For as the Godhead is apart from name and nameless\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nso also the soul, like God, is nameless, for she is the very same\nas he is. Christ said : ' Henceforth I call you not servants but\nfriends, for all that I have heard of my Father I have made known\nunto you.' ' A friend,' says a heathen, ' is a second self.' God\nbecame my seeond self that I might become his second self.\nAnd St Augustine declares : ' God became man that man might\nbecome God.' In God the soul receives a new life. In him she\narises out of death into the life of the Godhead ; here God pours\ninto her his divine fullness, here she receives a new name which is\nabove every name. For as St John says, ' we have passed from\ndeath unto life because wc love.'\n\nSuch is the interpretation of Christ's words : ' Seek first the\nkingdom of God and his righteousness.'\n\nNow let us sec how ' all things shall be added unto us.' We\ncan take this in two ways : first, as meaning that whatever of\nperfection there is in tilings wc shall lind in that first kingdom.\nSecondly, that we must hold fast to perrection in all we do : a\nman's works should be wrought according to the law of God's\nkingdom. If any man acts in such a way that his deeds are able\nto demean him, be sure he is not acting according to the law of\nGod's kingdom. When works are wrought according to humanity\nweeds and discord soon fall among them, but he whose work is\nwrought in the kingdom of heaven remains tranquil in every\nundertaking. ' And God saw all that he had made and behold it\nwas very good,' say the scriptures. And I say concerning the\nsoul, that all her acts are perfect as seen in the kingdom of heaven,\nfor there all works are equal, my least is my greatest, and my\ngreatest least. Humanly speaking they are imperfect, for works\nin themselves are manifold and lead to multiplicity, wherefore in\nrespect of such one is nigh on the brink of discord. Hence Christ's\nwords : ' Martha, Martha, thou troublest thyself about many\nthings ; one thing is needful.'\n\nOf this be sure : to win perfection our activity must be of a\nnature so exalted that all our works arc wrought as one act ;\nand this must take place in the kingdom of heaven where man is\nGod. There all things make divine response, there man is lord\nof all his works. Verily I say unto you : works wrought out\nof the kingdom of God arc dead works but works wrought in the\nkingdom of God are living works. The prophet says : ' God as\nlittle loves his works as he is disturbed and changed by them.'\nAnd so with the soul when she works in accordance with the law\nof God's kingdom. People of this sort are always the same\nwhether they work or whether they work not, for works give\nnothing to them and take nothing from them.\n\nThat is the meaning of : ^ All things shall be added unto you.'\n\nThis is addressed to none but those who already know it as a\nlive reality or who at least possess it as their heart's desire.\n\nMay it be revealed to us, So help us God I Amen.\n\nIll\n\nTHE NOBILITY OF THE SOUL\n\nWhosoever would attain to the summit of his noble nature and\nto the vision of the sovran good, which is God himself, must have\nprofoundest knowledge of himself and of things above himself.\nThus he reaches the supreme. Beloved, learn to know thyself,\nit shall profit thee more than any craft of creatures. How to know\nthyself, of this now learn two ways.\n\nFirst, see that thy outward senses are properly controlled.\nReflect, as regards these outward senses, that to the eye evil\npresents itself no less than good. The ear is importuned by one\nas well as the other and so with the other senses. Wherefore it\nbehoves thee strictly to confine thyself and with all diligence to\nthose things which are good. So much for the outward senses.\n\nNow turn to the inward senses or noble powers of the soul,\nlower and higher. Take the lower powers first. These are\nintermediate between the higher powers and the outward senses.\nThey are excited by the outward senses : what the eye sees, what\nthe ear hears, they offer forthwith to desire. This offers it again,\nin the ordinary course, to the second power, called judgment,\nwhich considers it and once more passes it on to the thiffl power,\nreckoning or reason. In this way it is clarified before it arrives\nat the higher faculties. So exalted is the power of the soul that\nshe can seize it minus form or image and carry it in this state up\ninto her higher powers. Here it is stored in the memory, mastered\nin the intellect and consummated in the will. These are the\nsuperior powers of the soul and they are one in nature. What\nthe soul does is done by this simple nature in her powers.\n\nNow it may be asked, What is this nature of the soul ? — It is the\nconsciousness (the spark or synteresis) in the soul, that is the impar-\ntible nature of the soul. So subtile is this nature of the soul that\nspace might not exist at all for all it troubles her. For instance, if one\nhas a friend a thousand leagues away, thither flows the soul with\nthe best part of her powers, loving her friend there. St Augustine\ntestifies to this. He says, * The soul is where she loves rather than\nwhere she is giving life.' The simple nature of the soul is in no\nway hampered by place. So much for the nature of the soul.\n\nNext consider her higher powers, so orderly appointed, so\n^ See also Greith, p. 114, etc. ; and Spamer, Texte, B. 2.\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nadmirably adapted to their several functions albeit of one nature.\nMemory is the power of storing up what the other powers bring\nin, that is its function. — The second power is understanding.\nThis is so exalted that in its understanding of the highest good,\nGod namely, all the other powers must subserve it to the best of\ntheir ability. — The third faculty is will. It is lordly enough to\nbid what it will and forbid what it will not ; from things it does\nnot will it is altogether free. So much for the superior powers of\nthe soul and the role assigned to each.\n\nDoctors dispute as to whether understanding is the nobler\nor the will. The position is this. Understanding secs things\nbeyond this mundane level, that is its prerogative. But to will\nalone are all things possible. As St Paul declares, ' I can do all\nthings in God who strengtheneth me.' When understanding\ncomes to the end of its tether, up soars the will transcendent in\nthe light and power of faith. Here will surpasses understanding.\nThis is the prerogative of will. But mind you, though the will\nis free to do and leave undone exactly as it will, this upward flight\nis not achieved by its own power alone : help comes from the other\npowers and from faith as well. What help we shall now see.\nThe powers have in common their impartible nature, and to this\nis due the transcension of the will. The other powers are the\ncause of this transcension in virtue of identity of nature. That\nis one help.\n\nThen comes the qucsticrti, which is the power in the psychic\ntrinity wherein faith first appears ? — The middle one : it springs\nfrom uriSerstanding but it is fortified in will and will is fortified\nby faith. Thus the light of faith contributes to this ascent of\nwill. That is the second help. And of still another it remains\nto tell. Intellect projects itself to hear and understand. It\nanalyses, orders, synthesises. But even when working to per-\nfection, always there is something on beyond which it cannot\npenetrate and which it recognises as belonging to a higher order.\nThis it communicates to will, in their common nature, not in its\nindividual capacity. This communication gives will an upward\nswing which displaces it into that higher order — always in their\ncommon nature. Here understanding is superior to will. But\nto will as individual a certain superiority belongs at the summit\nof its nature where it receives from the highest good, from very\nGod. — What does it receive ? — It receives grace and in grace the\nhighest good itself. What soul receives she receives willingly or\nnot at all. Not that will as such receives this light : to receive\nis not its part ; but by the grace of the sovran good the other\npowers are strengthened in their common nature. This light is\nkindled in that second power, in the Holy Ghost. It is in this\n\nlight that all works are wrought in the soul. As Isaias says,\n* All our works are wrought by* God.' This light is gracious\nlight, and any light outside this light is the light of nature. It is\na sure sign of this light when of his own free will a person turns\nfrom mortal things to the highest good, God namely. We are in\nduty bound to love him for conferring on the soul such great\nperfection. When she has reached her limit of endeavour then will\nas such is free to leap over to that gnosis which is God himself.\nA somersault which lands the soul at the summit of her power.\nA marvel, truly, God has made from naught in the image of\nhimself !\n\nSee now how the soul rises to sovran rank and to the zenith of\nher power. One master says, God is conveyed into the soul\nand there implanted. Whence there arises in the soul a divine\nlove-spring which bears the soul back into God. Mark how.\nAccording to one holy man, ' Whatever we can say of God, that\nGod is not.' According to another, ' Whatever we can say of\nGod, God is.' And an eminent authority declares that both are\nright. With these three holy men even so I say, that when with\nher own understanding the soul receives divine understanding it\nis offered forthwith to her will. Will accepting it grows one with\nwhat it has accepted and finally takes it and puts it away in the\nmemory. Thus God is conveyed and implanted in the soul.\nThen as to the divine love-spring. This overflowing in the soul\ncauses her higher powers to flood the lower ones and the lower\nones flood the outward man who, borne above all nether things, is\nincapable save of what is spiritual. As the spirit works Tjy divine\nenergy even so the outward man is driven by the spirit.\n\nOh wonder of wonders ! When I think of the union of the\nsoul with God ! lie makes the soul to flow out of herself in\njoyful ecstasy, for no named things content her. And since she is\nherself a nature named therefore she fails to content herself. The\ndivine love-spring surges over the soul sweeping her out of\nherself into the unnamed being in her original source, for that\nis all God is. Creatures have given him names, but in himself\nhe is nameless essence. Thus the soul arrives at the height of\nher perfection.\n\nFurther as concerns the noble nature of the soul. St Augustine\nsays , ' As with God so with the soul.' Had God not made the soul\nin the likeness of himself, to be God by grace, she could never\nbe God above grace. Her likeness to the pattern of the blessed\nTrinity we see by comparing her with God.\n\nGod is threefold in Person and onefold in his nature. God is\nin all places and in each place whole. In other words, all places\nare the place of God. And the same with her. God has prevision\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nof all things and everything is pictured in his providence. This\nis natural to God. And also to the soul. She too is threefold in\nher powers and simple in her nature. She too exists in all her\nmembers and in each member whole. So that all her members\nare the place of the soul. She too has foresight and imagines\nsuch things as she is able. To anything that we can predicate of\nGod, soul has a certain likeness. Or, in the words of St Augustine,\n' Like God like the soul.' God has endowed the soul with his own\nlikeness which did she not possess she could not be God by grace\nnor above grace either ; whereas in this likeness she is able to attain\nto being God by grace and also above grace. And she must\nequal him in divine love and divine activity. So much for the\nsoul as being God by grace.\n\nThe soul who abides in this perfect likeness and in this noble\nnature God has given her, and at the same time rises to higher\nrank and higher, to her, what time she leaves the body, and at\nthat very point, eternal life is open and in the opening she is\nencompassed with divine light, and enveloped in this divine light\nshe is absorbed and transformed into God. Now each of the\npowers of the soul is endowed with the likeness of a divine Person :\nwill receives the likeness of the Holy Ghost ; understanding\nreceives the likeness of the Son ; memory the likeness of the\nFather and (her nature the likeness of the) divine nature withal\nremaining undivided. — That is as far as I can understand it.\n\nIn the third place let us see how the soul becomes God above\ngrace. What God has given her is changeless for she has reached\na heighrwhere she has no further need of grace. In this exalted\nstate she has lost her proper self and is flowing full-flood into\nthe unity of the divine nature. But what, you may ask, is the\nfate of this lost soul : does she find herself or not ? My answer\nis, it seems to me that she docs find herself and that at the point\nwhere every intelligence sees itself with itself. For though she\nsink all sinking in the oneness of divinity she never touches\nbottom. Wherefore God has left her one little point from which\nto get back to herself and find herself and know herself as creature.\nFor it is of the very essence of the soul that she is powerless to\nplumb the depths of her creator. Henceforth I shall not speak\nabout the soul, for she has lost her name yonder in the oneness of\ndivine essence. There she is no more called soul : she is called\ninfinite being.\n\nNow I go on to speak about abstract knowledge of God. And\nI address myself to you, my brethren and my sisters, beloved\nFriends of God who are familiar with him and know something\nof the matter. I will start with the nomenclature of the holy\nTrinity. And here you will be called upon to follow an abstruse,\n\ntechnical discussion. When we speak of the Father or the Son\nor the Holy Ghost we are speaking of the Persons. When we\nspeak of the Godhead we arc speaking of their nature. The\nthree Persons, as Person and essence, flow with their essence into\nthe essence wherein they are Godhead. Not that the Godhead\nis other than what they are themselves : they are the Godhead\nin their unity of nature. They flow in essence into the essence,\nboth Person and essence, because essence is comprehended by\nnothing but itself. It is fast locked in stillness, comprehending\nitself with itself. This influx is, in the Godhead, the oneness of\nthe three inseparate Persons. In this same Ilux the Father\nflows into the Son and the Son again into the Father (as our Lord\n.Tesus Christ declares, ' He that sceth me secth my Father. My\nFather is in me and I in him '), and they both flow into the Holy\nGhost and the Holy Ghost back to them again. (As our Lord\nJesus Christ says, ' I and my Father arc one Spirit.') The Father\nutters his Son and in liis Son tells forth himself to creatures as a\nwhole, all in this flow. And the Father returning to himself speaks\nhimself to himself : ' The fountain flows into itself,' as St Dionysius\nsays. This proceeding in the Godhead is a speaking without words\nand without sound; a hearing without ears; a seeing without\neyes. In this proceeding each Person wordlessly utters himself in\nthe others. It is a flow where nothing flows. Compare with this\nthe noble soul, which provides a striking likeness of this flow ;\nfor where her higher powers and her simple nature have the same\nproperty (hyparxis) they are flowing into each other, speaking\nthemselves without word and without sound. Happy ftle soul\nwho thus attains to the vision of eternal light !\n\nBut it may be questioned, what about their power ? Is their\npower that of Person or of essence ? — I answer that, the three are\none God, no one is before or after the other : all three Persons\nare one first in the unity of their essential nature. Hence we\nspeak of the activity of the blessed Trinity not of their essence.\nThis is silence. Now speech, remember, beats into silence. In\nthis sense the Persons are the hypostasis of essence. — ^But why\ncall it a beat ? — Because it is neither a coming nor a going. In\nthis impulse the Trinity has equal power to act and has wrought\nits work entirely unmoved and undisturbed.\n\nExamine, again, the statement, ' the Persons are the hypostasis.'\nThis reveals two things. From the word are we gather that each\nPerson is distinct in the Personality. But saying ' the hypostasis '\nargues the three Persons and one nature to possess one property.\nThe Persons are the hypostasis of the essence since their unity\nand personality have like power to act. This power the holy\nTrinity possesses in the unity of its natural essence. There you\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nhave the argument in full for the blessed Trinity having power in\nthe unity of its divine nature.\n\nTwo things we attribute to God, essence and nature. — ' I should\nmuch like to know the difference.' — Essence attracts and nature\nis common to the Persons : they are one. — ' For God's sake, Sir,\nexplain.' — Then follow with enlightenment, with mind attuned\nto the highest pitch. You see, God, whatever he is, has essence\nand essence is absolute stillness ; it is immoveable. It speaks not,\nloves not, gets not ; but it moves moveable things like creatures.\nImmoveability and motion do not represent (the divine nature)\nand the divine Persons : Persons and nature have one property.\n(Immoveability) distinguishes the essence. But what the divine\nnature is, of that no single drop did ever fall within the ken of\nany creature. According to one philosopher, ' God's nature is\nGod's beauty.' And to this I add that in this same beauty there\nis play of light and its reflection, each Person radiant to the rest\nas to itself. This illumination is the perfection of beauty. —\n' Good. I am quite satisfied with that. But now I want to ask\nabout the eternal Word of the Father : is it to be taken as abiding\nwithin in his essence ? ' — No. — ' Is it to be taken in his Person ? ' —\nNo. — ' Then is it to be taken as being in the abstract nature of\nthe Father ? '-- St Augustine, speaking as it were in the person of\nour Lord Jesus Christ, gives for it five analogies : ' I am come as\na word from the heart that is spoken therefrom ; I am come as\nthe light from the sun ; I am come as the heat from the fire ; I\nam come like the fragrance of a flower ; I am come like the\nstreanT'from its perennial spring.' Even so is the eternal Word\nuttered in the Person of the Son while remaining God by nature\nin his nature. That is the answer.\n\n— ' Now another question. Theologians say God is in every-\nthing. Is God in everything in his nature ? ' — No. — ' Is God in\neverything in Person ? ' — No. — ' Then how is he in everything ? '\n— As preserving their unity of nature. Persons and nature have\nbut one property and this property is the divine essence as a whole.\nAs such God is in all places and in each place God is all at once.\nFor since God is impartible, all things and all places are the place\nof God. So everything is full of God, of his divine essence,\ncontinually.\n\nThree things are to be noted about the divine essence. First\nand foremost, it is the principle preserving all things ; in his divine\nessence God is in all things upholding them. But he is in the soul\ninnately. Witness our Lord Jesus Christ : he was God and man.\nHe has given us his sacred body : whoso receives it worthily\nreceives at once the Person of the Son and divine nature ; he\nreceives human nature joined with divine nature. For he is\n\nreally present where he is worthily received. This accounts for\nGod's loving himself in the soul.\n\nIt may be asked, how does God love himself ? — God is in all\nthings, for he is with himself. God is with himself for love of\nhimself. Hence God loves himself with himself in all things. —\nSecondly, God is one alone ; hence it is from itself not from\nanother. Were it from another it would reveal the thing from\nwhence it came. Not so : it is by itself in stillness so profound\nit cannot of itself reveal anything at all. And here it may be\nnoted that although God is potent for good yet it may be main-\ntained that his greatest power is his impotence. The argument\nruns thus. The impartible essence of divine nature is unity.\nNow unity cannot reveal itself to itself. That is its impotence\nand this impotence is the unity itself : the unity which is God's\nchief potentiality. Whence also the deduction that the three\nPersons have like power in their natural essence. And since this\ncannot manifest itself therefore the three Persons have manifested\nit and to none more than to themselves, for it is their own essential\nnature. — ^Thirdly, it unifies and embraces all things in itself and\nin this embrace the Father loses his name although he preserves\nhis paternity of Person. That is one Person. And the same with\nthe other Persons. In this embrace all is dissolved in all for all\nencloses all. But in itself it is self-disclosed.\n\nHere arises the question how the first embraces all ? The\nanswer is this. Things flowed forth finite into time while abiding\ninfinite in eternity. There they arc God in God. Take an illus-\ntration. Suppose some master of the arts. If he pfb&uce a\nwork of art he none the less preserves his arts within himself : the\narts arc the artist in the artist. Even so tJie first contains the idea\nof all things, which is God in God.\n\nThen there is the question of how all things return into their\nfirst source ? The answer is this. Creatures all change their\nnames in human nature and become ennobled ; in human nature\nthey lose their own particular nature and find their way back into\ntheir cause. There are two ways of doing this. First, it is\nfeasible for human nature to scale the heights by ghostly toil,\nfor in spiritual travail the soul ascends to whence it came. That\nis one way. But there is another. The meat and drink a man\nconsumes turns into flesh and blood. Now it is the Christian \\\nfaith that this actual body will rise at the last day. Then things\nshall all arise, not as themselves but in him who has changed them\ninto himself. He, spiritualised and turned to spirit, shall flow in\nspirit back to his first cause. From this it may be argued that\nevery single creature has, in human nature, a stake in the eternal.\nFurthermore it argues the faithfulness and kindness and perfect\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nlove of God who refuses to shut out any belonging of his faithful\nservant : he takes him all together to himself. All embraces all,\nfor all is one and one is all in all.\n\nThen there is the question how the Person of the Son was sent\ninto Mary's virgin body and took on human nature without his\never quitting the shelter of his Father's bosom ? The answer is\nas follows : The bosom of the Father is the throne of God. The\nFather has given birth to his Son, is now giving him birth and\nshall go on giving him birth without stopping. This birth has\nbeen taking place in him for ever. At the very instant when the\nSon was donning human nature the Father was bringing him to\nbirth. That is one explanation. Or take it in another way :\nthe Son is the understanding of the Father and the architect^ of\nall things in his Father. Had this architect not wrought in his\nFather without ceasing the Father had not wrought at that\nparticular point. So God's Son while taking on man's nature in\nMary's body was the architect of all things in his Father. That\nis another explanation. Or take it, thirdly, in yet another sense.\nThe Son has no less of the essence than the Father or the Holy\nGhost, with whom he possesses it in common. And in the com-\nmunity of their essential nature the Son himself is the encloser.\nUnity is the close, the Persons what the one encloses. Each\nPerson in the utterance keeps his individual nature. But within\nthis close the three Persons have one nature. The Son has his\nnature in common with the Father and with the Holy Ghost so\nthat as therein contained he has with them one common property.\nIt follo^^ that the Son has never for one instant left the Father.\nAnd herewith I conclude this threefold argument. It demon-\nstrates conclusively that God has never waxed or waned in divine\nglory. — So much of theology and of the noble lineage of the soul.\n\nNow we will speak about the union of the soul with God. There\nare those who say, nothing unites the soul so much as knowledge.\nOthers again aver the same of love. And yet a third school\nteaches that nothing unites like use {Le, actual enjoyment). Now\nI put one question regarding these three things. What is the\nproperty of each ? Each is its own peculiar property. But at\nthe summit of its property (its nature) each of them approaches\nso closely to the rest that they are virtually the same : threefold\nyet one in nature. This, to be sure, is not strictly true, but in the\nhigher reaches of their nature, where they are verging on each\nother, knowledge enhances love and love enjoyment. Each one,\nhowever, does its own appropriate work. Knowledge raises the\nsoul to the rank of God ; love unites the soul with God ; use\nperfects the soul to God. These three transport the soul right\nout of time into eternity. There the spirit in perfect freedom\n\nenjoys in its origin the height of bliss. Love and the sweetness\nof its uses have lured forth the soul to its naked spark. What\nis her fortune there ? All I can say is this ; the glance, out of\nthe spirit, which pierces without stop into naked Godhead ; the\nflow, out of the Godhead, into the naked spirit, these are but one\nform which conforms and unites the spirit to God in form and\noneness so that it receives as like from like. How spirit fares in\nthis exalted state I know not, nor can I tell at all more than to\nsay that the spirit is then at the summit of its power and its\nwelfare is supreme.\n\nPeradventure you will say, ' It is all very well to talk, my friend,\nbut how do I arrive at this exalted state you have described ? ' —\nSee. God is what he is and what he is is mine and what is mine\nI love and what I love loves me and absorbs me and what absorbs\nme that I am rather than my own self. By loving God therefore\nye may become God with God. But I will not pursue this subject\nfurther.\n\nNow I want to say a little about the virtuous life so that you\nmay have some guide to its attainment. Whosoever would attain\nto God must make him some return for all his godly works. He\nwho would atone to God must needs possess one virtue : righteous-\nness (or justice). This is the epitome of all the virtues. He must\nbe bare and free within and without. What is the freedom of\na godly man ? Being absolutely nothing to and wanting abso-\nlutely nothing for himself but only the glory of God in all his\nworks. Mark two degrees of freedom in the willing poor. First\nthey abandon friends and worldly goods and honours and^ descend\ninto the valley of humility. There the willing poor find outward\nfreedom and dwell unsolaced by perishable things. Follow the\nscorn and bitterness of the world. Courage, my children, establish\nyourselves in the valley into which ye have gone down. If the\nsons of the world revile you waver not ; stand fast in Christ\nremembering and acting on his words, ' The servant is not greater\nthan his lord ; if the world hate you, know, it hated me before it\nhated you ! ' Accept it all from God with hearty thanks and\ndeem yourselves all unworthy of it ; then, only then, have ye\nrenounced yourselves.\n\nThen again there is ghostly freedom. He is in this^ sense free\nwho finds within himself no sort of sin or imperfection. More\nfree is he who cleaves to nothing that has name nor it to him.\nStill freer is the man who works not for reward from God but\nsolely for God's glory. And most free of all, one who forgets\nhimself and flows with all he is into the bottomless abyss of his\nfirst cause. This is the case of those willing poor who have\ndescended into Humble Valley. They verily obey the precept of\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nour Lord, ' If any man will come after me let him take up his cross\nand follow me/ From such as have denied themselves to follow\nafter God in genuine poverty how can God refrain ? he must\npour out his grace into those souls who thus in love have undone\nthemselves. He pours his grace into them filling them full and in\nhis favours he bestows himself. With his own self does God\nadorn the soul like gold adorned with a precious stone. There-\nafter he leads on the soul to the beholding of his Godhead. In\neternity this happens, not in time. Although in time she has a fore-\ntaste of it in what is here described of the virtuous life. This I\nhave told so ye may know that none achieves the crown and sum-\nmit of his nature, knowing and loving, excepting by the path of\nwilling poverty, of being like these poor. That is for all the best.\n\nNow praising God for his eternal goodness we pray him to\nreceive us at the last. So help us Father, Son and Holy Ghost.\nAmen.\n\nIll\n\nTHE RANK AND NATURE OF THE SOUL\n\nWhen God created the soul he fell back upon himself and made\nher after his own likeness. Meister Eckhart of Paris says, God\nmade nothing like himself besides the soul. Thus we can give no\nshape to God nor can we to the soul, and as God is immortal so\ndid he make the soul. The soul is not dependent upon temporal\nthings but in the exaltation of her mind is in communication with\nthe things of God, hence her prodigious capabilities, and it amazes\nme that, being so like God and of such perfection and with such a\npowerful word of her own, the soul is still unable to speak the same\nas God. Some say it is because what is innate in God is not so\nin the soul : God is his own being and gets this from himself, but\nwhat the soul is that she gets from God and when she issues forth\nfrom him she does not keep his nature : she takes another nature, a\ndescendent of divinity. So she does not behave the same as God :\nGod moves all things in heaven and earth and gives life to all, and\nthe soul moves the body, giving life to every limb so that it sees,\nhears, feels and walks and talks although the mind may be else-\nwhere. St Gregory observes, ' We cannot see the visible except\nwith the invisible ' : the eye sees nothing corporal, lacking the\na-corporal thing which quickens it to sight. Subtract the mind,\nLe, the soul which is invisible, and the eye is open to no purpose,\nwhich before did see. God has formed the soul to himself and with\nhimself and in himself ; of time and in time and timely, and no\nsoul can get into God without first being God as she was before\nshe was made into God. Nothing but God finds its way into\n\nGod, and once the soul is in God she is God, borne into God on his\neternal Word. Soul is the mean 'twixt God and creature ; she is\nplaced at the beginning and end of the supreme, in touch with\ncommon knowledge and with the consolation the angels bring to\nher from God. If she prefers the inferior powers of her live senses\nto her higher ones whence comes her knowledge of celestial things,\nthen she grows ignoble and base. The creature pleasures of the\nsoul God has no stomach for, and when she realizes this she discards\nthe joys in which God has no share.\n\nWhile the soul is still here, in sleep, she drives away the angels,\nand refusing any longer to serve creature she conceives herself\nall one with God. St Augustine says the soul is nobler, mightier,\ngrander than any creature, but the angels are by nature of still\nhigher rank, for they are the first issue of the breath of God which\ngives life to them. Gregory, again, observes that ' The soul God\nhas appeared to, who has some inkling of him, hnds creatures all\nso narrow and so vain.' — While the higher powers of the soul are\nholding fast to God she actuates her lower powers so that what\noccurs in these comes to the knowledge of the higher ones. The\nhighest power of the soul is called an inextinguishable light\nbecause of the vision the soul has in this power. However far\naway her power is from God she can discern God always. Her\npower is never so much out but that it still burns somewhat,\nenough to be a danger-signal to the soul and, even were she\nspiritually dead in sin, a beacon showing her the way to come\nalive again and arise in true sorrow and repentance.\n\nHere comes the question. Can the soul with her owff powers\ncomprehend her highest happiness ? The answer given to this\nquestion by the four doctors, Thomas, Egidius, Henricus and\nAlbertus is, that if the soul had her knowledge of herself, as she\nhas her being, image-free, then she would be able to take in her\nhighest happiness, she being an infinite capacity which God cannot\nfill excepting with himself. St Augustine says. If her own perfect\nnature were immediately present to the soul she would be her\nproper self rather than creature in her nature, as she is classified.\nFor God is spirit and he en-spirits the soul who, in her spiritual\nnature, belongs to an order above creatures; she finishes with\ncreature in the perfect image of the eternal birth which is directly\nformed in her.\n\nAnother question is. How does God enter the soul ? Is he\ninnate in her, sustaining her with his intrinsic energy and pro-\nviding her with life and being ? One theory is that God enters\nthe soul in three ways. First in his grace whereby a man being\ngratified is filled with the desire of perfecting virtue as a whole,\nmingled with alarm lest any creature ever filch it from him.\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nSecondly, God enters the soul in pure perception wherein a man\nbeholds himself and learns to know himself and answer any call\nGod may make upon him, be it suffering or trials, bodily or\nmental. Thirdly, God enters the soul in true freedom, liberating\nman from all the cares of life. Let the soul bid him welcome,\nrefusing to be satisfied save with him alone. At the highest point\nof his inner self, his soul, man is more God than creature : however\nmuch he is the same as creature in his nature, in mind he is like\nGod more than any creature. To the soul at rest in God in her\npotential, her essential, intellectual nature, everything comes\nnatural as though she were created not at the will of something\nelse but solely at her own. In this point creatures are her subjects,\nall submitting to her as though they were her handiwork. It was\nin this power the birds obeyed St Francis and listened to his\npreaching. And Daniel took refuge in this power, trusting himself\nto God alone, when he sat among the lions. Moreover, in this\npower it has been the custom of the saints to offer up their suffer-\nings which, in the greatness of their love, arc to them no suffering.\n\nDionysius says the soul has got to purify herself till in her\nperfect clarity she is like the angels and receives by grace what the\nangels have by nature. For the soul will not be able to fulfil\nher destiny till she is like the angels in whom is no sin. But the\nsoul is from heaven (that is to say, from God who is the heaven of\nthe soul) and body from the earth, s© they are ever opposed to\none another. And that is why the soul, wanting to get back to\nGod whence she issued forth, absconds and leaves behind her all\nthe thfli^s which are not God and do not lead to God. All form\nand likeness, Dionysius says, God in the first instance imprinted\nin the lesser angels so that they should inform the soul with divine\nlight and consolation and enable her to enter into her own solitude,\nGod namely, wherein no creature can ever look and sec.\n\nTheologians say the soul is more greatly blest when God begets\nhimself in her without corporal union than the body of Christ is\nwithout his Godhood and without his soul. But any beatific\nsoul is a nobler thing than Christ's mortal body, for the interior\nbirth of God within the soul is the final consummation of her\nhappiness, a happiness more real to her than Christ's becoming\nman since this profits the soul nothing without union with God.\nAs Dionysius says, ' Beatitude means an in-dwelling with God such\nthat he is more present to the soul than she is to herself, and the\nsoul can apprehend him best when she approaches him with a\ntranquil mind.' For in peace is his habitation and in peace he\nelected us his children. But as God is the mover in the starry\nand revolving heavens so here in the soul he is the mover of the\nfreedom of our will towards himself and towards all good things :\n\nit is in his light that she sees the light and in his light she will\nbe united with the light. Theologians say that in their own\nnature the angels in heaven are nobler than the soul of Christ or\nMary because they are in essence nearer than the soul to God.\nBut by merit Christ's soul has more joy than all the angels and is\nnearer God than any angel. And the same with Mary's soul.\nNot by nature though, for by nature Christ's soul, and Mary's\ntoo, is the same as mine or any other human soul. Further,\ntheologians teach that the soul in man is more than thousandfold,\nfor it is whole in every limb : in the fingers, in the eyes and in the\nheart and in every several portion of each member large and small.\nJust as in the eighth heaven, where there are so many stars,\nthere is one angel who revolves that heaven and exists entire in\neach star. When God created man he safeguarded him against\nall ills ; the golden (ihain of destiny coming from the Trinity to\nthe highest power of the soul and running also through her lower\npowers subordinates them to the higher so that no fell disorder\ncan attack either the body or the soul excepting he transgress this\nlaw. In her higher powers the soul is spirit and in her lower,\nsoul ; and betwixt soul and spirit is the bond of one common\nbeing.\n\nAlso you must know that in the soul there exists one power\nwhich rests not day or night ; it is flowing from the Spirit and is\naltogether ghostly, and in this power God comes out in the full\nflower of his joy and glory, as he is in himself. Such intense\ndelight, such supreme exaltation as no mind can conceive nor\ntongue express. Were he always recollected in this power a man\nwould never age. Nay more I say : should he in this power\ncatch but one fleeting glance of the joy and bliss therein, it\nwould be happiness enough to make amends though he suffered\nall things.\n\nThe soul receives four things from God in her power of under-\nstanding. First, the entire certainty of freedom, of riddance,\nfrom all creatures, which God object^ to in her. Next, the full\nenjoyment of God while she abides in the power of love. Third,\nthe. complete protection of God against all harm from creatures.\nFourthly, victory in this power over all her foes. For as the Son\nof God, so also is the soul, and the promise of the Son is the promise\nof the soul, only she is not suspended from where the Son issues\nfrom the Father. Fire and heat are one ; taste and tasted are\none, albeit far asunder. The Word God speaks eternally lies\nhidden in the soul so that one neither knows of it nor hears it.\nDionysius says the soul resembles the procession in the Godhead\nsince the higher powers of the soul have her nature common to\nthem and each power flows into the rest. For the soul to rise\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nto spirit she must betake herself to her eternal part, never failing\nto remember that, by the grace of Gk)d, hers is an imperishable\nnature and capable of eternal bliss. Her spirit is suspended from\nthe unchanging God, so neither life nor death nor height nor depth\nnor angel nor man nor any creature can loose her steadfast hold\non God : the soul who dies in God is also buried in him and\nbeyond the ken of creatures just as much as God is beyond their\nken. As Dionysius says, when the soul considers the greatness\nof God's might beside her littleness she casts herself out of herself\nand out of every creature and thus reduced to naked nothingness,\nGod keeping her in his power, she persists simply in the grace of\nGod. God is concerned solely with himself ; he is to each thing\nabsolutely whole. And the soul should be the same : what God\nis by nature she must be by grace : detached and free from\ncreatures, abandoning all things to God as though they were not.\nIn a soul like this all that survives is God : his uncreated Breath\nis what the soul draws in inspiration, and she is spirit to all things\nand all things spirit to her, the eternal spiration of the Holy Ghost.\nVicentius the philosopher observes, ' The spirit detached is of\nsuch perfection that what it sees is real, what it wills comes true\nand its commands must be obeyed.'\n\nIt must be remembered that when the free spirit stands in\nperfect isolation it constrains God to itself, and if it could subsist\nas form devoid of accident it would have all the character of God.\nBut this God grants to none beside himself ; the utmost God can\ndo is to^gjyc himself to him, and such an one is so far raised up to\neternity that nothing temporal can move him, nothing material\naffect him ; he is dead to the world, as St Paul says, ' I live not ;\nChrist Hveth in me.'\n\nAccording to Dionysius, death in God is nothing but the un-\ncreated life, that is, God himself, not now called the soul but the\nsovran power of God, because with it he performs his will. What\nthe five senses get from such a soul she gives the whole of to her\ninner man whenever he embarks upon some high adventure, and\nsuch an one is then nonsensical (or senseless), his object being the\nrational, a-sensible idea. Dionysius comments on the dictum of\nSt Paul, ' There be many that run for the crown but it falls to none\nbut the wise.' This race, he says, is nothing else than the flight\nfrom creatures to union with their uncreated God. The soul, in\nhot pursuit of God, becomes absorbed in him, and she herself is\nreduced to naught, just as the sun will swallow up and put out the\ndawn. St Augustine says, ' The soul has a private door into\ndivine nature, where for her all things amount to naught.' And,\n' The flavour of the spirit spoils the taste for flesh ' ; and, ' The\nsoul at her summit is ignorant with knowing, j5pj .tjb^ .oneness of\n\n29d\n\nthe spirit those that have abandoned everything to God are as he\nhad them when we existed not.' The Lord Jesus stands before\nthe soul as the perfect pattern for our human conduct. But the\nsubjective aspect of the three Persons — Godhead, mind — no crea-\nture ever saw, not soul nor angel nor the humanity of Christ, in\nits own nature. Yet it is held by some, and Meister E(rkhart of\nParis notably, maintains in the teeth of all objections : As surely\nas you know me for a man so surely God gives birth to his own\nnature in the ground of my soul as in his heaven, and I am not\nhappy till I return to God discarding every means of sin and all its\nbrood together with all creatures. For in th(^ selfsame ground\nwherein the Father bears his Son in his own nature therein am\nI born. In the soul that has trodden underfoot all the ills of time\nthe Father naturally will beget his Son as surely as my father gat\nme a living man. In the very ground wherein the Father gets\nhis Son therein does he get me and all whom the Fatlier draws to\nhim by grace. And as God in himself is absolutely free from\nthings so I am there by gratae what God is by nature. God\ndestines all of us to such a glorious lot as few indeed can credit\nwho have not gone out of themselves. If God gave the soul his\nwhole creation she would not be lillcd thereby but only with\nhimself : he is the very highest uncreated heaven of all the heavens\nin God's nature. That the soul in us is deathless is not our doing\nbut God's : it is the nature of her. But union comes by grace,\nthe highest stooping down to inform the lowest, and therein lies\nour hope of future sight.\n\nThe soul ascends from corporal things and, being caught up\nabove herself, abides within herself, lirst, for the sake of the\ndelights she finds in God. For the divine perfection invests her\nin him with his likeness. His fullness is i)oured forth without\nstint : angels more in number than the sands and grass and water-\ndrops and every single angel with his own distinctive nature,\nnot one the same as any other,- Secondly, the soul ascends for\nthe sake of the purity she finds in God ; things in him arc all\nquite pure and noble, but once they issue forth from him into\nthe nearest creatures there is all the difference between aught and\nnaught. — Thirdly, the soul ascends for the recollection she enjoys\nin God. In order to grasp God she must have a wont that is\nhigher than herself ; though God had made a thousand earths\nand a thousand heavens the soul could comprehend them all in her\none power, the active power's reflection. But she cannot conceive\nGod in the act of making her in his own image. — Fourthly, the\nsoul ascends for the sake of the infinite good things she enjoys\nin God : all things in him are ever new in his Son who to-day is\nbeing born the same as though his Father had never given him\n\n294 MEISTER ECKHART\n\nbirth. And as God is flowing into the soul she is flowing back into\nGod.\n\nThe soul takes four steps into God. On turning to God, at\nfirst she feels afraid of his magnificence. Her next step is to\novercome this fear and conceive the hope of God's affection.\nHer third step brings the vehement desire, she hails it as the\npromise, of the infinite embrace wherein she is embraced by God. —\nAt the fourth step she falls into such deep oblivion she never\nthinks of leaving what she has found in God. God made the soul\nfor his only Son to be born in her. And when and where soever\nthere befalls this birth it gives God greater jdcasure than the\ncreation of the heavens and earth because the soul is nobler and\nbigger than the heavens. As there is wedlock between a man and\nwife so there is wedlock between God and the soul. The head\npower in the soul is the man and the lowest is his wife. The\nman in the soul always stands Ijareheadcd and the woman veiled,\nthe lower power being caught up to the highest of the soul. First\nGod begets his likeness in the soul and afterwards himself as he is\nin eternity. God's Son is the soul's Son : in him God and the\nsoul have the same Son, that is, God. Once this birth has happened\nin the soul she is fit for (iod, and the oftener this birth befalls the\nmore at home the soul will be in God, in his paternal heart.\n\nThe soul has two feet, understanding and love. And the more\nshe knows the more she loves. Who shall catise her to fall, she\nbdng uphold by the sustaincr of all creatures ? Grace lending wings\nto desire^he is borne out of herself, and by grace and in grace she\nis borne into grace and past grace into (iod her first cause where in\nblissful union her lot is good beyond compare. There every sense is\ndumb; the soul's will and God's will are confused with one another,\nthe two wills love-locked in the true atonement. Now the soul does\nneither more nor less than the work of God, for there no longer\nlives in her anything but God. As the soul cries in the Book of\nLove, ' I have nni the whole world round and have found no end\nto it. Wherefore I have east myself into the solitary point of my\none God who has wounded me with his glance.' Whom this\nglance did never wound, his soul was never pierced with the love\nof God. St Bernard says, ' To the spirit that feels this glance it is\nineffable ; to him that fe(;ls it not it is incredible.' 'Tis an arrow\nsped without anger and received without pain ; thence starts\nthe pure and limpid stream of healing grace which opens the\ninner eye to perceive in blissful beholding the delights of this\ndivine affliction wherein we enjoy unheard-of spiritual favours,\nthings never told nor preached of nor yet described in any book.\n\nThe soul must give up idle thoughts and worldly cares and\ncorporal pleasures and find her way into his hiding-place whom the\n\nheaven of heavens is not able to contain. Gk>d's comfort is only\nfor that soul who scorns all temporal consolations ; and the more\nshe runs from creatures the faster their creator comes and makes\nher one with him. Dionysius says, love takes the soul out of\nherself and identifies her with the object of her love, making her\ninsensible and reckless of herself so long as she can do the will of\nher best-beloved. The powers of the soul, those of her spiritual\nmind, are celestial in the sense that they do celestial work ; thus\nthe first power receives, the second one perceives and the third\none loves. When the soul, conceiving God, is using in recollection\nher mnemonic power and, in beholding, her intelligence, then love\ntransports her into the midst of God, the point at which there is\neternal rest. The Father abiding in the soul clasps her to his\nheart, and in this fatherly embrace she conceives the Son in his\npersonal procession and hence divines his presence with the Father\nin his essence ; as saith the Lord, ' 1 will lead her into the desert,'\nmeaning, he will lead the soul away from vanity and say his say,\nhis only Son, in her. And in this same begetting of his Son they\npour their holy Breath into the soul, informing her of all things.\nAny act of soul that is to share in the eternal meed must be wrought\nin God. However good an act is in itself, excepting it be wrought\nin God, it meets with no reward from hini who docs not pay by\nlength or size or multitude of works but for their being done in\nGod, soul being the material God works in. In this divine alliance\nshe is highly honoured, for what God is by nature she is made by\ngrace. But if a soul presents herself before her bridegroom Jesus\nChrist without the ordinary virtues, forgetting to prepare herself\nin this resja.'ct for heaven, her shall he cast out into the pit of hell,\nthere to realize his justice just as much in suffering as St Peter did\nin heaven liis eternal joy. Her true bridegroom Jesus Christ\ncomes to the soul and shows her in his visible humanity his divine\naffection in order that all creatures may do homage to our nature\nwhich has been exalted higher than the angels. We cannot\nimagine him creating any creature nobler than ourselves. His\nmanhood satis lies our sense as his Godhood does our soul. As\nSt Augustine says, we shall end with our soul in the Godhead, and\nour bodily senses in the humanity of Christ which is exalted above\nthe saints and angels to where, in its unchanging nature, no\n(creature can attain. When the watching soul is warned by various\nsigns of the coming of her king, everything in her rejoices, and it is\nhis royal right to use his sovran power to fulfil the expectation of\nthe soul who longs for him to buttress her against her outward\nsenses lest by yielding to them in the least she should bring about\nin any creature something counter to the will of God. The\nsurest way to friendship with the king is for the soul blindly to\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nfollow where God leads. If the soul, which rather than the body\nconstitutes us man, if the soul, I say, would only obey all God's\nintimations she would overcome every obstacle with ease and\nrejoice in the burdens borne for him. And when she finds herself\nwith nothing to correct she will be free with perfect freedom from\nopinion. It is the mark of the God-loving soul that from the\nmoment she goes into his service she never follows her own will\nas distinct from his. God is the one thing that needs nothing and\nthat all things need. And when the soul, beholding herself from\nwithin, perceives herself by grace omnipotent she stays in her own\nideal nature.\n\nThe soul observes concerning God, first, that she has intuition\nof him who is to come to her. Next, she is in essential union with\nhim who is operating in her. Thirdly, she enjoys him who so\nrichly entertains her at his table. Fourthly, he provides her with\na refuge where she is at peace. Dionysius says, ' When the soul\nreturns to God her idea of herself in God is that, except for self-\nawareness, nothing survives in her but God.* When the soul does\nthis she still keeps in touch with her outward man whom she\nsupplies with his natural life. By speaking himself into the soul\nGod unites himself with her and makes the soul into himself, giving\nher such great ability, it seems to her that being hen; in time is\nher only obstacle to good. In the virtuous uses of her exaniplar\nmind, all things being present to the soul in this interior Word of\nGod, her spirit converses with God freely in proportion to the\nclearness of the Father's inspiration. It is important then for the\nsoul to* Kliow what behaviour to adopt towards God so that she\nmay discover the practices that draw from God his intimations.\nFor this the loving soul must love God more than anything, who,\ndescending into her and energising in her with his spirit, gives her\nto understand that the interior love she has from him she ought\nto have and show towards all mankind ; and the soul should\nsubmit herself to God as though he suffered death for her alone.\nSo doing she will wax in truth and fit herself to receive the universal\ngift of God whereby she will arrive at the truth of the humanity of\nChrist. But if she does not do her best she puts herself on a\nmaterial level with the brutes, that must be spurred to great\nexertion ; yet the sorriest of men, who are always bound to fall\nshort of God, Christ wrought more deeds of love for than all the\nsaints have ever done for love of him. Though all creatures were\nto speak they could never tell the perfection God confers on man,\nespecially the soul, than which he neither could nor would make\nany nobler creature. 1'his he proves in his own Person, with its\ncommon boundary bi;twcen his divine and human natures. It\nfollows that the soul ought to shun all creatures as things unworthy\n\nof her whereby she may be lured from the things she is destined\nto by God, and she ought to be ashamed if, being within reach of\nhis eternal good, she should fail to grasp it.\n\nHere there is the question, If the soul is of such high estate that\ntime and place and nature arc powerless to move or even touch\nher in her essential self, does God then work in her without any\nimage of himself ? To this theologists reply, Granting the soul\nis creature and has a spiritual nature it follows of neeessity that\nwhat God does in her is wrought essentially and free from all\ncontingency ; for his works arc all essential and eternal as they are\nin himself, and the soul participates them in her nature above\ngrace. Grace is the outflowing light designed for the service of\nthe spirit ; grace would not be a light had it no recognised spiritual\nmission. At the point where God enters the soul in love she is\nno more known than the highest angel is to her and loves all things\nGod -fashion without any natural idiosyjH*rasy. God is abstract\nintellectual essence, eternal in itself, whereas the soul is made\neternal. The soul is no more to be grasped in images and forms\nthan God in words and names. The soul is one in nature with and\nsubject to the laws of the authentic intellect of God, a monad so\nperfectly balanced in itself no creature can And room there.\n\nThe Lord Jesus said to his disciples, ' 1 go to prepare a place for\nyou.' These words teach us two important facts. First, that the\nsoul is by nature made for heaven and God is her lawful heritage.\nFor God brought forth the soul alone in unbroken line and no man\nknoweth what she is. Every man has got a soul, but what she\nactually is there is no telling here in time. St Augustine says, the\nsoul is sent from God and returns to God and she cannot rest\nexcept in him ; for God is spirit and soul is also spirit and germane\nto God as one spirit to another. And they compare the soul with\nfire, most lofty in its nature, most mighty in its ojjcration, which\nnever rests until it licks the skies. Fire envelops all the elements,\nspreading further and wider and higher than the air, than water\nor the earth, so that it surrounds the rest and coming next the\nheavens turns round with them. The soul is called a lire because\nin her desire she keeps up with God, like fire with the heavens and\ncan find no rest except in him. Again, the soul is dubbed a spark\nof celestial nature because one has already ascended into heaven,\nthe soul, to wit, of Jesus Christ, which shows the common resting-\nplace of souls is nowhere else than heaven. But unless the soul\nhas turned from temporal to celestial things the Holy Ghost\ncannot enter in to do its work in her. All God's work is wrought\nin spirit. God is high and man is low : to rise to him in prayer he\nhas to hoist himself by putting under him God's creatures, all\nof them, including the powers of the soul which end in the functions\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nof the body, then she will have the love and knowledge to carry her\nabove the world. For to know God I want no eyes or ears ; for\nunion with God in love I want no hands or feet ; I want to withdraw\nmyself from all created things and let my spirit swoon into God's\nspirit and be one spirit with Gk)d ; withal it was the love God\nbears my soul that prevailed with him to create all creatures and\ntherein reveal to her his glory. And albeit he made creatures\nglad, he mixed therewith some sorrow, that anyone careless of his\nhonour might be whipped and spurred with pain. Marvellous as\nthe mind of man are the ways of God, drawing one to him with\npleasure and another with the buffets of ill-fortune ; witness the\namazing conversion of St Paul on his way to persecute the Chris-\ntians, notwithstanding which his soul was caught up into the third\nheaven. And the very day St Augustine was converted he\nrefused to be appeased with the extraordinary pleasure he felt\nin the security God sent into his soul to turn her to him.\n\nThree things keep the soul from being content with creatures.\nIn the first place they are partial. In the second, they arc cor-\nporal : emblems of stagnation and corruption and unprogressive-\nness. Thirdly, the gift of creatures is no largesse of him from\nwhom she first came forth {Le, from God), so they are not relished\nby souls who have been caught up into bliss ; but God the Jiord\nlures souls to him just as the lambs are lured from one spot to\nanother by green pasture. Though all psychic powers lay in a\nsingle soul she could not here receive the very least reward of the\nsmallest act decreed by God in his eternal love without the soul\nmelting and dying to the body. Not so, however, when she gets\nthe whole reward, namely God himself. But for this the soul\nmust transcend herself and creatures and enter into the divine\nestate, into her divine exemjdar nature ; for the soul contacts\neternity with her higher powers and with her lower, creatures,\nwhicli often lead her into evil. Could the soul see God as clearly\nas the angels do she would never have come into the body. God\nis formed in the image of himself, after a pattern of his own, and\nwhen she mingles with him in actual intuition, the soul resembles\nhim in form, for he conforms her to him : divine light streams into\nthe soul confusing her with God like one light with another and\nthis is called the light of faith, the divine virtue. Where the soul\nwith her powers and her passions is forbidden to go, there faith\ncan take her ; and when in this power God is apprehended in the\nsoul she acquires the virtue of hope wherein the soul becomes so\nintimate with God she fancies there is nothing in God beyond her\nreach. St Augustine says, ' The pears I stole, these were to me\nfar sweeter than the ones my mother bought, because they were\nprivate and forbidden fruit.' And so is that grace sweeter to the\n\nsoul which she conceives in wisdom than that which is common to\nmankind. The soul must serve God here with her lower powers\nand in eternity with her higher ones, for she is not made of time\nnor of eternity : she is made from naught of the nature of them\nboth. Leaning to the temporal she is unstable ; keeping to the\neternal she is strong and stable and superior to change.\n\nThe bridegroom of the soul is the Lord Jesus of sevenfold like-\nness. First, in his beauty with which the sun is nothing to compare,\nfor it is not self-luminous : God provides the light wherewith\nit lights the air. And his bride should be the same in thought and\nword and deed. For this God lias to brighten all her tarnishes of\nsin, making luminous the place of her abode.- Secondly, her Lord\nis of noble lineage : in heaven he has a F ather but no mother and\non earth a mother but no father, parentage too strange for any\nmind to grasp. And his bride, the soul, by birth adorns a rank\nhigher than anything inferior to God. — Thirdly, her Lord is\nimmensely rich : heaven and ('arth belong to him with all the\ncreatures in it. Accordingly his bride, the soul, may freely\nconfide her every care to him and have no doubt of his providing,\nfor lui is readier to give than we are to receive. — Fourthly, his\nwisdom is so lucid, it lights the ground of every heart and nothing\nis hidden from his eyes. Wherefore his bride, the soul, must be\nvery cartTul not to do anything she thinks may be displeasing in\nhis sight,- \"F'ifthly, his power is prodigious ; by it all things have\ncome to be and arv preserved in being. And his bride, the soul,\nhas corresponding ho])(i in times of trouble or in any kind of suffer-\ning or struggle. For what she cannot do he can to wllom all\nthings arc possible.- Sixthly, he is sweet-tem[)ercd. He is called\nin the scriptures a lamb without blemish, for he is free from anger\nand bears no resentment. Likewise the soul, his bride, must be\ngentle, kind and patient in whatever he shall send her to his\nglory. — Lastly, her Lord, Jesus Christ, has eternal health and\ndcatlilessncss. And the soul, his bride, should be cheerfully\nindifferent to disease, not caring for anything so much but she\nwould always be as glad to do without as keep it, just as her\nbridegroom pleases, and finding no pain so hard to bear but she\nwould suffer it as lief as not. God's justice to her is as precious\nas his mercy. This soul is just as pleased with God's gifts to\nothers as herself.\n\nIt is written, ' The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God '\nwho keeps them too tightly to his sides to be gotten out. Also he\nmade them separate as his handiwork ; their guerdon in eternal life,\nhimself ; for God alone did make the soul, unhelped by any crea-\nture ; in power according to his might ; in intellect according to\nhis wisdom and according to his goodness in her will, as he from\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\neternity knew how to make her mighty in his power and blessed\nin his infinite good. The soul is not made of the nature of God\nbut in the image of the Holy Trinity, and being bound to God by\nlove alone she, seeking perfect rest in him, proclaims her fitness\nto be his pleasant temple. He went into his temple and drove out\nthe buyers and the sellers, commanding them. Take these things\nhence. So he made it known that he would have the temple of\nthe soul swept clean, with nothing in it but himself alone. The\nsoul should take example by the angels who disregard all outward\nthings and are without intention except to do the perfect will of\nGod. So bent are they upon the will of God, upon its being done\nin them, that were it to pick nettles or anything like that, they\nwould do it with a will, as though their whole happiness depended\non it.\n\nAny soul devoted thus to the will of God and seeking not her\nown Jesus takes delight and will work wonders in. When she goes\nout of her own will all things go in with .Jesus and she becomes so\nfull of light that God alone rivals her in splendour. For though\nthe angels do to some extent resemble the soul in the joys of the\nhereafter, they have a limit set which they cannot pass beyond.\nThe soul can transcend it in good works, and having once, in grace,\ndrawn level here with the highest angel, her will, free now from\nall good works, carries her incalculably higher than the angels,\nprovided she can leave her body.\n\nThe uncreated God alone is free and the soul's virgin nature is\nthe same but not her creature nature : it was she who chose to\ncome to 'naught, but it is left to God to fetch her back. For\nJesus to be in the soul she has to recollect herself and be quiet\nand listen to his Word. When her spirit is receiving power in the\nSon her every word is pregnant of purity and virtue and perfection.\nSuch a soul nothing can disturb : she stands firm and unshaken\nas in the power of God.\n\nAnd Jesus reveals himself in the soul in his infinite wisdom\nwherein the Father knows himself in all his fatherly authority, to-\ngether with his Word which is wisdom's self and all that therein\nis and the oneness of it. When this same wisdom is embodied in\nthe soul, doubt, error, obstacles of all sorts fade away and leave\nher in the clear, pure light which is God himself. God in this\nsoul is seen with God : she knows herself and all things with his\nwisdom. — Also Jesus manifests himself with passing sweetness in\nthe power of the Holy Ghost, and with him the soul flows into\nherself and beyond herself and transcending all things in grace,\nplunges directly into her first cause.\n\nRichardus says, commenting upon the Book of Virtue ; When\nthe divine light strikes into the soul she finds her own activities\n\nexceedingly insipid, and unable to tolerate herself in her own\npowers she confines herself to enjoying God. Now St Augustine\nsays, ' My soul is where she loves rather than where she is giving\nlife.* At this rate God is nearer me than I am to myself ; and any\nloving soul who follows God so far as to rise above herself, nor\nrests with pleasure in herself or any creature, such a soul, I say,\nwill have no pleasure either in God's gifts : what she desires is\nGod himself. When the soul is rid of things she has certain\nknowledge of and is nothing lacking in the image of God, her\nmind is wide open to the eternal truth. The eternal sun sheds\nits light into this soul and permeates her powers, each separate\nfaculty feeling the physical contingency of the visitation according\nto its individual nature. And the light of the eternal sun raises\nall the soul-powers to the power of itself in the wholly intelligible\nimage. When the soul undergoes this operation, as it is per-\nformed by God, in essential understanding, then the soul's under-\nstanding becomes the light (or knowledge) of all God is bringing\nabout in her by grace. And her mind being enhanced, as we have\nsaid, her faculties are raised above the things of time, so that\ncome what may her powers arc unhindered by anything infernal\nand are always being augmented, never getting less. For divine\nunderstanding we depend upon God's bounty ; but it is his nature\nto give himself to us and the soul's nature is to give herself to him\nwho gives himself to her, thus giver and gift, doer and deed are\none. The Lord Jesus said, ' I go to him that sent me.* And the\nsoul too may say in her ascent to God, ' I go to him I came from.*\n\nShe goes to the Father, first, in her fixed intention no longer\nto disobey his will by cumbering herself with untoward creatures.\nSecondly, she goes the perfect way of answering every call God\nmakes upon her ; and thirdly, she goes in the sweet savour of\nGod's love wherein her suffering is no suffering. Fourthly, she\ngoes in the four cardinal virtues, prudence, temperance, fortitude\nand justice, over time and creatures. And she goes in the three\nvirtues of faith, hope and charity, without which no one gets to\nGod. Who knows to what wonders the soul may not attain by\ncommitting herself into the hands of God ? Every blessed soul\nkeeps open heart to God's consolation, and such as she receives\nfrom him she passes on to her inferior powers wherewith she knows\nnot God else were he dishonoured in the weak intelligence of these\nlower faculties. And because all souls have not the same aptitude\nfor God, the vision of God is not enjoyed the same by all any\nmore than the sunshine affects all eyes alike.\n\nIt is written, ' There shall come forth a stem out of the root of\nJesse.* Here let us consider three things : what this root is out\nof which God is born in the soul, and what and what measure\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nof profit does it bring ? ' Root of Jesse ' is a term for the fiery\n\nnature whieh attracts and transmutes all comers to itself. It is\nthe fiery nature of God : drawing the soul it converts her into\nitself and she is spiritually born in understanding ; for the soul\nhas in common with the angels a light wherein she can see God,\nand this light she is provided with is her intellect which is cease-\nlessly conveying God's wisdom to the soul. But it darkens when\npoured into the body.\n\nWe read of three kings bringing Christ their offerings. These\nwe take to mean the three inferior powers of the soul, things by\nrights at the disposal of her superior powers. I am going now to\nspeak of these superior powers, showing how they are the kings\nand what gifts of lower powers it is they bring.\n\nThe first king is memory, bearing the produce of his kingdom.\nWhen the soul calls to mind how noble God has made her there\nflows from this perception a passionate desire which ascends to\nGod, flinging behind it all the things of tiiiK*. Then indeed King\nMemory conies offering the gold of love to God, together with\nsurrender of all else. The second king of the soul is understanding.\nThis corresponds with her other power, reason or judgment.\nWhen the soul sees that by grace she is enabled to fulfil the will\nof God, she is never weary of subjugating creatures to please God\nand each one the more in proportion to the merit she acquires from\nGod. Understanding then, comes rich with patience and grateful\nacceptance of whatever lot God destines for her in the body here\nand with this she has the fruit of incense, the union of all virtues,\nso that what would otherwise be hard and difficult her love makes\nfeasible and easy. — The soid's third king is will. When in the\nflower of his strength he brings the soul the fire of love, which\ntries her through and through and consumes away all the sinful\naffections of her nature, then she is fixed, and neither life nor\ndeath nor any creature can separate her from the love of God.\nSo they bring her myrrh to keep her from the rot of temiwral\nthings which to the soul arc a fertile source of evil. St Ambrose\nsays, ' Gk)d pours forth the soul creating and pouring forth he creates\nher.' And when she is in love with him, immediately he comes\nto her, as his spiritual bride admits where she says in the Book of\nLove, ' While I was at rest upon my bed my love came tapping\nat my window and he put in his hand and touched me.' This\nsuggests that when the soul comes to know herself she withdraws\nfrom all the things which are present to her here, for she herself\nis of greater worth and higher status than any of the other things\nin time. When now the loving soul has gone out of all creatures\nand herself, then the eternal truth comes forth as well to meet\nthe loving soul and touch her understanding and exalt it with his\n\nlight which more enriches her than all the knowledge of material\nthings hitherto amassed by her own nature. St Augustine says,\n\n' As the sun shines through glass and makes its contents plain, so is\nthe soul's intelligence illumined by the light of God with the recog-\nnition of her divine abilities.* Then the soul is seen in her poverty\nand God in his purity. Indeed Dionysius says as much when he\nspeaks of ' the naked soul, one with her naked God, resting in the\ndesert of the Godhead.' It may well be called a desert, for crea-\nture never looked therein by grace. Ignorance of these matters\nis just cause for shame. Yet if one of the chief angels should\ndescend and, with creatures all as w^ise as he, discourse of human\nhappiness, they might talk till doomsday and not tell the tale of\nall God has in store for every loving soul in life eternal. But the\nsoul must not seek God for any reason except God himself. The\nemptier she keeps the more God fills her and the more ])erfectly\nhe does his work in her ; besides, it is the safest way, for then\nat any moment she will be prepared to quit the body at God's\ninstance rather than remain there at her own. And being so poor\nof self she will find naught but God both here and yonder. There\nis no call for such a soul to look outside herself : the Holy Ghost\nwill teach her the elements of bliss in the school of her own heart.\nShe cherishes the gift wherewith God has endowed his best beloved.\nAnd the better to fulfil God's will in everything she does she\ntrains herself never to be without pure consciousness so that the\nheavenly Father can go on ever giving birth in her to his eternal\nWord, Jesus Christ his Son. For at her highest point my soul is\nnot in time and does not work in time and is just as neaf td things\na thousand miles away as to this spot I stand on.\n\nJ^hcorctically speaking, nothing that takes shape or is touched\nby time can get into the soul, and not only time but likeness.\nThe head of the soul is her highest power, and from the moment\nshe was made she has never for an instant been without the boon\nof this divine light, this power in which the time God made the\nworld in and the judgment day are just as present to the soul\nas this time wherein I speak. Being in the power of her head the\nsoul enjoys the benefit of participation in the grace and happiness\ncommon to all saints as though they were her own. It is certainly\nthe fact that anyone actually in this head never commits sin and\nknows so much about eternal bliss and is so well informed that he\nneeds no sermons. Wherefore erecting the head of the soul let\nus gather ourselves up into the breadth and freedom of a power\nlike this and depart from temporal to eternal things when, in this\nsame power, God suddenly gives birth to all he is in might and\ntruth and wisdom in the soul. Verily the soul in whom this grace\nis found is absolutely pure and every whit like God. For anything\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nwell-pleasing to the Father or which makes for our profit or our\nweal, must be well-pleasing to him in his Son, because apart from\nhim he has no likes whatever. This then is the nobility which\nGod has implanted in the soul, her beatific nature which is receptive\nto the grace of God, so that in this grace the light of God's pure\nnature can shine into the soul and the Word of the Trinity be\nspoken in her mind and the life of eternity energise in her.\n\nTheologians say the soul is a suspended force in the power of\nthe Father and a reflected light in the wisdom of the Son and a\ncirculation in the sweetness of the Holy Ghost. According to\nSt Augustine, the soul comes from the heavenly land, out of the\npaternal heart ; the offspring of God's love and scion of the noble\nhouse of the holy Trinity, she is the heir to heaven, the mistress\nof all creatures and the proprietor of all the joys God gives\nin his eternity. She is the image of God and the noblest creature\nthat ever God conceived. For God gripped in between his divine\nnature and his Godhood, into his eternal essence, and produced the\nsoul from nothing, just as he made from nothing heaven and\nearth and all things. If you ask how big the soul is, know, she\nis too big for heaven and earth to fill, or even God himself whom\nthe heavens cannot comprehend. To measure the soul you must\ngauge her with God. And she is so beautiful as long as she is\nin the grace of God and not deformed by sin, the highest angels,\nSeraphim and Cherubim and all the saints try in vain to copy her in\nform and likeness, for she is God's image. As to her life in time, she\nis flowing back to her natural source whence she issued forth ; and\nthe freer she has kept herself from temporal forms and creatures\nthe kinder her return to God, for God is absolutely free from\nmatter, mode and form. For the soul to compare with the abstract\nspirit of God she must be free from the smallest trace of sensible\naffection and quite without attachment to anything not God.\nThat such perfect freedom is not known to every spirit is due\nsolely to our undiscovered life and our untaught senses. All the\npotential good in creatures the soul will find in God together with\ninestimable joy. St Augustine says, ' When everything was still\nthat existed in me God spake a silent Word within my soul,\nwhich no one understood but me.' And to whatever soul this\nWord is said she will forget all modes and forms and become an\nin-dweller with God. Thus St Paul relates, ' From the moment\nthe eternal Word was revealed within my soul I no linger lived for\nflesh and blood.' Inasmuch as she is selfless she is self-possessed\nand strong. The faithful, loving soul is like the bee, sipping from\nall kinds of flowers the sweets to make its honey. And even so\nthe soul culls from the flowers of virtue somewhat of each one to\nheal and fortify her. It is a crying need for she has three mortal\n\nfoes : the world, the flesh and the devil, hanging all together like\nthree cherries on one stem. Of these three foes the deadliest\nis the body, wherein the soul is clapt as into prison : not that she\nmay pander to its vicious appetites but to say them nay and by\nthis resistance daily to augment her reward in heaven and here the\nlove inpoured. It was Seneca, the heathen philosopher, who said,\n' Man is his own worst enemy.' Death stands at the door of evil\nappetites, and the pursuit of vice leads into paths which seem all\nright to us but sometimes they debouch in the pit of hell. If the\nsoul, the mistress of the body, indulges its base appetites and fails\nto check its sins she has herself to blame when either here or\nyonder she must pay for it to God. And that there may be no\nescaping from God's justice for them that kill the soul with sin\nand end in fleshly lusts, he says in the prophet Amos, ' My wrath\nshall drive over you like a chariot, cracking with its weight ;\nmy anger the swift shall not outrun nor the valiant turn aside\nnor yet the strong man conquer with his strength. Not one\nshall escape me, how fair or strong or mighty soever he may be.'\nAnd seeing that the soul has such a high and heavenly destiny,\ntherefore Meister Elckhart of Paris, at the end of the aforesaid\nthings, which are taken from his writings, sets the following\nprayer :\n\nO Sovran Riches of Divine Nature, show me thy way which\nthou in thy wisdom hast ordained and open to me thy most\nprecious treasure whereto thou hast called me : to know with\nsupercreaturely intelligence, to love with the angels, to enjoy with\nthy only Son our Lord Jesus Christ and to be thine heir to Sternal\nwisdom and by thy help to be preserved from evil. For thou hast\nexalted me above all creatures and hast sealed me with the seal\nof thine eternal image and put my soul beyond the grasp of\ncreatures and hast made nothing liker to thyself than man is in\nhis soul. Teach me to live so that I never want thee ; so as never\nto hinder the working of thy love-stream in me ; so as never to\nlend myself to any outward pleasure without thee nor occupy\nmy mind more with any creature than with thee. Lord thou art\nspirit and incomprehensible to creature ; thou dost inspire the\nsoul and raise her to an order above creature so that she can do\nthy will, O Eternal Wisdom, and in grace be free from inroad of\nunbidden images. Thou hast made the soul to suit thyself in her\nnature and her laws and she maintains she has no room for anyone\nbut thee. O Almighty and Most Merciful Creator and dear Lord,\nhave mercy upon me a sinner and help me to overcome all pitfalls\nwith their lures to idle pleasure ; to shun in thought and act\nwhat thou forbiddest and both to do and keep all thy commands ;\nhelp me to believe, to hope, to love ; to live and feel exactly as\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nthou wilt and as much as thou wilt and what thou wilt. Lord,\ngrant me the sorrow of the humble ; a mind escaped from\nmortal body ; to love, to laud and to behold thee and cherish\nevery act and thought that is toward thee. Grant me a clear\nand sober and genuinely prayerful mind with real intuition of\nthy will, together with the love and joy which make it easy to\nperform. Lord, vouchsafe me always modest progress towards\nbetter things and never to backslide. And, O my Lord, condemn\nme not, as I deserve, to rely on my own powers or on human weak-\nness and unwisdom but on thy good providence alone. Direct\nme Lord to The Good itself, my every thought and act to thine own\nliking, so that on my part, in me, thy will is always being done and\nI being saved from evil and brought to thy eternal life where thou\nart three in Person and one in the essence of thy divine nature :\nFather, Son and Holy Ghost and ever blest almighty God. Amen.\n\nIV\n\nTHE SOUL'S PERFECTION!\n\nSpeaking of the final perfection of the soul theologians ask. What\nis meant by saying that the spirit in its understanding has become\nthe intellectual existence of the eternal essence in the perennial\nnow with nothing between ? That is the first question. The\nsecond question is. How can the spirit make good its intellectual\nreturn into the unchanging, and have the eternal image in perfect\nclearness and essential intimacy and in the interior freedom of\nthe spirit ? The third question is about the highest flight of the\nspirit, its nearest approach of all to the divine presence and\nwhether its own powers are equal to the task ?\n\nFirst, we must remember how the divine being proceeded forth\nin the present now, with falling man, the gist of it, immediate in\nhis spiritual prototype in virtue of its nearness and also by reason\nof the inherent now of its light of glory and intellectual image from\nwhich the intellect sees back quite clearly to the un-proceeded\nsplendour of its eternally immanent spiritual exemplar wherein it\nis nameless and beyond all words which are creaturely. The word\nis in the eternal Word and one presence with it and God with his\nwhole nature and the full range of his power can make out of his\nessence nothing more resembling the divine species in the ground\ndivine nature and reflecting him so well. He who receives the\nlight of the spirit as it is the image of God, wherein is no part, that\nis the medium of perfection, for therein his spirit is one with divine\nnature.\n\n1 See also Jostes, No. 34, of which this tractate forms the middle portion.\n\nAs to the second question, you must understand that although\nthe intelligible image of God in the spirit partakes in its nature and\npurity more of the perfection of the content of its immanent\nessence than of the emanation of itself, nevertheless it is therein\nessence that has become. Take the spirit in its nearest ground,\nabiding within in its endless image and eternal image. As the\nendless image it is always within and in its eternal image it presents\nitself as an eternal question. As Christ asks, ' Whose is this\nimage and this superscription ? ' Mark the difference between this\nimage and its superscription. In the image exists God, and all\nhis output in spirit and in nature — the human mind (or spirit) with\nall it is able to afford, — these are in uniformity so exact and close\nthat the image of divine glory shines in all its detail in the spirit\nand this image in the spirit is perfectly reflected back into its\nindwelling essence. So much for the image of God. And what\nof the superscription ? That is the unspeakable species of the\ndivine nature, which in its whole ground, actual and essential, is\na naked and immediate presence in the spirit, in virtue of which\nthe spirit in its free nature and intellectual image suffers all God's\nsuper-rational operation. The limit comes where the divine\nfreedom seizes the spirit's freedom and turns it into foolishness and\nat this point all scientific knowledge fails ; there is no further\nprogress to be made by natural creature-knowledge but only in\nspirit by experiencing God.\n\nNow to answer the third question. Philosophers say that one's\nown is ever innate and can be had at will. It follows .thfit the\nspirit can rise to the supreme perfection of its divine nature for\nit can stand in its first now, in that wherein it was not. And\nthat is the answer to the third query.\n\nThen there is the question, can God leave man's spirit to itself\nor not ? I say, No, it would be against the justice of his nature\nand against his truth and would make a travesty of God's whole\ncreation. God must cither let the spirit be God extra to himself\nor else he must merge it in himself, when it has left all things.\nThis will not outrage God, for the spirit is too haughty and touches\ntoo closely the honour of God for him to be able to make aught\nbut himself the end of its perfection. It has this unique property :\nits ground can overleap all spirits into his super-intelligible spirit,\nnamely, the indwelling essence of divine nature.\n\nA man was asked, What dost thou lack ? He said. Nothing,\nexcept poverty of spirit. — And though I have a will no bigger\nthan a grain of mustard seed I am no poor man, and if God were\nto ask me. Art thou a poor man ? I should reply that, be my will\nas good as God's yet am I not poor, not even if with that same will\nI do as much as God, And why ? Because God and God's will\n\n80S\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nare one, I and my will are two, for I am a man and not God and if\nI mean to do real work entirely without or free from will then I\nmust emulate the stone which lies in the water and the water\nHows over it but enters not into the stone. Even so if I were a\npoor man I should do my works in such a way that they entered\nnot into my will any more than the water does into the stone :\nI should do them simply at the will of God. And if again God\nasked me, whether I was poor and if I replied, ' I have abandoned\nmy own will and did I know the will of God that would I do,'\nI might be assuming something not my own, for no one knoweth\nwho we are, though we are not the truth for God can change^^our\nknowledge, not his knowledge, because he is the truth and we are\nnot.\n\nPerhaps someone will say, How can I do my work like this,\nwill -free ? The answer is, I ought to do my work as though no\none existed, no one lived, no one had ever come upon the earth.\nThen if God asked me once again. Art thou a poor man ? and if\nI replied, ' I am unworthy of that knowing,' that were the barest\npoverty that ever I heard tell of or went through : the deepest,\ndirest poverty. Yet all the while I have within enough of place\nfor God to do his work in me, to give his gift to me, all that while\nI am not a poor man for all that while 1 am expecting God. — What\nmore can I do ? — Thus shalt thou do : thou shalt leave all willing\nand knowing and receiving of things and at the very point where\nthou hast left all things there God has given thee all things ; he\ndurst, not give thee more nor any more work with thee nor canst\nthou take in more, but thou shalt simply leave thyself. That is\npoverty of spirit the most near of all, for none is downright poor\nbut he who wills not, knows not, has not, whether within or\nwithout. To the eternal truth, God help us. Amen.\n\nV\n\nTHE BOOK OF GODLY COMFORT\n\nBenedictus deus et pater domini nostri Jesu Christi etc, {2 Cor.\nI 3 ). That great teacher St Paul says in his epistle, ' Blessed be the\nGod and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and\nthe God of all comfort, who cornforteth us in all our tribulation.'\nThree kinds of tribulation may fall upon a man and plunge him in\ndistress. First, misfortune to exterior belongings. Next, to our\ndearest friends. Lastly, to ourselves : shame, hardship, pain of\nbody and distress of mind.\n\nSo 1 purpose in this book to impart some teachings apt to\nconsole a man in all adversity, unhappiness and suffering. And\n\nhaving therein and therefrom culled sundry general truths to com-\nfort him in any trouble, he will find thereafter thirty rules or\nmaxims each of which alone is sufficient for his solace ; and after\nthat again, in the third part of the book, he will find precepts\nand examples, theoretical and practical, the sayings and doings\nof the wise in times of tribulation.^\n\nIn the first place we must bear in mind that the wise and\nwisdom, true and truth, good and goodness, righteousness and\nrighteous are closely related to each other. Goodness is not\nmade nor created nor begotten : it is procreative and begets the\ngood and the good man, so far as he is good, is the unmade, un-\ncreated but withal begotten child and son of goodness. Goodness\nreproduces itself and all it is in good things : knowledge, love,\nenergy, it pours forth all of them into the good man, and the good\nman receives all his being, kiiowing, love and energy from the\ncentral depth of goodness and from that alone. Good and good-\nness are no more than goodness by itself, except as unborn parent\nand horn child of goodness therefrom. In the good is but one\nbeing and one life. All that belongs to a good man he gets both\nfrom the good and in the good. Therein he is and lives and dwells\nand there he knows himself, and all he knows and loves he wills\nand works with goodness and in goodness and the good does all\nits work with him and in him, iis it is written. The Son said,\n' My Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. , AJl that\nbelongs to the Father is mine ; all that is mine is my Father's :\nhis giving is my taking.'\n\nFurther we must remember that the Name or Word stands for\nnothing else, nothing more or less than the good, pure and simple.\nBut when we call him good we understand his goodness to be given\nhim, infused and engendered by the unborn goodness ; in the\nwords of the gospel, ' As the Father hath life in himself so hath he\ngiven to the Son to have the same life in himself also.' In himself,\nhe says, not from himself for the Father gave it to him.\n\nNow all that I have said of good and goodness equally applies\nto true and truth, to right (or just) and righteousness (or justice),\nto wise and wisdom, to God's Son and to God the Father, to every\nGod-begotten thing that has no father upon earth and wherein\nis gotten no created thing : nothing not God, and wherein exists\nnot any form at all but that of God alone. St John says in his\ngospel, ' to them gave he power to become the sons of (iod, which\nwere born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will\nof man but of God alone.'\n\n^ Only Part I is givon here.\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nBy blood he means everything in man not subject to the human\nwill. By fleshly will he means everything in man which is subject\nto his will, albeit with reluctance and with an inclination to fleshly\nappetites : a thing which is common to the body and the soul and\nnot confined to the soul alone, which accounts for the weakness\nand exhaustion of their powers. By the will of man St John\nmeans the highest power of the soul, whose nature and energy,\nunmixed with flesh, resides in the pure nature of the soul, detached\nfrom time and place and from everything that smacks of time and\nplace relation ; that has naught in common with naught ; wherein\nman is formed in the image of God ; wherein he is of the lineage of\nGod, and God's kindred. Yet since these are not God himself\nbut are products of the soul and arc in the soul, therefore they\nhave to lose their form and be transformed into God alone : born\ninto God and out of God with only God for father. Then they\nare Son indeed, God's only Son.\n\nI am his Son forasmuch as he begets me in his nature and\nforms me in his image. Such an one is the Son of God, good\nson of goodness, right son of righteousness. So far as he is simply\ngood he is unborn parent and as born Son he has the same nature\nas righteousness has, and is and is possessed of all the characiter oT\njustice and truth. In all this teaehing which is found in holy\ngospel and confirmed in the natural light of the wise soul there is\nsolace for every human sorrow.\n\nSt Augustine says, ' God is not far nor long. If thou wouldst-\nfind him, neither far nor long betake thyself to God, for there a\nthousand years are as one day, to-day.' And withal I say, in\nGod there is no pain or sorrow or distress. And if thou wouldst\nbe free from all adversity and pain, turn thee and cleave to God\nand to God alone. Doubtless all thy ills arc due to thy non-\nconversion into God and to God alone. If thou wert formed and\ngotten in righteousness alone, things could no more pain thee\nthan righteousness, than God himself.\n\nSolomon says, ' The righteous will not grieve for aught that\nmay befall him.' He does not say the righteous man or the\nrighteous angel, not this or that right thing ; just righteous,\nbeing right, for the righteous man is son with a father upon earth,\nhe is creature, made or created as his father is creature made or\ncreated. He says righteous, pure and simple, and that has no\nmade or created father, for righteousness is the same as God. So\npain and sorrow can molest him no more than they do God. Justice\nwill not grieve him, for love and joy and bliss arc justice, and if\njustice made sorrowful the just it would be causing sorrow to\nitself. Injustice, inequality, can in no wise grieve the just, for\nanything created being far beneath him has no influence and\n\nmakes no impression on the righteous nor is it gotten into him\nwhose only father is God.\n\nA man then ought to set to work and de-form himself of him-\nself and creatures and know no father except God alone. Then\nnothing will be able to afflict or cast him down, neither God nor\ncreature, uncreated or created, and his entire being, life, know-\nledge, love and wisdom will be from God and in God and God.\n\nThere is another thing which is wont to comfort us in any\ntribulation. It is the certainty that the just and virtuous man\ndelights unspeakably, incomparably more in doing right than he\nor even the chief angel delights and rejoices in his natural economy\nor life. The saints will gladly sacrifice their lives for right.\n\nSupposing now that when outward ills befall the good and\nrighteous man he keeps his even temper and his peace of mind,\nthis only proves my argument that the righteous man is proof\nagainst external happenings. But suppose he is perturbed by\nthese mishaps then it stands to reason that God is only just in\nsending trials to a person who while pretending to be righteous\nand fondly thinking himself so is yet upset by so small a thing.\nSince it is fair of God, he has no cause to mind but rather to\nrejoice, far more than he does at his own life, at what rejoices\nman and is of more good to him than this world all told ; for what\nprofits a man the whole world when he is no more ?\n\nThe third important thing for us to understand is the elemental\ntruth that the fount and living artery of universal good, essential\ntnith and perfect consolation is God, God only, and everything not\nGod has in itself a natural bitterness, discomfort and unhappiness\nand docs not make for good which is of God and is the same as\nCiod, but lessens, dims and hides the sweetness, joy and comfort\nthat God gives.\n\nAnd further I maintain, all sorrow comes from love of that\nwhereof 1 am deprived by loss. If I mind the loss of outward\nthings it is a certain sign that I am fond of outward things\nand really love sorrow and discomfort. Is it to be wondered\nat that I am unhappy when I like discomfort and unhappiness ;\nwhen my heart seeks and my mind gives to creature the good that\nis God's own ? I turn towards creature, whence there comes by\nnature all discomfort, and turn my back on that which is the\nnatural source of happiness and comfort; what wonder I am\nwoebegone and wretched ! The fact is, it is quite impossible\nfor God or anyone to bring true solace to a man who looks for\nit in creatures. But he who loves only God in creatures and\ncreatures in God only, that man finds real and true and equal\ncomfort everywhere.\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nVI\n\nSISTER KATREl\n\nMEISTER ECKHART's STRASBURG DAIJCHITER\n\nBlessed and praised be the name of our Lord Jesus Christ who\nhas provided for us an image of the truth, himself namely, wherein\nis no possibility of error !\n\nWe read in the gospel that our Lord fed the multitude with\nfive loaves and two roast fishes. The first loaf we interpret to\nmean the knowledge of what we have always been in God and\nwhat we are in God now. The second loaf is the scrutiny of our\nlife in time : seeing how our time has been spent. And for this\nwe need help in the shape of a trusty confessor. A confessor we\njudge of in this way. If he has what is tnie we may safely confide\nin him. There arc three signs of this. First, he is a true priest.\nSecondly, he is confirmed in the perfect life. And thirdly, he has\nthe authority which stamps the true priest. Him seek where-\nsoever thou shalt find him. It is well worth any trouble. Go to\nhim and solemnly kneeling before him as Mary Magdalene knelt\nat the feet of our Lord Jesus CJirist, earnestly entreat him for\nGod's sake to hear thee. Then open thy heart to him as thou\nshalt appear in the eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ at the day of\njudgment when all things arc revealed in truth. Discard shame in\nthe kndwledgc that God has seen and heard all thy sins, and so\ntoo have those who are reflected into God from the face of the\nmirror of truth ; they know thy shortcomings better than thou\ndost thyself. Be not ashamed before thy confessor, be ashamed\nbefore God and the friends of God, acquiring godly fear in the\nrealization that God's divine glance has seen thy every will, word\nand act ; and opening thy heart pour out thy sins till, the whole\ntale being told, thou dost fervently pray him : ' Sir, ghostly\nfather, I entreat thee by the love that bound Christ on the cross,\nshow me the nearest way to my eternal happiness.'\n\nUpon this it is open to thy confessor to indicate three ways with\nwhich it behoves thee to be quite familiar. Setting thee thy\npenance, instructs thee to repair wrongs done ; he bids thee\nrestore goods not thine own ; he enjoins thee to make amends for\naught thou hast done to another that thou wouldst not he should\ndo unto thee. Word, will, and act ; what was willed without\neffect must be willed to more purpose, thy will being such that thou\nwouldst sooner die a thousand deaths than plan a mischief\nto thine evenchristian. Thy wicked will, which is toward evil\n\ndeeds, endeavour to correct. Where thou wast haughty now walk\nhumbly for all the world to see thou repentest thee of thy pride.\nPride I single out, knowing it for a temporal fault most fatal to\nour eternal happiness. False pride robs spiritual no less than\nworldly folks of their eternal bliss. Dost know what pride is ?\nFlattery of yourself or other people is false pride which cheats\nyou of eternal happiness.\n\nNext, examine yourselves for sloth in God's service. Not\ndoing thy best is sloth in God's service. To meet this, set to and\ndo good, showing by diligence thy sorrow for thine egregious\ndereliction ; yet remaining detached withal and regardless of\naught but God and the friends of God.\n\nThereafter it behoves tliee to check thy third sin. Where thou\nwast greedy now be liberal and let thy bounty attest thy whole-\nhearted abhorrence of greed. Dost know what greed is ? Desire\nof anything not God is evil greed.\n\nThe fourth sin is envy and hate : bearing malice and hatred\ntowards any with intent to do unto him what thou wouldst not\nhe should do unto thee. Hast injured any man by act of thine,\nrepair the injury at any cost. Hast tarnished his fair name by\nword of thine, thy words must brighten it again : abasing thyself\nbefore him, entreat him humbly for God's sake to forgive thee\nand reiterate thy rueful supplieation till he grant thee his free\npardon. Call people's attention to this, withal speaking so well\nof the man that thou dost win him back honour no less than thou\ndidst filch from him. Know forsooth, ere thou canst find favour\nwith God thou must needs pay in full for wrongs done *to thine\ncvenchristians. Disparagement is mischievous. Worldly goods\nwe can replace but stolen honour cannot be restored save by the\npayment of our own. So weigh thy words well, friend.\n\nThe fifth sin is anger. Reckon up words and deeds done in\nanger and cancel them with kindness. Pe rad venture thou hast\nspoken in anger words which, if adhered to, shall doom thee to\neternal death. A word said here may reach to Rome, and from\nRome to overseas : how^ then recall it ? Thus : man pays his\ndebts through God. Saying, Shall 1 not tell the truth ? folks\ncanvass the failings of their cvenchristians and forget their own.\nI say, though thou seest and hearest the faults of thine even-\nchristians, betray them not. If so be that thou canst not for-\nbear the mention of them, then go and see the person privately,\njust you and he together ; point out his faults to him in a friendly\nmanner and invite him by thine own excellent precept and example\nto eschew his vicious habits. If he will not forswear them, acquaint\nthe right authorities and leave it at that, allowing nothing of it to\nescape thy lips however much he vex thee. For know, to rebuke\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nhim for sin in thine anger is to commit mortal sin : raising him out\nof sin thou dost fall in thyself. The sinner of to-day is the saint\nof to-morrow. Wherefore, unmindful of the sins and short-\ncomings of our evenchristians, let us look to our own imper-\nfections, surely forgetting what God has forgotten : sins truly\nrepented, which God has forgotten, 'tis no business of ours to\nremember.\n\nThe sixth sin is eating and drinking to excess : eating, perhaps,\ntwo regular meals or three while thine evcnchristian goes hungry\nand thirsty, who is nigher to God than thou art, and liker to boot ;\nfor he is poor while thou art rich in temporal things. Christ said,\n' Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' These\nfrailties it behoves thee to amend so thoroughly that God must\nneeds forgive them thee.\n\nThe seventh sin in unehastity. Concerning this a heathen\nmaster says : ' All superfluity, anything unnecessary in word or\ndeed, is unehastity.' The traverner sets his hoop to a mark when\nhe goes to sell wine. When the wine is sold, he takes off the hooj).\nSo let them do who are minded to cure the sin of unehastity :\nlet them avoid excess in word and deed and walk right humbly\nand soberly before the world, so all shall say that anything to be\ncalled excess offends them.\n\nThy next care, daughter, is whether thou hast kept the ten\ncommandments ail thy days. To take one that Christ mentions,\n\n' Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul\nand with all thy strength,' thou canst be shown to have broken\nthis frequently. And breaking this commandment thou dost\nbreak them all. It behoves thee to tell thy confessor how often\nthou hast broken it from childhood up. It would take too long\nto go through all the ten commandments and say what thou\nmust tell to thy confessor. Thou wilt see that for thyself better\nthan we can tell thee.\n\nThen, the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost : how often thou hast\nresisted them and hast failed to practise the seven works of mercy,\nwherefor God shall arrantly upbraid thee at the day of judgment.\nMake a fresh start, my daughter, so mending thy ways that God\nis obliged to forget thy shortcomings.\n\nSuch is the first counsel of the worthy confessor and the first\nway. To the question : ' Sir, is it the best way ? ' he will answer,\n\n' No, but what I am telling thee is indispensable.' Says she,\n\n' Then, sir, tell me the best way.' He answers, ' Bide till thou\nhast made thine own this counsel I have given thee ; bide till thou\nhast cast thy sins ; and meanwhile come often to see me.'\n\nObedient to her revered confessor, the daughter does this.\nShe often comes back to him and says, ' Sir, I will obey you to\n\nthe death if you will help me so to live that I am bold to die.' —\n' Hast cast thy sins ? ' he asked. ' Aye,' she replied, ' so far as\nI shall ever do it here in time ; and will do till I die.' — ' Then 1 will\nredirect thee, and give thee fresh instructions. Keep a truthful\ntongue, a pure body and a loving soul. A code that may be\nconstrued thus : A truthful tongue means that the lips utter only\nthe intentions of the heart. Thus thou shalt speak the truth,\ndaughter. God is truth, so thy whole conversation shall be of\nGod ; not praying nor thinking of God thou thus speakest of God,\nand art ever receiving from God.\n\n' A pure body means that, pierced with godly fear, thou sufferest\nnaught save God to dwell in thee.\n\n' A loving soul is one that loves her likes, God namely. Unite\nthyself with him until thee thinks thy heart is fit to burst with too\nmuch love.' Whereat the daughter cried, ' And 1 an utter stranger\nto it ! Sir,' she said, ' shall I ever come acquainted with it ? '\nHe said, ' Yes. Do as 1 bid you : discard the things that are\ndarkening thy soul, and let the light of truth in. Then thy soul\ncan retrace the road she came.'\n\nHy the third loaf wc understand God's mercy. Consider,\ndaughter, the plenteous comptission that God has shown thee.\nWhen, having endowed thee with frci; will, thou didst of thy\nfree will incur eternal death, he ransomed thee with his own self\nand washing thee in his own blood did cleanse thee from original\nsin. Observe further God's mercy in being ready to forgive thy\nsins as often as thou scekest grace in time. To enumerate God's\nmercies time would fail us though we lived till doomsda/. Folks\ntalk of God's providence. Know, what God has provided for us\nis his eternal felicity, in token whereof he has given us free will\nto do good and eschew evil.\n\nAt this point it behoves us to determine whether wc truly repent\nus of our sins. Wouldst know the quality of true repentance ?\nIt has to be so strong in thee that thou wouldst sooner die a\nthousand deaths than sin one sin. There be many that say ' I\ntruly repent me of my sins ' who yet remain in sin. Speaking\nfalsely they augment their sin. Thou virtuous soul who wouldst\nenjoy God's mercy and be baptized in the Holy Ghost, repent thee\nthrice : (first) for the sins thou hast committed against the Lord\nthy God by word and deed. Repent thee next of sins against\nthine even Christians. If thou wouldst taste God's clemency and\nhave him to forgive thy sins and dowse thee with his Holy Ghost\nin grace, then show the mercy due to all mankind made in Christ's\nimage as they are, whether or not they shall have sinned against\nthee : needs must if thou art ever to find grace. The third\nrepentance is heartfelt pity for thyself, bred from a survey of the\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nhappy days that God has granted thee for finding thy eternal\nhappiness, he having made all creatures for signposts to thy\nhighest good. As St Augustine says : ' All creatures point me\nto my good ; Lord, I deeply rue that if I ever get to thee 'tis by\nthy mercy. The time goes by that thou hast given me and thou\nart still unknown to me and unbeloved : hence my regret. And\nyet I fear me, Lord, I never felt the true rue that I ought.'\n\nBy the fourth loaf we understand God's justice. Innately, he is\nas just as he is merciful. Yet know, were I to tell you of God's jus-\ntice, 'twould be too hard for you : precious few would look for grace.\nHence we emphasise God's mercy, who throws souls into purgatory\nto find grace at the judgment day if not before. Know that in\nitself God's justice is of a sternness that must make all tremble.\nWell knowing this, Christ said to his disciples : ' Having done all\nthat is possible to you, say. We arc unprofitable servants.' We\nlearn this from St John also, who, though he did no sin to separate\nhim from Ck)d yet likened himself to the beasts of the forest. Surely\nhe knew God's truth. I say, moreover, God's justice is so harsh\nthat, though a man should do all the good works wrought by the\ncompany of saints now in eternal life, yet, being found in any mortal\nsin (the first is pride ; the second, slothfulness in God's service ;\nthe third, hate ; the fourth, anger ; the fifth, greed ; the sixth,\novereating and drinking ; the seventh, unchastity ; these are the\nseven deadly sins), being found, I say, in one of these, he would be\nlost eternally. I hold it would avail him nothing for all the saints\nin heaven to intercede for him. I affirm, moreover, were Christ\nto supplfcate his Father, and Mary his mother, 'twould not avail to\nsave his soul. Further, concerning this I say that I would sooner\nhave the man who sins a thousand mortal sins and knows it, than\nhim who sins but one in ignorance : that man is lost. I hold he\nmay have practised every virtue of Holy Christendom and it will\nnot avail him, he is damned with the lost, while he of a thousand\nconscious sins is saved, provided that, renouncing them heartily\nin true repentance, never to do them more, he mends his ways,\nsteadfast in love till death. That man ranks with the saints.\nAh, daughter, mark those souls who, all their days exempt from\nmortal sins, can say with the young man, ' I have kept thy com-\nmandments all my life.' Would to God I knew one person who\ncould even say, ' All my days have I kept the first of Christ's\ncommandments, Thou shalt love thy God with all thy soul-powers,'\nand who has been preserved the while from spiritual pride.\n\nThe fifth loaf signifies true faith. It means absolute trust in\nGod. He who believes in God trusts God and knows God and\ntherefore loves God. Observe, woman, having true faith means\nbelieving in God's omnipotence. The masters say ; ' Whosoever\n\nhas true faith as much as a grain of mustard seed, can remove\nmountains/ Wherefore it behoves us assiduously to free our-\nselves from things corruptible, which dim the light wherein we\nsee the true faith, which is God. To be able to say, ' I am a true\nChristian,' a man must subsist in Christ in the sense that Christ\nis his exemplar whereto he is conformed in word and deed. Know,\nthat whatever Christ did he did to edify us in eternal truth, for\nhe is the truth itself ; he (»an initiate thee into the true faith.\nWhat I say is, that to get to the Father we must go to him in\nChrist ; to know the Father we must know him in Christ. And\nso Christ taught. When Philip asked him, ' Show us the Father,'\nChrist answered, ' He who seeth me seeth the Father, and where\nthe Father is there I am.' Plainly then, we must follow the\nlead of the Beloved if we would be saved. People say, ' How can\nI do as Christ did ? ' Christ tells us how. He said, ' Take up\nyour (^ross and follow me.' Which do not understand to mean he\nbids you die the death he died upon the cross. His words were,\n\n' Follow me,' meaning wc arc to imitate his perfect life. Our\ntemporal failure to imitate his life in word and deed is our eternal\nfailure. Concerning this he said, ' In my Father's house arc many\nmansions.' For you must know that many a man who goes to\nheaven no more enjoys the light of God's countenance than\nsunshine in forest gloom. Nay, friend, mark what Christ said to\nthe kinswoman who besought him for her son. He said, ' He who\ndrinks of the cup I wot of shall be joint heir with me in my Father's\nkingdom.' Which being interpreted means : by our measure here\nit shall be meted to us again by our heavenly Father in his eternal\nkingdom. As St Augustine says : ' So far as we know and love\nhere we profit eternally.'\n\nTheologians speak of hell. I will tell you what hell is. It is\nmerely a state. Your state here is your eternal state. This is hell.\nTake an illustration. A thief who has incurred the penalty of\ndeath on being caught : picture his state of mind seeing others\nhappy ! So do we feel, and worse. And so with those in hell who\nsee God and his friends : the height of torment, so the masters say.\n\nThis learnt, the aforementioned daughter goes to her revered\nconfessor. She says, ' Sir, tell me the best way to my eternal\nhappiness.' Quoth he, ' Daughter, let be.' — ' I shall never let be,'\nshe said, ' so long as my eternal happiness is not assured.' He\nsaid, ' Thou art sure of eternal life, daughter.' — ' But, sir,' she\npersisted, ' have you told me the nearest way to it ? ' — ' Any\ncreature will tell you that,' he said. ' With one accord they all\nexclaim : Pass on, wc are not God. 'Tis direction enough,\ndaughter.' — ' Not for me, sir,' she said. Said he, ' An thou wilt\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nnot believe me, at least thou wilt credit the words of our Lord\nJesus Christ, who said : Take up thy cross and follow me. He did\nnot say, Take up my cross and follow me. What he meant was :\nbe content to do thy best, knowing that therewith God too is\nsatisfied.' — 'Would I had done my best,' she cried. — 'What\nwouldst thou do ? ' he asked. She answered, ' I would leave\nhonour and possessions and friends and kindred and the outward\nsolace I get from creatures.' — ' Wouldst leave me too ? ' asked\nher confessor. She answered, ' Aye, sir ; leaving all things, I\nmust leave you also.' — ' Essay it not,' he said, ' 'tis not for a\nwoman.' Quoth she, ' Full well I wot no woman can enter\nheaven till she loe man. That means she must do man's work\nand have the strength of mind to withstand him and all imper-\nfections.' — ' Thou deemst thyself mighty strong ! I wonder now,\nhow thou wouldst like to bear more than thou hast already.' She\nsaid, ' I can bear all, sir, that Christ has borne for me.' He said,\n' These are words ! ' She said, ' It is true.' — ' Canst prove it ? '\nsaid he. ' With ease,' said she. ' I have heard tell that in none\nof Christ's sufferings did his Godhead come to the help of his\nmanhood.' He said, ' That is true. The Godhead is impassible ;\nit never has suffered and never can suffer, seeing that nothing\naffects it.' Quoth she, ' What Christ bore, I can bear.' He said,\n' Tell me how.' — ' I will,' she replied. ' Right well I ween Christ\nwas the noblest man that ever was born : from threescore kings\nand twelve he was descended ; and I say, moreover, he was the\nbest heart's-blood of Mary. See now my proof that I am fit to bear\nall he boVe for me. Taking the test of breeding, the best bred are\nthe tenderest. It follows that I can bear more than Christ can.'\nSaid he, ' Were I to tell you all I know of the perfection of his\nlife in time in right willing poverty, 'twere like to break my heart.\nBethink thee well ! ' She said, ' I have bethought me. This very\nday I mean to follow the dictates of the Holy Ghost.' — ' What\ndoes the Holy Ghost dictate ? ' he asked. She answered, ' He\ncounsels me to leave myself in the mighty hands of God and to\nsever my ties with creatures.' — ' Thou art wrong,' he said. ' How\nso ? ' said she. He said, ' In not taking advice. Obedience is a\nvirtue, as thou knowest.'~ \"' I am obedient unto death,' she said.\n\n' To whom ? ' he queried. ' To Christ and his heavenly Father\nto whom John was obedient in the wilderness, and Mary Magdalene\nand Mary of Egypt and Mary Salome.' Quoth he, ' It seems thou\nwilt no longer mind me.' — ' You are right,' she cried ; ' I am\nheartily sorry I listened so long to the counsels of men and was deaf\nto the counsel of the Holy Ghost.' — ' Now listen to me, my daughter.\nWhat thinkst thou I have done to thee ? ' — ' You have kept me\nfrom eternal bliss,' she said. ' How so ? ' he asked. She answered,\n\n' By not telling me outright the quickest way to it.' — ' It is obedience\nto the Holy Ghost,' he said. ' I should never counsel thee other-\nwise than I have counselled thee.' — ' If you had not discouraged\nme,' she said, ' and other spiritual folks to boot, I should have\nspent my time more virtuously. I weened, forsooth, it were the\ngospel that priests propagated.' — ' The gospel is begotten in the\nHoly Ghost of the perfect life of our Lord Jesus Christ and according\nto his noble teachings. We read and preach the gospel openly :\nhe who would follow it let him follow it to the utmost.' — God\nforgive me for not doing so all my days,' said she. Quoth he, ' I\ngrieve thou shouldst accuse me of preventing thee.'- ' Aye,' she\nreplied, ' I accuse you and all creatures.' — ' Thou art mistook,'\nhe said. ' No one can hinder thee but thine own self. Know,\nwhom God impels none can resist : not all the saints in heaven nor\nall the preaching friars and barefoot monks on earth can stand\nagainst one man moved by the truth. He is impelled by that same\nword which Christ spoke, answering the youth who sought the\nperfect life. Christ said ; Keep the ten commandments. The\nyoung man replied, All these have I kept from my youth up.\nThen said Christ, If thou wilt be perfect, sell all thou hast and give\nto the poor and follow me. Christ made known this same truth\nto us by Peter and others of his disciples whom he called to live\nwith him in willing poverty. Thou knowest, daughter, that what\nChrist said and did is true, for he is truth itself ; and know more-\nover, that to reach the Father wc must walk in Christ's footsteps\nall the way.' Quoth she, ' Well then, good father, why be so\ndiscouraging ? ' — ' 'Tis such a flawless life,' he said, ' anyone leading\nit God must needs come and help.'— ' God docs not come and go,'\nshe said ; ' that I do know. I wot right well when we resign our-\nselves to him he does not fail to succour us at need.' Quoth he,\n' What if all creatures despise thee ? ' She said, ' I want to be\nthe least of creatures in our Lord Jesus Christ, the lowest of his\ncreatures ; then I can say with Paul, Rejoice, all creatures are my\ncross and I the cross of creatures.' He said, ' Daughter, thou\nart too young.' — \" Mary was younger than I,' she said, ' when she\nset forth into the desert and exile, driven by robbery and murder.'\n— ' God was with her,' said he. ' And well I wot God is with me.'\nsaid she. ' He was there present in her.' he replied. ' He is\never present in my soul,' she said. Quoth he, ' But Mary had a\nsolemn pledge of his presence, which thou hast not, my daughter.'\nQuoth she, ' Since I dispense with outward consolations, I am\nwithout his outward presence. I would that he were ever being\nbom within my soul.' — ' Think twice,' he said, \" before adventuring\nthat.' — ' Peace, let me speak I ' she cried, ' 'tis by your too much\nadmonition that you have hindered me.' He said, ' Know, did\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nthe truth move thee, thou hadst not done nor yet forborne because\nof me. I am but creature, as thou knowest. As long as any\ncreature has power to give and take thou livest not unto truth.\nTruth has virtue sufficient to raise man to the summit without\nhelp from creatures. Thou durst not cast the blame on me, for\nknow, whom the truth moves has the Holy Ghost to his master,\nwho educates his pupils in the high(!st school of all. There we\nlearn more in the twinkling of an eye than all the doctors can\nexpress.' You speak the truth,' she said.\n\nThe second article of faith is trust in God. He can say he\ntrusts God who keeps not overnight so much as a pen'orth of\npossessions. I say more : he keeps nothing at all ; but he who\nwithholds but a pennyworth of worldly goods from his even-\nchristian, knowing him to be in need of it, is a robber in the sight\nof God. 1 warn you, l)y Christ who suffered so for love of men,\nallow no want in any man, he being made in tlie likeness of Christ\nfor whose sake God created all things ; and impair not his condition\nby withholding from him his father's goods, which it behoves him\nto restore to God.\n\nFurther I declare, who spares a penny for himself to put it by\nagainst a rainy day, thinking, I may need that for to-morrow,\nis a murderer before God. And I will prove it. For if he trust God\nhe will leave himself in God's hands ; if God give him the morrow, he\nwill give him also the wherewithal for it. Hence I affirm there be\nfew who have faith enough to trust God blindly. Know that the\nman who sets more store by worldly goods than by his powers of\nknowing and loving God, is justly termed a murderer. This I\ncall Christ to witness, who said, ' When I am ascended I will draw\nall things after me.' In the same way the virtuous man takes all\nthings up to God, to their first source. The masters teach that\ncreatures were made for man. They prove it from the fact that\ncreatures all need each other : cattle need grass, fish water, birds\nthe air, and beasts the forest. By the same token all creatures\ncome in useful to the good and are carried, one creature in the\nother, by the good soul to God. Lived there a man who trusted\nGod, God would do unto him better than ever he could do unto\nhimself.\n\nTake the third article of faith, that is, knowledge of God. I\nsay, no man knows God who knows not himself first. Mark\nhow to know yourselves. To know himself a man must be for\never on the watch over himself, holding his outer faculties, breaking\nthem in by vigorous training to obey the higher powers of his soul.\nThis discipline must be continued till he reach a state of conscious-\nness so pure that nothing short of God can form in it. Then thou\ndost come acquainted with thyself and God.\n\nThe fourth property of faith is love. To be able to say, ' I love\nthee, Lord,' a man must suffer without why what without why\nChrist suffered, and suffer it gladly without suffering. Though\nGod shall tell him mouth to mouth, ' Thou shalt be lost for ever\nwith the damned,' he only loves God all the more, and says,\n' Lord, an thou wilt that I be damned, damned I will be, eternally.'\nThus he identifies his will with what God wills, willing that same\nin earth and heaven. Of this he deems himself unworthy. That\nman can say, ' I love thee.'\n\nWe have explained now what faith means. To carry out in\npractice these articles of faith as enumerated from the start entitles\nus to say, ' I believe in God.'\n\nBy the two roast fishes (one fish is will, the other its fulfilment)\nwe understand thorough subjection, the downright death of thy\nwhole nature — the marrow of thy bones, blood in thy veins and\nwhole concomitants of natural vigour — so that albeit having the\nwill to sin, thou hast no power to. Doctors debate whether a\nman can reach the stage at which he is incapable of sinning in his\nbody. The best authorities say ' Yes ' ; alluding to souls so\nperfectly disciplined outwardly and inwanily that they have no\npropensity to sin.\n\nThe second fish we take to signify achievement of the virtues ;\nvirtue consummated to the pitch where it becomes instinctive ;\nwhere virtue is our very being ; where our knowledge and love\ntranscend virtue. A man at this stage gives pure light.\n\nDoctors describe four kinds of light. The first is natural, the\nlight of natural man apt in affairs, which is less a help ihan a\nhindrance. The second is the light of grace. Whom this en-\nlightens has his natural light put out. It lights him on the road\nto his salvation, preserving him in grace so he follow it closely.\nThe third light lightens the angels and man in his primitive\ninnocence. For know, the man who with the angels receives all\nthings from God is void of mundane things and creaturehood and\nnaked as he was when he came out of God. Man can what angels\ncannot : in this light he can transcend the angels and receive all\nthings from the source of divine truth. Then he is given divine\nlight, the fourth light, and about this I am dumb. I keep that to\nmyself.\n\nHere the daughter comes to her revered confessor and says,\n\n' Sir, I fear I shall never do it.' — ' Why not ? ' said he. Said she,\n\n' I still have all the virtues to cultivate. I ween I never brought\none single virtue to the pitch required.' Quoth he, ' Be satisfied\nto do thy best.' — ' I have never done my best,' she said, ' albeit I\nam well aware that I am thrice behoven unto God. My first\nbehoof is to repair my faults.'— ' None can repair a fault if God\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nforgive it not in love,' said he. ' I wot of that,' she said, ' but I\nmust do my share and live in hopes of grace until I die.'\n\nQuoth he, ' What is thy second accusation ? ' She answered,\n\n' That, while fain to be in the joy of our Lord, I have not lived\naccordingly, albeit well aware that to enter there one has to live\nthe perfect life in our Lord Jesus Christ.' — ' That is so,' he said.\n\n' Tell me, what is thy third behoof ? ' She said, ' Though there were\nneither hell nor heaven, to follow him for true love all the same,\nas he prevented me : to follow him to the end without a why.\n1 know my duty but mend not my ways as in duty bound.' — ' What\nmore wouldst thou do ? ' he asked. ' 'Fhou hast given up honour\nand possessions, and kith and kin and every comfort thou didst\nget from creatures.' — ' True, sir, in letter,' she said, ' but giving up\nall God ever created to leave it for God's sake is giving up nothing ;\nit is not mine to give. It is God's. Anything in the shape of\npossessions is God's. Wherefore I ween there is still something\nmore for me to leave.' — ' What must thou leave ? ' he asked.- -\n' Myself,' she answered. ' If I leave myself wherever 1 find myself\nI can say, I have left myself.' — ' Thou art right,' he cried, ^but I\nmarvel, being so sensitive, thou canst brook the insults heaped\nupon thee.' She said, ' God knows I feel none.' Quoth he,\n' Does it not touch thee that thy friends, spiritual as well as worldly,\nare so distressed on thy account, thinking thee most mistook in\nthy behaviour ? ' — ' What is that to me ? ' she said. ' For well\nI ween Christ knew, when he was sitting in the temple, that Joseph\nand his mother sought him sorrowing. The doctors told Christ :\nThy father and thy mother are seeking thee. Christ answered :\nHe who is kind to me, the same is my father and mother and\nsister and brother.' — ' True,' he said. ' I prithee, though, accept\nlife's necessaries when they are offered thee in the name of God.'\n— ' Tell me,' she queried, ' what are necessaries ? ' Wouldst\n\nhave me specify the bare necessities of life ? ' he asked. ' Aye,'\nshe replied. ' Bread, water, and a cloak,' he said. ' These arc\nbare bodily necessities.' Quoth she, ' Now tell me what is neces-\nsary ? ' And he made answer, ' To dwell in utter ignominy in\nChrist who alone lives.' — ' Now God reward you ! ' she exclaimed.\n' Pray God on my behalf to give all creatures licence to cry me\ndown and persecute me to their topmost bent.' Quoth he, ' Thou 'It\nget a plenty in thy vocation. A holy man has said, Did God know\nanyone willing to suffer the sum of human suffering, he would give\nit him to bear that his worth might be so much the greater in\neternity. God will db this out of pure love to anyone he calls to\nhim.' Quoth she, ' A master says, He alone deserves suffering\nwho dearly desires it.' — ' True, daughter,' he said. ' Prithee, an\nthou wilt, remain in these parts and busy thyself among us.' —\n\n' That will I not,' she answered, ' I must be about my own business.\nI mean to live in exile, anywhere where I am persecuted. For\nyou must know I have found more of God in the least desi)iscry\nthan ever I did in the sweetness of ereatures.' — ' I'll not quarrel\nwith that for it is true,' he said. ' Christ proves it by those words\nto his disciples. Go ye into all places where they shall persecute\nyou.' Quoth she, ' God bless you for it, who have my homage\nbetwixt me and God.' — ' Come to me wheresoever thou shalt find\nme,' he said. That will I gladly.'\n\nSt Paul affirms of the holy martyrs and friends of our Lord,\n' They are dead.' From this we argue that we have to be dead too.\nI hold that anyone who is not really dead has not the faintest\nnotion of the sacred things revealed by God to his beloved. As long\nas thou still knowest wlio thy father and thy mother have been in\ntime, thou art not dead with the real death. Further 1 hold :\nas long as it affects thee that no one will shrive tliee nor give thee\nGod's body nor sh('lter thee from the world's scorn, as long as it\nis in thee to be moved by this, know that thou art a stranger to the\ntrue death. When thou art aware of nothing within thee : when,\nhaving escaped from earthly species and forgot thy honourable\nestate and all temporal happenings, thou hast emtered oblivion\nso deep that nothing formulates itself in thee and thou art sensible\nof naught save the sheer ascension of Ihy soul, then thou canst\nsay that thou art really dead. lie who is dead thus is always the\nsame ; nothing affects him. Anent this St John says, ' Blessed\nare the dead that die in God.' See then, my friends, how^ood it\nis to die in God. We can die gladly il' (iod will live and work in\nns while we arc idle. We die, 'tis true, but 'tis a gentle death.\nFolks tell ns of the holy life, how they have suffered. To tell the\ntale of what our Lord's friends suffered time would be all too short.\nT say : they did not suffer. The least suspi(*ion of God-eonseious-\nness and sufferings would be all forgot. This may well liappcn\nwhile the soul is in the body. I say more ; while yet in the body a\nsoul may reach oblivion of its trav^ail not to remember it again.\nFurther 1 hold : to him who suffers not for love, to suffer is\nsuffering and is hard to bear. But he who suffers for love does not\nsuffer, and this suffering is fruitful in God's sight. It follows,\nfriends, that by contriving to die in (iod gladly, we go scot-free\nfrom suffering. To practise this is to be really dead. So to die\nin God, help us O Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.\n\nHere the aforementioned daughter comes to her confessor,\nbeseeching him, ' Sir, hear me for God's sake.' — ' Whence come\nyou ? ' said he. ' From foreign parts,' said she. He asked, ' Of\nwhat country art thou ? ' She answered, ' Sir, do you not know\nme ? ' ' Not I, God wot,' quoth he. Quoth she, ' By the same\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\ntoken you have never known yourself.' — ' True,' he replied, ' for\nwell I ween that if I knew myself as intimately as I ought, I should\nhave perfect knowledge of all creatures.' — ' You are right,' she\nsaid ; ' but a truce to this talk, sir. Hear me, in God's name.' —\n' Willingly,' he said. ' Say on.'\n\nThe daughter made confession to her revered confessor, as it\nwas now in her to do, in a manner to rejoice his heart. Quoth\nhe, ' Return ere long, daughter.' — ' Gladly, God willing,' quoth\nshe.\n\nGoing off to his brethren he announces, ' I have just shriven\nsomeone, whether woman or angel I misdoubt, nay, I wot not.\nIf woman, her soul powers dwell with tlic angels in heaven and her\nsoul has received angelic nature. She knows and loves beyond\nanyone I ever met.' ' Glory be to God,' the brethren cry.\n\nSeeking his daughter where he knows her to be, in the chapel,\nnamely, her confessor earnestly entreats her to converse with him.\n— ' Do you not know me yet ? ' she asks, lie answers, ' No, God\nknows.' — ' Then I Avill tell you for love. I am the poor soul you\nled to God.' And she discovers to him her identity. — ' Alas,\nwretch that T am ! ' he cries. ' Shame on me in the sight of God\nthat having spiritual light so long I am so unfamiliar with divinity.\nPrithee, my daugliter, for the love of God, recount to me thy life\nand doings since T last saw thee.' Quoth she, ' That were a deal\nto tell.' — ' Not more than I am fiiin to hear,' he said. ' Know, I\nhave been amazed by what you told me.'\n\nEre ^taking up her tale the daughter says to her confessor :\n' You must never betray me while I live.' — I give you my word,'\nhe answered, ' not to divulge thy confession during thy lifetime.'\nWhereupon she embarks on such a wondrous story he marvels\nany human being could go through so much. Quoth she, ' Sir,\nstill I fall short, I find that I have conquered all my heart's\ndesires save only that my faith be not assailed.' — ' God be praised\nfor making thee,' he cried. ' Now rest content.' — ' Never,' she\nsaid, ' while my soul has no abiding place in eternity.' Said he,\n' I should be well content to have my soul ascend as thine does.'\nShe said, ' My soul ascends freely, but it makes no stay. To will\ndoes not content me ; if only I might know the thing to do to\nestablish me permanently in eternity ! ' He asked, ' Is the desire\nso strong ? ' She answered, ' Aye.' — ' Be rid of it,' he said, ' if\nthou wouldst be confirmed.' Saying, ' 'Tis gladly done,' she sinks\ninto destitution. And God drawing her in his divine light she\nweens that she is one with God. While this continues she keeps\nbeating back into herself with an overwhelming sense of deity,\nand keeps ejaculating, ' I am sure there is no escape for me.'\n\nThe confessor visits his daughter frequently, inquiring, ' Tell\n\nme, how goes it now with thee ? ' — ' 111,' she replies. ' Heaven\nand earth are too confined for me.' He entreats her to tell him\nsomething. She says, ' I have nothing whatever to tell.' — ' Just\na word, for God's sake,' he pleads, and wins it for the asking. She\nproceeds to reveal to him such profound and marvellous things\nconcerning the pure perception of divine truth that he exclaims,\n' Thou knowest this is not common knowledge, and were I not\namong those priests who have read it in theology, I had not known\nit either.' — ' Much good it is to you,' she said. ' I would you had\na lively sense of it.' Said he, ' I am this much alive to it, I feel\nas certain of it as of my having said the mass to-day. Natheless,\nthis lack of actual experience docs trouble me.'\n\nWith the words, ' Pray God for me,' the daughter returns into\nher solitude to enjoy God's society. Ere long she appears at the\ndoor again, demanding her confessor, to whom she says, ' Sir,\nrejoice with me, I am God.' — ' Glory be to God ! ' he cries. ' Retire\nagain into thy solitude ; all joy be thine an thou rernainest God.'\n\nObedient to her confessor, she goes into the chapel, into a\nsecluded corner. There oblivion descended upon her, and she\nforgot everything named and was so far withdrawn from self and\neverything created that she had to be carried from the church\nand lay till the third day, surely accounted for dead. ' I misdoubt\nshe is dead,' quoth her confessor. Know, had there been no\nconfessor they would have buried her. They essayed by all\nmanner of means, but whether her soul was in her body they could\nnot discover. They said, ' For sure she is dead.' For sure she\nis not,' said her confessor. On the third day the dau^^ter re-\nturned. ' Alas, me miserable, am I back ! ' she cried. Her\nconfessor, who was already there, addressed her, saying, ' Permit\nme to taste divine truth in the revelation of thy experience.'\nShe said, ' God knows, I cannot. My exj^ericnce is ineffable.' —\n' Hast got now all thou wilt ? ' he asked. She answered, ' Aye.\nI am confirmed.'\n\nBlest and praised be the name of our Lord Jesus Christ who\nshowed us the way to conquer by grace what he is by nature.\nIt needs a God-receptive man who treads beneath his feet self\nand all creatures. He has five deaths to die. The first is death\nto natural things. Being dead to nature spirit reigns. Never-\ntheless he still may lapse into eternal death, as shown by Lucifer.\nHimself pure spirit, from himself he fell, falling eternally. We\nmust die in spirit, our spirit being inspired into the spirit of truth.\nNow we begin to live in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, strictly\nobeying his precepts and example. Thus we die in our Lord\nJesus Christ in the truth which is himself, even as he died in his\nhumanity. And we rise in our Lord Jesus Christ to live again in\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nthe quick of life. We enter the Father in the Son. Humanity\nreceives its coup de grace, pierced to the heart by light divine.\nTherein man learns to know himself. Forgot are all God's\ngifts beknownst to him. Thought, word, will, act, lie strewn before\nhim in the reflection of the divine light received from the Father.\nIn this divine light the soul sees herself less than creature. She\nfinds no place to dwell in. She deems herself the vilest thing God\never made. Lucifer is to her so meritorious that she ranks under\nhim. Accordingly the masters say, ' Christ's soul and Lucifer's\nwere made in the same light.' Hence the soul's grievance and self-\ncondemnation. Christ's soul was the wisest soul that ever was :\nshe faced round in the creature and looked towards the creator.\nWherefore the Father clad her in the divine garment and property\nof his own nature. Hut Lucifer looked away to the defieiency and\nthereby fell, falling eternally. So fall all they that turn from God\nto things corruptible. In this plight the soul now finds herself and\nis consumed within herself, there thinking to remain eternally,\nfor it is she who is to blame.\n\nThe best authorities aver that from the very lowest angel of\nall those in heaven, there fell one drop upon Die highest heaven.\nThis started the celestial revolutions, each heaven following the\ncourse nature laid down for carrying round the drop. From it\nall creatures get their life, those that have life in time ; in it all\ncreatures hie them back to their first source ; in it the soul\nbecomes aw'are that, so little has God become in time, our works\nmust be wrought above time, in eternity. Christ taught us\nthis. Ifis works arc all wrought in eternity. Did God perform\none act outside himself, lie were not (iod. God's works arc\nAvrought so that they remain in him. And our works which\nare wrought thus endure in eternity. Understand, we call viiue\nthat which is in me, which none can take from me. —Here the\nsoul is moved to exclaim : ' Alas, that 1 have Avrought so many\nworks outside me ! '\n\nConcerning nature, the masters speak as folloAvs : Nature and\nnaturalness are not identical. The natural state is taken on in\ntime ; nature is in itself eternal. This touches the soul. Philo-\nsophers will tell you that thunder is merely the result of opposites.\nClouds cannot bear being charged with opposites, Avhich crash\ntogether ; hence lightning and the thunder. So with the wind ;\nit blows till foreign matter is expelled, namely, the rain. Creatures\nin general will purify themselves from incompatiblcs.\n\nHere the soul realizes that she has often harboured incompatibles.\nShe says : ' Creatures all pointed me to my eternal happiness.\nThey did not Lucifer : he fell from God for ever because of the\nunlikes he assumed. God kept me in himself. I had no mind to\n\nsee it, so I can never look for grace.' And there she stops, failing\nto rise beyond herself.\n\nNow theologians say, God is by nature bound to draw his likes\nout of their selfhood into himself just as the sun will draw up\nmoisture. Then the soul, merged in the naked Godhead, is no\nmore to be found than a wine-drop in mid-ocean. That soul can\nno more sin than God can. The man is said to be conformed to\nGod. God is his active principle. He has real perception. Things\nare in him without images, for he is one with God in whom are all\nthings. In this case it is true to say, all things arc in man formless.\nThe masters say : ' To gauge the soul we must gauge her with\nGod, for the ground of God and the ground of the soul are one\nnature.' The part that gives life to the body is the least part of\nthe soul. The man who realizes this has fresh and inexhaustible\ndelight. What though he walks in time, he dwells in his eternal\nnature. He inhabits the truth. This man is known by five signs.\nFirst, he nevaT complains. Next, he never makes excuses : when\naccused, he leaves the facts to vindicate him. Thirdly, there is\nnothing he wants in earth or heaven but what God wills himself.\nFourthly, he is not moved in time. Fifthly, he is never rejoiced :\nhe is joy itself.\n\nHere the trusty confessor comes seeking his daughter in an\nunknown land, earnestly entreating her to hold converse with him.\nShe says, ' I can talk with you of outward things.' — ' 'Twill serve,'\nquoth he. ' Tell me, what, thinkest thou, made thee most ripe for\nthe eternal truth ? ' She answered : ' Leaving myself wherever\nI found myself. Next, never excusing myself from accusations\nwhich concerned myself alone. Thirdly, whatever my y)ain,\nwanting still more and compelling myself to bear it equably.\nFourth, being supple to insignificance, poverty and lack of creature\ncomforts. Fifth, never seeing souls sin without rebuke and never\nhearing things against the gospel and the life of Christ without\nI fought them to the death. But know that it has been my\nhabit rather to rebuke those persons whose sins I saw were doing\nthem a mortal mischief. 1 never did it save purely out of love\nto God, being moved to pity for them. Many an insult they have\nhurled upon me. Sixth, never avoiding occasion of insult : I\nfled from honour but I stayed for shame. Seventh, never looking\nback when once I knew the way to my eternal happiness ; and\ntaking no man's counsel, but plodding straight on. Eighth, being\nnever content with present light nor present sight, which were as\nnothing to my certainty. Ninth, never resisting any use God\nchose to put me to. Tenth, rigid discipline, inward and outward.'\n\n' God be praised,' he said. ' Thou hast told me thy outward\nrule ; now tell me thy inner.' Quoth she, ' God wot, I fear it is\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nbeyond you.' — ' But just a hint ; deny me not,' he urged. And\nshe responded : ' At the moment of confirmation there existed in\nme all the works God ever wrought as a little thing inferior to\nheaven. My abode was heaven. I dwelt there with the inmates\nof the Trinity which to me was as familiar as to the householder\nthe house he dwells in, and saw the partition between all creatures\nand God's whole creation : it was as plain as the five fingers on\nmy hand.'--' He said, ' Explain more fully.' She replied, ' I will.\nI had assembled all my soul-powers. When I saw into myself 1\nsaw God in me and everything God ever made in earth and heaven.\nLet me explain it better. As you know right well, anyone wJio\nfaces God in the mirror of truth sees everything depicted in that\nmirror : all things, that is to say. Such was my inner habit\nbefore confirmation. Do you quite take me ? ' — ' It must be so,\nof course,' he said. ' Is that not thy rule now ? ' She answered,\n' No, I have nothing to do with saints nor angels nor crea-\ntures nor anything created ; it is all uniform : not merely\nnothing created but nothing uttered concerns me.' — ' Explain,' he\nsaid. She said, ' I will. I am confirmed in the naked Godhead,\nwherein is neither form or image.'— ' Art there for good ? ' he\nasked. She answered, ' Yes.' Quoth he, ' Daughter, say on, this\ntalk delights me.' And she proceeded, ' As 1 am no creature can\nbe, as creature.' — ' Explain,' he said. Quoth she, ' I am as I was\nbefore I was created : just God and God. No saint nor angel\nnor choir nor heaven. Eight heavens are often spoken of and nine\nchoirs of angels ; there is nothing of that where I am. You must\nknow tljat expressions of that sort, which conjure up pictures in the\nmind, merely serve as allurements to God. In God there is nothing\nbut God ; no soul gets to God until she is God as she was before\nshe was made.'\n\nHe said, ' You speak the truth, daughter. Now do for God's\nsake counsel me as best thou canst how I may gain possession of\nthis good.'— ' I will give you sure guidance,' she said. ' As you\nare well aware, creatures were made from nothing and must return\nto nothing ere they reach their source.' 'True,' he agreed.\nQuoth she, ' Enough said. Tell me now, what is nothing ? ' He\nreplied, ' I know what is nothing and I know what is less than\nnothing. Imperfections, I take it, are nothing to God. So that\nanyone subject to imperfections is less than nothing.' — ' How so ? '\n— ' He is the servant of imperfection. Nothing is nothing. The\nservant of imperfection is less than nothing.' Quoth she, ' Pre-\ncisely. The way then to obtain your good is to subordinate\nyourself to yourself and creatures till you can find no more to do\ntowards God's working in you.' — ' You are right,' he cried. ' One\nmastqr says. He who loves God as his God, and prays to God as\n\nhis God and is therewith content, is to me as an unbeliever.' —\n' Blessed be the master who said that,' quoth she. ' He knew the\ntruth. For you must understand that anyone content with what\ncan be expressed in words -God is a word, licaven is a word —\nwhose soul-powers, love and knowledge, insist on nothing further\nthan what can be expressed, is aptly styled an unbeliever. It is\nthe lower senses or powers of the soul which grasp things uttered.\nThe higher powers are not content with tliat : these keep on\npressing forward till they strike the source from whence the soul\nflowed forth. The powers of the soul cannot enter her source.\nAll nine powers of the soul serve the man of the soul ; they draw\nhim out of nether tilings and speed him to his source. When the\nsoul stands before her eaus(', superior to things in iier main power,\nher powers remain without. Look you, it is the naked soul, naked\nof things namcable, one in the same, that progresses in the naked\nGodhead, like oil that creeps in cloth : so the soul goes creeping\nforward, flowing on and on so long as God ordains her to give life\nto the body in time. Know, whih* the good man lives on earth his\nsoul is progressing in eternity, lienee the good like living.' ' True\ndaughter,' he observed. ' One master says : Suppose there lay\nat point to die two men ecpially pl('asant in f lic eyes of God, and\nthat both di('d, the one before the other but just long enough to\ngive that other time to breathe one sigh for God, to east one thought\nto the least martyr that CJod ever led, the lightest word God ever\nspoke, this would entitle him to prcccdenee over the other who\ndied first, while God remains eternal.' — ' That is so,' she said.\n' Know also, as the good shall rise so fall the wicked who arc\nin sin.' '\n\n' Now prithee, daughter, tell me. We speak of heaven and hell\nand purgatory and read a vast amount about them. We also read\nthat God is in everything and every thing in God.' — ' And so it is,'\nshe said. — ' Then, for God's sake,' quoth he, ' acquaint me with\nthe rightful view of it.' - ' Gladly, so far as I can put it into words,'\nshe said. ' II(;11 is nothing but a state or being. Our being here\nis our eternal being ; we are as it were grounded in it. Many people\nfondly imagine here to have crcaturely being and divine being\nyonder. That is not so. It is a popular delusion. Purgatory is\na thing assumed, like penance, and comes to an end. Look at it\nlike this. Some souls so reverence God and the friends of God that\nGod is constrained to have mercy on them, be it only at their\nend that true repentance comes to them in love and knowledge\nand they rise out of themselves and everything created. Then\ntrue love is their being and did they go on living they would sin\nno more but suffer for true love's sake all our Lord Jesus Christ\nsuffered, and his beloved. These rise in grace. But people who\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\ngo hence in their state of creaturehood are in that state eternally\nwhich is called hell. Likewise, there remains their state to those\nwho suffer naught but God to be in them : God is their being and\nremains their being eternally.\n\n' Again, touching the last day, people say, God shall ju^Jge. So\nhe shall, but not as they think. Each^n^an is his own judge in\nthis sense : the state he then appears in he is in eternally. People\nfrequently assert : The body shall rise with the soul. So it shall.\nBut not as they think. The being of the body and the being of\nthe soul go to form one being. Those souls who all their days have\nspent their time in God till God has come to be their being, to\nthem God stays their being, body and soul eternally. Not so the\nwicked who have squandered their time on creatures ; what their\nstate is it continues to be, and this eternal hq^sing from God and\nfrom his friends is called hell. Vet bear in mind that these same\npersons get their being from (iod or they would not be at all. So\nthey are in God and Ciod is in them. You see, they have the being\nof God. Take it like this. They ani in God as 'tvvcrc a man with\nhis life forfeit to some righteous lord whose honour he has stolen\nand whose friends, and plotted frequently against his life ; and\nnow his lord, who showed him only kindness in liopcs of his\nreform, is vexed to find that he declines to mend. Holding him\nin the grip of justice, his lord forbears to kill. He punishes the\noutrage on himself. First, bound hand and foot, the man is cast\ninto the lowest donjon among toads and reptiles and the foul\nwater which is wont to lie in deepest donjon-keeps. Fetched up\nfrom thence, he is disgraced before the world, that they may see\nhis opCTi shame and he their joy. So much the more his torment.\nInsult after insult do they heap upon him, shame unthinkable ;\nhe is ever cast back into his donjon, ever in dread of execution.\nEven so it is permissible to say that man is at the court, for the\ndonjon is the royal court as much as the hall is where the king\nstays with his friends ; but conditions, you sec, are different.\nThough not with that celestial race we spoke of. Know that grief\nendures eternally. I marvel that anyone who hears these words\nshould dare to sin. Purgatory is so grievous in itself that anyone\nwho knows the rights of it would stay no time in sin. Purgatory\nyou must know is temporal and notional. A soul which leaves the\nbody, as I said, in faith and love and will to do all for God's sake\nand eschew sin for God, that soul is in dire distress, unable to do\nanything but wait till God shall deign to take compassion on her.\nAnd though this happen not till doomsday, the hope is her life.\nDoomsday past, this is over. But souls in the divine condition\nare not affected in this sense : on quitting the body such a soul\nremains in a condition of divinity determined by her knowledge\n\nand love of God, and after the day of judgment the being of the\nbody and the being of the soul arc one being in the divine actuality.\nAccording to the most reliable authorities, statements of theirs\nregarding creatures arc not to be construed to mean that John\nwent body and soul to lieaven ; no more did others of our Lord's\nfriends cither, of whom report says they are body and soul in\nGod, transcending time in eternity. It is not possible. In God\ncan be nothing but God, not nioutli nor nose nor hand nor foot\nnor any creature pertaining to the body. So tlicy cannot be held\nto have got there in the body. IVi' may reasonably suppose that\nwhen the time came for John to go, God caused to befall him what\nwas due to happen on the day of judgment. Ih^ did this for true\nlove's sake, be(*ause he was so pure. The being of his soul, taking\nwith it, God helping, the being of his body, was drawn u]). We\njuay take it that his body, which was destined to perisli Iutc on\nearth, was disintegrated in the air, so that Mien* enter('d into God\nonly the being of the body, which would liave aecoinpanied tlu;\nsoul at the last day. Thus it befell Mary and all of whom it is\nrelated that they attained to (iod in the body.'\n\n' 'Tis well argued,' he said. ' Hut you must kno\\v the cpiestion\nis in hot dispute among the theologians.' Said she, ' I will give\nyou the key to its solution. Pass to our Lord Jesus Christ and\nsee what happened at his ascension. He was at meat when he\nascended. As you well know, the food was lost in transit, with\neverything adventitious that Christ had taken on, wliicdi all\nremained in time. He eould only take with him into the Father\nthat which came out of the Father. Tlu' being of C}irif?^'s soul\ntook with it the being of the noble manhood of our Lord .Tesus\nChrist in its divine actuality. The ])ersons subsist in th(' Father\nas one with the Father. Fven so are all thost* in th(' Father who\neoncpier Ijy grace what Christ has by nature : not that they take\nwith them the life of the body when they go hence ; that waits\ntill doomsday. The being of the body reverts to the b('ing of the\nsoul only when all things have perished, according to the vulgar\nteaching. You doubtless know that whom (iod deigns to favour\nhe treats as he treated St John.' Quoth he, ' I wot that well.\nIf I did as St Dominic, I should be as St Dominic. St Dominic\nsold his book and all he possessed and gave to the poor for God's\nsake. We do not this, daughter, nor do we ])ractise numerous\nother virtues of St Dominie. We are as we are through pretending\na priesthood we do not possess. St Francis was a simple soul\nwherefor God greatly favoured him. He approached Ckxl in\nperfect simplicity of life and so grew familiar with God. Now\nin those parts there was a priest who sorely hated a profane to\nbe so intimate with God. Going to visit him, he said, \" What\n\n332 MEISTER ECKIIART\n\nshall we make of this, brother ? The scriptures say we must rebujce\nmen for their sins.\" — \" Assuredly,\" said St Francis. — \" But,\" said\nthe priest, \" did I rebuke a man, he might repay me twofold.\" —\n\"How should he ? \" said St Francis. \"I can rede you the scriptures\nbetter than that : we are to cultivate the true and perfect life,\nwithin and without, till we become a living rebuke to all mankind.\"\n- \" True, brother,\" said the priest ashamed. — ^Know that to do as\nSt Francis is to become as St Francis. Further, I hold : when\nwc depart this life, grace departs from us. And again : to be less\nthan St John is to be more than St John.' — ' Thank God, you\nknow it,' she exclaimed. He said, ' I have known it lor long, and\nI ween it is true, though 1 do not live it.' — ' That I rue,' she\nsaid.\n\nQuoth she, ' You have told me of nine heavens. Now tell me\nwhat 1 ask. Advise me what sort of life to lead, for you know my\nlife better than anyone.'— ' Indeed 1 will,' said he, ' and gladly.\nEat when thou art hungry, drink when thou art thirsty, wear\nfine linen, sleep and take thine ease ; gratify thy tastes in meats\nand drinks and, for a season, study thyself, live for thyself alone.\nAn thou shouldst see God's whole creation swallowed up before\nthine eyes, avert it not with so much as an Ave Maria, but summon\nall creatures at will to do thy bidding to the glory of God. Wear\ndelicate, beautiful raiment, and, abiding in one place, carry all\nthings up to God. Dost thou choose to enjoy creatures, it is\nseemly so to do, seeing that any creature thou enjoyest thou dost\nrender to its cause. Thou wilt know full well that everything\nthou ejijoyest is in God to God's glory.' She said, ' I know right\nwell that all you say is true but you must understand I never\nshall want anything except to be a beggar till I die.' — ' Thou art\nmistook,' he said. — ' Then mistaken I will remain,' said she. ' I\nchoose poverty and exile ; that none can take from me.' — ' On\nmy soul, thou art false to God,' he cried. — ' How so ? ' she asked.\n' Just pleasing thyself,' he answered. Quotli she, ' God knows I\nam but keeping on the lines that led me to eternal happiness.\nThe natural error of those lines in time and in eternity shall be\nmine too in eternity and time. I will not deviate from the rule\nof our Lord Jesus Christ.' He said, ' Thou shouldst know that.\nGod prosper thee.' Then she : ' Believe me, I do take more ease ;\nmy discipline is not so strict as heretofore. If only I might\nforward on their way good souls approaching their eternal happiness\nbut lacking certainty, that I fain Would do ; I would fain succour\nthe whole world from sin for God's sake. Since our Lord Jesus\nChrist made use of all his faculties up to his death, 'tis meet I\nshould do likewise. My outer faculties shall occupy themselves\nwith the exalted life and noble manhood of our Lord Jesus Christ\n\nand with his lofty teachings, during my life in time. The highest\npowers of my soul will, as you know, be working in Christ's soul\nin his heavenly Father, subsisteiit in one nature they never stoop\nfrom. The Holy Ghost flows from the Father through these\npowers into my soul and back from my soul into God, each\nseveral ])owcr doing its own work, here in the Holy Ghost and,\nin the Father, with his Son our Lord Jesus Christ. Regard it as an\nintercourse. He knows all my days from the time I discerned\ngood and evil.'\n\n' Tell me, daughter,' he said, ' doctors declare that in heaven a\nthousand angels can stand on the point of a needle. Now rede me\nthe meaning of this ? ' She answered, ' The doctors arc right.\nYou can see it in this way. The soul that enters into (iod owns\nneither time nor space nor anything nameable to be expressed in\nwords. Hut it stands to reason, if you consider it, that the space\noccupied by any soul is vastly greater than heaven and earth and\nGod's entire creation. I say more : God might make heavens\nand earths galore yet these, together with the multiplicity of\ncreatures he has already made, would be of less extent than a single\nneedle-tip compared with the standpoint of a soul atoned in God.'\n— So the daughter went on, till her talk turning upon God, she\nwaxed most clocpient, the fathe r urging her at intervals ; ' Say on,\ndaughter.' She inii)arted to him so much concerning the immen-\nsity of God, the might of God and the providence of God, that he\ntook leave of his outer senses and they had to carry him into a\nneighbouring cell where he lay for long ere coming to himself again.\nReturning to himself, he desired his daughter to come ^o him.\nAdmitted to his presence, his daughter impiired, ' How is it now\nwith you ? Excellently well,' he answered. ' God be praised\nfor sending thee to a man. Thou didst show me the way to my\neternal happiness, and I have been deep in divine contemplation\nwhere there was given me the realization of all I have heard from\nthy lips. Daughter 1 adjure thee, by thy love to God, help me\nby word and deed to win a permanent abode where now I am^\nQuoth she, ' Impossible. You arc not tempered to it. When,\nsoul and faculties, you are as used to going uy) and down as a\ncourtier is to going to and fro at court ; when you recognise the\nvarious members of the heavenly eom])any and everything God\n(',ver made and fail in nothing but know them as the good man\nknows the members of his household, then you will distinguish\nbetween God and Godhead ; then too you see the difference\nbetween spirit and sy^irituality. Till then you are not qualified\nfor confirmation. Do not run away ; wrestle awhile with creatures\ntill you are independent of them and they, as such, of you. So\nshall you cultivate your faculties without going demented. This\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\ndo until your soul-powers are stimulated to the consciousness we\nhave been speaking of.'\n\nBlessed and praised be the sweet name of our Lord Jesus Christ.\nAmen.\n\nVII\n\nSIGNS OF THE TRUE GROUND\n\nAccording to one master, many people arrive at specific under-\nstanding, at formal, notional knowledge, but there are few who\nget beyond the science and the theory ; yet one man whose mind\nis free from notions and from forms is more dear to God than the\nhundred thousand who have the habit of discursive reason. God\ncannot enter in and do his work in them owing to the restlessness\nof their imagination. If they were free from pictures they could\nbe caught and carried up beyond all rational concepts, as St Diony-\nsius says, and also have the super- rational light of faith at its\nstarting-point, where God finds his rest and peace to dwell and\nwork in as he will and when he will and what he will. God is\nunhindered in his work in these so he can do in them his most\nprecious work of all, working them up in faith into himself.\nThese people no one can make out ; their life is an enigma, and their\nways, to all who do not live the same. To this truth and to this\nblessed life, to this high and perfect consummation no one can\nattain except in abstract knowledge and pure understanding.\n\nMany a lofty intellect, angels not excepting (for in life and\nnature an angel is nothing but pure mind), has erred and lapsed\neternalty from the eternal truth and this may happen also to those\nwho, like the angels, preserve their idiosyncrasy and find satis-\nfaction in the exercise of their own intelligence. Hence the\nmasters urge, and the saints as well, the use and the necessity of\ncareful observation and close scrutiny to test the light which\nflashes in, the light of understanding and of vision which man has\nhere in time, lest he be the subject of hallucination. If you would\nknow and recognise the really sane and genuine seers of God,\nwhom nothing can deceive nor misinform, they can be detected\nby four and twenty signs.\n\nThe first sign is told us by the chief exponent of knowledge and\nwisdom and transcendental understanding, who is himself the\ntruth, our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, ' Thereby ye shall know\nthat ye are my disciples, if ye love one another and keep my\ncommandment. What is my commandment ? That ye love one\nanother I have loved you,' as though to say, yp may be my\ndisciples in knowledge and in wisdom and high undemanding\nbut without true love it shall avail you little if anything at all.\n\nBalaam was so clever he understood what God for many hundred\nyears had been trying to reveal. This was but little help to Him\nbecause he lacked true love. And Lucifer, the angel, who is in\nhell, had perfectly pure intellect and to this day knows much.\nHe has the more hell pain and all because he failed to cleave with\nlove and faith to what he knew. — The second sign is selflessness :\nthey empty themselves out of themselves giving free furlough to\nthings.— The third sign : they have wholly abandoned themselves\nto God : God works in them undisturbed. — The fourth sign :\nwherever they still find themselves they leave themselves ; sure\nmethod of advancement. — ^The fifth sign : they are free from all\nself-seeking : this gives them a clear conscience. — The sixth sign :\nthey wait unceasingly upon God's will and do it to their utmost.\n— ^The seventh sign : they bend their will to God's will till their\nwill coincides with God's. — The eighth sign : so closely do they fit\nand bind themselves to God and God to them in the power of love,\nthat God does nothing without them and they do nothing without\nGod. — The ninth sign : they naught themselves and make use of\nGod in all their works and in all places and all things. — The tenth\nsign : they take no single thing from any creature, neither good\nnor bad, but all from God alone, albeit God effect it through his\ncreature. — The eleventh sign : they are not snared by any pleasure\nor physical enjoyment or by any creature. — The twelfth sign ;\nthey are not forced or driven by insubordination ; they are\nsteadfast for the truth. — The thirteenth sign : they are not misled\nby any spurious light nor by the look of any creature : they go\nby the intrinsic merit. — The fourteenth sign : armed and arrayed\nwith all the virtues they emerge victorious from every fight with\nvice. — The fifteenth sign : they sec and know the naked truth and\npraise God without ceasing for this gnosis. — The sixteenth sign :\nperfect and just, they hold themselves in poor esteem. — The\nseventeenth sign : they arc chary of words and prodigal of works.\n— The eighteenth sign : they preach to the world by right practice.\n— The nineteenth sign : they are always seeking God's glory and\nnothing at all besides. — The twentieth sign : if any man fight\nthem they will let him prevail before accepting help of any sort\nbut God's. — The twenty-first sign : they desire neither comfort\nnor possessions, of the least of which they deem themselves all\nundeserving. — The twenty-second sign : they look upon themselves\nas the most unworthy of all mankind on earth ; their humbleness\nis therefore never-failing. — The twenty-third sign : they take the\nlife and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ for the perfect exemplar\nof their lives and in the light of this arc always examining them-\nselves with the sole intention of removing all unlikeness to their\nhigh ideal. — The twenty-fourth sign ; to outward appearance they\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\ndo little who are working all the time at the virtuous life, hence\nthe disesteem of many people, which, however, they prefer to\nvulgar approbation.\n\nThese are the signs of the true ground wherein lives the image of\nthe perfect truth and he who does not find them in himself may\naccount his knowledge vain and so may other people.\n\nVIII 1\n\nTHE BIRTH OF THE ETERNAL WORD IN THE SOUL\n\nNow we will speak of the eoming of our Lord Jesus Christ as\nhe is born to-day at this holy season of the Virgin Mary his\nblessed mother and again as he is born of grace in the perfect\nsoul for that is the whole end of Christ's work on earth ,* and we\nshall ask nine questions from which any pious man may tell\nwhether the eternal Word is born in him or no.\n\nThe first question is, how to prepare for the interior speaking of\nthe eternal Word ? — Several things are needed. First, purity of\nlife and mind. Next, the peace and freedom of a still and silent\nheart which is speaking to no creature and is spoken to by none,\nwhether of the senses or the spirit. And now for a hard saying\nwhich few will understand : while the soul is speaking her\nown word and her noble word, the Father cannot speak his Word\nin her ; while the soul is begetting her own son, the noblest\nwork of her own understanding, the Father is not able to beget\nhis Soi^ in her to her best advantage. Thirdly, the soul must\nforsake herself in order to conceive the eternal Word like St Paul\nand Mary, God's mother, in whom the eternal Word was uttered\nperfectly. The mind must die to itself, disowning itself and\nbecoming God's own. Fourthly, the mind must lift up its intellect\nand see, for seeing is the lustiest work and noblest of which the soul\nis capable. Mark how eagerly he comes ; he says, ' Behold I\nstand at the door and knock ! ' Fifthly, it behoves us greatly to\ndesire this birth, for desire is the root of all virtue and goodness.\n\nThe second question is, what is God's birth in the soul ?\nGod's birth in the soul is nothing else than a special divine\nmotion in a special heavenly mode whereby God wrests the\nspirit from the tumult of creaturely unrest into his motionless\nunity where God can communicate himself to the spul in his\ndivinity. There man enjoys his Word in the Father jn its first\ndiscriminate emanation and with the Father as ^sential Person\nand in the Holy Ghost as the limit set to thdr eternal bliss,\nand it is in the soul as the reflection of her intellectual proto-\n^ See also Greith, pp. 102, 103.\n\ntype and in all creatures as the preserver of their being. For\nGod speaks his Word in every creature, but no creature is aware\nof it save rational creatures only. The soul is reborn into God\nwhen she turns to God and pursues his eternal Word right into\nhis paternal heart where God makes naked revelation of his birth\nto the soul. The soul falls upon this birth which is revealed to\nher, with love and knowledge. As the Father comes into the soul\nin his Word so in the Word the soul is returned into the Father.\nThat we may eternally play this game in God, God help us.\n\nThe third question is, can any man be so well prepared that God\nis obliged to speak his eternal Word in him ? We know that God\nmust fulfil two obligations. First, when God is pledged and bound\nto the soul by the bonds of mutual love. Then God never fails\nthe soul provided she is ready ; he is obliged of mutual necessity\nto give himself to her, as Christ said to Zaceheus, ' This day I must\nabide with thee in thine house.' There is another word that must\nbe spoken. Every good thing communicates itself to whatever\nis able to receive it ; it would therefore be contrary to God's\ngoodness to withhold himself from us if we can take him in. And\nthere is a third compulsory utterance, that of some cause or force\nwhich is inadmissible in God. Theologians tell us that works\nwrought by the soul with God and in his grace God rewards or not\njust as he chooses, for such works are creature and finite and befall\nin time. They are too insignificant and vile to deserve reward\nfrom God at all. But the work God docs in us without our\nco-operation, where the soul's work fails and God's activity prevails,\nin that the soul is merely passive and God is the only o^e who\nworks. Works wrought thus by God in the soul it is his bounden\nduty to requite with his own self, for these works are so divine, so\neternal, so immense and so nearly touch God's honour, he has no\nguerdon for them but himself. These souls are the noblest product\nof this life and it is of them St John declares, ' Blessed are the dead\nthat die in the Lord.' The outward world is dead to them as they\narc also to the world. Their outward man can no more clash with\ntheir inner man than the dead can with the living and this is due\nto the gift of God and interior prayer and profound humility.\nWhich God grant us.\n\nThe fourth question is, what particular place or power of the\nsoul the eternal Word is born in ? The philosophers and saints\nhave many fine sayings about this. Some say, in the intellect for\nthat is most like God. Some say, in the will for that is the free\npower of the soul. A third school teaches, in the soul -spark\nbecause that is most nigh to God. A fourth, in the arcanum of\nthe mind for it is there that God is most at home. A fifth school\nsays (and it is with this one that I hold), that it is born in the\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\ninnermost being of the soul and all her powers are made aware of\nit in a divine savour, each power in its own mode but intellect is\nthe highest power of the soul and therewith the soul grasps the\ndivine good. Free will is the power of relishing the divine good\nwhich intellect makes known to it. The spark of the soul is the\nlight of God's reflection, which is always looking back to God.\nThe arcanum of the mind is the sum-total, as it were, of all the\ndivine good and divine gifts in the innermost essence of the soul,\nwhich is as a bottomless well of divine goodness. Which may\nGod grant us.\n\nThe fifth question is, what part does the mind play in this birth ?\nIt enters a condition of complete passivity leaving God to work his\nwill in perfect liberty. Perhaps it may be asked, Is the mind\naware that God is working in it ? I answer : Virtue, all good works\nwrought by God in man, fervour and devotion for example, a\nman will be aware of, for with works of this kind there is very often\nthe evidence of the senses. But when the divine good over-\nwhelms with its riches the appetitive faculty and the light of God\nraises the intellect to a higher power, coercing or carrying the mind\ninto his divine countenance, then the mind pays no more attention\nto creatures : she is standing face to face with the highest truth.\nWhich may God give us.\n\nThe sixth question is, what part is played by the body in this ?\nIt is resting peacefully, incapable of movement in any of its\nmembers, for the superior powers have fetched home the lower,\nand the essence of the soul has absorbed her higher powers so all\nis at a stand-still while the eternal Word is being born, in the\nmind and in the body. So help us God.\n\nThe seventh question is, can no power of the soul remain at\nwork while the eternal Word is being supernaturally born in this\nway in the soul ? The answer is this. The soul has two kinds of\npowers, and of these the outward senses of the body arc all at rest\nand also the powers which move the body have been fetched in so\nthat none of her powers remain active, but the soul is merely the\nmotionless form of the body. As the prophet says, ' When all\nthings were in mid-silence God spake his silent Word into my soul.'\nMotionless peace descends upon the body and the mind wherein\nthe eternal birth is to be supernaturally conceived. To attain to\nthis we must be like the shepherds watching in the night wherein\nChrist was born. So must a man keep watch and ward over his\nown mind, driving his intelligence up into the heights, to those\neternal laws ordained by God for lost and saved.^ Let us beseech\nhim daily to carry out in us his eternal laws and rules. For\n\n^ Referring to the soul-spark or synteresis, sometimes identified with con-\nscience regarded as the ii^ternal repository of the laws of right and wrong.\n\npriests and rcli^rious the seven liours are ordained that they may\nthank God for his death and pray him to accomplish his eternal\nrules and laws in us. And you who know this truth better than\nothers do should let your minds dwell more upon this birth than\nother people can who arc ignorant about it. God help us to the\ntruth.\n\nThe eighth question is, what fruits or gifts are granted to the\nsoul in whom the eternal Word is spoken ? Him four things befall.\nThe first is that he is united with God. Next, he becomes God's\nSon by grace. Thirdly, he is made God's heir. Fourtlily, he is\nloosed from bondage ; as St Paul, naming all four perfections,\nsays, ' In Christ is neither male nor female, neither Jew nor Greek,\nneither bond nor free ; but ye are all one in Christ and arc sons of\nGod. And if sons of God then heirs of God.' May we being loosed\nfrom bondage be God's sons, so help us God.\n\n^ Now, taking as my text, ' This is my beloved Son in whom I\nam well pleased,' I will set forth the things a man must have in\norder to be God's Son by grace. First, he must have perfect self-\ncontrol, as the Lord Christ says, ' I have power to lay down my\nsoul and take it up again.' Meaning, he is not cast down by\nsuffering and adversity nor puffed up by worldly happiness and\nprosperity. Secondly, he must have his mind ever charged with\ndivine ideas and godly sayings. Thirdly, he must have the\nhighest good ever present to his mind so far as his nature will\nallow. Fourthly, he must steadfastly abide therein so far as his\nnature can endure it. Fifthly, if he go out into creatures for the\nneeds of life he must not tarry there longer than is neqjssary.\nSixthly, what his mind conceives of from within of divine mystery\nor truth he must protect from nature as a rich man guards his\ntreasure from robbers and from thieves. In the seventh place,\nhe must make no attempt to express these things in words until the\ntime is ripe, that is, until he puts them into practice. Eighth, he\nmust know well enough and consider fit any person he reveals\nthese secrets to : the fool confides in all the world but the wise in\nfew. Ninthly, he must be gracious alike to yea and nay. Tenth,\nhe must be indifferent about what God has done to him and is\ngoing to do. [Eleventh, it must not concern him what God has\ndone or is to do.] Twelfth, he must behave impartially to those\nwhom God has chosen or not chosen [to those to whom his grace\nhas or has not been given] ; and all these things he must offer up\nto the glory of God, obeying the divine command that what\npleases God shall please him also and saying with Christ, ' Father,\n\n^ The rest of this tractate occurs also in Hermann von Fritslar's Das\nHeiligenlebcn (see Pfeiffer's Deutsche Mystiker, vol. i, p. 54), from which the\nwords in bra^ckets are added.\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nthy will not mine be done.' These twelve articles, with the pre-\nceding four, set forth the highest life that can be led in time. Of\nhim who has these things may the Father say, ' This is my beloved\nSon in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him.' And he who has\nthem not but defaults therein, his defects are what St Augustine\ncalls spiritual sins.\n\nThe ninth question is, how to recognise these people in whom\nthe eternal Word is born ghostly and gratuitously ? I answer, by\nthe following signs. The first is that these people are dead to\nflesh and blood and to all natural appetites, as St Paul says,\n' Since the eternal Word was born in me I no longer live to flesh\nand blood.' Secondly the pleasures of the body [the triumphs of\nthe world], are like sour breath unto their soul. As St Gregory\ndeclares, ' Worldly joys and glories are nothing but untowardness.\nThirdly, these people arc for ever listening for God's voice in them,\nDavid says, ' I will hearken to what God the Lord shall say within\nme.' Fourthly, they are not perturbed by the uncertainty of\nthings : nothing vexes or depresses them, as Christ said to his\ndisciples, ' In your patience possess ye your souls.' Fifthly, these\npeople turn everything to good account so nothing can corrupt\nthem, but they are ever pure in heart ; as St Paul says, ' All\nthings work together for good to them that love God.' Sixthly,\nthey have no desire to vie with anyone ; they live in the world\nas though there was no one but themselves and God. Wherefore\ntheir heavenly Father begets his Son in them unceasingly and this\nbirth is for all who give their mind thereto.\n\nTh^. Lord Christ calls himself the flower of the field, for this\nis common property. Even so this birth is the common property\nof all those who are ready and diligently longing to receive it.\nMay we thus desire this birth and eternally enjoy it. So help us\nGod. Amen.\n\nIX\n\nDETACHMENT ^\n\nI have read many writings of heathen philosophers and sages,\nof the old covenant and of the new, and have sought earnestly and\nwith all diligence which is the best and highest virtue whereby\na man may knit himself most narrowly to God and wherein he is\nmost like to his exemplar, as he was in God, wherein was no differ-\nence between himself and God, ere God created creature. And\nhaving approfounded all these scriptures to the best of my ability,\nI find it is none othe r t han absolute detachment from all creatures.\n\n* See also Spamor, B. 4.\n\nAs our Lord said to Martha, ' unum est necessarium,^ which is as\ngood as saying, He who would be serene and pure needs but one\nthing, detachmejit.\n\nOur (ioctors sing love's praises, as did St Paul, who said, ' What-\nsoever things I do and have not charity I am nothing.' But I\ncx^j^etachj^^ any love. First, because at best love\n\nconstrains me to love God. Now it is far better my constraining\nGod to me than for me to be constrained to God. My eternal\n^ happiness depends on God and me becoming one ; but God is\napter to adapt himself to me and can easier communicate with\n^me than I can communicate with God. Detachment forces God to\n! come to me, and this is shown as follows. Everything is fain to be\nin its own natural state. But God's own natural state is unity and\npurity and these conic from de^chmeixt. Hence God is bound to\ngive himself to a heart detached. — Secondly, I rank detachment\nabove love because love constrains me to suffer all things for God's\nsake : detachment constrains me to admit nothing but God. Now\nj it is far better to tolerate nothing but God than to suffer all things\n1 for God's sake. For in suffering one has regard to creatures,\nwhence the suffering conics, but detachment is immjjlie. from\ncreature. Further, that detachment admits of none biit God I\ndemonstrate in this wise : anything received must be received in\naught. But detachment is so nearly naught that there is nothing\nrare enough to stay in this detachment, except God. He is so\nsimple, so ethereal, that he can sojourn in the solitary heart.\nDetachment then admits of God alone. That which is received is\nreceived and grasped by its receiver according to the mode of the\nreceiver ; and so anything conceived is known and und^stood\naccording to the mind of him who understands and not according\nto its own innate conceivability.\n\nAnd humility the masters laud beyond most other virtues. I\n/ rank detachment before any meekness and for the following\n; reasons. Meekness can be without detachment, but complete\ndetachment is impossible without humility. Perfect humility is a\nmatter of self-naughting ; but detachment so narrowly approxi-\nmates to naught that no room remains for aught betwixt zero and\nabsolute detachment. Wherefore without humility is no complete\ndetachment. Withal two virtues are always better than one. —\nAnother reason w'^hy I put detachment higher than humility is\nthis : humility means abasing self before all creatures and in that\nsame abasement one goes out of oneself to creatures. But detach-\nment abideth in itself. Now no going out however excellent, but\nstaying in is better still. As the prophet hath it, ' omnis gloria\nfilice regis ab intusy\" the king's daughter is all glorious mthin.\nPerfect detachment is without regard, without either lowliness or\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nloftiness to creatures : it has no mind to be below nor yet to be\nabove ; it is minded to be master of itself, loving none and hating\nnone, having neither likeness nor urilikeness, neither this nor that,\nto any creature ; the only thing it fain would be is same^ But to\nbe either this or that it does not want at all. He who is this or\n,that is aught ; but detachment is altogether naught. It leaves\ni -things unmolested.\n\nHere someone may object. But surely in our Lady all the virtues\nflourished in perfection and among them absolute detachment.\nNow granting that detachment is better than humility, why did\nour Lady glory in her lowliness instead of her detachment, saying,\n' quia respexit dominus humilitatem ancillce sua- ' : ' He regarded\nthe lowliness of his handmaiden ' ?\n\nI answer that, in God there is detachment and humility as well,\nso far as virtues can be attributed to God. Know, it was his\nloving meekness that made God stoop to enter human nature\nwhile it remained within itself as motionless, what time he\nwas made man, as it was while he created the heavens and the\nearth, as I shall show you later. And seeing that our Lord when he\n' chose to be made man did persist in his motionless detachment, by\nthat same token did our Lady know that he expected her to do the\nsame, albeit for the nonce he had regard expressly to her lowliness\nand not to her detachment. So remaining unmoved in her detach-\nment she yet gloried in her lowliness and not in her detachment.\nHad she but once remembered her detachment to say, ' He regarded\nmy detachment,' her detachment would by that have been disturbed\nand would not have been absolute and perfect since a going forth\nhas t^Jien place. Any event, however insignificant, will always\ncause some troubling of detachment. There you have the explana-\ntion of our Lady's glorying in her lowliness instead of her detach-\nment. Quoth the prophet, ' audiani, quid loquatur in me dominus\ndeus,^ ' I will be still and listen to what my Lord and my God\nmay be saying within me,' as though to say, if God would parley\nwith me then he must come in for I will not go out. It is Boethius\nwho exclaims, ' Yc men, why do ye look without for that which\nis within you ? '\n\nI prize detachment more than mercy too, for mercy means\nnaught else but a man's going forth of self by reason of his fellow-\ncreatures* lack, wheiuiby, his heajt is Detachment is\n\n'. exempt from this ; it stays within itself permitting nothing to\ndisturb it. In short, when I reflect on all the virtues I find not\none. so wholly free from fault, so unitiye to Goci as is detach men t.\n\nIt was Avicenna the philosopher who said, ' The mind detached\n; is of such nobility that what it sees is true, what it desires befalls\nand its behests must be obeyed.' For you must know that jwhen\n\nthe free mind is quite detached it constrains God to itself and could\nit femairi formless arid free from adventitiousness it would take\non the nature of God. But God grants this to none beside himself ;\nso God can do no more for the solitary soul than make it a present\nof himself. The man who is in absolute detachment is rapt away\n;jinto eternity where nothing temporal affects him nor is he in the\n( least aware of any mortal thing ; he has the world well dead, he\nhaving no relish for aught earthly. St Paul meant this when he\ndeclared, ' I live and yet not I : Christ liveth in me.'\n\nPerad venture thou will say, ~ What then is detachment that it\nshould be so noble in itself ? — True detachment means a mind as\nlittle moved by what befalls, by joy and sorrow, honour and dis-\ngrace, as a broad mountain by a gentle breeze. • Such motionless\ndetachment inakes a man superlatively Godlike. For that God is\nGodT is due to his motionless detachment, and it is from his detach- ^\nment that he gets his purity and his simplicity and his immuta- '\nbility. If then a man is going to be like God, so far as any creature\ncan resemble God, it will be by detachment. This leads to purity\nand from purity to simplicity and from simplicity to immova-\nbility ; and it is these three which constitute the likeness between\nman and God, which likeness is in grace, for it is grace which\ndraws a man away from mortal things and purges him from things\ncorruptible. I would have you know that to be empty of creatures '\\\nis to be full of God and to be full of creatures is to be empty of ■\nGod.\n\nNow it must be remembered that in this immutable detachment\nGod has stood for aye and does still stand. Know also, that when\nGod created the heavens and the earth he might not ha^e been\nmaking anything at all for all that it affected his deta^ment.\nNay, I say more : prayers and good works wrought by a man in\ntime affect no more the diviiie detachment than if no prayers\nnor virtuous Avorks had come to pass in time ; nor is God any\nkindlier disposed towards that wight than if his prayers and deeds\nhad all V>een left undone. Further I declare, when the Son in\nhis Godhead was pleased to be made man and was and suffered\nmartyrdom, God's motionless detachment was no more disturbed\nthan if he had never been made man.\n\nHaply thou wilt say, I gather then that prayers and virtuous\ndeeds are all in vain ; God takes too little interest in them to be\naffected by them. And yet they say God likes to be entreated upon\nall occasions.\n\n.Now mark, and realize if possible, that in his first eternal glance\n(if a first glance may be assumed), God saw all things as they\nwould happen and he saw in that same glance both when and how\nhe would make creatures. He saw the humblest prayer that\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nwould be offered, the least good deed that anyone would do and\nsaw withal which prayers and which devotions he would hear.\nHe saw that to-morrow thou shalt call upon him earnestly, urgently\nentreating him ; and not for the first time to-morrow will God\ngrant thy supplication and thy prayer : he has granted it already\nin his eternity ere ever thou becamest man. Suppose thy prayer\nis foolish or lacking earnestness, God will deny it thee not then,\nhe has denied it thee already in his eternity. Thus God, who has\nseen everything in that first eternal glance, in no wise acts from\nany why at all, for everything is a foregone conclusion.\n\nAnd though God docs stay all the while in motionless detachment\nyet are men's prayers and virtuous works not all in vain, he who\ndoes well being well rewarded. As Philippiis says, ' God creator\nholds all things in the course and order he has given them from the\nbeginning.' With him nothing is past and nothing future, who has\nloved all his saints even as he foresaw them ere ever the world\nbecame. Yet when there come to pass in time the things he\nspeculated in eternity then people think that God has changed\nhis mind, though whether he be wrathful or benignant it is wc who\nchange and he remains the same ; just as the sunshine hurts weak\neyes and benefits the strong ones what time the light itself remains\nunchanged. God does not see in time nor is his outlook subject\nto renewal. Isodorus argues in this sense in his book on the\nArch-Good. lie says, People arc always asking what God did\nbefore he created the heavens and the earth and whence there\ncame to God the new will to make creatures ? His answer is that\nno new will at all arose in God ; for what though creature was\nnot in itself as it is now yet it was from eternity in God and in\nhis mmd. God did not make the heavens and the earth as we\nshould say, man -fashion, ' Let them be ! ' but creatures arc\nall spoken in his eternal Word. Moses said to God, ' Lord, if\nPharaoh ask me who thou art, what am I to say ? ' And God\nreplied, ' Say, He-who-is hath sent me.' Or in other words, He\nwho is unchanging in himself, he it is hath sent me.\n\nHere someone may object. But was Christ in motionless detach-\nment when he cried, ' My soul is sorrowful even unto death ! '\nOr Mary when she stood beneath his cross ? yet much is said\nabout her lamentations. How is all this compatible with motion-\nless detachment ? — Know then, that according to philosophers\nthere are in everyone two men : one, the outward man, is his\nobjective nature ; this man is served by the five senses, albeit he\nis energised by the power of the soul. The other one, the inner man,\nis man's subjective nature. Now I would have you know that the\nGodly-minded man employs his soul-powers in his outward man\nno more than his five senses really need it ; and his interior man\n\nonly has recourse to the five senses so far as it is guide and keeper\nto these five senses and can stop them being put to bestial uses as\nthey so often are by those who live according to the baser appetites,\nas do the mindless beasts, and who deserve the name of beast\nrather than that of man. What surplus energy she has beyond\nwhat she expends on her five senses the soul bestows upon her\ninner man, and supposing he has toward some right high endeavour\nshe will call in all the powers she has loaned to the five senses and\nthen the man is said to be senseless and rapt away, his object\nbeing either some unintelligible form or some formless intelligible.\nRemember, God requires every spiritual man to love him with all\nthe powers of his soul. ' Thou shalt love the I^ord thy God with\nall thy heart,' he says. Some squander all their soul-powers on\ntheir outward man. Namely, those whose thoughts and feelings\nhinge on temporal goods, all unwitting of an inner man. And\neven as the virtuous man will now and then deprive his outward\nself of all the powers of the soul what time he is embarking on some\nhigh adventure, so bestial man will rob his inner self of all its\nsoul-powers to expend them on his outer man. Withal it must be\nrealized that the outward man is able to be active and leave the\ninward man entirely passive and unmoved. Now in Christ too\nexisted an outward and an inward man and also in our Lady, and\nwhat Christ and our Lady said concerning outward things was\nprompted by their outward man, the inner man remaining in\nmotionless detachment. So was it when Christ said, ' My soul is\nsorrowful unto death.' And despite her lamentations and various\nthings she said. Our Lady, in her inner man, stood all the while\nin motionless detachment. Take an illustration. The d^r goes\nto and fro upon its hinges. Now the projecting door I liken to\nthe outwafd^man and the hinge I liken to the inner man. As it\nshuts and opens the door swings to and fro while the hinge remains\nunmoved in the same place without undergoing any change.\nAnd likewise here.\n\nWhat then, I ask, is the object of absolute detachment ? I\nanswer, that the object of absolute detachment is neither this nor\nthat. It is absolu^ v nothing, for it is the culminating point where\nGod can do preciscIylS^hc will.^ God cannot have his way in every\nTteaft, for though God is alriugnty yet he cannot work except where\nhe finds readiness or makes it. I add, or makes it, by reason of\nSt Paul in whom he found no readiness but whom he did make\nready by infusion of his grace ; wherefore I affirm, God works\naccording to the aptitude^ he %ds. He works differently in man\nand in a stone, and for this we have a natural analogy. If you heat\na baker's oven and place in it the dough, some made of barley,\nsome of oats and some of wheat and some of rye, then albeit in\n\n846 MEISTER ECKHART\n\nthe oven the heat is all the same it does not tell alike on all the\ndoughs, but one yields a fine bread, another one more coarse and a\nthird a coarser still. The heat is not to blame : it is the material\nwhich differs. Nor does God tell alike on every heart but accord-\ning to the readiness and the capacity he finds. In any heart\ncontaining this or that there is something to hinder God's highest\noperation. For a hear^toj^i^perfectly r^a^it^feas to be perfectly\nempty, this T5?mg[lts^ndijdon p To take\n\nanotlier common illustration. Suppose I want to write on a white\ntablet, then anything already written there, however excellent it\nbe, will interfere and hinder me from writing ; ere I can write\nI must erase completely whatever is already on the tablet which\nis never better fitted for me to write upon than when there is\nnothing there at all. And so for God to write his very best within\n, my heart everything dubbed this or that must be ousted from my\nj heart leaving it quite without attachment. God is free to work\nhis sovran will when the object of this solitary heart is neither\nthis nor that.\n\nThen again I ask, What is the prayer of the solitary heart ?\nI answer, that detachment and emptiness cannot pray at all, for\nwhoso prays desires of God somcthirig : something added to him\nor something taken from him. Ilut the heart detached has no\nj desire for anything nor has it anything to be delivered from. So\nit has no prayers at all ; its only prayer consists in being uniform\nwith God. In this sense we may take St Dionysius' comment on\nthe saying of St Paul, ' Many there be that run but one receiveth\nthe prize.' All the powers of the soul competing for the crown\nwhich^alls to the essence alone. According to Dionysius this\nrunning is none other than the flight from creature to union with\nuncreated nature. Attaining this the soul loses her name ; God\nabsorbs her in himself so that as self she comes to naught, just as\nthe sunlight swallows up the dawn and naughts it. To this pass\nnothing brings the soul but absolute detachment. And here it is\ngermane to quote St Augustine's dictum : ' The soul has a private\ndoor into divine nature at the point where for her things all come\nto naught.' This door on earth is none other than absolute\ndetachment. At the height of her detachment she is ignorant\nwith knowing, loveless with loving, 4a^k\n\nHere too we might cite a master's word§*^^ iessed are the spiritual\npoor who have abandoned unto God all things as he possessed\nthem when we existed not. This none can do but a heart wholly\nwithout attachment.\n\nThat God would sooner be in a solitary heart than any other, I\nargue in this fashion. Starting from thy question. What does\nGod seek in all things ? I answer in his words out of the Book of\n\nWisdom, ' In alj^thhiigs I seek rest.' Now there is nowhere perfect\nrest save in a heart detached. Ergo, God is happier there than in\nany other thing or virtue. Know that the more we are disposed\nto receive the inflowing God, the more happy we shall be ; perfect\nreceptivity gives perfect felicity. Now one makes oneself re'ceptfvc\nto the influence of God only by dint of uniformity with God ;\nas a man's uniformity with God so is his sense of the inflow of God.\nUniformity comes of subjection to God, and the more one is subject\nto creature the less one is uniform with God. But the heart\nwhich is (juite detached and all devoid of creatures, being utterly\nsubject to God and uniform with God in the highest measure, is\nwholly receptive of his divine inflow. Hence St Paul's exhorta-\ntion to ' Put on Christ,' i.^ Uiiiforinity with Christ. For know,\nwhen Christ was^^made man it was not a certain man that he\nassumed, he assumed human nature. Do thou go out of all things,\nthen there remains alone what Christ put on and thou hast put\non Christ.\n\nWhoso has a mind to know the excellence and use of absolute\ndetachment let him lay to heart Christ's words to his disciples\ntouching his manhood : ' It is good, for you, that I. go away j if\nI go iiqL .away the xaLunfprt^ cannot come tin to you ' ; as though\nto say, yc have too much love for riiy visible forTn for the perfect\nlove of the Holy Ghost to be yours. Wherefore discard the form\nand unite with the formless essence, for God's ghostly comfort is\nintangible and is not offered save to those alone who despise all\nmortal consolations.\n\nList ye, good people all : there is none happier than he who\nstands in uttermost detachment. No temporal, carnal i^easurc\nbut brings some ghostly mischief in its train, for the flesh lusts\nafter things that run counter to the spirit and spirit lusts for things\nthat are repugnant to the flesh. He who sows the tares of love in\nflesh reaps death but he who sows good love-seed in the spirit reaps\nof the spirit eternal life. The more man flees from creatures the\nfaster hastens to him their creator. Consider, all yc thoughtful\nsouls ! If even the love which it is given us to feel for the bodily\nform of Christ can keep us from receiving the Holy Ghost then how\nmuch more must we be kept from getting God by inordinate love\nof creature comforts ? Detachment is the best of all, for it cleanses\nthe soul, clarifies the mind, kindles the heart and wakes the spirit ;\nit quickens desire and enhances virtue giving intuition of God ;\nit detaches creature and makes her one with God ; for love dis-\njoined from God is as water in the fire, but love in union is like\nthe honeycomb in honey. Harkee, all rational souls ! The swiftest\nsteed to bear you to your goal is suffering ; none shall ever taste\neternal bliss but those who stand with Christ in depths of bitterness.\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nNothing is more gall-bitter than suffering, nothing so honey-sweet\nas to have suffered. The most sure foundation for this perfection\nis humility, for he whose nature here creeps in deepest depths shall\nsoar in spirit to highest height of Deity ; for joy brings sorrow and\nsorrow brings joy. Men's ways are manifold : one lives thus,\nanother thus. He who would attain unto the highest life while\nhere in time, let him take in a few words culled out of all the\nscriptures the summary philosophy which I will now set down.\n\nKeep thyself detached from all mankind ; keep thyself devoid\nof all incoming images ; emancipate thyself from everything\nwhich entails addition, attachment or encumbrance, and address\nthy mind at all times to a saving contemplation wherein thou\nbearest God fixed within thy heart as the object from which its\neyes do never waver ; any other discipline, fasts, vigils, prayers,\nor whatever it may be, subordinate to this as to its end, using\nthereof no more than shall answer for this purpose, so shalt thou\nwin the goal of all perfections.\n\nHere someone may object. But who can persist in unwavering\ncontemplation of the divine object ? I answer, no one living here\nin time. This is told thee merely so that thou mayst know the\nhighest, that whereon thy aspirations and desires should be set.\nBut when this vision is withheld from thee, thou, being a good man,\nshalt think to have been robbed of thy eternal bliss and then do\nthou forthwith return into the same that it may come to thee\nagain ; and withal it does behove thee to keep strict watch upon\nthy thoughts at all times, there letting, as far as possible, their\ngoal and refuge be. Lord God, glory be to thee eternally. Amen.\n\nX\n\nSPIRITUAL POVERTY\n\nBeati pauper es spiritu etc. Let us be eternally as poor as we\nwere when we eternally were not. Abiding in him in our essence\nwe shall be that we are. We shall abound in all things, but in\ntheir creator. Wc shall know God without any sort of likeness\nand love without matter and enjoy without possession. We shall\nconceive all things in perfection as the eternal wisdom shows them\nplanned out in itself.\n\nThe poor in spirit go out of themselves and all creatures : they\nare nothing, they have nothing, they do nothing, and these poor\nare not save that by grace they are God with God : which they are\nnot aware of. St Augustine says, all things are God. St Diony-\nsius says, things are not God. St Augustine says, God is all of\nthem. But Dionysius : God is nothing we can say or think, yet\n\nGod is the hope of all the saints, their intuition of him wherein\nhe is himself. He (Dionysius) finds him more in naught ; God is\nnaught, he says. In naught all is suspended. All that has being\nis in suspension in naught, this naught being itself an incompre-\nhensible aught that all the minds in heaven and on earth cannot\neither fathom or conceive. Hence it remains unknown to creatures.\nWhen the soul attains to the perfection of hanging to (being\nsuspended from) naught she will find herself without sin. This is\ndue to the freedom she is poised in. Then on coming to the body\nand awareness of herself, and again finding sin as before, she\nbecomes bound and then she returns into herself and bethinks\nher of what she has found yonder. Thus she raises herself up\nabove herself and crosses over to the seat of all her happiness and\nall her satisfaction. St Bernard says the soul knows very well that\nher beloved cannot come to her till everything is out of her.\nSt Augustine says. Well and truly loves the man who loves where\nhe well knows he is not loved ; that is the best of all loving. St\nPaul, We know right well that all things work together for good to\nthem that love God. And Christ said, Blessed are the poor in\nspirit, God's kingdom is theirs.\n\nThey tell of various kinds of poverty of spirit. There are four.\nWhat he refers to here is the first poverty of spirit the soul knows\nwhen, illumined by the spirit of truth, things that are not God\nweigh with her not a jot ; as St Paul tells us, ' All things arc as\ndung to me.' In this indigence she finds all creatures irksome.\n\nIn the second poverty she considers the merit of her excm})lar\nChrist and her own demerits and finds her own works worthless,\nthough they be the sum of men's achievements. Hcitfce she\nlaments her in the Book of Love, crying, ' The form of my beloved\npassed me by and I cannot follow him.' To this passing she is\nself-condemned, following the spoor of her quarry, Christ. So\nsweet his scent, she swoons away into forgetfulness of outward\npain. As St Augustine says. The soul is where she loves rather\nthan where she is giving life, and St Peter tells us that our dwelling\nis in heaven.\n\nThe third poverty of spirit is that of the soul wherein her own\nnature is slain ; her own natural life is stone dead and there is\nliving in her nothing but the spirit of God. As St Paul declares,\n' I am dead nevertheless I live ; yet my life Christ liveth in me.'\nIn this spiritual death she is grown poor, for all she has to leave or\ngive has been taken from her ; moreover she is poor of her free\nwill, for he is doing with it what he will.\n\nThe fourth poverty is the incomprehensibility of God in her\nmind, her inability to compass him whether with knowledge or\nwith works. But the deeper she gets the more the incompre-\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nhensible splendour of the Deity is reflected in her poverty^ ^ For as\nfar as with her inner man she has gotten intuition of divinity so\nfar she follows with her outer man the willing poverty of her\npattern Jesus Christ ; or in other words, the power of God having\ndeprived her of all selfhood, she uses all creatures as she needs\nthem, always without attachment, and if she has them not she can\ndo as well without them and with the same detachment. She\nknows of nothing more that she can do but she rejoices in his\nincomprehensible truth and that created things arc all as naught\nto him and that his love has taken to itself her naught which is\ncleaving to him like a tiny spark. It was this poverty St Paul was\nin the time that he declared ' he heard in God unspeakable things\nwhich it is not lawful for a man to utter.' On that occasion he was\nknit to God so that neither life nor death could separate him from\nhis love. Thus it befalls the perfectly lost soul in God, lost, not\nto creatures merely but to herself as well and aware of nothing\nbut the pure unclouded radiance of God's essence. Behold her\nlost in him, her heavenly joy, and all incapable of any real wrong-\ndoing. The saints invariably say that nothing whatever can dis-\nturb the fixity they have in God. Real sin is any disobedience to\nthe law of divine love, any departure from the life of .Tesus Christ.\nHe is the form and essence of all things. What then is real\nvirtue ? Anything wrought in the soul by divine love alone, for\nthat effects naught but its like.\n\nSuch is the doctrine of spiritual poverty. Into this true poverty\nlead us, O superfull goodness of God. Amen.\n\nXII\n\nWe read in the gospel that our Lord fed the multitude with\nfive loaves and two fishes. The first loaf was, the duty of knowing\nourselves : what we have always been to God and what we are\nnow in relation to God. The second was, the duty of compassion\ntowards our evenchristian in his blindness ; his misfortune ought\nto touch us wellnigh as keenly as our own. The third was, that\nit behoves us to study the life of our Lord Jesus Christ and copy\nit exactly so far as that is possible. The fourth, that it behoves\nus to recognise the justness of God. All accounts of hell-torment\nare true. St Dionysius has explained that absence from God is\nhell and God's presence is heaven. The fifth is, that it is for us to\nhave intuition of the deity flowing into the Father and filling him\nwith power and flowing into the Son filling him with wisdom,\n\n^ See also Spamer*s Texte, B. 4.\n\nthey be^g one in nature. Christ himself declared, ' Where I am\nthere my Father is and where my Father is there I am.' And they\nflow into the Holy Ghost filling him with goodwill. As Christ said,\n' I and my Father have one Spirit ' ; and the Holy Ghost flows\ninto the soul.\n\nThe soul by nature has received two powers. One power is\nunderstanding which can conceive the Holy Trinity and all its\nworks, enclosing it, as one would fill and close a cask. The full\ncask comprehends its contents : it is in union with what it compre-\nhends, what it is full of. And so is understanding in union with\nwhat it understands, what it conceives. It is one therewith by\ngrace as the Son is one with the Father by nature.\n\nThe second power is will. It is the nobler in that by nature it\ncan reach to the unknown, God namel}/. Will seizes God above\nknowledge, and in grasping what he wills the impress of the\nunknown God is sealed and stamped into the will so that the will\ncontains God and becomes one with God, and will brings memory\nand all the soul-powers in its train, therefore the soul is one with\nGod by grace as the Holy Ghost is one with the Father and the\nSon by nature. She is really in God more' than in her own person.\nAs St Augustine says, ' The soul is where she loves rather than\nwhere she is giving life.' To rest in this union were better than to\ndo all the works of all creatures, for so her higher power absorbs\nher lower ones and the soul can do nothing but divine work.\nBut since this may not be, therefore the highest power, seeing her\nstability in God, communicates it to the lower ones so that they\nmay discern good and evil. In this union Adam dwelt, and while\nthe union lasted he had all the power of creatures (i,&, all cr(^turcs\nin posse) in his highest power. When a lodestonc spends its force\nupon a needle and attracts it to itself, the needle gets sufficient\npower to pass on to the needles underneath, which it raises and\nattaches to the lodestone. Part the top needle and all the rest\ndrop off. It was like this with Adam : when his highest power\nparted from God, down fell all his powders. Creatures are dis-\njoined through failing to agree among themselves, one wanting\none thing, one another. The powers decay through creatures right\ndown to the lowest. The power of gold, for example, cannot\ngive gold but gives silver, and this degradation goes on in silver,\nfrom which we get iron. Even so man's powers peter out to\nnothing. This accounts for the various creatures.\n\nBut now all creatures which came forth from God must strive\nwith all their powers to make one man who shall return into the\nunion wherein Adam was before he fell and who shall raise all\ncreatures up again into the selfsame power wherein they were,\nin human nature. This is accomplished in Christ, as he himself\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\ndeclared, ' When I am lifted up I will draw all men to me.' He\nmeant that when he was risen in our mind he would recollect us\nto himself. In this sense all creatures are one man and that man\nis God. Human nature has not ever been as such. God is from\nhimself eternally and the Father made all things from nothing.\nThat he is in himself he is by his own nature, which is free from\nbecoming and becomes not any thing, and all things' becoming ends\nin not-becoming. The Son is the same as the Father except that\nhe receives from the Father all that he has and of all becoming\nhe is the form. Withal he is one in the not-becoming. The Holy\nGhost is the tie between the Father and the Son and is one with\nthem in the not-becoming ; he is the author and agent of becoming\nin eternity and in time. This temporal becoming ends in eternal\nnot-becoming, and the eternal not-becoming is the work of the\neternal nature and has neither end nor beginning.\n\nGod is his own form and matter ; his form emerges from his\nmatter and according to this form does he form all things that\nbecome. But his simple nature is in form formless, in mode\nmodeless, cause uncaused, being without becoming which trans-\ncends all things becoming and all that becomes comes to an end\ntherein.\n\nGod is eternal and all things have been in him eternally. They\nwere not in themselves. Ere God created creatures he was nothing\nwhatever to creatures, in their understanding, though in himself\nhe was to them eternally the same as he is now and always shall\nbe. No Creature could say God what time itself was not. What\nminds ignore they count for naught. Creature did not know God\nwhen ' she herself was not, therefore she could not speak him.\nThis is denied by heretics who state that Christ brought human\nnature with him out of heaven, but that is not true. He got his\nmanhood from our Lady Saint Mary, withal abiding as before in\nthe Godhead ; and the Almighty knew in his eternal wisdom the\nordering of all things, to wit, the Iloly Ghost. This Trinity poured\nforth into time into the naught of human nature. Thenceforward\nhuman nature was changeable in time and God donned human\nnature. In him human nature was God and human nature knew\nit with the three powers she has gotten from the blessed Trinity\nand gave God thanks therefor and loved him with infinite love.\nBy this God sets such store that he loves human nature back with\na love so great, any man who knows it possesses heaven incarnate.\nI charge you, my brothers and my sisters, that ye wax in knowledge\nand give thanks to Gk)d while ye are still in time for having made\nyou from naught aught, and unite yourselves with his divine\nnature. Once out of time and your chance is gone. But if so\nbe ye cannot apprehend God's nature then believe in Christ and\n\nfollow his example steadfastly ; Jews, heathens, evil Christians,\nall who fail to exercise their God-consciousness, are lost, barring\ninfants not arrived at knowledge of themselves and who are\nproperly baptized into his name : in the enjoyment of Christ's\nname they are holding fast the knowledge wherewith he knows the\nFather eternally.\n\nRejoice, all ye powers of my soul, at being joined to God so that\nnone can part you. But I can neither glorify God nor love him\nto the full therein ; so, dying to the virtues I plunge me in the\nnaught of the naked Godhead where, sinking eternally from naught\nto aught I pass with naught to aught.\n\nThough I should live here in the flesh until the judgment day\nbearing the pangs of hell it would be small matter by reason of\nmy Lord Jesus Christ, since I have received from him the cer-\ntainty of never being parted from him. While I am here he is in\nme : after this life I am in him. All things are possible to me\nunited as I am with, him to whom all things are possible. Before\nthat I was at a loss to know if we are God by nature or by grace.\nThen came Jesus with the light of his own nature and then I\nspied my memory under my understanding issuing from the\nessence of my soul and my understanding flowing out of memory\nand will out of them both. Essence is revealed by the powers\nand the powers by their works. What my knowledge gave me\nthat I loved ; what I did not know I could not love, and to will\nall things were possible. At one time I was sore perplexed as to\nwhether we are God by nature or by grace. Fear led me to Christ\nwho in truth knows the answer. He gave me light of grace\nwhereby I saw in the divine nature three Persons, his Father J>eing\nthe begetter of all things. According to the words of St James,\n\n' Every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.' The\nFather is the light itself, self-luminous in Person and in essence.\nIn the unborn essence he is essential, essence without personality :\nessence self-manifest as impersonal being. The Father is that same\nbeing essentially. In the essence the Father loses his fatherhood\ncompletely ; nor is he Father there at all. The Father's know-\nledge of himself in himself, essential and personal, he draws from\nhis unborn essence through the exalted root of his personality.\nSo far as he takes in his unborn essence he is paternal. Father\nessentially. This exalted light has been for ever flowing in his\nheart and it is flowing out of him into his Son, as essence and as\nPerson, and it is flowing from them both into their Holy Ghost, in\nessence and in Person, and these three shed one light essential and\npersonal. The Father she^s on both the light of his essence and\nhis Person ; and the Father and the Son shed on the Holy Ghost\nthe light of both essence and Person. The unborn essence being\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nthe oneness of the three Persons and the bom essence is God as\nbegetter so far as it flows into the Persons and so far as»it emanates\nwith the Persons. Not that the essence begets ; essence begets\nnot. The Son and the Holy Ghost are twin lights of the God-\nbearing essence in the paternal source where the Father is drawing\nhis born being out of his unborn essence. The Father knows\nhimself with his Son, perceiving himself in himself. For this the\nSon is the light ; and he wills himself in himself and for this the\nHoly Ghost is the light. Father and Son have one will and that\nis the Holy Ghost : it graces the soul, this divine nature, and so\nsuffuses the powers of the soul that the soul can do nothing except\ndivine work. Just as a spring in its bed at the roots of the flowers\ngives them itself and the flowers grow verdant and coloured on the\nspring water, so deity giving itself to the powers of the soul makes\nthem grow in the likeness of God. His image appears in her\npowers, his likeness in her virtues. The more divine nature the\nsoul receives the liker she grows to the nature of God and the\ncloser becomes her union with God. Her union may become so\nstrait that God on a sudden absorbs her in himself and that without\nremainder whether vice or virtue, nor can the soul distinguish\naught that might be taken for herself. God takes her for a\ncreature. Be not deluded by the light of nature. To a soul on\nthe ascent to higher knowledge in the light of grace, dimmer and\ndimmer glows the light of nature. If she would know the very\ntruth itself she must make certain whether she is detached from\nthings ; whether she is dead to self ; whether she loves God with\nhis own love and without self-intent and has nothing to hold her\nbackend keep her from him ; and whether God alone is alive in\nher. If so then she has lost herself as Mary lost Christ. Three\ndays she sought him knowing all the while that she would find\nhim. And Christ, meanwhile, was af his Father's school of higher\nlearnin)? all unheeding of his mother^a quest. The noble soul which\ngoes, to school in God learns to knoiy what God is in the Godhead\nand what Gqd is in the Trinity and what God is in humanity and\ngets to know his will.\n\nGod in, the Godhead is spiritual substance, so elemental that\nwe can say nothing about it excepting that it is naught. To say it\nis aught were more lying than true. God in the Trinity is the\nliving light in its radiant splendour, a comjjlex of one nature with\ndistinct Persons, The (light) that is life is not this light. Though\none might predicate three natures to these (Persons or) distinctions\nthere is but one nature to their union for they all act together\nexactly like one, working all at once in all creatures. According\nto St Augustine, the precision (or justice) of God in the Godhead, in\nthe Trinity and in all creatures is the chief delight there is in heaven.\n\nGod in human nature is a lamp of living light and this light\nshines in the darkness and the darkness comprehends not this\nlight. Darkness ever flees from light as night does from the day.\nThence comes her knowledge of God's will. Now St Paul says,\n' It is God's will that we be sanctified.' And our sanctification lies\nin this, in knowing what we were before time, what we are in\ntime and what we shall be after time. Lost during these three\ndays, soul pays no heed to body till it joins her in the temple and\nis subject to her without murmuring.\n\nThe Trinity is the heart of divine and human nature and human\nnature flows into the Trinity in a steady stream of love. Supposing\nthe soul crosses over, then she sinks down and down in the abysm\nof the Godhead nor ever finds a footing unless it be that she has\ntaken with her some temporal thing : resting on temporal things\nbrings her back into the Trinity. Things fashioned in time have\na ground of their own whereon they can rest ; they light on no\nground in the Godhead, lly this same token the soul knows that\nshe is creature, for all she has she has received in time from the three\nPersons. She flows out and in in the three Persons, 'fhe reason\nwhy Christ's soul did never plumb the deeps of Godhead is that\nshe too is creature made in time. God is indeed the matter of the\nsoul, of her energies but not of her creation. Tier energies are\neternal because he is eternal. This matter never fails her. When\nfire lacks fuel it goes back to its own land. So would the soul eome\nto naught were her matter to fail. When all her work is done\nshe with her powers remains in God her matter ; she casts herself\nin her impartible essence into the passive, immaterial Godhead ;\nthat is her native land. Then the Godhead is to her all things in\na single passive power, and she withal all things to it, just as the\nheart of the sea gives forth in the bowels of the earth the waters\nwhich circulate back to the heart of the sea on the face of the earth.\nSuppose one dropped a millstone from the siin tp earth, the earth\nbeing pierced straight through the centre, the millstone would\nstop falling at the centre of the earth. Here is tiie heart of yie\nearth, the stopping-place of everything on earth. §o is the\nTrinity the stopping -place of creatures as a whole, all the. Godhead\nhas being gotten impartible and eternal from itself. The Father\nis the manifestation of the Godhead, the Son is the image and\ncountenance of the Faither and the Holy Ghost is the light of his\ncountenance and the love of them both ; all they have have they\ngotten eternally from their own selves. But the three Persons\nstooped in compassion towards human nature and the Son was\nmade man and in this world was more despised than any man on\nearth, suffering want and pain from creatures himself had made\nin conjunction with his Father, by whose will he became man.\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nChrist lived in time down to his death and then, arising from the\ndead, this most despised of men is seen united with the Godhead\nin the Person of the Christ who came on earth. Human nature\nwedded with the divine nature ; her eternal portion, fellowship\nwith divine nature in the same Person.\n\n2 ^\n\nThis is God's good will, that we should know ourselves and that\nwe should know God, and our salvation lies in putting our know-\nledge into practice and loving in God all that we know. He who\nknows God in very truth is bound to love and will nothing but what\nGod loves and wills. As St Paul says, ' I do good and doing\nnaught but good to me all things are possible. Many a thing is\nlawful for me which I do not lest I sin.' Our Lord commands\nus to be without sin. To whom all things are possible it is also\npossible to keep this commandment.\n\nThe saints declare that all things are in God as they have been\nin God eternally ; not that we were in God in the gross nature\nwe have here : we were in God eternalwise, like art in the artist.\nGod saw himself and saw all things. God was not therefore\nmanifold as things are here in separation. Though creatures\nhere are manifold they are but one idea in God. God in himself\nis just the one alone. When creature goes back to her first cause\nshe knows God simply as one in form and essence and threefold\nin operation. What intellect knows is knowledge and knowledge\nstops at what is known, with what is known becoming one. Into\nthe simple idea no knowledge ever entered, for this impartible\nexemplar after which God created all creatures towers God-high\nabove creatures. Creature in pursuing God to his eternal heights\nmust mount above all creatures, nay, beyond her very self, her\nown wont and uses, and follow agnosia into the desolate Godhead.\nSt Dionysius says, ' God's desert is God's simple nature.' A\ncreature's desert is her simple nature. In the desert of herself\nshe is robbed of her own form and in Gk)d's desert, leading out\nof hers, she is bereft of name ; there she is no more called soul,\nshe is called God with God.\n\nPeradventure ye will say, ' Being in this exalted state why does\nthe soul not raise the body above necessity of earthly things ? '\nTo which I answer, at this stage the soul has a body of perfection\nwhich uses all things to the glory of God, there being now betwixt\nGod and the soul no barrier nor hindrance. So far as the soul\nhas followed God into the desert of his Godhead so far the body\nfollows Christ into his desert of willing poverty and is one with\n\n^ See also Jostes, No. 37 ; Qreith, p. 195 efjseg.^ JBtittner, vol. i, No. 17.\n\nGod. Well may the Father say, 'This is my beloved Son in\nwhom I am well pleased : follow ye him.* All creatures are with\nGod : the being that they have God gives them with his presence.\nSaith the bride in the Book of Love, ' I have run round the circle\nand have found no end to it, so I cast myself into the centre.'\n\nThis circle which the loving soul ran round is all the Trinity has\never wrought.\n\nWhy is the work of the Trinity called a circle ? Because the\nthree Persons have wrought their own likeness in all creatures\nwhich are rational. The Trinity is the origin of all things and all\nthings return into their origin. This is the circle the soul runs.\nWhen does she run in this circle ? She does so when she muses :\nAll this that he has made he could make again a thousand times\nif he were so minded. So she goes round in endless chain. The\nleast of all his creatures she can find no end to nor can she appro-\nfound its worth. Spent with her quest she casts herself into the\ncentre. This point is the power of the Trinity wherein unmoved\nit is doing all its work. Therein the soul becomes omnipotent.\n\nThe three Persons are one omnipotence. This is the motionless\npoint and the unity of the Trinity. The circumference is the\nincomprehensible work of the three Persons. The point is fixed.\nThe union of the Persons is the essence of the point. In this point\nGod runs through change without otherness, involving into unity\nof essence, and the soul as one with this fixed point is capable of\nall things. But her powers, wherein she imitates the Trinity,\nwith them she cannot apprehend its unity. The work of the\nTrinity has proved the undoing of many Paris theologians : en-\ngrossed in the working of the Trinity they have never gotten at\ntheir unity. The centre is equally near to all ends, like time in\nall lands. Now is the time here and now is the same time in\nRome.\n\nSaith the bride in the Book of Love, ' He has wounded me with\na glance of his eye.' This refers to the unitive force which streams\ndown from the point, isolating the soul from creatures and changing\nthings and gathering her up again into the point therewith to be\nunited and therein to be eternally established.\n\nOne is conscious of this glance within the confines of the soul\nwhen she is quite unoccupied, innocent of the practice whether of\nvice or virtue. During this quiet state intuitive perception is\nmost vivid, so it is then he stabs her with his glance to make\nher really feel how he has known and loved her while she herself\nwas not. This serves as a piercing reminder to the soul to go out of\nherself. Whom this glance wounds not is not nor ever has been\nwounded by love. [Concerning it St Bernard says, ' To him whose\nspirit has felt this glance it is unutterable ; to him who knows it\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nnot it is incredible.' 'Tis an arrow shot without anger and felt\nwithout pain. Thence starts the clear and limpid stream of healing\ngrace which enlightens the inner eye to perceive in blissful behold-\ning the delight of the divine affliction wherein we share unheard of\nspiritual graces, favours untold, not preached nor written down in\nany book.]\n\n(Saith the soul), ' Lord, thou thyself declarest that thou hast\nmade me like thyself. That passes the ingenuity of man, for no\nphilosopher is sage enough to fabricate the double of himself.\nLord,' she cries, 'if thou hast made me like to thee, grant me to\nsee thee seized of the power wherein thou hast created me, to know\nthee in the wisdom wherein thou hast known me, to conceive thee\nas thou conceivest me ; and grant me Lord that by thy grace 1\nbe made one with thee in nature as thy Son is one with thy nature\neternally, and that thy grace may be my nature ; for, Lord, thy\ngrace becomes thy nature and in thy nature we become God, as\nthe Father in his nature is God by nature.'\n\nChrist exhorts us to be perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect\nin his nature. He says, ' God is more near to you than yc are to\nyourselves.' And in the same sense St Augustine says the soul\nhas private entry to the divine nature, where things for her all\ncome to naught. Then she is ignorant with knowing, loveless\nwith loving, dark with enlightenment. Then to know God would\nbe an imperfection ; to know herself in God would be an imper-\nfection or to know God in her would be an imperfection. The\nincomprehensible essence she absorbs above all knowledge by\ngrace, as the Father does by nature ; and the born essence being\ngotten in her understanding as the Father has gotten it in him,\nshe steals out of herself and pierces the naked essence there to\nretain no more of things than when she issued forth from God.\nShe comes so utterly to naught that there is nothing left but God ;\nGod outshines her as the sun the moon, and she in God's own subtile\nnature flows into all that God is flowing in eternally.\n\nIf thou hast apprehended me, there are two points to notice\nin these words. First, the soul knowing she was made from\nnaught desires to see who made her. And secondly, her words,\n' Grant me to see thee as creating me,' mean that she wants to\nfeel the faith and love wherein she was created. For then the soul\nsees God though she does not see through him. She knows God\nalthough she cannot fathom him ; she apprehends God but cannot\ncomprehend him as he comprehends himself. St Paul says, ' Then\nwe shall know as we are known.' Stripped of her own being, with\nGod her only being, the soul sees God with God, knows and con-\nceives God with God. One high authority declares that the soul\nsees, knows, apprehends God with his very own essence which is\n\nthe very essence of the soul. The soul sees, knows, conceives God\nas she is herself conceived in the pure intellect of the Deity. Then\nsoul is comprehender as well as comprehended. But no man in\nthis body and after the mode of his own mind can understand\nhow soul is both conceiver and conceived be he not wholly sunk\ninto himself, into pure knowledge of his own God-nature where\nno created thought did ever enter.\n\nNow mark. The naught whereby soul comes to naught is the\nturning from images and forms to stay at none of them, for the\ndivine nature is neither form nor image. And soul divorced from\nimages and forms is like to the formless nature of God. This is\nthe secret passage of the soul into divine nature. The soul which\nhas nowhere to turn is ready to turn to the image of God. In\nother words, she goes with naught to naught : to the divine nature\nwhereto none may attain be he not stripped of all mental matter.\nAlas ! how sorely they obstruct this secret passage, those who so\nlightly stay at temporal things ! Dionysius exhorted his disciples\nin this sense, saying, ' Wouldst know the hidden mystery of God ?\nthen transcend whatever hinders thy pure perception, whatever\nthou caust grasp with thy understanding. God has nothing so\nhid as to be beyond the ken of a soul that has the wit to seek it\nright diligently and with prudence.'\n\nA hard saying this, there is nothing in him so hidden as to be\nbeyond her ken. Yet mark these facts.\n\nThe power of things resides in essence. Now the soul is capable\nof knowing all things in her highest power, she being all closeted\nill her secret chamber. To the soul thus freed from things there is\ndisclosed his secret essence. She is able to receive his arcane\npower. As St Paul says, ' 1 can do all things in him that strength-\neneth me.' Up, noble soul ! seek thee no other place than this\nunneccssitous naught that did create thee, the same in its im-\nmovableness shall be thy place ; there shalt thou be more\nmotionless than naught. — But this is traversed by some learned\nmen who hold it is impossible. Naught, say they, is motionless,\nso how can the soul be more motionless than naught ? The soul\nis a created aught which can be moved : she is a variable ;\nnaught is a constant. The soul, for instance, goes from light to\nlight until she finds the sovran truth where all things end. So\ntoo the soul is moved in that she is aware of things other than\nherself. Naught has no awareness. Therefore aught is more\nmovable than naught. So runs the argument against our thesis.\nNow to prove that the soul is more motionless than naught.\n\nThe arch-good, God, is more motionless than naught. And the\nmost perfect likeness of this motionless arch-good is also most\nimmovable. Haply thou wilt object : Naught is the same as\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nGk>d for both of them are non-existent. Not so. For naught is\nnothing to itself or any creature. But God is to himself his aught\nand naught to the mind of any creature. Withal the creature\naught tells forth God's aught by nature rather than its own.\nGod's aught is intellectual being. Dionysius says, 'The intel-\nlectual light that God is, gat its own image in the rational soul.'\nNow if God is more motionless than naught, it follows that the soul\nas reflected into her motionless aught, God namely, is more\nmotionless than naught. Naught is movable out of itself when\nnaught becomes aught and always is moved when aught is pro-\nduced out of naught. Not so the soul : she always is aught\nand can never be naught. Behold the soul more motionless\nthan naught, God having set her free, free to assert her own\nfree will.\n\nHer motion is the quest of him who has never loved nor was ever\nloved. Which may be interpreted thus. The soul, uplifting with\nall her might and main herself above herself to love the sovran\ngood, sees clearly she can never reach the divine aught accom-\npanied by any of her powers. So down she goes again into\nherself, and the motionless aught bides unbeloved of her and of all\nthat is not its very self. Thus the divine aught is never loved by\nher nor by anything that is not itself, nor has it ever loved. You\ncan put it like this. He loves nothing but himself or his image\nin all things. But since he is not love nor anything named, there-\nfore he loves not neither is he loved. This is the meaning of St\nDionysius' words, ' God dwells in motionless calm.' And the bride\nsays in the Book of Love, ' I have crossed all the mountains, aye,\neven my own powers, and have reached the dark power of the\nFather. There heard I without sound, there saw I without light,\nthere breathed I without motion ; there did I taste what savoured\nnot, there did I touch what touched not back. Then my heart\nwas bottomless, my soul loveless, my mind formless and my nature\nnatureless.'\n\nNow what does the soul mean by ' crossing all the mountains ? '\nShe means she has transcended her own rational powers and\ngotten ' to the dark power of the Father * where all rational dis-\ntinctions end. ' There heard I without sound.' Hearing without\nsound means intuition, direct apprehension. ' There saw I without\nlight.' Seeing without light means undefined, vague perception\nin the naught. ' There breathed I without stir ' : the inspiration\nof unity wherein all things are still. ' There tasted I what savoured\nnot ' : over all sensible things hangs the motionless haze of unity.\n\n* There did I touch what touched not back ' : alien, unalloyed\nessence of all creatures : the substance of all things substantial.\n\n' Then my heart was bottomless ' : the overwhelming wonder of\n\nmy powers. ' And my soul loveless ' : powers and senses blotted\nout. ' And my spirit formless ' : the sealing of the mind in the\nunformed form and image of God. ' And my nature natureless ' :\nmy own nature withered away till nothing is left but the one\nunique is. This is-ness is the unity, the being of itself and of all\nthings. St Dionysius says, ' The one alone is the life of lives, being\nof beings, reason of reasons, nature of natures, light of lights and\nyet not light, not life, not nature.' Of it St James declares, ' The\nmost perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.' Again\nSt Dionysius says, ' The First Cause is above all names and tran-\nscends love ; it is superessential, superintelligible, super-rational\nand supernatural. The First Cause is neither light nor darkness.'\nBehold how different from all caused things.\n\nSaith the soul in the Book of Love, ' No one is God to me and\nI am soul to none.' By ' no one is God to me ' she means merely\nthat no entity, nothing nameable, is her God. Again the words,\n' I am soul to none ' mean that she is so void of self she has not\ngot it in her to be aught to anyone. This is the state in which\nthe soul should be : in utter destitution. The soul cries in the\nBook of Love, ' He is mine and I am his.' It were better she had\nsaid, ' He is not mine nor am I his,' for God who is in all is therein\nall his own. She can lay claim to naught : she has lost every\nwhit whereto any wight could in anywise be aught or she withal\nbe aught to any wight. No one is her God and she is no one's\nsoul, wherefore she cries in the Book of Love, 'Fly from me,\nbeloved, on the feathers of the wind.'\n\nWhat is the meaning of these feathers of the wind whereon the\nsoul rides ? The feathers are the choirs of Seraphim. Th^ wind\nof their feathers is their clear seraphic knowledge. Above this\ndwells the soul. But not till she has left behind all images and\nforms, not harbouring any, not resting upon any. She must have\nlost her individual motion. And thus divested of her creature-\nhood, having no hold on anything at all, she sinks into downright\nnothingness ; there she is concealed from every creature. To\nthis same naught no Seraph's understanding can attain ; in this\nnaught dwells the soul, super-seraphic, above all such knowing.\nThus the soul rides on the feathers of the wind.\n\nBut what a perfect life this man must lead I How dead his\nsoul to every kind of motion ! St John declares, ' Blessed are the\ndead that die in God.' To this end, O man, do thou free thyself\nfrom every sort of sensible affection. God is exempt from such,\nand it behoves thee, man, to be the same if thou wouldst solve\nhis hidden mystery. For this, look you, soul must be stripped of\nall her senses. St Dionysius spoke of this to Timothy, one of his\ndisciples, when talk arose about St Paul who had been put to death.\n\n802 MEISTER ECKHART\n\n' Alas ! my friend ' (said Timothy), ' and shall we never hear again\nthe loved voice of our master ? * The saint replied, ' Friend\nTimothy, my counsel is to leave behind us corporal things and go\nto God. But this we cannot do save with blind eyes and alien\nsenses ; not that we ought to have misleading senses : we must\ntranscend sense and knowledge to get to his mysterious unity.'\nAnent which St Augustine says, * The soul has a private door into\ndivinity where for her all things amount to naught.' There she is\nignorant with knowing, will-less with willing, dark with enlighten-\nment. To wot of self would mean her imperfection ; to wot of\nGod would mean her imperfection ; to wot of self in God or God\nin her would mean her imperfection : self is reduced to utter\nnaught and there is nothing left but God, for God outshines her\nas the sun the moon and she with God's all-penetrativeness\nstreams into the eternal Godhead where God keeps ever flowing\ninto God.\n\nNothing is without beginning, and since nothing is without\nbeginning God could make us from nothing better than nothing,\nlike himself. Alone God's power did make the soul, so she like\nhim is free from matter. And soul could have no homelier road into\ndivinity than by way of nothing to nothing, for nothing unites\nlike natural affinity. But St John Chrysostom declares that none\ncan take it till his outward and his inward senses are focussed to\nclear vision of the Deity.\n\nThe naught we were before we were created was indigent of\nnaught.. Moreover of itself it could do absolutely naught and\nnaught withstood creatures ; all but the power of God ; it was this\ncaused naught to stir when God made all things from naught.\nNow we have got to be more motionless than naught. — ' But how ? '\nMark how. God gat the soul the mistress of herself, not overriding\nher free will nor once exacting from her aught that she will not ;\nso whatever in this body she elects of her free will she is free to\ncarry through. Say she chooses to need nothing and to be more\nmotionless than naught, then assembling all her powers into her\nfree will so as not to be hindered by herself or any thing, she centres\nherself in the motionless God who was n'er moved by any act\ndone by the blessed Trinity nor is not indigent of any thing the\nblessed Trinity has ever wrought. To reach this point of needing\nnaught and being more immutable than naught, soul must be\nsunk so deep in the bottomless well of the divine naught that\nnothing can draw her thereout to spend herself on mortal things,\nbut there she steadfastly abides ; as the heavenly Father is ever-\nabiding in his nature without let or hindrance so the soul abides\ntherein without let or hindrance, as far as that is possible to\ncreature.\n\n— ' Pray, Sir, how should it be impossible seeing that the soul\nwas created to that end ? ' — ^Because, you see, if she does stoop\nto baser things to let herself be satisfied with these, then that which\nis above her is beyond her reach, whereas God keeps no secrets\nfrom the soul whose lofty nature is equal to the quest. Up,\nnoble Soul ! Out of thyself so far thou never comest in again\nand enter into God so deep thou never comcst out again : there\nstay nor ever deign to stoop to creature ; and burden not thyself\nwith things made clear to thee, nor wander among objects presented\nto thy mind, nor be not hindered from achievement by any service.\nSteadfastly pursue thy simple nature and the unnecessitous\nnothingness, seeking no other place than this unnecessitous naught.\nGod who made thee out of nothing, he in his unnecessitous nothing-\nness and immovableness shall hiipsclf be thy place. There thou\nshalt be more immovable than nothing.\n\nThey that serve God for gain with outward works reap their\nreward in creatures, such as heaven and heavenly things. But\nthey that serve God by interior acts are rewarded with the un-\ncreated, namely, the works of the blessed Trinity.\n\nMark this. No fire no light, no earth no life, no air no love,\nno water no place. Ergo, God is not light nor life nor love nor\nnature nor spirit nor semblance nor anything we can put into\nwords. God flows into (iod and God flows out of God and God\nknows himself God in himself and knows himself God in his\ncreatures in general and he knows himself God in the nobte soul\nin particular. The Father is almighty in the soul, the Son all-\nwise, the Holy Ghost all-loving, loving all creatures with the same\nlove. But he manifests as different and the soul is destined to\nknow things as they are and conceive things as they are when,\nseized thereof, she plunges into the bottomless well of the divine\nnature and becomes so one with God that she herself would say\nthat she is God. The soul withdrawn into herself till nothing\nmade or named takes shape in her and she is bare as God of any\nname, gathers herself up above herself into her (iod and takes\nherself cum God for God. God is not black nor white, nor large\nnor small, he has no place nor any past nor future time, and the\nsoul is like him only in so far as she can project herself above all\ncreatures.\n\nThe soul is a creature receptive to everything named, but the\nnameless she cannot receive until she is gotten so deep into God\nthat she is nameless herself. And then none can tell if it is she\nthat has gotten God or God has gotten her. Dionysius says,\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\n' God has conceived himself in her, so utterly absorbing her that\nshe is now no longer self but God.' And the soul's inferior powers\nhave distinction of person, love uniting the persons not the essence.\nThe soul is destined to this knowledge when, on the ebb-tide\nof God's glory, she is borne back into the bottomless ground of\nthe fount whence she flowed forth and finds she is not from\nherself.\n\nThe highest boon, the chief good of the soul, is not from herself.\nChrist himself declared he was not from himself. The truest\nthing we have is our intuition of not being from ourselves and that\nwe ourselves are not of ourselves.\n\nGod has done all things for himself and he has made the soul\nlike to himself, over all things, under all things, in all things, out\nof all things and withal abiding in herself impartibly. But she\nis noblest keeping to the desert wherein she is naught and there is\nnothing doing. St Dionysius prays, ' Lord, lead me into the desert\nwhere thou art formless that in thy solitude I may lose all form.'\nThe soul is in all things in her subtile nature wherein she inhabits\nall things without affecting them or being affected by them.\nThus transcending things she cries, ' Lord, fetch me into thy\nGodhead where thou art naught, for what is aught I deem to be\nnot God.' The soul is over all things in her freedom ; she knows\nnone can compel her, not even God himself. Surrendering her\nfree will to God she plunges into her own emptiness, beseeching,\n' Lord, take me into the gloom of thy Godhead that in thy dark I\nmay lose all my light, for nothing that can be revealed do I account\nas light.' She is out of all things in her power of understanding,\nwhichp makes her so elastic she is able to hold God as well as all\nhis creatures. Embodying God thus she is more God than her\nown self. This is hers by grace. Aught of God is God entire and\naught of him holds his whole being. This he is in the lowliest as\nmuch as in the loftiest nature. A small bung stops the barrel\nno less well than the biggest.\n\nComprehension belongs to his paternal power. He grasps him-\nself in himself in all creatures and grasps himself in his countenance\nwhereto he admits no creature and whereinto no creature can get.\nAnd this comprehension he veils in a cloud of distortion so that\nno creature can grasp him as he grasps himself. What the soul\ngrasps in the light she loses in the darkness. Yet she makes\nfor the cloud, deeming his darkness better than her light. There\nshe suddenly loses her light and herself in his darkness.\n\nThe soul cries in the Book of Love, ' No one is my God and I\nam no one's soul, and nothing manifest to me do I take for God.\nI flee from God for God's sake.' St John says, ' God is love.' But\ntheologians argue that if he means the love wherewith the soul loves\n\nGod, this is not true. Were that love God, wherewith the soul can\nlove, it would not fail her as it does. This is a natural love, the\nvirtue. But suppose her will is turned toward God, then Gk)d\ndraws love from nothing and pours it into the virtue, so her love\nis both nature and grace. In grace God gives himself to the soul\nand the Holy Ghost unites with her love, and the love which is\nthe Holy Ghost is God, and the love which is grace is the nature\nwhich unites the soul with God, and in this union the soul is\nabsorbed into God and loves God with his own love in God, which\nin herself she cannot do.\n\nThe Father is the revelation of all things and the Son is the\nimage of all things and the Holy Ghost is the fulfilling of that\norder. Philosophers say that things in contact with God are not\nGod but his works. The soul is self-motive before she is moved\nand her being moved is the work of God, the soul being the agent\nwhile the work itself is creature. The power whieh perfects the\nsoul, which sweeps her out of herself without her aid or abetting,\nis God. I can touch the minster, not carry it off. That we\nattribute to God matter and fonn and work is due to our gross\nsenses. Theologians tell of the light which gives no light, which\nhas no form nor matter and is yet a creature. To know God as\nhe is we must be absolutely free from knowledge. Thus St Augus-\ntine says, ' Lord, I know not what I love in thee if it be not light.'\nAs God is timeless and modeless so he is also nameless. St Paul\nsays, ' There be many that run but one receiveth the prize.' All\nthe soul-powers run but pure nature alone receives the crown, for,\naccording to Dionysius, this race is nothing else than the flight\nfrom creatures to unite with their creator. Atoned wilji her\ncreator the soul has lost her name for she herself does not exist :\nGod has absorbed her into him just as the sunlight swallows up\nthe dawn till it is gone.\n\nTell me, where is the soul's abode ? — Upon the pinions of the\nwind. The pinions are the powers of divine nature. The wind\nis the waging of the powers of the soul's divine nature. When he\nthrusts her sins under her eyes she sinks down into him like a fish\nin the sea. All creatures lose their names on entering human\nnature. Hence Christ's exhortation, ' Preach the gospel to all\ncreatures/ He meant only human beings.\n\nObserve when a man is all creatures. When he has the power of\nthem all. When a man, knowing with his outward senses all\ncorporal things, detaches himself from them and abides therein\nwithout attachment ; when, knowing with his interior senses all\nspiritual things, he detaches himself from these and abides therein\nwithout attachment, then at length that man is all creatures ;\nthen, not till then, that man has come to his own nature and is\n\n866 MEISTEB ECKHART\n\nready to go into God. If we fail to find. God it is because we seek\nin semblance what has no resemblance. The scriptures tell us\nmore of his unlikeness than his likeness. Origen says the soul's\nquest of God comes by self-observation. If she knew herself she\nwould know God also. If she pictures herself or pictures her God\nthat comes of over-defining. On merging into the Godhead all\ndefinition is lost.\n\nDionysius says to Timothy, ' Friend Timothy, if thou dost view\nthe spirit of truth, pursue it not with mortal senses. It is so swift,\nit comes rushing.' God must be sought in estrangement, forget-\nfulness and non-sense ; for the Godhead has in it all things in\nposse without the least likeness to anything. The supremely pure\nsplendour of the impartible essence illumines all things at once.\nAccording to Dionysius, beauty is order : symmetry with supreme\nlucidity. In this sense the Godhead is the beauty of the three\nPersons. And it behoves the soul to order her lower powers to\nher higher and her higher ones to God ; the outer senses to the\ninner and the inner ones to reason ; thought servant to intelligence,\nintelligeiKie to will and her will to their unity, then the soul will\nbe a unity with nothing flowing into her except pure deity as it is\nproceeding from itself. Concerning this St Dionysius says the\nsoul has flung her faculties into her pure being and only her chief\npower remains at work. And one doctor says that when the chief\npower takes command the rest all enter into it losing their own\nactivities, so now behold the soul in her proper order and in her\npure nature, her pure nature being her exalted light-nature which\nis potentially all things.\n\nTh^ Godhead flows into the Father, into the Son and the Holy\nGhost, into itself in eternity and in time into creatures. It gives\nto each as much as it can hold : to stones existence, to the trees\ntheir growth, to birds their flight, to beasts their pleasures, to the\nangels reason and to man free nature. God was made man and\ntook upon himself by grace the nature of all things in time even\nas in eternity he has them all by nature. St Paul says, ' Christ\nis to me all things.' One Person with two natures. Each seems\nall things to each. It is a play of the light and reflection of his\nown nature. God's being is first being, flowing being, fixed\nbeing, initial being and final being.\n\nFrom essence in general emanates power and work. The three\nPersons are in this respect the storehouse of divinity, and the three\nPersons descend into the essence of the soul by grace, and the\nPersons bring divine nature into the soul in their train, one nature\ncoursing through the other. The higher powers of the soul flow\nout of the essence of the soul as the three Persons issue from the\nGodhead, And when God pours his grace into the soul he pours\n\nit into the essence of the soul, for into the essence of the soul no fleck\ncan fall let her powers do what they may. The higher powers\nof the soul draw their seeming from the essence of grace in the\nessence of the soul, and her chief power transcends the lower ones\nin nature.\n\nMind big with the conception of God's nature is the corollary\nof Christ's Person in human nature. When the soul is absorbed\ninto God's nature her sins and shortcomings arc stripped off and\nshe becomes God, divine in nature ; she enjoys divine nature in\nherself just as the Father does in him. She gets it not from her\nown nature : she takes divine nature from God into her nature.\nShe receives perfection and power. Hence the words of St Paul,\n' I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me.' Wisdom\nsprings up in understanding ; it begins in understanding and ends\nin desire and has neither heart nor thought. As St Dionysius\nsays, ' When the soul, finding this outlet, has a footing in eternity\nand in time in her own understanding, therein she shall return into\nthe flow where God is flowing back into himself, and does not\nflow away.'\n\nGod is flowing back into himself, recking no more of creatures\nthan he did when they were not. And the soul shall do the same.\nShe shall with her humanity conceive the Person of the Son and\nwith the Person of the Son she shall apprehend the Father and the\nHoly Ghost in both and them both in the Holy Ghost ; and with\nthe Person of the Father she shall grasp his impartible nature and\nin his nature discerning the abyss she shall flow into the void\nbereft of matter and of form. Form, matter, mind and mode she\nloses in the unity for she herself has come to naught : God is^oing\nall her work, he preserves her in his being and leads her in his\npower into his naked Godhead. She flows with his deity into all\nthat God is flowing in. She is all things' place and has herself no\nplace. This is the spirit of wisdom which has neither heart nor\nthought.\n\nSoul flowing in the Deity is so nearly God that in the\npower of the Father she receives divinity, (she) by grace as the\nFather does by nature. St Paul says, ' In one image shall we go\nfrom glory to glory.' Meaning that we shall receive the impartible\nGodhead with all that flows therefrom and shall therein conceive\nthe Deity as the Deity conceives itself. Her will and God's will\nshall be one, and wherever God has gotten himself there she is\nwith God. To this none may attain while in this body except\nGod grant his best gift to the soul, namely, the vision of God\nwhich confirms the soul in the Trinity and in the image of the\nGodhead.\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nXII\n\nTHE DROWNING\n\nThough there be neither hell nor heaven yet will I love God ;\nthee Father and thy sovran nature wherein the Trinity abides in\nthe unity whence it gets its power. — Now you desire to hear about\nthis hidden and exalted nature of the Trinity. The Persons are\nGod in their personality. Godhead by nature in their oneness.\nBut you must know what God and Grodhead are. The former has\ndistinctions ; which the soul of me explains by the reflection of the\nexalted unity. This shines in its own essence wholly indiscriminate.\nTherein is contained its unity entire, including the distinctions of\nlofty personality. The river is fontal wherein unity abides ; the\none alone is unnecessitous, poised in itself in sable stillness. In-\ncomprehensible and yet self-evident. Light is the first thing to\nappear ; it beguiles the mind into the unknown without itself,\neverlasting, in-drawn, plunged in gloom. There it is befooled,\nthere it is bereft of light's darkness, losing them both in the abyss ;\nthere that mysterious thing the mind is estranged in the unity\nwhich is withal its life.\n\nO unfathomable sink, in thy depth thou art high and in thy\nheight profound ! — How so ? — ^That is hidden from us in thy\nbottomless abysm. St Paul declares that it shall be made known\nto us. In this gnosis the mind transcends itself; it has been\nabsorbed into the Trinity. There the mind dies all dying in the\nwonder of the Godhead, for with that unity it is confused ; the\nperscvial losing its name in sameness. There mind, atoned, is\naccounted naught ; there it loses the means of divinity. Light\nand darkness, it is rid of both, matter as well as form. The spark\nthus bare, made naught from its own naught, is s\\^llowed up in\nits naught's aught. This same naught is poverty in the Persons,\nwhich beguiles the mind and reduces it to unity. In the embrace\nof this sovran one which naughts the separated self of things,\nbeing is one without distinction although a thing created in its\nindividual nature. The one I mean is wordless. One and one\nuniting, void shines into void. Where these two abysms hang,\nequally spirated, de-spirated, there is the supreme being ; where\nGod gives up the ghost, darkness reigns in the unknown known\nunity. This is hidden from us in his motionless deep. Creatures\ncannot penetrate this aught.\n\nWell that this aught transcends us.\n\nEven so loving it transcendently,\n\nPlunge in ; this is the drowning.\n\nTHIS IS THE GLOSS ON THE DROWNING\n\nIt is true spiritual perfection to love God for his own sake\nregardless of hell or heaven. We must love the three Persons in\ntheir unity of nature and their one nature in the three Persons.\nThe Trinity has its power in the unity and the unity has its\ndignity in the Trinity. It belongs, moreover, to the noble mind to\nperceive the distinction between God and Godhead ; how it is\nthe three Persons in him have gotten his unity as their natural\nbeing. Each Person has for nature his unity entire, so each of the\nPersons is in himself God and in his nature Godhead. God is\nGod in the Persons and Godhead in his nature : in his impartible\nnature. The unity shines forth in the Trinity as articulate\nspeech. But the perfect reflection of the one is shining by itself\nin lonely silence, there safely pent as one and indivisible. Further,\nthe three Persons in their utterance keep their distinctive pro-\nperties. The Father is source of the Son and the Son is the river\nthereof eternally flowing out of the Father as Person, while\nabiding within him in essence. The Father and the Son give forth\ntheir breath (or spirit). Thus the originated river with its original\nsource is the origin of the Holy Ghost. Unity which, logically\nspeaking, is the condition of the original source is also the condition\nof the river which, together with its source, is source of the Holy\nGhost. And as this oneness is the nature of them both so too it\nis the nature of the breath exhaled by both. This river then is\nfontal. The unity which is in them both is unnecessitous, it has\nno need of speech, but subsists alone in unbroken silence.* Not\nthat the utterance dies, i.e. the spoken essence. But where speech\nbeats into the silence of its nature both have one common character,\nthe character of sameness. What is this ? It is the motionless\ndark that no one knows but he in whom it reigns : the one with its\nselfhood. First to arise in it is light. Lo, this is the originated\nriver, and origin itself, which has the character of light as proceed-\ning forth in its individual nature. And what here streams forth\nto view will reveal itself and that from which it springs. In its\ninterior procession this originated river, which is also the origin\nitself, has the nature of obscure, unmanifest intelligence, but the\nlight proceeding forth brings revelation to the mind, beguiling it\nout of itself into its mysterious indwelling cause. There it is\nshorn of light's illusion. Of everything, that is, which has been\nrevealed to it in the fonn of light. Thereof it is despoiled, but\nnow it finds another and better than this light-like understanding.\nLight has mode without knowledge. Darkness is knowledge\nwithout mode, a thing, that is, we can in nowise have. The mind\n\nMEISTEII ECKHART\n\nis rid of light when it is rid of mode ; and it is rid of darkness when,\nletting go of all natural things, it sinks in nameless actuality.\nThen it loses both light and darkness in the abyss that creature\nin its own right never plumbs. Such is the estrangement in the\none as foreshadowed in the ordinary mind, but the realization of\nunity which the blessed have lies in the exquisite consciousness\nof another than themselves.\n\nO unfathomable void, bottomless to creatures and to thine\nown self, in thy depth art thou exalted in thy impartible, imperish-\nable actuality ; in the height of thy essential power thou art so\ndeep thou dost engulf thy simple ground which is there concealed\nfrom all that thou art not ; yet those whom thou wouldst commune\nwith shall know thee with thyself. As St Paul declares, ' Then\nshall we know as we are known.' This knowledge the mind gets\nnot from its individual nature ; the unity hales it in the Three\ninto itself, that is, to its true and natural abode where it transcends\nitself in what inhales it ; where ' the spirit dies all dying in the\nwonder of the Godhead.' This dying of the spirit means its con-\nfusion with the one essential nature though it remains discrete\nin the Persons of the Trinity. This shows the activity of spirit ;\nits having variety of Persons. But by their union is shed a single\nlight, for the three Persons are aglow with one intrinsic nature,\nlike three lights with one shine. According to St Augustine this\nessential light is cast by the Persons into the pure spirit. At its\nglance the spirit forfeits self and selfliood and the uses of its powers.\nSuch is the effect of the shaft of pure impartible light of unity\nwhich this spirit is rather than itself when it is reduced to nothing\nbut «fche same. We call the unity naught because mind has no\nnotion what it is ; what the mind does know is that it is upheld\nby another than itself. Its upholder then is aught rather than\nnaught, though mind has no idea what it can be. It is more real\nto him than his own self in that it belies his personal naught.\nFor mind, as actually dwelling there, loses every means of divine\nnature, which to him is all things. He loses his individual nature\nand yet he does not die ; he wins the nature of divinity although\nnot God by nature but by grace. Now remember, he is something\ncreated out of naught. Yet he, a mere created wight, is drawn\nby the power of God's essence into his unity, a thing unknown in\nanywise to any creature. This unity which is in nowise creaturely\nis poverty, for it is poor of creatures, its content being that of\nsimple actuality. This modeless creature-essence is the being of\nthe Persons who alone contain it in its most primitive and simple\nform as their nature. This knowledge de-ments the mind. This\nspiritual dementia means the absolute modelessness of the unity\nwhich the Persons have in actual mode. The spirit broods in\n\n8T1\n\nsameness without light or darkness. Sans light, in its impene-\ntrable actuality ; sans darkness in its lack of any special name.\nThe spirit free from matter and from form has taken on the form\nof God. Thus the mind attains to its eternal image which is one\nin its essential nature and threefold as uttered in the Persons.\nThough the spirit in this image has an eternal nature of its own yet\nin itself it is a thing created. This created thing is mens ; by mens\nbeing meant the spark, the living principle of spiritr This is the\nspirit in itself. Its eternal image is another ; that is really God.\nWhen the spirit in itself turns from all things becoming into the\nnot-becoming of its eternal object in the Persons, whence it comes,\nthen the mind is said to return to its exemplar. Then void shines\ninto void : the purified becomingness of mind turns to the pure\nnot-becoming nature of its eternal idea. In this embrace is\nconsummated that exalted union wherein at length the spirit\nat one with all its nature is in divine atonement. Where\nthese two meet in one, equally spirit and not-spirit, there is\nbeatitude.\n\nNow consider what the spirit of God means. The most signi-\nficant and subtile word that creature can employ is spirit (breath\nor ghost) and that is why we call God spirit. But creature has\nno proper name for the nameless God and therefore to our mind\nGod is not spirit.\n\nMark too the meaning of spirituality of soul. It means that,\naloof from the coil of nether things, she is living at her summit in\nthought and love. Here she is one spirit with God. Spirituality\nof soul, besides, means that in her aught she is no more material\nthan in her naught wherefrom she was created. Such is the\nspiritual nature of the soul. But she is de-spirited (de-mented)\nwhen, at her absorption, she is what is his rather than lier own, and\nthis is the perfection of her sanity. The interior spiration of God,\nagain, is his hidden nature, the quarry of the mind which it\nescapes ; for tjiis mysterious and silent one lies hid in depths of\nstillness that no creature ever plumbs. This being is beyond our\ngrasp, whereat, rejoicing greatly, let us hasten to seize it with itself ;\nthis is our highest happiness. So be it, by thy help, O divine\nTrinity. Amen.\n\nXIII 1\n\nTHE FLOW INTO THE FATHER\n\nConcerning the flow into the Father, note as follows.\n\nThe Godhead is contained in the Father as nature, wherefore\n' See Spamor's Texte, B. 2, from which the words in brackets are taken.\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nhe is omnipotent and receives naught from aught that he is not\nhimself in his divine potentiality, seeing that he has it in him in\nessence, as his own. Nevertheless, speaking of the Father we mean\nthe Person of the Father, and speaking of the Godhead we mean\nhis nature, his impartible substance, that is to say. Now since\nthis nature stays brooding in settled immoveable stillness, moving\nall things which have proceeded in eternity in the word of his\npower (or potential Word), it follows that, as power, it has ever been\nflowing into the Father making him able to beget a Son like unto\nhimself. We can prove it thus. The Persons are impotent as\nPersons ; anything they do is done in virtue of their nature which\nis their real being. So much for the flow into the Father which\nhe has of his own nature wherein he is omnipotent.\n\nNow mark* The soul has received two powers by nature. The\nfirst of these powers is understanding. This comprehends the\nTrinity, although it is incomprehensible, and all its works. Observe\nhow understanding comprehends the Trinity, and all its works,\ndespite its being incomprehensible. The soul in her understanding\nis the image of the Son and the Son is the Father's understanding.\nSo when the soul is empty of her own understanding, and only\nthe Son is her understanding, she understands with the Son the Son\nand the Father and their common Spirit. That is how the soul\ncomprehends the Trinity and all its works.\n\nHer other power is will. It is its nature to cast itself into the\nunknown which is God. God is said to be unknown because no\ncreature knows him as he knows himself ; as known to himself he\nis unknowing to all creatures. Hence we call God agnosia. Now\nthe chief power of the soul is too fastidious to dally with temporal,\nknown things, so free will boldly disregards the known and cleaves\nto what it knows not. As St Paul says, ' I know not; God\nknoweth.'\n\nChrist says, ' When I am ascended I will draw all things to me.'\nHe means that when he dawns upon our heart artd understanding\nhe gathers us up into himself. In this sense all creatures are one\nman and that man is God. [In this sense man is all things. For\nhe has the nature of all creatures, and souls joined to Christ are\nin this sense one man with him. He is the head and they are his\nmembers, who are in his charity.] In Christ his all was assembled\ninto one. His higher and his lower faculties, and the senses of\nhis outward and his inward man were in harmonious union with\nhis highest power, conceived there by divine conception, which\nwas united with him in one Person. And so with the man in\nwhom all creatures end, in whom all multitudinous things have\nbeen reduced to one in Christ : man is then one in God with Christ's\nhumanity. Thus all creatures are one man and that man is God\n\nin Christ's Person. As one master says : With Gk)d one spirit and\nwith Christ one body, that is unity indeed.\n\nWith the powers received from the Trinity the soul knows the\nordering of all things ordained by God in such exalted fashion.\nBut those that turn away their eyes from God relapse into the self-\nsame naught wherein they were before they had received the\nlikeness of the Trinity, this likeness of the Trinity aye informing\nthem of the dark nothing back to which they wend. In this\ndarkness gather all the pangs of hell. The dark enwraps them and\nhides the sight of God ; it burns them past soothing by their created\naught. This is bitter to their conscience which damns them to all\ntime. In this pit of nothingness they sink for evermore, powerless\nto grasp the naught they were before they had the likeness of the\nTrinity.\n\nAnd now, my children, let us examine these dark sayings\ncarefully. You will see the obvious meaning of these damned.\nBut another, ghostly, sense lies hid therein, which it behoves you\nto note specially. This applies to the elect who turn away their\nmind from God and How back into that same naught, for when the\nsoul is carried by her understanding above all things and beyond\nthe scope of her own understanding to the understanding of the\nsovran good she secs that to all creatures this is unintelligible.\nSo down she goes with her own understanding.\n\nThe fastidious soul can rest her understanding on nothing that\nhas name. She escapes from every name into the nameless nothing-\nness. Escaping her own nature she falls clear of her own aught.\nThe naught she falls into is the unknowing, which is called the dark.\n' In this dark gather the pangs of hell,' where the soul is plynged\nsheer into the void. This only happens when she is perfectly\ndevoid of knowledge. The slightest trace of knowledge or under-\nstanding of the naught that she is plunged in would be hell-\ntorment to her. All sense and knowledge of the naught ends in\nthis darkness. ' The darkness burns them past salving by any of\ntheir kind. Bitter is this conscience which damns them to all\ntime. In this abyss of nothingness they sink for evermore,\nfailing to grasp the naught they were before they took the likeness\nof the Trinity.' By virtue whereof they have their being. To\napprofound the naught wherein they drown they are as helpless\nas they were when they were not. All sense and knowledge end\nin the darkness of their naught. For this darkness is the incom-\nprehensible nature of God. She sinks for evermore in the depths\nof this naught. She sinks and drowns ; she drowns to her own\naught. Her aught, surviving, sinks as naught to naught. But\nthe naught that sinks can never comprehend the naught it sinks in.\nEvery virtue mastered and transcended, the soul cries ; ' Even\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nso I cannot glorify and love God to the full. I die then to the\nvirtues casting me into the naught of the Godhead to sink eternally\nfrom naught to aught,' The highest meed of love and praise the\nsoul can lavish on the sovran good is given in the knowledge that\nall her love and praise fall short of God. So down she goes through\nthe little she can call her own and dying to her virtues is cast into\nthe naught of her own self.\n\nTwo points mark here. She casts herself with the naught of\nherself when, self-bereft of her exalted power she ever regards her\nown insignificance.\n\nThe other naught she plunges in is the naught of the Godhead.\nSeeing that she herself is naught and not disposed to stay at\naught, the soul casts herself into the naught of the Godhead and\nso comes with naught to naught. She wants the aught she\nrecognises in herself to perish in the naught which is its very\naught and so subsist in unity. She sees we cannot love and\nglorify God better than by recognising how inadequate all love and\nglory are. Wherefore she holds her peace. St Dionysius being\nbent on lauding Mary's virtues found them so inconceivable he\nheld his tongue. By his dumbness the worthy Dionysius did\nMary highest honour. Thus it befalls the soul on being ravished\ninto God's incomprehensibility. Her lips struck dumb, ' O\ngroundless Truth,' she cries, ' how paltry is our praise ! ' So she\nattains to union close enough for God to pour himself into\nher every whit and snatch her every whit into himself, leaving\nno trace of either vice or virtue ; nor does the soul know any\ndifference.\n\nFo^ you must know that to the soul in her perfection goodness\nwould con\\e quite natural ; she would not merely practise virtues,\nbut virtue as a whole would be her life and she would radiate it\nnaturally. We seem to be vicious or virtuous from being now the\none and now the other. This should not be : we ought to be always\nin a state of perfection. That is one thing to note.\n\nFurther, God absorbs the soul, leaving no trace. This means\nthat the soul ravished by God into the peace and quiet of his\nsecret self makes little show save to her kind. There the soul\nknows no separation, for he who has absorbed her has merged her\nin himself. She well knows that she is but knows not what she\nis. — The sun in certain countries is too hot for fruits to flourish\non the surface of earth, but, on the other hand, the sun produces\ngold in plenty in the bowels of earth. And .so with the soul in\nwhom the bright sun of the divine nature shines : it produces its\nlike there, scattering the darkness and bringing about perfect\nunity. Look you,* it behoves us to be very merciful to these, for,\nwithdrawn into his hiding, they are out of touch with the profane.\n\nSt Chrysostom says, ' It is not yet manifest what we are, but\nwhen we are changed into him we shall show what we are.' What-\never she may take herself for, to God she is creature.\n\nThe Godhead is a spiritual substance, so impenetrable that none\ncan say what manner of thing it is. They say ; God in the\nTrinity is the living light in its visible radiance. In other words,\nthe three Persons are but one in nature though distinct in Person\nin the same sense that the source of light is not the light nor is the\nsource its shine. Applying this to the three Persons, the source\nis the Father, the Son is the light and the Holy Ghost is the shine.\nThe Father is the living source in whom all things have lived\neternally without themselves as in their cause. The light is the\nSon in whom all things appear eternally as in their idea. The\nshine is the Holy Ghost in whom all things are one eternally as in\ntheir naught. Not that one Person is the life and another the\nlight : the three Persons are one life, one light.\n\nThe Trinity is the heart of the divine nature. As you may\nprove. For in human life it is the heart which beats in all the\nlimbs, energising, co-ordinating them. Because the limbs receive\nfrom it, therefore it is called the heart. Now touching the God-\nhead, this is not active in its nature, but anything it does it does\nwith the Persons, and the Trinity is called the heart of divine\nnature because this works by means of it, and because it (the\nTrinity) is the origin of all things and all things flow back into it\nand end. This heart's heart, again, is the paramount power of\nthe unity wherein and whereby it is omnipotent. Human nature\nHows in love into the Trinity as into its universal origin. The\nunity of the Trinity is bottomless and nothing is contained therein.\nIn the embrace of unity the naked soul sinks down for aye nor\never touches bottom. Her temporalities (i.e. the created natures\nof her powers) stop at the Persons, whereas her pure essence is\nreceived by the pure unity of God without return.\n\nBehold the soul divorced from every aught. For he who stoops\nto aught that is not God can never be received into God's unity.\nThis unity is causeless ; it is self-caused. Of bottomless depth\nthe floor, of endless height the roof, of boundless space the rim.\nI refer to the Trinity of Persons : the unity underlies it, holding it\ntogether ; it overtops it, energising it ; it surrounds it, ending its\ndistinctions. Thus the Trinity is in the unity and the unity in\nthe Trinity. As saith the psalm Quicumque vult.\n\nThat we should know ourselves and God so far as we are able,\nthat is God's will. If we would know ourselves we have to recog-\nnise that we are nothing but the raw material of God for the\nblessed Trinity to work in. It behoves us therefore to be vastly\ncareful not to hamper in any way the work which the exalted\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nworkman designs to carry out in us to his glory, but so to maintain\nourselves that the material is always ready for the workman to do\nhis work in us. St Paul says, ' The spirit of the Lord descends\nfrom on high in secret, working in whom it will and when and\nwhere and how it will in him in whom it meets no hindrance.'\nIn the children of God. They are led by this spirit. — It is thus ye\nshall know yourselves. Next, we have to know God. To this\nSt Dionysius exhorted one of his disciples, saying, ' Up, friend,\ndivest thyself of things and put off thyself that thou mayst under-\nstand the Sovran Good.' Of it three things are predicated. First,\nit is a unique force entire in everything ; next, a unique good\nembracing everything. (Thirdly) to know God really ye must\nknow him as the unknown. So Dionysius says.\n\nGod's will is our 'welfare, and our welfare eonsists in knowing\nGod and doing accordingly. Here timorousness mutters in the\nsoul, both she will and she will not. And hard on this comes\nrage of soul. When she divines that it remains for her to be\nsomewhat that he is not, she is transported with ire. She\nwould sooner come to naught than have or take aught that\nbelongs to him. ' Lord,' she cries, ' my welfare lies in thy\nnever calling me to mind ; and forbid, I pray thee, any creature\never to console me. I rejoice that my powers never come before\nthy face.'\n\nSee what the soul means by her strange words : ' my welfare lies\nin thy never calling me to mind.' She wots right well that she has\nnever been one instant out of his mind and that is her felicity.\nShe begs not to be comforted by any creature, because she is in\nindigence right comfortless where her disconsolateness is her one\nconsolation. And when she says her powers come not before his\nface ? Observe what God's face is. We sec ourselves best in\nwhat is called our face. So too where God is manifest to himself\nin the mysterious stillness of his own essence. This revelation is\ncalled the face of the Godhead. The soul is well aware that,\naccompanied by her powers, she can never enter the absolute\nstillness where he is manifest to himself. Hence she desires her\npdwers not to come before his face, t.e. his self-revelation. See,\nher powers halt at its reflection in the Trinity and only the pure\nessence of her spirit is flashed from the stillness of her own power\nstraight into this perfect revelation. As a master says : ' Where\npure and purified are one the powers of the soul are at an end.'\nMeaning that in the one perfect nature the pure nature of the\nspirit transcends all its powers. St Paul says, ' He who is joined\nto God is one spirit with him.' Amen.\n\nXIV\n\nST JOHN SAYS, 'I SAW THE WORD IN GOD'\n\nSt John says, ' I saw the Word in God.' God is abstract being,\npure perception, which is perceiving itself in itself. St John means\nthat the Son is in the Father, in his nature. ' I saw the Word\nwith God.' Here he is referring to the intellect which, flowing\ninto God eternally, proceeded forth from God in distinction of\nPerson, namely, the Son. * I saw the Word before God.' This\nmeans that the Son is ever being born of the Father and that he is\nthe image of the Father. ' In the Word there is only the Word,'\nrefers to the eternal emanation of creatures in the Word. ' I\nsaw the Word under God ' ; the Son become man, as God said,\n' I have loved you in the reflection of my darkness.' God's dark-\nness is his nature which is unknowable. Good people know it\nnot and no creature can divine it ; therefore it is a darkness.\nWhile God was flowing in his own darkness the Son was not\ndistinct from him. In the darkness of his nature the Father\nflowed as Person so far as he was pregnant. The Father gave his\nSon birth and gave him his own nature ; he gave him not his\nPerson : his nature he can give away but he can give to none his\nPerson for that is the product of his unborn essence. The Father\nspoke himself and all creatures in his Son ; the Father spoke\nhimself to all creatures in his Son. The Father turning back into\nhimself speaks himself in himself ; he flows back into himself with all\ncreatures. As Dionysius says, ' God proceeded into himself,' mean-\ning that his hidden nature suffices him, which is concealeci from\ncreatures. The soul cannot follow him into his nature, except he\nabsorb her altogether, and then in him she is made dark of all created\nlights. The darkness of creatures is their incomprehensibility in\ntheir simple nature, that is, in the nothing from which they were\ncreated. In this uncreated light they discern his uncreatedness.\nInto his uncreatedness they flow in the reflection of his darkness.\n\n— ' Tell me, good Sir, do Father, Son and Holy Ghost speak the\nsame word in the Godhead or has each a different word ? ' — In\nthe Godhead there is but one word ; in it the Father in the Godhead\nspeaks into his unborn essence and into his born essence, the\nFather flowing into his Son with all that he is and the Son speaks\nthe same word, and the Father and the Son flow into the Holy\nGhost and the Holy Ghost speaks the same word. They speak\nthis one simple word in their essence and each speaks the same word\nin his own Person, and in their common nature they discourse\nthe truth and the Persons receive the essence as it is essentially.\nYet the Persons receive from one another. They bow down to\n\nMEISTER ECKKART\n\nthe essence in praise, lauding the essence ; and the unborn essence\npronounces its unborn word in the Persons, lauding the Persons^\nand the Persons receive the essence every whit and pass it on to\none another. This unborn essence is self-sufficient, without birth\nand without activity. Birth and activity are in the Persons^\nThe Persons say they are the truth and that creatures have none\nof the truth. When the soul attains to this divine speech she\nspeaks this very truth and is the Deity to every creature as well\nas to herself. This comes of her indivisible nature and therein\ncreatures are a matter of the will. The bad are bad and the good\ngood, the Persons preserving justice in the Godhead. They give\ntjie bad their due and the good theirs.\n\nSt Dionysius says, ' God is the Prime Cause, and God has fashioned\nall things for himself who is the cause of all ; and his works arc\nall wrought in the likeness of the First Cause.' Father and Son\nshow forth the first cause, and the Son is playing in the Father with\nall things for he proceeded forth from him. The Son plays before\nFather with all things, the Son plays below the Father with all\nthings. The Father begat the Son with his Godhead and with\nall things. The Father begat his Son in his Godhead with all\nthings. The Father begat his Son into his Godhead with all\nthings. The Godhead is the several Persons and the fullness of\nthe Persons. The Godhead is not given to any thing. On coming\nto its knowledge the soul sees God and glancing back into herself\nshe sees that the Godhead is in all things. Receiving into her the\nlikeness of the creator she creates what she will but cannot give\nit essence : she gives it form and is herself its matter and its\neternal activities are in her ; these are in the eternal birth. Its\ntemporal activities are in time, where God gives his works essence,\nform and matter out of nothing, which the soul is unable to do ;\nGod reduces his works to the unity of Christ and this order shall\nnot pass away but shall be raised up to the glory of the one. Soul,\ntranscending order, enters the naked Godhead where she is seen\nwhen God is seen in the soul as God. This soul has God as God in\nher, she has gotten in her the image of her creator.\n\nNow mark the difference between the work of God and creature.\nGod has done all things for himself, for he is the universal cause\nand all his works are wrought in the likeness of the first cause and\ncreatures all work according to the likeness of the first cause. That\nis the intention they have towards God. v God made all things\nfrom nothing, infusing into them his Godhead so that all things\nare full of God. Were they not full of the Godhead they would\nall perish. The Trinity does all the work in things and creatures\nexploit the power of the Trinity, creatures working as creatures\nand God as God, while man mars the work so far as his intention is\n\nevil. When a man is at work his body and soul are united, for\nbody cannot act without the soul. When the soul is united with\nGod she does divine work, for God cannot work without the soul\nand the soul cannot work without God. God is the soul's life\njust as the soul is the body's, and the Godhead is the soul of the\nthree Persons in that it unifies them and in that it has dwelt in\nthem for ever. And since the Godhead is in all things it is all\nsoul's soul. But in spite of its being all soul's soul, the Godhead\nis not creatures' soul in the way it is the Trinity's. God does one\nwork with the soul ; in this work the soul is raised above herself.\nThe work is creature, grace to wit, which bears the soul to God.\nIt is nobler than the soul as admitting her to God ; but the soul\nis the nobler in her admissibility. This creature which has neither\nform nor matter nor any being of its own, translates the soul out\nof her natural state into the supernatural.\n\nTo his eternally elect God gives his spirit as it is, without\nmeans ; they cannot miss it. Creatures God is going to make at\nhis good pleasure he has known eternally as creatures, for in God\nthey arc creatures albeit nothing in themselves : they are uncreated\ncreatures. Creatures are always more noble in God than they are\nin themselves. In God the soul shall see her own perfection\nwithout image and shall see the difference between things un-\ncreated and created and she shall distinguish God from Godhead,\nnature from Person, form from matter. The Father is the begin-\nning of the Godhead, he is the well-spring in the Godhead, over-\nflowing into all things in eternity and time. The Godhead is a\nheaven of three Persons. The Father is God and a Person not\nborn nor proceeding from any ; and the Son is God and a Iverson\nand born of the Father ; and the Holy Ghost is God and a Person\nproceeding from both. St Paul speaks of the uncreated spirit\nflowing into the created spirit (or mind). This meeting which\nbefalls the created spirit is her saving revelation ; it happens in\nthe soul who breaks through the boundaries of God to lose herself\nin his uncreated naught. The three Persons are one God, one in\nnature, and our nature is shadowing God's nature in perpetual\nmotion ; having followed him from naught to aught and into that\nwhich God is to himself, there she has no motion of her naught.\nAught is suspended from the divine essence; its progression is\nmatter, wherein the soul puts on new forms and puts off her old\nones. The change from one into the other is her death : the one\nshe doffs she dies to, and the one she dons she lives in.\n\nSt John says, ' Blessed arc the dead that die in God : they are\nburied where Christ is buried.' Upon which St Dionysius com-\nments thus : Burial in God is the passage into uncreated life.\nThe power the soul goes in is her matter, which power the soul\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\ncan never approfound for it is God and God is changeless, albeit\nthe soul changes in his power. As St Dionysius says, ' God is the\nmover of the soul.' Now form is a revelation of essence. St\nDionysius says, ' Form is matter's aught. Matter without form\nis naught.' So the soul never rests till she is gotten into God who\nis her first form and creatures never rest till they have gotten into\nhuman nature : therein do they attain to their original form, God\nnamely. As St Dionysius hath it, ' God is the beginning and the\nmiddle and the end of all things.'\n\nThen up and spake the loving soul, ' Lord, when enjoyest thou\nthy creatures ? ' — ' That do I at high noon when God is reposing\nin all creatures and all creatures in God.' St Augustine says,\n' All things are God,' meaning, they have always been in God and\nshall return to God. So when St Dionysius says, ' All things are\nnaught,' he means they are not of themselves and that in their\negress and their ingress they are as ineomprehensible as naught.\nWhen St Augustine says, ' God is all things,' he means he has\nthe power of all things, one more noble than he ever gave to\ncreatures. And St Dionysius* dictum, ' God is naught,' implies\nthat God is as inconceivable as naught. As King David sings,\n' God has assigned to everything its place : to fish the water,\nbirds the air and beasts the field and to the soul the Godhead.'\nThe soul must die in every form save God : there at her journey's\nend her matter rests and God absorbs the whole of the powers ol'\nthe soul, so now behold the soul a naked spirit. Then, as St\nDionysius says, the soul is not called soul, she is the sovran power\nof God wherewith God's will is done. It is at this point St Augus-\ntine cfies, ' Lord thou hast bereft me of my spirit ! ' Whereupon\nOrigen remarks, ' Thou art mistaken, O Augustine. It is not\nthy spirit, it is thy soul-powers that are taken from thee.' The\nsoul unites with God like food with man, which turns in eye to\neye, in ear to ear. So does the soul in God turn into God ; com-\nbining with each divine power she is that power in God ; and God\ncombines with the soul and is each power in the soul ; and the\ntwo natures flowing in one light, the soul comes utterly to naught.\nThat she is she is in God. The divine powers swallow her up out\nof sight just as the sun draws up things out of sight.\n\nWhat God is to himself no man may know. God is in all things,\nself-intent. God is all in all and to each thing all things at once.\nAnd the soul shall be the same. What God has by nature is the\nsoul's by grace. God is nothing at all to anything ; God is nothing\nat all to himself, God is nothing that we can express. In this\nsense Dionysius says, ' God is all things to himself for he bears the\nform of all things.' He is big with himself in a naught : there all\nthings are God, and are not, the same as we were. When we\n\nwere not then God was heaven and hell and all things* St Diony-\nsius says that ' God is not meaning that he bears himself in a not^\nnamely, the not-knowing of all creatures, and this not draws the\nsoul through all things, over all things and out of all things into\nthat superlative not where she is not-known to any creature.\nThere she is not, has not, wills not, she has albandoned God and\neverything to God. Now God and heaven gone, the soul is\nfinally cut off from every influx of divinity, so his spirit is no longer\ngiven to her. Arrived at this the soul belongs to the eternal life\nrather than creation ; her uncreated spirit lives rather than\nherself : the uncreated, eternally-existent which is no less than\nGod. Wherewith being all-pervaded to the total loss of her own\nself, the soul at length returns without herself to eternal indigence,\nfor what is left alive in her is nothing less than God. Thus she is\npoor of self. This is the point where soul and Godhead part and\nthe losing of the Godhead is the finding of the soul, for the spirit\nwhich is uncreated drawing on the soul to its own knowledge she\ncomes nearer to the not- being of the Godhead than by knowing\nall the Father ever gave. [The gift of the Father is the positive\nexistence of all creatures in the Person of his Son and with the Son\nthe Holy Ghost as well. For the Persons must be looked on as\ninseparate, albeit distinct illuminations of the understanding.]\nAnd so far as she attains this in the body she enjoys the eternal\nwont and escapes her own.\n\nWe ought to be eternally as poor as when we were not and then\nour kingdom shall not pass away, abiding as it does in God whose\nit is eternally. The Godhead gave all things up to God ; it is as\npoor, as naked and as idle as though it were not : it has not,\nwills not, wants not, works not, gets not. St Dionysius says,\n\n' Be the soul never so bare the Godhead is barer ' : a naught from\nwhich no shoot was ever lopped nor ever shall be. It is this\ncounsel of perfection the soul is straining after more than after\nanything that God contains or anything she can conceive of God.\nSaith the bride in the Book of Love, ' The form of my beloved\npassed by me and I cannot overtake him.' It is God who has the\ntreasure and the bride in him, the Godhead is as void as though\nit were not. God has consumed the form of the soul and formed\nher with his form into his form. Now she gets all things free\nfrom matter, as their creator possesses them in him, and resigns\nthe same to God.\n\nOurs to contain all things in the same perfection wherein the\neternal wisdom has eternally contained them. Ours to expire\nthem as the Holy Ghost has expired them eternally. Ours to be\nall things' spirit and all things' spirit to us in the spirit. Ours to\nknow all and deify ourselves with all. Ours to be God by grace\n\n882 MEIStER ECKHART\n\nas God is God by nature ; ours to resign the same to God and be\nas poor as when we were not. In this state we are as free as when\nwe were not : free as the Godhead in its non-existence. Christ\nsays, * Blessed are the poor in spirit.' These same poor in spirit\nenjoy the Father without let or hindrance. The Father knows\nno difference between this soul and him save that he has by nature\nwhat she has by grace. For as Christ declares, ' Them that\nfollow me I will bring to where I am.' ' Blessed are the poor in\nspirit ; God's kingdom is in them.' These spiritual poor are\nthose who have abandoned everything to God as he possessed\nthem when we were not and the naught itself. In this naught\ndwells God and in God dwells this soul. There she has no dwelling\nand thereinto no creature can get in its own right and no creature\ncan go higher.\n\nXV\n\nTHE THREE CREATIONS\n\nThe three Persons made creatures out of nothing to enjoy the\nuses of the blessed Trinity. There is difference of wont in the\nPersons and their powers ; for the essence being self-sufficient\nthere is nothing in the essence to enjoy excepting unity, so the soul\ndemands nothing, knows nothing, wills nothing.\n\nAs to the Persons, the one knows the others so far as they are\nPersons, for one Person begets the others. Essence begets not.\nIn the domain of Person, one is receiving from another. The Son\nreceives all he possesses from the Father ; the Holy Ghost receives\nall he» possesses from the JFather and the Son, and each of the\nPersons receives from the ' others presence and well-being and\nco-operation and mutual delight. As to their activity, each one\nfinds itself entire as essence in the others and each enjoys the\nothers as Persons and itself in both the others.\n\nWe speak of three creations. Birth is called creation, and being\nmade from nothing, and being raised in grace to higher grace.\nThe same applies especially to Christ. If birth is a creation then\nChrist was the creature of his Father in his eternal birth of Person\nand of nature. Christ himself declared, ' Wisdom created wisdom.'\nThe creation of the Son has ever been to him his whole existence,\nwho is still being born of the Father eternally with all that he\nis, and this birth remains in the Father eternally. St Dionysius\nsays, ^God created a God as good as God.' Inasmuch as the\nFather conceives himself of himself he is his own creation.\nAs St Dionysius says, ' God is his own self-begotten Son.' In\neternity, that is. Creatures abide in eternity as being in the\nGod-bearing Godhead. The Son knows all things essentially in the\n\nessence of the Father who, essentially, has the potentiality of all\nthings that shall happen and shall not happen. He has in his\nPerson the universal image, so that he knows all things in common\nwith the Father and wields joint power over what has happened,\nwhat is happening and what is still to happen, as well as over\nwhat God could do an he would that never happens. As the\nFather stretches his will to things that are to happen so the Son\nstretches his wisdom to effect their happening ; and as the Father\ndirects his will towards things that shall not happen, the Son\ndirects his wisdom to prevent them happening.\n\nThe second creation is that of all the three Persons at once\nwho are one in their work of making all things from nothing.\nThis applies pre-eminently to Christ's soul, for she was created\nfrom nothing in time. The images existing in the middle Person\nare imprinted in his soul's potentiality so that she knows ideally,\nall things past, present and to come. But things that are not\ngoing to happen, things which God in his omnipotence could do\nbut which will not take place, albeit possible essentially, these his\nsoul does not know for that belongs to God alone. This light is\ncreature, created from nothing and is supernatural to the soul.\nHis soul has one light in common with the angels. This is the\nimage impressed in her wherein she perceives in herself things\nthat have happened and are happening ; but in this image she\nsees nothing of those things which are going to happen except\nGod grant her knowledge of them. And this is supernatural to\nthe soul.\n\nThe third creation is the raising of his body from grace to higher\ngrace, that is, something extra to his animal nature, fei his\nanimal nature he cannot see into peoples' consciousness ; in his\nanimal nature he could give no sign nor know about the future\nunless God granted it. Christ was so foolish as a child he did not\nknow his father or his mother. St Ambrose says ; ' He was\ncreated from grace to higher grace when he rose from death to\nimmortality.' Christ sees in heaven, with his fleshly eyes, only\nwhat is before him ; he must turn round to see what is behind\nhim. So the Son has never known the Father in that funda-\nmental mode wherein the Three are united in one nature. That\nmode Christ's soul was sharing when, at the moment of her\ncreation she was bereft of it and prevented from seeing her divine\nnature, Christ's soul enjoys divine nature by grace as God does\nby nature. This is so far removed from creature that never a\ndrop has ever leaked into any creature. The furthest limit of\nman's knowledge is an intuition of how the three Persons enjoy\ntheir divine nature. To this none can attain unless his soul is\nplunged into the consciousness of the created and uncreated\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nnatures confluent in her where she stands in the midst and, seeing\nstraight into them both, has at that point pure intuition of her\nwont and how what she enjoys there is withdrawn from her and\nhow, though borne along with and by grace, she is still unable to\napprehend God's nature. She clearly sees that she is God's and\nnot her own at all. She is acutely sensible that enjoying and\nsuffering are identical. That Christ should have action and\npassion both in one, bodily, that was the wonder. His soul must\nhave suffered in all her powers. Her highest power suffering as\nmuch more than the rest as it was more capable of suffering.\nOne wise doctor says, ' In this intuition the soul has perfect joy,\nfor perfect joy is perfect knowledge.* Christ says, ' They that\nknow thee Father and thy Son whom thou hast sent, have life\neternal.' Also he says, * Pray, that your joy may be full.' St\nDionysius says, fullness of joy is perfect consciousness, a balanced\ninterchange of nature, whereby the soul beholds herself in the\nmirror of the Godhead. God is the mirror, unveiled to whom he\nwill and veiled from whom he will. St Peter says, ' God fashioned\nhis nature and the Persons in that nature and chose the nature\nnot the Persons.' St Dionysius says the soul has a light that\nlights her to work. By the light God casts on the angels next\nhim they cast themselves back into God with all they are. As\nSt Bernard observes, ' Minds do not flow back into God in their\nnatural light ; the Godhead absorbs them in its own light without\ntheir seeing.* Now St John says, ' God is love, and he who\ndwells in love dwells in God and God in him.' When God reveals\nhimself to the soul and the soul loves God, she is in God and God\nis incher. When the sun shines and the eye sees it, the eye is\nin the sun and the sun is in the eye. Well then, friend mine,\nhere you have the notion, which it defies me to express in words,\nfor the divine nature in the Persons is a mirror, beyond the reach\nof any word. In so far as the soul can project herself beyond\nwords so far she approaches that mirror. In that mirror the\nunion is simply onh of likeness.\n\nWhen, Lord, I was in thee I was unnecessitous in my nothing-\nness ; it was thy look, thy notice of me, that made me indigent.\nIf it be death for the soul to part from God, then it is death to\nher to emanate from God. All change is a dying. Wherefore we\ndie from time to time and the soul dies all-dying in the wonder of\nthe Godhead, impotently grasping at the divine nature. In the\nnaught she is undone and comes to nothing. In this not-being\nshe is buried, in un-knowing she is merged in the unknown, in\nunthinking merged in the unthought-of, in un-love one with the\nunloved. Death's grip none can unloose ; it severs life from\nlimb and the soul from God and casts her into the Godhead\n\nwherein, sepultured, she is ignored by every creature. She is\nforgotten as one changed within the tomb nor is she held in any\nman's embrace. She like God is incomprehensible. For the dead\nwho have died in the Godhead are beyond our ken, like the dead\nare who die here to the body. That death is the soul's eternal\nquest. Slain in the three Persons she loses her naught and is\nhurled into the Godhead. Where she discovers the face of her\nnaught. ' Thou art all fair my love, there is no spot in thee,'\nsays our Lord ; and of his incomprehensible beauty she declares,\n' Thou art more fair.' There she sees the secret art of God :\nhow marvelloiisly God contrived that nothing should be indigent,\nyet without detriment thereto. St Dionysius says : ' No wonder\nGod made the soul indigent with a look, when tlie sun, unbidden,\ngives life to mites and worms in rotten wood.' The soul, perceiving\nGod's immensity and her own insignificance, easts herself out of\nGod's heart and out of all creatures and rests upon her naked\nnothingness : the divine power has her in its keeping. As\nSt Dionysius says : ' All things are naught at the command of\nGod.' Again he says : ' The look which goes from God into the\nsoul is the beginning of faith whereby I believe things not revealed\nto me.' So far as the soul sinks down in feith into the unknown\ngood, so far she is one with the unknown good and is unknown to\nself or any creature. She well knows that she is but knows not\nwhat she is. Not till she knows all that there is to know does she\ncross over to the unknown good. This crossing is obscure to many\na religious.\n\nThe nature of the soul is such that where she is at all there she\nis altogether. She is entire in every limb, for where her natpre is\nat all there it is wholly. So is the Godhead in all places and in\nall creatures and in each wholly.\n\nUnnatured nature is natured only so far as it is natureable.\nIt natures not itself but the Father natures his Son in natured\nnature, for the Father is as much natured as unnatured nature,\nseeing that it is one with him. The Father is alone in unnatured\nnature and is the first in natured nature. And in natured nature\nthe Son is naturing with the Father, for (Father) and Son nature\nthe Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost exists with the Father and the\nSon in natured nature and natures not. In (un)>natured nature\nthey are one, natured nature distinguishing the Persons ; and\nthe Persons are as eternal in their Persons as the unnatured nature\nin its nature and their natured nature is as eternal in them as\ntheir unnatured nature, and this is nothing else than one God in\nthree Persons^ who nature creatures, each in its own nature, and\ngive them the power and activity that is best suited to them. So\ndear each creature holds its nature that it would have no other.\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nA master says, ' If sorrow could befall the Father he would rue\nhis inability to make all things divine by nature.' When the soul\nin her simple nature turns into God's nature forthwith she is\nmade one with God, but to heed discrete powers and persons and\nvirtues hampers the soul's divine unity. Her common sense\nendows the other senses with sight, hearing, touch and savour,\nalbeit in itself no more than one. And the perceptions of the\noutward senses are all referred to common sense. Discursive\nreason sorts out what is good and, leaving out the animal and\ngross, presents it to the memory for union with the soul. Her\nhighest power introduces it to her understanding which has\nintuition of God's will, and so it is conveyed into the soul who\nharmonises all with God's good will.\n\nGod in himself is simple good and undivided. The names the\nsoul gives God are taken from herself. Albeit threefold in his\nPerson, God is the one and only good by nature. He is omni-\npotent good in the Father, clear wisdom in the Son and pure\ngoodness in the Holy Ghost. He is threefold and he is one in\ncreatures generally ; and of those burning spirits who are con-\nsumed in the fire and brought to naught in him he is the impartible\nsubstance. When, having harmonised all things in herself, the\nsoul is reduced to her impartible substance, then she inhales the\npowers of the divine nature and exhales them from her being into\nthe being of the divine nature which permeates her throughly,\nthe two beings meeting in one point which is common to the\nsoul and God and the variety of Persons hinders not their unity\nnor does their nature interfere with the variety of Persons. He is\nthreefold and one in every Person in his born and unborn natures\nseverally and the Persons are not admitted to the essence.\nTo receive one Person is to receive the divine nature threefold in\nits unity. For one Person in essence is as good as three distinct.\n\nHappy the soul who, taking this transcendental flight, receives\nall things in the naked Godhead. That soul is buried in the face\nof God ; she is rapt into heaven wherein the three Persons dwell\nin the oneness of their nature. This is the hidden Godhead\nwhereof no man can speak. Blessed are they who make this\npassover : all things are known to them in truth and they\nthemselves unknown to any creature. So far as they are above\ncreatures they are God and super-creaturely, owing to their unity\nwith God. God's face conceals them, every shadow of them, in\nitself. Where two unite, the stronger draws the weaker to it.\nChrist says, ' Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you.'\nBlessed are the chosen, they bear God's image. Christ says,\n' Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.'\nThe poor in spirit are those who have abandoned all to God as\n\nhe possessed them when we were not. God's kingdom means the\nsoul being full of God and nothing of herself. In this nothing God\ndwells and the soul dwells in the same nothing. There she changes\nnot and thereinto no creature can get in its own right, and creature\ncan rise no higher. St Dionysius says, ' God dwells in the nothing.'\nO Dionysius, that is not enough ! God dwells in the nothing-at-\nall that was prior to nothing, in the hidden Godhead of pure\ngnosis whereof no man durst speak. Unity is of God alone. As\nSt Dionysius says : ' Did God not dwell in the naught things\nwould all perish.' St Dionysius, that is not enough I Did God\nnot dwell in the nothing-at-all sustaining creatures with his\nmight, they would all come to nothing for they by nature pass\naway into the nothingness from which they were created. There-\nfore God dwells in the nothing-at-all that was prior to nothing.\n\nCreature has access to God, who is her being, energising in the\npower which moves her to rise from naught to aught. Now St Paul\nasks, and Augustine too, ' How did I get from naught to aught,\nfrom worm to God, from creature to creator ? ' The soul shall\nbe so one with God she weens that nothing is save God alone and\nthat God made no creature save herself alone. The soul that\nmakes this transcendental passage enters the universal peace.\nShe is God as he is in himself. Christ says, ' I have been man for\nyou and if ye are not God for me ye wrong me.' God became man\nthat we might become God. God in his God-nature lay hid in\nhuman nature so that we saw naught but man. And so this soul\nshall hide her in God's nature until we can see naught but God ;\nnot putting on a Person as Christ did but wholly immersed in\nthe divine nature. God is not a nature like a creature is ^hich\nhas some quality another lacks. The brewer who is also baker we\ncannot simply call a brewer for he is baker too. God is the nature\nof each nature : he is all natures' nature undivided. He is the\nlight of lights, the life of lives, the being of beings, the reason of\nreasons. He is all natures' common nature. As Dionysius says :\n' We cannot say he is a nature seeing that he is impartible and\nthere is nothing like him.' And again St Dionysius says : ' We\nknow God only in unknowing.'\n\nWhen God enters the soul he comes in with all things. Although\nin God there is but one thing simply, the soul possesses it as\nseparate notions, angels and devils and all. The soul is able to\nconceive all things in God and to discern what God is in them\nand what they are in God by soaring up to the supernal simplicity,\ninto unknowing. St Dionysius says, ' That is Lordship, tran-\nscending earthly things and the likes of them and raising them to\nthe heights.' Christ says, ' Them that follow me I will raise to\nwhere I am.' The Father speaks himself into the soul in his Son.\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nNow the Son is the Word of the Father, so the Father reveals to\nthe soul in this wise that he is shapeless in his divine nature.\nThe soul, speaking herself back to the Father in the selfsame\nWord, says she has no shape either in her naught, so she abandons\nher naught in the Word and plunges shapeless into the unshapen.\n\nThe Godhead is an abstract simple thing, omnipotent above all\nPerson as well as having the power of the inseparate three Persons :\ngiving to none, receiving from none, save as therein subsisting.\nSt Dionysius says, ' The Godhead has gotten all things.' The three\nPersons are in the Godhead ; they reveal of it to creatures and\neach other as much as they are able to receive. The Father\nreveals the Godhead to himself and to his Son and Father and Son\nreveal it to the Holy Ghost and the three Persons reveal it to\ncreatures and the Godhead wantons with the Word and before\nthe Word and above the Word and the Word cannot comprehend\nit. Were the three Persons undistinguished in the Godhead,\nthe Godhead would not be revealed at all and creatures would\nnot have been created. The eternal activities are the cause of\ncreatures. The Father reveals the Godhead, the Son reveals the\nFather, the Holy Ghost reveals them both : This revelation the\nGodhead gets from things beneath it. The supreme perfection\nis indigent of creatures. So it befalls from time to time that\nwhen the moon, shooting below the sun, mono})olises all the\nsunlight and the sun is said to be eclipsed, that then a star exerts\nits force upon the moon and drawn it off the sun ; thus the sun\nowes its light to things beneath it.\n\nThe soul gets from the Trinity those finite things commensurate\nwith her powers. Out of the naked Godhead there shines into the\nsimple being of the soul a single light invisible to her powers,\nboth high and low. For though the Godhead has in it all things,\nit has them all in one, not piecemeal. It begets not, so it is not\nFather ; it receives not, so it is not Son nor Holy Ghost. The\nthree Persons are God in person and in nature Godhead. The\nGodhead shines through the distinction of Persons and through\nseparate creatures down to the very lowest, illuminating them and\nilluminating itself in itself. And when the soul in her naked\nessence enters into the Godhead, all things are within her ken\neven the meanest creature ; then she illuminates herself and\neverything in her and discerns in the Godhead the divine nature\nand in the variety of Persons she loses her name and the Persons\nlose their names in the unity and everything the unity compre-\nhends loses its name in the unity. And here the soul, as good\nnow as her naught, both draw together to their close in the God-\nhead's naught, where her powers are useless. As St Diony-\nsius observes, ' God passes away.' By which he signifies that the\n\nsoul in her naked essence has escaped her powers. Her powers\nhave lost their deity, and the pure substance of their deity as well,\nto the Persons and their powers, which powers react upon the\nessence by hindering the swing-back of the Three to unity. Here\nlove loses her name and all things in the Godhead's naught, now\nthe soul has flowed into her aught. In the Godhead's naught,\nthe Father has his consummation and the three Persons their\none nature wherein they give to creatures the perfection of their\ncreated aught and the soul in her aught in the Godhead's naught\ncourses through all things all undisturbed in her being's aught.\nAs St Dionysius says, ' The soul is not moved in her naught in\nthe Godhead's naught neither does the soul move the Godhead\nin its naught. There she is so great . . ., she flows to him as it\nwere in a light.' St Dionysius says, ' The Godhead has come to\nnaught for the powers of the soul cannot comprehend it.'\n\nBlessed and praised be the Father, Son and Holy Ghost in the\nunity of their divine nature. Blessed and praised be Jesus\nChrist the Son of the living God, one Person of divine nature and\nhuman nature.\n\nXVI\n\nTHE SOUL'S RAGE\n\nThe soul is furious for self-knowledge. Her face is lit with\npassion, red with rage for the arrears withheld from her in God,\nbecause she is not all God is by nature, because she has not all\nGod has by nature.\n\nThe masters say there is no fiercer appetite than a fjiiend's\ndesire to possess his friend and all that he possesses. The soul\nproclaims her rage so boundless she cannot be appeased by him.\nThe bonds of love are all too cruel for her. Alas ! she cries,\nwho shall console me ? My misery is too deep. Were I the\none creator, beginningless and endless, and had I made creatures\nand were he soul like me, then I would go straight out of my\nestate and let her enter in and be God while I was creature ;\nand if it were an obstacle to God to get his being from me, he\nwould be welcome to efface me for I would perish sooner than be\na hindrance to him. But seeing it is common to everything\ncreated to have somewhat of the eternal in man's nature ever\npresent in it, therefore I know not where to turn to find a place.\nSo I take refuge in myself and there I find the lowest place, aye,\none more base than hell for even thence do my shortcomings\nhound me. It seems I cannot then escape myself. Here I sit\nme down and herein will I stay. And I beseech thee, Lord, that\nthou never callest me to mind and forbiddest any creature ever\n\n890 MEISTER ECKHART\n\nto console me and deniest to my powers that ever any one of them\nshould come before thy face, lest I offend thee. So I go out and\nlet the soul go in.\n\nThe third rage of the soul is that she should be God and that\nthere should not be a single creature, like when God was in his\neternity ere he created creature, so that she may enjoy God-\nnature in its simplicity as he did before. But then his love were\nlacking to him, for it is the nature of good things to communicate\nthemselves.\n\nFourthly, she rages to be absolutely nothing but the naked\nessence, there being neither God nor creature. She asks. What\nis the good of the three Persons in the Godhead and what is the\nuse of creatures ? But hold, she cries, except for them there\nwould be no creatures. That must be the reason why there are\nthree Persons in the Godhead : they are the cause of creatures.\nGod is God-exalted : the creatures he has made cannot exalt\nhim. All that creatures do to God is themselves : such glory as\nthey can give to God is the same as they are.\n\nXVII\n\nTHE TWOFOLD WAY ^\n\nEgo sum via, veritas et vita, ' I am the way, the truth and the\nlife,' says our Lord Jesus Christ. Mark specially the words, ' I\nam the way.' In a twofold sense we take Christ as the way :\naccording to his manhood and according to his Godhead. His\nmanhood was the way of our own manhood. This we have to\nfolloi'^ both the counsel of perfection as a whole and also in its\nparts. If but one of our members leaves the way of his example\nwe are thereby deformed. St Paul declares we ought to live so\nthat God may find in us the perfect reflection of all his divine\nworks, i,e. we must copy the exemplar he has set before us. That\nis true spiritual life. But this is greatly hampered by numerous\ndefects ; mainly numerous interior shortcomings due to the powers\nof our soul being disorderly. The joy of the soul should be so\nset upon its proper work that no created things can gladden her\nbut only the fact that her consciousness is clear. As Christ said\nto his disciples, ' Rejoice not in anything except in this, that your\nnames are written in the book of life.' And the fear of the soul\nshould be so well controlled that she fears nothing under God\neither for person or possessions, nor aught that may be inflicted\nupon her whether by God or creature. And similarly with the\n\n^ See Pfeiffer, Zt,f, dtsch, Alt,, Bd. 8 (2), 1850, and Preger, Zit.J. hist, TheoL,\nBd. 34, 1864 (two versions). Also Jostes, Nos. 18 and 19. For authorship see\nPreger's Oeschichte, vol. i, p. 318.\n\nother powers, desire and thought. The entire soul, in short, has\nto be gathered up into the impartible simplicity of her will and her\nwill must fly at the highest good and fasten itself thereto. But\nSt Paul says, ' He who is fastened to God becomes one spirit with\nhim.'\n\nBehold how rich is the spirit grown thus one spirit with God !\nNo things can enrich it though it hold sway over them all. For\nthings are necessaries whereas its riches consist in its dwelling in\na nature superior to creaturely necessity. He who has nothing\nand needs nothing is richer than the man who possesses all things\nwith necessity. St Paul says : ' Our sufliciency is in God alone\nwhose able ministers we are.'\n\nNor do the virtues enrich the spirit. Doctors declare that it\nis not, properly speaking, the virtues which enrich the spirit but\nthe fruit of virtues. The soul has virtues of necessity. But\nvirtues being a necessity, the spirit is of necessity not enriched\nby them. The utmost a spirit can attain to in this body is to\ndwell in a condition beyond the necessity of virtues ; where\ngoodness as a whole comes natural to it so that not only is it\npossessed of virtues but virtue is part and parcel of it : it is\nvirtuous not of necessity but of innate good nature. Arrived at\nthis the soul has traversed and transcended all necessity for\nvirtues : they are now intrinsic in her. Now she has reached the\ngoal whither the virtues merely pointed her, to wit, the infusion\nof the Holy Ghost. This is the fruit of virtue ; this alone serves\nto enrich the spirit. Concerning this St Paul says : ' Put on the\nnew man, Christ,' who was in this way our way.\n\nThe other way is the way of his Godhead. ^\n\n— ^What way has the Godhead and where can it go seeing it is\nin all places ; and wherewithal does it go seeing that it has no\nfeet nor anything bodily ?\n\n— The way of the Godhead is the unity wherein the three Persons\nrun together into one essence. The going of the Persons consists\nin their mutual knowing and loving, each knowing and loving\nitself in the others. Thus do the Persons walk together in unity.\n\nThe feet with which the Godhead enters the Persons and the\nPersons the essence are : the one foot of the Godhead is foresight\nof all things ; the other, pleasure in the things eternally foreseen,\nfor God enjoys eternal wise the contingency of things. This refers\nto the eternal image. He enjoys only good in all things : image\nof all things which is very God.\n\nIt may be questioned, What pleasure does God enjoy ?\n\nAll things must needs please him for he who saw was God and\nwhat he saw was likewise God. In their eternal image which is\nGod himself, God saw himself and saw things as a whole. God\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nenjoyed himself, God being in himself the unique one. The soul\nsees her impartible idea in God^ which has never come out of him.\nThis her multiform image does, and the consummation of her\nspirit lies in the reduction of its here created aught to the naught\nof its eternal prototype. God is the origin of the spirit and the\nspirit never rests till it returns into its origin, to its eternal proto-\ntype. Essentially this prototype is God wherefore it aye eludes\nthe spirit which is never able quite to apprehend it. Yet it divines\nhow it has been in God eternalwise without itself ; and the\nsupremcst bliss the spirit knows is to relapse into its origin, to its\neternal image, wherein, as self, it is lost altogether. There the\nspirit loses its uses not its essence. The essence of the Godhead\nsucks the spirit out of itself into itself, making it as itself, so that\nthere seems now but one essence. As though I were to take\nblood of a serpent — which is very red — and pour it into a trans-\nparent glass ; the glass would lose its seeming not its substance.\nSo in this union the divine light illuminates and outshines the\nspirit which shines one light with it. The spirit loses its seeming\nnot its substance for God has fetched the spirit out and united it\nwith himself. Natheless the spirit in this union can never plumb\nthe depths of Godhead. As St Paul discovered when, caught up\nto the third heaven, he saw things not permissible, nay, not possible\nto speak of, and cried out : ' O thou depth of the riches of wisdom\nand knowledge, how unsearchable are thy judgments and thy\nways past finding out.' God's riches consist in having nothing\nand being nothing that can be clothed in words. His wisdom\nconsists in the well-ordering of things. God's knowledge is his\nconcqption of himself in his supernal light. Concerning which\nSt Dionysius says, ' The light God dwells in is his own nature\nwhich is known to none besides himself.' This is the highway of\nthe Godhead which no creature ever trod. Of it God spake by\nhis prophet : ' As the heavens arc higher than the earth so arc\nmy ways higher than thy ways.' — St Augustine says. There is\nnothing more difficult and more exacting nor at the same time\nmore useful and salutary to the soul than excursions in the science\nof the holy Trinity and unity.\n\nMark well, therefore, the meaning of the Persons and the\nessence.\n\n— ^What is a Person in the Trinity ?\n\n— ^A Person is that which preserves its own rational individuality\napart from any other distinct Person. One Person is not another.\nThe work of the Persons consists in the genesis and output oi*\nthings. Genesis belongs to the Father alone ; outputting of\nthings to the Trinity jointly.\n\n— ^What is the essence of the three Persons in the Trinity ?\n\n— ^That which, impartible, contains all things impartibly while\nof itself as essence it neither generates nor produces things. That\nis done by the three Persons which activate the essence or it\ncould do nothing. Nevertheless the Persons do not act as three ;\nthey work as one God.\n\n— What is the potentiality of the essence ?\n\n— The potentiality of the essence lies in not being a rational\nPerson : in persisting in its essential unity. Not that it differs\nfrom the Persons ; this same essence is the essential nature of the\nPersons and the being of all things. Existence of all existing\nthings, life of all living things, the light of lights and nature of\nnatures : all this it is in its impartibility. Not so with the\nPersons ; they are not the personality of things as essence is the\nessence of all things. The Father is not able to be anybody's\nperson but his own. lie gat another Person out of his Person\nnot out of his essence : with his nature in his nature. That the\nFather was able to produce a Son so rarely, so consummately his\nlike, a God as perfect as himself, is due to his essential nature.\nWhen he begets the Son the Father gives him another Person\nthan his own Person but not another nature nor another essence\nthan his own. It follows that the essence is revealed in the\nprocession of the Persons. The Persons are able to reveal the\nessence which cannot of itself reveal itself, seeing that of itself,\nas essence, it neither gets nor bears. This impotence of the\nessence is its chief potentiality ; nevertheless it is revealed to\nitself.\n\nThe Persons know and comprehend the essence equally. The\nessence bears the same relation to all the Persons. Now i^ is a\nquestion among theologians whether or no the personality has\nbasic knowledge and comprehension of the essence, seeing that\nthe essence is comprehended only by the essence ?\n\nThe Persons have basic knowledge and comprehension of the\nessence because this is the Persons' own essential nature ; more-\nover, the essence is not comprehended wholly save by the three\nPersons, whose nature it is. The Persons comprehend the essence\nwholly, they being God in Person by reason of their comprehension\nof his essence which is their own essential nature. And so far as\nthe soul comprehends this essence she too is divine. Though\nwhat she comprehends of it is no bigger than a drop compared\nwith all the boundless ocean. Still it is God whole. The surplus\ngood which is ever baffling her apprehension, that is the shadowy\nabyss wherein, self-lost, she sinks eternally.\n\nIt may be questioned. Why is there not one Person like one\nessence ? — I answer that, existing things exist not from themselves\nbut in eternity are descended from an origin which is the origin\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nof its own self and in time have been created out of nothing by the\nblessed Trinity. Their eternal origin is the Father and the\nuniversal image in him is the Son ; love to this same image is the\nHoly Ghost. Had not this archetype of all things been always\nin the Father, the Father could never have wrought anything at\nall. That is, in his modeless essence. There must be more than\none Person, for it was in the eternal procession (that is, in the\nbegetting of) the Son that things as a whole emanated from the\nFather and not from themselves. This eternal procession is the\ncause of things on their eternal side, but in time they were created\nfrom nothing and in this sense they are creatures. In the eternal\nprocession wherein they flowed without themselves, they are God\nin God. For as St Dionysius says, the Prime Cause generates all\nthings in the likeness of itself.\n\nNow mark the difference of this emanation in eternity and time.\nWhat is the (temporal) emanation ? It is the indulgence of his\nlove of clear discrimination. So we come forth into time by\nconstraint of his love. The eternal procession is the revelation\nof himself to himself. The knower being that which is known.\nThis is the eternal flow no drop of which did ever fall into any\ncreated intelligence ; it is the Son from the Father. In the\ntemporal emanation things flowed forth finite. In the eternal\nemanation they remain infinite. The flow goes flowing on in\nitself. As St Dionysius hath it, ' God is a fountain flowing into\nitself.'\n\nThe Father is the origin of his Son, in his eternal child-bearing ;\nFather and Son originate their Spirit, in the eternal out-pouring.\nButj^omeone may question, how about the Father-nature ? Is\nit the cause (of the essence or is the essence cause) of the\nPaternity ?\n\nWhat follows needs clear thinking. Essence as essence neither\ngives nor takes. Now were the essence origin of the Father then the\nessence, being parent, would not be essence, it would be Person.\nBut it is not ; for essence in its unity is not Person. Again,\nwere paternity the origin of essence the cause of this would be\nthe paternal Person. But this is not so either. The Father in\nPerson is a cause but not of essence ; for paternity and essence\nhave the same characteristic. That is why, in his paternity, he\nis the omnipotent cause. The essence cannot be apart from\nPerson nor can Person be apart from nature, as ye can see. For\nnothing that exists can be without its nature, since it cannot take\nleave of itself ; it must be what it is. Now the Father is a Person\nand he cannot be a Person without a nature nor can his nature\nbe without a Person. Given his nature, there must be someone\nwhose nature it is. Note then that the essence can in nowise\n\nexist without distinction and hypostasis. Person and hypostasis\ncan in nowise be without their nature, to wit, their essence.\n\nThus it is demonstrated that neither is the essence cause of\npaternity nor paternity cause of the essence, for neither can be\nwithout the other. The Son cannot be without the Father nor\nthe Father without the Son nor the twain without the Holy Ghost\nalbeit they have three properties to distinguish them apart.\nNot so with paternity and essence. Neither of these can be\nwithout the other. For albeit essence is not Person nor Person\nessence yet paternity and essence have the same nature so\nthat neither can be said to be the origin of the other ; for it is\nwith one and the same nature that the Father originates his Son\nand these twain originate their Spirit which is of one nature with\nthem both.\n\nAll hail to the exalted spirit that is received into this full, this\nnaked knowledge which is unknown to those that are not naked\nof themselves. For the soul to be naked she must turn away\nfrom all the images and forms spread out before her and stop at\nnone of them. For the divine nature is no form nor semblance\nthat she can understand. Being turned away from these towards\nwhat transcends them — divorced, that is, from images and forms\n— ^the soul receives the likeness of the formless nature of God whose\nreal form has never been revealed to any creature. This is the\nsecret door into the divine nature, which the soul has in the image.\nFor when the soul has naught to stay her, she is ready to pass into\nthe image of God whereto none can attain be he not stripped of\nspiritual matter. Alas, how they obstruct this secret passage,\nthose who so lightly stop in temporal things ! Wherein also\nacknowledge my wretchedness. In this sense St Dionysius exhorted\nhis disciples, saying, ' An thou wouldst know the hidden mystery\nof God, transcend whatever hinders thy pure perception,' When\nwith her pure intellect now illumined with divine light, the naked\nsoul sees God, then she knows herself. And when she sees how apt\nshe is to him, how she is his and how they arc both one, then,\nthe burden of the body permitting, she remains thus always.\nThis lofty intuition the soul has of the hidden mystery of God is\nthat of which Job tells : ' In the horror of a vision by night he\ncometh and whispereth in the ears of men.' What does he mean\nby the horror ? Solicitude for this perception we arc speaking of.\nThe nocturnal vision is the revelation of the hidden truth. And\nthe whispering is the flowing union wherein kriower and known\nare one.\n\nThis book is diflieult and obscure to many people. Publish it\nnot I pray you for God's sake, for it was forbidden to me to do so.\nIf any condemn it, forsooth it is the fault of his blindness for it is\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nthe absolute truth. But if there be in it things inaptly expressed,\ndo not wilfully misunderstand it, for words fail in speaking of\nthe divine nature. Its meaning is clear in the truth which is\nwith Christ and in Christ. Wherefor may he be blessed and\npraised for ever. Amen.\n\nXVIII\n\nCOMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF ST .JOHN\n\nThe profound Gospel of St John begins : in principio erat\nverhum^ that is to say :\n\n' In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God\nand the Word was God.' He who would grasp the interpretation\nof these abstruse writings of St John, which with God's help I\nshall unfold, let him turn his mind from created things and from\nhis own understanding, that being illumined by God's spirit he\nmay apprehend the meaning I shall give to these dark sayings.\n\nTo start with, I premise from his words, ' in the beginning,' a\nbeginning without beginning. In God's name I proceed. In\nthe beginning was the Word : in the source of the effulgent formal\nlight of rational creature and in the origin of its radiance the\nWord subsisted as the perfect Word, perfect in its wordless\npotentiality, and this wordless word was with God. This gives\nme a hint of some distinction, the word being with God. Now\nbring your best intelligence to bear on this. When the bound\nword of the Persons' unity remained unuttered by the omnipotent\nintellect, then the Word, suspended in its divine origin tran-\nscended all words and names. When it was with God in the\nprovidential light dawning devoid of the created universe, then\nGod was manifest to the world. Wherefore I, Meistcr Eekhart,\ndo affirm : as soon as God was he created the world, the world\nbeing with God distinct in name. Whereas God in his motionless\npower was free from God and every name, God was the unspoken\nword in the bottomless abyss of his divine nature wherein the\nWord as such did never throughly understand itself. A thing\nthat understands itself waxes and wanes in the act of understand-\ning, but this word does not wax or wane, it is unchanging in itself,\nso it has never understood itself in itself albeit it is the\nintellect of the Father. It was in the beginning of the new\nprocession of the Son that that the Son proceeded forth into the\ntime of natural images united with the word ever-abiding in the\npaternal source. This same Word wrought its entire work of\nnature after the fashion of a person, humanly, and the bound\nWord itself energises in the Father in his characteristic nature,\nthis same word being eternally immanent by nature. And. such\n\nbeing the nature of the Word it is therefore permissible to say,\n' In the beginning was the Word.*\n\nI will now give the psychic interpretation, which whosoever\ncannot understand let him go to the truth for enlightenment.\n\nIn the beginning of the divine nature the soul is seeking herself\nabove the points of time. Cast into the abysmal naught of the\ndivine nature, her receptivity all gone, her portion in her felicity is\nthe perfect naught that distinguishes her from creatures generally.\nAs our Lord says, ' Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is\nperfect.' But were it that the soul could know God with his own\npeculiar nature she would be loving something above God. Accord-\ningly I say, that this word subsisting in the essential activity of\nthe divine nature is the soul wholly deprived of receptivity, for\nwith this she would be loving herself and all she is with a personal\nnature. So she may properly aflirm herself to be the work of\nGod in the beginning where, albeit she is formless, she is expressing\nform. But the form she gets from God is gotten by the sealing\nin the soul of God's own nature. In the beginning of her nothing-\nness was the word and the word was with God as Son and the\nWord was God.\n\nHe goes on to say, ' The same was in the beginning with God.*\nMark, I have jxist said, ' In the beginning was the Word.' Now\n1 say, ' and the Word was in the beginning with God.' From\nthese cryptic statements it appears that the Word was with God\nin the beginning. Now 1 suggest an obvious rational meaning.\n' The word was in the beginning with God.' 1 say, in the principle\nof paternity this same principle is to the Father the source of his\nentire Godhead, personal and essential, of Son and Spirit. ^\n\nSt John says, ' The word was in the beginning with God.'\nSince there is in the Father an outpouring of his causeless divinity\ninto the Word of his Son, this must occur in the paternal mind\nwhen, looking upon himself in the light of his abiding intellect,\nhe perceives himself in the answering reflection in his divine\nessence ; or, in other words, the conception of the Word is God.\nMoreover by this reflection of his divine nature the intellect of\nthe Father fashions or utters itself in imitation of his nature.\nSo the Word is Son and it is in the divine substance, to wit, in the\nintellectual reflection of the Father, that occurs this birth of the\nWord proceeding, thus it is one in essence and distinct in Person.\nHence we may say : ' The same was in the beginning with God ' ;\nand because introspection and reflection of the divine nature are\ninvolved in its continuous thinking of itself, therefore this birth\nis eternal. For if once this reflection were to stop, if mental\nholiday, inertia, should once supervene, there would remain one\nGod without distinction of Persons. Thus the Word of the\n\nMEISTER ECkHART\n\nFather subsists eternally in its parental origin. Thereby it is ever\nbeing conceived and being born and born. The same was in the\nfather-principle with God as distinct Person. This may well\nstand in lieu of my forhier explanations of the passage, ' In the\nbeginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the\nWord was God. The same was in the beginning with God.' This\nis now fully explained.\n\nNext come the words, ' All things were made by him and\nwithout him was not anything made.' Examine this carefully.\nGranting that all things were made by him and that without him\nnothing was made, then supposing someone asks me, ' Can God\ndo anything without me seeing, that all things were made by him\nand without him was not anything made ? ' I answer. No.\nGod made all things with me standing in the groundless ground\nof God ; God made all things through me while I stood in him\nidle. While the Father was performing the act peculiar to his\nnature I was standing right in the gate through which all things\nreturn perfectly free to their supreme felicity. As our Lord said,\n\n' Father, to know thee one true God and only Son, that is eternal\nlife.' If life eternal be aught beside the rational soul I have no\nknowledge of it.\n\nTo return. Since I was lying dormant in the personal nature of\nthe Father when he created creatures as a whole in his own nature,\nit follows that I was working with him ; I was the work of God\nwherein he wrought all things as giver, I being then conscious in\nmy Personal nature of co-operating with the divine nature in this\ndivine process. All the while I was working with him I was\nresting in God's nature exactly as I was in God before I was\ncreated. God made the universe and I with him, standing as I\ndid all undefined albeit substantial in the Father.\n\nObserve further, ' All things were made by him.' If everything\nwas made by him and without him nothing was made, then I\naffirm there is a power in the soul centred in the perennial now in\nthe paternal heart and in the nature of God ; nor does it differ\nfrom the essential nature of God save in being the ereated image\nof God, as one saint observes : ' What the soul cannot conceive\nby nature can never be hers by grace.' Like corn-seed dropped\ninto the ground and lost to view, even so the seed or spark in the\nsoul is shed from the essential nature of the Father, and is\nshining back into the incomprehensible essence, into that wherein\nthe soul conceives superintelligibly, beatifically. There, in beatific\nmode, bereft of life and power, she returns to the uncreated\ngood where, robbed of every faculty, she is the image in the\nTrinity, as our Lord said, ' Father, make them one with us.' And\nwhen my soul, doffing her beatific habit, is buried in the paternal\n\nfield, in the living vine, as the gospel says : when in this sense I\nlose myself and come into my own as the rightful Son, then I\nwith God do make all things and the Word is in the beginning with\nGod.\n\nTake the next words, ' and without him was not anything\nmade.' I offer this interpretation of them. In all rational\ncreatures I find the quest of God. They forge ahead according\nto the time and will bestowed upon it. But without him nothing\nis accomplished, in those creatures namely who, even as the brutes,\nstop at their outward powers ; their mental works are worthless,\nlacking as they do the divine light and spiritual freedom which\ngives them permanence. Christ says, ' What my heavenly Father\nplanted not shall be plucked up, yea by the very roots.* That is\nall I want to say about this passage.\n\nTake the next, ' What was made, in him was the life.' To see\nwhat this means, turn 0 yc blessed and commune with the under-\nstanding of your uncreated intellect. ' What was made, in him\nwas the life.' In this eternal procession, wherein all things pro-\nceeded forth without themselves, they were now ; but in time they\nwere created from nothing and their life is in him. Thereof they\nare the creatures, the effect of that cause, the patent of his power\nresplendent in luminous detail. Thus we came forth into time ;\nbut the revelation of himself to himself is in his eternal procession\nwhere the knower is the same as what is known, to wit, the eternal\nemanation which is the Son from the Father, in whom all things\nflow forth. Thus what was made was the life in him.\n\nLook you. All rational creatures proceeded from God alike,\nwherefore I say : all things participate in every intelleetual\nmode. I hold that in her abstract understanding every rational\nsoul knows the uncreated image which is her life. Now if my life\nand the life of all creatures is in God, I ask then. Can God know\nhimself in me without my soul ? I answer, No. Man knows heat\napart from the fire and light apart from the sun but God cannot\nknow himself without the soul. And why ? Because the soul is the\nout-flowing stream of the eternal deity and she is sealed in the\nimage of the blessed Trinity. By this she knows she is God's\ncreation. Therein I know the love of the divine fire whereby\nrational creatures are illumined. I say ; as the Father made me\nnaked and free that I might stay and make my home in the\ngroundless ground of the innermost heart of the Godhead, even\nso my soul must be utterly despoiled if I am to be beatified with\nGod. As St Paul observes, ' He who is joined to God is one spirit\nwith him.' The Father cannot know himself without me, seeing\nthat I stand in the ground of his eternal deity wherein his whole\nincomprehensible work is wrought with me and what is compre-\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nhended that I am. By which I mean the light of the divine\nSun, the universal life-giver, therefore I see that God cannot\nknow himself without me. ' The life was the light of men,' St John\nsays.\n\nNow realize the marvellous significance of this. What I say is :\nthe life which is the light of men is man himself understanding\n(conceiving) himself in the wonder of the primordial power of\nthe Father, in the leaping forth of his mysterious naught, in the\nblinding light of his indwelling Word brought forth in eternal\ncreation, albeit the uncreated nature of the nameless essence.\nIt is his nature and his wont, with perfectly receptive understand-\ning, to take the incomprehensible essence for his own nature\nwhereby the wonders of the negating naught are revealed to him,\nthe night of the mind becoming bright like noon in the light of\nhis pure primitive perfection and his distinct ineffable perfections\nshine out as clear as day. As David says, ' The truth shall not\nbe hidden from thee and thy night shall be as light as day.' And\nas his light is so is his enlightenment for in the naked essence\nman knows himself even as he is known. Which knowing, our\nLord said, ' I am the door of my sheep-fold.' In these words he\ninvites us to enter by the door of his emanation and return into\nthe source whence we came forth, for this gives promise in us of\nsomething more than is afforded by the soul's beatitude.\n\nHaply thou wilt say, ' Good Brother, if the life is become the\nlight of men enabling them to know themselves as they are known,\nis it then possible for me to know myself the very Son of God ? '\nI answer and say, that the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is\nso £d:tached to the Father's nature that never for an instant docs\nhe quit the paternal mode of deity. He wrought his whole work\nin that nature and into that nature which gives being to all things\nand he did so freely, in absolute idleness, for no reason at all.\nHere, bound to human nature, I have to work above nature\nfreely, in absolute idleness or motionless quiet, so as not to be\nhindered by myself and by my personal nature and by things\nwhich are conditioned by time and temporalities ; for to know\nall things in the cause of their existence I must soar beyond all\nlights, temporal and eternal, and plunge into the causeless essence\nwhich gives mind and being to my soul. Drowned in this being,\naware of self and things merely as being, my soul has lost her name\nand there remains no nature but that which, in the Father, is\neternally in travail with the Son and as such I am a new man born\nin his nature and doing all I do supernaturally in the divine nature.\nAs our Lord said, ' When I am lifted up I will draw all things\nafter me.' So I being lifted up with all my powers into the\nuncreated good do be with Christ one body and with God one\n\nspirit and do draw all things to me in one pure, perfect nature.\nAs the gospel says, ' This is my beloved Son in whom I am well\npleased.' Knowing myself none other than the Son of God, in\nthat same sonship I am cast into my middle power and that in\nthe perennial now, thus the eternal Word is born in me unceasingly,\nas our Lord says, ' Father, glorify thy Son.* In this interpretation\nlies the explanation of the words, ' How hardly does the rich man\nenter the kingdom of heaven.' Christ says in effect that the life\nis none other than the naked spark alight within the soul, which\nin the groundless Godhead knows itself none but God ; to wit,\nthe light which in rational creatures is splendid with the truth.\nI might give another meaning but I fear ye could not follow it.\n\nTo continue : ' The light shineth in the darkness and the dark-\nness comprehendeth it not.' I make no comment here save to\nlament to the eternal truth what numbers fail to realize the high\nperfection, the deep happiness, glowing unseen within the soul.\nChrist says, ' Blessed be the eyes which see the things ye see.'\nHe did not mean our bodily eyes, he meant those eyes, twin powers\nof the soul, set in her mind. As the gospel says, ' There was a\nman sent from God whose name was John.' Verily, be they male\nor female, these souls are John, for John denotes the grace of God.\nWhat is grace ? There is a power in the soul which is idle and does\nno work ; this is none other than the image of God, not that grace\nis itself this image, it is its form which reforms and transfigures\nthe soul ; and in this re-formation wherein she has no form, in\nthis transformation in which she has all forms, the omniform form,\nthere is this quiet the soul has, she being self-contained because\nthe truth is in her : not as hers nor as a quality. As Christ said,\n' He that enjoyeth me liveth eternally.' Such an one is sent from\nGod but is not God-forsaken. Christ says, ' He that sent me\nsendeth me not alone, he sendeth also every one that doeth the\nwill of my Father.'\n\nThere are four signs to tell a man that he is sent from God.\nFirst, that in time he is superior to time and temporalities.\nSecondly, being therein he is detached from creatures. The\nthird is, that he is idle or quiet-minded. The fourth is, that\nhe is not changeable by nature. Christ said, ' 1 am that I\nam.' Possessing these a man may take it that he is sent from\nGod and his name is John for he is the grace of God itself.\nHence Paul's words, ' God is my soul's new form wherein she is\nformless.'\n\nPass on to the next. ' He came to bear witness to the light that\nall might believe in him.' Examine this carefully. The words\nare open to a purely figurative interpretation. Just as he (John)\nbore witness to the light of the divine unity concealed in Christ\n\nMEISTER ECI^LART\n\nin order that all might believe in him, so forerunning intuition\ntells the soul of insight into the innermost recesses of the mind\nwhere shines the spark which knows itself none other than the\nuncreated good of the ineffable Deity. Then the soul with all\nher powers acknowledges and affirms the Son eternally in the\nFather and eternally born of the Father who is without beginning.\nAs Christ said, ' Whoso heareth my Word and keepeth it liveth\nforever.'\n\nNow take this in another sense. I will put a question and\nanswer it myself : What reference has this to the true light ?\nLook you. There is a power in the soul called mind, God sent it\nwith the soul, it is her storehouse of incorporeal forms and intel-\nlectual notions. This soul-capacity the Father fashions in his\noutflowing divinity whereby all the words of his divine essence\nflow into the word in our mind in distinction of Person just as\nmemory pours out treasure of images into the powers of the soul.\nWhen the soul sees in this power the form of a rational creature,\nan angel's or her own form, the idea of the Father is clearly\nimpressed in the soul angelically. But on penetrating deeper, into\nthe very centre of the soul, intellect finds God there in this power\nface to face, and in this capacity, if she recollect herself to con-\ntemplate the vision of God in her, there wakes another power of\nthe soul called understanding and the eternal Word is born,\nconceived by the soul while subsisting eternal in the Father,\n\n. these two powers forming one amicable disposition which gives\n; direction to the intellect and is its will towards its source. When\nth€ spirit is flowing from the Father and the Son into this power\nand into all the powers she has, the soul, oriented to God, grows\ncognisant of his image as her eternal prototype in God and she\n; perceives too how the holy Trinity is sealed in her. Thus the\nenergies of the soul all bear witness to the light of the blessed\nTrinity that gives light to all mankind and they acknowledge and\naffirm and believe in the Son born in this man without ceasing.\nAs the gospel says, ' He was not the light but bare witness to the\nlight.'\n\nMark what follows. ' That was the true light, which lighteth\nevery man that cometh into the world.' Throw wide now the ears\nof understanding to catch the arcane meaning of the boundary\nbetween created and uncreated light which is plainly indicated in\nSt John's words, ' That was the true light.' Taking the name\nJohn to mean the light of grace, as said above, then I propose to\nshow what may be rightly termed * the true light that lighteth\nevery man,' which we receive direct.\n\nI distinguish five lights. The first is devilish light, the second\nnatural light, the third is angelic light, the fourth is spiritu^\n\nlight, the fifth is divine light. Mark carefully how these five lights\ndiffer.\n\nThe first or devilish light leads all astray from the truth. This\ncan be seen in cases where the outward man is not entirely in\nsympathy with the inward man. Supposing then .that the in-\nward man is sunk into his inner mind, where the eternal Word\nis born in the perennial now, the sudden shock of seeing the out-\nward man pictured in the uncertain, fluctuating light of time,\nwill distort the light of his understanding and stop the eternal\nbirth from taking place. This shows it to be devilish light and it\nbehoves you therefore to turn away from it to the peace and quiet\nof your higher mind. By this means Mary in her virginity, being\nenlightened by the Holy Ghost, contrived to shun ideas of temporal\nthings and thus, transcending time, to harmonise her inner and\nher outer man into one settled calm, quite free from images, and\nthis shows you the difference between this devilish light and the\ndivine light.\n\nThe second light is natural light. The line of demarcation\nbetween natural light and the divine light comes where soul sees\nspirit direct in very truth. Thinking in natural light, in random\nimages, human nature is changing, waxing and waning, sensible\nof weal and woe, as Christ shows by his death and passion. But\nwhen human nature is face to face with her proper self she is\nreflected into the divine nature. I ask then, does the soul in this\nnatural light remain changeless in time ? I say, no. That is a\nsupertemporal state of union with the divine light and by the\ngrace of God. Being drawn or caught up into the suavity of the\nindwelling spirit of God, the soul loves universal human nature\nas her own nature, as God has been loving it eternally, where this\nnature is set over time in the light of glory. Apart from this light,\nthis man has the natural light of indwelling grace and at the point\nwhere he expresses the idea everything in this light of nature\nmust needs fade away out of time, as I have said. Even so Mary\nwas changeless by nature inasmuch as she was free from sinful\naccidents in the idea of her created nature wherein she knew\nand loved all mankind. Here ye have the difference between the\nlight of nature in time and light of that nature beyond time in\neternal glory. To me it proves that all creatures are one man,\nloving God by nature.\n\nThe third light is angelic light. Now you must know that every\nindividual angel is always open to any ideas that he may choose,\none more than another according to the idiosyncrasy of his angelic\nnature. Their stability is not impaired thereby provided they\nknow and will and love in idleness. This uncreated understanding\nLucifer had, and if Lucifer in his creaturehood had seen into the\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nlight of nature, if his creature nature had veered round in his\nangelic nature to his formless divine nature, he would never have\nfallen from the truth. As Isaiah observes, ' The angelic light in\nman is the means.' In the divine light the soul is not subject to\nideas nor can any shape appear to her now that she knows, with\nknowledge that transcends the soul's, of the inearnation of the\nWord. Even so Mary, aloof in absolute purity of mind and body,\nknew creatures as a whole in super-angelic light and her mind\nconceiving no form save the unformed form of God, she knew\nherself to be the ornament of God not fashioned in the form of any\ncreature. Wherefore she cried, ' My spirit hath rejoiced in God\nmy saviour.'\n\nThe fourth light is spiritual light, which is moreover the medium\nof the light of grace in the mind. In this light of the spirit ye\nknow how to order things in your mind with a view to the con-\ntemplation and enjoyment of the groundless essence in your soul.\nAbsorbed therein ye are aware that the divine deep transcends\nthe highest height of creatures. Why, I ask, was Peter oblivious\nof himself upon the mountain when Christ was transfigured before\nhis three disciples ? I answer, that the spiritual light of his mind\nwas eclipsed by interior vision of the divine light : he forgot his\nown form on perceiving himself in this glory as the reflection\never streaming back to its paternal source. By formlessly appre-\nhending in itself the bound Word whereto Christ knew himself\nunited, he was taking the Christ-image for his own image. How-\nbeit he was not ravished into the divine light of the perfect intellect\nbut he was caught up into the spiritual light of its reflection\nshinifig back into its actual self. Beyond this spiritual light\nMary was ravished when at the annunciation she conceived the\nWord in the word begotten according to the love of men.\n\nThe fifth light is divine light. Therein stood Mary always,\nbearing her gracious child. But Christ was born of her bodily.\nThis birth transcends all sense and reason and whoso is rapt away\ninto this unveiled light perceives himself none other than that\nessence wherein God has his being, his very Godhead. An we\nwould bear with Mary this eternal Word we must be caught up\npast the four lights into this fifth where we are ever giving\nbirth to God in spirit as Mary bare him in the flesh.\n\nTo continue. ' He was in the world and the world knew him\nnot,' vide what was said above anent the difference between created\nand uncreated light. I say, this means in the world of his pro-\nvidential knowledge. What time the world was in the Father\nas uncreated essence, his light, his flowing intellect to wit, was\nshining on this world-stuff wherein the world subsisted in the\nFather in uncreated formless simplicity. But in its first eruption\n\nthe world leaps forth manifold albeit this multiplicity is one\nessentially. In this eruption this world was self-luminous light.\n\nMark a second interpretation of the words, ' He was in the\nworld and the world was made by him.* By this world I under-\nstand none other than the divine man. See how this divine light\nmay be called the world. I say, man has within his soul the power\nof being all creatures, stones, trees and all the rest of them,\nand that in this same potentiality his mind has gotten the universal\nprototype of creatures discriminately. So within the ambit of\nher five senses the soUl compares with rational and irrational\ncreatures. In this sense the soul has gotten both the form and\nmatter, the rational and irrational natures of creature generally.\nIn this sense all things were made in man. And by the same\ntoken, before God made everything as such, hell, purgatory,\neverything, was God : this man is the world this light was in,\nthis is the world that was made by him. John says, ' All things\nwere made by him and without him was not anything made.'\nFrom which I can only gather that multitudinous man too is the\nworld, to wit the world of darkness which comprehended not the\nlight referred to in Christ's words, ' I am the light of the world\nand whoso walkcth in me walketh not in darkness.' Here our\nLord is inviting rational men to follow his example.\n\nHe goes on to say, ' He came into his own and his own received\nhim not.' This refers to Christ and I apply it to the individual\nsoul as well. He is come into his own and his own have neither\nknown him nor accepted him. I say : whatever is found in Christ's\nnature is found in the highest power of the soul, therefore God is\nman's own, but his own is not received by him. I refer to the\nintellectual five senses. Clearly we have a parable of this in the\nwoman at the well to whom Christ said, ' Show me thy husband.'\nThe woman answered, ' I have no husband.' Christ said, ' Thou\nsayest truly : thou hast had five husbands and him whom thou\nnow hast is not really thy husband.' I take it that her interests\nhad lain in her five senses. Christ's words, ' him whom thou now\nhast is not really thy husband,' I interpret to mean that she was\nneglecting the intellect she had so it was no true man to her.\nWhen God comes sensibly to the soul, which is his own, he is\nreceived by what is not his own, to wit the outward senses and\ninward faculties of the soul. When God is conceived by the soul\ninsensibly then we can say, ' our abode is in heaven.' This\npassage is clear in the light of the foregoing.\n\nI Brother John, propound two questions. They concern the\nstatement, ' But as many as received him, to them gave he power\nto become God's sons, even to them that believe in his name.'\nr ask in the first place, does the power to become God's sons lie\n\n406 MEISTI^R ECKHART\n\nwith us or with God ? In the second I ask, what name do we\nbelieve in ? My answers are briefly as follows.\n\nTo start with it must be borne in mind that God is without\nwill, without love, without justice, without mercy, nay without\ndivinity or anything we can ascribe to him or predicate of him or\nattribute to him (for any good attributed to God or predicated of\nhim simply reduces God to naught), so it is with the soul that lies the\npower, the ability to make this her own will ; in her real will she\nis incapable of stooping to anything opposed to the nature of that\nwill, and at the point where God and spirit vanish, in that same\npoint I am the Son of God, begotten of God eternally according\nto Christ's words, ' I am the only-begotten Son of God,' for I am\nfree from self in all crcaturehood. Where 1 am God is and where\nGod is I am and our joint love is God and he who dwells in this\nlove dwells in God and God in him. Then mine is the highest\nangel God has in heaven, as much as he is God's, by whose power\nand by whose might we make ourselves God's sons, for he em-\npowers us with himself, penetrating the will of the soul even as\nFather and Son permeate their common Spirit. That is the\nanswer to the first question to the best of my knowledge at present.\n\nNow to answer the second question : What divine name do we\nbelieve in ? That is written in the gospel in Christ's words,\n' Father, this is eternity or eternal life, to believe in thee the true\nGod, i.e, truly as God.' Truth is God, and love, as truly as God\nis God. If God is free from names then, I durst not think I have\nthe name of Henry nor of Conrad nor of Ulric for by adding any-\nthing to God I block him with an idol ; but he who believes in the\nname of God rejoices in the universal name, to wit the divine\nname which we believe in. In this unfathomable light of faith,\nfaith makes us of multitudinous knowledge ignorant, of multi-\ntudinous will without volition, in multitudinous form unshapen.\nAnd so with the prophet, ' I say, ye are Gods.' Believing in the\nname of God we are God's sons. If anyone is able to give a better\nanswer to these two questions I would fain hear it.\n\n(He goes on to say, ' Which were born not of blood nor of the\nwill of the flesh nor of the will of man ') for flesh and blood and\nhuman will unconquered cannot possess the kingdom of heaven\ntill they are born again in God. This is quite clear, the meaning\nis patent to all. But I desire to speak briefly on the subject of\nmanhood,\n\nI say : the highest power of the soul is the man, her will namely,\nwhich always stands bare and uncovered. The second power is\nintellect, the woman, who is always veiled, and the lower is raised\nup to the higher. Now when the power we call the man, i,e.\nthe will, is joined to the power we called the woman, the intellect,\n\nthat IS t6 say, then the woman brings forth fruit in the perennial\nnow. When the male is parted from the female power man's will\nis wavering in false light. The apostle truly says, ' the Word was\nmade flesh.' The manhood of Christ as seeing in[to God] has a\nreflection in the Father's personal nature. In the groundless\nsubstance of the Godhead human nature stands perfectly steady,\ngazing down in the transcendent light for love of creatures. Thus\ndivine and human nature are atoned in human nature. And by\nthe same token, even if Adam had not fallen yet would Christ\nhave been made man by reason of the love proceeding which is\never being born in eternity in the divine nature and was bound to\nbecome man in Christ owing to the idiosyncrasy of that nature\nwhich flowed for aye out of the groundless ground of God. The\nsmallest spark falling from out the least and lowest of the angels\nwould illuminate and outshine this world and it would dim the\nbrightest lights of human and angelic nature did it shine next to\nGod. So Christ restores human nature not angelic nature. As his\ndivinity lay hid in his humanity when ' the Word was made flesh '\nin him, so let us hide our human nature in his divine nature in\nthat same Word which was incarnate. By living the Christ life\nmore than my own life I am Christ rather than myself and my\nproper name is Christ rather than James or John, and so this\nbefall beyond time I am changed into God.\n\nNow listen to another meaning, the incarnation of the Word\nin the sacrament. Just as he made his body in the sacrament\nby word and knowledge and took and gave it to his disciples\nidly, without motion or passion, that is to say, nor was this\nsacrament consummated by knowledge alone but by words as\nwell, even so I observe that in the highest power of the soul,\ncorresponding to the Father-nature, intellect begat itself in the\nimage of Divinity to smite into this Word as perfect will and in the\ngroundless love of this same will the Holy Ghost was gotten in the\nWord with this same intellect. And still this birth is ever going on\nin the sacrament to those who arc Christ properly so called : these\npeople are true priests and in the truth, for their going is above the\nangels and they are not to be touched by temporal things. As\nChrist said to Mary Magdalene, ' Touch me not for I am risen,*\nso verily these souls are risen with Christ. God gives himself\nfreely, idly, as he gave himself to his disciples in token of the\nlove which works the same in us, and those who take this sacrament\nas freely and resignedly and unselfhindered, do receive it as really\nas the giver gives it and he who takes it otherwise does not wholly\nand solely resign him to the truth. When in the sacrament I\nreceive God from God thus supersacramentally, I am actually\nchanged into the same that I receive, thus the Word is made\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nflesh and dwells among us mystically and wherever this is realized\nthere is the proof of the divine spark, moreover I ma]k^ bold to\nsay, were anyone prepared for outward food as for the sacrament\nhe would receive God as much as in the sacrament ; which is to\nmany people a hard saying albeit quite consistent with the truth,\nfor the gift prepares for its own reception and I should be the\nthing prepared for that which has prepared me. St John says,\n' We have his glory, the glory of the only-begotten of the Father\nfull of grace and truth.' From which I gather that anyone who\nknows the joys of the divine life is shining within and without\nlike the only Son of God, as St Paul says, ' I live not but Christ\nliveth in me in his love.'\n\nConsider what is meant by sons of God and children of God.\nTo be God's children in the sense that he created us is not enough.\nFor instance. If I paint my likeness on the wall, he who sees the\nlikeness is not seeing me ; but anyone who sees me sees my like-\nness and not my likeness merely but my child. If I really knew\nmy soul, anyone who saw my conception of it would say it was\nmy son for I share therewith my energy and nature, and as here so\nis it in the Godhead. The Father understands himself perfectly\nclearly so there appears to him his image, that is to say, his Sou,\nThe Father is light, the Son is light and image and the Holy\nGhost also is light and image and inasmuch as the Father imagines\n(or conceives) his Son he is called Son and inasmuch as he endows\nhim with his nature he is called his child. Likewise that man is\nthe image of God who, being detached from things, is living as\nspirit in the spirit of God and such have glory and honour as the\nonly Son of God full of grace and truth of the reflection of God,\nand really containing and possessing God in them ; thus the\nkingdom of God is within us.\n\nHere endeth the Commentary on this Gospel.\n\nXIX 1\n\nTHE BEATIFIC VISION\n\nKing David said : ' Lord in thy light shall we see light.'\nDoctors debate as to the medium in which we shall see God.\nThe common doctrine is that it will be in the light of glory. But\nthis solution appears to me to be unsound and untenable. From\ntime to time I have explained that man has within him a light\ncalled the active intellect : this is the light in which man will see\nGod in bliss, so they seek to prove. Now man according to his\ncreaturely nature is in great imperfection and is unable by nature\n' See Preger, Oeachichte der deutachen Myatiker^ vol. i, p. 484.\n\nto discern God otherwise than as creatures do, by images and\nforms, as I have elsewhere demonstrated. The soul is unable of\nherself and by her own innate power to transcend this state ; that\nmust happen in some supernatural power such as the light of grace.\nMark this solution which I will now proceed to discuss.\n\nSt Paul says : ^ By God's grace 1 am that I am.' He does\nnot say that he is ' of grace.' There is a difference between\nbeing by grace and being grace itself. Doctors declare that form\ngives being to matter. Now there are various definitions of grace\ncurrent among them. But I say grace is nothing else than the\nflowing light proceeding direct from God's nature into the soul :\na supernatural form of the soul which gives her a supernatural\nnature. This is what I had in mind when I stated that the soul\nwas unable of herself to transcend her own natural activity ; this\nshe can do in the powder of grace which endows her with a super-\nnatural nature.\n\nObserve, grace effects nothing by itself. Moreover it exalts the\nsoul above activity, (irace is bestowed in the essence of the soul\nand is received into her powers ; for if the soul is to effect anything\nin this matter, she must needs have grace by virtue of which to\ntranscend her own activities such as knowing and loving. Whilst\nthe soul is in process of taking this transcendental flight out of\nherself into the nothingness of herself and her own activity, she\nis ' by grace ' ; she is grace wdien she has accomplished this\ntranscendental passage and has overcome herself and now stands\nin her pure virginity alone, conscious of nothing but of behaving\nafter the manner of God. As God lives, while the soul is still\ncapable of knowing and acting after the manner of her creaturc-\nliness and as a child of nature, she has not become grace itself\nthough she may well be by grace. For to be grace itself the soul\nmust be as destitute of activity, inw^ard and outward, as grace is,\nwhich knows no activity. St John says : ' To us is given grace\nfor grace,' for to become grace by grace is the work of grace.\nThe supreme function of grace is to reduce the soul to what it\nis itself. Grace robs the soul of her own activity ; grace robs\nthe soul of her own nature. In this supernatural flight the soul\ntranscends her natural light which is a creature and comes into\nimmediate touch with God.\n\nNow I w^ould have you understand me. I am going to give an\nexplanation I have never given before. The worthy Dionysius\nsays : ' When God exists not for the spirit there exists not for it\neither the eternal image, its eternal origin.' I have said before\nand say again that God has wrought one act eternally in which\nact he made the soul in his own [likeness], and out of which act\nand by means of which act the soul issued forth into her created\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nexistence, becoming unlike God and estranged from h€l^own proto-\ntype, and in her creation she made God, who was not before the\nsoul was made. At various times I have declared : I am the cause\nthat God is God. God is gotten of the soul, his Godhead of him-\nself; before creatures were, God was not God albeit he was\nGodhead which he gets not from the soul. Now when God finds\na naughted soul whose self and whose activity have been brought\nto naught by means of grace, God works his eternal work in her\nabove grace, raising her out of her created nature. Here God\nnaughts himself in the soul and then neither God nor soul is left.\nBe sure that this is God indeed. When the soul is capable of\nconceiving God's work she is in the state of no longer having any\nGod at all ; the soul is then the eternal image as which God has\nalways seen her, his eternal Word. When, therefore, St Dionysius\nsays that God no longer exists for the spirit, he means what I have\njust explained.\n\nNow it may be asked whether the soul as here seen in the guise\nof the eternal image is the light meant by David wherein we shall\nsee eternal light ?\n\nWe answer, no. Not in this light will the soul sec the eternal\nlight that shall beatify her ; for, says the worthy Dionysius,\n'neither will the eternal image exist for the spirit.' What' he\nmeans is that, when the spirit has accomplished its transcendental\nflight, its creaturely nature is brought to naught, whereby it loses\nGod as I have already explained, and then the soul, in the eternal\nimage, breaks through the eternal image into the essential image\nof the Father. Thus saith the Scriptures : ' Everything flows back\nin the soul into the Father who is the beginning of the eternal\nWord and of all creatures.'\n\nIt may be questioned whether this is the light, the Father\nnamely, in which the spirit sees the eternal light ?\n\nI answer, no. Now mark my words. God works and has\ncreated all things ; the Godhead docs not work, it knows nothing\nof creation. In my eternal prototype the soul is God for there\nGod works and my soul has equality with the Father, for my\neternal prototype, which is the Son in the Godhead, is in all respects\nequal with the Father. One scripture says : ' Naught is equal\nwith God ; to be equal with God, then, the soul must be naught.'\nThat interpretation is just. We would say, however : where\nthere is equality there is no unity for equal is a privation of unity ;\nand where there is unity there is no equality for equality resides\nin multiplicity and separation. Where there is equality there\ncannot be unity.. ^ 1 am not equal to myself. I am the same as\nmyself. Hence the Son in the Godhead, inasmuch as he is Son,\nis equal with the Father but he is not one with the Father. There\n\nis no equality where Father and Son are one ; that is, in the unity\nof the divine essence. In this unity the Father knows no Son nor\ndoes the Son know any Father, for there there is neither Father\nnor Son nor Holy Ghost. When the soul enters into the Son, her\neternal prototype wherein she is equal with the Father, then,\nbreaking through her eternal prototype, she, with the Son, tran-\nscends equality and possesses unity with the three Persons in the\nunity of the essence. David says : ' Lord in thy light shall we\nsee light,' that is : in the light of the impartible divine essence\nshall we sec the divine essence and the whole ])crfection of the\ndivine essence as revealed in the variety of the Persons and the\nunity of their nature. St Paul says : ' We shall be changed from\none brightness into the other and shall become like unto him,'\nmeaning : we shall be changed from created light into the un-\ncreated splendour of the divine nature and shall become like it ;\nthat is, we shall be that it is.\n\nSt John says : ' All things live in him.' In that the Father\ncontemplates the Son all creatures take living shape in the Son,\nthat being the real life of creatures. Put in another passage St\nJohn says : ' Blessed are the dead that have died in God.' — It\nseems passing strange that it should be possible to die in him who\nhimself said that he is the life ! — But see : the soul, breaking\nthrough her eternal prototype, is plunged in the absolute nothing-\nness of her eternal prototype. This is the death of the spirit ; for\ndying is nothing but deprivation of life. When the soul realizes\nthat any thing throws her eternal prototype into separation and\nnegation of unity, the spirit puts its own self to death to its eternal\nprototype, and breaking through its eternal prototype remains\nin the unity of the divine nature. These are the blessed dead\nthat are dead in God. No one can be buried and beatified in the\nGodhead who has not died to God, that is, in his eternal prototype,\nas I have explained.\n\nOur creed says : Christ rose from the dead : Christ rose out of\nGod into the Godhead, into the unity of the divine essence. That\nis to say that Christ's soul and all rational souls, being dead to\ntheir exemplar, rise from that divine death to taste the joys above\nit, namely the riches of the divine natqrc wherein the spirit is\nbeatified.\n\nNow consider the fact of happiness. God is happy in him-\nself; and all creatures, which God must make happy, will be\nso in the same happiness that God is happy in, and after the same\nfashion that he is happy. Be sure that in this unity the spirit\ntranscends every mode, even its own eternal being, and everything\ncreated as well as the equality which, in the eternal image, it has\nwith the Father, and together with the Father soars up into the\n\nMEISTER ECKHART\n\nunity of the divine nature where God conceives himself in absolute\nsimplicity. There, in that act, the spirit is no longer creature,\nit is the same as happiness itself, the nature and substance of the\nGodhead, the beatitude of its own self and of all creatures. Further,\nI hold that if God did what he is impotent to do, granted the soul\nwhile still a creature the knowledge and enjoyment of actual\nbeatitude^ then, were the soul to be and to remain happy, it were\nimpossible for God to remain God. Anyone in heaven knowing\nthe saints according to their happiness, would not have anything\nto say of any saint but only of God ; for happiness is God and all\nthose who are happy arc, in the act of happiness, God and the\ndivine nature and substance of God. St Paul says : ' He who\nbeing naught, thinketh himself aught, deceiveth himself.' In the\nact of happiness he is brought to naught and no creaturehood\nexists for him. As the worthy Dionysius says : ' Lord lead me\nto where thou art a nothingness,' meaning : lead me, Lord, to\nwhere thou transcendest every created intellect ; for as St Paul\ndeclares : ' God dwells in a light that no man can approach unto ' ;\nthat is : God is not to be discerned in any created light whatever.\n\nSt Dionysius says : ' God is nothing,' and this is also implied\nby St Augustine when he says : ' God is everything,' meaning :\nnothing is God's. So that by saying ' God is nothing ' Dionysius\nsignifies that there is no thing in his presence. It follows that the\nspirit must advance beyond things and thingliness, shape and\nshapenness, existence and existences : then will dawn in it the\nactuality of happiness which is the essential possession of the\nactual intellect.\n\nI ^ave sometimes said that man sees God in this life in the same\nperfection and is happy in the same perfect fashion as in the life\nto come. Many people are astonished at this. Let us try there-\nfore to understand what it means. Real intellect emanates from\nthe eternal truth as intelligence and contains in itself intelligibly\nall that God contains. This noble divinity, the active intellect,\nconceives itself in itself after the manner of God in its emanation,\nand in its essential content it is downright God ; but it is creature\naccording to the motion of its nature. This intellect is to the full\nas noble in us now as in the after life.\n\nNow the question may be asked : How then does this life differ\nfrom the life to come ?\n\nI answer that, this intellect which is happy in exactly the same\nway as God is, is at present latent in us. In this life we know God\nonly according to potentiality . In the after life, when we are\nquit of body, our pptentiality will be all transfigured into the act\nof happiness which belongs to the active intellect. This trans-\nfiguration will render the fact of happiness no more perfect than it\n\nis now ; for active intellect has no accidents nor any capacity to\nreceive more than it contains innately. It follows that when wc\nare beatified we shall be completely deprived of potentiality and\nshall conceive happiness only actually, after the manner of the\ndivine nature. As David says : ' Lord in tliy light shall we see\nlight ' : with the divine nature we shall conceive the perfection\nof the divine nature, which alone is our entire felicity, here in\ngrace and there in perfect happiness.\n\nIll",
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