nature pas into another nature as when the Image is united to its truth for it cannot then be said to bee altered but rather to goe backe from its alterity because it is united unto its proper truth which is inalterability it selfe Nor canst thou O sweet Jesu be said to be a middle nature betweene divine and humane when as betweene them there cannot be any middle nature partaking of both for the divine nature is not partakeable being wholly absolutely most simple Nor couldst thou then O blessed Iesus be either God or man But I see thee O Lord Iesus one supposition above all understanding because thou art one Christ after the same manner that I see thy one human soule in which as in the soule of any man I see there was a corruptible sensible nature which did subsist in an incorruptible intellectuall nature Nor yet was that soule compounded of corruptible and in corruptible neither did the sensible soule coinside with the intellectuall but I see an intellectuall soule to be united to the body by a sensible power quickning the body And if the intellectuall soule should cease to Quicken and Enlighten the Body though it were not separated from the body yet would that man be dead because his life would cease notwithstanding the body were not separated from life being the understanding is the life thereof As when a man intellectually labours and seeks by the meanes of his sight to discerne one that is comming and yet being carried away with other considerations his attention ceaseth about that inquirie though his eyes be still fastened upon it his eye is not separated from the Soule though it bee separated from the discretive or discerning attention of the Soule But if that rapture should not only cease from the discretive quickning but also from the sensitive quickening that eye were dead because it were not quickened Yet for all that it were not separated from the intellective forme which is the form giving being As a dry hand is united to the forme which unites the whole body There are sound men as Saint Augustine relates which can retract or draw back the vivifying spirit and so they appeare dead and feele nothing supposing it to be so In this close the intellectuall nature would remaine united to the body which body would not be under any other forme than it was before nay it would have the same forme and remaine the same body neither would the quickening force cease to be but would remaine in union with the intellectuall nature although actually it did not extend it selfe into the body I see that man truly dead because hee wants the vivifying life for death is the want of the quickner and yet that body would not be dead separated from the life which is the Soule thereof After the same manner most mercifull Iesus I do behold absolute life which is God inseparably united to the humane understanding and by it into the body for that union is such a one that a greater cannot be and a separable union is much inferior to such a union as cannot be greater Therefore it was never true nor ever shall be that thy divine nature was separated from thy humane consequently neither from the soule nor the body which are those things without which humane nature cannot be although it bee most true that thy Soule ceased to quicken thy body and that thou didst truly suffer death and yet wast never separated from the truth of life If that Priest whom Saint Augustine mentions had whatsoever power it were to take vivification out of his body by drawing it up unto the soule as if a candle that enlighteneth a Chamber were alive and should draw up those beames by which it enlightens the Chamber into the Center of its light and its drawing up were nothing but a ceasing to inflame what marvell is it if thou Iesus being the most free and living light hast power to lay downe and to take up thy quickinnig soule and when thou wouldest take it up thou sufferedest death and when thou wouldst resume it by thine owne thou didst rise againe Now an intellectuall nature is called a humane soule when it quickens or animates a body And the soule is said to be taken away when … ane understanding ceaseth to quicken for when the understanding ceaseth from the Office of quickening and in this respect separateth it selfe from the body it is not therefore simply separated These things thou inspirest o Iesus that thou mightest shew thy selfe to most unworthy mee as far as I am capable and that I may in thee contemplate that mortall humane nature hath put on immortality that all men of the same humane nature may in thee attaine resurrection and divine life What then can bee sweeter what more pleasant then to know this that in thee O Iesu we finde all things that are in our nature which only canst do all things and givest most liberally and up bradest no man O inexpresible mercy and pity thou God which art goodnesse it selfe couldst 〈◊〉 satisfie thy infinite clemency and bounty except thou gavest us thy selfe Neither could this be don more conveniently for us that are the receivers then that thou shouldest assume our nature because we could not approach unto thine so thou camest to us and art named Iesus the Saviour blessed for evermore How Iesus is the word of life CHAP. 24. THy gift thy best and greatest guift inables me to contemplat thee my Jesus preaching the words of life and bountefully sowing the Divine seeds in the hearts of the hearers And I see them go away which receved not the things of the spirit But I see thy Disciples abiding it which began to tast the sweetnesse of that Doctrine which quickneth the soule for all whom that first and chiefest of all the Appostls Peter confest that thou Iesus hadst the word of life and wondered that they which seeke life would go from thee Paul heard from thee Iesus in a rapture the words of life and then neither sword nor famine of body separate him from thee No man could ever forake thee that had tasted the words of life who can separate a Beare from Hony after hee hath once tasted the sweetnesse of it How great is the sweetnesse of truth how most delectable a life doth it give above all bodily sweetnesse for it is absolute sweetnesse from whence floweth all that by any tast is desired What is stronger than love by which every lovely thing hath to bee loved If the knot or Bond of contracted love be sometimes so great that the feare of death cannot breake it what a knot is there of that love rasted from whence is all love I wonder not that all cruelty of paines was accounted nothing by other of thy Souldiers of Jesus to whom thou gavest thy selfe the life to be tasted aforehand O Jesus my love thou hast sowed the seed of life in the field of beleevers and watered it with the
loved Thou therefore O my God art by the bond of love united unto al things because housprea dest abroad thy love upon every Creature of thine but every rationall spirit is not united unto thee because it bestowes not its love upon thy lovelinesse but upon some other thing whereunto unto it is united and knit Thou hast espoused every reasonable soule by thy loving love but not every spouse loveth thee her husband but for the most part some other whereunto she cleaveth but how could the soule of man thy spouse O my God attaine thy end except thou wert lovely that so by loving thee that art lovely shee might reach the bond and most happie union Who therefore can deny thee to be God three in one when hee sees that thou wert neither a noble naturall nor perfect God nor his spirit had free will nor himselfe could come to the fruition of thee and his owne happinesse except thou wert three and one For because thou art the understanding that understandeth the understanding intelligible and the Bond of both therefore the understanding created may attaine in thee its intelligible God union with thee and felicity So being thou art the love lovely the created loving will may in thee its lovely God attaine union and felicity for hee that receiveth thee God the reasonable receptible light may come to such a union of thee that he may be united to thee as a Sun to his Father I see O God by thy illumination that a reasonable nature cannot attaine to a union with thee but because thou artaminable and intelligible wherefore mans nature is not possible to be united to thee a loving God for so thou art not his object but hee may bee united to thee as his lovely God because that which is lovely is the object of that which loveth So in like manner that which may be understood is the object of the understanding and wee call that the truth which is the object Wherefore thou my God because thou art the intelligible truth the created understanding may be united unto thee and so I see that mans reasonable nature may be united only to thy divine and amiable nature and that man receiving thee the receptible God passeth into that Bond which may for the strictnesse thereof bee called by the name of filiation or sonne-ship for then the Bond of filiation we know no stricter And if this Bond of union be the greatest then which a greater cannot be this must needs come to passe because if thou the lovely God canst be more beloved by a man then is that Bond come to the most perfect filiation that that filiation may be perfection complicating all possible filiation by which all sonnes do attaine their last felicity and perfection In which highest sonne filiation is as Art in the Master or the light in the Sunne but in others as Art in the Schollars or light in the Starrs How Iesus is the union of God and Man CHAP. 19. I Give unspeakeable thanks to thee my God the life and light of my soule for now I see the faith which by the Revelation of the Appostles the Catholike Church holdeth namely how thou a loving God begettest of thy selfe a lovely God and that thou the lovely begotten God att the absolute Mediator for by thee is every thing that is or can be for thou the willing or loving God in thy selfe the lovely God complicatest all things for every thing that thou O God willest or conceivest is complicated in thee the lovely God for there cannot bee any thing except thou will it to be All things therefore in thy lovely conception have their cause or reason of being neither is there any other cause of all things but because it so pleaseth thee nothing pleaseth the lover as a lover but the lovely Thou therefore a lovely God art the Son of God a loving father for in thee is all the complaisance of the Father So all being creatable is complicated in thee the lovely God Thou therefore a loving God when as of thee is a lovely God as the Sonne of the Father in as much as thou art God the loving Father of God thy lovely Son art the Father of all things that are for thy conception is thy Sonne and all things in him and thy union and thy conception is the Act and operation arising in which is the act and explication of all things as therefore of thee the loving God is generated the lovely God which Generation is conception So from thee the loving God and thy lovely conception begotten by thee proceeds thy act and thy conception which is the knot knitting and the God uniting thee and thy conception as to love unites the loving and the lovely in love and this knot is called the spirit for the spirit is as motion proceeding from the mover and the moveable consequently motion is the explication of the conception of the mover All things therefore are to be expâ—icated in thee God the holy Ghost as they are conceived in thee God the sonne I see then because thou God dost so enlighten me how all things in thee God the sonne are God the Fathers as in the reason conception cause or samplar and have the sonne is the medium of all things as the reason or forme for by the mediation of reason and wisdome thou God the Father workest all things and the spirit or motion puts the conception of reason in effect as we finde by experience that the Arke in minde of the Artificer is put in effect by the mediation of the motive power which is in the hands Then I see O my God thy Son is the medium or mean of the union of all things that all things by the mediation of thy Son may rest in thee And I see blessed Iesus the son of man most Highly united to thy son and that the son of man could not be united to thee God the Father but by mediation of thy son the absolute Mediator Who is not most highly ravished that doth attentively consider these things Thou my God openest unto mee wretch such a secret that I see man cannot understand thee the Father but in thy son which is intelligible and the Mediator and that to understand thee is to be united unto thee Man may therefore be united unto thee by thy son which is the meane of the union and humane nature most highly united unto thee in what man soever in be cannot be more united to the meane then it is united for without the medium it cannot be united unto thee It is therefore most united to the meane yet it is not made the meane whereupon though it cannot be made the meane seeing it cannot be united unto thee without a meane yet it is so joyned to the absolute meane that betweene it and the sonne who is the absolute meane nothing can mediate for if any thing could mediate betweene mans nature and the absolute meane tâ—en
were it not most highly or absolutely united unto thee O good Jesus I see in thee mans nature to be most highly joyned to God the Father by the highest union even a greater then by which it is joyned to God the sonne the absolute Mediator Therefore humane filiation because thou art the son of man is in thee Jesus most highly united to the divine filiation that thou art worthily and truly called the Son of God and man for in thee nothing mediates betweene the Son of man and the Son of God In the absolute filiation which is the Son of God is complicated all filiation whereunto thy humane filiation O Jesus is superamely united therefore thy humane filiation subsists in thy divine not only complicitly but as the attracted in the attracting and the united in the uniting and the substantiated in the substantiating Therefore in thee O Jesus there is no possible separation of the Son of man from the Son of God for separability is where the union might be greater but where the union cannot be greater nothing can mediate separation therefore can have no place where nothing can mediate betweene the things united and where the united subsists not in the uniting the union is not the highest for there is a greater union where the united subsists in the uniting then where the united subsists a part for separation is the greatest remotenesse from union So I see in thee my Iesus how humane fiiation by which thou art the son of man subsists in the divine filiation by which thou art the Sonne of God as in the greatest union the united with the uniting To thee O God be glory for ever How Jesus is understood the complying of the divine and humane nature CHAP 20. VEry clearely dost thou shew unto me O never failing light that that greatest union whereby mans nature in thee Iesus is united unto the divine nature is not by any means like to an infinite union for the union by which thou O God the Father art united unto God thy son is God the holy Ghost and therefore an infinite union for it reacheth unto absolute essentiall Identitie but it is not so where the humane nature is united to the divine for the humane nature cannot passe into an essentiall union which the divine as that which is finite canot be infinitly united to that which infinite for then it would passe into the Identitie of the infinite and so it would cease to be finite when the infinite were verified of it Wherefore this union by which the humane nature is united unto the divine nature is nothing else but an attraction of the humane nature to the Divine in the highest degree so that the humane nature whilst such cannot be attracted any higher It is therefore the greatest union of his humane nature as humane to the divine because there can be no greater but it is simply the greatest not infinite as the divine union I see therefore by the benignity of thy grace in thee Iesus the son of man the son of God and in the son of God I see the Father for in thee the sunne of man I see the Son of God because thou art so the son of man that thou art also the son of God and in the finite attracted nature I see the infinite attracting nature I see in the absolute Son the absolute father for the Son as Son cannot bee seene unlesse the father be seene I see in thee Iesus a divine filiation or sonneship which is the truth of all filiation and likewise a most high human filiation which is the neerest image of absolute filiation As therefore the Image betweene which and the Patterne or samplar there cannot mediate a perfect image dost most neerely subsist in the truth of that whose Image it is so do I see thy humane nature subsisting in the divine nature Therefore I see all things in thy humane nature which I see in thy divine But I see them after an humane manner in thy humane nature which are the divine truth it selfe in the divine nature Those things which I see in thee after a humane manner O Jesus are the similitude of the divine nature but a similitude is without a meane joyned to the Patterne or samplar so that a more like can neither be nor be imagined in the humane or reasonable nature I see are sonable humane spirit most strictly united to the divine spirit which is absolute reason and so the humane understanding to the divine understanding and all things in thy understanding O Jesus for thou O Iesus as God understandest all things as God and this understanding is to bee all things Thou understandest all things as man and this understanding is to be the similitude of all things for a thing is not understood by a man but in a similitude a stone is not in the understanding of a man as its proper cause or reason but as in its species or similitude In thee therefore O Iesus the humane understanding is united to the divine as the most perfect image to the truth of the Pattern As if then I should consider the Ideall forme of an Arke in the minde of the Artificer and the species of an Arke made most perfectly and according to the Idea by the Master himselfe how then the Ideall forme is the truth of the species and united unto it as the truth unto the image in one Master So in thee O Iesus the Mr. of Masters I see the absolute Idea of all things and the similitudinarie species of the same most highly united I see thee O good Iesus within the Wall of Paradice because thy understanding is both the Truth and the Image and thou art both God and a Creature infinity and finite And it is not possible thou shouldest be seene on this side the Wall for thou art the coupâ—ing of the divine creating nature with the humane created nature And I see this difference betweene thy humane understanding and any other mans that no one man knoweth all things which may be knowne by man because no mans understanding is so joyned to the samplar of all things as the similitude to the truth but that it might be more neerely joyned and set more in act and therefore the understandeth not so many things but that he might understand more by his accesse unto the samplar of things from whence every thing that is an act hath actually But thy understanding doth actually understand all things that are intelligible by man because in thee humane nature is most perfect and most joyned to its samplar or Pattern for which union thy humane understanding exceeds every created undarstanding in the perfection of understanding Therefore all reasonable spirits are far beneath thee of all whom thou O Iesu art the Master and the light and thou art the perfection and fulnesse of all things and by thee as by the Mediator they came unto the absolute truth for thou art both the way
every signe and figure If it be read that there was sometimes a man found which by whatsoever signes of the eye â—aw the thought of him that asked him although hee sang some verse or meeter in his minde Much better O Iesus didst thou apprehend and understand every conception by every motion of the eye My selfe saw a deafe Woman which by the motion of her Daughters lippes which shee saw did understand what soever shee said aswell as if shee had heard her If this by long custome be thus possible in them that are deafe and dumbe and the Religious which speake to one another in signes much more perfectly didst thou O Iesu which didst actually know whatsoever was to be known as a Mr. of Masters give judgement true and in fallible of the heart and its conceptions in the least and to us invisible becks and nods or signes But to this thy humane and most perfect vision though infinite and contracted to the Organ was the absolute and infinite vision united by which vision as God thou sawest all things and every thing at once aswell absent as present aswell past as to come Thou therefore O Iesus didst by thy humane eye see visible accidents but by thy absolute divine sight the substance of things Never any man besides thee O Iesus saw the substance or quoditie of things whilest hee was in the flesh Thou only didst truely see the soule and the spirit and whatsoever was in man For as in man the intellective power is united to the animall visive power so that man sees not only as a living Wight but also discernes and judges of a man So absolute seeing was in the Iesus united to the humane intellectuall power which is discretion or descerning in the animall sight The animall visive power in man subsists not in it selfe but in the reasonable soule as in the forme of the whole so the visible intellectuall power subsists not iâ— it selfe but in thee O Iesus thâ— absolute visive power O thy admirable sight most sweet Iesus we finde some times by experiences how with our eye wee see somebody passing by but because wee took no heed to discerne who it was we cannot tell him that asketh us the name of him that passeth by though we know him well enough and knew there was some body passed by Wee did see him therefore animally but not humanely or wee saw him as we were living wights but not as we were men because we did not apply our discretive or discerning power By which we finde that the nature of the powers although they be united in the one forme of a man yet they remaine distinct and have distinct operations So in thee O Iesus I see after a certaine like manner the humane intellectuall nature united to the divine nature and that accordingly as man thou didst many things and as God many wonderfull things above man I see O most mercifull Iesus the intellectuall nature in respect of the sencible absolute and not as the sencible is finite and tyed to the Organ as the sensible visive power is tyed to the eye but unproportionably more absolute is the divine power above the intellectuall For the humane understanding to the end it may be but unto act hath neede of phantasmata or appearances in the phantasie and they cannot be had without sences and sences subsist not without a body and therefore the power of humane understanding is contracted and small needing the aforesaid things But the divine understanding is necessity it selfe not depending nor needing any thing but all things need it without which they cannot be I do more attentively consider how there is one discursive power which by reasoning discourseth and seeketh and another which judgeth and understandeth for we see a Dog discourse and seeke his Master and discerne him and heare his calling and this discourse is in the nature of Animalitie in the degree of the specificall perfection of a Dogge and there are yet other living wights found of a more cleare discourse according to the more perfect species or kinde and this discourse in man comes neerest to the intellectuall power that it may bee the supreamnesse of sensible perfection containing under the intellectuall many and innumerable degrees of perfection as the species or kindes of living wights do make plaine unto us for there is no species or kinde which hath not the degree of perfection proper unto it selfe and moreover every one of the degrees hath its latitude within the which we see the individuals of the species pertake it diversly But the intellectuall nature in like manner under the Divine hath innumerable degrees of sensible perfection so in the divine nature are complicated all degrees of intellectuall perfection of sensible likewise and all other things So in thee my Iesus I see all perfection for being most perfect man I se in thee the understanding united to the rational or discursive power which is the supreamnesse of the sensitive power And so I see the understanding in reason as the thing placed in its place as a Candle in the Chamber which enlightens the Chamber and all the Walls and the whole building yet according to the degree of distance more or lesse I see next the divine word united to the understanding in its supreamenesse and the understanding it selfe to the place where the word is received as we finde in our selves the understanding to be the place where the word of the Mr. is received as if the light of the Sun should be joyned with the aforesaid Candle For the word of God illuminateth the understanding as the light of the Sun doth this world In thee therefore my Iesus I see the sensible life illuminated by that intellectuall light I see the intellectuall life to be a light enlightning and enlightned and I see the divine life illuminating or enlightning only For I see the fountaine of light in that intellectuall light to wit the word of God which is the truth enlighting every understanding thou therefore art only the light of all Creatures because thou art so a creature that thou art also the blessed Creator How Jesus dyed and yet the Vnion with life remained CHAP 23. IEsus the most savorie food of the minde how admirable dost thou appeare unto mee when I behold thee within the Wall of Paradice for thou art the word of God humanified and man deified and yet thou art not as it were compounded of God and man For amongst those things that compound proportion is necessary without which there can be no composition but betweene finite and infinite there is no proportion Nor art thou the confidence of the Creature and the Creator in such sort as the Coincidence makes one thing to be another for the humane nature is not the Divine nor contrary wise for the divine nature is not changable or alterable into another nature being eternity it selfe nor doth any nature whatsoever because of its union to the divine
liveth whethersoever he goeth as thy sight never forsakes any man And as long as a man lives thou ceasest not to follow him and by sweet and internall admonitions to stirre him up to cease from his errors and to be turned to thee that hee may live happily Thou Lord art the Companion of my pilgramage whithersoever I goe thy eyes are alwayes upon mee And thy seeing is thy moving therefore thou art moved with me and ceasest not from motion as long as I am moved If I rest thou art with me also if I ascend thou assendest if I descend thou discendest whithersoever I turne my selfe thou art present Neither dost thou forsake me in the time of tribulation as oft as I call upon thee thou art neere for to call upon thee is to turne my selfe to thee and thou canst not be wanting to him that turns himselfe to thee neither can any man be turned to thee except first thou be present for except thou wert present and diddest sollicit me I should not know thee at aâ—l and then how should I be turned to thee whom I did not know Thou art therefore my God that seest all things And for thee to see is to worke therefore thou workest all things Not unto us therefore O Lord not unto us but unto thy great name which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe I sing eternall glorrie for I have nothing that thou dost not give neither could I hold that which thou givest except thou thy selfe didest keep it thou therfore ministrest all things unto me thou art the Lord powerfull and pitifull which givest all things thou takest care of all things thou art the dispencer that dispencest thou preservest all things And all these things dost thou which art blessed for evermore work by thy only and most simple sight and beholding Of the seeing face to face or the seeing of Gods face CHAP. 6. RIght gratious Lord and God the longer I looke upon the countenance the more sharply it doth seeme unto mee that thou bendest the edge of thine eyes towards mee And thy looking upon me makes me consider how this Image of thy face is therfore thus sensibly figurd because a face could not be painted without colour nor is colour without quantity But I see not with those fleshly eyes that beholds this thy Picture but with the eyes of my minde and understanding the inevitable truth of thy face which is here represented by a contracted shadow which true face of thine is free from all contraction for it is neither subject to quantity nor qualitie nor time nor place being the absolute forme which is the face of faces When I consider therfore how that face is the truth and most adequate measure of all faces I am amazed at it for the face which is the truth of all faces is not subject to quantitie therefore neither greater nor lesse yet it is not equall to any one because it hath no quantity but is absolute and superexalted It is therefore the truth which is equality exempt from all quantity So therefore I comprehend that thy face O Lord goes before every face formable and is the exemplaty truth of all faces and that all faces are the Images of thy incontractible and imparticipable face Therefore every face that can behold thy face sees nothing other or diverse from it selfe because cause it sees its own truth or the truth of it selfe Now the exemplar truâ—h cannot bee other or diverse but those things are accidents to the Image in as much as it is not the true examplar As therefore whilst I look upon this painted face from the East it appeares to looke upon mee so also And in like manner if from the West or South it seemes accordingly to looke upon me And howsoever I change my face or posture the face seemes still to be turned towards mee So is thy face turned to all the faces that behold thee Thy sight O'Lord is thy face he therefore that beholdeth thee with an amyable face shall finde no other but that thy face looks aymeably upon him and how much more aymeably he shall studie to looke upon thee so much more aymeably shall he finde thy face towards him Hee that shall look upon thee angerly shal likewise finde thy face such towards him and so hee that lookes upon thee cheerfully For as this fleshly eye looking through a Redde Glasse or Greene Glasse thinke all it sees of the same colour so every eye of the minde that is muffled up in contraction and passion judgeth thee that art the object of the mind according to the nature of contraction and passion Man can judge but like a man for when a man Attributs a face unto thee he seekes not for it out of the latitude of the species or nature of men because his judgement is contracted within beneath humane nature and so in judging exceeds not the passion of this contraction So if a Lion should ascribe thee a face hee would give thee none but a Lions face an Oxe an Oxes an Eagle an Eagles O Lord how admirable is thy face which if a young man should conceive he would imagine it young if an old man aged if a man manly who could conceive this only examplar or patterne of all faces most true and most adequate to be so of all faces as that it is neverthelesse of every one and so perfectly of every one as if it were so of none other certainly he must needs out goe and passe beyond all formes and figures of all formable faces And how could hee conceive a face when he must transcend all faces and all likenesse and figures of all faces and al conceptions that can be made of a face and all Colour Ornament and beauty of all faces Therefore who so faine would see thy face as long as hee conceives any thing at all is farre from the sight of it for every possible conception of a face is lesse then thy face O Lord and every beauty and fairenesse which can be imagined is lesse than thy beauty every other face hath beauty but is not beauty it selfe but thy face O Lord hath beauty and this having it is to be it there fore it is absolute beauty which is the forme that gives being to every beauteous forme O face most comely whose buty all things that hath the happinesse to see it are not sufficient to admire In all faces is the face of all faces seene but under a veile or covering in a dark shadow but revealed not it is not seene untill above all faces we enter into a secret and hidden silence where there is neither knowledge nor conception of a face for this Mist Cloud Darknesse or ignorance into which the seeker of thy face enters when hee surmounts all knowledge and conception is that beneath which the face cannot be seene otherwise then under a veile but the mist it selfe reveals that there is thy face above all veiles or Coverings As
speake one word to the whole Church assembled together and to every one that is amongst them and in that word which I speake to all I speak to every one That which the Church is to mee that unto thee O Lord is the whole world and every particular Creature that is or can be so therefore thou speakest to al and every one and those things to which thou speakest thou seest O Lord which art the chiefest consolation of all that trust in thee thou inspirest me to praise thee from the contemplation of my selfe for thou hast given mee one face as thou pleasest and that is seene generally and particularly to all to whom I preach my owne face is therefore seene by all and my simple speech is wholy heard by all and every one but I cannot distinctly heare all them speaking together but one after one nor distinctly see them altogether but one after one yet if there were in mee so great power that hearing and being heard shold coincident and be all one and seeing and being seene as also speaking and hearing as in thee O Lord which art the Highest power then I could both heare and see all at once and every one in particular by themselves and as I could speak to every one in particular at once so in the same instant while I speake I could see and heare the answers of all and every one Now then as being placed in the Doore of the coincidence of opposites which the Angell keepeth in the entrance of Paradice I begin to see thee O Lord for thou art there where to speake to heare to see to tast to touch to reason to know and to understand are all the same thing and where seeing coincides which being seene and hearing with being heard and tasting with being tasted and touching with being touched and speaking with hearing and creating with speaking If I could see as I am visible or to be seene I were not a Creature and if thou O Lord shouldst not see as thou art to be seene thou wert not God Almighty thou art Visible unto all Creatures and seest all for in that thou seest all thou art seene of all otherwise they could not be Creatures because by thy vision they are And if they should not see thee seeing they could not take from thee their being the being of the Creature is thy seeing and being seene Thou speakest by thy word to all things that are and callest to bring the things that are not Thou callest therefore that they may heare thee when they heare thee then they are when therefore thou speakest thou speakest to all things and all things to whom thou speakest heare thee Thou speakest to the Earth and callest it to humane nature and the Earth heareth thee and its hearing is to be made man Thou speakest unto nothing as if it were something and nothing heares thee because it was made something which was nothing O infinite power thy conceiving is to speak thou conceivest Heaven and it is as thou conceavest thou conceivest Earth and it is as thou conceivest while thou conceivest thou seest and speakest and workest and whatsoever can be said But how wonderfull art thou O my God thou speakest once thou conceivest once how then art thou althings together but successively many things how are so many divers things from one conception thou enlightnest me that am upon the Threshould of the Doore by telling me that thy conception is most simple eternity it selfe and there is nothing can possibly be done after most simple eternity for infinit duration which is eternity it selfe includeth and comprehendeth all succession Therefore whatsoever appeares unto us in succession is not after thy conception which is eternity for thy one and only conception which is thy word complicates infoulds all things and every perticular and thy Eternall word cannot be manifold nor diverse nor variable nor changeable because it is simple Eternity So I see O Lord that there is no thing after thy conception but all things are because thou conceavest them and thou conceavest them in Eternitie and succession in Eternitie is Eternitie it selfe without succession even thy word O Lord God Thou hast no sooner conceaved any thing that appeares unto us temporally than it is for Eternitie in which thou conceavest all temporall succession coincides in the same now or instant of Eternitie nothing can there be past or to come where to come and past coincides with the present But that things in this world are according to before and after is because thou didest not before conceave those things that they should bee if thou hadest sooner conceived them they had sooner bin but in whose conception soever there can fall first and later that hee can first conceave one thing and after another hee is not Almighty but because thou art God Almighty thou art within the Walle in Paradice And that Walle is that Coincidence where after coincides with before or latter with first where the end coincides with the beginning where Alfa and Omega are the same Things therefore are alwayes because thou speakest that they may be and they are not before because thou speakest not before and when I read that Adam was before so many yeares and that such a one was borne to day It seemes to mee unpossible that Adam should bee then because thou then wouldst and the other borne to day because thou now wouldst And yet thou didst not will Adam to bee sooner than thou wouldest him that was born to day but that which seems impossible is necessity it selfe for now then are after or beneathe thy word Therefore they meete with him that comes to thee in the Wall which invirons the place where thou dwellest in Conicidence For now and then conicides in the cirele of the Wall of Paradice But thou my God art and speakest beyond now and then which art absolute Eternitie How in God succession of time is seene without succession CHAP. 12. O My God I have experience of thy goodnes which art so farre from dispising mee a miserable sinner That thou on the other side dost sweetly feede me with a certain desire or longing for thou hast inspired into mee a most welcome similitude as touching the unitie of the mentall word or conception and the variety therof in those things that appeare successively For the simple conception of a most perfect Clock leades me a more feeling and savoury sight of thy conception and word for the simple conception of a clocke complicates or wraps up all temporall succession And put case that a Clocke bee a concepâ—ion then though we heare the sound of the 6th houre before the 7th yet the 7th is not heard but when the concepâ—ion commands neither is 6th sooner in conception then the 7th or 8th but in the simple conception of a Clocke there is no houre before or after another although the Clock never strike but when the conception bids And it may be truely
unto the truth and the truth it selfe then art both the way unto the life of the understanding and the life it selfe Thou art the odour of the food of gladnesse and also the taste that maketh glad Be thou therefore O sweet Iesu blessed for ever more That without Jesus therei is no possible felicity CHAP 21. IEsu the end of all in whom as in the last of their perfection all Creatures rest thou art utterly unknowne to all the wise men of this world because of thee we affirme contradictories to be most true thou being both the Creator and the Creature the attracting and the attracted the finite and also the infinite they say it is folly to beleeve this possible They flye thy name therefore and receive not that light wherewith thou hast enlightned us but thinking themselves wise they continue fooles and ignorant and blinde for ever But if they would beleeve that thou Christ God and man and would receive and entertain the words of the Gospell as the words of so great a Master then would they clearly see that all things in comparison of that light that there is hid in the simplicity of thy words are most thick and palpable darknes and ignorance Therefore only the little ones that beleeve do obataine this most gratious and quickening Revelation for there is hid in thy most sacred Gospell which is the heavenly food all desireable sweetnesse which cannot be tasted but by him that beleeveth and eateth And if any man beleeve and receive it hee shall finde it most true by experience that thou camest downe from Heaven and art the only Master of truth O good Iesu thou art the tree of lif in the Paradice of delights for no man can be fed with desirable life but from thy fruit Thou O Iesu art the forbidden food to all the sons of Adam which being expulsed out of Paradice doth seek their living in the earth in which they labour It behoveth every one therefore to put off the old man of presumption and put on the new man of humility which is according to thy selfe if he hope ever to tast of the food of life within the Paradice of delights There is a nature of the new and old Adam but it is in the old Adam animall and in the new Adam spirituall because in thee Iesus it is united to God which is a spirit Every man therefore must as by humane nature common to him and thee so in one spirit be united to thee O Iesus that so in his nature which is common to thee O Iesus hee may come to God the father which is in Paradice To see God the Father therefore and Iesus Christ his Son is to be in Paradice and Glory Ioy everlasting because hee that is without Paradice cannot have such a vision seeing neither God the Father nor thou O Iesus art to be found without Paradice every man therefore hath attained felicity which is united to thee O Iesus as a member to the head no man can come to the Father except hee be drawne by the Father Thy Father therefore O Iesus drew thy humanity by his Son and by thee O Iesus the Father deaweth all men As therefore thy manhood O Iesus is united to the son of God the Father as to a meane by which the Father drew it so every mans humanity is united unto thee O Iesâ—s as to the only meane by which the Father drawes all men Thou art therefore Iesu without whom it is impossible that any man should attaine felicity Thou art O Iesu the Revelation of the Father for the Father is invisible to all men and only visible to his Son and next thee to him who shall by thee and thy Revelation bee found worthy to see him Thou art therefore hee that unitest every blessed man and every blessed man subsisteth in thee as the united with the uniting Not one of the wise men of this world is capable of happinesse not knowing thee No happie man can see the Father but with thee O Iesus within Paradice Of the happie contradictories are verified as of thee O Iesus seeing he is united unto thee in a reasonable naturall and one spirit for every happy spirit subsists in thine as the quickned in thee quickning Every happy spirit sees the invisible God in thee O Iesus is united unto the unapproachable and immortall God and so in thee the infinite is united to the Infinite and the incomprehensible is comprehended by eternall fruition which is the most pleasant felicity that can never bee wasted nor spent have mercy upon me O Iesus have mercy upon me and grant that I may revealedly see thee and then my soule is safe How Iesus seeeth and worketh CHAP. 22. Never can the eye of the minde be satisfied with the sight of thee O Iesus because thou art the complâ—ment and fulnes of all mentall beauty And in this Picture I guesse at the wonderfull and stupendious sight O more then blessâ—d Iesus for thou Iesus whilst thou didst walke in this sensible world didst use fleshly eyes like unto us for with them no otherwise than we do thou didest see one thing and one thing for there was in thine eyes a certaine spirit which was the forme of the Organ as the sensible soule in the body of a living wight In that spirit there was a noble discretive or discerning power by which O Lord thou didst clearely and distinctly see this thing coloured thus and that other thing otherwise And more highly yet by the figures of the face and eyes of the men thou sawest thou wast a true Iudge of the Passions of the soule anger gladnesse sorrow and yet more subtilly by a few signes didst thou comprehend that which lay hid in the minde of man for there is nothing conceived in the minde which is not in some sort signified in the face and principally in the eyes being the Messengers of the heart for in all these Iudicia or signes thou didst much more truely reach the inwards of the soule than any created spirit for from some one though very â—mal signe thou didst see the whole conception of a man as understanding men do by a few words see through a long preconceived speech which is to be explicated at length and as well learned men if they cast their eyes never so little upon a booke are able to recite the whole intent of the writer as though they had read it through In this kinde of seeing thou O Iesus didst far excell all the perfection swiftnesse and sharpnes of all men past present and to come and yet this vision was but humane which was not done without a Carnall eye neverthelesse it was stupendious and admirable for if there be men found that by long and subtill discussion are able to dicipher any Carracter and to read the minde of the writer in Characters and signes then newly invented and never seene before thou O Iesus didst certainly see all things under