Desire and satisfaction abide together in Heaven. 391 satisfied with the vision of God, because the Psalmist too Book XVIII. says, I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness, Ps. 17, we are to consider that upon satisfying there follows dis- 15. gust. So then, that the two may rightly agree together, let Truth say, that they always see; and let the excellent Preacher say, that they always desire to see. For that there be not anxiety in desire, in desiring they are satisfied, and that there be not disgust in their satisfying, whilst being satisfied. they desire. And therefore they desire without suffering, because desire is accompanied by satisfying. And they are satisfied without disgust, because the very satisfying itself is ever being inflamed by desire. So also shall we too one There day be, when we shall come to the fountain of life. shall be delightfully stamped upon us at one and the same time a thirsting and a satisfying. But from the thirsting necessity is far absent, and disgust far from that satisfying, because at once in thirsting we shall be satisfied, and in being satisfied we shall thirst. Therefore we shall see God, and it shall be the very reward of our labour, that after the darkness of this mortal state we should be made glad by His light being approached unto.

6, 16.

92. But when we talk of His light being approached, that presents itself to the mind which Paul says, Dwelling 1 Tim. in the light which no man can approach unto, Whom no man hath seen, nor can see. And again, I hear what the Psalmist says; Approach unto Him, and be enlightened. How then Ps.34,5. by approaching are we enlightened, if we see not the very Light by which we are able to be enlightened? But if by approaching to Him we see the very Light whereby we are enlightened, how is it declared to be unapproachable? Wherein it deserves to be considered that he called it unapproachable, but to every man that minds the things of men. Since sacred Scripture is used to mark all the followers of carnal things with the designation of the being' men.' Whence the same Apostle says to certain persons at strife, For 1 Cor. whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? To which he soon afterwards appends, Are ye not men? And hence he elsewhere brought forward the testimony; Eye hath not seen, 1 Cor.

2, 9.

392 God revealed to those who 'walk' not' as men."

JOB 28, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man

20. 21. the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

PROPH.

10.

And when he had described this as hidden from men,' he 1 Cor. 2, added directly, But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; separating his own self from the designation of 'man' in that having been transported above man he now tasted what is divine. So also in this place, when he told of the light of God being unapproachable, that he might shew to what persons unapproachable, he added, Whom no man hath seen, no nor can see. After his manner calling 'men' all whose taste is for things of man. Because they who have a taste for what is divine, are doubtless above Therefore we shall see God, if by a heavenly conversation we obtain to be above men. Not yet that we shall so see Him as He Himself sees His very own Self. For the Creator sees Himself in a way far unlike to that in which the creature sees the Creator. For as to the unmeasurableness of God there is a certain measure of contemplation set to us, because we are limited by the mere weight that we are a

men.

creature.

93. But assuredly we do not so behold God, as He sees Himself, as we do not so rest in God, as He rests in Himself. For our sight or our rest will be to a certain degree like to His sight or His rest, but not equal to it. For lest we should be prostrate in ourselves, the wing of contemplation, so to say, uplifts us, and we are carried up from ourselves for the beholding Him, and being carried away by the bent of the heart and the sweetness of contemplation, in a certain manner go away from ourselves into Himself, and now this very going away of ours is not to rest, and yet so to go is most perfectly to rest. And so it is perfect rest because God is discerned, and yet it is not to be equalled to His rest, Who doth not pass on from Himself into another, that He may rest. And therefore the rest is, so to say, like and unlike, because what His rest is, our rest imitates. For that we may be blessed and eternal for everlasting, we imitate the Everlasting. And it is a great eternity to us to be imitating eternity. Nor are we heritless of Him Whom we imitate, because in seeing we partake, and in partaking

Vision of God begun here by faith.

393

XVIII.

imitate Him. Which same sight is now begun by faith, Book but is then perfected in Appearance, when we drink at the very springhead the Wisdom coeternal with God which we now derive through the lips of those that preach, as it were in running streams.

BOOK XIX.

The interpretation being carried on from the last part of the twenty-first verse of the twenty-eighth chapter to the twenty-first verse of the following chapter exclusive, various meanings are laid open not less learnedly than piously, chiefly concerning Christ and the Church.

MYST. 1. WHAT Wonder is it if the Eternal Wisdom' of God is not able to be seen, when the very invisible things themselves as well, which were created thereby, cannot be embraced by the eyes of men? So then by things created we learn with what self-abasement to revere the Creator of all things; so that in this life the human mind should not dare to usurp to itself aught belonging to the Appearance of Almighty God, which He reserves for His Elect only as their reward in the ensuing Recompensing. Whence after it was said, It is hid from the eyes of all living, we have the words thereupon introduced next;

i.

Matt. 13, 4.

Chap. xxviii. 21. And is kept close also from the fowls of the air.

2. For in Holy Scripture' birds' are sometimes given to be understood in a bad sense, and sometimes in a good sense. Since by the birds of the air occasionally the powers of the air are denoted, being hostile to the settled purposes of good men. Whence it is said by the mouth of Truth, And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it; in this way, because evil spirits besetting the minds of men, whilst they bring in bad thoughts, pluck the word of life out of the memory. Hence again it is said to a certain rich man full of proud Matt. 8, thoughts; The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have Luke 9, nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His Head. For foxes are very cunning animals, that hide themselves in ditches and caves; and when they face the light, they never run in straight courses, but always by crooked doublings.

20.

58.

'Fowls of the air' in good and bad sense.

395

XIX.

13.

But the birds as we know with lofty flight lift themselves Book into the air. So, then, by the name of foxes,' the crafty and cunning demons, and by the title of the birds of the air' these same proud demons are denoted. As if he said, 'The deceitful and uplifted demons find their habitation in your heart; i. e. in the imagination of pride,'' but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His Head,' i. e. My humility findeth not rest in your proud mind.' For as by a kind of flight that first bird lifted itself up, which said in the uplifted imagination of the heart; I will ascend into heaven, I will Is. 14, exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the North. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. Mark how he in flying sought the regions on high with pride. Which same flight also he recommended to the first of human kind as well. For they themselves by flying as it were tried to go above their own selves, when it was told them that they should taste and be like gods. And while they seek after the likeness of the Deity, they lost the blessings of immortality, which same would not by dying have gone into the earth, if they had been willing to stand with humility upon the earth.

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18. 19.

3. But, on the other hand, the birds of the air' are wont to be put in a good sense, as in the Gospel the Lord, when He was declaring a likeness of the kingdom of heaven by a grain of mustard seed, said, Unto what is the kingdom Luke13, of heaven like? and whereunto shall 1 resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his garden, and it grew and waxed a great tree, and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. For He is Himself' a grain of mustard seed,' Who, when He was planted in the burial place of the garden, rose up a great tree. For He was a grain,' whereas He died, but a tree,' whereas He rose again. A grain,' through the abasement of the 'A flesh, a tree,' through the mightiness of His Majesty. 'A grain,' because we have seen Him, and He was not Is.53,2. regarded; but a tree,' because fairer in form than the Ps.45,2. children of men. The branches of this tree are the holy preachers. And let us see how wide they are stretched out. For what is said concerning them? Their sound is gone Ps.19,4. forth into all the earth, and their words to the end of the

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