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Now we find yet another kind of perverted men, who are in some
points different from those already described; though they too
believe themselves to be exempted from all works, and to be
instruments with which God works what He wills. And therefore they
say that they are in a purely passive state without activity; and
that the works which God works through them are noble and
meritorious beyond anything that another man, working his works
himself by the grace of God, could do. And therefore they say that
they are God-passive men,[69] and that they do nothing of
themselves, but that God works all their works. And they say they
can do no sin: for it is God Who does all their works, and in
themselves they are empty of all things. And all that God wills is
worked through them, and nothing else. These men have surrendered
themselves to inward passivity in their emptiness; and live
without preference for any one thing. And they have a resigned and
humble appearance, and can very well endure and suffer with
equanimity all that befalls them; for they hold themselves to be
the instruments with which God works according to His will. Such
men in many of their ways and works are like in their conduct to
good men, but in some things they differ from them; for all things
to which they are inwardly urged, whether these be virtuous or
not, they believe to proceed from the Holy Ghost. And in this and
in suchlike things, they are deceived; for the Spirit of God
neither wills, counsels, nor works, in any man things which are
contrary to the teaching of Christ and Holy Christianity.
Such folk are hard to recognise, save by the man who is
enlightened, and has received the power of discerning spirits and
divine truth; for many amongst them are cunning in outward things
and know well how to cloak and make fair their perversity. And
they are so self-willed, and hold so fast to their own peculiar
ideas, that they would sooner die than abandon one point of the
thing they have laid hold on; for they hold themselves the holiest
and most enlightened of all men living.
These men differ from the first kind in this, that they say that
they can grow and acquire merit: whereas the others hold that they
cannot merit anything more, for they possess themselves in unity
and emptiness, wherefrom one cannot rise higher, because here
there is no more activity. These are all perverted men, and are
the most wicked of the living; and they are to be abhorred as if
they were the Fiend in hell. But if you have well understood that
teaching which I have given you heretofore in various ways, you
will perceive that these men are deceived. For they live contrary
to God and righteousness and all saints; and they are all
precursors of the Antichrist, preparing his way in every unbelief.
For they would be free, without the commandments of God, and
without virtues; and empty and united with God, without love and
charity. And they would be God-seeing men without loving and
steadfast contemplation, and the holiest of all men living without
the works of holiness. And they say that they rest in Him Whom
they do not love; and are uplifted into That which they neither
will nor desire. And they say that they are stripped of every
virtue, and of diligent devotion to God, lest they should hinder
God in His working. They confess, indeed, that God is the Creator
and Lord over all creatures, and yet they will neither thank nor
praise Him. They confess that His power and His riches are without
end, and yet they say that He can neither give nor take from them
anything, neither can they grow nor acquire merit.
And sometimes too they uphold the opposite, and say that they
merit a greater wage than other men; for God does their works, and
they themselves endure passively the workings of God, without
co-operation, since these are worked of Him. And in this, they
say, lies the supreme merit. But this is altogether illusion and
impossibility. For the activity of God is in itself eternal and
unchangeable; for He is His own activity and nought else. And in
this working there can be no growth, nor merit of any creature
whatsoever; for here there is nothing but God, Who can neither wax
nor wane. But the creatures, by virtue of God, have their own
activity, in nature and in grace, and also in glory: and if their
works end in grace here, they shall continue in glory for ever.
Now were it possible, which it is not, that a spiritual creature
could be annihilated as regards its activity, and thereby became
even as empty as it was when it was not made�that is, that it
could become wholly one with God, as it was then�it could acquire
no merit, no more than it could before creation. Further, it would
be neither holier nor more blessed than a stone or a log of wood;
for without our own work and the knowledge and love of God, we
cannot be blessed. Though God would indeed be blessed, as He is
eternally, yet it would not avail us. And therefore that which
these say of their emptiness is all deceit; for they wish to
excuse all wickedness and perversity, and give these out as nobler
and more sublime than all the virtues. And they would cunningly
disguise the worst, so that it should seem the best. All these are
contrary to God and all His saints; but they have a likeness to
the damned spirits in hell, for these too are without charity and
without knowledge, and are empty of thanksgivings and praise and
of all loving adherence; and this is the cause, why they remain
damned in eternity. And that these folk may be like to them, they
lack only this, that they should fall from time into eternity, and
that the justice of God be revealed in their works.
But Christ the Son of God, Who according to His manhood is the
pattern and the head of all good men, showing them how to live, He
was and is and everlastingly shall abide with all His members,
that is, with all His saints, in love and longing, thankfulness
and praise, toward His heavenly Father. Nevertheless, His soul was
and is united with the Divine Essence and blessed therein. But to
this bare idleness He never could, nor ever shall, come; for His
glorified soul, and all who are blessed, have an eternal loving
striving, even as those who have tasted of God, and are hungry and
thirsty, and can nevermore be satisfied. Yet that very soul of
Christ, and all saints, partake of God above all desires, where
there is nothing but the One. This is the eternal bliss of God and
of all His chosen. And that is why fruition and activity are the
blessedness of Christ and all His saints; and this is the life of
all good men, each according to the measure of his love. And this
is a righteousness that shall never pass away. And that is why we
should adorn ourselves, from without and from within, with virtues
and with goodly behaviour, as do the saints; and should lovingly
and humbly exercise ourselves before the eyes of God in all our
works. Then we shall meet God by means of all His gifts. And then
we shall be touched by sensible love, and shall be filled with
loyalty towards all. And so we shall flow forth and flow back
again in true charity, and shall be firmly established and
steadfast within ourselves in simple peace and in the Divine
likeness. And by means of this likeness and fruitive love and the
Divine brightness, we shall be melted into the unity, and shall
meet God through God, without means, in fruitive rest. And so we
shall eternally remain within, and yet continually flow forth and
incessantly flow back again. And herewith we shall possess a
veritable inward life in all perfection, That this may come to
pass in us, so help us God. AMEN.
THIS END OF THE SECOND BOOK
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