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Speaking now strictly of those visions which are
spiritual, and are received without the intervention
of any bodily sense, I say that there are two kinds
of vision than can be received by the understanding:
the one kind is of corporeal substances; the other,
of incorporeal or separated substances.
The corporeal visions have respect to all material
things that are in Heaven and on earth, which the
soul is able to see, even while it is still in the
body, by the aid of a certain supernatural
illumination, derived from God, wherein it is able to
see all things that are not present, both in Heaven
and on earth, even as Saint John saw, as we read in
the twenty-first chapter of the Apocalypse, where he
describes and relates the excellence of the celestial
Jerusalem, which he saw in Heaven.
Even so, again, we read of Saint Benedict that in
a spiritual vision he saw the whole world.[425] This
vision, says Saint Thomas in the first of his
Quodlibets, was in the light that is derived from
above, as we have said.
2. The other visions, which are of incorporeal
substances, cannot be seen by the aid of this derived
illumination, whereof we are here speaking, but only
by another and a higher illumination which is called
the illumination of glory.
And thus these visions of incorporeal substances,
such as angels and soul, are not of this life,
neither can they be seen in the mortal body; for, if
God were pleased to communicate them to the soul, in
essence as they are, the soul would at once go forth
from the flesh and would be loosed from this mortal
life.
For this reason God said to Moses, when he
entreated Him to show him His Essence: Non videbit me
homo, et vivet.[426] That is: Man shall not see Me
and be able to remain alive. Wherefore, when the
children of Israel thought that they were to see God,
or had seen Him, or some angel, they feared death, as
we read in the Book of Exodus, where, fearing these
things, they said: Non loquatur nobis Dominus, ne
forte moriamur.[427] As if they had said: Let not God
communicate Himself to us openly, lest we die.
And likewise in the Book of Judges, Manue, father
of Samson, thought that he and his wife had seen in
essence the angel who spake with them (and who had
appeared to them in the form of a most beautiful man)
and he said to his wife: Morte moriemur, quida
vidimus Dominum.[428] Which signifies: We shall die,
because we have seen the Lord.[429]
3. And thus these visions occur not in this life,
save occasionally and fleetingly, when, making an
exception to the conditions which govern our natural
life, God so allows it. At such times He totally
withdraws the spirit from this life, and the natural
functions of the body are supplied by His favour.
This is why, at the time when it is thought that
Saint Paul saw these (namely, the incorporeal
substances in the third heaven), that Saint says:
Sive in corpore, nescio, sive extra corpus, nescio,
Deus scit.[430] That is, he was raptured, and of that
which he saw he says that he knows not if it was in
the body or out of the body, but that God knows.
Herein it is clearly seen that the limits of natural
means of communication were passed, and that this was
the work of God.
Likewise, it is believed that God showed His
Essence to Moses, for we read that God said to him
that He would set him in the cleft of the rock, and
would protect him, by covering him with His right
hand, and protecting him so that he should not die
when His glory passed; the which glory passed indeed,
and was shown to him fleetingly, and the natural life
of Moses was protected by the right hand of God.[431]
But these visions that were so substantial -- like
that of Saint Paul and Moses, and that of our father
Elias, when he covered his face at the gentle whisper
of God -- although they are fleeting, occur only very
rarely -- indeed, hardly ever and to very few; for
God performs such a thing in those that are very
strong in the spirit of the Church and the law of
God, as were the three men named above.
4. But, although these visions of spiritual
substances cannot be unveiled and be clearly seen in
this life by the understanding, they can nevertheless
be felt in the substance of the soul, with the
sweetest touches and unions, all of which belongs to
spiritual feelings, whereof, with the Divine favour,
we shall treat presently; for our pen is being
directed and guided to these -- that is to say, to
the Divine bond and union of the soul with Divine
Substance.
We shall speak of this when we treat of the dark
and confused mystical understanding which remains to
be described, wherein we shall show how, by means of
this dark and loving knowledge, God is united with
the soul in a lofty and Divine degree;[432] for,
after some manner, this dark and loving knowledge,
which is faith, serves as a means to Divine union in
this life, even as, in the next life, the light of
glory serves as an intermediary to the clear vision
of God.
5. Let us, then, now treat of the visions of
corporeal substances, received spiritually in the
soul, which come after the manner of bodily visions.
For, just as the eyes see bodily visions by means
of natural light, even so does the soul, through the
understanding, by means of supernaturally derived
light, as we have said, see those same natural things
inwardly, together with others, as God wills; the
difference between the two kinds of vision is only in
the mode and manner of them.
For spiritual and intellectual visions are much
clearer and subtler than those which pertain to the
body. For, when God is pleased to grant this favour
to the soul, He communicates to it that supernatural
light whereof we speak, wherein the soul sees the
things that God wills it to see, easily and most
clearly, whether they be of Heaven or of earth, and
the absence or presence of them is no hindrance to
the vision.
And it is at times as though a door were opened
before it into a great brightness, through which the
soul sees a light, after the manner of a lightning
flash, which, on a dark night, reveals things
suddenly, and causes them to be clearly and
distinctly seen, and then leaves them in darkness,
although the forms and figures of them remain in the
fancy.
This comes to pass much more perfectly in the
soul, because those things that the spirit has seen
in that light remain impressed upon it in such a way
that whensoever it observes them it sees them in
itself as it saw them before; even as in a mirror the
forms that are in it are seen whensoever a man looks
in it, and in such a way that those forms of the
things that he has seen are never wholly removed from
his soul, although in course of time they become
somewhat remote.
6. The effect which these visions produce in the
soul is that of quiet, illumination, joy like that of
glory, sweetness, purity and love, humility and
inclination or elevation of the spirit in God;
sometimes more so, at other times less; with
sometimes more of one thing, at other times more of
another, according to the spirit wherein they are
received and according as God wills.
7. The devil likewise can produce these visions,
by means of a certain natural light, whereby he
brings things clearly before the mind, through
spiritual suggestion, whether they be present or
absent.
There is that passage in Saint Matthew, which says
of the devil and Christ: Ostendit omnia regna mundi,
et gloriam eorum.[433] That is so say: He showed Him
all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.
Concerning this certain doctors say that he did it by
spiritual suggestion,[434] for it was not possible to
make Him see so much with the bodily eyes as all the
kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.
But there is much difference between these visions
that are caused by the devil and those that are of
God. For the effects produced in the soul by the
devil's visions are not like those produced by good
visions; the former produce aridity of spirit as to
communion with God and an inclination to esteem
oneself highly, and to receive and set store by the
visions aforesaid, and in no wise do they produce the
gentleness of humility and love of God.
Neither do the forms of such visions remain
impressed upon the soul with the sweetness and
brightness of the others; nor do they last, but are
quickly effaced from the soul, save when the soul
greatly esteems them, in which case this high esteem
itself causes it to recall them naturally, but with
great aridity of spirit, and without producing that
effect of love and humility which is produced by good
visions when the soul recalls them.
8. These visions, inasmuch as they are of
creatures, wherewith God has no essential conformity
or proportion, cannot serve the understanding as a
proximate means to union with God. And thus the soul
must conduct itself in a purely negative way
concerning them, as in the other things that we have
described, in order that it may progress by the
proximate means -- namely, by faith.
Wherefore the soul must make no store of treasure
of the forms of such visions as remain impressed upon
it, neither must it lean upon them; for to do this
would be to be encumbered with those forms, images
and persons which remain inwardly within it, and thus
the soul would not progress toward God by denying
itself all things.
For, even if these forms should be permanently set
before the soul, they will not greatly hinder this
progress, if the soul has no desire to set store by
them. For, although it is true that the remembrance
of them impels the soul to a certain love of God and
contemplation, yet it is impelled and exalted much
more by pure faith and detachment in darkness from
them all, without its knowing how or whence it comes
to it.
And thus it will come to pass that the soul will
go forward, enkindled with yearnings of purest love
for God, without knowing whence they come to it, or
on what they are founded. The fact is that, while
faith has become ever more deeply rooted and infused
in the soul by means of that emptiness and darkness
and detachment from all things, or spiritual poverty,
all of which may be spoken of as one and the same
thing, at the same time the charity of God has become
rooted and infused in the soul ever more deeply also.
Wherefore, the more the soul desires obscurity and
annihilation with respect to all the outward or
inward things that it is capable of receiving, the
more is it infused by faith, and, consequently, by
love and hope, since all these three theological
virtues go together.
9. But at certain times the soul neither
understands this love nor feels it; for this love
resides, not in sense, with its tender feelings, but
in the soul, with fortitude and with a courage and
daring that are greater than they were before, though
sometimes it overflows into sense and produces gentle
and tender feelings. Wherefore, in order to attain to
that love, joy and delight which such visions produce
and cause in the soul, it is well that soul should
have fortitude and mortification and love, so that it
may desire to remain in emptiness and darkness as to
all things, and to build its love and joy upon that
which it neither sees nor feels, neither can see nor
feel in this life, which is God, Who is
incomprehensible and transcends all things.
It is well, then, for us to journey to Him by
denying ourselves everything. For otherwise, even if
the soul be so wise, humble and strong that the devil
cannot deceive it by visions or cause it to fall into
some sin of presumption, as he is wont to do, he will
not allow it to make progress; for he set obstacles
in the way of spiritual detachment and poverty of
spirit and emptiness in faith, which is the essential
condition for union of the soul with God.
10. And, as the same teaching that we gave in the
nineteenth and twentieth chapters, concerning
supernatural apprehensions and visions of sense,
holds good for these visions, we shall not spend more
time here in describing them. |