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The benefits that come from voiding the imagination
of imaginary forms can be clearly observed in the
five evils aforementioned which they inflict upon the
soul, if it desires to retain them, even as we also
said of the natural forms.
But, apart from these, there are other benefits
for the spirit -- namely, those of great rest and
quiet. For, setting aside that natural rest which the
soul obtains when it is free from images and forms,
it likewise becomes free from anxiety as to whether
they are good or evil, and as to how it must behave
with respect to the one and to the other.
Nor has it to waste the labour and time of its
spiritual masters by requiring them to decide if
these things are good or evil, and if they are of
this kind or of another; for the soul has no need to
desire to know all this if it pays no heed to them.
The time and energies which it would have wasted in
dealing with these images and forms can be better
employed in another and a more profitable exercise,
which is that of the will with respect to God, and in
having a care to seek detachment and poverty of
spirit and sense, which consists in desiring
earnestly to be without any consoling support that
can be apprehended, whether interior or exterior.
This we practise well when we desire and strive to
strip ourselves of these forms, since from this there
will proceed no less a benefit than that of approach
to God (Who has no image, neither form nor figure),
and this will be the greater according as the soul
withdraws itself the more completely from all forms,
images and figures of the imagination.
2. But perchance you will say: 'Why do many
spiritual persons counsel the soul to strive to
profit by the communications and feelings which come
from God, and to desire to receive them from Him,
that it may have something to give Him; since, if He
gives us nothing, we shall give Him nothing likewise?
And wherefore does Saint Paul say: 'Quench not the
spirit?"[515] And the Spouse to the Bride: "Set Me as
a seal upon thy heart and as a seal upon thine
arm?"[516] This certainly denotes some kind of
apprehension.
And, according to the instruction given above, not
only must all this not be striven after, but, even
though God sends it, it must be rejected and cast
aside. But surely it is clear that, since God gives
it, He gives it to a good purpose, and it will have a
good effect. We must not throw away pearls. And it is
even a kind of pride to be unwilling to receive the
things of God, as if we could do without them and
were self-sufficient.'
3. In order to meet this objection it is necessary
to recall what we said in the fifteenth and sixteenth
chapters[517] of the second book, where to a great
extent the difficulty is solved. For we said there
that the good that overflows in the soul from
supernatural apprehensions, when they come from a
good source, is produced passively in the soul at
that very instant when they are represented to the
senses, without the working of any operation of the
faculties.
Wherefore it is unnecessary for the will to
perform the act of receiving them; for, as we have
also said, if at that time the soul should try to
labour with its faculties, the effect of its own base
and natural operation would be to hinder the
supernatural graces[518] which God is even then
working in it rather than that, through these
apprehensions, God should cause it to derive any
benefit from its active labour.
Nay, rather, as the spirituality coming from those
imaginary apprehensions is given passively to the
soul, even so must the soul conduct itself passively
with respect to them, setting no store by its inward
or outward actions. To do this is to preserve the
feelings that have their source in God, for in this
way they are not lost through the soul's base manner
of working.
And this is not quenching the spirit; for the
spirit would be quenched by the soul if it desired to
behave in any other manner than that whereby God is
leading it. And this it would be doing if, when God
had given it spiritual graces[519] passively, as He
does in these apprehensions, it should then desire to
exert itself actively with respect to them, by
labouring with its understanding or by seeking to
find something in them.
And this is clear because, if the soul desires to
labour at that time with its own exertions, its work
cannot be more than natural, for of itself it is
capable of no more; for supernaturally it neither
moves itself nor can move itself -- it is God that
moves it and brings it to this state.
And thus, if the soul at that time desires to
labour with its own exertions (as far as lies in its
power), its active working will hinder the passive
work that God is communicating to it, which is
spirit.[520] It will be setting itself to its own
work, which is of another and an inferior kind than
that which God communicates to it; for the work of
God is passive and supernatural, and that of the soul
is active and natural; and in this way the soul would
therefore be quenching the spirit.
4. That this activity of the soul is an inferior
one is also clear from the fact that the faculties of
the soul cannot, of their own power, reflect and act,
save upon some form, figure and image, and this is
the rind and accident of the substance and spirit
which lie beneath this rind and accident. This
substance and spirit unite not with the faculties of
the soul in true understanding and love, save when at
last the operation of the faculties ceases.
For the aim and end of this operation is only that
the substance which can be understood and loved and
which lies beneath these forms may come to be
received in the soul. The difference, therefore,
between active and passive operation, and the
superiority of the latter, corresponds to the
difference between that which is being done and that
which is done already, or between that which a man
tries to attain and effect and that which is already
effected.
Hence it may likewise be inferred that, if the
soul should desire to employ its faculties actively
on these supernatural apprehensions, wherein God, as
we have said, bestows the spirit of them passively,
it would be doing nothing less than abandoning what
it had already done, in order to do it again, neither
would it enjoy what it had done, nor could it produce
any other result by these actions of its own, save
that of impeding what had been done already.
For, as we say, the faculties cannot of their own
power attain to the spirituality which God bestows
upon the soul without any operation of their own. And
thus the soul would be directly quenching the
spirituality[521] which God infuses through these
imaginary apprehensions aforementioned if it were to
set any store by them; wherefore it must set them
aside, and take up a passive and negative attitude
with regard to them. For at that time God is moving
the soul to things which are above its own power and
knowledge.
For this cause the Prophet said: 'I will stand
upon my watch and set my step upon my tower, and I
will watch to see that which will be said to
me.'[522] This is as though he were to say: I will
stand on guard over my faculties and I will take no
step forward as to my actions, and thus I shall be
able to contemplate that which will be said to me --
that is, I shall understand and enjoy that which will
be communicated to me supernaturally.
5. And the passage which has been quoted
concerning the Spouse is to be understood as
referring to the love that He entreats of the Bride,
the office of which love between two lovers is to
make one like to the other in the most vital part of
them. Wherefore He tells her to set Him as a seal
upon her heart,[523] where all the arrows strike that
leave the quiver of love, which arrows are the
actions and motives of love. So they will all strike
Him Who is there as a mark for them; and thus all
will be for Him, so that the soul will become like
Him through the actions and motions of love, until it
be transformed in Him. Likewise he bids her set Him
as a seal upon her arm, because the arm performs[524]
the exercise of love, for by the arm the Beloved is
sustained and comforted.
6. Therefore all that the soul has to endeavour to
do with respect to all the apprehensions which come
to it from above, whether imaginary or of any other
kind -- it matters not if they be visions, locutions,
feelings or revelations -- is to make no account of
the letter or the rind (that is, of what is signified
or represented or given to be understood), but to pay
heed only to the possession of the love of God which
they cause interiorly within the soul.
And in this case the soul will make account, not
of feelings of sweetness or delight, nor of figures,
but of the feelings of love which they cause it. And
with this sole end in view it may at times recall
that image and apprehension caused it by love, in
order to set the spirit on its course of love. For,
though the effect of that apprehension be not so
great afterwards, when it is recalled, as it was on
the first occasion when it was communicated, yet,
when it is recalled, love is renewed, and the mind is
lifted up to God, especially when the recollection is
of certain figures, images or feelings which are
supernatural, and are wont to be sealed and imprinted
upon the soul in such a way that they continue for a
long time -- some of them, indeed, never leave the
soul.
And those that are thus sealed upon the soul
produce in it Divine effects of love, sweetness,
light and so forth, on almost every occasion when the
soul returns to them, sometimes more so and sometimes
less; for it was to this end that they were impressed
upon it. And thus this is a great favour for the soul
on which God bestows it, for it is as though it had
within itself a mine of blessings.
7. The figures which produce effects such as these
are deeply implanted in the soul, and are not like
other images and forms that are retained in the
fancy. And thus the soul has no need to have recourse
to this faculty when it desires to recall them, for
it sees that it has them within itself, and that they
are as an image seen in the mirror.
When it comes to pass that any soul has such
figures formally within itself, it will then do well
to recall them to the effect of love to which I have
referred, for they will be no hindrance to the union
of love in faith, since the soul will not desire to
be absorbed in the figure, but only to profit by the
love; it will immediately set aside the figure, which
thus will rather be a help to it.
8. Only with great difficulty can it be known when
these images are imprinted upon the soul, and when
upon the fancy. For those which touch the fancy are
as apt to occur very frequently as are the others;
for certain persons are accustomed habitually to have
imaginary visions in their imagination and fancy,
which are presented to them in one form with great
frequency; sometimes because the apprehensive power
of the organ concerned is very great, and, however
little they reflect upon it, that habitual figure is
at once presented to, and outlined upon, their fancy;
sometimes because it is the work of the devil;
sometimes, again, because it is the work of God; but
the visions are not formally imprinted upon the soul.
They may be known, however, by their effects. For
those that are natural, or that come from the devil,
produce no good effect upon the soul, however
frequently they be recalled, nor work its spiritual
renewal, but the contemplation of them simply
produces aridity. Those that are good, however,
produce some good effect when they are recalled, like
that which was produced in the soul upon the first
occasion. But the formal images which are imprinted
upon the soul almost invariably produce some effect
in it, whensoever they are remembered.
9. He that has experienced these will readily
distinguish the one kind from the other, for the
great difference between them is very clear to anyone
that has experience of them. I will merely say that
those which are formally and durably imprinted upon
the soul are of very rare occurrence. But, whether
they be of this kind or of that, it is good for the
soul to desire to understand nothing, save God alone,
through faith, in hope. And if anyone makes the
objection that to reject these things, if they are
good, appears to be pride, I reply that it is not so,
but that it is prudent humility to profit by them in
the best way, as has been said, and to be guided by
that which is safest. |