LXXVIII
THE SPECULATIVE INTELLECT
St Paul
reminds us that we being planted in the likeness of God may attain to higher and
truer vision. For this St Dionysius says we require three things.
The first is, possession of one's mind. The second is, a mind that is
free. The third is, a mind that can see. How can we acquire this speculative
mind? By a habit of mental concentration.
The soul has a ghostly spot in her
where she has all things matter-free. The soul has also a light in her with
which she creates all things. When this light and this spot coincide so that
each is the seat of the other, then, only then, one is in full possession of
one's mind. What more is there to tell? It means our outward man's farewell to
all satisfaction in creatures and the inner man's being so meet for God that
nothing arises within him that he would have changed: then, not tell then, a man
is self-possessed. This cannot happen here for, as the Doctor says, when this
that we are speaking befalls, the highest power of the soul sees God in her own
power. As St Dionysius put it, Then the soul is not called soul, she is
the sovran power of God.
The second thing is a free mind.
Freedom means not being in any way bound; out being as free and clear and
unalloyed as we were in our first emanation when we were loosed in the Holy
Ghost.
The third is the speculative mind.
Herein the soul sees God. What does the soul see when she sees God? Dionysius
says she sees the one power. This unique power makes her one with it. She sees
in him also the good passing good, embracing all good things. He wants to entice
us out of ourselves, to make us unwilling to stay in ourselves. As the heathen
philosopher says, The arch delight, all delights excelling, attracts the soul
out of all enjoyments into the sovran truth where all things end. And the same
master says, Why are we unaware of this? Because we are bent on lower things.
Supposing that we find ourselves desirous of God before all else, then God has
touched this highest power. By this touch she is moved by grace as one thing
moves another, for she has no body to her deity. St Dionysius says that the
motion of the soul is as in a circle, since she never varies from her centre.
He says too, God is splendid, and
this by reason of three thing. He is clear, he is a mutual illumination, he is
one and the same. What does clear mean? Free from admixture of body;
persisting in his purity or light-nature. According to the scriptures, the
soul is sevenfold clearer than the sun. The sun is clear albeit a corporal
things. But I declare the soul to be an hundredfold clearer than the sun, for
the sun is bodily whereas the soul is ghostly. And her surpassing clarity
is due to the ascendency of spirit over matter. Now if the soul is clear like
this then God must be infinitely clearer, for he created her, and the cause is
more than its creature has.
He is also a mutual illumination, for
all that is in God is God. And St Augustine says the Father and the Son shine
into each other in the Holy Ghost, who is the tie between them. And the three
hypostases, which are the three Persons, have one nature, like three lights with
one shine. So too with us there should be unanimity, all multiplicity focused to
the highest power and this sovran power cast into God there to abide without
reflection.
Thirdly, he is one and the same, this
being characteristic of divinity, which is the same as unity. This is not said
of creature, for it cannot be maintained of any creatures that it is from
themselves they have their being. St Paul says, 'What we have we have
received from the unique good, God namely, form whom are all good things.'
Things are not from themselves. That which is from itself and from which all
things are, is God. It is expressly taught that God is one and the same.
And it is for us to be like him. When we have parted from ourselves then we are
not-being rather than being. May we, being planted in the likeness of God,
attain to higher and truer vision, So help us God. Amen.
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