Discourse 51

On the three orders of knowledge, and the distinction of their operation and their movements. And on the simplicity of the soul, and the wealth of mysteries hidden in it. And how much the knowledge of this world, in its aspects, is contrary to the simplicity of faith. The soul, therefore, which in the ways of its conduct walks on the path of faith, and this has acquired for it many sacrifices, has again turned to the aspects of knowledge, and immediately became alienated from faith, and was deprived of that known power of faith, which through changing aids is revealed in the pure soul, so that without hindrance it may be simply equipped in all that is its own. The soul that once in faith hastened to God, and in many petitions received the tastes of its aids, again has no thought of its standing, but is in wonder and in deep silence. And if it again turns to the aspects of its knowledge, it is not permitted to be equipped in them, lest, as in opposition, it be also cut off from divine inactivity, which secretly works without ceasing, and its care, and with firmness binds it in all things, as it has drunk of it, so that this suffices for its standing to be guided by the power of its knowledge.

...three orders, as long as it remains in the world, is not able to be without the fear of death. For those who have the light of faith in their hearts, they no longer pray for themselves, nor do they ask God to give them anything, nor do they take anything from anyone, nor do they think of themselves as one of the saints. Because of the spiritual knowledge of their faith, at all times they see the primordial nothingness that overshadows them, from that true Father who conquers by the mighty power of his love, which is not to be measured, all the love of the fathers of the flesh. He who is able, by a power greater than all, to do for us, and more than what we ask and think. For knowledge is contrary to faith, and faith is the beginning of all its own, to the laws of knowledge. Not that I speak of the Spirit. For the boundary of knowledge is this: that apart from the consequence and result of what a man has done, one thing from his will is not permitted to him. But he is constrained: that if it is possible to be, that which he has thought of is revealed to him. But faith, what? When, therefore, it is and is not equally near to it, that faith may increase there without being grasped. Knowledge, which has no keys and doors to be opened, and is not known. And this is the sign of its division concerning truth.

Faith, then, is a pure and simple conception, which requires that it be far removed from all contrivance and from the petition for occasions. See how they are opposed to one another. Within faith: a pure conception, a good announcement, and a clear heart. By means of clarity, if the heart is not, they would be glorifying God, and if it were not turned and they became like children, and so forth. Knowledge, then, of both of these, pursues and opposes. Knowledge guards the boundaries of the pure, in all of its ways. For faith works its discipline above nature. Knowledge of everything that is the beginning of the pure does not even allow a remedy to approach it, except to begin from it at a distance. Faith, then, commands and says with authority: that you should trample upon the moth and the worm, and you should tread upon the lion and the serpent. To knowledge, fear is attached. To faith, then, trust. As long as a man walks according to the occasions of knowledge, he is not freed from fear, nor can he attain the freedom of the intellect. But when he cleaves to faith, immediately, like a free man and a king over himself, and like a son of God, he is conducted with authority in everything in freedom. A man who has obtained the keys of faith is conducted like God in all the natures of creation.

For faith has authority even to create a new creation, in the likeness of God. For it is your will: and everything stood before you. And many miracles, from nothing, everything sufficed to be done. Knowledge, however, apart from letters, can do nothing that is not possible. Knowledge is: concerning that which is not given to the pure, it does not dare to advance upon it. For how? For that pure spring of water does not receive above its measure the courses of the rivers, and if it should attempt to ascend the burning mountain, it would consume it; and to advance upon these things is the property of the Quiescent One. This knowledge guards carefully. And that it should command to pass beyond this boundary is absolutely not to be grasped. Faith, however, commands authoritatively this, when it says: If you walk upon the mountain, it will not burn you. And the flames: they will not scorch you. And this is what many miracles faith has accomplished throughout the whole creation. For if to knowledge the place had been given there, it would absolutely not have been possible to approach such things. For by faith, many have walked upon the mouth of the flame, and the power of the burning mountain they have subdued, and without injury they have stood within it, and upon the surface of the sea as upon dry land they have walked.

And behold, all these are above nature, and they are accepted by the canons of knowledge. Have you seen how faith shakes the foundations of knowledge and shows the emptiness of all its categories and laws? Have you seen how knowledge guards the boundaries of nature? Have you seen also how faith strides above nature to make paths for its freedom? Five thousand years, more or less, the categories of knowledge governed the world. And to complete the raising of its head from the earth and to perceive by the power of its Creator, it was not able. Until faith came to you and freed you from the confusion of earthly labors and from the vain servitude after the phantom of the magician. And even now, that you have found a sea that cannot be disturbed and a treasure that cannot be diminished, you are eager to hasten toward a transient desire that can be obtained. There is no knowledge without limit, however much it may increase. For faith, its treasures are heaven and earth, and they do not diminish. Nothing is ever lacking to the one whose heart is set on the trust of faith. And when he has nothing, by faith he holds everything. As it is written: "Everything you ask in prayer and believe, you will receive." And again: "The Lord is near, so that nothing will be lacking." Knowledge, in its certainty, seeks the preservation of its own boundaries.

What then is faith? If the Lord does not will, there is no place for it, and it keeps its calling; it works in vain wherever it wills and watches to keep. At no time is faith constrained; it is exercised through occasions. For knowledge, in all its power, diminishes fear, as even the wise man said: "Wherever there is fear in the heart, there are its blessings." What then is faith? Fear, and it begins to follow. And again: it is not the spirit of fear that leads to servitude, but the spirit of the deposit in the heart leads to the freedom of faith and trust in God. And do not fear that you might be broken before them. Fear is always joined to division, and division to diminishment, and consequence to occasions, and occasions to knowledge. And this knowledge, which diminishes and brings consequences at all times, manifests division and fear. For knowledge does not succeed in everything at all times, as was shown above. Many difficult events and many causes are received, which fill the universe, for which all knowledge and the occasions of wisdom are of no avail; they cannot accomplish anything there. These, whose difficulty is great, surpass all the power of the boundaries of natural knowledge. For faith does not at any time fall short of anything.

For what does experiential knowledge need to be aided, with manifest demonstrations against natures that are not visible and forces that are not corporeal, along with many other things? I have seen the weakness of the power of knowledge, and the strength of the power of faith. Knowledge: to everyone who is pure, it is pure; to approach it is difficult for its disciples. For see here the power of faith: what does it command its seekers? In the name of the Lord: drive out demons, take away serpents and vipers, and if a draught of death is drunk, it does not harm. Knowledge: to everyone who follows its path, it commands this according to its laws: from the beginning to follow through on everything to its end, and only then to begin. Lest perhaps the end of the action rebel against the boundaries of experiential power, and the one who bears the burden of the senses suffer, when it is found to be impossible and difficult to be. But faith: what does it say? Everything is possible for the one who believes, because nothing is difficult for God. O the ineffable wealth, and the sea rich in its waves and its wondrous delights, and the floods of the power of faith! How full is the heart, and how easy and full is the confident trust that is with it! And its ways: how simple! And its service: how easy!

who has drunk of the taste of faith; and again it returns to the knowledge of the soul, not distinguishing its desire from the taste that can be found in the many pearls of water, and exchanges it for the price of sensation. It has abandoned authoritative freedom and fallen upon the occasions of poverty, which are full of the fear of servitude. It is not knowledge that is despised, but faith is exalted above it. And if it is despised, it is not knowledge that is despised—far from it!—but rather the distinctions of the changes of the orders in which it moves, contrary to the glory of the pure one and to the order of the living demons. Those which after this we will set forth clearly: and how many degrees there are in which knowledge moves, and what distinctions there are in each of them, and by what motions it acts in each of the orders, what in them is stable, and what is fitting from among these orders, when it moves in it, becomes contrary to faith and goes out of nature. And those which are the distinctions of the operation in it, and to which order, when it changes its first intention, it comes to its purity, and establishes degrees before faith in its beautiful ways. And up to where the distinctions of this order lead it, and how it passes from this to that which is higher than it.

And how shall the works of that final order be accomplished? For it is like the first in dignity. And when knowledge is united with faith, it becomes one with it. It puts on from it movements and tremors and is stirred by the wind, and it cries out wings without sensation, and is raised from the service of earthly things to the place of its maker, along with other living beings. It is fitting for us to know by discernment that faith is higher than the rank of its works from knowledge. Even that knowledge is perfected by faith. And it cries out power to ascend upward, and to perceive that which is above all perception, and to see the growth of that which is not apprehended, from the air and knowledge of created things. Knowledge, then, is the rank by which a person ascends to the height of faith. When he reaches it, this is no longer needed. Now a little is from much that is known, and a little is from much that is understood. But when perfection comes, it abolishes even that little. Faith, then, as the scriptures show us, is the truth of that future perfection. By faith we learn about that incomprehensibility, and it is not by the pursuit and power of knowledge.

All these works of abstinence: fasting, almsgiving, vigil, holiness, along with the rest that are performed through the body; and love toward the neighbor, humility of heart, forgiveness of faults, and meditation on good things, the pursuit of the mysteries of the holy scriptures, and the exercise of the mind in the labors of virtues, and to keep the boundaries of the soul's passions, and the rest of the virtues that are accomplished in the soul—all these depend on knowledge, and it is their order. And all these are still the steps of the ladder by which the soul ascends to the high summit of faith, and the virtues are called. But the conduct of faith, and even beyond virtue, is its service. It is not labor, but a perfect rest, and a state of being, and it fills the heart, and is accomplished by the movements of the soul. All the pure habits of spiritual conduct, whose service is the perception of spiritual powers, and the delight and joy of the soul, and love and gladness in God, and the rest of everything that is found in that conduct for the soul that has been deemed worthy by grace of that blessedness, like the hints of the hidden meanings of the holy scriptures, which are intoxicated with faith from here toward it from God, who is rich in his gifts.

But he says: If all these good things and works of excellence that were mentioned above, and also the abstinence from evils, and the separation of the fixed movements that the soul performs, and the struggle with thoughts, and the contest against the passions that incite, and the rest—without them, not even faith can show its power in the soul’s activity. All these are knowledge, their completion is like that which is said: Is knowledge contrary to faith? Solution of the doubt. There are three orders by which knowledge naturally ascends and descends. According to the changes of the places in which it moves, it receives change, either diminishing or increasing. It says then the three orders: body, soul, spirit. And when knowledge is one in its entirety, according to its existence in these places it becomes known, is embodied, and is established, and its causes also change, as well as the activity of its movements. Hear then the orders of its operation and the causes by which it diminishes or increases. Knowledge, then, is a gift from God to the rational entirety from the beginning of their existence, and it is simple and undivided in its entirety, like the light of the sun.

He says: The changes and divisions are according to her operation. The first veil of knowledge. When she attaches herself to the love of the body, this knowledge is the cause of all these passions: wealth, empty glory, honor, ranks, bodily pleasures, opportunities for her enjoyment from those that are contrary to the purity of the body, the pursuit of wisdom of eloquence that is suitable for the governance of this world, and for being a source of renewal of the discoveries of arts and sciences, and the rest of those things that adorn the body in this visible world. From the properties of this knowledge are these: that which is opposed to faith is arranged. This is also called material knowledge, because it dismisses all divine contemplation, and the weakness that is unspeakable enters the mind, because of her attachment to the body, and the complete absorption of her thought in this world. This, then, is the measure of knowledge: that all the power that is exerted and governed is secretly with man, or the divine idleness that is his own concern, to the end she is not satisfied.

But all the good that comes to a person, and his deliverance from afflictions, and his preservation from difficult events, and from the many adversaries that cling to the senses, openly and in secret, through her diligence and the faculties that belong to her—this is the measure of knowledge that is meant by what was said: that those who say there is no governance in these visible things, and that it is fitting to flee from the governance of the mind and the fear of change concerning these bodily things, are unable. And because of this: poverty of soul, grief, despair, fear of demons, the sting of wild beasts, the wiles of robbers, the sounds of deaths, the sight of diseases, the governance of deficiency of reason, the agitation from death, the fear of reptiles and wild animals, and the rest of things like these. And like the sea from waves, she is disturbed in all the times of days and nights, not knowing how to cast her shore upon God through the trust of faith in him. Because of this, she is agitated by the faculties and the disturbances that belong to her. And when her faculties are abolished by one of the causes, then she does not see how to spread out the hidden covering, along with the wild beasts that lurk, like her coils and her fangs.

For it is through this knowledge that the good and the evil are distinguished, which is the root of love. It is she who cuts off the sharp thorns of the end times, and the bonds and weaknesses of the flesh, and the events of disputation, and the reversals of words, and the shakings of the mind, and the rest of all the snares of the adversaries of the human person, which exist through her. Through her also are honor and exaltation, for upon her foundation are placed all the things that exist, whether of peace or of affliction, and not upon God. For the living being places its works upon grace. Because it is not possible to be exalted, as it is written: "Nothing can be done by force, but by grace which is with me." And again: "Not I, but the grace that is with me." And that which the blessed apostle said: "Knowledge puffs up." It was concerning this knowledge that he said: that it is not mixed with faith and trust in God, nor concerning knowledge of the truth. Far be it! For knowledge of the truth perfects humility in the souls of those who possess it, like Moses and David and Isaiah and Peter and Paul, and the rest of the saints, who drank of perfect knowledge, according to the limit of the pure. And through it, in the exchange of divine visions and revelations, and in the lofty contemplation of spiritual things, and in ineffable mysteries, their knowledge was swallowed up in silence.

of the dust of these things, they consider themselves in their eyes. That other knowledge is properly called excellent. For it is guided in darkness, and from the dust of these things that remain in the earth, its desires are kindled. And it knows nothing of what is better. And all those who are snatched from the heights, because from these things of earth and body their ways are weighed down, and they rely on labor, and they do not raise their thoughts without being perceived. As in them the glorious rays of the light of divinity meditate, and their labor is above, their thought cannot be turned to look at the sordid and empty thoughts. For those who are guided by light cannot reach them. Therefore, all those who stray from the light of the knowledge of the Son of God and deviate from the truth are guided in these paths. This is the first order of knowledge, which is attached to the love of the body. It makes them forget, and they say the opposite, that it is not only for faith, but for all the works of virtue. The second order of knowledge: when, that is, you leave the first order and turn to meditation and love of the soul, then these beautiful things that are inscribed from above work, with the movements of the soul and the senses of the body, in the pure light of it.

Fasting, prayer, mercy, reading of the holy scriptures in the excellence of their interpretation, endurance against afflictions, and the rest—for all the beautiful practices and excellent distinctions that are seen in the soul, and the wondrous orders that are administered in the absence of Christ. In this intermediate order of knowledge, the spirit of holiness is completed through the activity of its power. And it searches out paths in the heart that lead to faith. And through it, the small are led to that true world. And up to this point, this knowledge is still corporeal, and it is composed even in coarse excellence, and it is the same path that leads us to faith. For there is an order higher than it, which, if it is perfected, can ascend by the help of Christ, when it lays the foundation for its service: silence from the world, reading of the holy scriptures, and prayer, and the rest of the virtues. Through these it is completed. This is the measure of the two knowledges, by which all the beautiful things are accomplished. And it is called the knowledge of practices, because through practices that are perceived by the senses of the body, its activity is completed in the external order. The third order of knowledge is the order of perfection.

as that which is cut and stands, spiritual things; and it glorifies in the conduct of those invisible powers, whose service was not in the perceptible agitation of labors, but in the intention of the mind being perfected. Listen. When this knowledge was elevated from earthly things and from the intention of labor, and began to extend its movements to those within the eyes that are hidden, and it plunged into the depth of the memories of the desires, from which the struggle of the passions would be; and it extended its hand upward, and adhered to faith in the intention of the world to come, and the love of the kingdoms, and the reward upon the coverings. Then that faith swallows up knowledge, and turns and gives birth to it again, when it is entirely in the whole of spirit. Then it is possible to traverse in immaterial places, and to touch the unfathomable depths of the wonderful and divine governance, which is known and perceived by the pure, and to discern spiritual mysteries, which are comprehended by the simple and precise mind. Then the inner senses are awakened to the work of the spirit, like the order that occurs in that transformation of immortality and incorruptibility. For the resurrection is known perceptibly, as they receive here in a mystery, the true demonstration of that inner renewal.

These are the three orders of knowledge: in which the entire course of the human person is encompassed—of body, soul, and spirit—from the time the human person begins to distinguish between good and evil, until he departs from the world. In these three measures the knowledge of his soul enters, and the perfection of all injustice and wickedness, and the sum of all righteousness, and the touching of the depths of all the mysteries of the spirit. One knowledge operates in these three measures, and in them consists all the movement of the state that ascends or descends, in goods or in evils or in mediocrity. The Fathers call these measures: nature, beyond nature, above nature. And these are the three orders by which the recollection of the rational soul is elevated and lowered, as it is said: either it works righteousness in a natural manner, or it is snatched above nature by its recollection in the contemplation of God, or it goes beyond nature to the pasture of swine, like the one who lost the wealth of his renunciation when he worked with the incantation of demons. For the first order of knowledge is that which is praiseworthy, of the soul from the labors of the course after goods.

The middle order: the one that boils the soul in the heat of the course of the grades of faith. The third order: the repose of the soul from labor, and it is the type of that which is future, in which the intellect alone is delighted by the mysteries of the future goods. But because nature has not yet been raised from the order of mortality and from the burden of the flesh, so that it might be perfectly in that state of freedom which is above the passions, and it cannot serve the perfect and unblemished state in the world of mortality, and abandon the burden of the flesh completely, while it is still turning about in it, it fluctuates between this and that. When it hastens, as is possible and difficult, the soul struggles in that middle order of knowledge, by the virtues that are placed in the power of the will to practice, because of the nature of the body. And when it hastens, like those of the spirit who have taken up the deposit, it is delighted by the mysteries of freedom in the gift of the spirit, as much as it is fitting to receive it. And again it returns to the possibility of its world. This one of the body, when it is vigilant in the body, that it not fall into the enticements that are found in its world, by its disturbed and passionate movements. In the likeness of the lower one, which is bound before the door of the flesh, it has no hope. For there is no perfect freedom in an imperfect world.

For the whole of the labor of knowledge is of the world and of the contest. But the works of faith are not accomplished by labors, because they are perfected by spiritual movements in the nakedness of the soul, above the senses. For faith is cut off from knowledge, as knowledge is from sensible actions. For all the saints who have attained to spiritual conduct, which is the way to God, are guided by the power of faith, by the delight of that conduct which is above nature. Faith, however, says: not to that which a person believes by the distinction of the many hypostases of being, and by the pure distinctions of it, and by the wonderful governance which is in our humanity by the pure acceptance of it. But this faith says: to the light that is known, which shines in the soul from grace, and by the testimony of the mind it establishes the heart without division, by the persuasion of hope that is empty of all expectations, and not by the tradition that comes from hearing. And it reveals by spiritual eyes the hidden mysteries in the soul, and the hidden wealth of divinity, which is hidden from the eyes of the fleshly, and is revealed by the spirit to those who are raised at the table of Christ by the meditation of his laws.

As it is said: If you keep my commandments, I will send you the Paraclete Spirit, whom the world cannot receive, and I will show you the whole truth. Thus also does the holy power show itself to a person, which comes upon him at all times. That power is the Paraclete. By the power of this faith, all the movements of the soul are stirred up like a storm, and it casts aside every scruple through trust in God. And by the wings of faith, it is raised up from the agitation of this visible creation, and like a drunkard it becomes intoxicated in the ecstasy of contemplation of God. And by a vision that is not composite, and by concepts that have no vision concerning the divine nature, it habituates the mind to meditate on the mystery of his hiddenness. For until the one who is the perfection of the mysteries comes, and for his revelation a feast is prepared, faith serves as the sanctuary of the holy mysteries that are ineffable. For that feast, by the grace of Christ, is here in breadth, and there in the firm abodes in the kingdom of heaven, with all his lovers. Amen.