Discourse 76

The heads of the chapters. 76. The blessed Paul teaches us when he says: Put off the old man and put on the new man, who was created by God in the holiness and chastity of truth. He did not say: Without putting off the old, put on the new. For he knew that it is not possible. See how wisely he commands. He did not say: Put on the new man, who is renewed by the knowledge of God. But first he says: Put off this one, and then he says: Put on the new one. As also in another place he said harshly: Flesh and blood do not inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Incorruption, he says, belongs to the knowledge of that world. Corruption and flesh and blood belong to the destructive passions of the soul and the body, which are indicated by the term flesh. The new man he calls purity. The kingdom of God he calls the high and knowable contemplation of the blessed movements of spiritual growths, which it is permitted only to the hidden soul to enter, by its incorruptible movements that have been raised above corruption and flesh and blood.

If you do not cleanse the small opening of your soul, do not hasten to enter the sun, lest you be burned by the sight of the usual light and be cast into one of those well-known places, which is Tartarus, which is the type of Sheol. That is, the darkness outside of God. For those who go out from nature are shaken by the movements of their own, and are completely disturbed by that known cry of the heart. Because of this, even the one whom we said is to enter into the chambers of the pure is commanded to be cast into this outer darkness. The banquet is called the vision of spiritual knowledge. Its delights: the reception of divine mysteries, full of joy, exultation, and the delight of the soul. The garment of the banquet: the glorious stole of purity. The pure chambers: the spiritual movements that are hidden in the soul. The outer darkness: outside of all the delight of the knowledge of truth and divine familiarity.

of the sort that, when one is clothed in such garments, he hastens to discourse in his intellect upon the high things of God, and to enter and seat his soul within those spiritual theories of that holy feast which is partaken only by the pure, and to delight in its fragrance, when he is anointed with the fragrance of the passions, desiring to share in it, like those who are gluttonous, something is swallowed from me, and is cast from there to a place without growth, that which is called Sheol and Abaddon, which is ignorance and error from God. For it is said: Those who are of God, from themselves come the signs, if there is a pure and unclouded window. That which from themselves comes the signs: it is said that it is naturally the purity through which the heavenly light shines, without hindrance or effort on our part. In a pure heart, a new heaven is imprinted, whose vision is light, whose place is spiritual. As also in another place, like the magnet stone, which by its natural power draws iron filings to itself, so spiritual knowledge draws the pure heart. Moreover, it is completed by the faithful with confidence, that there is no thought that cannot be resolved without the resolution of the great and wise ones in the life of the world. But I say this with confidence, and I do not cut off from the truth of the mystery.

of the sort that, when one is clothed in such garments, he hastens to discourse in his intellect upon the high things of God, and to enter and seat his soul within those spiritual theories of that holy feast which is partaken in mourning. Not only is he not to be found among the great ones of the passions, or a champion in the battle against them and victorious, or even that they do not dare to show themselves in the evil of the contest; but rather, from afar they do not dare to pass before her, where the soul is a mourner, which has made for itself a dancing-place in the alleys of the variegated flowers of its sins. And as it is said by the blessed Jacob: she makes her dwelling in the grave, until she again meets the beloved ones of Joseph. Where there is the bitterness of mourning: that the sweetness of the passions might enter, which said: "Man is not to be trusted." But rather, man says: that his labor and hope are in vigilance, and above the limit. This which is said in mourning because of the limit, for it is known that he does not know where the final end of his course remains, more than that one who is said in the conduct of joy, because he perceives there in the hope of his labor. Or he whose city is subdued by the passions within, is shaken by the terror of mourning and pursues after them, and removes them from your hands. For this terror and hope are not to be found at all times, and they strengthen the true ones.