26. How They Resemble Christ, According to His Human Nature, Who Have Obtained at This Step the Gift of Counsel ; and Concerning the Three Fold Kind of Men Who Exhibit a Certain Likeness to the Most Holy Trinity and the Humanity of Christ

WHOSOEVER ha^e obtained at this step this gift of divine Counsel perfectly, are even like Christ according to His human nature. Where it is to be noticed that there is a three fold class of men who bear a certain likeness to God the Most High Trinity, and to the most excellent humanity of Christ ; the first are indeed like unto it naturally and imperfectly ; others supernaturally and perfectly, yet each according to his own rank. The third are equally similar and blessed, each according to the excellence of his own merits. Of the first kind, whose likeness is 127 natural and imperfect, are all those who perform acts of virtue without the movement or impulse of the Holy Spirit, and without the love of God. Of this kind are those who perform good works with a bad or strange intention, as for instance, for the sake of temporal gain or some other reason than God ; moreover also the infidels, or those who fight against and oppose in any point either the Catholic Church, the Sacraments, or the precepts ; all those who bear or show before themselves a likeness however great, or however great soever the good works they do, cannot be perfectly like God without divine grace. And although by reason of leisure, avoidance and refusal of those occupations concerned with earthly affairs, and by reason of the acuteness and clearness of the natural intelligence, as also because of the essence of their own powers of mind they should so far attain introversion as to perceive the natural inclination of the mind towards its own chief cause, which is God, (for whatever has been created is dependent on its own proper cause, just as on its own proper rest), and likewise they should impress themselves into their own es sence by losing themselves and by doing nothing either externally or internally, that is, by neither loving nor knowing, all this would be nothing but loss of time, and herein are they evidently unlike God. For neither the Spirit of God nor divine love is at rest either in grace or in glory ; and for that cause do they least of all, with regard to themselves, transcend or exceed it, but what they perceive is nothing else than a certain natural propension of theirs towards their begin ning, God. But yet no one can perceive the taste of the divine fruition unless he is like Christ and the Holy Catholic Church, and is capable of being united by that likeness. And because men of that kind have by no means obtained a perfect likeness, they desire to rest in peace and quiet, but by acts of virtue they renounce it — those, that is, who look to and seek themselves through out their entire life. For they think themselves lofty spirits, because they may taste their own fount of being, and perceive that which knows not the means ; but if by the grace of God they should be driven outwardly to perform all acts of virtue in divine charity, and again should be drawn back inwardly by means of the impatience and the inrush of love, yet even by means of fruitful love they would be carried into the superessence of God, so as to taste it by a kind of divine means, then at length, in all virtues they would lead a life like Christ and His saints, and would resemble them in that which is conjoined with the means thereto, and without intermission, by means of the fruitful love, they will cleave to that which is ignorant of the means. Of the other kind are all those whose likeness is supernatural and perfect, according to the rank of each, whom divine grace and love move, so that they abstain from sins, per form the virtues, and consider God and the honour of God and their personal salvation. These are perfectly like Christ, nevertheless each in his own rank. For as far as they have more grace, and perform more acts of virtue, they are in every way more lofty and more like ; nevertheless they remain ever alike in one rank, but are not one. Of the third kind are the blessed in glory, who themselves in the light of glory are like Christ, just as each have merited in the light of grace. When therefore Christ, in accordance with His humanity, was most perfectly like God in grace and divine gifts, He also in glory holds the most excelling likeness ; since of His fulness have we all received, whatever now we are in grace, and shall be hereafter in glory. For He Himself without cessation by the operation of the Father, was urged from unity to all virtues, and to the needs, bodily as well as spiritual, of all men ; and again from desire and love's impatience, flowed back again within. Nevertheless by reason of the Father's operation He was unable to repose in unity ; indeed He who herein was and is still like unto the Most Holy Trinity, in regard to wrhat things in themselves are fruitful, is neither able to persist in the unity of nature, or can remain in it. Herein therefore, I say, Christ was and is like the Holy Trinity, and ever had grace and now has glory in accordance with the measure of created capacity.

And in that self-same rank all good men, as in grace so in glory, bear the likeness of

God. Since all these are endowed with this likeness, they flow forth also into unity ; nevertheless they cannot attain this unity wherein the Divine Persons occupy themselves. For this same unity of creatures is placed in its own foundation of powers in the height of the created way, and below the divine way. For the created way, or the way of creatures, is finite ; but the way of the Divine Persons is boundless, and on that account the unity of creatures can neither touch the divine way nor the unity of the Persons by created light, since that unity of creatures is a kind of likeness of the divine unity. And that divine unity holds itself above that unity which is the cause that this very unity of creatures is bound by the impatience of love, because it is eternally compelled to remain the same, nor can it taste God in accordance with His own way. And this is the dignity and excellence of that rank. If in this rank within the created light, that is, either of grace or glory, a man knows and loves, therefore he cannot taste that unity wherein the Persons flow forth together with boundless wisdom and love incomprehensible. For the saints in this rank, so in glory as in grace, ever re main like God ; neither can glory or grace ever be so great as to become boundless.

But no one save with measureless love can avail to possess the unity of God, from which it follows that no one who is merely like God is able to apprehend or to attain to it, so as to remain like Him. But at this Sitep we shall remain of necessity endlessly like Him ; for life will always persist in eternal glory, nor will it ever be able to perish. Therefore whether it be in grace or in glory, in accordance with his own created measure, a man will have knowledge in the light of glory as of grace, which, as I have said, is the certain excellence or dignity of this step. For hence arises a hunger and impatience of love or desire, whereby it is neither allowed to attain or to taste the object of desire, in accordance with his measure, with full and perfect satisfaction. Moreover such a one established in grace or in glory possesses created unity by a certain singular method. For as far as each is gifted by God, and is settled in the virtues and divine love, even so in this unity he tastes, perceives and ex periences it. Nevertheless neither is this unity one, but each of those established in singular grace or glory hold in themselves unity and their own function in accordance with their own dignity or nobility.

But this unity is situated in the mind and in the form of all powers by means of the bond of love. And such a one in accordance' with his own excellence or dignity, as far as he is divinely gifted, perceives himself to be so ; and this is the personal unity of his own being, where each one soever is endowed more or less in accord with h?s own dignity. But the divine unity of the Persons binds itself together beyond all these unities, satisfying each one according to their own dignity, that is»> by impelling them outwardly to the continual performing of all virtues, and inwardly drawing them into the efflux and impatience of love. And wherein each is more like the Holy Trinity by so much is he the more easily moved, and reflows within with greater love. But all this corresponds with the finished actions in grace as in glory ; and by this means there, is a certain likeness to nothing else than the Most Holy Trinity. But without this likeness no one, either in time or in eternity, can ever be rendered one with God. But he who has perfectly followed after this likeness through the gift of divine Counsel, may suitably be compared to the firmament of heaven, inasmuch as he is touched by divine power, and is moved by an angel's goodness, and forsooth is as a mind seized by divine contact with the impatience of love. And as the illuminated reason, suffused with the rays of the Eternal Wisdom, enlightens the whole region of the mind, so the firmament and the wandering stars situated beneath it, especially the sun, bring light to all terrestrial things. And as all things live and in crease by heat, which the firmament and the planets supply .and yield to the lower created things, so man imparts and pours forth the warmth of love, compassion and pity of this very kind, and from thence all the powers of the mind live, work and grow in the virtues. But the firmament is adorned with seven planets and fixed stars beneath itself, by which all corporeal things which are under the firmament are ruled and illumined.