Chapter VII.
On mental and mystical rapture, in which rest is given to the intellect, while the affection passes over entirely into God through ecstasy.
1. These six considerations having therefore been traversed, as if they were the six steps of the throne of the true Solomon, by which one arrives at peace, where the true peaceful one rests in a peaceful mind as in an interior Jerusalem; and as if also the six wings of the Cherub, by which the mind of the true contemplative, filled with the illumination of supernal wisdom, may be borne upward; and as if also the first six days, in which the mind must be exercised, so that it may at last arrive at the sabbath of rest; after our mind has contemplated God outside itself through vestiges and in the vestiges, within itself through the image and in the image, above itself through the similitude of the divine light shining upon us and in that light itself, insofar as is possible according to the state of wayfaring and the exercise of our mind; when at last in the sixth step it has arrived at this point, that it contemplates in the first and highest principle and the mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, those things whose likenesses can in no way be found in creatures, and which exceed all keenness of the human intellect: it remains that, in contemplating these things, it should transcend and pass beyond not only this sensible world, but also itself; in which passing over, Christ is the way and the door, Christ is the ladder and the vehicle, as it were the mercy seat placed upon the ark of God and the mystery hidden from the ages.
2. Whoever looks upon this mercy seat with full turning of the countenance, gazing upon him who hangs upon the cross through faith, hope, and charity, devotion, admiration, exultation, appreciation, praise, and jubilation, makes the Passover, that is, the passing over, with him, so as to pass through the Red Sea by the rod of the cross, entering the desert from Egypt, where he may taste the hidden manna, and may rest with Christ in the tomb as though outwardly dead, yet sensing, insofar as is possible according to the state of wayfaring, what was said on the cross to the thief clinging to Christ: Today you shall be with me in paradise.
3. This was also shown to blessed Francis, when in the rapture of contemplation on the lofty mountain — where I pondered in my mind these things which have been written — there appeared a Seraph with six wings affixed to a cross, as I and many others heard from his companion who was then with him there; where he passed over into God through the rapture of contemplation, and was set forth as an example of perfect contemplation, just as he had previously been of action, as another Jacob and Israel, so that through him God might invite all truly spiritual men to this kind of passing over and rapture of the mind, more by example than by word.
4. In this passing over, however, if it is to be perfect, it is necessary that all intellectual operations be relinquished, and that the summit of affection be wholly transferred and transformed into God. This, however, is mystical and most secret, which no one knows unless he receives it, nor does anyone receive it unless he desires it, nor does anyone desire it unless the fire of the Holy Spirit inflames him to the marrow, which fire Christ sent upon the earth. And therefore the Apostle says that this mystical wisdom has been revealed through the Holy Spirit.
5. Since, therefore, nature can do nothing toward this and effort can do but little, little should be given to inquiry and much to unction; little should be given to speech and very much to interior joy; little should be given to word and writing, and all to the gift of God, namely the Holy Spirit; little or nothing should be given to the creature, and all to the creative essence, the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, saying with Dionysius to God the Trinity: "O Trinity, superessential and superdivine and supremely good guardian of Christian divine wisdom, direct us to the super-unknown and super-luminous and most sublime summit of mystical utterances; where the new and absolute and unchangeable mysteries of theology are hidden according to the super-luminous darkness of secretly teaching silence, in the most obscure which is the most super-manifest, super-resplendent, and in which all things shine forth, and which super-fills invisible intellects with the splendors of invisible super-goods." This to God. But to the friend to whom these things are written, let it be said with the same Dionysius: "But you, O friend, concerning mystical visions, with your journey strengthened, abandon both the senses and intellectual operations and sensible and invisible things and all non-being and being, and be restored, insofar as it is possible, unknowingly to the unity of Him who is above all essence and knowledge. For by an immeasurable and absolute ecstasy of pure mind, beyond yourself and all things, abandoning all things and freed from all things, you shall ascend to the superessential ray of divine darkness."
6. But if you ask how these things come about, ask grace, not doctrine; desire, not understanding; the groaning of prayer, not the study of reading; the Bridegroom, not the master; God, not man; darkness, not clarity; not light, but the fire that wholly inflames and carries into God through ecstatic anointings and most ardent affections. Which fire is indeed God, and his furnace is in Jerusalem, and Christ kindles this in the fervor of his most ardent passion, which only he truly perceives who says: My soul has chosen hanging, and my bones death. Whoever loves this death can see God, because it is indubitably true: No man shall see me and live. - Let us die, therefore, and enter into the darkness; let us impose silence upon our cares, concupiscences, and phantasms; let us pass over with Christ crucified from this world to the Father, so that, when the Father is shown to us, we may say with Philip: It suffices us; let us hear with Paul: My grace suffices for you; let us exult with David, saying: My flesh and my heart have failed, God of my heart and God my portion forever. Blessed be the Lord forever, and let all the people say: So be it, so be it. Amen.
HERE ENDS THE JOURNEY OF THE MIND INTO GOD.