Chapter LXXV
On Hidden States And The Powers And Influences Which Are In Them
This may be taken for true by thee, that the practice of marvellous things, and the foreseeing of future things, and temptations, and rest from strife, and victory over every one of the affections, and the presence of every one of the virtues, and consolation, for a certain time, from grace, and purity of prayer, and warmth of spirit, and spiritual joy, and all the other things with which a man fatigues himself for a certain time, with a good intention and a mournful heart - that in
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all these God will condescend to accomplish man's will at any time. And when He sees his intention and longing He grants him his wish and satisfies him. As to the mysteries which belong to the spirit, namely the emotions during spiritual prayer, and the entering of the mind behind the curtain of the holy of holies, and the apperception of the indestructible inheritance - if a man does not pay their duty, God is not willing to grant them, even if the whole creation should beseech in behalf of him. Their duty is purity of the soul. When a man has reached purity from the affections, what no eye has seen and no ear has heard and what has not entered into the heart of man to ask in prayer, is revealed to him by purity, which during no moment ceases from mysteries and spiritual visions. And what the force of 5 20 spring is wont to work unto the nature of the earth, this grace works unto the soul by purity. The power of spring makes even the smallest roots in the valleys bud, warming the earth as fire does the cauldron, so that it sends forth the treasures of the plants which God has laid in the earth's nature, to the gladness of the creation and to His glory. So grace makes manifest all the glory which God has hidden in the nature of the soul showing the soul this glory and making it glad because of its own beauty. So that when it sees the great and unspeakable treasures which God has laid in it and which were hidden from it by the defiled mantle of affections and ignorance, but which now that it has torn asunder the garment of the affections, He has shown to it - it is captured on account of its gladness by His love and turns its back on earthly things. Moreover it does not remember the body which hid its own beauties from its sight. Then it sees heavenly beauties in itself as the exact mirror which by its great purity shows the beauty of faces. Holiness suits those who are holy. All excellence whatever and all service by which righteousness is accomplished, may be performed and acquired and accomplished without solitude; but apathy and purity cannot be acquired without solitude.
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