traveler beholds globe 
traveler beholds globe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR THE VISION OF GOD by that learned Dr Cusanus  
Thou call'st all things out of nothing, and they are.  
Are to be sold by Io: Streater at the sign of the Bible in budge roe 1646. cro●…    

Οφσαλμις Απλυς OR The single Eye, Entitled the Vision OF GOD  
Wherein is enfolded the Mystery of Divine presence, So to be in one place finitely in appearance, as yet in every place no less present, and whilst He is here, He is universally every where infinitely himself. Penned by that Learned Dr. CUSANUS, and published for the good of the Saints.  
By GILES RANDALL.  PSAL. 139. 7. 
Wither shall I fly from thy Spirit,  
Wither shall I go from thy presence.  
LONDON, Printed for John Streater, at the Sign of the Bible in Budgerow. 1646.   

THE EPISTLE To the Reader.  
NOthing is, or ever was endeavoured, by most men, with more industry, and less success, than the true knowledge of the true God. And as in the vision and knowledge of him standeth 
(a) Joh. 17 3.  life Eternal; So in the non-knowledge, or wrong knowledge of him, or any thing for him which is not himself, lieth all loss and misery. This point therefore being that one thing necessary in the true knowledge or dark ignorance, whereof consisteth life and death, good and evil, God and the Devil, if this corner stone be rightly founded, and the whole structure superstructed thereon, it proveth wisdom's house, withstandeth all assaults, & trials, but otherwise it is the house of folly, and the Tower of confusion and destruction. That there is a God, almost all men are convinced.  
But who or what this God is, almost all men are ignorant of. After the knowledge and worship of this God, all men are so principled and carried on; that rather than they will be, or thought to be without him, and the knowledge of him, the Creature will create his Creator, to himself, and his fancy shall give essence and being to this God.  
All men may be reduced under foureheads or notions; first there are Atheists who own no God. Secondly professed known ignorant, who acknowledge implicitly a God but him to them an unknown God. Thirdly there are the ignorant knowers, who thinking they know God, know nothing else than God setting up some thing for God which by nature is not God. Fourthly there are the true knowers who know the 
(b) Joh. 17 3.  only true God truly. The first hath not so much as a conceit of a God, The second conceives a God but ignorantly without substance or so much as Image who or what. The third doth conceive a God not in substance but Image, The fourth not conceives, but knows, not God in Image, but essence, and substance, not any thing for God but the true and substantial God of these four states of men, the last only is the state of knowledge, The other three states of ignorance, which arise from their proper cause, darkness: And that is positive in the first, Negative in the second, Privative in the third state, But light itself is only extant and existent in the last state. The first errs in denying a God, The second in not knowing a God, the third in not knowing the true God, and this two ways either in the Adjective or Adverbe, in the Adjective, they know not the true God, or in the Adverbe they know not this true God truly Many are guilty of the first error, more of the second, most of the third, but few and few●st are the partakers of the perfection of the last. And as there is gradation in the three first states, so is there in the evil of them, the first bad, the second worse, the third worst, and so much is it the worst as it is Satanized and transformed into an Angel of light, it being Religious, Sublimate, Idolatry.  
Reader by what hath been▪ spoken thou mayst gather that God is either known or not known, if not known whence it fl●w s either from positive, Negative, or privative darkness, and of all these the last is worst wherein man is most active and seemingly seeing and knowing. How miserable therefore are we deceived who the more we seek, the farther we are off from the true knowledge and finding out of God: that herefore thou mayst herein be premonished and premunite against such mistakes, observe that God is one simple infinite indivisible being, and must be known as he is which no finite can do or be capable of. Some men because they acknowledge from many undeniable principles that he is infinite, are so elevated that they abstract him as they think from all things, and think they have found his true being when as the truth is, they that abstract him from all things as being to infinite for all things; do herein yet mistake, for he is in the creation, and there to be known, for although God is neither any one thing, many things or all things of your creation, yet is he all and in all, and by us to be seen clearly therein, he being all and in all, p. 19 Rom. 1. Yea when they have aprehended him above all yet do they confirm him within their own fancies and imaginations which are no less finite than any other thing. Thus they deal with him as the people in Isaiah with their wooden Gods, they hue, chop, shred, and out off what seemeth them good, & when it is brought to the Idea of their own brain than it is God, and the rest they burn as not essential to that God they have shaped out to themselves, and this is to … ne the god head and Divine essence with the whole glory of the Gospel into mere conceit and sublimat vanity, and this is spiritual and invisible Idolatry, even as to make corporeal shapes and sensible appearances of him is gross visible, and bodily Idolatry.  
Be thou admonished Christian brother in this point; it is the easiest matter that may be to miscarry herein, it being the nighest and deepest of all secrets, the knowledge of God consisteth in opposites and contradictories to the wisdom of the flesh, and he is least known by reason of his seeming like that which not withstanding is farthest from himself, for as all being substantial and real hath also a false, and imaginary being the shadow of the true being; as the height hath its opposite, d …, &c So there is the true God and his contrary even the fa●se, and as in material substances, not the essence or substance is the object of sense but colour magnitude, and other accidents, even so not the real essence of God is the nearest sense, but something for God in the seat of God, being nothing esse than God, and contrary to God. But the sound and unerring knowledge of him standeth in your knowledge of your man Christ jesus, and whosoever hath seen him hath seen the Father also, for he is not a dead 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Image of him, but lively or living 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Image of the invisible God, yea the 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 3.16. Mat. 1.23.  fulgor or brightness of his glory, and character of his person, for God is manifest in the flesh which is the great mystery of godliness, 
2 Cor. 4.6.  and till he be Emmanuell God with us, God in us, there is no true vision or knowledge of him, for as nothing is in the understanding, but what is in the sense, first and as nothing in the sense is a vaileable till it live in the light of the understanding within and at home; so there is no true living knowledge of God within us, till he be in us form in the face of jesus Christ. This is the divine argument of this little work selected, and culled out of the most elaborate pieces of that learned Dr. Cusanus; whose argument herein is chief and only to shadow forth unto thee, the being and existency of the infinite God with and in the finite; which is suitable to the state of his recipient subject, for because the infinite cannot be infinitely received by the finite, nor can the infinite become finite as in himself, yet is he so in the finits capability as finite and contracted, giving himself forth in a wonderful manner so, that he that is  moveth, and the unchangeable changeth with thee, and though no alterationin time, place or other thing can be unto him or in him. Yet is he so  as yet movable and so inseparably assistant with his creature in every thing that he that is neither here nor there properly is yet here and there, and so here as if not there, and so with thee as if with none else, wondrously giving himself all to every one, as if he were all but to one, so that if the expressions may be borne withal, he is finitly infinite, and infinitely finite, he is immovably moevable, & meveably , the Active and the Passive, the receiver and the received, because he that is infinitely above thee, makes himself to be to thee what he is in thee and makes thee to be what thou art in him, he  himself with flesh, reason, sense, and the form and nature of a servant who yet is above all and Lord over all, this is a high and hard saying, who can bear it, yet I say unto thee Reader, if God give unto thee, a seeing eye, and understanding heart to read, and this author in the spirit of light and truth, these things will be easier and more facile to thee which is the desire which he desireth for thee who is a lover of thee in the truth of jesus.  
G. R.   

AN INTRODUCTION  
I Will now lay open unto you my dearly beloved Brethren, what I had before promised concerning the easiness of mystical Divinity, for I Judge you whom I know to be led with a zeal of God worthy to have this treasure opened unto you, though very precious and most fruitful: But first I beseech the Almighty who only can express and declare himself to give me his word from above, and utterance that according to your capacity, I may expound these wonders which are revealed above and beyond the sight of sense, reason and understanding: And I will endeavour after the most simple and ordinary manner to bring you experimentally into the most sacred darkness where while you shall be feeling and perceiving the presence of the unapproachable light, every one of you shall attempt in the best man that God shall give you leave continually to come nearer and nearer and here by a most sweet morsel to foretaste that supper of eternal happiness, whereunto we are called in the word of life by the Gospel of Christ blessed for evermore.   

THE PREFACE.  
OF all the means whereby I can endeavour after the manner of men to list you up to divine things, I held it best to do it by a simititude: But amongst humane works, I found no Image more fit and convenient for our purpose, than the Image of one that sees all things, where though there be every where great store, yet lest you should fail in the practice, which requires such a sensible figure, I send your Charity such a Table as I could have for the present, containing a Picture of one that looks every way which I call the Image of God (man:) This you shall fasten in some place, for example on a Northwall, and then shall all you Brethren stand about it, a little distance from it, and look upon it, and every one of you shall find by exporience, that from what place soever be lookes-upon the same, it shall seem that none but himself alone is seen or looked upon by the Picture, and that Brother that stands on the east side of it, will imagine that the face looks eastwardly at him only, so be that stands on the south side will think it looks southerly, and he on the west westerly; And first you will wonder how it can be that it should look upon you all, and every one of you at once, for the imagination of him that stands in the East cannot conceive the Ficture looking any other way namely to the west, or the south, Then let the Brother which was in the East place himself in the west, and he shall perceive the countenance fixed on him in the west as it was before, when it was in the East, and because he knows the Picture to be fixed and unmoved, he will admire the change of the unchangeable countenance, And if fixing his eye on the Image, he walketh from the west to the East, be will find that the eye of the Picture goes continually along with him, and if from the East he return to the west, it will in like manner not forsake him, and be will wonder how it was unmovably moved, Neither shall his imagination be able to conceive how it should possibly be moved with another that meets him, and goes with a contrary motion, And if for further trial, he makes his Brother looking still upon the Image, go from the East to the West, whilst himself at the same time goes from the West to the East, and meeting him, ask him if the eye or sight of the Picture go along with him, and shall hear that it doth so (though it go along with himself too) he will believe him, and if be should not believe him, he would not think it possibe, and so by his Brother's relation, and telling him hue ill come at length to know that the countenance of the Picture accompanies all men though they go contrary ways.  
He shall therefore find by experience that that  face is so moved to the East, that it is at the same time likewise moved to the West, and so to the South, that is it likewise moved to the North, and so to one place that it is also moved to all places, and so relates to one motion, that it relates to all at one and whilst be cunsiders how that visage forsakes no man, he sees likewise how it takes so diligent care of everiy one, and seems to observe him who looks upon it, so particularly as if it took care for no body else, in so much that it cannot be conceived by him whom it beholds how it should look after any body else, And be shall further perceive how it takes as particular notice of the least Creature, as it doth of the greatest, and of the whole universe.  
Now from this sensible appearance my purpose is to lift up you, my most beloved Brethren, by a certain practice of devotion unto mystical divinity, when I shall have premised three things necessary hereto.   

The Vision of God.  

That the perfection of appearance is verified of the most perfect GOD.  
CHAPTER I.  
HEre in the first place we must suppose that nothing can appear about the sight of the Image of God, but that it is much more truly in the sight or vision of God for God which is the height of all perfection, and greater than can be thought is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek because he sees and beholds all things.  
Therefore if a painted face can appear in an Image, as if it looked upon all things, and every thing at once, certainly this being of the perfection of sight cannot less truly agree unto the truth, than it doth apparently to the Image or appearance: For if one sight be in us more sharp and quick than another, and scarce discerning the things that are near, and another discerning the things that are far off, and reaching the object quickly, and another slowly, there can be no doubt but that the absolute sight (from which is, all the sight of things that see excels all the sharpness, swiftness, and strength of a●l that actually do see, or that can be made to see.  
For if I look to sight in the abstract which I have in my mind free from all eyes and Organs, and consider how that abstracted sight in his contracted being, namely as they that see, do see by that sight is contracted unto time to the several parts of climates of the world, to singular and indivituall objects; & to all other such like conditions, and that sight in the abstract is on the other side as much drawn away, freed, acquitted, and absolved from those conditions. Then I very well understand that it is not of the essence of sight to respect or look upon one object more than another, although it inseparable accompany sight, in the contracted being thereof, that whilst it looks upon one thing it cannot look upon another, or absolutely upon all things. But God as he is the true uncontracted sight or seeing is not less than may by the understanding be conceived of the abstract sight, but beyond all proportions, more perfect, wherefore the appearance of sight in the Picture cannot so well as the conceit approach or come near the height of the excellency of absolute vision or sight, and consequently it is no whit to be doubted, but that whatsoever appears in that Image is excellently and perfectly in the absolute sight.   

That absolute sight comprehends all manner of seeing.  
CHAP. 2.  
NOw thou must after these things understand that sight is varied in things that see, according to the variety of the contraction thereof for our sight followeth the affections of the Organs and the mind, therefore some one man look now lovingly and cheerfully, by and by sadly and angrily, one while childishly, then manly, afterwards seriously, and agedly. But sight freed from all, contraction doth at once and altogether comprehend all and every manner of seeing, as being the most adequate measure and true examplar of all sight: for without absolute sight, there can be no contracted sight, and absolute sight comprehends in itself all manners of seeing, and so also that every one and yet remains utterly free and absolute from all variety, for in absolute sight are all the manners of contradictions of seeing uncontractedly; For every contradiction is in the absolute, for absolute sight is a contradiction; of contradictions it being an incontractible contradiction; Therefore a most simple con●raction Covieides, or is the same with an absolute, And without contraction no thing is contracted, so absolute vision or seeing is in every sight, because every contracted seeing is by it, and cannot be at all without it.   

That the things which are spoken or affirmed of God do not differ really.  
CHAP. 3.  
ENter next into a serious consideration how all things that are said or affirmed of God cannot really differ, because o● the highest and most perfect simplicity of him thought we in divers respects ascribe divers names and Attributes unto him; But God being the absolute reasons; or being of all formal reasons complicateth, or foldeth up in himself all reasons; whereupon we attribute unto God seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling touching, sense, reason, and understanding and such like, according to the several reasons of the signification of every word, yet in him seeing is not another distinct thing from hearing, tasting, touching smelling, and understanding, and so all Divinity is said to be put in a circle, because one of his Attributes is affirmed of another. And for God to have a thing is for him to be that thing, or his having is his being his moving is his standing, his running is his resting, and in like manner all his other Attributes, so that although we ascribe unto him, moving in one respect, and standing in another, yet because he is the absolute reason in which all alterity or otherness is unity or oneness, and all diversity is joencitie or self sameness: Therefore that diversity of reasons or formality (as we conceive diversity, which is not Identity itself) cannot be in God.   

That God's Vision or sight is called his providence, his Grace Eternal life.  
CHAP. 4.  
Unto the Image of God approach thou now my Brother, that givest thyself to contemplation. And first place thyself in the East, then in the South and lastly in the West. And because the sight or eye of the Picture looks upon thee every where a like, & forsakes thee not whethersoever thou goest, thou shalt be thereby stirred up unto speculation and provoked to say.  
Lord, in this Image of thee do I now behold thy providence by a certain sensible experience, for if thou forsakest not me who am the most base and vile of a●l things, certainly thou wilt never be wanting to any thing. For so art thou present to all things, and every thing as unto all things and every thing is present to that being without which they cannot be, and so art thou the absolute being of all things, present to each thing, as if thou tookest no care for any thing else. And this comes to pass because there is nothing but prefers its own being before any thing else, and the manner of its being to all other manners of being and so defends its own being, that it had rather the being of all other things should go to ruin and destruction than its own. For so dost thou O Lord look upon every thing that is, that it cannot be conceived by all, that is, that thou hast any care other then that that only thing might be in the best manner that it can possibly be, and that all other things that are may serve only to the intent that that which thou lookest upon may be after the best manner.  
Thou O Lord dost not suffer me by any imagination to conceive that thou lovest any thing else besides me more than myself seeing thine eye is never of from me alone, And because there the eye is where the love is, therefore do I find thou lovest me, because thine eyes are always most attentively upon me thy servant.  
Lord thy seeing is loving, consequently as thy sight regards and looks upon me, so attentively that it never turns itself from me so thy ove; And because thy love is always with me, and thy love is no other thing than thyself that lovest me, therefore thou art always with me. Lo●d thou forsakest me not, thou preferrest me on every side, as taking most diligent care of me; Thy being O Lord forsakes not my being, who am only so far forth as thou art with me: And thy seeing being thy being, therefore I am because thou lookest upon me, And if thou hid thy countenance from me, I shall not subsist. But I know that thy seeing is that greatest goodness which cannot but communicate itself to every thing capable. Therefore canst thou never forsake me as long as I am capable of thee. To me than it belongs as much as I can to become more and more capable of thee continually: And I know the capacity which makes a union is nothing but likeness, and all incapacity proceeds from unlikeness  
If I therefore make myself by all possible means like to thy Goodness, according to the degrees of likeness I shall be capable of the truth, thou hast given me O Lord a being, and that such a one as may continually make itself more capable of thy goodness, and this power which I have from thee wherein I hold the lively Image of the power of thy omnipotency, is that free will by which I may either enlarge or restrain the capacity of thy grace, enlarge it I say by conformaty when I strive to be good because thou art good, just because thou art just, and merciful, because thou art merciful when all my endeavour is turned to nothing but thee, because all thy endeavour is turned to me, when I look most attentively to thee alone, and never turn away the eyes of my mind, because thou embracest me with continual sight, when I turn my love to thee alone, who being love, art turned to me alone.  
And Lord what is my life, but those embraces whereby the sweetness of the love doth so amorously compass me, I love my life exceedingly, because thou art the sweetness of my life.  
I now behold as in a Glass in an Image, in a shadow eternal life because it is nothing else but that blessed vision whereby thou never ceasest to see and look upon me most lovingly, even to the in most of my soul. And thy seeing is or in thee to see is nothing else but to quicken me continually to send unto me the most sweet love of thee, by the sending of that love to inflame me to the love of thee, by inflaming to feed me, by feeding me to set my desires on fire, by firing my desires to give them drink of the dew of gladness, and by giving them drink to send unto me a fountain of Water, and by sending that to increase and perpetuate it, and to communicate this immortality, to give me the never fading glory of this heavenly, high and greatest Kingdom, and to make me partaker of that inheritance which is only thy sons, and to appoint me a, possession of that eternal felicity where there is the Garden of all delights that can be desired than which there can nothing better either be devised by Man or Angel or be by any manner of being, for it is the absolute greatness of every rational desire, than which a greater cannot be.   

That the vision of God is called his mercy, his motion and operation.  
CHAP. 5.  
EVer infinite is the multitude of thy sweetness which thou hast laid up for them that love thee, for it is an inexplicable treasure of gladness most full of joy, To taste that thy sweetness is by an experimental touch to apprehend and to lay hold upon the sweetness of all di●ectable things in their principal or beginning. It is to reach or attain unto the reason and formality of all desirable things in thy wisdom, to see therefore the absolute reason or formality which is the reason informality of all things, is nothing else but to taste thee O God, in the mind because thou art sweetness itself, the being of life and understanding.  
Thy seeing O Lord what is it other when thou lookest upon me with the eye of pity, then that thou art seen by me? In seeing me thou givest thyself to be seen by me which art a hidden, an invisible God. No man can see thee but as fare forth as thou givest thyself to be seen; neither is thy being seen any thing else but that thou seest him that seethe thee.  
I see in this thy Image, how prone and ready thou art O Lord to show thy face to all that seek thee, for thou never shuttest thine eyes, nor never turnest them any other way▪ And although I turn myself away from thee when I turn myself wholly to any other thing; yet for all this thou changest not thy ●ye ●or thy countenance.  
If thou do look upon me with the eye of grace. I am the cause thereof, because I am divided from thee by turning myself to some other thing which I prefer before thee, yet dost not thou for all this wholly turn thyself from me, but thy mercy followeth me, if at my time I would return to thee that I may be capable of grace.  
For that thou lookest not upon me, is because I look not upon thee, but refuse and contemn thee.  
O infinite piety, how unhappy is every sinner that forsaketh thee the fountain of Life, and seeketh not thee in thyself but in that which in itself is nothing, and so had still been if thou hadst not called it out of nothing? How mad is he who seeketh thee that art goodness, and whilst he seeketh thee goeth back from thee, and turns away his eyes for every one that seeks, seeks nothing but good, and he that seeketh good, and goes back from thee, goes back from that which he seeks.  
Therefore every sinner goes astray from thee, and wanders farther off, but when he returns to thee thou without delay meetest him, and before ●ee looks back to thee, thou with a Fatherly affection casteth upon him the eyes of thy mercy, neither is thy mercy any thing but thy seeing. Therefore thy mercy followeth every man as long as he liveth whethersoever he goeth, as thy sight never forsakes any man. And as long as a man lives thou ceasest not to follow him and by sweet and internal admonitions to stir him up to cease from his errors, and to be turned to thee that he may live happily. Thou Lord art the Companion of my pilgrimage whithersoever I go, thy eyes are always upon me, And thy seeing is thy moving, therefore thou art moved with me, and ceasest not from motion as long as I am moved. If I rest, thou art with me also, if I ascend thou assendest if I descend thou discendest, whithersoever I turn myself thou art present.  
Neither dost: thou forsake me in the time of tribulation, as oft as I call upon thee thou art near for to call upon thee is to turn myself to thee, and thou canst not be wanting to him that turns himself to thee, neither can any man be turned to thee except first thou be present, for except thou wert present and didst solicit me. I should not know thee at a●l, and then how should I be turned to thee whom I did not know: Thou art therefore my God that seest all things, And for thee to see is to work, therefore thou workest all things, Not unto us, therefore O Lord not unto us, but unto thy great name which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; do I sing eternal glorrie, for I have nothing that thou dost not give, neither could I hold that which thou givest except thou thyself didst keep it, thou therefore ministrest all things unto me, thou art the Lord powerful, and pitiful, which givest all things, thou takest care of all things, thou art the dispenser that dispencest, thou preservest all things, And all these things dost thou which art blessed for evermore, work by thy only and most simple sight and beholding.   

Of the seeing face, to face or the seeing of God's face.  
CHAP. 6.  
RIght gracious Lord and God, the longer I look upon the countenance, the more sharply it doth seem unto me that thou bendest the edge of thine eyes towards me. And thy looking upon me makes me consider how this Image of thy face is therefore thus sensibly figured, because a face could not be painted without colour nor is colour without quantity: But I see not with those fleshly eyes that beholds this thy Picture, but with the eyes of my mind, and understanding the inevitable truth of thy face which is here represented by a contracted shadow, which true face of thine is free from all contraction, for it is neither subject to quantity nor quality, nor time nor place being the absolute form which is the face of faces.  
When I consider therefore how that face is the truth and most adequate measure of all faces, I am amazed at it for the face which is the truth of all faces is not subject to quantity, therefore neither greater nor less, yet it is not equal to any one because it hath no quantity, but is absolute and superexalted. It is therefore the truth, which is equality exempt from all quantity. So therefore, I comprehend that thy face, O Lord goes before every face formable and is the exemplaty truth of all faces, and that all faces are the Images of thy incontractible and imparticipable face.  
Therefore every face that can behold thy face sees nothing other or divers from itself, because cause it sees its own truth, or the truth of itself. Now the exemplar tru●h cannot be other or divers, but those things are accidents to the Image in as much as it is not the true examplar; As therefore whilst I look upon this painted face from the East, it appears to look upon me, so also, And in like manner if from the West or South, it seems accordingly to look upon me, And howsoever I change my face or posture, the face seems still to be turned towards me; So is thy face turned to all the faces that behold thee.  
Thy sight O'Lord is thy face he therefore that beholdeth thee with an amiable face shall find no other, but that thy face looks aymeably upon him, and how much more aymeably he shall study to look upon thee so much more aymeably shall he find thy face towards him: He that shall look upon thee angrily shall likewise find thy face such towards him, and so he that looks upon thee cheerfully. For as this fleshly eye looking through a Red Glass, or Green Glass, think all it sees of the same colour so every eye of the mind that is muffled up in contraction, and passion, judgeth thee that art the object of the mind according to the nature of contraction, and passion; Man can judge but like a man, for when a man Attributs a face unto thee, he seeks not for it, out of the (latitude of the) species or nature of men because his judgement is contracted within beneath humane nature, and so in judging exceeds not the passion of this contraction: So if a Lion should ascribe thee a face, he would give thee none but a Lion's face, an Ox an Ox's, an Eagle, an Eagles.  
O Lord how admirable is thy face, which if a young man should conceive, he would imagine it young, if an old man, aged, if a man manly, who could conceive this only examplar or pattern of all faces most true, and most adequate to be so of all faces, as that it is, nevertheless of every one, and so perfectly of every one, as if it were so of none other, certainly he must needs out go and pass beyond all forms and figures of all formable faces; And how could he conceive a face, when he must transcend all faces, and all likeness, and figures of all faces, and all conceptions that can be made of a face, and all Colour, Ornament, and beauty of all faces; Therefore who so feign would see thy face, as long as he conceives any thing at all is fare from the sight of it, for every possible conception of a face is less than thy face, O Lord, and every beauty and fairness which can be imagined is less than thy beauty, every other face hath beauty, but is not beauty itself, but thy face O Lord hath beauty, and this having, it is to be it, there fore it is absolute beauty, which is the form that gives, being to every beauteous form.  
O face most comely, whose buty, all things that hath the happiness to see it are not sufficient to admire. In all faces is the face of all faces seen, but under a veil or covering, & in a dark shadow, but revealed not, it is not seen until above all faces, we enter into a secret and hidden silence, where there is neither knowledge nor conception of a face, for this Mist Cloud, Darkness, or ignorance, into which the seeker of thy face enters when he surmounts all knowledge, and conception is that beneath which the face cannot be seen, otherwise then under a veil, but the mist itself reveals that there is thy face above all veils or Cover. As our eye, whiles it seeks to see the light of the Sun which is the face thereof, first it beholds it under a veil or Coverture in the Stars in Colours, and in all things that partake the light thereof, but when it strives to see it revealedly, and manifestly, it transcends all visible light because all such is less than that which he seeketh, but because he would feign see the light which he cannot see, he knows this, that as long as he sees any thing, it is not that which he would see, and consequently he must go beyond all visible light, & he that would so transcend all light that may be seen, must of necessity enter into that which wants visible light which to the eye is (that I may so say) darkness and when he is in that darkness or mist, then if he know himself to be in the mist, he knows himself now to be come to the face of the Sun, for from the Excellency of the light of the sun doth that darkness and mist in the eye proceed, and by how much he knows the darkness to be greater, so much more truly doth he in that mist attain to the invisible light, so O Lord and no otherwise do I see the unaproachable light, beauty and shining of thy face may be without veil or shadow approached unto.   

What is the fruit of the Vision of God's face, and how it may be had.  
CHAP. 7  
ADmirable is that sweetness wherewith thou▪ now feedest my Soul O Lord, and so great that it must needs help itself by all means possible as well with those things whereof it hath experience in this world, as by those most acceptable similitudes which thou inspirest. For because thou O Lord art that power and beginning from whence allthings, and thy face, that power and beginning from whence all faces are, that which they are. Therefore I turn myself to this great & taull Nut-Tree, and seek to see the principle or first beginning thereof, and I see with my sensible eye, that it is great tall, broad spread, Coloured, loaden with boughs, leaves, and Nuts. Then by the eyes of my mind, I see that that Tree was once in the seeds, yet not as I now behold it, but virtually or in power, I diligently consider the wonderful virtue of that seed▪ in which this whole Tree, and all the nuts, and all the power and virtue of the seed of those Nuts, and all the Trees that are potentially in the virtue of the seeds of those nuts have been, and I see that that power is not, nor ever will be in any time that can be measured by the motion of Heaven fully explicable, yet that power of the seed though inexplicable is but contracted, because it hath no power other than in this particular speces or kind of Nuts.  
Wherefore though I see the Tree in the seed, I see it only in the contracted power thereof, then do I consider O Lord the seminary virtue of all the Trees of divers speces, or sorts contracted unto every several speces, and in those very seeds, I see the Trees in power. If therefore I would see the absolute or abstracted virtue and power of all the virtues of those seeds; what the virtue is and what the principle or beginning that gives virtue to all seeds, I must of necessity go beyond all seminal virtue which can be known or conceived and enter into that ignorance, wherein there remains nothing at all of the seminal virtue or vigour, and then in that mist I find a most stupendious power & which not power which can be taught or imagined can approach unto which as the beginning, giving us being to every virtue and power seminal, and not seminal, which absolute and super exalted virtue and power, seeing it gives to every seminal virtue, such power as complicates and folds up in itself potentially, the Tree and all things required to a sensible Tree, and which follow the being thereof, certainly then that beginning, and cause must as a Cause have complicitly and absolutely in itself, whatsoever it gives to the effect thereof, and so I see that that virtue and power is the face or Pattern of every arborall face and of every Tree where I see that Nut-tree not in its contracted seminal virtue, and power, but as in the Cause and making power of that seminal virtue. And consequently I see the Tree to be a certain explication of the seminal power, and the seed a certain explication of the Almighty power, And I see that as the tree in the seed is not the tree, but the power of the seed, and that the power of the seed, is it out of which the Tree is explicated or unsolded, so that there is nothing to be found in the Tree which proceeds not from the virtue of the seed so the seminal virtue and power in its cause, which is the power of powers, is not the seminal power, but absolute power. And so is the Tree in thee my God, thyself my God, & in thee is it the truth and exemplar or pattern of its own self, likewise, also the seed of the Tree in thee is the truth and pattern of itself both tree and seed, thou O God art the truth the pattern or exemplar, and that power of the seed which is contracted is the power of the nature of the speces, or fort which is contracted to the speces, and is in it as a contracted beginning But thou O my God art absolute power, and therefore the nature of all natures.  
O God whither hast thou brought me that I should see thy absolute face, to be the natural face of all nature, the face which is the absolute Entity of all being, the art and knowledge of every thing knowable. He therefore that sees thy face, sees all things openly, and there is nothing hid unto him, He knoweth all things, he hath all things, O Lord which hath thee, he hath all things that seethe thee, for no man seethe thee, but he that hath thee, no man cometh to thee, because thou art unapproachable, no man therefore can take thee, except thou give thyself unto him, how have I thee O Lord that am not worthy to appear in thy sight? How can my prayer come unto thee, that art by any means unapproachable? How shall I desire thee for what is more absurd then to desire that thou who art all things in all things shouldst give thyself unto me, and how wilt thou give thyself unto me, unless thou give thyself with all Heaven, and Earth, and all things which are in them.  
Nay how with thou give thyself unto me, except thou give give thyself unto me, and while I thus rest in the silence of Contemplation, thou O Lord answerest within my heart, saying be thou thine own, and I will be thine own.  
O Lord the sweetness of all sweetness, thou hast placed me in my Liherty, that I may if I will be mine own; Hereupon if I he not mine own, thou art not mine, for then shouldest thou necessitate libearty, seeing thou canst not be mine, except I be mine own. And because thou hast put this in my liberty, therefore dost thou not necessitate but expect that I should choose to be mine own the fault therefore is in me, not in thee O Lord, which contractest not thy greatest goodness, but pourest it out most plentifully upon all that are capable. And thou O Lord art my goodness, and how shall I be mine own, except thou O Lord shalt teach me. But this thou teachest me, that sense should obey reason, and reason bear rule. If therefore sense obey reason, I am mine own, yet hath reason nothing to direct her, but thee O Lord which art the word and the reason of reasons.  
Whereupon I now see that if I hear thy word which ceaseth not to speak within me and which shineth continually in reason, I shall be mine own free, and not the servant of Sin, and thou wilt be mine, and give me the sight of thy face, and then I shall be safe, blessed be thou O God in thy gifts, which only art able to comfort my soul, and to erect and quicken it up unto a hope of attaining and enjoying thee, as thine own gift, and the infinite treasure of all, desierable things.   

How Gods seeing is his loving, Causing, Reading, and Containing all things in himself.  
CHAP. 8.  
Restless is my heart O God because thy love hath inflamed it with such a de●●re that it cannot rest but in thee alone. I began to pray the Lords Prayer, and thou inspiredst me to consider how then art our Father, Thy loving is thy seeing; thy Fatherhood is thy seeing which doth so fatherly embrace us all, for we say Our Father; for thou art the universal and singular Father: And every one saying our Father, implies that thy Fatherly love comprehends thy Sons, all and every one for a Father so loves all his Children, that he loves, every one, because he is the Father of all, as well as of every one, and loves every one of his Sons so that every one thinks, himself preferred before all the rest.  
If therefore thou act a Father, and Our Father, surely the love of a Father to his Son preventeth the love of a Son to his Father as long as we are thy sons and look upon thee as 'zounds, thou ceasest not to look upon us as a Father, therefore thou sha●t be our fatherly putveyor having a Fatherly care or us, Thy seeing is thy providence.  
If we thy sons do abdicate thee Our Father we cease to be sons, nor are we then free sons in our own power, but we go into a fare Country, separating ourselves from thee, and then we undergo a grievous slavery under a Prince which is Enemy to thee O God: But thou O Father though for the liberty given us as being the sons of thee which art liberty itself, thou suffer us to go away and spend our liberty, and best substance after the corrupt desires of our fences, Yet dost thou not forsake us utterly, but art present continually, soliciting us, speaking in us, and calling us back to return to thee, ready always to look upon us with the former fatherly eye, if we return and convert to thee.  
O God of pity look upon me, who being pricked with compunction for the miserable slavery of the slippery filthiness of Swine, where I died for hunger, do now return that I may howsoever it pleaseth thee, be fed in thy house, feed me with thy sight O Lord, and teach me how thy sight sees all that sees, and every thing that may be seen & every Act of seeing, and every seeing power, and every power that may be seen, and every thing that ariseth from them, forty seeing is causing. Teach me O Lord how at one glance thou deservest them all together, and severally, when I open the Book to read, I see confusedly the whole lease, and if I will distinguish every letter and word, I must of necessity turn myself particularly to every one in Order, I cannot read but one letter after another, and one line after another but thou O Lord lookest upon and readest all the paper together without any delay of time and if two of us read the same thing, one a pace, and the other slowly, thou readest with both, and seemest to read in time, because thou readest with them that read and seest, and readest all things together above time.  
Thy seeing is thy reading, thou from eternity hast seen and read together beyond all delay of time, all the Books which have been or may be written, and at the same instant, thou readest them successively with them that do so read them neither dost thou read one thing in eternity, and another with them that read in time, but being always the same, and after the same manner, because thou art not changeable, being fixed Eternity, and eternity in that it forsakes not, time seems to be moved with time, a thong indeed motion and eternity is rest.  
Lord thou seest and hast eyes, thou art therefore an eye, because with thee to have is to be, and for this Cause in thyself thou seeft all things, for if in me seeing were the Eye, as it is in thee my God, then could I see all things in myself, because the eye is of the nature of Glass, and a glass though never so little will figuratively represent a great Mountain, and all things that are in the surface thereof, and so the species of all things are in a glasly eye, yet because our sight doth not by means of the glasly eye see any thing but that particular whereunto it turns itself, because the power thereof cannot but be particularly determined by the object, therefore it seethe not all things that are contained in the Glass of the Eye, but thy sight being an Eye, or a living Glass seethe a l things in itself, nay being the Cause of all visible things, therefore it contains, and sees all things in the Cause, and reason of all things that is in itself.  
Thy eye O Lord proceedeth to all things without turning, our Eye turneth itself to the object, because our sight sees by a corner that hath quantity, but the Corner of thy Eye O God hath no quantity, but is infinite being a Circle, nay an infinite Sphere: for thy sight is an Eye of infinite Sphericity or roundness, and perfection, it seethe therefore all things round about and above, and below, O how wonderful is thy sight which is (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) God ●o all that search for 〈◊〉 How fair and amiable to all th●● love thee, How terrible to all that have forsaken thee O my God: for thou by thy sight O Lord quicken'st every spirit, makest glad every one that is blessed, and puttest to flight all sorrow: look therefore mercifully upon me and my soul is safe.   

How the sight of God is both universal and Particular, and what is the way thereto  
CHAP. 9  
Dear Lord, I cannot but wonder how (seeing thou lookest upon all, and every one as this painted Image which I behold, figures out unto me) in thy visive or seeing power, the Universal conicides with the singular: But then I wonder that therefore ●y imagination conceives not how this may be done, because it is in my own visive power that I seek for thy Vision which is not contracted to a sensible Organ as mine is, and therefore am I deceived in my judgement. Thy seeing O Lord is thy offence. If therefore I look to humanity which is one and simple in all men, I find it both in all and every man, And although in itself it be neither Easterly, nor Weasterly, nor Southerly, nor Northerly, yet in Easterly men it is in the East, and in the Westerly men in the West, and so though motion and rest be not of the essence of humanity, yet it is moved with men that move and resteth with them that rest, and it standeth with them that stand all together at one and the same instant, because whether men move or be not moved whether they sleep or rest, humanity forsakes not men. Whereupon if this nature of humanity, which is contracted and no where found without men; If I say that be so, that it be not more present to one man than another, and be so perfectly present to one as if it were present to none other, much more deeply than shall humanity incontracted (which is the pattern and Idea of this contracted nature, and which is as the form, and the truth of this contracted form of humanity) never forsake humanity contracted in the individuals, for it is the form which gives being unto the formal nature itself. Therefore cannot the specifical form be without it, when as by itself, it hath no being, for it is from tha● which is by itself, before which there is none other.  
Therefore that form which gives being to the species, is an absolute form, and that art thou O God, which art the former of Heaven; and earth, and all things.  
When therefore I look to the contracted humanity, & through that to absolute humanity, that is seeing in the contracted the absolute, as in the effect the cause and in the truth the Pattern; then meetest thou me my God as the sampler or pattern of all men▪ and man by himself that is absolute.  
And when likewise in all other species and kinds I turn myself to the form of forms, in all these dost thou occur, or present thyself, as the Idea or Sampler. And because thou art an absolute or most sample-samplar or pattern, thou art not compounded of many Samplars, but art one most sample and absolute sampler, so that of all and every thing that can be form, thou art the most true and adequat sampler. Therefore thou art the essence of essences▪ giving to contracted essences to be that which they are: for without thee O Lord nothing can be: If then thy essence pierce all things, thy sight must needs do so too, being thy essence.  
As therefore none of the things that are, can fly from their proper being, so neither from thy essence, which gives, being to the essence of all things, and so by consequence not from thy sight neither. Therefore thou O Lord seest all thing, and every particular together, and thou art moved withal things that are moved, & standest still with all things that stand still & in as much as there are things found which are moved, when other things stand still, therefore thou O Lord standest still, and are moved both at once, for if motion and rest be both found together at the same time, contracted in divers things, and nothing can be besides or without thee, then there is neither motion nor rest without thee, but unto every one of them all art thou present O Lord, together and at once, and to each of them wholly, and yet thou art neither moved nor resteth, because thou art superexalted and absolute or free from all those things which can neither be named or conceived. Thou standest therefore, and thou goest, and yet thou neither standest nor goest, and that this painted face shows me full well, for if I be moved, the face thereof appeareth to be moved, because it forsakes me not: And if whilst I move, another that beholds the face stand, still the countenance likewise forsaketh not him, but stands still with him that stands. Yet can it not properly agree to an absolute face or sight that is freed from these respects, either to stand or be moved in that it is above all station or motion, in most simple and absolute infinity after or beneath which infinity, is motion and rest, and opposition, and whatsoever can be said or conceived.  
Whereupon I find by experience, how it is necessary for me to enter the mist, and to admit the covicidence of opposites above all capacity of reason, and there to seek the truth where I meet with▪ impossibility, and above that the nighest intellectual ascent, when I shall come to that which is unknown to every unde standing, and which every understanding▪ judgeth farthest off from truth; there art thou O my God which art absolute necessity.  
And by how much more that misty impossibility is known to be more dark, and impossible, so much the more doth necessity shine and is the more unvayledly present and draws near.  
Wherefore, I thank thee O my God, because thou showest me there is no other way of coming unto thee, but that which seemeth to all men, even the most learned Philosophers utterly unaccessible, and impossible, because thou hast shown me that thou canst not elsewhere be seen, than when Impossibility meets and crosses me, And thou O Lord which art the food of strong men, hast animated me to do violence to mine own self, to believe, because, Impossibility coincident with necessitate. And so I have found the place where thou wilt revealedly be found, which place is environed with Coincidence of Contradictories, which is the wall of that Paradise wherein thou dwellest, whose gate is kept by a most high spirit of reason, and if that be not overcome, the entry will not be opened. Beyond the Conicideuce of contradictories, therefore thou wilt or mayest be seen, but not on this side of it.  
If therefore impossibility be necessity in thy sight O Lord, than there is nothing that thy sight doth not see.   

How God is seen beyond the conicidence of contradictories and how seeing is being.  
CHAP. 10.  
DRead God, I stand before the image of thy face, which I look upon with my sensible eyes, and with my ineternall eyes, I labour to behold that truth which is signified in thee, and it comes into my mind O Lord, how thy seeing speaks, for thy speaking is nothing else but thy sight, being they do not really differ in thee, which art absolute simplicity itself. Then I do clearly find by experience, that thou seest all things together, and every thing severally: for I myself when I Preach at one and the same time, speak one word to the whole Church assembled together, and to every one that is amongst them, and in that word which I speak to all, I speak to every one, That which the Church is to me, that unto thee O Lord is the whole world, and every particular Creature that is or can be, so therefore thou speakest to all, and every one, and those things to which thou speakest, thou seest O Lord, which art the chiefest consolation of all that trust in thee, thou inspirest me to praise thee from the contemplation of myself, for thou hast given me one face as thou pleasest, and that is seen generally, and particularly, to all to whom I preach, my own face is therefore seen by all, and my simple speech is wholly heard by all and every one, but I cannot distinctly hear all them speaking together, but one after one: nor distinctly see them altogether, but one after one, yet if there were in me so great power, that hearing and being heard, should coincident and be all one, and seeing, and being seen, as also speaking, and hearing (as in thee O Lord which art the Highest power) than I could both hear and see all at once, and every one in particular by themselves, and as I could speak to every one in particular, at once, so in the same instant, while I speak, I could see and hear the answers of all and every one. Now then as being placed in the Door of the coincidence of opposites, which the Angel keepeth in the entrance of Paradise, I begin to see thee O Lord for thou art there where to speak, to hear, to see to taste, to touch, to reason, to know, and to understand, are all the same thing, and where seeing coincides which being seen and hearing with being heard, and tasting with being tasted, and touching, with being touched, and speaking with hearing, and creating with speaking. If I could see as I am visible or to be seen, I were not a Creature, and if thou O Lord shouldst not see as thou art to be seen, thou wert not God Almighty, thou art Visible unto all Creatures, and seest all for in that thou seest all, thou art seen of all, otherwise they could not be Creatures, because by thy vision they are. And if they should not see thee, seeing they could not take from thee their being; the being of the Creature is thy seeing, and being seen.  
Thou speakest by thy word to all things that are, and callest to bring the things that are not, Thou callest therefore that they may hear thee, when they hear thee, than they are, when therefore thou speakest, thou speakest to all things, and all things to whom thou speakest hear thee. Thou speakest to the Earth, and callest it to humane nature, and the Earth heareth thee, and its hearing is to be made man Thou speakest unto nothing, as if it were something, and nothing hears thee, because it was made something, which was nothing.  
O infinite power, thy conceiving is to speak, thou conceivest Heaven, and it is as thou conceavest, thou conceivest Earth, and it is as thou conceivest, while thou conceivest, thou seest, and speakest, and workest, and whatsoever can be said. But how wonderful art thou O my God, thou speakest once, thou conceivest once, how then art thou allthings together, but successively many things, how are so many divers things from one conception, thou enlightnest me that am upon the Threshold of the Door, by telling me that thy conception is most simple eternity itself and there is nothing can possibly be done after most simple eternity, for infinite duration which is eternity itself, includeth, and comprehendeth all succession. Therefore whatsoever appears unto us in succession, is not after thy conception which is eternity, for thy one and only conception which is thy word, complicates, & infoulds all things, and every particular, and thy Eternal word cannot be manifold nor divers nor variable, nor changeable, because it is simple Eternity.  
So I see O Lord, that there is no thing after thy conception, but all things are because thou conceavest them and thou conceavest them in Eternity, and succession in Eternity, is Eternity itself without succession, even thy word O Lord God: Thou hast no sooner conceived any thing that appears unto us, temporally than it is: for Eternity in which thou conceavest all temporal succession coincides in the same now or instant of Eternity nothing can there be past or to come, where to come and passed coincides with the present; But that things in this world are according to before and after, is because thou didst not before conceive those things that they should be, if thou hadst sooner conceived them, they had sooner been, but in whose conception soever there can fall first, and later, that he can first conceive one thing, and after another, he is not Almighty, but because thou art God Almighty thou art within the Wall in Paradise: And that Wall is that Coincidence, where after coincides with before, or latter, with first where the end coincides with the beginning, where Alfa and Omega are the same.  
Things therefore are always because thou speakest that they may be, and they are not before because thou speakest not before, and when I read that Adam was before so many years, and that such a one was borne to day, It seems to me impossible that Adam should be then, because thou then wouldst, and the other borne to day, because thou now wouldst; And yet thou didst not will Adam to be sooner, than thou wouldst him that was born to day, but that which seems impossible is necessity itself, for now & then are after or beneath thy word, Therefore they meet with him that comes to thee in the Wall which environs the place where thou dwellest in Conicidence; For now and then conicides in the cirele of the Wall of Paradise: But thou my God art and speakest beyond now and then, which art absolute Eternity.   

How in God succession of time is seen without succession.  
CHAP. 12.  
O My God, I have experience of thy goodness which art so fare from despising me a miserable sinner, That thou on the other side dost sweetly feed me with a certain desire or longing, for thou hast inspired into me a most welcome similitude, as touching the unity of the mental word or conception, and the variety thereof in those things that appear successively: For the simple conception of a most perfect Clock leads me a more feeling and savoury sight of thy conception and word, for the simple conception of a clock, complicates or wraps up all temporal succession, And put case that a Clock be a concep●ion, then though we hear the sound of the 6th hour, before the 7th yet the 7th is not heard but when the concep●ion commands, neither is 6th sooner in conception, than the 7th or 8th but in the simple conception of a Clock, there is no hour before or after another, although the Clock never strike but when the conception bids: And it may be truly said when the Clock strikes six, that then the Clock strikes six; because the conception of the Master will have it so and because a Clock in the conception of God is a conception, it may a little appear how succession in a Clock is without succession in a word or conception and how in that most simple conception are folded up all motions and found'st, and whatsoever we find in succession, and that whatsoever happens successively doth not by any means exceed the conception, but is an explication of the conception because the conception gives being to every thing: And that therefore nothing is sooner than it comes to pass because it was not sooner conceived than it might be; Suppose then a conception of a Clock to be Eternity, and then the motion in the Clock is to be succession, therefore eternity doth both, enfold, and unfold succession, for the conception of a Clock which is Eternity; doth both complicate and explicate all things.  
B●essed be thou therefore O Lord my God. which feedest and nourishest me with the milk of similitudes, until thou give me stronger meat: Led me O Lord God by these paths to thee, for except thou lead me, I shall saint by the way, because of the frailty of my corruptible nature, and the foolish Vessel which I bear about me: I return again in conifidence of thy help, O Lord to find thee beyond the wall of confidence, complication, and explication, and as I go in and out by this door of thy word and conception, I find most sweet pasture and food, when I find thee explicating thy power, I go out, when I find thee both complicating, and explicating; I go in and out, I go in from the Creatures, to thee thou Creator, from the effect to the cause, I go out from the Creator to the creatures, from the cause to the effect, I go both in and out together, when I see how going out is going in, and going in at the same instant going out, As he that numbereth doth at the same time, both explicate and complicate, explicate the power of unity, and complicate number into unity. For the creatures going out from thee, is for thee to enter into the Creature, and to explicate is to complicate, And when I see thee God in Paradise, encompassed there within the wall of the conifidence of contraries, I see that thou dost neither complicate nor explicate disjunctively nor copulatively; For disjunction and communion are both a like, the wall of connifidence, beyond which thou art absolute and free from all that can be either said or thought.   

That where the invisible is seen, the uncreated is created.  
CHAP. 12.  
CRown of my joy and happiness thou hast appeared unto me, sometimes as invisible from every creature because thou art a God secret and hidden, and infinite, and infinite is incomprehensible by any manner of comprehension, Then thou appearedst to me as visible to all things, for every thing is so far forth as thou seest it: and that could not be in act; except it did see thee, for vision gives being, because it is thy Essence; So thou my God art visible, and invisible thou art, invisible as thou art, and thou art visible as the creature is, which so fare forth is as it sees thee, by every thing that sees, in every thing that may be seen, and in every act of seeing art thou seen, which art invisible, and absolute, and free from all such things, and infinitely superexalted; Therefore O Lord I must leap over the Wall of invisible vision where thou art found; and the Wall is all things, and nothing both together, and thou which meetest or appearest to us as though thou wert all things, and nothing at all both together, dwellest within that high Wall which no wit can by its own power ever be able to climb.  
Sometimes thou appearest unto me, so that I imagine thou seest all things in thyself, like a living Glass, in which all things shine, and because thy seeing is thy knowing, than it comes into my mind that thou dost not see also things in thyself as in a living Glass, for then thy knowledge should arise from the things: Sometimes thou presentest thyself to me, that thou seest all things in thyself, as power or virtue, by looking upon itself, As the power or possibility of the seed of a Tree, if it should look into and behold itself, would in itself see the Tree in power; because the virtue of the seed is potentially the Tree, and then again, me thinks that thou dost not see thyself, and all things in thyself, as power or possibility, for to see a Tree in the power of the virtue, differs from that vision by which the Tree is seen in act, and then I find how thy infinite virtue or power is beyond all specular and seminal virtue, and beyond the conicidence, radiation or reflection of the cause, and also the thing caused, and that that absolute virtue is absolute vision, which is perfection itself, above all manner of seeing: for all the manners which explain the perfection of seeing are without any manners, thy Vision which is thy Essence, O my God.  
But suffer most merciful Lord that I thy vild Creature may yet speak unto thee; If thy seeing be thy creating, and thou seest nothing but thyself, but thyself art the object of thyself, (for thou art both the thing seeing and the things seen, and the act of seeing, how then dost thou create other things from thee, for thou seemest to create thyself as thou seest thyself, But thou comfortest me O life of my spirit, for although I meet with the wall of absurdity, which is of the Conicidence of creating and being created, as though it were impossible that creating and being created should coincide (for to admit this, seems to be as if one should affirm, that a thing is before it is, for when it creates it is, and because it is created it is not) yet it hinders not, for thy creating is thy being, neither is it any other things at once to create, and to be created, than to communicate thy being unto all things, that thou mayest be all things in all things, and yet remain absolute from all things, for to call to being things that are not, is to communicate, being to nothing, so to call is to create, to communicate is to be created. And beyond this Coincidence of creating and being created, act thou God absolute and infinite, neither creating nor in possibility of being created, although they are all that they are because thou art.  
O thou heights of riches, how incomprehensible art thou, as long as I conceive a Creator, creating, I am yet on this side the wall of Paradise, so as long as I conceive a Creator in possibility of being created, I have not yet entered, but am in the wall, but when I see thee as absolute infinite, whereunto neither the name of a Creator creating, nor of a Creator in possibility of being created can agree, than I begin to see thee revealedly, and to enter into the Garden of delights, because thou art no such thing as can be said, or conceived, but infinitely and absolutely super-exalted above all such things. Thou art not therefore only a Creator, but infinitely more than a Creator, though without thee nothing is done, or can be done: To thee be praise and glory for ever and ever, Amen.   

That God is seen absolute infinite.  
CHAP. 13.  
THou Lord God, thou help of them that seek thee, I see thee in the Garden of Paradise, and I know not what I see, for I see nothing visible, only this I know, that I know not what I see, nor ever can know it, name thee I cannot, because I know not what thou art; And if any man say thou art named by this or that name, in as much as he nameth thee, I know that it is not thy name, for every term of the manner of significations of name is a Wall, beyond which I fee thee.  
And if any man express any conception, by which thou mayst be conceived, I know that conception is not the conception of thee, for every conception is terminated in the Wall of Paradise, And if any man express any similitude, and say that according thereunto thou art to be conceived. I know likewise that similitude is nor thine, so if any man declare any understanding of thee, as though he would give a means to understand thee, this man is yet fare from thee, for from all these, art thou separated by a most high Wall: This Wall separates thee from all things that can be said or thought, for thou art absolute from all things that can fall into any man's conception, Therefore when I am highest of all lifted up, than I see thee infinity, therefore art thou inaccessible, incomprehensible, unnameable, unmultipliable, and invisible, and so he that will ascend to thee must get up above every term and end and things, finite. But how shall he come unto thee, the end whereat he aimeth, if he must assend above the end, He that mounts up above the end, doth he not enter into that which is indeterminate, and confused and so inregard of the understanding, into ignorance and obscurity, which are intellectual confusion; The understanding must therefore become ignorant, and be placed in the shadow if it would see thee, But O my God what is this ignorance of the understanding, is it not a learned ignorance, therefore canst not thou O God be approached unto, as being infinite, but by him whose understanding, is in ignorance, and namely such a one as knows himself to be ignorant of thee, How can the understanding conceive thee which art infinity; The understanding knows itself ignorant, and that thou canst not be conceived, because thou art infinity. For to understand infinity, is to comprehend that which is incomprehensible.  
The understanding knows itself ignorant of thee, because it knows thou canst not be known, unless that which is unknowable be known, and the invisible seen, or the inaccessible approached unto. Thou my God art absolute infinity, which I see to be an infinite end, but I can not conceive how an end should be an end without an end. Thou O God art the end of thyself, because thou art whatsoever thou hast, if thou hast an end thou art an end, Thou art therefore an infinite end because thou art the end of thyself, for thy end is thy essence, the essence of the end is not determined or limited in another end, but in itself, the end therefore which is the end or bound of itself is infinite. And every end which is not the end of itself is a finite end, thou O Lord because thou art the bound that boundest all things, therefore art thou the end or bond whereof there is no end or bound, and so the bound without bound, or infinite bound which passeth all reason, for it folds a Contradiction.  
When therefore I affirm a boundless bound or an infinite end, I admit darkness to belight, ignorance, knowledge, and that which is impossible to be necessary or of necessity; And because we admit that there is a bound of that which is bounded, we must necessarily admit of an infinite or last end or bound without abound, but we cannot but admit infinite being, therefore we cannot but admit the infinite Consequently we admit the Coincidence of contraries, above which is the infinite. And that Coincidence is a contradiction without a contradiction, as an end without end.  
And thou O Lord sayest unto me that as alterity in unity is without alterity, because it is unity, so contradiction in infinity is without contradiction, because infinity. infinity is simplicity itself, but contradiction cannot be without alterity, yet alterity insimplicity is without alteration, because it is simplicity, for all things that are said are affirmed of absolute simplicity▪ coincide or are the same with it, because there to have, is to be, the opposition of opposites, is their opposition without opposition▪ as the end or bond of things infinite is no end or bound without end or bond.  
Thou therefore O God art the opposition of opposites, because thou art infinite, and because thou art infinite, thou art infinite itself: In infinity is opposition of opposites without opposition.  
O Lord my God, the strength of the weak, I see thee to be infinity itself, therefore to thee, there is nothing other or divers or contrary, and adverse for he that is infinite doth not suffer with himself any alterity, because (being infinity) there is no thing besides or without it, for absolute infinite, includes and environs all things. Therefore if there were infinite and something besides it, it were not infinite nor any thing else, for infinite cannot be either greater or less, therefore thereiss nothing besides or beyond it, for if infinity did not, include within itself all being it were not infinite▪ And if there were no infinite, then were there no end or bond nor alteritie, nor diversity, which without alterity of bands and terms cannot be Infinite, therefore being taken away, there remaineth nothing, there is therefore infinity, and it complicates all things, as nothing can be besides it, and hereupon here is nothing other, or divers unto it, infinity therefore is so all things that it is none of them all.  
To Infinity therefore, there can no name agree, for every name may have a contrary, but to unnameable infinity, there can be nothing contrary, neither is infinity the whole, whereunto is opposed a part, nor can it be a part, nor can infinity be great, or little, nor any thing which can be named, neither in heaven or in earth, above all these is infinity, infinity is to nothing either great or less or equal.  
But while I consider infinity neither to be greater nor less to any thing imaginable, I say it is the measure of all things being neither greater nor less. And so I conceive it the equality of being, such an equality is infinity, yet is it not so equality, as mequality opposed unto it, but there equality is inequality, for inequality in infinity is without inequality because it is Infinite, so equality in Infinity is infinity, Infinity equality, is an end without end; whereupon though it be neither greater nor less, yet is it not equality, as contracted equality is understood, but it is infinite equality, which is not capable of more or less, and so it is not more equal to one then to another, but so equal to one that to all, and so to all that to none of all, for that which is infinite is not contractable, but remains absolute, if it were contractable by Infinity, it were not infinite: It is not therefore contractable to the equality of the finite although it be not equal to any thing, for how should inequality agree with the infinite, whereunto agreeth neither more nor less.  
Therefore that which is infinite, is neither greater nor less, nor inequal to any thing imaginable, and yet it is not, therefore equal to that which is infinite, because it is above every finite thing, to wit, by itself, that which is infinite than is it utterly absolute, and incontractable.  
How high art thou O Lord above all things and with all how humble, because in all things: If infinity were contractible to any thing nominable, as a line, or a surface, or a species, or kind, it would draw to itself that whereunto it were contracted, and it implies that the infinity should be conttactible, for it should not be contracted, but attract; for if I say that the infinite is contracted to a Line, as when I say an infinite Line, then is the Line attracted or drawn to that which is infinity, for a line ceaseth to be a line when it hath no quantity or end, an infinite line is not a line, but a line in infinite is infinite: And as nothing can be added to that which is infinite, so the infinite cannot be contracted unto any thing, to make it other then infinite, infinite goodness is not goodness but infinite, infinite quantity is not quantity but infinity, and so in all things.  
Thou art a great God of whose greatness there is no end; and therefore I see thee, the unmeasurable measure of all things, as the infinite end of all things.  
Thou art therefore O Lord without beginning and end, because infinite, thou art the beginning without beginning, and the end without end, and so the beginning that the end, and so the end that the beginning, and neither beginning nor end, but above them both even absolute, infinity itself blessed for evermore.   

How God complicateth or infoldeth all things without alterity.  
CHAP 14.  
O Lord God by the infiniteness of thy mercy I see thou art infinity encompassing all things. There is therefore nothing without thee, but all things in thee, nothing that is another thing from thee: Thou teachest me O Lord how alterity which is not in thee, is not likewise in itself, neither can it be, nor doth that alterity which is not in thee, cause that one Creature is different from another, although indeed one be not the other, for the Heaven is not the Earth, though it be true that the Heaven is the Heaven, and the Earth the Earth.  
If I therefore seek for alteritie which is neither within thee nor without thee, where shall I find it, and if there be no such thing, how then is the earth another Creature than the heavens, for without alteritie this cannot be conceived, but thou speakest in me O Lord and sayest that of alterity there is no positive principle or beginning, and so it is not for how should alterity be without beginning, except itself were a beginning, and Infinity; But alterity is not the principle of being, for it is called alterity of not being, for because one thing is not another, therefore it is called Alterum or another, alterity therefore cannnt be the principle of being, because it is so called from not being, neither hath it principle of being when it is not from being.  
Therefore is not alteritie any thing but that Heaven is not Earth, it is because Heaven is not infinite itself which containeth all being.  
Whereupon because infinity is absolute infinity, it comes to pass that one thing cannot be another.  
As the being of Socrates, includeth all the being of Socrates, in which simple being of Socrates there is not alterity or diversity, for the being of Socrates, is the individual unity of all things that are in Socrates, so that in that one being is complicated the being of all things which are in Socrates, namely in the very individual simplicity, where there is nothing found other, or divers: But in that one and only being all things which have any being belonging to Socrates are, and are explicated, and without or besides it, they neither are nor can be, although withal in that most simple being, the eye be not the ear, nor the head the heart, and the seeing is not hearieg, nor sense reason, nor doth this happen out of any principle of alterity, but presupposing the most simple being of Socrates it comes to pass that the head is not the feet, because the head is not the most simple being of Socrates, And therefore the being thereof doth not include the whole being of Socrates.  
And so I see (thou O Lord giving me light) that because the simple being of Socrates is altogether incommunicable, and uncontractable to the being of any Member whatsoever, therefore the being of one Member is not the being of another▪ but that most simple being of Socrates, is the being of all the Members of Socrates in which all the variety and alteritie of being which is in the Members is simple unity, as the plurality of the forms of the parts is unity in thy form of the whole, so it is in some sort O God between thy being which is absolutely infinity, and all those things that are, absolutely I say, as the absolute form of being of all contracted forms. Thence it is that the hand of Socrates, being separated from his body, though after it be cut off, it be not any more the hand of Socrates, yet it remains still in some being of Carcase, and that is because the form of Socrates which gives being, doth not give being simply, but a contract d being, namely the being of Socrates, from which the being of the hand is separable, and yet may remain under another form, but if the hand were once wholly separated from the uncontracted, being which is infinite and absolute, it would altogether cease to be, brcause it were then separated from all being.  
I thank thee O Lord my God, who as far as I am able to conceive largely, showest me how thou art infinity itself, complicating and infolding the being of all things in most simple power which were not infinite, except infinitely united, for power united is the stronger. Therefore that power which is so united that it cannot be more, is infinite and omnipotent. Thou art God Almighty, because absolute simplicity, which is absolute infinity.   

That actual infinity is unity, in which the figure is Verity.  
CHAP. 15.  
REgard thy servant in mercy, Lord, though he be a fool, save from what thou grantest, that he may speak unto thee his God.  
I see it this painted face the figure of infinity, for the sight is indeterminate either to object or place, and so infinite, for it is not more turned to one then to another of them that look upon it, And although the sight thereof be in itself infinite, yet it seems to be terminated by every one that looks upon it, because it looks upon every one that looks upon it so determinately, as though it looks on him alone and nothing else.  
Thou seemest therefore unto me O Lord as possibility and being absolute and infinite formable and determinable by every form for me, for we say that the formable possibility of the matter is infinite, because it can never be finished, but thou answer'st in me, O infinite light that absolute power, or possibility is infinity itself, which is beyond the Wall of coincidence, where possibility of being made Coincides with possibility of making where power coincides with Act matter although it be in power to infinite forms, yet it cannot have them all at once actually, but the power is terminated by one, and that removed by another. If there fore the (posse esse) may be, of the matter should coincide with the Act, it would so be power that it would be act also, and as it was in power to infinite formed, so it would be actually form infinitely. Now infinity in act is without alteritie, and it cannot be infinity, but it must be unity, There can not therefore be infinite forms in Act, but actual infinity is unity. Thou therefore O God which art infinite itself, art thyself, one God, in which I see all may be is in act, for possibility absolute or free from all power contracted to matter or any passive power whatsoever is absolute being, for whatsoever is in infinite being is the most simple infinite itself, so to may be all things in the infinite being is the infinite being itself, likewise also actually to be all things in the infinite is the infinite being itself; Wherefore the absolute may be, and the absolute being in Act in thee my God are nothing but thou my infinite God, thou my God art all may be.  
The may be of the matter is material, and so contracted, and not absolute, so the sensible and rational may be is contracted, but to be altogether uncontracted coincides with simply absolute, that is infinite.  
When therefore thou my God appearest unto me as matter formable, because thou receivest the form of every one that beholds thee, than thou liftest me up to see how he that looks upon thee, doth not give thee form, but in thee he beholds himself, because from thee he receives that which he is. And so what thou seemest to receive from the beholder, that thou givest as being the living glass of eternity which is the form of forms; In which glass whilst one looks he sees his own form, in the form of forms, which is the glass, and judgeth the form which he sees in that glass to be the figure of his form, because it is so in material pollist glass, though the contrary thereof be true, because, that which he sees in the Glass of eternity, is not the figure but the truth of that which himself (the beholder) is the figure. The figure therefore in thee in God is truth and the sampler or pattern of all and every thing that is or may be.  
O God which art wonderful to every understanding, thou seemest sometimes as if thou wert a shadow, and thou art light, For when I see how according to my Change the sight of thy Picture seems changed, thy face also seems changed, because thou appearest to me changed as if thou wert the shadow that followeth the alteration of him that walketh. But because I am the living shadow, and thou the truth, I judge by the change of the shadow that the truth is changed. Thou therefore O my God art the shadow, but so that, thou art the truth also, thou art the image of me, and of every thing, but so that thou art the exemplar and pattern also.  
O Lord God the enlightner of hearts, my face is a true face, because thou that art the truth hast given it me, My face is also an Image, because it is not the truth itself, but the Image of the absolute truth, therefore I do complicate and enfold in my conception the truth and the Image of my face, and I see that in it the Image coincides with the facial truth, so that in as much as an Image in so much it, it true. And then thou shown me O Lord, how according to the mutation of my face, thy face is both changed and unchanged, changed because it forsakes not the truth of my face, unchanged because it followeth not the change of the Image: Wherefore as thy face forsakes not the truth of my face, so it follows not the changing of an alterable Image, for absolute truth is unalterability, the truth of my face is mutable, because it is so, the truth that it is also the Image, but thine is unchangeable, because it is so an Image that it is also the truth; Absolute Truth cannot forsake the truth of my face, for if it should forsake it my face which is mutable, truth could not subsist.  
So dost thou seem to me O God (because of thine infinite goodness) immutable, because thou forsakest not the mutable Creature, but because thou art absolute goodness thou art not mutable, because thou dost not follow mutability, and thy most performed depth O God that dost not forsake, and withal dost not follow the Creatures: O inexplicable piety that offerest thyself to him that beholds thee, as if thou tookest being from him, and comfortest thyself to him that he may love thee the more, by how more like to him thou art, for we cannot hate ourselves, therefore we love that which participates and accompanies our being, and we embrace our likeness, because we are represented in the Image in which we love ourselves.  
Thou showest thyself O God as our Creature out of humility of thine infinite goodness, that so thou mayst draw us unto thee, for thou dost draw us to thee by all means possible, that a free reasonable Creature can be drawn by. And in thee O God Creating Coincides, which being created, for the Image which seems to be Created by me is the truth that createth me, that so at length I may understand how much I ought to be bound unto thee, when in thee loving, and being coincides, for if I ought to love myself in thee my similitude, and then be especially bound unto it when I see thee love me as thy Creature, and Image, how cannot that father love his son, who is so a Son, that he is a Father also, And if he be much to be loved which is a son in estimation and a father in knowledge, art not thou most of all which in estimation exceedest a son, and in knowledge a Father.  
Thou God wouldst that filial love should consist in estimation and thou wilt be esteemed liker than a son, and be known more intimate than a Father, because thou art love, complicating and infolding, aswell filial, as paternal delection. Be thou therefore which art my sweetest love, my God blessed for evermore.   

That God except he were infinite could not be the end of our desires.  
CHAP. 16.  
O My God the fire ceaseth not to burn, nor more doth the love of desire which is carried towards thee, which art every desirable form, and that truth which in every desire is desired, wherefore since I have begun from thy melliflous gift to taste thy incomprehensible sweetness, which the more infinite it appears is so much the more welcombe unto me, I see that for this cause thou O God art unknown to all Creatures that in this most sacred ignorance, as in an in unmeasurable, and inexhaustible treasure, they may have the greater rest, for much more joyful is he that finds such a treasure as he knows is utterly innumerable and infinite, than he that finds such a treasure as is but finite, and may be numbered. Hereupon this most sacred ignorance of thy greatness is the most desired and longed for food of my understanding, especially when I find such a treasure in my field, and therefore the treasure is mine own. O fountain of riches thou wilt be comprehended in my possession & yet remain incomprehensible and infinite, because thou art the treasure of delights, whereof no man can desire an end, how should the appetite desire not being, for whether the will desire not being the appetite cannot rest but is carried into infinity.  
Thou descendest O Lord that thou mayst be comprehended, thou remainest inunnumerable and infinite, and didst thou not remain infinite thou couldst not be the end of the desire, for the intellectual desire is not carried to that which can be greater or more ; But every thing on this side, the infinite may be greater, therefore the end of the desire is infinite; Thou then O God art infinity itself, which alone I desire in all my desires, and the knowledge whereof I can come no nearer than to know that it is infinite. By how much more incomprehensible, therefore I may comprehend thee my God, so much more do I attain unto thee because I do the more attain the end of my desire, whatsoever therefore I meet withal that labours not to show thee incomprehensible, that I cast away, because it seduceth me.  
My desire then is in that which leads me to thee, because it casteth away all that is finite and comprehensible, for in these it cannot rest, being by thyself led unto thee, as the beginning without beginning, and the end without end. Therefore is my desire led by the eternal beginning (from whom it hath that it is a desire) to the end without end and that is infinite; That I therefore a poor man should not be contracted with thee my God, if I had known comprehensible proceeds from hence, because I am led by thee unto thyself incomprehensible and infinite.  
I see thee O Lord my God in a certain mental rapture, because if the sight be not satisfied with seeing▪ nor the Ear with hearing, then much less is the understanding with understanding: Therefore that which it understandeth, doth not satisfy the understanding, neither is it the end thereof nor can that (on the other side) satisfy it which it understandeth not at all but only that which it understandeth in not understanding, for that intelligible which it knoweth, doth not satisfy nor that which it knoweth doth not satisfy, nor that which it knoweth not all but that which it knows so intelligible, that it can never be fully understood, that only can satisfy. As he that hath an insatiable hunger cannot be satisfied with a little meat, nor with that meat (though never so much) that he cannot come at, but only with that meat which he can both come at, and which though he continually swallow, yet can it never be all swallowed, being such as in swallowing is not diminished because it is infinite.   

That God cannot perfectly be seen except he be seen unitrine, or one in three.  
CHAP. 17.  
Fair and amiable hast thou shown thyself unto me O God that more thou canst not be, for thou art infinitely lovely O my God therefore thou canst never be loved by any thing as thou art worthy of love but by an infinite lover, for except there were an infinite lover, thou wert not infinitely amiable, for thy amiableness which is to be inpossibility of being infinitely loved, is because there is a possibility of loving infinitely, from which, and the possibility of being infinitely loved arriseth an infinite Bound of love of the infinite lover, and the infinite amiable, and is not multiplicable.  
Thou therefore O my God which art love, art the love, loving, and the love amiable, and the love which is bond of the love loving, & the love amiable, I see in thee my God a love loving, and a love amiable: And in that I see in thee a 1. loving love and an 2. amiable love, I see the 3. bond of either love, and this is nothing else but what I see in thy absolute unity, in which I see a unity uniting a unity that may be united, and the union of both: And whatsoever I see in thee my God that thou art, Thou art therefore that infinite love which without the loving, and the amiable, the Bond of both cannot to me seem natural and perfect love, for how can I conceive the most perfect and natural love without the loving, and the amiable and the union of both, for that love should be loving and amiable, and the bond of both: I find is contracted love that it is of the essence of perfect love, And that which is of the essence of perfect contracted love, cannot be wanting to absolute love▪ from whence contracted love hath all its perfection, and how much more simple love is, so much the more perfect, but thou my God art most perfect, and simple love therefore thou art to most perfect and simple, and natural essence of love, for hence it followeth that in thee being love, three is not one thing that loves, and another that is loved, and another that is the Bond of love, but the same even thou thyself, O my God, because therefore in thee the lovely coincides with the loved, and it is all one to be loved, and to love, certainly the bond of Coincidence is an essential Bond, for there is nothing ●n thee which is not the essence itself: Therefore they which seem unto me to be three namely the loving, the lovely, and the Bond are the most simple absolute essence, therefore they are not three but one.  
That essence of thine O my God which appears unto me to be most simple, and (that I may so say) most one is not most natural and most perfect without the things before named.  
The essence therefore is threefould, and yet there are not three things in it, because it is most simple. The plurality therefore of the three forenamed is so a plurality, that it is nevertheless a unity, and so is the unity a unity▪ that it is also a plurality, the plurality of three is a plurality without a plural number, for a plural number cannot be a simple unity because it is a plural number: There is therefore no numeral distinction of the three, because that is essential, one number being essentially distinct from another, And because the unity is Trine, it is not a unity of the singular number, for the unity of the singular number is not Trine.  
O most wonderful God, which neither art of the singular nor plural number, but above all plurality and singularity, one in three, and three in one: I see therefore in the Walls of Paradise, where thou my God art, plurality coincide with singularity, and that thou dwellest fare fare beyond that.  
Teach me O Lord how I may conceive that possible which I see to be of necessity, for there meets an impossibility that the plurality of three without which I cannot conceive thee to be perfect, and natural love is a plurality without number, As he that says one, one, one, thrice says thrice one and yet he says not three but one, and this one thrice one he cannot say thrice without three, although he say not three, for when he says one thrice, he repeats the same, and doth not number for to number is to alter one, but to repeat one and the same thrice, as to pleurisy without number. Therefore that plurality which I see in my God, is an alterality without alterity, because it is an alterity which is Identity.  
For when I see the loving is not the lovely, and that the bond is neither the loving nor the lovely, yet do I not so see the loving not to be the lovely, as though the loving were one and the loving, the lovely and the Bond. There is therefore one love, without the which none of the three could be, I am one which am the loving, I am the same which am the lovely, and I likewise am all one which am the Bond arising from the love wherewith I love myself, and yet I am one and not three things.  
Suppose then that my love be my essence as it is in my God, then in the unity of my essence, there would be the unity of the three foresaid, and in the Trinity of the three foresaid unity of essence, and they would be all in my essence contractedly after the manner that I see them to be in thee truly and absolutely, yet for all that love, loving would not be love lovely, nor the bond, and that I find by this practice and experiment.  
For by love loving which I bear to another thing without myself, as it were to an extrinficall lovely, there followeth a Bond of my essence whereby I am bound to that thing as much as in me lieth, which thing is not joined to be by that Bond, because paradventure it loves me not, whereupon though I love it so that my loving, love extends itself upon it, yet my loving love doth not draw with it or to it my lovely love, for I am not lovely to it, for it cares not for me, though I love it extremely, as the Sun sometimes cares not for his Mother though she love him never so tenderly. And so I find by experience that love loving is neither love lovely, nor the Bond, but I see the loving is distinguished from the lovely and the Bond, which distinction nevertheless is not in the Essence of love because I cannot love either myself or any thing, else besides myself without love, so love is of the essence of all the three; And so I see that the essence of those three foresaid is most simple though among themselves they be distinct.  
I have in a similitude O Lord expressed some manner of foretaste of thy nature, but mercifully spare me for attempting to figure out the unfigurable taste of thy sweetness, for if the sweetness of an unknown Apple be unfigurable by any Picture or figure, and unexpressible by all words, who am I miserble sinner that go about to show thee that art unshewable, to figure the visible that art invisible, and to offer or present to the taste that infinite and utterly in expressible sweetness of thine which I never yet deserved to taste, and by those things which I express, I rather make it appeal little than great, But so great is thy goodness O my God that thou sufferest even the blind men to speak of light, and to set forth the praise thereof, of which notwithstanding they neither do nor can know any thing that can be revealed unto them: But Revelation goes not so fare as taste, the ear of faith reacheth not that sweetness which is utterly untasteable. And this thou hast revealed to me O Lord, that the Ear hath not heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man the infiniteness of thy sweetness which thou hast prepared for them that love thee; This thy great Apostle Paul hath revealed unto us, which was ravished beyond the Wall of Coincidence into Paradise, where only thou that art the fountain of delights, canst be revealedly seen, I have laboured to subject myself to a rapture, trusting to thine infinite goodness, that I might see thee that art invisible, and might reveal an unreveleable vision, and how far I have gone thou knowest, but I know not: howsoever sufficient for me is thy grace whereby thou assurest me thou art incomprehensible, and erectest me to a firm hope that thou being my guide, I shall at length come to the fruition of thee.   

That unless God were trine or three in one, he were not felicity.  
CHAP 18.  
DId all men open the eyes of their mind, which they have by thy gift O Lord attained, they might see with me how thou a jealous God because love loves canst hate nothing, for in thyself a lovely God, thou complicatest all things lovely, thou lovest every loving thing that so they might see as I do, by what bond or league thou art united unto all things. Thou O Lord enlargest thy love unto all men, and lovest so all things in general, that withal thou lovest every thing in particular, But many are they that do not love thee, because they prefer something before thee. But if love lovely were not distinct from love loving, thou wouldst be so lovely unto all men, that they could love nothing besides thee and all reasonable spirits would be necessitated to the love of thee. But thou art so noble O my God, that thou wilt have it in the liberty of reasonable souls whether they will love thee or no, wherefore upon thy loving it followeth not that thou art loved.  
Thou therefore O my God, art by the bond of love united unto all things, because housprea dost abroad thy love upon every Creature of thine, but every rational spirit is not united unto thee, because it bestows not its love upon thy loveliness, but upon some other thing whereunto unto it is united and knit.  
Thou hast espoused every reasonable soul by thy loving love, but not every spouse loveth thee her husband, but for the most part some other whereunto she cleaveth, but how could the soul of man thy spouse O my God, attain thy end except thou wert lovely that so by loving thee that art lovely, she might reach the bond and most happy union.  
Who therefore can deny thee to be God, three in one, when he sees that thou wert neither a noble natural nor perfect God, nor his spirit had free will▪ nor himself could come to the fruition of thee and his own happiness except thou wert three and one.  
For because thou art the understanding that understandeth, the understanding intelligible, and the Bond of both, therefore the understanding created may attain in thee its intelligible God, union with thee, and felicity. So being thou art the love lovely, the created loving will, may in thee its lovely God attain union and felicity, for he that receiveth thee God the reasonable receptible light, may come to such a union of thee that he may be united to thee as a Sun to his Father.  
I see O God by thy illumination that a reasonable nature cannot attain to a union with thee, but because thou artaminable and intelligible, wherefore man's nature is not possible to be united to thee a loving God (for so thou art not his object) but he may be united to thee as his lovely God, because that which is lovely is the object of that which loveth, So in like manner that which may be understood is the object of the understanding, and we call that the truth which is the object.  
Wherefore thou my God because thou art the intelligible truth, the created understanding may be united unto thee, and so I see that man's reasonable nature may be united only to thy divine and amiable nature, and that man receiving thee the receptible God, passeth into that Bond which may for the strictness thereof be called by the name of filiation or sonship, for then the Bond of filiation we know no stricter. And if this Bond of union be the greatest, than which a greater cannot be, this must needs come to pass, because if thou the lovely God canst be more beloved by a man, then is that Bond come to the most perfect filiation, that, that filiation may be perfection complicating all possible filiation, by which all sons do attain their last felicity and perfection. In which highest son filiation is as Art in the Master, or the light in the Sun, but in others as Art in the Scholars or light in the Stars.   

How jesus is the union of God and Man.  
CHAP. 19  
I Give unspeakable thanks to thee my God, the life and light of my soul, for now I see the faith which by the Revelation of the Apostles the Catholic Church holdeth namely how thou a loving God begettest of thyself a lovely God and that thou the lovely begotten God att the absolute Mediator, for by thee is every thing that is or can be, for thou the willing or loving God in thyself the lovely God complicatest all things, for every thing that thou O God willest, or conceivest is complicated in thee the lovely God, for there cannot be any thing except thou will it to be: All things therefore in thy lovely conception have their cause or reason of being, neither is there any other cause of all things, but because it so pleaseth thee, nothing pleaseth the lover, as a lover, but the lovely; Thou therefore a lovely God art the Son of God a loving father, for in thee is all the complaisance of the Father. So all being creatable is complicated in thee the lovely God.  
Thou therefore a loving God, when as of thee is a lovely God, as the Son of the Father in as much as thou art God the loving Father, of God thy lovely Son; art the Father of all things that are for thy conception is thy Son, and all things in him, and thy union, and thy conception, is the Act and operation arising, in which is the act and explication of all things; as therefore of thee the loving God, is generated the lovely God which Generation is conception, So from thee the loving God, and thy lovely conception begotten by thee, proceeds thy act, and thy conception which is the knot knitting, and the God uniting thee, and thy conception, as to love unites the loving, and the lovely in love, and this knot is called the spirit for the spirit is as motion proceeding from the mover and the movable: consequently motion is the explication of the conception of the mover.  
All things therefore are to be explicated in thee, God the holy Ghost, as they are conceived in thee God the son.  
I see then because thou God dost so enlighten me, how all things in thee God the son are God the Fathers as in the reason, conception, cause or sampler, and have the son is the medium of all things as the reason or form, for by the mediation of reason and wisdom, thou God the Father workest all things, and the spirit or motion puts the conception of reason in effect, as we find by experience, that the Ark in mind of the Artificer, is put in effect by the mediation of the motive power which is in the hands; Then I see O my God thy Son is the medium or mean of the union of all things, that all things by the mediation of thy Son may rest in thee.  
And I see blessed jesus, the son of man most Highly united to thy son, and that the son of man could not be united to thee God the Father, but by mediation of thy son, the absolute Mediator.  
Who is not most highly ravished that doth attentively consider these things. Thou my God openest unto me wretch, such a secret that I see man cannot understand thee the Father, but in thy son which is intelligible, and the Mediator, and that to understand thee is to be united unto thee. Man may therefore be united unto thee by thy son which is the mean of the union and humane nature most highly united unto thee in what man soever in be cannot be more united to the mean, than it is united, for without the medium it cannot be united unto thee.  
It is therefore most united to the mean, yet it is not made the mean; whereupon though it cannot be made the mean, seeing it cannot be united unto thee without a mean, yet it is so joined to the absolute means, that between it and the son who is the absolute means, nothing can mediate, for if any thing could mediate between man's nature, and the absolute means, t●en were it not most highly or absolutely united unto thee.  
O good Jesus, I see in thee man's nature to be most highly joined to God the Father by the highest union, even a greater than by which it is joined to God, the son the absolute Mediator.  
Therefore humane filiation, because thou art the son of man is in thee Jesus most highly united to the divine filiation, that thou art worthily and truly called the Son of God and man, for in thee nothing mediates between the Son of man, and the Son of God.  
In the absolute filiation which is the Son of God is complicated all filiation, whereunto thy humane filiation O Jesus is superamely united, therefore thy humane filiation subsists in thy divine, not only complicitly, but as the attracted in the attracting, and the united in the uniting, and the substantiated in the substantiating.  
Therefore in thee O Jesus there is no possible separation of the Son of man from the Son of God, for separability is where the union might be greater, but where the union cannot be greater, nothing can mediate: separation therefore can have no place where nothing can mediate between the things united, and where the united subsists not in the uniting the union is not the highest, for there is a greater union where the united subsists in the uniting, then where the united subsists a part, for separation is the greatest remoteness from union.  
So I see in thee my jesus how humane fiiation by which thou art the son of man▪ subsists in the divine filiation by which thou art the Son of God, as in the greatest union, the united with the uniting; To thee O God be glory for ever.   

How Jesus is understood the complying of the divine and humane nature.  
CHAP 20.  
VEry clearly dost thou show unto me O never failing light, that that greatest union whereby man's nature in thee jesus is united unto the divine nature, is not by any means like to an infinite union, for the union by which thou O God the Father art united unto God thy son is God the holy Ghost, and therefore an infinite union, for it reacheth unto absolute essential Identity, but it is not so where the humane nature is united to the divine, for the humane nature cannot pass into an essential union, which the divine as that which is finite cannot be infinitely united to that which infinite, for than it would pass into the Identity of the infinite, and so it would cease to be finite, when the infinite were verified of it. Wherefore this union by which the humane nature is united unto the divine nature, is nothing else but an attraction of the humane nature to the Divine in the highest degree, so that the humane nature whilst such cannot be attracted any higher:  
It is therefore the greatest union of his humane nature (as humane) to the divine, because there can be no greater, but it is simply the greatest, not infinite as the divine union.  
I see therefore by the benignity of thy grace in thee jesus the son of man, the son of God, and in the son of God I see the Father; for in thee the sun of man I see the Son of God, because thou art so the son of man that thou art also the son of God and in the finite attracted nature, I see the infinite attracting nature, I see in the absolute Son the absolute father, for the Son as Son cannot be seen unless the father be seen, I see in thee jesus a divine filiation, or sonship, which is the truth of all filiation, and likewise a most high human filiation which is the nearest image of absolute filiation.  
As therefore the Image between which and the Pattern or sampler there cannot mediate a perfect image, dost most nearly subsist in the truth of that whose Image it is, so do I see thy humane nature subsisting in the divine nature: Therefore I see all things in thy humane nature, which I see in thy divine. But I see them after an humane manner in thy humane nature, which are the divine truth itself in the divine nature.  
Those things which I see in thee after a humane manner O Jesus, are the similitude of the divine nature, but a similitude is without a mean joined to the Pattern or sampler, so that a more like can neither be nor be imagined in the humane or reasonable nature, I see are sonable humane spirit most strictly united to the divine spirit, which is absolute reason, and so the humane understanding, to the divine understanding and all things in thy understanding O Jesus, for thou O jesus as God understandest all things as God, and this understanding is to be all things; Thou understandest all things as man, and this understanding is to be the similitude of all things, for a thing is not understood by a man but in a similitude a stone is not in the understanding of a man as its proper cause or reason, but as in its species or similitude.  
In thee therefore O jesus the humane understanding is united to the divine, as the most perfect image to the truth of the Pattern. As if then I should consider the Ideal form of an Ark in the mind of the Artificer, and the species of an Ark made most perfectly, and according to the Idea by the Master himself, how then the Ideal form is the truth of the species, and united unto it as the truth unto the image in one Master. So in thee O jesus the Mr. of Masters, I see the absolute Idea of all things, and the similitudinary species of the same most highly united, I see thee O good jesus within the Wall of Paradise because thy understanding is both the Truth and the Image, and thou art both God and a Creature infinity and finite. And it is not possible thou shouldest be seen on this side the Wall, for thou art the coupling of the divine creating nature with the humane created nature.  
And I see this difference between thy humane understanding, and any other man's, that no one man knoweth all things, which may be known by man, because no man's understanding is so joined to the sampler of all things as the similitude to the truth, but that it might be more nearly joined and set more in act▪ and therefore the understandeth not so many things, but that he might understand more by his access unto the sampler of things, from whence every thing that is an act hath actually. But thy understanding doth actually understand all things that are intelligible by man, because in thee humane nature is most perfect and most joined to its sampler or Pattern, for which union thy humane understanding exceeds every created undarstanding in the perfection of understanding; Therefore all reasonable spirits are far beneath thee of all whom thou O jesus art the Master and the light and thou art the perfection and fullness of all things, and by thee as by the Mediator, they came unto the absolute truth, for thou art both the way unto the truth, and the truth itself, than art both the way unto the life of the understanding, and the life itself; Thou art the odour of the food of gladness, and also the taste that maketh glad: Be thou therefore O sweet jesus, blessed for ever more.   

That without Jesus therei is no possible felicity.  
CHAP 21.  
IEsu the end of all, in whom as in the last of their perfection all Creatures rest thou art utterly unknown to all the wise men of this world; because of thee we affirm contradictories to be most true, thou being both the Creator and the Creature, the attracting, and the attracted the finite and also the infinite, they say it is folly to believe this possible, They fly thy name therefore and receive not that light wherewith thou hast enlightened us, but thinking themselves wise, they continue fools, and ignorant, and blind for ever, But if they would believe that thou Christ, God and man, and would receive and entertain the words of the Gospel, as the words of so great a Master, than would they clearly see that all things in comparison of that light, that there is hid in the simplicity of thy words, are most thick and palpable darkness and ignorance; Therefore only the little ones that believe do obataine this most gracious and quickening Revelation, for there is hid in thy most sacred Gospel which is the heavenly food, all  sweetness, which cannot be tasted but by him that believeth and eateth. And if any man believe and receive it, he shall find it most true by experience that thou camest down from Heaven, and art the only Master of truth.  
O good jesus thou art the tree of lif in the Paradise of delights for no man can be fed with desirable life but from thy fruit, Thou O jesus art the forbidden food to all the sons of Adam, which being expulsed out of Paradise, doth seek their living in the earth in which they labour.  
It behoveth every one therefore to put off the old man of presumption, and put on the new man of humility which is according to thyself, if he hope ever to taste of the food of life within the Paradise of delights.  
There is a nature of the new and old Adam, but it is in the old Adam animal, and in the new Adam spiritual, because in thee jesus, it is united to God which is a spirit.  
Every man therefore must as by humane nature common to him and thee, so in one spirit be united to thee O jesus, that so in his nature which is common to thee O jesus, he may come to God the father which is in Paradise.  
To see God the Father therefore and jesus Christ his Son is to be in Paradise and 

Glory,  
joy,   everlasting, because he that is without Paradise cannot have such a vision, seeing neither God the Father nor thou O jesus art to be found without Paradise, every man therefore hath attained felicity which is united to thee O jesus, as a member to the head, no man can come to the Father except he be drawn by the Father.  
Thy Father therefore O jesus drew thy humanity by his Son, and by thee O jesus the Father deaweth all men.  
As therefore thy manhood O jesus is united to the son of God the Father, as to a mean by which the Father drew it, so every man's humanity is united unto thee O Ies●s, as to the only mean by which the Father draws all men. Thou art therefore jesus, without whom it is impossible that any man should attain felicity, Thou art O jesus, the Revelation of the Father, for the Father is invisible to all men, and only visible to his Son, and next thee to him who shall by thee and thy Revelation be found worthy to see him.  
Thou art therefore he that unitest every blessed man, and every blessed man subsisteth in thee as the united with the uniting.  
Not one of the wise men of this world is capable of happiness not knowing thee.  
No happy man can see the Father but with thee O jesus within Paradise. Of the happy contradictories are verified as of thee O jesus, seeing he is united unto thee in a reasonable natural and one spirit: for every happy spirit subsists in thine, as the quickened in thee quickening, Every happy spirit sees the invisible God, & in thee O jesus is united unto the unapproachable and immortal God, and so in thee the infinite is united to the Infinite, and the incomprehensible is comprehended by eternal fruition which is the most pleasant felicity that can never be wasted nor spent; have mercy upon me O jesus, have mercy upon me and grant that I may revealedly see thee, and then my soul is safe.   

How jesus seeth and worketh.  
CHAP. 22.  
Never can the eye of the mind be satisfied with the sight of thee O jesus, because thou art the compl●ment and fullness of all mental beauty.  
And in this Picture I guess at the wonderful and stupendious sight: O more than blessed jesus, for thou jesus whilst thou didst walk in this sensible world, didst use fleshly eyes like unto us, for with them no otherwise than we do, thou didst see one thing and one thing, for there was in thine eyes, a certain spirit which was the form of the Organ, as the sensible soul in the body of a living wight. In that spirit there was a noble discretive or discerning power, by which O Lord thou didst clearly and distinctly see this thing coloured thus, and that other thing otherwise; And more highly yet by the figures of the face, and eyes of the men thou sawest, thou wast a true judge of the Passions of the soul anger, gladness, sorrow, and yet more subtly by a few signs didst thou comprehend that which lay hid in the mind of man, for there is nothing conceived in the mind which is not in some sort signified in the face, and principally in the eyes (being the Messengers of the heart) for in all these judicia or signs, thou didst much more truly reach the inwards of the soul, than any created spirit, for from some one though very ●mal sign thou didst see the whole conception of a man, as understanding men do by a few words see through a long preconceived speech, which is to be explicated at length, and as well learned men if they cast their eyes never so little upon a book▪ are able to recite the whole intent of the writer as though they had read it through: In this kind of seeing thou O jesus didst far excel all the perfection, swiftness, and sharpness of all men past, present and to come and yet this vision was but humane, which was not done without a Carnal eye, nevertheless it was stupendious and admirable, for if there be men found that by long and subtle discussion are able to dicipher any Character▪ and to read the mind of the writer in Characters and signs then newly invented, and never seen before, thou O jesus didst certainly see all things under every sign and figure. If it be read that there was sometimes a man found which by whatsoever signs of the eye ●aw the thought of him that asked him, although he sang some verse or meeter in his mind: Much better O jesus didst thou apprehend and understand every conception by every motion of the eye. Myself saw a deaf Woman which by the motion of her Daughter's lips which she saw did understand what soever she said aswell as if she had heard her. If this by long custom be thus possible in them that are deaf and dumb, and the Religious which speak to one another in signs, much more perfectly didst thou O jesus which didst actually know whatsoever was to be known as a Mr. of Masters, give judgement true and in fallible of the heart and its conceptions in the least and to us invisible becks, and nods, or signs.  
But to this thy humane and most perfect vision though infinite and contracted to the Organ, was the absolute and infinite vision united, by which vision as God, thou sawest all things and every thing at once aswell absent as present, aswell past as to come.  
Thou therefore O jesus didst by thy humane eye see visible accidents, but by thy absolute divine sight the substance of things. Never any man besides thee O jesus saw the substance or quoditie of things whilst he was in the flesh. Thou only didst truly see the soul and the spirit and whatsoever was in man: For as in man the intellective power is united to the animal visive power, so that man sees not only as a living Wight, but also discerns and judges of a man. So absolute seeing was in the jesus united to the humane intellectual power which is discretion, or descerning in the animal sight.  
The animal visive power in man subsists not in itself, but in the reasonable soul as in the form of the whole, so the visible intellectual power subsists not i● itself, but in thee O jesus th● absolute visive power. O thy admirable sight most sweet jesus, we find some times by experiences how with our eye we see somebody passing by, but because we took no heed to discern who it was, we cannot tell him that asketh us the name of him that passeth by, though we know him well enough, and knew there was some body passed by; We did see him, therefore animally but not humanely, or we saw him as we were living wights, but not as we were men, because we did not apply our discretive, or discerning power: By which we find that the nature of the powers, although they be united in the one form of a man; yet they remain distinct, and have distinct operations. So in thee O jesus I see after a certain like manner the humane intellectual nature united to the divine nature, and that accordingly as man thou didst many things, and as God many wonderful things above man.  
I see O most merciful jesus the intellectual nature in respect of the sensible absolute, and not as the sensible is finite, and tied to the Organ as the sensible visive power is tied to the eye, but unproportionably more absolute is the divine power above the intellectual: For the humane understanding to the end it may be but unto act, hath need of phantasmata or appearances in the fantasy, and they cannot be had without senses, and senses subsist not without a body, and therefore the power of humane understanding is contracted and small needing the aforesaid things. But the divine understanding is necessity itself, not depending nor needing any thing but all things need it, without which they cannot be. I do more attentively consider how there is one discursive power which by reasoning discourseth and seeketh, and another which judgeth and understandeth, for we see a Dog discourse and seek his Master and discern him, and hear his calling, and this discourse is in the nature of animality in the degree of the specifical perfection of a Dog, and there are yet other living wights found of a more clear discourse according to the more perfect species or kind, and this discourse in man comes nearest to the intellectual power that it may be the supreamnesse of sensible perfection containing under the intellectual, many and innumerable degrees of perfection as the species or kinds of living wights do make plain unto us, for there is no species or kind which hath not the degree of perfection proper unto itself, and moreover every one of the degrees hath its latitude within the which we see the individuals of the species partake it diversely, But the intellectual nature in like manner under the Divine, hath innumerable degrees of sensible perfection; so in the divine nature are complicated all degrees of intellectual perfection, of sensible likewise, and all other things. So in thee my jesus I see all perfection, for being most perfect man I see in thee the understanding united to the rational▪ or discursive power which is the supreamnesse of the sensitive power. And so I see the understanding in reason as the thing placed in its place, as a Candle in the Chamber which enlightens the Chamber, and all the Walls and the whole building yet according to the degree of distance more or less.  
I see next the divine word united to the understanding in its supreamenesse, and the understanding itself to the place where the word is received as we find in ourselves the understanding to be the place where the word of the Mr. is received, as if the light of the Sun should be joined with the aforesaid Candle.  
For the word of God illuminateth the understanding as the light of the Sun doth this world.  
In thee therefore my jesus I see the sensible life illuminated by that intellectual light: I see the intellectual life to be a light enlightening and enlightened; and I see the divine life illuminating or enlightening only; For I see the fountain of light in that intellectual light, to wit the word of God, which is the truth enlighting every understanding; thou therefore art only the light of all Creatures because thou art so a creature that thou art also the blessed Creator.   

How Jesus died and yet the Union with life remained.  
CHAP 23.  
IEsus the most savoury food of the mind how admirable dost thou appear unto me when I behold thee within the Wall of Paradise? for thou art the word of God humanified and man deified, and yet thou art not as it were compounded of God and man. For amongst those things that compound, proportion is necessary without which there can be no composition, but between finite and infinite there is no proportion: Nor art thou the confidence of the Creature and the Creator in such sort as the Coincidence makes one thing to be another, for the humane nature is not the Divine, nor contrary wise, for the divine nature is not changeable or alterable into another nature being eternity itself, nor doth any nature whatsoever, because of its union to the divine nature pass into another nature, as when the Image is united to its truth for it cannot then be said to be altered, but rather to go bacl from its alterity, because it is united unto its proper truth which is inalterability itself.  
Nor canst thou O sweet Jesus be said to be a middle nature, between divine and humane, when as between them there cannot be any middle nature partaking of both, for the divine nature is not partakeable, being wholly absolutely most simple: Nor couldst thou then O blessed jesus be either God or man.  
But I see thee O Lord jesus, one supposition above all understanding, because thou art one Christ after the same manner that I see thy one human soul in which as in the soul of any man, I see there was a corruptible sensible nature, which did subsist in an incorruptible intellectual nature.  
Nor yet was that soul compounded of corruptible and in corruptible, neither did the sensible soul coinside with the intellectual, but I see an intellectual soul to be united to the body by a sensible power, quickening the body; And if the intellectual soul should cease to Quicken and Enlighten the Body though it were not separated from the body, yet would that man be dead, because his life would cease, notwithstanding the body were not separated from life, being the understanding is the life thereof. As when a man intellectually labours and seeks by the means of his sight to discern one that is coming, and yet being carried away with other considerations, his attention ceaseth about that inquiry though his eyes be still fastened upon it, his eye is not separated from the Soul, though it be separated from the discretive or discerning attention of the Soul. But if that rapture should not only cease from the discretive quickening, but also from the sensitive quickening that eye were dead, because it were not quickened: Yet for all that it were not separated from the intellective form which is the form giving being: As a dry hand is united to the form which unites the whole body.  
There are sound men as Saint Augustine relates, which can retract or draw back the vivifying spirit, and so they appear dead and feel nothing, supposing it to be so.  
In this close, the intellectual nature would remain united to the body, which body would not be under any other form than it was before, nay it would have the same form and remain the same body, neither would the quickening force cease to be▪ but would remain in union with the intellectual nature, although actually it did not extend itself into the body, I see that man truly dead because he wants the vivifying life (for death is the want of the quickener) and yet that body would not be dead separated from the life which is the Soul thereof. After the same manner most merciful jesus, I do behold absolute life which is God inseparably united to the humane understanding, and by it into the body, for that union is such a one that a greater cannot be, and a separable union is much inferior to such a union as cannot be greater: Therefore it was never true, nor ever shall be that thy divine nature was separated from thy humane, consequently neither from the soul nor the body, which are those things without which humane nature cannot be, although it be most true that thy Soul ceased to quicken thy body, and that thou didst truly suffer death, and yet wast never separated from the truth of life.  
If that Priest whom Saint Augustine mentions had whatsoever power it were to take vivification out of his body by drawing it up unto the soul, as if a candle that enlighteneth a Chamber were alive and should draw up those beams by which it enlightens the Chamber into the Centre of its light, and its drawing up were nothing but a ceasing to inflame; what marvel is it if thou jesus being the most free and living light hast power to lay down, and to take up thy quickinnig soul, and when thou wouldst take it up thou sufferedest death, and when thou wouldst resume it by thine own thou didst rise again.  
Now an intellectual nature is called a humane soul when it quickens or animates a body. And the soul is said to be taken away when … ane understanding ceaseth to quicken, for when the understanding ceaseth from the Office of quickening and in this respect separateth itself from the body, it is not therefore simply separated.  
These things thou inspirest o jesus that thou mightest show thyself to most unworthy me, as far as I am capable, and that I may in thee contemplate that mortal humane nature hath put on immortality, that all men of the same humane nature may in thee attain resurrection and divine life.  
What then can be sweeter, what more pleasant then to know this, that in thee O jesus we find all things that are in our nature, which only canst do all things and givest most liberally and up, bradest not man. O inexpresible mercy and pity, thou God which art goodness itself couldst 〈◊〉 satisfy thy infinite clemency and bounty except thou gavest us thyself: Neither could this be done more conveniently for us that are the receivers then that thou shouldest assume our nature because we could not approach unto thine, so thou camest to us and art named jesus the Saviour blessed for evermore.   

How jesus is the word of life.  
CHAP. 24.  
THy gift, thy best and greatest gift inables me to contemplate thee my Jesus preaching the words of life and bountefully sowing the Divine seeds in the hearts of the hearers, And I see them go away which receved not the things of the spirit: But I see thy Disciples abiding it which began to taste the sweetness of that Doctrine which, quickeneth the soul, for all whom that first and chiefest of all the Appostls Peter confessed that thou jesus hadst the word of life, and wondered that they which seek life would go from thee: Paul heard from thee jesus in a rapture the words of life, and then neither sword nor famine of body separate him from thee: No man could ever forake thee that had tasted the words of life who can separate a Bear from Honey, after he hath once tasted the sweetness of it; How great is the sweetness of truth, how most delectable a life doth it give above all bodily sweetness, for it is absolute sweetness, from whence floweth all that by any taste is desired: What is stronger than love by which every lovely thing hath to be loved? If the knot or Bond of contracted love be sometimes so great that the fear of death cannot break it, what a knot is there of that love tasted from whence is all love? I wonder not that all cruelty of pains was accounted nothing by other of thy Soldiers of Jesus, to whom thou gavest thyself, the life to be tasted aforehand.  
O Jesus my love, thou hast sowed the seed of life in the field of believers, and watered it with the testimoney of thy blood, and shown by bodily death, that truth is the life of the reasonable spirit, the seed grew in the good ground and brought forth good fruit, thou showest me O Lord how my soul is the breath of life in regard of my body into which it breatheth and infloweth life, And it is not in regard of thee O God, but as it were a power or possibility of life: And because thou canst not but grant the things that are asked, if they be asked with a most attentive faith, thou inflowest or inspirest me that there is in a Child a soul which hath a vegetative power and force in act, for the Child groweth; It hath likewise a sencitive power in act, for the Child feeleth, it hath likewise an imaginative power, but not yet act, it hath likewise a discursive power, whose act is yet more distant; And it hath an intellectual virtue, but in a power yet more remote & further off, so we find by experience, that one and the same soul is first in act inregard of the inferior powers, and afterwards in regard of the superior that first he is an animal man before a spiritual man.  
So likewise we know by proof that there is a certain numeral virtue in the Bowels of the earth which may also be called a spirit, and that it is first in power or possibility to be made a minera of stone, and another to be made a minera of Salt, and another of Mettle, and that there are divers such spirits according to the diversity of Sons, Salts, and Metals, but yet that there is one spirit of the Minera of Gold, which by the influence of the Sun, or of the Heaven, is continually more and more purified, and at length fixed into such Gold as is not by any Element to be corrupted or destroyed, and that in it there shines exceeding much of the incorruptible light of heaven, for it is very like the corporal light of the Sun.  
And the like we find also of the vegetable and sensitive spirit, for the sensitive spirit in a man doth much conform itself unto the moving and influential virtue of Heaven, and doth successively take increase under the influence of Heaven; until it be put in perfect act: And it is brought out of the power or possibility of the body, and therefore the perfection of it ceaseth as soon as the perfection of the body faileth.  
Then is there an intellectual spirit which in the act of its perfection depends not of the body but is united unto it by means of the sensitive virtue, This spirit because it dependeth not of the body, is not subject to the influence of the heaven, by bodies, neither depends it of the sensitive spirit, and so not of the moving power of Heaven; but as the movers of the heavenly.  
Orbs are subject to the first mover, so likewise this mover, which is the understanding, but because it is united to the body by the mean of the sensitive power, therefore it is not perfected without the senses, for all that comes unto it from the sensible world comes unto it by means of the senses.  
And therefore there can be nothing in the understanding which hath not first been in the sense; And by how much the sense is purer and perfecter, and the imagination clearer, and the discourse bitter, by so much the understanding in its intellectual operations is less hindered, and more perspicatious.  
Now the understanding is fed by the word of life, under whose ifluence it is placed as the movers of the Orbs but differently, as also the spirits that are subject to the influences of Heaven are differently perfected: And it is not perfected but accidentally by the sensible spirit as the Image doth not perfect, although it excite to inquire the truth of the sampler or pattern, as the Image of the Crucified doth not inflow devotion; but stirsup the memory that devotion may be inflowed, and because the intellectual spirit is not necessitated by the influence of Heaven, but is wholly free, therefore except it do by faith subject itself unto the influence of the word of God, it is not perfected as a Scholar that is free, and in his own power, unless he subject himself unto the word of his Master, by beleeveing he is not perfected for he must trust and hear his Master.  
And the understanding is perfected by the word of God, and grows, and is made every day more capable and apt, and more like to the word, And this perfection which thus comes from the word from whence it had its being, is not a corruptible perfection, but a perfection deiforme or form by God, as the perfection of Gold is not corruptible, but of the form of heaven. And every understanding must by faith subject itself to the word of God, and most attentively hearken to that internal teaching of the highest Mr. and by hearing what the Lord saith in it, It shall be perfected.  
Wherefore thou O Jesus the only Master hath preached, that faith is necessary for every one that comes to the fountain of life, and hast shown that according to the degree of faith, the influence of the divine power is present. O Saviour Christ, two things only hast thou taught, Faith and Love: By faith the understanding comes to the word, and by love it is united to it, By how much more it comes unto it, by so much more it is increased in power, and by how much more it loveth, by so much more it is fixed to the light thereof, and the word of God is within it, [the understanding] and it needs not seek for it without itself, for he shall find it within, and by faith he shall approach unto it.  
And that he may come nearer he shall obtain by prayers, for the word will increase faith, by the Communication of its light.  
I give thee thanks O Jesus because by thy light I am come thus fare, for in thy light, I see the light of my life, how thou the word inflowest, life to all that believe and perfectest all that love thee. What other Doctrine was ever so short and effectual as thine O good Jesus, thou persuadest nothing but to believe, and thou commandest nothing but to love, What is more easy then to believe God, what more sweet than to love him? How sweet is thy Yok; and how light is thy burden O ray Mr. thou promisest to them that keep this Doctrine, whatsoever can be desired, for thou requirest nothing that is hard to him that believes, nothing denied to him that loves. Such are the promises thou makest to thy Disciples and they are most true because thou art truth which canst promise nothing but true things, nay thou promisest nothing but thyself, who art the perfection of every thing that may be perfected. To thee be praise, to thee be Glory, to thee be thanksgiving through all ages Amen.   

How jesus is the consummation.  
CHAP. 25.  
YEt what may that be O Lord that thou sendest into the spirit of that man whom thou perfectest? Is it not thy good spirit which is wholly in Act, the virtue and power of all virtues, and the perfection of all perfect things, because it is he that worketh all things. For as the power of the Sun descending into the vegetable spirit, moves it that it may be perfected, and so by the means of a good Tree, there is made good fruit, but a most acceptable and natural decoction of a heavenly heat. So thy spirit O God comes into the intellectual spirit of Good men, and by the heat of divine love, concocts the virtual power that it may be perfected, and made most acceptable fruit unto it.  
We find by experience that thy simple spirit infinite in virtue is many ways received: for it is otherwise received in one where it makes a prophetic spirit, & otherwise in another where it makes a cunning and skilful interpreter, and otherwise in another where it teacheth knowledge, and otherwise in other men, For there are divers gifts thereof, and they are the perfections of the intellectual spirit as the same heat of the sum in divers Trees perfecteth divers fruits.  
I see O Lord that thy spirit is not wanting to any spirit, because it is the spirit of spirits, and the motion of motions and it filleth all the world, but it disposeth all things which have not the intellectual spirit by that in tellectuall nature, which moves the Heaven, and by the motion thereof all things that are under it, only the disposition and dispensation in the intellectual nature, it hath reserved unto itself a Love: For it hath espoused to itself this nature, in which it hath chosen to rest as in a Mansion house, and in the Haven of truth, for no where else can this truth be received in itself, but in the intellectual nature.  
Thou O Lord which workest all things for thyself hast created this whole world for the intellectual nature. As a Painter which tempreth divers Colours, that at length he may paint himself, to the end he may have his own Image that his Art may therein rest and take delight, that so being himself one and unmultipliable at the least, he may be multiplied after the best manner possible in the nearest similitude. And He makes many figures because the similitude of his infinite virtue & power cannot be after a more perfect manner explicated, but in many things and all intellectual spirits are to every spirit opportune. For if they were not innumerable, thou being an infinite God couldst not be known after the best manner: for every intellectual spirit seethe some thing in the my God, which if it were not revealed unto others they should not approach unto thee their God after the best manner possible. Therefore the spirit being full of love, reveal their secrets one to another, and by this means the knowledge of the beloved is increased, and the desire unto it, and the sweernesse of joy is inflamed.  
Neither yet O Lord God hast thou made the accomplishment; of thy work without Jesus thy Son whom thou anoyntedst above his fellows, who is therefore Christ, In whose understanding rests the perfection of every creatable nature, for it is the last and perfectest unmultipliable likeness of God, and there can be no one such supreme one: For all other intellctuall spirits are by the mediation of that spirit similitudes, and by how much more perfect, so much more like unto it, And they all rest in that spirit, as in the last of perfection of the Image of God, of which Image they have attained some similitude and degree of perfection.  
I have therefore by thy gift O God all this visible world, and all the scripture, and all administering spirits to help me profit in the knowledge of thee, all things excite me to be turned to thee.  
All Scriptures labour for nothing but to show thee, all intellectual spirits have no other exercise but to seek thee and reveal what they have found of thee. Above all things thou hast given me Jesus for a Master the way of life, and the truth, that so there might be nothing at all wanting unto me.  
Thou comfortest me by thy holy spirit, by it thou inspirest the choice of life, holy desires: Thou asurest me by a foretaste of the sweetness of that glorious life to love thee the infinite good.  
Thou ravishest me that I am above myself, and do before hand see that place of glory to which thou invitest me, Thou showest me many delicate and savoury dishes that draw me by their most excellent odour, thou sufferest me to see the treasure of riches, life, joy, beauty, Thou discoverest the fountain from whence flows every  thing as well in nature as in art, Thou keepest nothing secret, thou hidest not the vain of love, nor peace, nor rest.  
Thou offerst all things to me most miserable man whom thou hast created of nothing.  
Why do I therefore stay? why do I not run after my Christ in the odour of this ointments? Why do I not enter into the joy of my Master▪ What holdeth me if ignorance of thee O Lord and the vain delights of this sensible world have withholden me it shall now hold me no longer, for I will O Lord (because thou givest me power to will) leave the things of this world, because the world will leave me, I make haste to the end I have almost finished my course I will prevent the world in bidding it farewell, because I labour towards the Crown, draw me O Lord (for no man can come to thee except he be drawn by thee) that being drawn by thee, I may be freed from this world and join to thee the absolute God in the eternity of a glorious life. Amen.