drawn to seek comfort from him, and that she would confess to no one
else. And when he still refused to go out, she began to weep most
sadly, and going into a corner, lamented greatly. Meanwhile, God
quickly withdrew from the servitor the delights of grace, and his
heart became as hard as flint. And when he desired to know the cause
of this, God answered him inwardly: Even as thou hast driven away
uncomforted that poor woman, so have I withdrawn from thee my Divine
comfort. The servitor groaned deeply and beat his breast, and
hurried to the door, and as he did not find the woman there, was
much distressed. The porter, however, looked about for her
everywhere, and when he found her, still weeping, bade her return to
the door. When she came, the servitor received her gently, and
comforted her sorrowing heart. Then he went back from her to the
chapter-house, and immediately God was with him, with His Divine
consolations, as before.
Then said the maiden: It must be easy for him to bear sufferings, to
whom God gives such jubilation and internal joys. And yet, said the
servitor, all had to be paid for afterward with great suffering.
However, at last, when all this had passed away, and God's appointed
time had come, the same grace of jubilation was restored to him, and
remained with him almost continuously both at home and abroad, in
company and alone. Often in the bath or at table the same grace was
with him; but it was now internal, and did show itself outside.
Then the maiden said: My father, I have now learned what God is; but
I am also eager to know where He is. Thou shalt hear, said the
servitor. The opinion of the theologians is that God is in no
particular place, but that He is everywhere, and all in all. The
same doctors say that we come to know a thing through its name. Now
one doctor says that Being is the first name of God. Turn your eyes,
therefore, to Being in its pure and naked simplicity, and take no
notice of this or that substance which can be torn asunder into
parts and separated; but consider Being in itself, unmixed with any
Not-Being. Whatever is nothing, is the negation of what is; and what
is, is the negation of what is not. A thing which has yet to be, or
which once was, is not now in actual being. Moreover, we cannot know
mixed being or not-being unless we take into account that which is
all-being. This Being is not the being of this or that creature; for
all particular being is mixed with something extraneous, whereby it
can receive something new into itself. Therefore the nameless Divine
Being must be in itself a Being that is all-being, and that sustains
all particular things by its presence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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