Thomas Traherne · 8 of 19

The Second Century · Part 4

Since therefore Love does all it is able, to make itself accepted, both in increasing its own vehemence, and in adorning the person of the Lover: as well as in offering up the most choice and perfect gifts, with what care ought you to express your love in beautifying yourself with this wisdom, and in making your person acceptable? Especially since your person is the greatest gift your love can offer up to God Almighty. Clothe yourself with Light as with a garment, when you come before Him: put on the greatness of Heaven and Earth, adorn yourself with the excellencies of God Himself. When you prepare yourself to speak to Him, be all the knowledge and light you are able, as great, as clear, and as perfect as is possible. So at length shall you appear before God in Sion: and as God converse with God for evermore.

God hath made it easy to convert our soul into a Thought containing Heaven and Earth, not that it should be contemptible because it is easy: but done because it is Divine. Which Thought is as easily abolished, that by a perpetual influx of life it may be maintained. If He would but suspend His power, no doubt but Heaven and Earth would straight be abolished, which He upholds in Himself as easily and as continually as we do the idea of them in our own mind. Since therefore all things depending so continually upon His care and love, the perpetual influx of His almighty power is infinitely precious and His Life exercised incessantly in the manifestation of Eternal Love, in that every moment throughout all generations He continueth without failing to uphold all things for us, we likewise ought to show our infinite love by upholding Heaven and Earth, Time and Eternity, God and all things in our Souls, without wavering or intermission: by the perpetual influx of our life. To which we are by the goodness of all things infinitely obliged. Once to cease is to draw upon ourselves infinite darkness, after we have begun to be so illuminated: for it shows a forgetfulness and defect in love, and it is an infinite wonder that we are afterward restored.

[This number is omitted in the original MS.]

Being that we are here upon Earth turmoiled with cares, and often shaken with winds and by disturbances distracted: it is the infinite Mercy of God that we are permitted to breathe and be diverted. For all the things in Heaven and Earth attend upon us while we ought to answer and observe them, by upholding their beauty within: But we are spared and God winketh at our defect, all the World attending us while we are about some little trifling business. But in the Estate of Glory the least intermission would be an eternal apostacy: But there by reason of our infinite union with God it is impossible.

We could easily show that the idea of Heaven and Earth in the Soul of Man, is more precious with God than the things themselves and more excellent in nature. Which because it will surprise you a little, I will. What would Heaven and Earth be worth, were there no spectator, no enjoyer? As much therefore as the end is better than the means, the thought of the World whereby it is enjoyed is better than the World. So is the idea of it in the Soul of Man, better than the World in the esteem of God: it being the end of the World, without which Heaven and Earth would be in vain. It is better to you, because by it you receive the World, and it is the tribute you pay. It more immediately beautifies and perfects your nature. How deformed would you be should all the World stand about you and you be idle: Were you able to create other worlds, God had rather you should think on this. For thereby you are united to Him. The sun in your eye is as much to you as the sun in the heavens. For by this the other is enjoyed. It would shine on all rivers, trees, and beasts in vain to you could you not think upon it. The sun in your understanding illuminates your soul, the sun in the heavens enlightens the hemisphere. The world within you is an offering returned, which is infinitely more acceptable to God Almighty, since it came from Him, that it might return unto Him. Wherein the mystery is great. For God hath made you able to create worlds in your own mind which are more precious unto Him than those which He created; and to give and offer up the world unto Him, which is very delightful in flowing from Him, but much more in returning to Him. Besides all which in its own nature also a Thought of the World, or the World in a Thought, is more excellent than the World, because it is spiritual and nearer unto God. The material world is dead and feeleth nothing, but this spiritual world, though it be invisible, hath all dimensions, and is a divine and living Being, the voluntary Act of an obedient Soul.

Once more, that I might close up this point with an infinite wonder: As among divines, it is said, That every moment’s preservation is a new creation: and therefore blessings continued must not be despised, but be more and more esteemed: because every moment’s preservation is another obligation: even so in the continual series of thoughts whereby we continue to uphold the frame of Heaven and Earth in the Soul towards God, every thought is another world to the Deity as acceptable as the first. Yea, the continuance puts an infinite worth and lustre on them. For to be desultory and inconstant is the part of a fickle and careless soul, and makes the imagination of it worthless and despised. But to continue serious in upholding these thoughts for God’s sake, is the part of a faithful and loving Soul: which as it thereby continues great and honorable with God, so is it thereby Divine and Holy: and every act of it of infinite importance: and the continuance of its life transcendently esteemed. So that though you can build or demolish such worlds as often as you please; yet it infinitely concerneth you faithfully to continue them, and wisely to repair them. For though to make them suddenly be to a wise man very easy: yet to uphold them always is very difficult, a work of unspeakable diligence, and an argument of infinite love.

As it becometh you to retain a glorious sense of the world, because the Earth and the Heavens and the Heaven of Heavens are the magnificent and glorious territories of God’s Kingdom, so are you to remember always the unsearchable extent and unlimited greatness of your own soul; the length and breadth and depth, and height of your own understanding. Because it is the House of God, a Living Temple, and a Glorious Throne of the Blessed : far more magnificent and great than the heavens; yea a person that in Union and Communion with God, is to see Eternity, to fill His Omnipresence, to possess His greatness, to admire His love; to receive His gifts, to enjoy the world, and to live in His Image. Let all your actions proceed from a sense of this greatness, let all your affections extend to this endless wideness, let all your prayers be animated by this spirit and let all your praises arise and ascend from this fountain. For you are never your true self, till you live by your soul more than by your body, and you never live by your soul till you feel its incomparable excellency, and rest satisfied and delighted in the unsearchable greatness of its comprehension.

The world does serve you, not only as it is the place and receptacle of all your joys, but as it is a great obligation laid upon all mankind, and upon every person in all ages to love you as himself; as it also magnifieth all your companions, and showeth your heavenly Father’s glory. Yea, as it exalteth you in the eyes of the illuminate, and maketh you to be honored and reverenced by the Holy. For there is not a man in the whole world that knows God, or himself, but he must honour you. Not only as an Angel or a Cherubim, but as one by the blood of Christ, beloved by all Angels, Cherubims, and Men, an heir of the world, and as much greater than the Universe, as he that possesseth the house is greater than the house. O what a holy and blessed life would men lead, what joys and treasures would they be to each other, in what a sphere of excellency would every man move, how sublime and glorious would their estate be, how full of peace and quiet would the world be, yea of joy and honour, order and beauty, did men perceive this of themselves, and had they this esteem for one another!

As the world serves you by shewing the greatness of God’s love to you, so doth it serve you as fuel to foment and increase your praises. Men’s lips are closed because their eyes are blinded: their tongues are dumb because their ears are deaf: and there is no life in their mouths, because death is in their hearts. But did they all see their Creator’s glory, which appeareth chiefly in the greatness of His bounty; did they all know the blessedness of their estate, O what a place full of joys, what an amiable region and territory of praises would the world become; yea, what a sphere of light and glory! As no man can breathe out more air than he draweth in: so no man can offer up more praises than he receiveth benefits, to return in praises. For praises are transformed and returning benefits. And therefore doth God so greatly desire the Knowledge of Him, because God when He is known is all Love: and the praises which He desires are the reflection of His beams which will not return till they are apprehended. The world therefore is not only the Temple of these praises, and the Altar whereon they are offered, but the fuel also that enkindles them, and the very matter that composeth them. Which so much the more serves you, because it enkindles a desire in you that God should be praised, and moves you to take delight in all that praise Him. So that as it incites yours, it gives you an interest in others’ praises: and is a valley of vision, wherein you see the Blessed Sight of all men’s praises ascending, and of all God’s blessings coming down upon them.

The World serves you, as it teaches you more abundantly to prize the love of Jesus Christ. For since the inheritance is so great to which you are restored, and no less than the whole world is the benefit of your Saviour’s Love, how much are you to admire that person that you from the lowest Hell to the fruition of it? Your forfeiture was unmeasurable and your Sin infinite, your despair insupportable, and your danger eternal: how happy are you therefore, that you have so great a Lord, whose love rescued you from the extremest misery! Had you seen Adam turned into Hell, and going out of this fair mansion which the Lord had given him into everlasting torments, or eternal darkness, you would have thought the World a glorious place, which was created for him, and the Light of Eden would have appeared in greater lustre than it did before: and His love by whom he was recovered the greatest jewel. It is a heavenly thing to understand His love, and to see it well. Had Adam had no esteem for the place to which he was restored he had not valued the benefit of his restitution. But now looking upon it with those eyes wherewith noble men look upon their territories and palaces, when they are going to die, His mercy who died for him, that he after his condemnation might return again into his dear enjoyments, maketh Him by whom they were purchased the best and greatest of all enjoyments. Darius when he had conquered Babylon, by the art of Zopyrus, who cut off his nose and ears and lips, that making the Babylonians to confide in him, he might deliver up the city into the King’s hands; admiring the fidelity and love of Zopyrus protested, that he had rather have one Zopyrus whole, than ten Babylons. Even so we, were our spirits Divine, and noble, and genuine, should by the greatness of the benefit be excited above ourselves, and to exceed the gift, in the Love of our Saviour. Being afterwards asked upon the sight of a pomegranate slit in the midst, what thing he would above all other desire, might he have as many of them as there were seeds in that pomegranate, answered, Tot Zopyrorum: As many Zopyruses. One Saviour is worth innumerable worlds.

The World is a pomegranate indeed, which God hath put into man’s heart, as Solomon observeth in the Ecclesiastes, because it containeth the seeds of and the seeds of glory. All virtues lie in the World, as seeds in a pomegranate: I mean in the fruition of it, out of which when it is sown in man’s heart they naturally arise. The fidelity of Zopyrus and the love of Darius are included in it. For when we consider, how great a Lord gave us so great a dominion: we shall think it abominable to be treacherous and unfaithful in the midst of His dominions. When we consider we cannot choose but sin, if we sin at all, being surrounded with His gifts, and that the land we tread on is of His munificence: how can we err against Him who gave it to us? Can we forsake Him, whose gifts we cannot leave? The whole world is better than Babylon; and at greater expense than Zopyrus’ lips was it purchased for us.

This visible World is wonderfully to be delighted in, and highly to be esteemed, because it is the theatre of God’s righteous Kingdom. Who as Himself was righteous, because He made it freely, so He made it that we might freely be righteous too. For in the Kingdom of Glory it is impossible to fall. No man can sin that clearly seeth the beauty of God’s face because no man can sin against his own happiness; that is, none can when he sees it clearly, willingly, and wittingly forsake it, tempter, temptation, loss, and danger being all seen: but here we see His face in a glass, and more dimly behold our happiness as in a mirror; by faith therefore we are to live, and to sharpen our eye that we may see His glory, we are to be studious and intent in our desires and endeavours. For we may sin, or we may be holy. therefore and naturally flow out of our fruition of the World: for who can vilify and debase himself by any sin, while he actually considers he is the heir of it? It exalts a man to a sublime and honorable life: it lifts him above lusts and snakes him angelical.

It makes him sensible of the reality of Happiness: it feeds him with contentment, and fills him with gratitude, it delivers him from the love of money which is the root of all evil, it causes him to reign over the perverse customs and opinions that are in the world: it opens his eyes, and makes him to see man’s blindness and errors. It sateth his covetousness, feedeth his curiosity and pleaseth his ambition. It makes him too great for preferments and allurements. It causeth him to delight in retirement: and to be in love with prayer and communion with God. It lifteth him up above men’s scandals and censures. It maketh him zealous of the salvation of all. It filleth him with courage on the behalf of God. It makes him to rejoice in a present, visible, immovable treasure to which the rest of the world is blind, and strengthens his faith and hope of Invisible. Yea it makes him wise, and many invisible joys doth he see in this. Glory and Dominion are invisible joys. And so is that great interest a man hath to all Kingdoms and Ages, which a true possessor of the World is more sensible of, than of his houses and lands. It makes him in pardoning all injuries, because he is above the reach of all his enemies: and infinitely secure in the midst of his fruitions. How great a thing is the enjoyment of the world, how highly to be esteemed and how zealously to be thirsted after, that eminently containeth all these! it is a Thing so Divine and Heavenly, that it makes vices and virtues almost visible to our very eyes.

Varro citeth opinions of philosophers concerning happiness: they were so blind in the knowledge of it, and so different in their apprehensions. All which opinions fall in here, as all rivers fall into the sea, and agree together. Some placed happiness in riches, and some in honour, some in pleasure, and some in the contempt of all riches, honor, and pleasure; some in wisdom and some in firm stability of mind, some in empire and some in, love. Some in bare and naked contentment, some in contemplation, and some in action; some in rest and some in sufferings, and some in victory and triumph. All which occur here, for here is victory and triumph over our lusts, that we might live the life of clear reason, in the fruition of all riches, honours, and pleasures, which are by wisdom to be seen, and by love to be enjoyed in the highest empire, with great contentation, in solitude alone, in communion with all, by action and contemplation, attaining it by sufferings, and resting in the possession, with perfect victory and triumph over the world and evil men, or sin, death and hell, maugre all the oppositions of men and devils. Neither angels, nor principalities, nor power, nor height nor depth, nor things present nor things to come, being able to separate us, from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Felicity is a thing coveted of all. The whole world is taken with the beauty of it: and he is no man, but a stock or stone that does not desire it. Nevertheless great offence hath been done by the philosophers and scandal given, through their blindness, many of them, in making Felicity to consist in negatives. They tell us it doth not consist in riches, it doth not consist in honors, it doth not consist in pleasures. Wherein then, saith a miserable man, doth it consist? Why in contentment, in self sufficiency, in virtues, in the right government of our passions, &c. Were it not better to show the amiableness of virtues, and the benefit of the right government of our passions, the objects of contentment, and the grounds of self sufficiency, by the truest means? Which these never do. Ought they not to distinguish between true and false riches as our Saviour doth; between real and feigned honours; between clear and pure pleasures and those which are muddy and unwholesome? The honour that cometh from above, the true treasures, those rivers of pleasure that flow at his right hand for evermore, are by all to be sought and by all to be desired. For it is the affront of nature, a making vain the powers, and a baffling the expectations of the soul, to deny it all objects, and a confining it to the grave, and a condemning of it to death, to tie it to the inward unnatural mistaken self-sufficiency and contentment they talk of. By the true government of our passions, we disentangle them from impediments, and fit and guide them to their proper objects. The amiableness of virtue consisteth in this, that by it all happiness is either attained or enjoyed. Contentment and rest ariseth from a full perception of infinite treasures. So that whosoever will profit in the mystery of Felicity, must see the objects of his happiness, and the manner how they are to be enjoyed, and discern also the powers of his soul by which he is to enjoy them, and perhaps the rules that shall guide him in the way of enjoyment. All which you have here, GOD, THE WORLD, YOUR SELF, ALL THINGS in Time and Eternity being the objects of your Felicity, God the Giver, and you the receiver.