The Ascent of Mount CarmelChapter XXXII. Of intellectual apprehensions resulting from the interior impressions supernaturally effected. The sources of them. The conduct to be observed by the soul, so that these apprehensions shall not hinder it on the way of union

It remains for me now to discuss the fourth and last kind of apprehensions, which those spiritual impressions, frequently effected supernaturally in spiritual men, produce in the understanding. Those impressions I have reckoned among the distinct apprehensions of the understanding .

2. There are two kinds of these distinct spiritual impressions. The first kind is in the affection of the will, the second, though also in the will, yet because it is most intense, high, profound, and secret, seems not to touch the will, but to have been wrought in the very substance of the soul. Both the one and the other are extremely diversified. The first, when from God, is very high; but the second is the highest, of great profit and advantage. But neither the soul that receives them, nor its director, can ever know their sources, or why God effects them; they do not depend in any way upon good works or meditation, though these dispose us for them. God sends them to whom, and why, He wills.

3. Sometimes a person who has done many good works will never have these touches, and another of less merit, will have them most profoundly and most abundantly. It is not necessary, therefore, for the soul to be actually occupied with spiritual things—though that is the better state—in order to be the object of the divine touches, of which these impressions are the result, for they frequently occur when the soul is heedless of them. Some of these touches are distinct, and pass rapidly away; others less so, but of longer continuance.

4. These impressions—so far as they come under this description of them—do not appertain to the understanding, but to the will. I shall, therefore, not discuss them now, but reserve them for the treatise on the night, or purgation of the will in its affections, which will form the third book. As in general, and even very frequently, a more express and perceptible apprehension, knowledge, and intelligence, flow from these impressions into the understanding, it is necessary to mention it here for that purpose only.

5. We must, therefore, remember that, from all these | impressions, whether the divine touches which cause them, be rapid, or continuous and successive, there flows frequently into the understanding the apprehension of knowledge or intelligence; which is usually a most profound and sweet sense of God, to which, as well as to the impression from which it flows, no name can be given. This knowledge comes, sometimes in one way, sometimes in another, now most deep and clear, again less so, according to the nature of the divine touches, which occasion the impressions, and according to the nature of the impressions, of which it is the result.

6. It is not necessary to waste words here in cautioning and directing the understanding, amid this knowledge, in faith to the divine union. For as these impressions are passively wrought in the soul, without any cooperation on its part; so also the knowledge which results from them, is passively received in the understanding—philosophers apply the term passible to the understanding—independently of its own exertions. In order, therefore, to escape delusions here, and not to hinder the benefits of these impressions, the understanding ought not to meddle with them, but remain passive, inclining the will to consent freely and gratefully, and not interfering itself. For, as in the case of successive locutions, the activity of the understanding can very easily disturb and destroy this delicate knowledge, which is a sweet supernatural intelligence, which no natural faculty can reach or comprehend otherwise than by the way of recipient, and never by that of agent. No effort, therefore, should be made, lest the understanding should fashion something of itself, and the devil at the same time effect an entrance into the soul with false and strange knowledge. He is well able to do this, through the channel of these impressions, by taking advantage of the bodily senses. Let the soul be resigned, humble, and passive, for as it receives passively from God this knowledge; so will He communicate it, of His own good pleasure, when He sees it humble and detached. By so living, the soul will put no obstacles in the way of the profitableness of this knowledge for the divine union: and that profitableness is great. All these touches are touches of union, which is passively effected in the soul.

7. The whole teaching of this book on the subject of total abstraction and passive contemplation, whereby we abandon ourselves into the hands of God —in the forgetfulness of all created things, in detachment from images and figures, and dwelling on the supreme truth in pure contemplation—is applicable, not only to the act of most perfect contemplation—the profound and altogether supernatural repose of which is disturbed by ‘the daughters of Jerusalem,’³ namely, good meditations and reflections, if we then attempt them—but also to the whole of that time, in which our Lord communicates the simple, general, and loving attention, of which I have made mention before, or when the soul, assisted by grace, is established in that state. For then we must contrive to have the understanding in repose, undisturbed — by the intrusion of forms, figures, or particular knowledge, unless it were slightly and for an instant, and that with sweetness of love, to enkindle our souls the more. At other times, however, in all our acts of devotion and of good works, we must make use of good recollections and meditations, so that we may feel an increase of profit and devotion; most especially applying ourselves to the life, passion, and death of Jesus Christ our Lord, that our life and conduct may be an imitation of His.

8. Let this suffice for the supernatural apprehensions of the understanding, so far as the guiding thereof, through them, in faith, to the divine union, is concerned. I think I have said enough on the subject: for the instructions and cautions already given will be found ample with regard to all that may occur in the understanding. And if anything should be met with of a different nature and not comprised in the distinctions laid down— though I do not imagine that there can be anything which cannot be referred to one of the four kinds of distinct knowledge—what I have said of those that resemble them will suffice.

9. I now proceed to the third book; where, by the help of God, I shall speak of the interior spiritual purgation of the will from its interior affections. This is the active night. I therefore entreat the discerning reader to consider what I write in simplicity and candour: for when these qualities are wanting, however perfect and profound the teaching may be, he will not profit by it, neither will he value it as it deserves. And much more will this be the case in the present instance, because of the deficiencies of my way of writing.

The understanding, which is the first power of the soul, being now instructed, with regard to all its apprehensions, in the first theological virtue, namely faith, so that the soul, according to this power, may be united to God in pureness of faith; it remains for me now to do the same with respect to the two other powers, memory and will, showing how they too are to be purified in all their acts, so that the soul, according to them also, may be united to God in perfect hope and charity. I shall do this briefly in this third book. For having concluded that which relates to the understanding, the receptacle of all objects that pass through the memory and the will —and that goes a great way towards the full execution of my purpose—it is not so necessary to enlarge on the subject of these two powers; because, in general, the spiritual man who shall have well directed his understanding in faith, according to my teaching, will also, by the way, have done as much for the memory and the will in the matter of hope and charity: for the operations of these virtues are mutually dependent the one on the other. But, as it is necessary—that I may observe the same order, and be the better understood—to speak of the proper and determinate matter, I shall treat of the acts of each of these two faculties, distinguishing between them according to the method of my subject. That distinction arises out of the distinction between their objects, which are three, natural, supernatural imaginary, and spiritual. The knowledge of the memory, following these distinctions, is also threefold: natural, supernatural imaginary, and spiritual. I shall treat of these here, by the grace of God, beginning with natural knowledge, which is conversant with the most exterior objects; and I shall afterwards speak of the affections of the will, and then conclude this third book, the subject of which is the active spiritual night.