The Mind’s Ascent to God by a Ladder of Created ThingsFirst step. CONSIDERATION OF MAN

If any one sincerely desires to raise a ladder by which he may reach to God, let him begin by considering himself. For each one of us is both the creature and the image of God, and nothing is nearer to us than ourselves. With good reason therefore does Moses say ‘Give heed to thyself.’ On these words Basil the Great wrote a remarkable sermon. For if a man will look around him and consider what lies hidden within him, he will find the whole world, as it were in miniature, and thence he may easily rise up to the Creator of all things.

But I have determined to examine, at the present time, only four general causes: viz. Who is my Maker; The substance of which he made me; The form he bestowed upon me; and The end for which he made me.

Now, if I ask about my Maker, I find him to be God alone; if I seek to know the substance of which he formed me, I find what is altogether nothing; whence I infer that all that is in me was made by God and that the whole of my being is of God. If I desire to know my form, I shall find that I am the image of God; if I seek to know my end, I shall find the same God is himself to be my supreme and only good. And so I come to understand that my union with God and my need of him is great, that none but he is my

Creator, the Author of my being, that he is my Father, my pattern, my bliss, and all things. And if I come to understand this, is it possible that I shall fail to seek him with the greatest eagerness, to think of him, yearn after him, desire to see him and embrace him, or that I shall not shudder at the thick darkness of my heart which for so long a time has not thought on, or desired, or sought after God, who alone is all things to me?

But let us consider each point carefully. I ask thee, my soul, who gave thee thy being: when a short time since thou wast nothing? Certainly thy natural parents did not form thee, for ‘that which is born of the flesh is flesh,’ and thou art spirit: not heaven or earth, nor the sun nor the stars produced thee, for they are bodies and thou art incorporeal: nor could angels or archangels or other creatures be the authors of thy being, for thou art not sprung from anything material, but thou wast created purely out of nothing. Therefore God alone without a co-worker, without assistant, with his own hands which are his understanding and will, gave thee being when he willed so to do. But perchance thou mayst say, it was not God himself but some created thing that produced my body, so that while the soul owes its being to God, the body ought to acknowledge its parents as its creators. Not so, but God, though making use of parents for the production of the fleshly nature, as the meanest servants are employed for the building of a house, is himself the builder, himself the creator, himself the true father, not only of the soul, but also of the body, and he wills to be so called.

And if the parents of thy fleshly nature were the real authors of thy being, and, as it were, the builders of thy body, they would doubtless know the number of muscles in the human body, how many are the veins and nerves, how many larger bones, how many smaller, how much moisture and many other things of that kind, of which they are altogether ignorant, unless perchance they have learnt them by studying anatomy. Besides, when the body is sick, when limbs wither or are broken, if the parents were the real creators, they would certainly know how to restore by their own skill that which they, in the first instance, made: just as watch-makers know how to regulate watches, and builders know how to repair houses: but parents possess neither knowledge nor ability to do this, nor anything of the kind.

Add to this, that the union of the soul with the body, which is a particular part of the active human nature, could be accomplished by none but an artificer of infinite power: for by what skill save divine could spirit be joined with flesh in a bond so close as to become one substance? For the body hath no proportion to or likeness with the spirit. Therefore we know that he ‘who only doeth great wonders’ accomplished it. Truly doth the Spirit of the Lord speak by Moses in the book Deuteronomy, ‘Is he not thy father that hath bought thee, hath he not made thee and established thee ?’ and by holy Job, ‘Thou hast clothed me with skin and with flesh,’ and by the royal prophet, ‘Thy hands have made me and fashioned me,’ and again, ‘Thou hast fashioned me and laid thine hand upon me,’ and by that very wise woman, mother of the Maccabees, ‘I neither gave you breath nor life, neither was it I that formed the members of every one of you; but doubtless the Creator of the world, who formed the generation of man, and found out the beginning of all things.’ !

1 2 Macc. vii. 22.

The Wisdom of God, Christ our Lord, said, ‘Call no man your father upon earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.’1 And thus Saint Augustine addressed himself to God concerning his son Adeodatus: “Excellently hadst thou made him. I had no part in that boy but the sin.’ Well then, my soul, if God is the author of thy body and of thy soul, if he is thy father, thy sustainer, thy nourisher, then, if thou art anything, thou art his; if thou hast anything it is from him thou hast it; whatever thou hopest, from him thou hopest. Why dost thou not glory in such a Father? Why dost thou not love him with all thine heart? Why dost thou not for his sake despise all earthly things? Why dost thou suffer thyself to be ruled by vain desires? Lift thine eyes to him; fear not what thine enemy upon earth can do unto thee, when thou hast an Almighty Father in heaven! With what great trust and affection, thinkest thou, did David say, ‘I am thine, O save me.’3 O soul, if thou wouldst consider this, that the Almighty and everlasting God, who stands in no need of thy goods, and who, if thou perishest, loseth nothing, yet turneth not away his eyes from thee, and so loveth, protecteth, guideth, cherisheth thee as if thou wert his greatest treasure, indeed thou wouldst place thy whole trust in him, thou wouldst fear him as thy Lord, love him as thy Father, and there would be no temporal good or evil, however great, able to separate thee from his love.

Let us come to the substance out of which man was formed.

It is indeed very mean, but the meaner it is, so

™ St. Matt. xxiii. 9. 2 St. Aug. Cowf.ix.6. 3 Ps. cxix. 94. much the more doth it furnish a fitting ground for forming in us the virtue of humility: and there is nothing more profitable and more rare in this life than this virtue, and for that very reason there is nothing more precious or desirable. And indeed there is no doubt that the substance of the soul is itself nothing, and that nothing meaner or more worthless could be either formed or imagined. The substance out of which the first man was made, what was it but red and barren earth, or dust and clay? Scripture saith, “God formed man from dust of the ground'; and again, God saith to man, ‘Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return.' Wherefore the patriarch Abraham, remembering his baseness, said unto God, “Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes.’3 But even this is not the full extent of the baseness of the human substance, for clay and dust is not formed from another substance, but out of nothing. For ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,’ and indeed not out of another heaven and earth, but out of nothing did he make them, and so that from whence this proud animal called man was produced, comes to nothingness, whether you consider the soul or the body. Therefore there is nothing in man of which he can boast, as if he had not received it from God. Indeed the works of men, whatever they may be, whether produced by skill or labour, always possess something of themselves, concerning which, if they had sense, they might boast against their Maker. Thus a vessel of gold, a wooden chest, an ivory or marble house, could it speak, might say to the fashioner, ‘To thee I owe my form, but not my substance, and that which I possess of myself is more precious than that which I have received from thee.” But man, who has nothing from himself, or of himself, and is altogether nothing, CONSIDERATION OF Man II can boast in nothing. And very truly doth the Apostle say, “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself’; and, ‘What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it ?’2 And Saint Cyprian agrees with him when he says, ‘We have nothing to boast of, since we possess nothing.’3 But thou sayest that men do many famous works and are deservedly praised on that account, in order that virtue, being praised, may increase. It is so, that men do many wonderful works, on account of which they may be praised and esteemed, but in the Lord, not in themselves, as it is written, ‘He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord’;4 and, ‘My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.’5 And when a man accomplishes a remarkable work, I inquire of what substance, with what power, by whose direction and assistance does he make it. Certainly he makes it out of a substance, and this substance God provided, and he did not produce it himself: he did the work by the direction and help of God, without whose direction and help man can do nothing good, because God worketh not as man worketh, as the second Council of Orange (a.D. 529) explains. And so it is fitting that God should employ the service of men for performing good deeds which he is able to do himself, so that man may confess himself on this account to be so much the more a debtor to God, and not in order that he may boast in himself, but that he may glory in the Lord.

Therefore, my soul, if thou wilt be wise, lie down always in the lowest place, rob not God of his glory, whether in the smallest or the greatest matter, sink down into thine own nothingness, because that alone belongeth unto thee, and then the whole world will be powerless to lift thee up into pride.

But because this precious virtue of true humility had almost departed from the earth, and had no place in the books of the philosophers, nor in the customs of nations, the Teacher of humility came himself from heaven, and though being in the form of God and equal to the Father, ‘He emptied himself and took upon him the form of a servant, and humbled himself and became obedient even unto death,’! and said unto the human race, ‘Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.’ Wherefore, my soul, if perchance thou art ashamed to imitate the humility of men, be not ashamed to imitate the humility of God, who can neither deceive nor be deceived, and who ‘resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.’3

We are next to consider form, which is the third cause. And indeed the more unworthy the substance out of which man was made, so much the more precious and excellent do we find the form which was bestowed upon him. I pass by the exterior form, that is the shape of the human body which possesses a distinction of its own, superior to the forms of all creatures; for this form is not a substantial but an accidental form. The substantial form of man which constitutes him a man, and which distinguishes him from the rest of animals, is the immortal soul, endowed with reason and free will, the image of God, modelled after the pattern of the highest Divinity. For thus we read that when God was pleased to make man, he spake thus, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.’⁴ Man is then the image of God, not in respect of his body, but of his spirit; for God is spirit, not a body; and the image of God, says Saint Basil, is in the part which controls other living creatures.?

Now man controls beasts, not by the bodily limbs which in many of the beasts are stronger than in man, but he controls them by the mind, which is endowed with reason and free will. For man surpasses all living creatures, not by that which he possesses in common with them, but by that which distinguishes him from them, and in which he was made like unto God. My soul, lift up then thy mind to thy pattern, and consider any image, how all its goodness consists in its likeness to the original. For if perchance the pattern be misshapen, such as is the usual representation of the devil, then the value of the image is that it represents accurately the deformed pattern; and so deformity in the pattern will continue to be deformity, and deformity in the image will be its beauty. If the original be beautiful, the image will be very precious, that is to say, if it come up to the beauty of the original pattern as fully as possible; and if the image possessed perception it would wish for nothing better than to be always attentive to its original, to imitate it, and to become as like it as possible. |

O soul, thy pattern is God, the infinite beauty, light in whom is no darkness at all,3 at whose beauty both sun and moon are amazed. And in order that thou mayst more easily imitate the beauty of so great an original, and desire to copy it, thou wilt do well to seek in every way that in which thy whole perfection, all thy profit, all thine honour, joy, and rest, consist, and in short, that in which thy whole good stands, and consider that the beauty of God, who is thine example, doth consist in wisdom and holiness. For just as the beauty of the body is derived from the right proportion of the limbs and pleasing colouring, so in a spiritual being, for pleasing colouring there is the light of wisdom; proportion of the limbs is righteousness; and by righteousness is to be understood, not any particular virtue, but that general quality which comprises all virtues. That spirit is therefore the most beautiful whose mind shines with the light of wisdom, and whose will is strong in the fullness of perfect righteousness. But, I say, God is thy pattern, O soul, wisdom itself, righteousness itself, and on this account he is beauty itself. And since both these good qualities are described in the Scriptures by the name of sanctity, in Isaiah the angels are said to cry, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts’; and to those made in his own image God proclaims, Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy’;? and our Lord in the Gospel says, ‘Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ 3

Therefore, O my soul, if thou dost desire to become the true image of God, and to be as like as possible to thy pattern, it behoves thee to love wisdom and righteousness above all other things. True wisdom is to judge of all things according to their highest cause; the highest cause is the divine will or law which manifests to men the will of God. If therefore thou lovest wisdom, it behoveth thee in all circumstances not to listen to what the law of flesh may prescribe, that which the senses judge to be good, that which the world approves, that which kinsfolk urge, and still less what flatterers suggest: but thou must be deaf to all these, and attend only to the will of thy Lord God; and thou shouldst always judge that to be useful, glorious, desirable, in short in every respect good, which is in agreement with the will and law of God. This is the wisdom of the saints, concerning which it is written, “I loved her above health and beauty, and chose to have her instead of light: for the light that cometh from her never goeth out. All good things together came to me with her.’ Furthermore, righteousness, which is the other part of spiritual beauty, comprehends all virtues which adorn and perfect the will, but especially charity, which is the mother and root of all virtues and of which Saint Augustine, in his last book on nature and grace, thus speaks, ‘Love begun is righteousness begun, love increased is righteousness increased, perfect love is perfect righteousness’; 3? for he ‘that loveth hath fulfilled the law,’ because ‘love worketh no ill,’ and therefore ‘love is the fulfilling of the law,’ as the Apostle hath taught us. 3

And again, ‘Who so keepeth his word,’ that is his commandments, ‘in him verily is the love of God perfected,’ as saith Saint John.4 Those therefore who desire to become like unto the divine pattern, ought to obey him who says, ‘Be ye imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love;’5 for the Son is the image of the Father, and the whole good of an image is, as we have said above, to be very like its original. O soul, if thou didst fully understand this, and having become like unto thy pattern in the beauty of true wisdom and real holiness, wert pleasing in the eyes of the most high King, what peace wouldst thou enjoy, with what gladness wouldst thou exult! How easily wouldst thou despise all the delights of the world! And on the contrary, if thou didst consider how extremely displeased God is when he sees his image bereft of the light of wisdom and of the beauty of righteousness, defiled, disfigured, darkened, and man, who was placed in so great honour that he was like unto God, now ‘compared with the beasts that perish and become like unto them’! thou wouldst indeed shudder and tremble, and wouldst be unable in any way to rest, until thou hadst washed away all the stains in rivers of tears of bitterest contrition, and hadst recovered thy likeness to thy most beautiful example. But since thou art now a wanderer from the Lord and walkest by faith and not by sight, thou needest the constant help of the Lord himself, both in order that thou mayst retain that likeness which thou hast already acquired, and also that thou mayst become daily more like him, that is, more beautiful and more bright. Mourn then with thy whole heart before God, and say unto him: O holy and most merciful Lord, who wast pleased to make this soul of mine in thine image, perfect, I beseech thee, this little image of thyself, increase in it wisdom and righteousness, hide it in the secret place of thy tabernacle, that it may be defiled neither by the mire of fleshly desire, nor by the smoke of worldly honour, nor by the dust of earthly cogitations.

Thus far concerning form.

There remains the last, which we term the final cause.

Now the end for which man was created is none other than the very God himself: but since the end is twofold, one within, the other without, we will shortly consider each separately.

The intrinsic end of anything is the most perfect condition to which that thing can attain. Thus the intrinsic end of a palace is the finishing and perfection of the palace: for it is then said to be finished when

there is nothing wanting of those things which the structure of the palace requires. The intrinsic end of a tree is that state of perfection which its nature requires: for the tree may then be said to have attained its end when it spreads its branches and produces leaves and is beautified with flowers, and a little later on, is laden with ripe fruit. And so man, who was created for the very highest end, may be said to have attained his end when his mind shall see God as he is: knowledge of all things will follow this vision, and his will will enjoy that supreme good which he so ardently loved and desired, and the body, endowed with immortality and impassibility, and other glorious gifts, will become possessed of perpetual peace and joy. And since the essence of this final beatitude is the vision of God by which we, the very images of God—we ourselves, I say, shall attain to the perfect state and complete likeness to our divine pattern, blessed John writes thus: * Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.’ !

O soul, couldst thou conceive what this is, ‘We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is,’ how quickly would all the clouds of earthly desire be dispersed. God is supremely happy, and supremely happy because he always beholds himself as he is, and takes delight in himself the very highest good, most clearly seen and most ardently loved unceasingly, from all eternity.

And this inestimable good he hath willed thee to share with the holy angels: for this most sublime and lofty end he created thee. This is the meaning of that word, ‘Enter into the joy of thy Lord,’ 2 namely, be thou partaker of that joy in which God himself rejoices; and again, ‘I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom,’! that is, I will make you sharers of my kingdom and of my royal table, that ye may enjoy that very honour, power, and pleasure which I enjoy, and which God my Father enjoys. And who can think how great is the honour, how great the power, how great the pleasure, how great the happiness of the King of all kings, and Lord of all lords, our Lord God? Indeed, one who raises up his thoughts and expectations to this great and high end, will be ashamed to strive after possession of the earth, or to be cast down on account of some loss of temporal things, or to rejoice over temporal gains: he will blush, I say, to regard with longing such pleasures as beasts eagerly hunt after, since he has been made a companion of angels, and partaker of the friendship of God, and a sharer in his inestimable benefits: for friends have all things in common.

The exterior end of anything is that one for whose sake the thing was made. ‘The end of a palace is the person who dwells in it, the end of a tree is its owner: the end of a man is only the Lord his God, for God not only made man, but made him for himself; he preserves him, feeds him, gives him his reward. So with good reason does he give a command and say, ‘Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him.’ 2 But, my soul, observe carefully, other things which were made for man are useful to man, not to themselves; beasts of burden work for man, not for themselves; fields, vineyards, gardens fill man’s stores, barns, purses, not their own; labour and sweat and fatigue are the lot of servants, while to the master belong the gain, ease, and pleasure. But the Lord thy God, who is in need of nothing, doth indeed desire that man should serve him, but he willeth also that the profit and gain and reward of the service should belong to man.

“O Lord, good and gracious and of great mercy,’ who, if he once begins to taste the sweetness of thy fatherly control or even a particle of it, will not serve thee with all his heart? What, O Lord, dost thou command to thy servants? ‘Take,’ thou sayest, ‘my yoke upon you.’ What kind of yoke? ‘My yoke,’ thou sayest, ‘is sweet and my burden is light.’ Who would not willingly bear a yoke which does not press but assists, and a burden which does not weigh down but refreshes? Well indeed therefore dost thou add, ‘and ye shall find rest unto your souls.’ And what is this yoke of thine, which does not weary but brings rest? Is it not that first and great commandment, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart?’3 For what task can be easier or sweeter than to love goodness and beauty and love, all which indeed thou art, my Lord God? Rightly did David thy servant judge when he decreed that thy commandments are ‘more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb,’ and added, ‘and in keeping them there is great reward.’ 4 What is this, Lord? Dost thou promise also a reward to those who keep thy commandments which in themselves are far above gold and sweeter than honey-comb? Thus indeed dost thou promise reward and still further reward, as thine Apostle James saith, ‘The Lord hath prepared a crown of life for them that love him.’ 5 And what is this crown of life? It is something so great that we are not able either to conceive of it or to imagine it. For thus saith Paul, quoting from Isaiah, ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.’ ‘Therefore, truly, in keeping thy commandments there is great reward. And not only is that first and greatest commandment profitable to man who obeys, and not to God who commands; but all the other commandments of God do perfect, adorn, instruct, enlighten the man who obeys, and render him good and happy. Wherefore if thou art wise, understand that thou wert created for the glory of God and for thine own eternal salvation, that this is thine end, this the centre of thy soul, this the treasure of thine heart. If thou attain this end, happy wilt thou be, but wretched if thou fall away from it. And so thou wilt consider that to be really good for thee which helps thee to thine end, and that to be really evil which causes thee to slip away from it. The wise man will not seek after nor flee away from prosperity, wealth, health, honour, adversity, poverty, sickness, and dishonour; but whatever leads on to the glory of God and his own everlasting happiness will be considered good and worth seeking after, while all those things which hinder these ends will be considered evil and such as to be avoided.