Of the two kinds of Spiritual Visions which come by the supernatural way.

I say, then, speaking directly of the Spiritual Visions, independent of any bodily sense, that there are two kinds to which the intellect is liable: one of corporeal substances, another of abstract or incorporeal substances. The corporeal visions are visions of all material things in heaven and earth, visible to the soul in a certain light emanating from God, in which distant things of heaven and earth may be seen. The other visions of incorporeal things require a higher light: thus visions of incorporeal substances, as of Angels and of souls, are not frequent or natural in this life; and still less so is the vision of the Divine Essence, which is

peculiar to the Blessed, unless it be communicated transiently by a dispensation of God, or by conservation of our natural life and condition, and the abstraction of the spirit; as was perhaps the case of S. Paul when he heard the unutterable secrets in the third heaven, ‘ Whether in the body,’ saith he, ‘I know not, or out of the body, I know not; God knoweth,’* It is clear from the words of the Apostle that _ he was carried out of himself, by the act of God, as to his natural existence.

It is also believed that God showed His own Essence to Moses, for He said unto him that He would set him in a hole of the rock, and protect him with His right hand, that he might not die when His glory passed by.f This passing by was a transient vision, God upholding with His right hand the natural life of Moses. But these Essential Visions, such as those of 8. Paul, Moses, and our father Elias, when, at the whistling of a gentle air, he ‘ covered his face with his mantle,’ t are transient and of most rare occurrence, and scarcely ever granted, and to very few; for God shows them only to those who, like these, are the mighty ones of His Church and Law.

Now, though, in the ordinary course, these visions cannot be clearly and distinctly seen in this life, the effect of them ~ may be felt in the very substance of the soul, through the instrumentality of a loving knowledge, in the most sweet touch and union pertaining to the spiritual impressions, of which, by the grace of God, I shall speak hereafter. The end I have in view is the Divine Embracing, the Union of the sou] with the Divine Substance. I shall speak of it when I treat of the’mystical, confused, or obscure intelligence, and explain how, in this loving and obscure knowledge, God unites Himself with the soul, eminently and Divinely. For

* 2 Cor. xii. 2. t+ Ex. xxxiii. 22. } 3 Kings xix, 13.

this loving obscure knowledge, which is Faith, serves, in a manner, in this life as means of the Divine union, as the light of glory hereafter serves for the Beatific Vision.

Let me now, then, speak of visions of corporeal substances, spiritually presented to the soul, after the manner of bodily visions. As the eyes behold bodily things in natural light, so the intellect, in light supernaturally derived, beholds interiorly the same natural things, and others also such as God wills; the vision, however, is different in kind and form, for spiritual or intellectual visions are much more clear and subtle than bodily visions. When God grants this favour to any one, He communicates to him that supernatural light, wherein he beholds what God wills, most easily and most distinctly, whether they be things of heaven or of earth; neither is their presence nor absence any impediment to the vision.

When these visions occur, it is as if a door were opened into a most marvellous light, whereby the soul sees, as men do when the lightning suddenly flashes in a dark night. The lightning makes surrounding objects visible for an instant, and then leaves them in obscurity, though the forms of them remain in the fancy. But in the case of the soul the vision is much more perfect; for those things it saw in spirit in that light are so impressed upon it, that whenever God enlightens it again, it beholds them as distinctly as it did at first, precisely as in a mirfor, in which we see objects reflected whenever we look upon it. These visions once granted to the soul never again leave it altogether; for the forms remain, though they become somewhat indistinct in the course of time.

The effects of these visions in the soul are quietness, enlightenment, joy like glory, sweetness, pureness, love, humility, inclination or elevation of the mind to God, sometimes more, sometimes less, sometimes more of one, some-

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times more of another, according to the disposition of the soul and the will of God.

The devil, too, can produce or mimic these visions by means of a certain natural light. He employs therein the fancy, in which, by spiritual insinuations, he "presents clearly before the mind either present or distant things. And some Doctors, commenting on that place in the Gospel where it is written that the devil ‘showed’ our Lord ‘all the kingdoms of the world,’* say that he did so by a spiritual insinuation, because it was impossible to see at once ‘all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them’ with the bodily eyes. But there is a great difference between the visions of God and those of the evil one. For the effect of the latter is not like that of the former: those of Satan result in dryness of spirit, in a tendency to self-esteem, to accept and make much of visions: and in no degree whatever do they produce the gentleness of humility, and love of God. Again, the forms of the diabolic visions do not remain impressed on the soul with the sweet clearness of the others, neither do they endure, yea, rather, are immediately effaced, unless it be when the soul attaches itself to them: in that case the importance attached to them causes them to be remembered naturally, but with great dryness of spirit, and without the fruit of humility and love, which issue out of the good visions, whenever they recur to the memory.

These visions, inasmuch as they are visions of created things, between which and God there is no congruity or proportion, cannot subserve the intellect as proximate means of the Divine union. It is, therefore, necessary for the soul to be negatively disposed with respect to them, as well as to the others, if it is to advance by the proximate means,

* 8. Matt. iv.8; vide S. Thom. 3, p. q. 41,a.2,3; Abulensem in Matt. iv. q. 49.;

which is Faith. And therefore the forms which these visions show, and which remain impressed on the soul, must not be treasured up nor preserved, neither must we trust to them; for this would be to embarrass ourselves by dwelling on forms, images, and persons, which relate to the interior life, and not to advance in the denial of all things onwards unto God. For supposing that these forms are continually present, that would be no great hindrance, if we make no account of them. Though it be true that the recollection of them excites the soul to a certain love of God, and to Contemplation, yet pure faith and detachment in darkness excites it much more, without the soul’s knowing how or whence it cometh. The end of this will be that the soul goes forward, on fire with the anxieties of the most pure love of God, without knowing whence they come or on what foundations they rest. In short, as faith is rooted and infused more and more into the soul, in this emptiness and darkness, in detachment:from all things, in poverty of spirit — these are different expressions of one and the same thing —so also the Charity of God is the more rooted and infused into the soul. And therefore the more the soul strives to become blind and annihilated as to all interior and exterior things, the more it will be filled with Faith and Love and Hope. But this love at times is neither comprehended nor felt, because it does not establish itself in the senses with tenderness, but in the soul with fortitude, with greater courage and resolution than before; though it sometimes overflows into the senses, and shows itself tender and gentle.

In order, then, to attain to this love, joy, and delight which visions effect, it is necessary that the soul should have fortitude, and be mortified; so as to abide willingly in emptiness and darkness, and to lay the foundation of its love and delight on what it neither sees nor feels, on what

it cannot see nor feel—namely, on God Incomprehensible and Supreme. Our way to Him is therefore, of necessity, in selfdenial. Even if a soul were so wise, strong, and humble that the devil could not delude it by visions, nor make it presumptuous, as he generally does, it will make no progress, because it puts obstacles in the way of spiritual detachment and poverty of spirit, and emptiness in faith, the essential conditions of the Divine union.

As the principles established in the nineteenth and the twentieth chapters, concerning the visions and supernatural apprehensions of the senses, are applicable to these visions also, I shall not spend further time’ now in treating of them at greater length.