Coll. 2
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/11/d/2/q/bon-hex-c2
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### COLLATION II.
#### *On the fulness of wisdom, in which discourse must be ended: namely on the gate and the form of wisdom.*

### Summarium

*Four things to be noted concerning wisdom, 1. — Part I, on the gate of wisdom. The gate is the desire of it, and the disposition is the observance of justice, 2. — This is proved; the twofold discipline, 3. — The desire of discipline begets love, which is the keeping of the laws, 4. — Holiness according to Dionysius, 5. — This is the immediate disposition to wisdom, 6. — Part II, on the form of wisdom. It is wonderful, 7. — For it is uniform, multiform, omniform, nulliform, 8. — As to the first, it is uniform in the rules of the divine laws, 9–10. — As to the second, it is multiform in the mysteries of the divine Scriptures, according to the twofold allegory, anagogy, tropology, 11–18. — As to the third, it is omniform in the vestiges of the divine works, 19–26. — As to the fourth, it is nulliform in the suspensions of the divine transports, 27–33.*

1. *In the midst of the Church he shall open his mouth, and shall fill him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and shall clothe him with a robe of glory*, Ecclesiasticus the fifteenth. It has been shown above *to whom* the teacher ought to deliver his discourse, and *whence* he ought to begin. Now it must be shown *where* he ought to end: namely, *in the fulness of wisdom and understanding*.

Now concerning wisdom note four things: what its *rise* is, what its *house*, what its *gate*, what its *form*. Of the first two it was said in the *Collations on the seven gifts*, where it was said that wisdom is a light *descending from the Father of lights* into the soul, and shining in it makes the soul deiform and a *house* of God. That descending light makes the *intellective* power comely, the *affective* pleasant, the *operative* strong. — This *house* is built upon seven columns, which blessed James plainly touches. *The wisdom that is from above*, he says, *first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, consenting to the good, full of mercy and good fruits, without judging, without dissimulation.* Of this house it is said in Matthew the seventh: *Everyone that heareth these my words and doth them shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock.*

2. The gate of wisdom is the desire of it and a vehement longing; whence in the Psalm: *Open thy mouth, and I will fill it.* This is the way by which wisdom comes into me, by which I enter to wisdom, and wisdom enters into me, just as charity likewise does. Whence *God is charity, and he that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him.* But this wisdom is not had except with the highest complacency; and where the highest complacency is, the highest desire goes before; in Ecclesiasticus: *Son, desiring wisdom, keep justice, and God will give her to thee.* — The observance of *justice* disposes one to have her, just as the appetite of matter inclines to form and makes it apt to be joined to the form through intermediate dispositions; not that those dispositions are destroyed, but rather they are completed, whether in the human body or in other things. The observance of justice therefore introduces wisdom. Whence Wisdom the seventh: *She is the brightness of eternal light and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty and the image of his goodness. And being but one, she can do all things, and remaining in herself she reneweth all things, and through nations conveyeth herself into holy souls.*

3. But how this wisdom is had is clear both by *authority* and by *example*. Of the first, Wisdom the sixth: *For the beginning of her is the most true desire of discipline. The care therefore of discipline is love, and love is the keeping of her laws; and the keeping of her laws is the perfection of incorruption; and incorruption bringeth near to God.*

*The desire therefore of wisdom bringeth to the everlasting kingdom.* The desire of wisdom therefore begets the desire of discipline. — Now discipline is twofold: *scholastic* and *monastic*, that is, of morals; and the scholastic does not suffice for having wisdom without the monastic; because a man is made wise not by hearing alone, but by observing. Whence in the Psalm, of wisdom: *Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge.* For knowledge is not had unless *discipline* goes before; nor discipline, unless *goodness* goes before; and so through *goodness* and *discipline* knowledge is in us. — For a sick man is never healed by hearing the physician, unless he observe his precepts, as the Philosopher says in the second book of the *Ethics*. But few go by this way of wisdom, and therefore few arrive at true wisdom.

4. The desire of discipline begets love. *The care therefore of discipline is love.* For if thou hast the love of discipline, thou wilt be a lover of virtue in thyself and in others and in its fountain. But discipline ought not to be servile, but liberal, so that one love him who disciplines, so that he act out of love, not out of fear. For if for discipline's sake thou art poor, it behoves thee to love poverty; and so of other things. And *love is the keeping of the laws.* For if thou lovest the good, thou observest the law, because *the end of the commandment is charity from a pure heart*. But when thou keepest the law, thou art sanctified and made full of the Holy Spirit; and then thou art drawn away from every love which is not God.

5. For this is that holiness which Dionysius describes in *On the Divine Names*, chapter twelve: «Holiness», he says, «is a cleanness free from all uncleanness, and perfect, and altogether unstained». To be sanctified, therefore, is to be drawn away from every defiling and corrupting love which can corrupt the soul. In this the creature ought to be made like to the Creator: *Be ye holy*, he says, *for I am holy.* This holiness makes one deiform; and therefore those seraphic Spirits said: *Holy, holy, holy.*

6. But when the soul has been made deiform, Wisdom straightway enters into it, because *she is the brightness of eternal light and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty*; and there follows: *through nations she conveyeth herself into holy souls*, Wisdom the seventh. Without holiness a man is not wise. Whence in Ecclesiasticus: *A holy man continueth in wisdom as the sun; but a fool is changed as the moon.* Holiness is the immediate disposition to wisdom: therefore desire and vehement longing is the gate of wisdom; Wisdom the seventh: *I wished, and understanding was given me; and I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came upon me. And I preferred her before kingdoms and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison of her*, as far as this: *I was glad in all these things, because this wisdom went before me, and I was ignorant that she is the mother of them all.* — But he says that he had her by wishing and by calling upon God. For if she is the highest good, she is to be loved in the highest degree; but if she is every good, she is to be sought universally and above all things. — Likewise it is clear from the example of Solomon, because he did not ask for gold and silver, but for *a docile heart*; and therefore she came into him. Whence James: *If any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men abundantly and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is not disciplined.* This, then, is the gate. And a desire of this kind extinguishes all other desires and makes a man lifted up above the world. Whence he says: *Her have I loved and have sought out from my youth, and I sought to take her for my spouse, and I became a lover of her beauty.*

7. Now the form of wisdom is wonderful, and no one beholds it without wonder and ecstasy, as is said of Esther and of Solomon, *whose face all the earth desired to see*; and *the Queen of Saba came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon*; and when she saw *the order of them that ministered and their apparel and the cupbearers and the holocausts which he offered in the house of the Lord, she had no longer any spirit in her.* — But that is to be feared which the Lord says in the Gospel: *The queen of the south shall rise in judgement with this generation and shall condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold a greater than Solomon here.* The Jews would not hear wisdom from the mouth of Wisdom; and we have Christ within us, and we will not hear his wisdom. It is a very great abomination that a king's daughter, most beautiful, is offered to us as a spouse, and we would rather be coupled to a most filthy handmaid and play the harlot; and we would return into Egypt to the vilest food, and will not be refreshed with heavenly food.

8. This form is wonderful, because at one time it is *uniform*, at another *multiform*, at another *omniform*, at another *nulliform*. With a fourfold light therefore it clothes itself. It appears uniform in the *rules of the divine laws*, multiform in the *mysteries of the divine Scriptures*, omniform in the *vestiges of the divine works*, nulliform in the *suspensions of the divine transports*.

9. Of the first, Wisdom the sixth: *Wisdom is glorious and never fadeth away* — because with

*her there is no change nor shadow of alteration* — *and she is easily seen by them that love her, and is found by them that seek her. She preventeth them that covet her, so that she first sheweth herself unto them.* This wisdom therefore appears immutable in the *rules of the divine laws*, which bind us. Those rules, shining into rational minds, are all those modes by which the mind knows and judges that which cannot be otherwise: for instance, that the highest principle is to be venerated in the highest degree; that the highest truth is to be believed and assented to in the highest degree; that the highest good is to be desired and loved in the highest degree. — And these are in the first table; and in them wisdom appears, in that they are so certain that they cannot be otherwise.

10. These rules are *infallible*, *indubitable*, *unjudgeable*, because through them judgement is made, and there is no judgement about them. And therefore this wisdom is *glorious*. — They are also *unchangeable*, *unconfinable*, *unbounded*; and therefore *it never fadeth away*. For they are so certain that there is in no way any contradicting them «except as to the outward-account», according to the Philosopher, in the first book of the *Posterior Analytics*. For these are rooted in the eternal light and lead into it, yet not on that account is that light itself seen. Nor is it to be said that they are founded in any created light, as in some Intelligence which illumines minds; because, since those rules are unconfinable, in that they offer themselves to the minds of all, it would then follow that a created light would be unconfinable and would be pure act, which be far from us; and he who says this enervates the fountain of wisdom and makes an idol, namely an Angel, a God, and more than he who makes a stone a god. For this wisdom shines upon the soul, because *she standeth at the doors, that*, as he says, *she may first shew herself unto them*.

11. Again, wisdom appears as *multiform in the mysteries of the divine Scriptures*. This multiformity of the mysteries the Apostle shows, to the Ephesians: *To me, the least of all the saints, is given this grace among the Gentiles, to evangelize the unsearchable riches of the grace of Christ, and to enlighten all men, that they may see what is the dispensation of the mystery hidden from eternity in God, who created all things, that the manifold wisdom of God may be made known to the Principalities and Powers in heavenly places through the Church.* It is not to be understood that Paul teaches the Angels, but it is said to be made known because through their ministry these things are made known, just as it is said that the Law was given by Angels, that is, through the ministry of Angels.

12. This wisdom therefore is called multiform, because there are many modes of expressing it; and therefore it was necessary that wisdom should be shown in many figures, many Sacraments, many signs, so that it should also be veiled to the proud and opened to the humble. These wrappings enclose Christ; they hide wisdom from the wise and the unclean. Whence in Matthew: *I confess to thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to little ones.* And therefore the Apostle says well: *To me, the least of all the saints*, etc.

13. But how does Paul evangelize *the unsearchable riches of the grace of Christ*? Thus: *Now*, he says, *there remain faith, hope, charity, these three.* — A threefold understanding shines in Scripture, which teaches what is to be *believed*, what is to be *hoped for*, what is to be *done*: what is to be believed as regards faith; what is to be hoped for as regards hope; what is to be done as regards charity, which consists in operation, not only in affection, John the fourteenth: *If any one love me, he will keep my word.* And each of these is forked in two.

14. For faith is at the joining of the head and the body. The shining forth as regards faith is *allegory*, and this is twofold: one to the *head*, the other to the *body*. For there is one which is borne to the head crucified, born, and so forth; another which is borne to the body, to the Church first, middle and last; and in this manner Solomon praises the Church in the *Canticle* according to that threefold state. *Who is she*, he says, *that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun*, etc. — *Who is she that goeth up by the desert as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh and frankincense*, etc. — *Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?*

15. Of the allegory of the head Paul says: *I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and*

*all in Moses were baptized in the cloud and in the sea, and all did eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. And they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ.* — Of the allegory of the body: *It is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman and the other by a free woman; but he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh; but he of the free woman, by promise: which things are said by an allegory. For these are the two testaments*. It was not needful that he should explain further, because by them are understood the two *peoples*.

16. According to the other understanding, which is through hope — namely what is to be hoped for — *anagogy* is taken, and this is twofold: namely *heavenly*, as there: *Abraham, look up to heaven and number the stars, if thou canst* — namely the heavenly Intelligences; and in Job: *Dost thou know the order of heaven, and canst thou set down the reason thereof on the earth?* — The other *supercelestial*, as in Abraham, who «saw three and adored one», because in them the Trinity appeared; and in the two Angels who were sent to Sodom, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are sent by the Father; and therefore, because the Father was never sent, he did not appear there, but he appeared in those three, because the Father appeared, yet was never sent. — Hugh uses these words: *heavenly, supercelestial, subcelestial hierarchy*. Some say that they are called so improperly; but this is false, because in both places there is a sacred princedom.

17. The third is *tropology*, according to the third understanding, which teaches what is to be done. This is twofold: one part pertains to the *active* life, where it is taught what is to be done; another to the *contemplative*, where it is taught how one is to contemplate, how the soul is borne into God; and yet it is not anagogy, since it is a preparation of the soul, and so tends from the lowest to the highest. — This wisdom, then, is hidden and veiled from the proud, who are not able to understand the Scriptures. The Scriptures cannot be understood, nor the mysteries, unless the course of the world and the hierarchic disposition be known.

18. In these mysteries, then, the wisdom of God appears most beautifully, even more than in the first mode. As, for example, I wish to praise the bride, that she is fair, that she is truthful; if I say simply, she is fair, she is truthful, my heart is not much moved; but when I say: *Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtledove's, thy neck as jewels*, I commend her wonderfully, so long as I understand. For I commend her not only as chaste and honourable, but because for the love of the bridegroom she is chaste and loving. For the turtledove is a bird chaste and loving, because for the love of its mate, while he lives, it joins itself to no other, nor after his death. The bride therefore is honourable not because she is chaste, but because she is chaste for the love of the bridegroom. Beautiful therefore are the *cheeks*, which stand forward, in which beauty appears. *Thy neck as jewels*: the neck, through which the voice is sent forth, is truth; the jewels, which adorn the breast and bind it, are discretion; because if a man speak the truth and not when he ought, or not as he ought, or not where he ought, or not to whom he ought — the truth is not beautiful.

19. This wisdom results from the many mysteries of Scripture, as from many mirrors are made multiplications of rays and of fires; these are the *mirrors of the women*, of which the *brazen laver* is made; this is Scripture, so that *with open face beholding the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory*: from the glory of allegory into the glory of anagogy, and again of tropology. This wisdom is given according to the measure of faith and to each one, *as God hath divided the measure of faith*; because, according as a man more captivates his understanding, so much the wiser is he made, and faith is had through humility. Of wisdom of this kind Paul calls himself a professor. But Moses set down rules and laws, and therefore had a horned face, whereas the Apostle had an unveiled one.

20. Again, the third face of wisdom is *omniform in the vestiges of the divine works*. Whence in Ecclesiasticus: *To whom hath the root of wisdom been revealed, and who hath known her wise counsels? To whom hath the discipline of wisdom been revealed and made manifest, and who hath understood the multiplicity of her steps? There is one most high Creator almighty.* There follows: *He created her in the Holy Spirit, and saw her and numbered her and measured her, and poured her out upon all his works.*

This wisdom has been made manifest; whence: *Wisdom preacheth abroad, she uttereth her voice in the streets*. And yet we do not find her, just as a layman who does not know letters and holds a book cares nothing for it; so we; whence this writing has been made for us Greek, barbarous and Hebrew, and utterly unknown in its source.

21. This wisdom is diffused in every thing, because every thing according to every property has a rule of wisdom and shows forth the divine wisdom; and he who knew all the properties would manifestly see this wisdom. And to considering this the philosophers gave themselves, and Solomon himself as well; whence he reproves himself, saying: *I said: I will be wise; and she went farther from me.* For when someone gives himself by a curious searching of creatures to investigating this wisdom, then it withdraws farther off.

22. Now the work of God is spoken of in three ways: in the first way, an *essence*, whatever it be and in whatever genus, whether of substance or of accident; in another way, a *complete essence*, namely substance alone; in a third way, an *essence made to the image of God*, as a spiritual creature. — Upon these the wisdom of God has been poured out, as *upon his works*.

23. Now there is an order in these. For God creates every essence *in measure and number and weight*; and in giving these, he gives *measure, beauty and order*; measure is that by which it stands, beauty that by which it is discerned, order that by which it fits. For there is no creature which does not have measure, number and inclination; and in these the *vestige* is regarded, and wisdom is made manifest, as the foot in its footprint; and this vestige leads into that wisdom in which there is *measure without measure, number without number, order without order*. — But in substance there is a higher vestige, which represents the divine essence. For every created substance has *matter, form, composition*: an original principle or foundation, a formal completion, and a glue; it has *substance, power and operation*. — And in these the mystery of the Trinity is represented: the Father, origin; the Son, image; the Holy Spirit, bond.

24. Now the account of the original principle has a distinction from the formal completion in the creature — not indeed a hypostatic one, as it is in the divine, nor an accidental one, but as of principles of which one is active, the other passive. And to take this away from the creature is to take away from it the representation of the Trinity; as to say that the creature is pure act and does not have composition.

25. Nor is that of any avail which is said, that it is composite because it is from another, since to be from another does not make composition; for then the Son would be composite, since he is from the Father, and the Holy Spirit from both. For the divine being alone is simple; nor does *to be* differ in it from *to be thus* and *to be well*. And therefore *being* is said to be the name of God, because being in God is that which God is. But in the creature *to be* differs from *to be well* and *to be thus*.

26. Another vestige of this wisdom is *substance, power and operation*; power is from substance, operation from substance and power; a thing has from substance *to be*, from power *to be vigorous*, from operation *to effect*. Nor is power an accident of substance, although the Philosopher says that a natural potency is a quality. For he is speaking insofar as it states a mode consequent upon substance; as is clear, because *hard* and *soft* state a mode consequent upon substance.

27. Again, there is the creature made to the image of God; and this either according to the *natural* image or the *gratuitous*; the former is memory, intelligence and will, in which the Trinity shines; and with this the soul is sealed, and in this sealing it receives immortality, intelligence and joyfulness: immortality, according as eternity is held in the memory; wisdom, according as truth shines in the intelligence; joyfulness, according as goodness delights in the will. These things are indeed in the Intelligences, or in reformed substances. — And thus it is clear that the whole world is like one mirror full of lights presenting the divine wisdom, and like a coal pouring forth light.

28. The fourth face of wisdom is the most difficult, because it is *nulliform*, which seems destructive of the preceding, yet is not. For of this the Apostle says in the first to the Corinthians, the second chapter: *We speak wisdom among the perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world; but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a wisdom which is hidden, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,*

*neither hath it entered into the heart of man; but to us God hath revealed it by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God.* This wisdom Paul taught to Dionysius and Timothy and the rest of the perfect, and hid it from the others. It behoves us, therefore, to be perfect, that we may come to this wisdom. *Forgetting the things that are behind*, he says, *I stretch forth myself to those that are before, if by any means I may comprehend.*

29. This wisdom is hidden in a mystery. But how? If *it hath not entered into the heart of man*, how shall it be comprehended, since it is nulliform? — Note that this is the state of Christian wisdom; whence, when Dionysius had written many books, he consummated it here, namely in the *Mystical Theology*. Whence it behoves that a man be instructed in many things and in all that goes before. Of the mystical theology Dionysius says: «But do thou», he says, «O Timothy, my friend, in respect of the mystical visions, by a strong action and contrition, leave behind the senses», and so forth; for he means to say that it behoves one to be loosed from all the things which he there enumerates, and to let all go; as if he were to say: he whom I wish to understand is above all substance and knowledge. And there is an operation transcending all understanding, most secret; which no one knows but he who experiences it. For in the soul there are many apprehensive powers: the *sensitive*, the *imaginative*, the *estimative*, the *intellective*; and all must be left behind, and at the summit is the uniting of love, and this transcends them all. — Whence it is clear that the whole of beatitude is not in the intellective power.

30. Now this contemplation comes about through grace, and yet industry helps, namely that a man separate himself from everything that God is not, and from himself, if that were possible. And this is the supreme uniting through love. And that it comes about through love alone, the Apostle says: *Rooted and founded in charity, that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length, the breadth, the height and the depth.* This love transcends all understanding and knowledge. — But if it transcends knowledge, how can this wisdom be seen? On this account the Apostle adds: *Now to him who is able to do all things more abundantly than we ask or understand*, etc.; because it is not for everyone, but only for him to whom God reveals it. On which account the Apostle says: *But to us God hath revealed it by his Spirit.* Whence, when the mind is joined to God in that union, it sleeps in a certain manner and in a certain manner watches: *I sleep, and my heart watcheth.* The affective power alone watches, and imposes silence on all the other powers; and then a man is alienated from the senses and set in ecstasy, and hears *secret words which it is not granted to man to utter*, because they are only in the affection. Whence, since nothing can be expressed except what is conceived, nor is anything conceived except what is understood, and the understanding is silent, it follows that he can utter and unfold almost nothing. — And so it is; and because this wisdom is not reached except through grace, therefore the wise author attributes to the Holy Spirit and to the Word himself the revealing of whatever things are hidden and unforeseen; and therefore he says: *Whatsoever things are hid and unforeseen I have learned; for the artificer of all things, wisdom, taught me.* And he says the same thing that Paul does. *For in her is the spirit of understanding, holy, one, manifold, subtile*, etc. This spirit lifts the soul and teaches unforeseen things. And this is the *finger of God*, to which Pharaoh's magician cannot attain — namely our understanding. — Of the first kinds of wisdom many wise men have something, but of this one few.

31. Now this love is *sequestering*, *sleep-bringing*, *upward-bearing*. For it sequesters from every other affection for the sake of the one affection for the bridegroom; it brings sleep and quiets all the powers and imposes silence; it bears upward, because it leads into God. And thus a man is as it were dead; and therefore it is said: *Love is strong as death*, because it separates from all things. For it behoves a man to die through that love, that he may be borne upward. Whence *man shall not see me and live.* And then in such a union the power of the soul is gathered into one and is made more united and enters into its own inmost part and consequently ascends into its own highest part; because the inmost and the highest are the same, according to Augustine. Of that highest part it is said in the Canticle: *I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor make the beloved to awake, till she please.*

32. Now it helps us toward coming to that sleep to be borne above all the senses, above all the intellectual operations which are bound up with phantasms, and to dismiss even the angelic Intelligences, so that it may be said: *The keepers that go about the city found me; when I had a little passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth.* And this Dionysius teaches: to dismiss things sensible, things intellectual, beings, non-beings; and he calls temporal things non-beings, because they are in continual variation; and so to enter into the *ray of darkness*. It is called darkness because the understanding does not grasp it; and yet the soul is illumined in the highest degree. And because this is not had except through prayer, therefore Dionysius begins from prayer, saying: «O supersubstantial Trinity, superdivine, supergood»; and understand that this is said not in respect of God, but in respect of our understanding; because he is more substance than our understanding grasps, and more God; and so of the rest. And afterwards: «removing the eyes of the mind», because the mind cannot behold with intellectual eyes, and therefore they must be removed. And therefore it is said in the Canticle: *Turn away thy eyes from me, for they have made me flee away.* Then Christ withdraws, when the mind strives with intellectual eyes to see that wisdom; because there the understanding does not enter, but the affection. Whence in the Canticle: *Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast wounded my heart with one of thy eyes* — because the affection goes even to the depth of Christ — *and with one hair of thy neck*; the hair signifies the lifting up of mental considerations. — And afterwards Dionysius: «But do thou, friend Timothy, in respect of the mystical visions, by a strong contrition and action leave behind the senses and the intellectual operations», and so forth. And he intimates that this ascent comes about through the vigour and the most powerful stirring of the Holy Spirit; as is said of Elijah: *Behold, a spirit overthrowing the mountains and breaking the rocks*, etc. This fire it is not in our power to have; but if God gives it from above, it is the priest's part to nourish it and to lay on the wood through prayer.

33. Now this ascent comes about through *affirmation* and *removal*: through affirmation, from the highest down to the lowest; through removal, from the lowest up to the highest; and this latter mode is the more fitting, as: it is not this, it is not that; nor do I deprive God of what is his, or is in him, but I attribute it in a better and higher mode than I understand. — Removal is always followed by love. Whence Moses is first sequestered from the elders, secondly ascends the mountain, thirdly enters the darkness. Another example: he who carves a figure puts nothing on, but rather removes, and leaves in the stone itself a noble and beautiful form. So the knowledge of the Godhead through removal leaves in us a most noble disposition.

34. This sleep is signified by the death of Christ, the burial of Christ, the passage of the Red Sea, the passage into the land of promise. — That the Holy Spirit again stirs one to this, note concerning Moses, whom the fire led to *the inner parts of the desert*, where he received his illuminations. This, then, is the form of wisdom; these are the mental transports.

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