Cap. 7
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/6/d/7/q/bon-itin-c7
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### Cap. VII. *On the mental and mystical transport, in which rest is given to the intellect, the affection passing over wholly into God by transport.*

1. These six considerations having therefore been run through, as by *the six steps of the throne of the true Solomon*, by which one arrives at peace, where the true peaceable one rests in a peaceable mind as in an interior Jerusalem; and as by the *six wings of the Cherub*, by which the mind of the true contemplative may be borne upward in the full illumination of supernal wisdom; and as through the *first six days*, in which the mind has to be exercised, that it may at last arrive at the sabbath of rest; after our mind has beheld God *outside itself* through vestiges and in vestiges, *within itself* through the image and in the image, *above itself* through the likeness of the divine light shining upon us and in that light itself, according to what is possible in the state of the wayfarer and by the exercise of our mind; when at last on the *sixth* step it has come to this, that it speculates in the first and highest principle and the mediator *of God and men*, Jesus Christ, those things whose like can in no way be found in creatures, and which exceed all the perspicacity of the human intellect: it remains that, by speculating on these, it transcend and pass over not only this sensible world but even itself; in which passing-over Christ is the *way and the door*, Christ is the *ladder* and the *vehicle*, as the *propitiatory placed above the ark of God* and the *sacrament hidden from the ages*.

2. He who looks to that propitiatory with a full turning of the face, gazing upon him hanging on the cross through faith, hope and charity, devotion, admiration, exultation, appreciation, praise and jubilation; makes with him the *pasch*, that is, the passing-over, so that by the rod of the cross he may cross the Red Sea, entering the desert from Egypt, where he may taste the *hidden manna*, and may rest with Christ in the tomb as though outwardly dead, yet feeling, as far as is possible in the state of the wayfarer, what was said on the cross to the thief who clung to Christ: *This day thou shalt be with me in paradise.*

3. Which was also shown to blessed Francis, when, in the transport of contemplation on the lofty mountain — where I turned over in my mind these things which have been written — there appeared to him a Seraph of six wings fastened to a cross, as I and several others heard on that very spot from his companion, who was then with him; where he passed over into God through the transport of contemplation; and he was set as an example of perfect *contemplation*, as he had earlier been of *action*, as another *Jacob* and *Israel*, so that through him God might invite all truly spiritual men to a passing-over and a transport of mind of this kind, more by example than by word.

4. Now in this passing-over, if it is to be perfect, it is necessary that all intellectual operations be left behind, and that the whole apex of the affection be transferred and transformed into God. But this is mystical and most secret, which *no man knoweth but he that receiveth it*, nor does he receive it unless he desires it, nor does he desire it unless the fire of the Holy Spirit inflames him to the marrow, whom Christ sent upon the earth. And therefore the Apostle says that this mystical wisdom is revealed through the Holy Spirit.

5. Since, therefore, nature can do nothing toward this, and industry can do little, little is to be given to inquiry and much to unction; little is to be given to the tongue, and very much to interior gladness; little is to be given

to word and writing, and everything to the gift of God, namely to the Holy Spirit; little or nothing is to be given to the creature, and everything to the creating essence, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, saying with Dionysius to God the Trinity: «Trinity superessential and superdivine and supremely good overseer of the theosophy of Christians, direct us into the superunknown and supershining and most sublime summit of the mystic utterances; where the new and absolute and unconvertible mysteries of theology are hidden, according to the supershining darkness of the silence that teaches secretly, in the most obscure — which is most supermanifest — supershining, and in which everything shines forth, and which superfills invisible intellects with the splendours of invisible supergoods». This to God. But to the friend for whom these things are written, let it be said with the same Dionysius: «But do thou, O friend, as concerns mystical visions, thy journey being made strong, forsake both the senses and the intellectual operations, and things sensible and invisible, and every non-being and being, and, so far as is possible, restore thyself unknowing to the unity of him who is above all essence and knowledge. For by an immeasurable and absolute transport of the pure mind, out of thyself and out of all things, forsaking all and freed from all, thou shalt ascend to the superessential ray of the divine darkness».

6. But if you ask how these things come about, question grace, not doctrine; desire, not the intellect; the groaning of prayer, not the study of reading; the Bridegroom, not the master; God, not man; darkness, not clarity; not light, but the fire that wholly inflames and carries over into God by excessive unctions and most ardent affections. Which *fire* indeed is God, and its *furnace is in Jerusalem*, and Christ kindles it in the fervour of his most ardent passion, which he alone truly perceives who says: *My soul hath chosen hanging, and my bones death.* And he who loves this death can see God, because it is beyond doubt true: *Man shall not see me and live.* — Let us then die and enter into the darkness, let us impose silence upon our cares, our concupiscences and our phantasms; let us pass over with the crucified Christ *out of this world to the Father*, so that, the Father being shown to us, we may say with Philip: *It is enough for us*; let us hear with Paul: *My grace is sufficient for thee*; let us exult with David, saying: *My flesh and my heart have failed, God of my heart and my portion, God for ever. Blessed be the Lord for ever, and let all the people say: So be it, so be it.* Amen.

**HERE ENDS THE JOURNEY INTO GOD.**

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