CHAPTER IX
How it is better and more profitable for a Man that he should
perceive what God will do with him, or to what end He will make Use of him,
than if he knew all that Gad had ever wrought, or would ever work through all
the Creatures; and how Blessedness lieth alone in God, and not in the
Creatures, or in any Works.
We should mark and know of a very truth that all manner of virtue and goodness,
and even that Eternal Good which is God Himself, can never make a man virtuous,
good, or happy, so long as it is outside the soul; that is, so long as the man
is holding converse with outward things through his senses and reason, and doth
not withdraw into himself and learn to understand his own life, who and what he
is. The like is true of sin and evil. For all manner of sin and wickedness can
never make us evil, so long as it is outside of us; that is, so long as we do
not commit it, or do not give consent to it.
Therefore although it be good and profitable
that we should ask, and learn and know, what good and holy men have wrought and
suffered, and how God hath dealt with them, and what He hath wrought in and
through them, yet it were a thousand times better that we should in ourselves
learn and perceive and understand, who we are, how and what our own life is,
what God is and is doing in us, what He will have from us, and to what ends He
will or will not make use of us. For, of a truth, thoroughly to know oneself,
is above all art, for it is the highest art. If thou knowest thyself well, thou
art better and more praiseworthy before God, than if thou didst not know
thyself, but didst understand the course of the heavens and of all the planets
and stars, also the dispositions of all mankind, also the nature of all beasts,
and, in such matters, hadst all the skill of all who are in heaven and on
earth. For it is said, there came a voice from heaven, saying, "Man, know
thyself." Thus that proverb is still true, "Going out were never so good, but
staying at home were much better."
Further, ye should learn that eternal blessedness
lieth in one thing alone, and in nought else. And if ever man or the soul is to
be made blessed, that one thing alone must be in the soul. Now some might ask,
"But what is that one thing?" I answer, it is Goodness, or that which hath been
made good; and yet neither this good nor that, which we can name, or perceive
or show; but it is all and above all good things.
Moreover, it needeth not to enter into the soul,
for it is there already, only it is unperceived. When we say we should come
unto it, we mean that we should seek it, feel it, and taste it. And now since
it is One, unity and singleness is better than manifoldness. For blessedness
lieth not in much and many, but in One and oneness. In one word, blessedness
lieth not in any creature, or work of the creatures, but it lieth alone in God
and in His works. Therefore I must wait only on God and His work, and leave on
one side all creatures with their works, and first of all myself. In like
manner all the great works and wonders that God has ever wrought or shall ever
work in or through the creatures, or even God Himself with all His goodness, so
far as these things exist or are done outside of me, can never make me blessed,
but only in so far as they exist and are done and loved, known, tasted and felt
within me.