HERE BEGINNETH THE NINE AND FIFTIETH CHAPTER
That a man shall not take ensample at the bodily ascension of
Christ, for to strain his imagination upwards bodily in the time of prayer: and
that time, place, and body, these three should be forgotten in all ghostly
working.
AND if thou say aught touching the ascension of our Lord, for that was done
bodily, and for a bodily bemeaning as well as for a ghostly, for both He
ascended very God and very man: to this will I answer thee, that He had been
dead, and was clad with undeadliness, and so shall we be at the Day of Doom.
And then we shall be made so subtle in body and in soul together, that we shall
be then as swiftly where us list bodily as we be now in our thought
ghostly; whether it be up or down, on one side or on other, behind or before,
all I hope shall then be alike good, as clerks say. But now thou mayest not
come to heaven bodily, but ghostly. And yet it shall be so ghostly, that it
shall not be on bodily manner; neither upwards nor downwards, nor on one side
nor on other, behind nor before.
And wit well that all those that set them to
be ghostly workers, and specially in the work of this book, that although they
read "lift up" or "go in," although all that the work of this book be called a
stirring, nevertheless yet them behoveth to have a full busy beholding, that
this stirring stretch neither up bodily, nor in bodily, nor yet that it be any
such stirring as is from one place to another. And although that it be sometime
called a rest, nevertheless yet they shall not think that it is any such rest
as is any abiding in a place without removing therefrom. For the
perfection of this work is so pure and so ghostly in itself, that an it be well
and truly conceived, it shall be seen far removed from any stirring and from
any place.
And it should by some reason rather be called a
sudden changing, than any stirring of place. For time, place, and body: these
three should be forgotten in all ghostly working. And therefore be wary in this
work, that thou take none ensample at the bodily ascension of Christ for to
strain thine imagination in the time of thy prayer bodily upwards, as thou
wouldest climb above the moon. For it should on nowise be so, ghostly. But if
thou shouldest ascend into heaven bodily, as Christ did, then thou mightest
take ensample at it: but that may none do but God, as Himself witnesseth,
saying: "There is no man that may ascend unto heaven but only He that descended
from heaven, and became man for the love of man." And if it were possible, as
it on nowise may be, yet it should be for abundance of ghostly
working only by the might of the spirit, full far from any bodily stressing or
straining of our imagination bodily, either up, or in, on one side, or on
other. And therefore let be such falsehood: it should not be so.