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5
Since, therefore, nature is
powerless in this matter and industry but
slightly able, little
should be given to inquiry but much to unction,
little to the tongue but
much to inner joy, little to the word and to
writings and all to the
gift of God, that is, to the Holy Spirit, little or
nothing to creation and all
to the creative essence, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, saying with
Dionysius to God the Trinity:
"Trinity,
superessential and superdivine and supergood guardian of
Christian knowledge of God,
direct thou us into the more-than-unknown and
superluminous and most
sublime summit of mystical eloquence, where new and
absolute and unchangeable
mysteries of theology are deeply hidden,
according to the
superluminous darkness of instructive silence - darkness
which is supermanifest and
superresplendent, and in which all is aglow,
pouring out upon the
invisible intellects the splendors of invisible
goodness."[ 1]
This to God. To the friend,
however, to whom I address this book, let me
say with the same Dionysius:
"Thou then, my friend,
if thou desirest mystic visions, with strengthened
feet abandon thy senses and
intellectual operations, and both sensible and
invisible things, and both
all nonbeing and being; and unknowingly restore
thyself to unity as far as
possible, unity of Him Who is above all essence
and knowledge. And when
thou hast transcended thyself and all things in
immeasurable and absolute
purity of mind, thou shalt ascend to the
superessential rays of
divine shadows, leaving all behind and freed from
ties of all."[ 2]
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