CHAPTER XX.

Of the other five degrees.
When the soul has ascended to the sixth step, it runs swiftly to God ; and hope too runs without fainting, for love that has made it strong makes it fly rapidly. Of this step also Isaias speaks, saying : ‘ They that hope in our Lord shall change their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not labour, they shall walk and not faint, '+ to this step also the Psalmist refers : ‘As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters, so my soul panteth after Thee, O God/§ The hart when thirsty runs very swiftly to the water. The cause of this swiftness which the soul experiences on this step is/that charity is enlarged, and the soul is now almost wholly purified, as it is written in the psalm :
* Ps. lxxxiii. 2. f G en * xxx. J Is. xl. 31. § Ps. xli. 1.
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€ without iniquity have I run/* and in another psalm, ‘ I ran the way of Thy commandments, when Thou didst dilate my heart/t and thus the soul ascends immediately from the sixth to the seventh degree which follows.
2. On the seventh step the soul becomes vehemently bold, in this intense and loving exaltation, no prudence can withhold it, no counsel control it, no shame restrain it ; for the favour which God hath shown it has made it vehemently bold. This explains to us those words of the Apostle, that charity ‘ believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things/* It was on this step that Moses spoke, when he said unto God : ‘ Either forgive them this trespass, or if Thou do not, strike me out of the book that Thou hast written/§ Men of this spirit obtain from God what they so lovingly pray for. Hence the words of David : ‘Delight in the Lord, and He will give thee the requests of thy heart/ 1|
3. Standing on this step, the bride was bold, and said ‘ Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth/IT But consider well here, it is not lawful to be thus bold, unless the soul feels that the interior favour of the king's sceptre is extended to it,** lest it should fall down the steps already ascended ; in all of which humility must ever be preserved. From this boldness and courage which God grants to the soul on the seventh step, that
* lb. lviii, 5. f Ps. cxviii. 32. J 1 Cor. xiii. 7. § Ex. xxxii. 31, 32.
|| Ps. xxxvi. 4. Cant. i. 1. ** Esth. v. 2 ; viii. 4.
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it may be bold with Him in the vehemence of its love, the soul ascends to the eighth, where it lays hold of the Beloved and is united to Him.
4. On the eighth step the soul embraces the Beloved and holds Him fast, according to the words of the bride :
4 1 found Him whom my soul loveth ; I held Him ; and I will not let Him go.'* On this step of union the desires of the soul are satisfied, but not without interruption. Some souls ascend to this step and at once fall back, if they did not, and remained there, they would have attained to a certain state of blessedness in this life, and thus the soul tarries but briefly on this step of the ladder. Daniel, being a man of desires, was bidden, on the part of God, to remain here : ‘ Daniel thou man of desires, stand upright/ 1 After this comes the ninth step, which is that of the perfect.
5. On the ninth step the soul is on fire sweetly. This step is that of the perfect who bum away sweetly in God, for this sweet and delicious burning is the work of the Holy Ghost because of the union of the soul with God. St. Gregory says of the Apostles, that they burned interiorly with love sweetly, when the Holy Ghost descended upon them.* The blessings and the riches of God which the soul now enjoys cannot be described. And if we were to write many books on the subject there would still be more to say. For this reason, and because
* Cant. iii. 4. ^ f JDan. x. 11. J Horn. 30, in Evang.
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I intend to speak of it hereafter,* I shall now say no more of this step, except that it is immediately followed by the tenth and the last, which does not belong to this life.
6. On the tenth step of the ladder the soul becomes wholly assimilated unto God in the beatific vision which it then enjoys ; for having ascended in this life to the ninth, it goeth forth out of the body. Love works in such souls — they are few, and perfectly purified in this life — that which purgatory works in others in the next. For according to St. Matthew i Blessed are the clean in heart, for they shall see God/t As I have said, the vision is the cause of the soul's perfect likeness unto God. 4 We know,' saith St. John, * that, when He shall appear, we shall be like to Him, because we shall see Him as He is And thus, whatever the soul is, it will be like unto God, and so is called, and is, by participa- tion, God.
7. This is the(secret ladder which the soul speaks, though in the higher steps no longer secret, for love reveals itself exceedingly in the great effects it produces. But on the highest step, the beatific vision, the last of the ladder, where God is leaning, as I said before, § nothing remains secret from the soul, by reason of its perfect likeness. And, therefore, our Saviour saith, 1 In
* Spirit. Cant. Stanza xiv. f St. Matt. v. 8.
§ Ch. xviii. § 4.
t 1 St. John iii. 2.
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that day you shall not ask me anything/* Until that day comeTnotwithstanding the heights to which the soul ascends, something still remains secret from it, and that in proportion to the distance from its perfect likeness to the Divine Essence. In this way, then, by means of mystical theology and secret love, thfc soul goeth forth from all things and from itself, ascending upwards unto God. For love is like fire, which ever ascends, hastening to be absorbed in the centre of its sphere.