Which sets down the general method whereby the spiritual
person must govern himself with respect to this sense.
IN order to conclude this discussion on the memory, it will
be well at this point to give the spiritual reader an account of
the method which he must observe, and which is of universal
application, in order that he may be united with God according to
this sense. For, although what has been said makes the subject
quite clear, it will nevertheless be more easily apprehended if we
summarize it here. To this end it must be remembered that, since
our aim is the union of the soul with God in hope, according to
the memory, and since that which is hoped for is that which is not
possessed, and since, the less we possess of other things, the
greater scope and the greater capacity have we for hoping, and
consequently the greater hope, therefore, the more things we
possess, the less scope and capacity is there for hoping, and
consequently the less hope have we. Hence, the more the soul
dispossesses the memory of forms and things which may be recalled
by it, which are not God, the more will it set its memory upon
God, and the emptier will its memory become, so that it may hope
for Him Who shall fill it. What must be done, then, that the soul
may live in the perfect and pure hope of God is that, whensoever
these distinct images, forms and ideas come to it, it must not
rest in them, but must turn immediately to God, voiding the memory
of them entirely, with loving affection. It must neither think of
these things nor consider them beyond the degree which is
necessary for the understanding and performing of its obligations,
if they have any concern with these. And this it must do without
setting any affection or inclination upon them, so that they may
produce no effects in the soul. And thus a man must not fail to
think and recall that which he ought to know and do, for, provided
he preserves no affection or attachments, this will do him no
harm. For this matter the lines of the Mount, which are in the
thirteenth chapter of the first book, will be of profit.
2. But here it must be borne in mind that this doctrine ours
does not agree, nor do we desire that it should agree, with the
doctrine of those pestilent men, who, inspired by Satanic pride
and envy, have desired to remove from the eyes of the faithful the
holy and necessary use, and the worthy[526] adoration, of images of
God and of the saints. This teaching of ours is very different
from that; for we say not here, as they do, that images should not
exist, and should not be adored; we simply explain the difference
between images and God. We exhort men to pass beyond that which is
superficial[527] that they may not be hindered from attaining to the
living truth beneath it, and to make no more account of the former
than suffices for attainment to the spiritual. For means are good
and necessary to an end; and images are means which serve to
remind us of God and of the saints. But when we consider and
attend to the means more than is necessary for treating them as
such, they disturb and hinder us as much, in their own way, as any
different thing; the more so, when we treat of supernatural
visions and images, to which I am specially referring, and with
respect to which arise many deceptions and perils. For, with
respect to the remembrance and adoration and esteem of images,
which the Catholic Church sets before us, there can be no
deception or peril, because naught is esteemed therein other than
that which is represented; nor does the remembrance of them fail
to profit the soul, since they are not preserved in the memory
save with love for that which they represent; and, provided the
soul pays no more heed to them than is necessary for this purpose,
they will ever assist it to union with God, allowing the soul to
soar upwards (when God grants it that favour) from the superficial
image[528] to the living God, forgetting every creature and
everything that belongs to creatures.
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