Xibrar^g of Ibistortc XTbeoIog^ EDITED BY THE REV. WM. C. PIERCY, M.A. DEAN AHD CHAPLAIN OF WHITELANDS COLLEGE MYSTICISM IN CHRISTIANITY W. K. FLEMING, M.A., B.D. ^ LIBRARY OF HISTORIC THEOLOGY Edited by the Rev. Wm. C, PIERCY, M.A. Each Volume, Demy 8»o, Cloth, Red Burnished Top, 5s, mi. VOLUMES NOW READY. MARRIAGE IN CHURCH AND STATE, By the Rev. T. A. Lacey, M.A. (Warden of the London Diocesan Penitentiary). THE BUILDING UP OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. By the Rev. Canon R. B. Girdlestonk, M..\, CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER FAITHS. An Essay in Comparative Religion. By the Rev. W. St. Clair Tisdall, D.D, THE CHURCHES IN BRITAIN. Vols. I. and //. By the Rev. .\lfred Plummer, D.D. (formerly Master of University College, Durham). CHARACTER AND RELIGION. By the Rev. the Hon. Edward Lyttelton, M.A, (Head Master of Eton College). MISSIONARY METHODS, ST. PAUL'S OR OURS ? By the Rev. RotAND Allen, M.A, THE RULE OF FAITH AND HOPE. By the Rev. R. L. Ottley, D.D. (Canon of Christ Church, and Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology in the University of Oxford). THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE. By the Rev. R. L. Ottley, D.D. THE CREEDS : THEIR HISTORY, NATURE AND USE. By the Rev. Harold Smith, M.A. (Lecturer at the London College of Divinity), THE CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL (Hulsean Prize Essay). By the Rev.S. Nowell Rostron, M.A. (Late Principal of St. John's Hall, Durham). MYSTICISM IN CHRISTIANITY. By the Rev. VV. K. Fleming, M.A., B.D. The following works are in Preparation : — THE PRESENT RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION. By the Rev. Professor T. G. Bonney, D.Sc. ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. By Professor Edodard Naville, D.CL, RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: ITS PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. By the Rev. Prebendary B. Reynolds. THE CHURCH AND THE INDIVIDUAL. By the Rev. W. J. Sparrow Simpson, D.D. COMMON OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY. By the Rev. C. L. Drawbridge, M.A. THE CHURCH OUTSIDE THE EMPIRE. By the Rev. C. R. Davey Biggs, D.D. THE NATURE OF FAITH AND THE CONDITIONS OF ITS PROSPERITY. By the Rev. P. N. VVaggett, M.A. THE ETHICS OF TEMPTATION. By the Ven. E. E. Holmes, MA AUTHORITY AND FREETHOUGHT IN THE MIDDLE AGES. By the Rev. F. W. Bdsseix, D.D. EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE. By the Rev. Wm. C. Pikrcy, M.A. GOD AND MAN, ONE CHRIST. By the Rev. Charles E. Raven, MA, GREEK THOUGHT AND CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. By the Rev. J. K. Mozmy, M.A. THE BOOKS OF THE APOCRYPHA: THEIR CONTENTS, CHARACTER, AND TEACHING. By the Rev. W. O. E. Oesterley, D.D. THE GRE.\T SCHISM BETWEEN THE EAST AND WEST. By the Rev. F. J. Foakes-Jackson, D.D. THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL IN OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. By the Rev. A. Troblsira, D.D, Full particulars of this Library may be obtained from the Publisher. LONDON: ROBERT SCOTT. .IMN is^ 1914 MYSTICISM IN CHRISTIANITY BY THE REV. W. K. FLEMING, M.A., B.D. OP THE COLLEGE OF ALLHALLOWS BARKING E.C. NEW YORK CHICAGO FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 1913 EDITOR'S GENERAL PREFACE IN no branch of human knowledge has there been a more lively increase of the spirit of research during the past few years than in the study of Theology. Many points of doctrine have been passing afresh through the crucible ; " re-statement " is a popular cry and, in some directions, a real requirement of the age ; the additions to our actual materials, both as regards ancient manuscripts and archaeological discoveries, have never before been so great as in recent years ; linguistic knowledge has advanced with the fuller possibiUties provided by the constant addition of more data for comparative study; cuneiform inscriptions have been deciphered, and forgotten peoples, records, and even tongues, revealed anew as the outcome of diligent, skilful and devoted study. Scholars have specialized to so great an extent that many con- clusions are less speculative than they were, while many more aids are thus available for arriving at a general judgment ; and, in some directions at least, the time for drawing such general conclusions, and so making practical use of such speciahzed research, seems to have come, or to be close at hand. Many people, therefore, including the large mass of the parochial clergy and students, desire to have in an accessible form a review of the results of this flood of new Ught on many topics that are of living and vital interest to the Faith ; and, at the same time, " practical " questions — by which is really denoted merely the application of faith to Ufe and to the needs of the day — have certainly lost none of their interest, but rather loom larger than ever if the Church is adequately to fulfil her Mission. It thus seems an appropriate time for the issue of a new series of theological works, which shall aim at presenting a general survey of the present position of thought and knowledge in various branches of the wide field which is included in the study of divinity. V vi EDITOR'S GENERAL PREFACE The Library of Historic Theology is designed to supply such a series, written by men of known reputation as thinkers and scholars, teachers and divines, who are, one and all, firm upholders of the Faith. It will not deal merely with doctrinal subjects, though pro- minence will be given to these ; but great importance will be attached also to history — the sure foundation of all progressive knowledge — and even the more strictly doctrinal subjects wiU be largely dealt with from this point of view, a point of view the value of which in regard to the " practical " subjects is too obvious to need emphasis. It would be clearly outside the scope of this series to deal with individual books of the Bible or of later Christian wTitings, with the hves of individuals, or with merely minor (and often highly controversial) points of Church governance, except in so far as these come into the general review of the situation. This de- tailed study, invaluable as it is, is already abundant in many series of commentaries, texts, biographies, dictionaries and mono- graphs, and would overload far too heavily such a series as the present. The Editor desires it to be distinctly understood that the various contributors to the series have no responsibiUty whatso- ever for the conclusions or particular views expressed in any volumes other than their own, and that he himself has not felt that it comes within the scope of an editor's work, in a series of this kind, to interfere with the personal views of the writers. He must, therefore, leave to them their full responsibihty for their own conclusions. Shades of opinion and diflFerences of judgment must exist, if thought is not to be at a standstill — petrified into an unpro- ductive fossil ; but while neither the Editor nor all their readers can be expected to agree with every point of view in the details of the discussions in aU these volumes, he is convinced that the great principles which lie behind every volume are such as must conduce to -the strengthening of the Faith and to the glory of God. That this may be so is the one desire of Editor and contributors ahke. W. C. P. London iqii. PREFACE THE object of the following pages is to provide an introduction to the study of mystical thought as it has developed itself within^ the_confines of the Christian Faith. Interest in Mysticism has in recent times become so pronounced and wide-spread that it is hoped that, even amongst the various and excellent works which have ap- peared in response to that interest, room may perhaps be found for an attempt to present the subject in its historical sequence, and in such a fonn as may best meet the wants of the general reader. My grateful thanks are due to the Dean of St . Paul's, by whose kind permission I am enabled to quote, amongst the definitions of Mysticism given, several of those which he has collected in Appendix A of his " Chris- tian Mysticism ", as well as to avail myself generally of the help afforded by his invaluable works on the subject ; and, amongst other works consulted, I wish to express my special indebtedness to Baron von Hiigel's " Mystical Elements in Rehgion", Professor Rufus Jones' "Studies in Mystical ReHgion", Miss Underbill's "Mysticism", and Fr. Sharpe's recent book, " Mysticism : Its True Nature and Value ". W. K. FLEMING. January, 1913. vu CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I What is Mysticism ? CHAPTER II The Mystical Element in the Gospels and Epistles . 26 CHAPTER III The Montanists, the Gnostics, and the Alexandrines . 47 CHAPTER IV Neo-Platonism ........ 61 CHAPTER V The Influence of Neo-Platonism in Christianity . . 77 CHAPTER VI Three Types of Medieval Mysticism .... 98 CHAPTER VII The German Mystics of the Middle Ages . . .1x8 iz X CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER VIII English and Italian Mystics . . . . -144 CHAPTER IX Spanish and French Mystics . . . . . -159 CHAPTER X Post-Reformation Mysticism in England — Browne and Traherne ........ 178 CHAPTER XI Post-Reformation Mysticism in England — The Caroline Poets and the Cambridge Platonists . . . 194 CHAPTER XII Puritan Mystics — Bunyan and Fox . . . .213 CHAPTER XIII Behmen and Law . . ...... 231 CHAPTER XIV Modern Mysticism ...... . . 245 Bibliography 265 Indices .......... 269 MYSTICISM IN CHRISTIANITY CHAPTER I What is Mysticism ? NOT many years ago some apology would have been needed for an attempt to sketch the history and development of the spiritual experience and doctrines of Mysticism in the life of Christianity. Of late years, however, the sound of the word Mysticism has been much in the air. After long neglect, scarcely broken by the appearance of Vaughan's cross-grained, but well-informed and useful " Hours with the Mystics," interest in them and their teach- ing has re-awakened with a vengeance. Dean Inge's invaluable Bampton Lectures, which at present may be said to constitute the necessary text-book on the subject, Miss Underhill's copious and intimate work " Mysticism," and Baron von Hiigel's commentary on the hfe of St. Cathe- rine of Genoa, have been accompanied by a long series of lesser books, good, bad, and indifferent, deahng with special aspects of the same theme, or working it out through its biographical features. This sudden output of mystical books is a striking phenomenon, if we look on it in the Hght of supply answering demand. It indicates a certain state of the public mind, a desire — rather restless and incoherent, M.C. 1 B 2 WHAT IS MYSTICISM? it is true, but still a desire — for the essential truths of life and the mysteries that underUe its surface. It shews in some degree a reaction from materialism and such vogues as the gospel of " push." Of course the character of the supply is often far less satisfactory than the fact of the demand. All is not Mysti'^ism that professes the name. But the true vcirlety — what in Germany would be called " der Mystik ", as apart from " ?.Iysticismus "--is well able to take care of itself and of its secret, even though its reputation may be injured by people who go by hearsay, or who mistake for it its degradations of emotionalism or fanaticism. The truth is that the name Mysticism itself does need apology. It has labelled many things, and not all of them are good. The subject stands sorely in need of something like the German distinctions. " Isms " too often are noxious ; most are suspicious. They usually imply either the stiffen- ing and stereotyping of some principle of life and conduct into a mechanical system, or its cheapening and debase- n'ent to lesser ends and uses. Or they suggest the sound of a " fad ". We find as a fact three accusations quite com- monly brought against Mys'icism, which correspond loosely to the disadvantages that attach to " isms " in general. These accusations are that Mysticism deals in unsafe and presumptuous speculation ; 'or that it encourages a sort of extravagant, unhealthy, hysterical self-hypnotism ; or that it is merely quasi-spiritual feeling, vague, dreamy and unpractical. Perhaps we shall best begin by dealing with the last of these charges, for it will bring us to close quarters with our subject. That which is vague and dreamy is not usually susceptible of precise definition. Yet Mysticism has en- joyed and suffered — both are true — a large number of defini- tions. If we collect and examine some of these, it may be possible to construct a notion of what Mysticism is not, and what it is, and so to answer the other two objections. DEFINITIONS 3 Ewald sa>'5, " Mystical theology "...." is the crav- ing_to be united again with God." Pfleiderer ; " Mysti"^ cism is the immediate feeling of the unity of the self with God .. . . the endeavour to fix the immediateness __of the Hfe in God as such, as abstracted from aU inter- vening helps and channels whatsoever." Lasson : " It is the assertion of an intuition which transcends the temporal categories of the understanding. . . , Mysticism is not content with symbolic knowledge, and aspires to ^ee the Absolute by pure spiritual apprehension." He adds, " Nothing can be more perverse thari to accuse Mysticism of vagueness. Its danger is rather an over- valuing of reason and knowledge." We may take two French definitions, the first latently hostile, as is shewn by one question-begging term, the second weak through its tendency, common with French thinkers, to connect Mysticism with outward physical phenomena, but each in its way important. " Mysticism ", writes Victor Cousin^ " is the pretension to know God without interrnediary, and, so to speak, face to face. For Mysticism, whatever is between God and us hides Him from us." Ribet says, " It is a super- natural drawing of the soul towards God in which the soul is passive, resulting in an inward illumination and caress ; these supersede thought, surpass all human effort, and are able to have over the body an influence (retentissement) marvellous and irresistible." Coming to thinkers in our own midst, we find Professor Seth Pringle-Pattison writing, " The thought most iir' ensel}" present to the mystic is that of a supreme, all pervading and indwelling Power, in Whom all things are one " [and] " the possibiUty of direct inter- course with this Being of beings ; , . God ceases to be an object, and becomes an experience." Professor Caird declares Mysticism to be " reUgion in its most concentrated and exclusive form ; it is the attitude of the mind in which all other relations are swallowed up in the relation of the 4 WHAT IS MYSTICISM? soul to God." ^ The poet, Coventry Patmore, declares, " What the world calls Mysticism is the science of ultimates . . . the science of self-evident reality, which cannot be * reasoned about ' because it is the object of pure reason or perception. The Babe ... at its mother's breast and the Lover . . . are the types and princes of mystics ".■ Valuable as coming from one who would not readily be sus- pected of sympathy with the mystical experience is Jowett's definition. " By mysticism we mean not the extravagance of an erring fancy, but the concentration of reason in feeUng, the enthusiastic love of the Good, the True, the One." Charles Kingsley introduces us to a considerable phase or department of mysticism in one of his letters : " The great Mysticism is the belief which is becoming every day stronger with me that all symmetrical natural objects are types of some spiritual truth or existence ... all day glimpses of that other world, floating motes from that inner transcend- ental life, have been floating over me . . . The earth is the next greatest fact to that of God's existence ", This approaches to ;Recejac's, " Mysticism is the tendency to approach the Absolute morally, and by means of symbols ", though the latter method can never be more than a tempera- mental phase of Mysticism. We cannot leave the field of definition, very partially explored though not without a selective purpose, without noticing Professor James' famous " four marks, which, when an experience has them, may justify us in calling it mystical".* These are (i) Ineffability. The experience cannot be imparted or transferred to another. Again to quote Patmore, " By this you may know vision ; that it is not what you expected, or even what you could have ^ The above definitions are quoted from the interesting collection cited by Dean Inge : Christian Mysticism, Appendix A . * The Rod, the Root, and the Flower, p. 39. 3 Varieties oj Religious Experience, p. 380. JAMES' "FOUR MARKS" 5 imagined : and that it is never repeated ". (2) Noetic quality. " Mystical states are states of knowledge . . . and inarticu- late as they remain, carry with them as a rule a curious sense of authority for after-time ". To these he adds as lesser, though usual, marks, (3) Transiency ; even memory can but imperfectly reproduce such states, though when they recur they are recognized — a vividly accurate bit of diagnosis ; and (4) Passivity : the subject feels as if in the grasp of a superior power. It is curious that Miss Underbill, in her remarkable work on Mysticism, finds it necessary to raise objections to these four " marks " of Professor James, ^ which, although they do not constitute a complete analysis of the mystical consciousness, are nevertheless authentic characteristics so far as they go. It is surely needless, for instance, for her to protest that " true mysticism Js active and practical, not passive and theoretical ". Every true mystic would assert it to be both ; there is no contra- diction between Professor James' " passivity " and the working out — as its direct result, indeed, — of the most practically beneficent of lives. As he says himself, " Mystical states . . . modify the inner life ", and by consequence the outer also, and so the history of the mystics is very largely the history of practical workers and reformers. Then again, Miss Underbill's statement that the mystic is in no way concerned with the visible universe — " the mystic brushes aside that universe even in its most supernormal manifestations " * — would 'seem to be wholly beside the mark. The place that Symbolism has held in the system of certain mystics, from St. John downwards, and the peculiar snare of Mysticism, the temptation to Pantheism, are suffi- cient to disprove it. But Mis? Underhill in her own final analysis of the word echoes one important definition of Mysticism already noticed, "it is the art of establishing 1 E. Underbill : Mysticism, p. 96. * lb. 6 WHAT IS MYSTICISM? man's conscious relations with the Absolute " ; * she la}^ an entirely right empliasit: on iL as " that organic process which involves the perfect consummation of the Love of God " ; and she adds one element of mysticism which may fairly be claimed as its d^erentia, but which as debatable matter must be discussed further on ; " the living union ^^dth the One " is a process " entaiUng . . . the liberation of a new, or rather latent, form of consciousness, which imposes on the self the condition which is sometimes inaccurately caUed ' ecstasy ', but is better named the Unitive State ". ^ It is fair to remember, in passing, that Mysticism has been adversely defined as v/ell, 'ven by those who are under noi'j'. i'l Lhc oidinary misapprehensions as to the meaning of the term. Professor Seth Pringle-Pa+tisor considers Mysticism to be haunted b^- the peril of Tantheism, and to issue naturally in Quietism. Victor Cousin criticises it as substituting " ecstasy for reason, rapture for philosophy ". Harnack's dictum that " Mysticism is rationalism applied to a sphere above reason " is probably well known, and equally well known should be I^ean Inge's comment that the words " rationahsm " and " reason " in the sentence should be transposed. Again, Hermann and the Ritschlian school in general are bitter again^ , the myst'cs, and dis- count internal experience of the Christ compared with the Christ-picture presented to the mind by the Gospel-history. That there is some ground for suspicion of the attitude adopted by some mystics towards the historic Christ, and even with 1 But it is singular again that in the same paragraph this writer should assert that " mysticism is not a philosophy ". It is certainly very much more than a philosophy, for, as Queen Christina of Sweden observed, " Philosophy neither changes nor corrects a man " ; but a philosophy, all the same, it cannot escape being. Cf. Dean Inge, paraphrasing Van Hartmann {Christian Mysticism, P-337). " the relation of the individual to the Absolute, an essential theme of philosophy, can only be mystically apprehended ". 2 Underhill : Mysticism, p. yO. WHAT MYSTICISM IS NOT 7 regard to the Christ-fact itself, will be seen later. R. A. Vaughan, in his curious but indispensable book, snarls at the very thing that attracts him, as " that form of error which mistakes for Divine manifestation the operations of a merely human faculty ". James I^inton tells us that Mystic- ism is " an assertion of a means of knowing that must not be tried by ordinary rules of evidence ; the claiming of authority for our own impressions ". As for Vaughan, he somewhat lessened the force of his hostile verdict by recording, in a kind of fascinated fashion, all the operations of that " merely human faculty " whose nature by the way he never explains, and Hinton's words sound very like a claim on the part of the colour-blind to judge of the properties of red and green, a claim at least oblivious of the poet's words, " Nothmg worthy proving can be proven, nor yet disproven ".^ Now the definitions given will at least help us to dismiss from our minds the notion that Mysticism is a something nebulous and vague. Not that a mere number of defini- tions would do that of themselves. They might be mutually destructive by contradicting each other ; and we cannot fail to have noticed certain divergences of opinion even in those we have reviewed. But there is a striidiig repetition or agreement of ideas on certain points, and it is fair to construct out of these one or two important results as to the question : What is Mysticism ? First, we are enabled to dismiss wrong perceptions on the subject, (i) Mysticism is not equivalent to Symbolism merely, though certain mystics have employed Symbolic methods of teaching ; still less has it anything to do with Allegory. Bunyan was both a mystic and an allegoric t, but his m5;sticism is de- ducible from the " Grace Abounding " rather than from the " Pilgrim's Progress ". (2) Mysticism has nothing whatever to do with occult pursuits, magic and the Uke, although the * Tennyson : The Ancient Sage. 8 WHAT IS MYSTICISM? successors of the great Plotinus, it is true, and others in later times, lost their way, and floundered into this particu- lar morass. (3) Nor has it any connexion ^^dth miracle- working and the like ; for this mistake modern Roman CathoUc hagiographies are largely responsible. (4) Although mystics have frequently had visions, and " vision " is a word of frequent and warrantable vogue amongst them. Mysticism is not the dreaming of dreams, not dreaminess at all in fact. The occurrence of visions was always assigned to a low place in the mystical scale of ascent, and was looked upon rather in the nature of an encouragement vouchsafed to beginners. Plotinus gave a definite sphere in his scale of spiritual advancement to the exercise of social and civic duties, and the German medieval mystic, Eckhart, ranked Martha above Mary on the mystical grade. Indeed, mystics have, more commonly than not, been known as very practical men and women. Perhaps it is necessary to add one thing more. Some writers have so whittled away the significance of the term as to make it mean little, if anything, more than spirituaHty, of mind. But while every mystic is, at any rate potentially a spiritually minded person, every spiritually minded person is not by any means a mystic. WTiat the some- thing more, or the something different may be, we must now try to discover. I. The first important step we take by means of the word itself. For Mysticism has a close etymological connexion with the term " the Mysteries " apphed to certain pagan initiations of the world of St. Paul's day. A mystic (/iuo-r?;?) was one initiated into Divine things : he must keep his mouth shut {^lveLv) about them, because the initiation was secret. Later, the idea came to be that his eyes were shut ; either, as the adjective fiv(7TiKo<: imphed, because the secret knowledge was discerned " as through a glass darkly ", and through sjnnbols, or, in the Neo-Platonists' use of the MYSTICISM AN EXPERIENCE 9 expression, because, when rapt in contemplation, the eyes were closed to external things. The idea, as will be seen, passed over (bearing some false impressions in its transit) into the Christian Church ; indeed, our instinctive habit of closing the eyes in prayer quite definitely derives from it. A little mystical treatise of the fourteenth century, the Theologia Germanica, has a suggestive thought with regard to the two eyes with which nature has provided us. We are taught thereby, it tells us, that there are two sorts of vision, the outward and the spiritual. We, says the Theolo- gia, have, as it were, to close one eye in order to focus clearly with the other, whichever kind of vision we choose ; only Christ could see all life, material and spiritual, whole and undistorted, with both eyes at once. To return to the Mysteries, which, through the Neo-Platonists and pseudo- Dionysius, exercised so marked an effect on the theology of the Medieval Church. There was one note common to all of them — Eleusinian, Ba-^chic, or Mithraic. They professed always to give an Experience, actual knowledge, actual power, actual life. Hence mystical doctrines, in their turn, are never merely speculative, in the ordinary sense of the word, even if they lead on to speculation.^ In its essence Mysticism is experimental. It is, says Professor Rufus Jones, " rehgion in its most acute, intense, and living stage "} " The mystic is a thorough-going empiricist ".' Every true mystic would say, " We speak that we do know : we testify to that we have seen ". It is an Experience all through, varying with the individual mystic, but having certain broad notes of teaching and of consent. ^ " ' Speculative ' or Dogmatic Theology is like the theory of optics . . . mystical theology is the sight itself, with all that it involves of exercise and training. Speculative theology is a science ; mystical theology is an art." A, B. Sharpe : Mysticism : Its True Nature and Value, p. 7. * Studies in Mystical Religion, p. 15. * Josiah Royce : The World and the Individual, vol. i. p. 81. 10 WHAT IS MYSTICISM? An Experience of what ? n. The mystic is athirst for God : is it too bold in this connexion to use tri' late Dr. Mobeiiy 's expression, in his " Atonement and Personahty " and to say that he is " in love with God " ? It is God who " ceases to be an object and becomes an experience". "Awareness of relation with God" is that to which he awakes ; " direct and intimate con- sciousness of the Divine Presence " that in which he dwells. But then he believes that this keen attraction, this God- fascination could never be his except by God's own enabling him to feel it.^ " We love Him", as St. John says, " be- cause He first loved us ". It is, from one point of view, on which all mystics from St. Bernard to Coventry Patmore have insisted, a love-mystery, — God's love to the soul, the soul's to God. It is " in His light that we see light ", or, as Eckhart phrases it in a wonderful sentence, " The eye with which I see God is the same as that with which God sees me ". Our love to God is part and proof of God's love to us. " Theologia mystica ", as both Gerson and Bonaven- tura agree, " est animi extensio in Deum per amoris desiderium ".^ III. Therefore, because he is in love with the Divine, Immediacy of Communion is the mystic's longing. " Mys- tical theology craves to be united again with God ", "to know God without intermediary and, as it were, face to face ". That is natural ; the lover cannot bear anything to come betwixt himself and the beloved. Like Browning's Johannes Agricola, " For I intend to get to God; For 'tis to God I speed so fast. For in God's breast, my own abode, I ^ Cf. Ottley's Rule oj Faith and Hope (Library of Historic Theology), p. 214. " Mysticism is optimistic because it implies confidence in the infinite willingness of God to bestow what man is essentially capable of receiving ". 2 " Mystical theology is the mental approach to God through the desire of love ". MYSTICISM AND COMMUNION WITH GOD ii lay my spirit down at last ". It is only right to say that this longing for immediate contact with the Divine had and has its dangers. It closely resembles at times the Asiatic passion f-; abs^ipii n, c-.nd faintly suggests not seldom the image of the moth and the candle-flame. Some of the Christian mystics, again, are found confessing to the tempta- tion to " get past " the Cross, and, leaving Christ on one side, to reach the Father. Julian of Norwich is amongst these ; the c;jin.;.iac:iLg ia-i. is that there would have been no Christian Mysticism — and the Christian Faith is the surest and most natural home of Mysticism — had this temptation not been always and strenuously resisted, and the Mystical Way of discipline, purgative and practical, evolved and tested as the true and only safe approach to the communion so ardently desired. " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord". IV. But this longing for contact with the Absolute led directly to a repeated emphasis of belief in the One-ness of God, as the "supreme, all-pervading, u^rl indwelling power," of " enthusiastic love of the Good, the True, the One ". This, of course, was no more than an affirmation of the central doctrine of the Christian Faith, but neverthe- less it was an assertion of inestimable value for the untutored Europe of the Middle and early-Middle Ages. It was there, precisely, that this particular emphasis was needed. The West never had the instinct for the One — the Absolute — which, with all its exaggerations, has been the vital witness of the East, and its gift to the world, and which made Mohammedan- ism, in one aspect of its origin, a Christian sect in revolt against degradations of Christian behef. V. To this root-conviction, its legacy from, and link with the East, the mj^stics added the corollary of behef in the unity of all existence in God , the behef that behind all appar- ent divergence, contradiction, or duality, lies a synthesis, a resolution at last. This made them glorious optimists ; God 12 WHAT IS MYSTICISM? is in all, and all is in God. As St. Bonaventura says, " His centre is everywhere, His circumference nowhere ". This certainly led towards such a " higher Pantheism " as that of Tennyson's, " The seas, the hills, and the plains, Are not these, O soul, the vision of Him Who reigns ? " And the mystics would have said " Yes/'. But when it came to the further question, " Is not the vision He ? " they would have stopped short, and answered " No ". For Nature, or the Universe, is not the circumference of God. Yet Nature is full of God, and points to God. With Kingsley, as we saw, it is " the next greatest fact to that of God's existence ". With other, and older mystics, it was even more : Erigena spoke of " the Word of God, Who is the Nature of all things ". In such minds there could rest no doubt as to the importance of symbols in the gradual manifestation of truth. WhoUy congenial to the methods of the East in imparting know- ledge, — and Mysticism, it may be again recalled, took its rise in the East — where the secrets of wisdom are not scat- tered carelessly broad-cast for every profane eye to rest upon, and every heedless foot to spurn, S3nTibohsm had passed over to the West. It had all the authority of the Great Teacher Himself, and of the Fourth Evangehst ; but it was also nourished and stereotyped by the means of its transit. The writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, from which Western Mysticism received its first inspiration, regarded Christianity somewhat in the hght of " a Platonic mysteri- osophy ". They were indeed, for the most part, Neo- Platonist reasonings, " shghtly sprinkled with water from a Christian font ".^ All the same, they, and the phase of thought which they inculcated, helped indirectly to prepare the way for the great school of Nature-Mysticism, which, after the shock of the Reformation had displaced the con- 1 Prof. Rufus Jones : Mystical Religion, p. no ; cf. H. Workman : Christian Thought to the Reformation, p. 153. MYSTICISM AND HUMAN PERSONALITY 13 ventional religious landmarks of centuries, obtained, and in modern poetry still retains, so large a sway. VI. But in the systematized mystical theology of the later Medieval Church the world in which God is primarily reflected was the world of the human soul. Henry More, the Cambridge Platonist, summing up both sides of the problem, said, " Nullus in microcosmo spiritus, nullus in macrocosmo Deus ". Human personality is, or is meant to be, the clearest mirror of God. To use St. James' words, it is that in which a man looking can see to irpoatoTrov t^? yeveaeco^; avrov, " the face of his genesis, his true birth ". For " grace ", says Ruysbroek, " works from within out- wards"; until even "landscape is a state of the soul". " Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet ", or, a sa Provencal mystic of the seventeenth century, Antoine Yvan, daringly put it, " Aux amoureux de Dieu avec Dieu, puisque Dieu est en nous, comme le blanc au linge et k la neige, et comme la douceur au sucre et au miel, et comme le chaleur au feu, et plus proche de nous que nous, et plus nous que nous ".^ To many — to Tauler, for example, and the Cambridge Platonists of the seventeenth century — the soul was a universe in miniature (a microcosmus) in which the spiritual Christ is born and suffers, is crucified, and rises again, the experience of which Longfellow in his " Golden Legend " makes Luther the mouthpiece : — ..." The spiritual agonies. The inward deaths, the inward hell, And the divine new births as well, That surely follow after these. As after Winter follows Spring ". We have then before us the facts of the mystical love-search * Henri Bremond ; La Provence Mystique a« XVIP SiMe, p. 10. 14 WHAT IS MYSTICISM? after God, and of the twin methods of finding the object of that search, symbolically through the world of outward Nature, and experimentally in the world of human nature. The search itself is the evocation of the higher, inward self, the subsiicutkin of that higher self for the lower, and the merging or losing — which, in mystical paradox, would be the true reaUzation — of the individuality in God. Perhaps this is the not unfitting place to indicate two, and very opposite, dangers which have always beset the path of mystical progress. Are upward steps ever without danger of some corresponding fall ? The first of these perilous tendencies of Mysticism was, as has been already hinted, to\vards Pantheism. The sense, strong in so many mystics, oi the Eterjial, ghmmering or shining everywhere through the veil of the finite, led on to the temptation to identify Nature with God. This identifica- tion, when it becomes absolute, is what is known as. Panthe- ism, and, of course, provides a short cut to the realization of the Divine Oneness. Like all short cuts, it has its fascina- tions, but, not unlike many short cuts, it soon lands its travellers in difficulties. It leads them, indeed, into a bog, and this bog is the necessar}/ confusion or blurring of the distinction between vOood and Evil. How explain the indubitable evil or imperfection or flawiness in Nature with- out either saying that it is not evil, whereby the moral intui- tions are outraged, or else lowering the whole conception of the Divine Purity ? There is no escape for the logical Pantheist from this dilemma, for the apparent deliverance from it, the assertion, with Browning, that evil " is naught, is null, is silence implyir.g ,,ound ", is the surrender of the Pantheistic for the Panentheistic position, a recognition, so far as the verdicts on Nature of human consciousness or knowledge are concerned, of the inevitability of God's transcendence, that is to say, if the r:oral standard is to be preserved. By Pantheism pure and simple the standard of PANTHEISM AND NEGATIVISM 15 Good for the individual must be compromised in the long run. In turning to the other danger that haunted Mysticism, one, too, that affected it far more nearly, we come upon a curious instance of the motion of the intellectual see-saw. What saved Mysticism from Pantheism was the strong sense, shared by all the mystics, of God's transcendence of any and every symbol, however eloquent. Many of them loved and valued the symbohc, but always either as a means of expres- sion, or as a schoohng for beginners. They could not think that the symbol in itself was the goal of conception and ideal. They were sure that the ReaUty infinitely outmeasured and overpassed its richest symbols ; for, by the very virtue of the origin and derivation of the mystical cultus, they were " after the Absolute ", and it was Immediacy of Communion with the Divine, and not a mediated contact, that they yearned for. The service of mystical theology in this respect to the Western Church, ever prone to matter-of-fact defini- tion and a rather self-satisfied logic, can scarcely be over- rated. But to many of the mystics it had its own peculiar perils, even while the service rendered was of permanent value, and gained its strength from an undoubted truth. From the so-called Dionysius the Areopagite down to the end of the Middle Ages we find in full vogue amongst mystical thinkers what is known as the Negative method of approach to God — the Via Negativa. It is the opposite pole of thought to Pantheism. Instead of piling up all the symbols within reach, it was felt so strongly that nothing could really express, or be worthy to express, God, that, with the object of reaching Him, the mind was dehberately stripped of every earthly hkeness, or analogy, or symbol, of His Being. So St. Augustine taught. " We must not even caU God ineffable ",^ he says, or rather quotes, " since this is to make an ^ De Trin. vii. 4, 7. i6 WHAT IS MYSTICISM? assertion about Him. He is above every name that can be named". "He is best adored in silence; best known by nescience ; best described by negatives ".^ Our own Hooker echoes this. " Our safest eloquence concerning Him is our silence, when we confess without confession that His glory is inexpHcable, His greatness above our capacity and reach ". So by abstraction, — by saying that God is not this or that, or the other quahty because so infinitely beyond them — there was reached as the term of the soul's adventure what amongst the mystics was known as "the Divine darkness ", " the vacant ground ", " the waste place " of the Godhead. Exaggeration was easy in this direction, and many such mystical phrases sound repel- lent to Western ears, or merely indicative of the exhaustion of the intellect or the emotions. But again it must be remembered that the East was the source of the mystical experience, and that the vehicle whereby the transit of mystical philosophy was made from East to West was the Greek language, with its almost endless possibiUties of re- finement on refinement of abstraction ; and, lastly, that both the Greek proto-mystics and their nearest imitators, the German school of the thirteenth century, were trying to express in terms what, as we saw in Professor James' " four marks/', is really an ineffable experience. But it is of practical interest to note that from this school of thought arose its corollary in action, Asceticism ; and very naturally. If, to get to God, the mind must be stripped of every con- cept and every imagination, it was right, surely, also to strip the body of all that could satisfy, enrich, ease, and perhaps thereby delude. All the comforts and the intel- lectual joys of hfe were capable of being viewed, siib specie aeternitatis, as veils that hid or distorted the vision of God. But Mysticism, touching at times the two extremes of 1 See Rufus Jones : Mystical Religion, p. 95 note. GOD-LIKENESS IN THE SOUL 17 Pantheism and Negativism, never abode long by either o'' them. Its early insistence on Experience and its early alliance with the Platonic school of Philosophy came to the rescue. Its experience must be spiritual ; its philosophy — and Mysticism cannot help being a philosophy — involved the use and indeed the exaltation of Reason, and the admis- sion of the Emotions as its bondservants, in the apprehen- sion of God. Then the curious fact of world-history, the fact that the Church has travelled always Westwards, with a result of constant reinforcement to the Faith from the practical Western genius to be up and doing, to define and to act, helped Western Mysticism to live a hfe, intellectual and practical, whose high and gracious sanity is of the atmo- sphere of the Holy Gospels themselves. To name most of the European medieval mystics is to name men and women of fruitful and self-sacrificing Christian life and activity. If we now return to the mystical thought of man in his relationship with God, we shall be able to summarize it briefly as follows, and then turn to what became a component and distinctive part of strictly Christian Mysticism — the systematization of the mystical life. The soul, in mystical thought, has the power of sight in spiritual things, as the body's eyes have in things natural. But to be able to see God, man must partake himself of something God-Hke. It is in His light that we see Hght. This is as we should ex- pect. Human vision has to be trained to its work. It is the person who knows something of Art, has taken pains to study Art, has in fact something of the artist in him, who can truly see a picture in a way that the ignoramus or the casual sight-seer cannot. It is the musician who can best hear music. Even so, " blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God ". " We shall be hke Him, for we shall see Him as He is " — and that sight is impossible without likeness. Selfishness, anger, sensuality, are disquaHfications for the heavenly vision. " Man must clean his mirror if M.c. c i8 ^VHAT IS MYSTICISM? God is to be reflected in it ". Now there is, the mystics taught, a ground of potential likeness to God in everyone. Some likened it to a seed that could be tended, some to a s^rk that could be fanned to a flame. The Germans of the fourteenth century talked much of this " Fiinkelein ", or Httle spark at the apex, as they pictured it, of the soul. The question was, how to tend the seed to its growth, how to fan the spark to a flame. So we come to the Mystic's scheme of the inner hfe. VII. Mystics in general taught the scala perfectionis, the ladder of perfection. This has three rungs or grades. {a) Purgative : which includes contrition, confession, heart}^ amendment, and also, which is interesting, the social and civic virtues. The great non-Christian mystic, Plotinus, insisted on these, as representing, he said, the Divine quali- ties of order and limitation. " The true mystic ", says Ewald, " never withdraws himself from the business of hfe, no, not even from the smallest business ". We may say that this " grade " is the Christian hfe as commonly lived out by good practical people. This part of the " scala " also includes " ascesis," which, looked on simply and sensibly as " training " in the Pauline sense, has always held a place in the Christian scheme, or, for the matter of that, in the lives of all who are in earnest over their profession or business. {h) The second stage is the Illuminative. The outward duties have now become natural and habitual, and the struggle is transferred to the inner life. The " warfare and pilgrimage " stage of experience is sensibly entered upon ; the soul often experiences a marked diminution of spiritual comforts, " accidie " has to be met and conquered, dryness, coldness, /and what St. John of the Cross termed the " Dark Night of the Soul " encountered and won through. God, in fact, has now to be chosen and loved for Himself, not for blessings, helps, or visions that proceed from Him, Sometimes that THE "SCALA PERFECTIONIS " 19 strange, penetrating aphorism of Spinoza seems to come true, " Whoso loves God must not expect to be loved by Him in return ". Yet through this hard school the soul is learning to choose the highest good for its own sake. It learns that " we do not enter the Path because it is pleasant, but because it is the only Path ". (c) The third and highest rung of the " scala " is the Unitive stage. The soul is joined to God, and like the loved disciple hes in His breast. Irenaeus, Athanasius, Clement, Origen, Augustine all quite commonly use and press the idea of identification with God as the goal of the spiritual hfe, nay, they use the, to our modern ears, startling phrase deifi- cari, deoTToieaOai, without hesitation. Indeed, Harnack says, " After Theophilus, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and Origen, the idea of deification is found in all the Fathers of the ancient Church, and that in a primary position ... as also in Cyril, Sophronius, and late Greek and Russian theologians." ^ It is impossible to enter here upon this branch of the subject at length ; it must suffice to point out that the modern conception of " personality " has altered materially from the limited interpretation put on the word in ancient times ; and that the Greek 6e6