Walter Hilton on the Inner Beholding as Escape of Vain Loves

  “When the soul is bound with love of the world, it is beneath all created things, for everything treads on it and bears it down by force, so that it can neither see Jesus nor love him. For just as the love of the world is vain and carnal, so to behold, consider and use created things is carnal, and that is a thraldom of the soul. But then through the opening of the spiritual eye into Jesus, the love [of the soul] is turned and the soul is raise up according to its own nature above all bodily creatures, and then the beholding [of created things], consideration and use of them is spiritual: for the love is spiritual. The soul then has great contempt for obedience to the love bodily things, for it is set high above them through grace. It cares nothing for all the world, because all shall pass and perish. . . . . Let man attain a high heart, and God shall be exalted. That is, A man [woman] who through grace comes to highness of thought shall see that Jesus alone is exalted above all creatures, and he in him [her].

  And then the soul is alone, greatly estranged from the fellowship of lovers of the world—even though her [his] body may be right among them—and set very far apart from the carnal affections of creatures. It does not care if it should never see anyone, or speak with him [her]or have comfort from him [her], provided it could always be like this, in that spiritual feeling. It feels so much at home in the blessed presence of our Lord Jesus, with such great savor of him, that for his love it can easily forget the carnal affection and the carnal awareness of all creatures. I do not say that it shall not love or think of other created beings, but I say that it shall think of them at the right time, and see them and love them spiritually and freely, not carnally and painfully as it did before. . . . . A soul is alone with it loves Jesus and gives its full attention to him, and has lost the savor and comfort of the world; . . . .

  A soul is all outside while it is oppressed and blinded by love of the world. It is as common as the highway, for every stirring that comes from the flesh or from the devil sinks in and goes through it. But then through grace it is drawn into the private chamber, into the sight of our Lord Jesus, and hears his secret counsels, and is wonderfully comforted in the hearing. . . . My Lord Jesus, your mystery is shown to me and secretly hidden from all lovers of the world, for it is called hidden manna [Revelation 2:17]. It is easier to ask what that is than to tell it, and our Lord Jesus promises it to his lover thus: . . . . That is, I shall give hidden manna that no one knows but him [her] who takes it. This manna is heavenly fare and angels’ food, as holy scripture says, because angels are fully fed and filled with clear sight and burning love of our Lord Jesus, and that is manna. For we can ask what it is, but not know what it is. But here [in mortal existence] the lover of Jesus is not yet filled: only fed with a little tasting of it whilst he [she] is bound in this bodily life.  

  This tasting of manna [Revelation 2:17] is a lively feeling of grace received through the opening of the spiritual eye; this grace is no other than that felt by a chosen soul at the beginning of his [her] conversion, but it is the selfsame grace, though felt and shown to a soul in another way. For grace grows with the soul, and the soul grows with grace, and the purer the soul is and the further separated from the love of the world, the more powerful is the grace, showing the presence of our Lord Jesus more inwardly and more spiritually. So the same grace that first turns them from sin and makes them begin and profit by gifts of virtue and the exercise of good works also makes them perfect; and that grace is called a lively feeling of grace, for anyone who has it feels it well and knows well by experience that he [she] is in grace. It is very lively in him [her], because it wonderfully quickens the soul, making it so sound that it feels no painful disease of the body even if it is weak and sickly, because the body is then at its strongest, most whole and most restful, and the soul as well.

  The soul does not know how to live without this grace, except in pain, for it seems that it could keep it forever, and nothing should drive it away. However, it is not so, for it passes away very easily; but nevertheless, although the best feeling of all may pass away and withdraw, the rest still remains, keeping the soul constant and making it desire its return. This is also the wakeful sleep of the spouse, of which holy scripture speaks thus: . . . . I sleep, and my heart is awake. That is, I sleep spiritually when through grace the love of the world is slain in me and the wicked stirrings of carnal desires are so near death that I hardly feel them; I am not vexed by them, and my heart is set free, and then it is awake, for it is keen and prompt to love Jesus and see him. The more I sleep from outward things, the more wakeful I am in the knowledge of Jesus and of inward things. I cannot wake to Jesus unless I sleep to the world, and therefore the grace of the Holy Spirit shutting the carnal eye makes the soul sleep from worldly vanity; opening the spiritual eye to wake to the sight of God’s majesty, covered under the cloud of his precious humanity, as the gospel says of the apostles when they were with our Lord Jesus in his transfiguration. . . . By the sleep of the apostles is understood the dying of worldly love through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; by their awakening , contemplation of Jesus. Through this sleep the soul is brought into rest from the din of fleshly lust, and through wakening it is raised into the sight of Jesus and spiritual things. The more that the eyes are shut in this kind of sleep from the appetite of earthly things, the keener is the inner sight in the lovely beholding of heavenly beauty. This sleeping and this waking are worked by Love in the soul of the lover of Jesus, through the light of grace.”


**The Scale of Perfection, Walter Hilton, Book Two, chapter 40; cited from Walter Hilton, The Scale of Perfection, translated by Clark and Dorward (Paulist Press:1991), pp.282-285; italics in original.

 

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