VERSE 15. — 'By a dream in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, and they sleep in the bed.' 37. The voice of God is heard when, with a tranquil mind, there is rest from worldly works. — What is it that the speech of divinity is made known to us by a dream, if not that we do not know the secrets of God if we are awake amid earthly desires? For in a dream the outward senses sleep, and the inward things are discerned. If therefore we wish to contemplate inward things, let us sleep from outward entanglement. The voice of God, namely, is heard as if by a dream, when, with a tranquil mind, there is rest from the action of this world, and in the very silence of the mind the divine precepts are weighed.
For when the mind is lulled to sleep from external actions, then more fully the weight of God's commandments is recognized. Then the mind more vividly penetrates the words of God, when it refuses to admit to itself the tumult of worldly cares. But a man watches ill when the heat of worldly business insolently disquiets him. For the ear of the heart is closed while the crowd of earthly thoughts makes its noise; and in the secret chamber of the mind, the less the sound of tumultuous cares is quelled, the more the voice of the presiding Judge is not heard. For man is not perfectly sufficient for both when divided, but while he thus desires to be instructed inwardly, yet so as to be entangled outwardly, whence he opens outwardly he grows deaf inwardly.
Moses, mingled with the Egyptians, was as if awake, and therefore did not hear the voice of the Lord while placed in Egypt (Exodus II, 11, 12, ff.). But when the Egyptian was slain, after he fled into the desert, there, while he dwelt forty years, he as it were fell asleep from the unquiet tumults of earthly desires; and therefore he merited to perceive the divine voice, because through supernal grace, the more he grew torpid from seeking outward things, the more truly he was awake to knowing inward things. Again, when he had gone before the crowds of the Israelite people, so that he might receive the precepts of the law, he is led onto the mountain; and that he might penetrate inward things, he is hidden from outward tumults (Exodus XIX, 3). 38.
Those who serve in outward ministries should diligently flee back to the secrets of the heart. — Whence also holy men, who are compelled by the necessity of office to serve outward ministries, always diligently flee back to the secrets of the heart; and there they ascend to the summit of inmost thought, and receive the law as if on the mountains, while, the tumults of temporal actions being set aside, on the height of their contemplation they search out the sentence of the supernal will. Hence it is that this same Moses frequently returns to the tabernacle concerning doubtful matters, and there in secret consults the Lord, and learns what certain thing He decrees. For to leave the crowds and return to the tabernacle is, the outward tumults being set aside, to enter the secret of the mind.
For there the Lord is consulted, and what is to be done publicly outside is silently heard within. This good rulers do daily, when they recognize that they cannot discern doubtful matters: they return to the secret of the mind, as to a certain tabernacle; and, the divine law being examined, as if before the ark set in place, they consult the Lord, and what they first hear within while silent, they afterward make known outside while acting. For that they may serve outward offices without offence, they take care unceasingly to have recourse to the secrets of the heart; and thus they hear the voice of God as if by a dream, while in the meditation of the mind they are drawn away from carnal movements. Hence it is that the bride in the
Song of Songs had heard the voice of the Bridegroom as if by a dream, who said: 'I sleep, and my heart watches' (Canticle V, 2). As if she said: While I lull the outward senses to sleep from the anxieties of this life, with the mind at leisure I more vividly know inward things. I sleep outwardly, but within my heart watches, because, while I as it were do not perceive outward things, I sharply apprehend inward things. 39. Only obscurely, and as if in a vision of the night, do we contemplate divine and inward things. — Well therefore did Elihu say that God speaks by a dream, and fitly he added, 'In a vision of the night.' For a vision of the night is wont to appear to the contemplation of the mind under certain images.
But in the light of day we discern more certainly, while in a vision of the night we see hesitantly. And because all the saints, as long as they are in this life, behold the secrets of the divine nature as if under a certain imagination, because, namely, they do not yet contemplate them more manifestly as they are, well did Elihu, after he said that God speaks to us by a dream, add: 'In a vision of the night.' For the present life is night, in which, as long as we are in it, through that whereby we behold inward things, we grow dark under an uncertain imagination. For the prophet felt himself pressed by a certain darkness unto seeing the Lord, saying: 'My soul has desired thee in the night' (Isaiah XXVI, 9). As if he said:
In this obscurity of the present life I long to see thee, but as yet I am circumscribed by the cloud of infirmity. David also, shunning the darkness of this night, awaiting the brightness of the true light, said: 'In the morning I will stand before thee, and will see' (Psalm V, 5). Still therefore he beholds himself to see less in the night, who longs for the morning to come to see God. But because, as we have said, to cease from outward action is to sleep, well does Elihu add: 'When deep sleep falls upon men.' And because holy men, when they do not serve outward action, rest within the chambers of the mind, fitly he subjoins: 'And they sleep in the bed.' For to holy men, to sleep in the bed is to be at rest within the chamber of their mind. Whence it is written:
'The saints shall exult in glory, they shall rejoice in their beds' (Psalm CXLIX, 5). Let it therefore be said that God speaks to us once by a dream in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, and they sleep in the bed, because, namely, we then recognize the secrets of divinity, when from the tumultuous concupiscence of this world we are set apart within the chambers of our mind. But because, as we have already often said, the tumult of worldly business closes the ear of the heart, and the quiet of secret consideration opens it, fitly he subjoins: VERSE 16. — 'Then he opens the ears of men, and instructing, informs them with discipline.' 40. Those who cease from outward works are instructed unto compunction.
— For when they are lulled to sleep from outward actions, with the ear opened they hear the causes of inward examination. And while they subtly consider either the public scourges or the hidden judgments, they cease not to smite themselves by weeping. Whence well is it said: 'And instructing, informs them with discipline,' because to the considering mind, and to one lacerating itself through penance, the laments of compunction are as it were a certain wound of striking. Whence also Solomon, rightly joining the force of both kinds of striking, says: 'The bruise of a wound wipes away evils, and the blows in the more secret parts of the belly' (Proverbs XX, 30). For by the bruise of a wound he intimates the discipline of bodily striking.
But 'the blows in the more secret parts of the belly' are the inward wounds of the mind, which come about through compunction. For as the belly filled with food is distended, so the mind dilated by depraved thoughts is puffed up. Both therefore wipe away evils, the bruise of a wound and the blows in the more secret parts of the belly, because both outward discipline dissolves faults, and the compunction of penance pierces through the distended mind with the vengeance of penance. But these two differ between themselves in this: that the blows of striking pain, while the laments of compunction have savour. The former afflict and torment; the latter refresh, even while they afflict. Through the former there is grief in affliction; through the latter, gladness in grief.
But because compunction itself lacerates the mind, he not unfittingly calls that same compunction 'discipline.' 41. In four ways the just are affected in compunction; which is shown by the example of Paul and of David. — For there are four qualities by which the soul of a just man is vehemently affected in compunction: when either he remembers his own evils, considering where he has been; or, dreading the sentence of God's judgments, and seeking with himself, he thinks where he will be; or when, diligently attending to the evils of the present life, mourning he considers where he is; or when he contemplates the goods of the supernal fatherland, which, because he does not yet attain them, weeping he beholds where he is not. Paul had remembered his own evils, and was afflicting himself over those in which he had been, when he said:
'I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God' (1 Corinthians XV, 9). Again, subtly weighing the divine judgment, he feared to be in an evil state in the future, saying: 'I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself should become a castaway' (1 Corinthians IX, 27). Again, he weighed the evils of the present life, when he said: 'While we are in this body, we are pilgrims from the Lord' (2 Corinthians V, 6). And: 'I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members. Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' (Romans VII, 23). And again he considered the goods of the eternal fatherland, saying: 'We see now through a glass in an enigma' (1 Corinthians XIII, 12).
but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I am known (1 Cor. 13:12). And again: We know that if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1). Beholding the goods of that house, he says to the Ephesians: That you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who have believed (Eph. 1:18). Considering the evils of the present life, blessed Job says: The life of man upon earth is a trial (Job 7:1). Whence David too says: Every man living is altogether vanity (Ps. 38:6).
And though man walk in the image of God, yet he is disquieted in vain. He again, contemplating the eternal homeland, and weighing these evils in which he was, and considering those goods in which he was not yet, says: Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged (Ps. 120:5). And, I said in my alarm: I am cast off from before your eyes (Ps. 31:22). Lifted up into ecstasy—which our translators have properly called 'alarm'—he saw himself cast off from before the eyes of God. For after the vision of the inner light, which shone in his soul by the ray of brightness through the grace of contemplation, he returned to himself;
and having gained knowledge, he found either what goods he lacked there, or what evils were present here. For no one is able to behold the evils of the present life as they are, if he is not yet able to attain the goods of the eternal homeland through a taste of contemplation. Whence he knew himself to be cast off from before the eyes of God. For having been lifted up he saw what, sinking back to himself, he groaned that he could not see here. The effect of compunction in the perfect.—Namely, this compunction is wont to affect more familiarly the enlightened soul, whereby it insolently shakes off all bodily images that meet it, and strives to fix the eye of the heart upon that very ray of the uncircumscribed light.
For it had drawn these forms of bodily figures into itself from within, out of the weakness of the body. But being perfectly stricken with compunction, it here keeps most watchful vigil, lest, while it seeks the truth, the imagination of a circumscribed vision delude it, and it spurns all the images that meet it. For because through them it has fallen below itself, without them it strives to rise above itself; and after it has been unbecomingly scattered among many things, it endeavors to collect itself into one, so that, if it prevails by the great force of love, it may contemplate that which is one and incorporeal. The savor of contemplation affects the mind only fleetingly. Hence pious groanings, yet devoid of delight.
—Whence it is sometimes admitted to a certain unaccustomed sweetness of inner savor, and in a fleeting manner is renewed, breathed upon by a burning spirit; and it gapes the more eagerly, the more it tastes of what it loves. And it desires within itself that which it has felt to be sweetly savored inwardly, because, forsooth, by love of that sweetness it has become vile in its own eyes; and after it has somehow been able to perceive this, it finds what long since it had been without it. It strives to cling to it, but is repelled from its strength by its own still-remaining weakness; and because it cannot contemplate its purity, it holds it sweet to weep, and, falling back to itself, to spread out the tears of its own infirmity.
For it cannot fix the eye of the mind upon that which it has fleetingly glimpsed within itself, because by the very habit of its old state it is forced to sink downward. Amid these things it pants, it burns, it strives to rise above itself, but, overcome by weariness, it slips back to its familiar darkness. Because, then, the soul thus affected endures a grievous struggle against its very self.
and because all this strife concerning ourselves, when it affects us, though mingled with delight, brings forth no small grief, Elihu, after he said that God speaks to us through a dream, and that our ears are opened by his speaking, not without cause calls this same opening of the ears 'instruction,' because he crushes us the more by affecting us, the more the sound of inward understanding bursts forth to us through the hidden grace of his inspiration. For no one would weep outwardly for what he is, if he could not inwardly sense what he is not yet. For when we behold ourselves well created, yet, at diabolical persuasion, deceived by a pestilent consent, we perceive in our very selves that one thing is what we have made ourselves, another what we were made;
whole in our created condition, but vitiated by fault. Therefore, stricken with compunction, we seek to shun what we have made, that we may be reformed to that which we were made. Whence too there fitly follows: