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← ExitCenturies of Meditations

The Fourth Century

1

HAVING spoken so much concerning his entrance and progress in Felicity, I will in this century speak of the principles with which your friend endued himself to enjoy it. For besides contemplative, there is an active happiness, which consisteth in blessed operations. And as some things fit a man for contemplation, so there are others fitting him for action: which as they are infinitely necessary to practical happiness, so are they likewise infinitely conducive to contemplative itself.

2

He thought it a vain thing to ~~see~~ have glorious principles lie buried in books, unless he did remove them into his understanding; and a vain thing to remove them unless he did revive them, and raise them up by continual exercise. Let this therefore be the first principle of your soul That to have no principles or to live beside them, is equally miserable. And that philosophers are not those that speak but do great things.

3

He thought that to be a Philosopher, a Christian, and a Divine, was to be one of the most illustrious creatures in the world; and that no man was a man in act, but only in capacity, that was not one of these, or rather all. For either of these three include the other two. A Divine includes a Philosopher and a Christian; a Christian includes a Divine and a Philosopher; a Philosopher includes a Christian and a Divine. Since no man therefore can be a man unless he be a Philosopher, nor a true Philosopher unless he be a Christian, nor a perfect Christian, unless he be a Divine, every man ought to spend his time, in studying diligently Divine Philosophy.

4

This last principle needs a little explication. Not only because Philosophy is condemned for vain, but because it is superfluous among inferior Christians, and impossible, as some think, unto them. We must distinguish therefore of philosophy and of Christians also. Some philosophy, as Saint Paul saith, is vain, but then it is vain philosophy. But there is also a Divine Philosophy, of which no books in the world are more full than his own. That we are naturally the Sons of God (I speak of primitive and upright nature,) that the Son of God is the first beginning of every creature, that we are to be changed from glory to glory into the same Image, that we are spiritual Kings, that Christ is the express Image of His Father’s person, that by Him all things are made whether they are visible or invisible, is the highest Philosophy in the world; and so is it also to treat, as he does, of the nature of virtues and Divine Laws. Yet no man, I suppose, will account those superfluous, or vain, for in the right knowledge of those Eternal Life consisteth. And till we see into the beauty and blessedness of God’s Laws, the glory of His works, the excellency of our souls, &c. we are but children of darkness, at least but ignorant and imperfect: neither able to rejoice in God as we ought, nor to live in communion with Him. Rather we should remember that Jesus Christ is the Wisdom of the Father, and that since our life is hid with Christ in God, we should spend our days in studying Wisdom, that we might be like unto Him: that the treasures of Heaven are the treasures of Wisdom, and that they are hid in Christ. As it is written, In Him are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge.

5

In distinguishing of Christians we ought to consider that Christians are of two sorts, perfect or imperfect, intelligent and mature, or weak and inexperienced: (I will not say ignorant, for an ignorant Christian is a contradiction in nature. I say not that an imperfect Christian is the most glorious creature in the whole world, nor that it, is necessary for him, if he loves to be imperfect, to be a Divine Philosopher. But he that is perfect is a Divine Philosopher, and the most glorious creature in the whole world. Is not a Philosopher a lover of wisdom? That is the signification of the very word, and sure it is the essence of a Christian, or very near it, to be a lover of wisdom. Can a Christian be so degenerate as to be a lover of imperfection? Does not your very nature abhor imperfection? Tis true a Christian so far as he is defective and imperfect may be ignorant, yet still he is a lover of wisdom and a studier of it. He may be defective, but so far as he is defective he is no Christian, for a Christian is not a Christian in his blemishes, but his excellencies. Nor is a man indeed a man in his ignorances, but his wisdom. Blemishes may mar a man, and spoil a Christian, but they cannot make him. Defects may be in him and cleave unto him, but they are to be shaken off and repented. Every man therefore according to his degree, so far forth as he is a Christian, is a Philosopher.

6

Furthermore doth not St. Paul command us in understanding to be men? That implies that with little understanding we are but children, and without understanding are not men, but ~~dreams and shadows,~~ insignificant shells and mere apparitions. Doth he not earnestly pray, that their hearts may be comforted, being knit together in Love, unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ? This plainly shows, that though a weak Christian may believe great things by an implicit faith, yet it is very desirable his faith should be turned into assurance, and that cannot be but by the riches of knowledge and understanding. For he may believe that God is, and that Jesus Christ is his Saviour, and that his soul is immortal, and that there are joys in heaven, and that the scriptures are God’s Word, and that God loves him, &c., so far as to yield obedience in some measure, but he can never come to a full assurance of all this, but by seeing the riches of the full assurance, i.e., those things which are called the riches of the full assurance; for being known they give us assurance of the truth of all things: the glory of God’s laws, the true dignity of his own soul, the excellency of God’s ways, the magnificent goodness of His works, and the real blessedness of the state of grace. All which a man is so clearly to see, that he is not more sensible of the reality of the sunbeams. How else should he live in communion with God, to wit, in the enjoyment of them? For a full assurance of the reality of his joys is infinitely necessary to the possession of them.

7

This digression steals me a little further. Is it not the shame and reproach of Nature, that men should spend so much time in studying trades, and be so ready skilled in the nature of clothes, of grounds, of gold and silver, &c., and think it much to spend a little time in the study of God, themselves, and happiness? What have men to do in this world, but to make themselves happy? Shall it ever be praised, and despised? Verily, happiness being the sovereign and supreme of our concerns, should have the most peculiar portion of our time, and other things what she can spare. It more concerns me to be Divine than to have a purse of gold. And therefore as Solomon said, We must dig for her as for gold and silver, and that is the way to understand the fear of the Lord, and to find the knowledge of God. It is a strange thing that men will be such enemies to themselves. Wisdom is the principal thing, yet all neglect her. Wherefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her and she shall promote thee, she shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thy head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. Had you certain tidings of a mine of gold, would the care of your ordinary affairs detain you, could you have it for the digging? Nothing more ruins the world than a conceit that a little knowledge is sufficient. Which is a mere lazy dream to cover our sloth or enmity against God. Can you go to a mine of gold, and not to wisdom, (to dig for it) without being guilty, either of a base despondency and distrust of wisdom that she will not bring you to such glorious treasures as is promised; or else of a vile and lazy humour that makes you despise them, because of the little but long labour you apprehend between? Nothing keeps men out of the Temple of Honour, but that the Temple of Virtue stands between, But this was his principle that loved Happiness, and is your friend: I came into this world only that I might be happy. And whatsoever it cost me, I will be happy. A happiness there is, and it is my desire to enjoy it.

258.The “his” looks back to the Third Century, where the speaker told how he entered on the search for felicity. The one who made that entrance is now called “your friend”, and this Century reports his principles in the third person.

259.For Aristotle’s definition of happiness as activity see the note at III.68; he weighed the active life against the contemplative in Nicomachean Ethics X.7-8. The schoolmen’s vita activa and vita contemplativa, figured in Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42), carry the same distinction. Operations are activities, the Latin operatio for Aristotle’s energeia.

260.A commonplace of ancient moralists and Christian apologists. Seneca writes that philosophy teaches a man to act, not to talk (facere docet philosophia, non dicere, Epistles 20.2), and Minucius Felix boasts that Christians do not speak great things but live them (non eloquimur magna sed vivimus, Octavius 38.6).

261.Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit”, was the verse commonly turned against pagan learning. Traherne keeps it but reads it narrowly, as Justin Martyr had done when he called the Christian faith the only safe and profitable philosophy (Dialogue with Trypho 8). The phrase divine philosophy was current, as in Milton’s Comus (1634), “How charming is divine philosophy!”

262.Hebrews 1:3, Christ “the express image of his person”. The Authorised Version heads Hebrews “The Epistle of Paul the Apostle”, so Traherne can count it among Paul’s books. Most of the other articles of this list come from Paul too, from Colossians 1:15-16 (Christ the firstborn of every creature, by whom all things visible and invisible were made) and 2 Corinthians 3:18 (changed into the same image from glory to glory).

263.Colossians 2:3, quoted almost exactly. The sentence before it gathers Colossians 3:3 (your life is hid with Christ in God) and 1 Corinthians 1:24, where Christ is “the wisdom of God”.

264.1 Corinthians 14:20, “be not children in understanding … but in understanding be men.” The prayer that follows is Colossians 2:2, where Paul wishes his readers “knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding”.

265.The schoolmen’s fides implicita (see the note at III.53), which Aquinas allowed to the unlearned (Summa theologiae II-II q.2 a.6). Traherne allows it to the weak Christian but wants it turned into the full assurance of Colossians 2:2, an assurance that the joys of heaven are real.

266.Proverbs 2:4-5, “If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures”, with the promise that follows, to understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. The longer passage in italics further on is Proverbs 4:7-9, almost word for word. Solomon was held to be the author of Proverbs.

267.Marcellus built adjoining temples to Honour and Virtue at Rome after the priests refused to house the two gods in one (Livy XXVII.25; Plutarch, Marcellus 28), and Augustine remarks how close together they stood (City of God V.12). Moralists made a legend of it, that no one could enter the temple of Honour except through the temple of Virtue.