(5) Therefore if I should speak and write that which is purely heavenly, and altogether of the clear Deity, I should be as dumb to the Reader, who has not the Knowledge and the Gift [to understand it.] Yet I will so write in a divine, and also in a creaturely Way, that I might stir up any one to desire and long after the Consideration of the high Things: And if any shall perceive that they cannot do it, that at least they might seek and knock in their Desire, and pray to God for his holy Spirit, that the Door of the second Principle might be opened up to them; for Christ bids us to pray, seek, and knock, and then it shall be opened unto us. For he says, All that you shall ask the Father in my Name, he will give it you: Ask and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

(57) It needeth not do that, but it is set or put into the innermost birth, and there it is with God, and in God, and with all the holy angels, and can now be above, and now beneath; it is not hindered by anything.

(4) When our Saviour JESUS CHRIST taught his disciples to pray, he said; [Matt. vi. 9.] When ye pray, say thus: Our Father, which art in heaven.

(3) For mounting upward, thou art going right." Thus he made answer, and subjoined: "I pray thee To pray for me when thou shalt be above." And I to him: "My faith I pledge to thee To do what thou dost ask me; but am bursting Inly with doubt, unless I rid me of it. First it was simple, and is now made double By thy opinion, which makes certain to me, Here and elsewhere, that which I couple with it. The world forsooth is utterly deserted By every virtue, as thou tellest me, And with iniquity is big and covered; But I beseech thee point me out the cause, That I may see it, and to others show it; For one in the heavens, and here below one puts it." A sigh profound, that grief forced into Ai! He first sent forth, and then began he: "Brother, The world is blind, and sooth thou comest from it! Ye who are living every cause refer Still upward to the heavens, as if all things They of necessity moved with themselves. If this were so, in you would be destroyed Free will, nor any justice would there be In having joy for good, or grief for evil.

(17) Now if we will lift up our Minds, and seek after the Heaven wherein God dwells, we cannot say that God dwells only above the Stars, and has inclosed himself with the Firmament which is made out of the Waters, in which none can enter except it be opened (like a Window) for him; with which Thoughts Men are altogether befooled [and bewildered.] Neither can we say (as some suppose) that God the Father and the Son are only with Angels in the uppermost inclosed Heaven, and rule only here in this World by the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. All these Thoughts are void of the very Knowledge of God. For then God should be divided and circumscriptive, like the Sun that moves aloft above us, and sends its Light and Virtue to us, whereby the whole Deep becomes light and active all over.

(110) I will here shew thee the right ground, and it is no otherwise in heaven than as thou here findest in the letter, for the spirit looketh undisturbed into this depth, also it is very apprehensible.

(102) Thou needest not first to cast thine eyes up into heaven, for it is written: [1 Deut. xxx.,14. Rom.x.8.] The Word is near thee, viz. on thy lips, and in thy heart.

(6) The Providence that regulates all this Makes with its light the heaven forever quiet, Wherein that turns which has the greatest haste. And thither now, as to a site decreed, Bears us away the virtue of that cord Which aims its arrows at a joyous mark. True is it, that as oftentimes the form Accords not with the intention of the art, Because in answering is matter deaf, So likewise from this course doth deviate Sometimes the creature, who the power possesses, Though thus impelled, to swerve some other way, (In the same wise as one may see the fire Fall from a cloud,) if the first impetus Earthward is wrested by some false delight. Thou shouldst not wonder more, if well I judge, At thine ascent, than at a rivulet From some high mount descending to the lowland. Marvel it would be in thee, if deprived Of hindrance, thou wert seated down below, As if on earth the living fire were quiet." Thereat she heavenward turned again her face.

(4) After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

(106) Thus, my dear Mind, know, rthat the Creature of Christ is the Center of this Throne, from whence every Life proceeds, viz. whatsoever is heavenly; for in the Center is the Holy Trinity, and not alone in this Center, but also in all angelical Thrones, also in the Souls of holy Men; only we must thus speak, that it may be understood. Now the Body (understand the Creature, the Man Christ) is set in the Midst of this Throne, and stands also in Heaven (understand in this Principle) sitting in his Throne at the Right-hand of God the Father.

(44) My son, do not allow your mind to stare downward, but rather, let it look by means of the light at things above. For the light will always come from above. Even if it (the mind) is upon the earth, let it seek to pursue the things above. Enlighten your mind with the light of heaven, so that you may turn to the light of heaven.

(41) For the conversation of the holy soul is in heaven, and though indeed it converseth in the body on earth, yet it is always continually with its Redeemer JESUS CHRIST, and eateth as a guest with him. Note this!

(4) "Adhaesit pavimento anima mea," I heard them say with sighings so profound, That hardly could the words be understood. "O ye elect of God, whose sufferings Justice and Hope both render less severe, Direct ye us towards the high ascents." "If ye are come secure from this prostration, And wish to find the way most speedily, Let your right hands be evermore outside." Thus did the Poet ask, and thus was answered By them somewhat in front of us; whence I In what was spoken divined the rest concealed, And unto my Lord's eyes mine eyes I turned; Whence he assented with a cheerful sign To what the sight of my desire implored. When of myself I could dispose at will, Above that creature did I draw myself, Whose words before had caused me to take note, Saying: "O Spirit, in whom weeping ripens That without which to God we cannot turn, Suspend awhile for me thy greater care. Who wast thou, and why are your backs turned upwards, Tell me, and if thou wouldst that I procure thee Anything there whence living I departed."

(1) When from thence he has risen upwards, he neither rises nor sets. He is alone, standing in the centre. And on this there is this verse:

(24) If thou fixest thy thoughts concerning heaven, and wouldst fain conceive in the mind what it is, and where it is, and how it is, thou needest not to swing or cast thy thoughts many thousand miles off, for that place, or that heaven, is not thy heaven.

(67) Now when thou worshippest or prayest to the holy God in his heaven, then thou worshippest or prayest to him in that heaven which is in thee, and that same God breaketh through in thy heart with his light; and in his light the Holy Ghost breaketh through, and generateth thy soul to be a new body of God [or new divine body] which ruleth and reigneth with God in his heaven.

(56) Neither must thou think that the Deity is such a kind of being as is only in the upper heaven, nor that the soul, when it departeth from the body, goeth up aloft into the upper heaven many hundred thousand miles off.

(2) As soon as I was free from all those shades Who only prayed that some one else may pray, So as to hasten their becoming holy, Began I: "It appears that thou deniest, O light of mine, expressly in some text, That orison can bend decree of Heaven; And ne'ertheless these people pray for this. Might then their expectation bootless be? Or is to me thy saying not quite clear?" And he to me: "My writing is explicit, And not fallacious is the hope of these, If with sane intellect 'tis well regarded; For top of judgment doth not vail itself, Because the fire of love fulfils at once What he must satisfy who here installs him. And there, where I affirmed that proposition, Defect was not amended by a prayer, Because the prayer from God was separate. Verily, in so deep a questioning Do not decide, unless she tell it thee, Who light 'twixt truth and intellect shall be. I know not if thou understand; I speak Of Beatrice; her shalt thou see above, Smiling and happy, on this mountain's top."

(22) Yet thou must not think that God, who is in heaven and above heaven, does there stand and hover, like a power and quality which has in it neither reason nor knowledge.

(1) NOW says Reason, If Christ ascended thus with his Body, which he offered up on the Cross, when was he glorified in his Body? Or how is his Body now? Is it now as his Disciples saw him ascend into Heaven? My beloved Reason, my earthly Eyes see it not, but the spiritual [Eyes] in Christ see it very well. The Scripture says; He is « glorified, and Lord over all; but we will open to you the Gate of the great Wonders, that you may see what we see.