Isaac of Stella, Sermons

compound; as the prophet plainly says, speaking of man in general: All nations, he says, are before Him as if they were not, that is, before Him who truly is, and through Himself and in Himself, not in another before Him or above Him: and they are counted as nothing and empty (Isa. 40:17), as being from nothing and the empty. Therefore whoever thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, deceives himself.

Let us be silent, then, about seeking something, since we are nothing; about seeking what truly is, since we truly are not at all. For it was said to distinguish Him from all things: I am Who am (Exod. 3:14), so that everything which is not He might say: I am who am not; or: I am not who am. Come, where have we got to, brethren? Seeking something, we have found nothing. Seeking God, we have lost ourselves. For when, through the narrowest chink, something from what is not nothing began to shine through, it became clear to us in a great light how much we are nothing from nothing. Lord, truly in Thy light we shall see Thy light, and our own darkness. But here, dearly beloved, we must pause today, since we are wearied with labour and with speaking. For we eat both breads in the sweat of our face, while we are pilgrims away from that house where there is, in the voice of exultation and praise, the sound of one feasting; to which may He lead us for whose sake we are exiles even in this island and desert from almost the whole world.

SERMON XX. ON THE SAME FEAST, III.

Yesterday, dearly beloved, seeking God, as you know, we found ourselves even as we lost ourselves. Fittingly indeed, as those who have fallen below and outside ourselves, we return inwardly through ourselves to Him. Struck back by the light of the divine face shed through a thin and narrow lattice, we fell on our faces, that is, from esteeming ourselves above what we are, into the acknowledgement of what we are. Lastly, investigating what God is, we found what He is not. Going about through the streets and squares, that is, all rational substances and real states, we did not find Him in them, of Whom nature is not something, nor a thing of nature: Who is not conceived by the mind through abstraction otherwise than He subsists in reality. Hence He is nothing of all things, or rather all things are nothing; He alone being neither nothing nor existing from nothing. He must therefore be sought, as you see, above all things, which from nothing are nothing: He Who is neither something of all things, nor nothing at all. But whither shall we go, O Lord our God, outside the universe? On what wings shall we fly above all bodily and bodiless substance, men laden with flesh and heavy with sins, to seek Thee, we for whom nothing can be enough, nothing delightful, outside Thee? Lord, see, we have left all things for Thee, and if we have found grace before Thee, show us Thyself, desirable and lovable. Our soul refuses all consolation; we delight only in the memory of Thee and in such exercise: and see, our spirit has fainted, because it has not yet seen Thee. If neither bodily nor bodiless

substance art Thou, what art Thou? Let us see, then, whether perhaps He is bodiless substance, like the watchmen, whom nevertheless she passed by who sought diligently and found happily. Substance, then, which is conceived by the mind as the most general, is first and sufficiently divided into bodily and bodiless substance. For every substance must be of this kind or that: and what is of no kind is not substance either. But the proper property of substance, and what is equal to it, is the capacity for contraries. Hence this very capacity for contraries is called a rule of equals, [predicated] of whatever substance itself [is predicated]. Hence both this and that, as it is substance, so it is also receptive of contraries. Hence it is that it is changeable not only through any divided and disparate things, but even through contraries. Hence, according to another discipline, substance has been called the foundation of the elements and of all changes, changeable through all things, and standing under all, never standing firm in itself.

But we were seeking, not the changeable foundation of accidents, but the unchangeable Father of lights, with Whom there is no alteration, nor shadow of change: Who, it is clear, cannot properly be called even bodiless substance: Whom it would be impious to declare receptive of contraries. For surely it is manifest that what is unchangeable is better than what is changeable. But what is unchangeable, as is clear from the foregoing, must be confessed to be neither substance nor in substance, but above all substance, and is rightly to be named supersubstance. For substance itself does not at all admit this division, that substance be called one changeable and another unchangeable, since being receptive of contraries is proper to it, and this can in no way be said of the unchangeable. Nor is the higher divided into lower; since substance itself does not exceed changeable substance, but is altogether the same: and with the same generality it contains all substances and sustains forms. And so what is called unchangeable substance is in no way placed under substance, but is set before it in dignity, and set against it by contrariety of nature, and set under it by efficiency. As the one is under all things, so the other is above all things. The one is changeable in all and through all things; the other outside all things and above all things unchangeable. The one is understood abstracted in the conception of the mind alone, and exists in the things of its own nature; the other, in itself comprehensible by no mind, truly exists, having no nature above, in which it may be conceived, and no thing of nature below, in which it may be set up: since it is one, simple and stable: which cannot be found at all in all things. Hence it is also above all things: as one, above matter; as simple, above what is made of matter; as immovable, above everything created. For as everything created came by movement from not-being to being, so it is also variable through being, and can incline towards not-being. But Thou, O Lord my God, art the same, Thou Who art simple, and Thy years shall not fail, Thou Who art immovable: and

from these Thou art comprehended to be eternal. Come, brethren, since we are wearied with flying, let us take to our feet, going down to what remains of the day's labour, alternating the man for labour and the bird for flight: taught and helped in both by Him Who showed both in Himself, Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives with the Father and the Holy Spirit through all ages. Amen.

SERMON XXI. ON THE SAME FEAST, IV.

Seeking, dearly beloved, our Lord, of Whom it is written: Seek His face always (Ps. 104:4), for the sake of seeking Whom, while He can be found, we have gladly lost almost the whole human race, and ourselves, the day before yesterday we went round the streets and squares, yesterday we passed a little beyond the watchmen of the city (Song 3:3–4). Whence, above all matter and form, and the bodiless substance of simple nature, from the very opposition of matter we found the one, simple and immovable: and if not only is nothing better than this, but nothing can be, this is surely our God. Let us seek today, then, no longer among all things but now above all things, examining what we have found, whether it is the best, not only of all things that are, but, as we said, of all that can be. First, then, it occurs to us that what is unchangeable can neither advance nor fail in any kind. Hence it can be neither greater nor less, nor other, nor otherwise than what it is: and therefore whatever it already is, it must always be. Secondly, since it is simple, what it has, it is. For it is impossible that what is truly simple, whether as to nature, or as to form, or as to property, should have anything other than what it is itself. Thirdly, since it is one, it cannot have before it that from which it is. For the one must be before all things. For it is impossible that there be many if there is not one: indeed it is equally impossible that there be several except from one. Hence the one is before all things, and from the one are all things, and the principle of all things is altogether one. One, then, before all things, simple after all things, it is unchangeable above all things. From unity comes the plurality of all things, from simplicity the diversity of the universe, from unchangeableness all changeableness. From the one comes everything manifoldly numerous, from the simple everything numerously compounded, from the immovable everything moved in whatever kind. For as all motion rises from the immovable, so everything compound from the simple. And what, I ask, my brethren, whose eager hearts I see, can be better than what now shines out in our searchings by the revealing of grace: that is, something before all things, whence are all things; after which is nothing, and above which is nothing; the principle whence all things are brought to being; the end containing all things, lest they fall back into not-being; the eternity moving and ruling all things through being? The Creator, Governor and Sustainer of the universe; the unchangeable principle for which Jacob, beloved of God, served seven years: for this is what Rachel is interpreted as and signifies: the principle, wherein that blessed theologian fished out this which we seek, the holy Word of God,

beginning, which is its own all, and can in no way be otherwise or something else. Is this what Thou art, O Lord my God, whom I have sought among all things and found above all things: neither some one of all things, nor altogether nothing, nor a middle between all things and nothing, where Plato placed matter, but that from which matter itself flowed by a wondrous working?

Two things Thou hast shown to us Thy servants, O Lord: that Thou art, and what Thou art not; and we burn for a third, that is, to know what Thou art. Truly, to whom Thou addest knowledge, Thou addest sorrow also (Eccl. 1:18). For we are shaken with a greater burning to know what Thou art, because neither that Thou art nor what Thou art not can lie hidden or deceive. O would that we did not know what Thou art not, and were beguiled by some delightful phantasm in place of Thee; or rather, would that we knew what Thou art, and embraced Thee truly and sweetly. But show us, O Lord, Thyself, for, as Thou knowest, today we desire nothing but Thee, and love nothing but Thee, for Thy sake: we who in mind have fled the whole world, and in body almost the whole, so that unencumbered we might seek Thee. But since I am not yet able to slake my thirst by seeing Thee, let me at least vomit out the indignation of my spirit upon the fool who has blasphemed against Thee. For you have said, O fool, in your heart, being yourself outside your heart: There is no God (Ps. 13:1); which yet you could not even have said if He whom you deny did not exist, without whom nothing could exist. If, then, you yourself who have said it exist, beyond doubt He also exists of whom you have said it. For whatever exists must either be the beginning or be from the beginning. Wherefore, if you are from the beginning, there must be a beginning from which you are; or if you are yourself the beginning, then you are what you deny to exist. Again, whatever exists must be either simple or composite, that is, be from the simple. Wherefore either you do not exist, or you are one of these two. Likewise, whatever exists is either immovable, or it is from the immovable that it has to be moved in any way at all; for all motion arises from the immovable. Wherefore, if anything exists, it is either one and simple and immovable, or it must be from these. And if He is nothing at all of all things, He is nevertheless God, by whom whatever is possible can come to be. For to Him are present not only the things that are, but whatever things can be: He who calls the things that are not as the things that are. Moreover, O senseless fool, who by denying affirm the very thing you deny: if what you have affirmed is true, you have truly lied upon your own head. For if this is true, something is true; and if God never was, this was always true. And if this was always true, something was true from eternity. Hence truth also was from eternity, because this was true. Wherefore before all things at least this one thing was, since it was true that nothing yet existed. And if it was composite, it was certainly also mutable; and if mutable, temporal. Wherefore time also was from eternity — and what more foolish thing can be said than that?

Yet this must follow from the fool's proposition, if that one thing which cannot be denied to be from eternity is composite. But if it is simple, it is also immutable. This very thing which we exulted above to have found, he, while he denies it,

affirms; while he pulls it down, he builds it up. Believe me, brethren — or rather, believe sure and necessary connections: no one can deny that God exists without its following from that very denial that He exists. And this is not by the force of propositions or the inference of words, but by His very nature. For if anything exists, it follows that He too exists. And if nothing exists — as that which is something was nothing before it was made — He nevertheless exists, by whom all that does not yet exist can be made. For nothing can be made by itself, since nothing can be both before and after itself. Nothing, therefore, is plainer to me than that He truly exists whom the fool said does not exist: He without whom nothing can exist, and from whom all things have their being; alone, one, simple and immutable; the fount of number, measure and weight, in which all things that are subsist, each in its own manner: one by number, from the One; held within some form by measure, from the Simple; ordered by weight, from the Immovable. For each of the things that are exists for this reason: because it is one in number, and has measure in its composition so as not to exceed the form of its kind, and is borne by motion towards some likeness of its weight, that it may have peace. Come then, brethren: because we have passed through, we have found, and we have become Idithun, that is, "leaping over them unto Him", that is, the many unto the One. This, then, is He whom we were seeking; let us hold Him and not let Him go; and let us question Him about Himself urgently and importunately. He suffers Himself to suffer violence, He wishes to be overcome, and unless overcome He does not bless at all; and though He wills altogether to be held, He asks to be let go. Let me go, He says, it is daybreak (Gen. 32:26).

Let us hold Him, then, brethren, with understanding; let us hold Him with affection, hold Him with conscience, hold Him with our life; let us hold Him for His own sake, delighting in Him and conforming ourselves to Him, so that, gathered from the many to the One, we may be united to the One, and, made simple in the Simple, may stand immovable, as far as we can, with the Immovable, sleeping in the selfsame and resting in peace — a peace unknown to those who, multiplied by the fruit of corn, wine and oil, not God's but their own, that is, drawn apart by many things, are strained, stretched and troubled. For just as someone who wishes to thrust a thick thread, frayed into many strands at its tip, through the narrow eye of a fine needle twists it with his fingertips as much as he can and makes it single, so whoever in this which we are doing fixes his mind on the pursuit of wisdom, unless he recalls his heart from every care and curiosity and ambition and carnal will, twists it with discipline and sharpens it with the utmost vigilance of study, deceives himself and labours in vain. For, as the Word of God says, it is easier for a camel to go in through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God (Matt. 19:24). For what is that kingdom but to behold God and to delight in Him? How can they do this who have their thoughts, delights and consolations elsewhere than from Him? Woe to you, He says, rich men, who have your consolation here (Luke 6:24). But of the poor in spirit, that is, in will, the kingdom of heaven is said to be (Matt. 5:3). Nevertheless, my brethren, as food that has been longed for and long sought is prepared for the sick, and which