70 



VEEY REV. W. R. INGE^ M.A., D.D.^ ON 



fore self-discipline, communing with God, " desire and longing," 

 and the practice of good — all these are necessary. 



" But," I shall be reminded, " the spiritual world is, after all, 

 not the summit. The more specially mystical part of Plotinus 

 (for that is what you have been giving us) comes at the end, after 

 the realization of the spiritual world. Mystical philosophy is 

 not content with the lucid sunny fields of Plato's Elysium, amid 

 the eternal ideas and perfect types of beauty ; it penetrates, 

 or seeks to penetrate, deeper yet into the mysteries of the 

 Divine essence, into the light which no man may approach 

 unto, or the darkness which is the secret place of the Godhead." 

 It is perfectly true that the mystics have been led on into this 

 strange region, both by their experience and by their philosophy. 

 Philosophically they have felt that, though in the Koafio^ 

 voTfTo^ all differences are harmonized, yet there still remains, in 

 vov<^ and vorjra, a vestige of duality which indicates that the 

 ideal goal has not yet been quite reached. Besides, if at each 

 stage we mount a step higher by contemplating what is next 

 above us, to what must spirit turn ? Must there not be a •wrj'yri 

 666TrjTo<;, an Absolute Unity ? Plotinus, in recognizing the 

 necessity of this conclusion, is careful to place the Absolute 

 " beyond existence." Existence requires unity in duality — a 

 certain degree of discerption and determination. So Eckhart 

 distinguishes between the Godhead and God. The Absolute is 

 even called " Nihil " by Erigena. It is above all description and 

 determination. 



Lastly, what connexion has this philosophy of religion with 

 Christianity ? It is easy to say, " None " ; it is easy to show 

 that Buddhism and Mohammedanism (Sufis) mysticism has 

 been in all essential features much the same as Christianity ; it 

 is easy to show that the Alexandrian divines were not very 

 successful in fitting the Christian Trinity into a Neoplatonic 

 frame ; it is easy to show that no single Christian dogma is 

 involved in the mystic's creed, and that he is quite independent 

 of any Church, needing none. But (1) the Christian determina- 

 tion to unite in the Christ Logos the creative and redemptive 

 oftice was even philosophically a great advance. It gives a 

 motive for creation. It is successfully worked into the system 

 of most of the Christian speculative mystics ; it supplies them 

 with a philosophy of suffering and sacrifice which we do not find 

 in Plotinus. This is an important point which I have not time 

 to discuss. (2) Mysticism, we said, was religion at first-hand. 

 The religion of Christ was eminently this, and so has more in 



