The Divine Lamp

Note: What follows is the continuation of St Thomas More’s wonderful work. I have provided in italics what I hope are useful introductory and guidance notes, along with references to scripture and authors the Saint may be referring to. To view other posts in this series click on the heading “Dialogue of Comfort” listed in the Categories Box at the left.

In the last post we saw that the aged and wise Anthony had agreed to give his younger cousin Vincent words and advice concerning comfort in a time of  spiritual tribulation.  Anthony had noted that some such comfort could be found in “the natural wise men of this world, the old moral philosophers.”  However, he also noted that such wisdom as they contained was not enough to cure the malady and affliction of spiritual tribulation completely.  The real physician of souls who can remedy the affliction is Christ, hence the last section ended with Anthony saying: “We shall therefore neither fully receive these philosophers’ reasons in this matter, nor yet utterly refuse them. But, using them in such order as may beseem them, we shall fetch the principal and effectual medicines against these diseases of tribulation from that high, great, and excellent physician without whom we could never be healed of our very deadly disease of damnation. For our necessity in that regard, the Spirit of God spiritually speaketh of himself to us, and biddeth us give him the honour of all our health. And therein he thus saith unto us: “Honour thou the physician, for him hath the high God ordained for thy necessity.” Therefore let us pray that high physician, our blessed Saviour Christ, whose holy manhood God ordained for our necessity, to cure our deadly wounds with the medicine made of the most wholesome
blood of his own blessed body. And let us pray that, as he cured
our mortal malady by this incomparable medicine, it may please him
to send us and put in our minds at this time such medicines as may
so comfort and strengthen us in his grace against the sickness and
sorrows of tribulation, that our deadly enemy the devil may never
have the power, by his poisoned dart of murmur, grudge, and
impatience, to turn our short sickness of worldly tribulation into
the endless everlasting death of infernal damnation.”
One cannot enjoy the benefits of the healer if one has not faith in him as a doctor.  Anthony, in the present excerpt, talks about the importance and necessity of faith.

Since all our principal comfort must come from God, we must first
presuppose, in him to whom we shall give any effectual comfort with
any ghostly counsel, one ground to begin with, on which all that we
shall build may be supported and stand; that is, the ground and
foundation of faith (see Col 2:4-8). Without this, had ready before, all the spiritual comfort that anyone may speak of can never avail a fly.

For just as it would be utterly vain to lay natural reasons of
comfort to him who hath no wit, so would it undoubtedly be
frustrate to lay spiritual causes of comfort to him who hath no
faith. For unless a man first believe that holy scripture is the
word of God, and that the word of God is true, how can he take any
comfort in that which the scripture telleth him? A man must needs
take little fruit of scripture, if he either believe not that it be
the word of God, or else think that, though it were, it might yet
for all that be untrue! As this faith is more strong or more faint,
so shall the comforting words of holy scripture stand the man in
more stead or less.

This virtue of faith can no man give himself, nor yet any man to
another. But though men may with preaching be ministers unto God
therein; and though a man can, with his own free will, obeying
freely the inward inspiration of God, be a weak worker with
almighty God therein; yet is the faith indeed the gracious gift of
God himself (See Rom 10:14-15; Phil 2:12-13). For, as St. James saith, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is given from above, descending from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Therefore, feeling our faith by many tokens very faint, let us pray to him who giveth it to us, that it may please him to help and increase it. And let us first say with him in the gospel, “I believe, good Lord, but help thou the lack of my belief” (Mark 9:24). And afterwards, let us pray with the apostles, “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). And finally, let us consider, by Christ’s saying unto them, that, if we would not suffer the strength and fervour of our faith to wax lukewarm–or rather key-cold–and lose its vigour by scattering our minds abroad about so many trifling things that we very seldom think of the matters of our faith, we should withdraw our thought from the respect and regard of all worldly fantasies, and so gather our faith together into a little narrow room (See Matt 6:5-8 and note at the end of this post). And like the little grain of mustard seed, which is by nature hot, we should set it in the garden of our soul, all weeds being pulled out for the better feeding of our faith. Then shall it grow, and so spread up in height that the birds–that is, the holy angels of heaven–shall breed in our soul, and bring forth virtues in the branches of our faith (The saint is clearly basing his images on the parables in Matt 13:24-32). And then, with the faithful trust that through the true belief of God’s word we shall put in his promise, we shall be well able to command a great mountain of tribulation to void from the place where it stood in our heart, whereas with a very feeble faith and faint, we shall be scantly able to remove a little hillock (see Matt 21:21).
And therefore, as for the first conclusion, since we must of necessity before any spiritual comfort presuppose the foundation of faith, and since no man can give us faith but only God, let us never cease to call upon God for it.

VINCENT:  Forsooth, good uncle, methinks that this foundation of
faith which, as you say, must be laid first, is so necessarily
requisite, that without it all spiritual comfort would be given
utterly in vain. And therefore now shall we pray God for a full and
fast faith. And I pray you, good uncle, proceed you farther in the
process of your matter of spiritual comfort against tribulation.

ANTHONY:  That shall I, cousin, with good will.

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