John Tauler · 102 of 121

The third way of a poor, perfect life, when you contemplate God internally, is, that a man do not fly from what may kill him in spiritual things. · 89.

But if man turn again to the senses he is befooled by the evil spirit, thus those men who live a life of the senses cannot long persist without a fall, for they have no refuge where they can stay. For God is the refuge of all men, and God doth not work in the senses nor in images, but He draweth away all the senses, and driveth out all images, and then he is the dwelling-place of man and his refuge against deadly falls. But those who do not stand withdrawn from their sensuality and stripped of all images they are on the verge of a fall, and it is a wonder if they still keep their footing. For this reason it is an absolute necessity that the senses be withdrawn into the highest reason and penetrate therewith into God, and thus you stand alone without a deadly fall. And if it were possible that the senses were always drawn in under the highest reason, and the reason were directed to God, a man thus placed would stand always untouched by death, and without venial sins, and would stand in original justice, in which God created the first man. Again, they who live in the senses cannot guard themselves against sins, and this is because all sensuality is death-giving, therefore they who live in sensuality live in death, and thus they cannot guard themselves against death, hence they must needs fall. The spirit that is raised above all things in God draweth up the senses with it, and turneth them as it is also turned, and maketh them subject to itself as it also is subject to God; and while there is obedience the spirit hath rest in God; but when the senses are rebellious in disobedience to the spirit the spirit is troubled and deprived of peace, and this is then a suffering of the spirit.