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The Cloud of Unknowing · 54 of 80

Chapter 49. The substance of all perfection is nought else but a good will; and how that all sounds and comforts and sweetness that may befall in this life be to it but as it were accidents

AND therefore I pray thee, lean listily to this meek stirring of love in thine heart, and follow thereafter: for it will be thy guide in this life and bring thee to bliss in the tother. It is the substance of all good living, and without it no good work may be begun nor ended. It is nought else but a good and an according will unto God, and a manner of well‑pleasedness and a gladness that thou feelest in thy will of all that He doth.

Such a good will is the substance of all perfection. All sweetness and comforts, bodily or ghostly, be to this but as it were accidents, be they never so holy; and they do but hang on this good will. Accidents I call them, for they may be had and lacked without breaking asunder of it. I mean in this life, but it is not so in the bliss of heaven; for there shall they be oned with the substance without departing, as shall the body in the which they work with the soul. So that the substance of them here is but a good ghostly will. And surely I trow that he that feeleth the perfection of this will, as it may be had here, there may no sweetness nor no comfort fall to any man in this life, that he is not as fain and as glad to lack it at God’s will, as to feel it and have it. p. 230

Asked of Guide

Why does the author call all comforts and sweetnesses 'accidents' compared to a good will?

The chapter says a good will—“a good and an according will unto God”—is the “substance of all perfection,” so every comfort or sweetness only hangs on that will and can come or go without breaking it. Calling them “accidents” names their dependent, changeable status: they accompany the soul’s goodness but do not make it.

The author adds that in heaven those comforts will be “oned with the substance,” like body and soul, but here the true measure is delight in God’s will itself; one who truly feels this perfection will be equally “fain and…glad to lack it at God’s will, as to feel it and have it.” This echoes Augustine’s emphasis in Confessions on loving God for Himself rather than for consolations.

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