Thomas Traherne

Tweets from the writings of Thomas Traherne (c.1637-1674), poet and author of 'Centuries of Meditations'.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

would all be swallowed up in meridian splendour: all which now entertain you with delights. The antipodes would be empty, perpetual darkness and horror there, and the Works of God on the other side of the world in vain.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

Did the Sun stand still that you might have perpetual day, you would not know the sweetness of repose: the delightful vicissitudes of night and day, the early sweetness and spring of the morning, the perfume and beauty in the cool of the evening,

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

Love is so amiable and desirable to the Soul that it cannot be resisted: Love is the Spirit of God.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

But by loving He is infinitely righteous to Himself and all. For He is of Himself, Infinitely Blessed and most Glorious; and all His creatures are of Him, in whom they are infinitely delighted and Blessed and Glorious.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

Being Love therefore itself, by loving He begot His Love. Had He not Loved, He had not been what He now is, The God of Love, the most righteous of all beings, in being infinitely righteous to Himself, and all.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

God is not a mixt and compounded Being, so that His Love is one thing and Himself another: but the most pure and simple of all Beings, all Act, and pure Love in the abstract.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

God by loving begot His Son. For God is Love, and by loving He begot His Love. He is of Himself, and by loving He is what He is, Infinite Love.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

Here consider how you are beloved, and be transported with excess of joy at this wonderful mystery. Leave the trash and vanities of the world, to live here in communion with the blessed Trinity.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

He that spared not His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Is not he an object of infinite Love for whom our Saviour died?

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

Shall not all things in Heaven and Earth serve him in splendour and glory, for whom the Son of God came down to minister in agonies and sufferings? O here contemplate the glory of man, and his high exaltation in the Throne of God.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

You must therefore esteem us according to the beauty and worth that is in us, and the Love from whence we came. Which to do, is certainly the most blessed thing in all worlds, as not to do it is most wicked and most miserable.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

The world therefore serveth you abundantly in teaching you your duty. They daily cry in a living manner, with a silent and yet most loud voice, We are all His gifts: We are tokens and presents of His Love.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

Thus have you a Gate, in the prospect even of this world, whereby you may see into God’s Kingdom. For by His works you see that God is Love, and by His Love see the nature of all righteousness opened and unfolded.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

To love what is lovely is a righteous thing.

[Joy Marie Clarkson @joynessthebrave]

I want to see the world the way that Thomas Traherne (1637-1674) saw a simple housefly "enthroned upon a leaf... there contemplating all the world..."

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

Love is infinitely delightful to its object, God by all His works manifesteth Himself to be Love, and you being the end of them, are evidently its object. Go where you will, here alone shall you find your happiness.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

How dreadful, how amiable, how blessed, how great, how unsearchable, how incomprehensible must you be in your true real inward happiness! The object of Love is infinitely exalted.

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

If God is Love, and Love be so restless a principle in exalting its object: and so secure that it always promoteth, and glorifieth and exalteth itself thereby, where will there be any bounds in your exaltation?

[Plough Quarterly @Plough]

“Till you can sing and delight in God as misers do in gold, you never enjoy the world.” —Thomas Traherne

https://t.co/Vxhivfr4xA

[Thomas Traherne @ThomasTraherne]

You are able to discern, that in all these things He is Love to you; and that Love is a fountain of infinite benefits, and doth all that is possible for its beloved object. It endlessly desireth to delight itself, and its delight is to magnify its beloved.