Bonaventure: ITINERARIUM MENTIS IN DEUM

1. In principio Primum principium, a quo cunctae illuminationes descendunt tanquama Patre luminum, a quo est omne datum optimum et omne donum perfectum, Patrem scilicet aeternum, invoco per Filium eius, Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, ut intercessione sanctissimae Virginis Mariae, genitricis eiusdem Dei et Domini nostri Iesu Christi, et beati Francisci, ducis et patris nostri, det illuminatos oculos mentis nostrae ad dirigendos pedes nostros in viam pacis illius, quae exuperat omnem sensum; quam pacem evangelizavit et dedit Dominus noster Iesus Christus; cuius praedicationis repetitor fuit pater noster Franciscus, in omni sua praedicatione pacem in principio et in fine annuntians, in omni salutatione pacem optans, in omni contemplatione ad exstaticam pacem suspirans, tanquam civis illius Ierusalem, de qua dicit vir ille pacis, qui cum his qui oderunt pacem, erat pacificus: Rogate quae ad pacem sunt in Ierusalem. Sciebat enim, quod thronus Salomonis non erat nisi in pace, cum scriptum sit: In pace factus est locus eius, et habitatio eius in Sion.

1. At the beginning I invoke the First Principle, from whom all illuminations descend asfrom the Father of lights, from whom is every best gift and every perfect gift, namely the eternal Father, through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that by the intercession of the most holy Virgin Mary, mother of that same God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and of blessed Francis, our leader and father, He may give enlightened eyes to our mind to direct our feet into the way of peace of that peace, which surpasses all understanding; which peace our Lord Jesus Christ evangelized and gave; the repeater of whose preaching was our father Francis, announcing peace at the beginning and at the end in his every preaching, wishing peace in every salutation, sighing in every contemplation toward ecstatic peace, as a citizen of that Jerusalem, about which that man of peace says, who with those who hate peace, was peaceable: Ask for the things that are for the peace in Jerusalem. For he knew that the throne of Solomon was only in peace, since it is written: In peace was his place made, and his dwelling in Zion.

2. Cum igitur exemplo beatissimi patris Francisci hanc pacem anhelo spiritu quaererem, ego peccador, qui loco ipsius patris beatissimi post eius transitum septimus in generali fratrum ministerio per omnia indignus succedo; contigit ut nutu divino circa Beati ipsius transitum, anno trigesimo tertio (1259) ad montem Alvernae tanquam ad locum quietum amore quaerendi pacem spiritus declinarem, ibique existens, dum mente tractarem aliquas mentales ascensiones in Deum, inter alia occurrit illud miraculum, quod in praedicto loco contigit ipsi beato Francisco, de visione scilicet Seraph alati ad instar Crucifixi. In cuius consideratione statim visum est mihi, quod visio illa praetenderet ipisus patris suspensionem in contemplando et viam, per quam pervenitur ad eam.

2. Therefore, since, after the example of the most blessed father Francis, I was seeking with a yearning spirit this peace, I, a sinner, who, in the place of that same most blessed father after his passing, succeed as the seventh in the general ministry of the brothers, in all things unworthy; it befell by divine prompting that, around the passing of the Blessed himself, in the thirty-third year (1259), I turned aside to Mount Alverna as to a place of quiet out of love for seeking the peace of the spirit; and being there, while in my mind I was treating of certain mental ascents into God, among other things there occurred that miracle which in the aforesaid place befell the same blessed Francis, namely the vision of a Seraph winged in the likeness of the Crucified. In the consideration of which it seemed to me at once that that vision pre-intimated the suspension of that father in contemplating, and the way by which one comes to it.

3. Nam per senas alas illas recte intelligi possunt sex illuminationum suspensiones, quibus anima quasi quibusdam gradibus vel itineribus disponitur, ut transeat ad pacem per exstaticos excessus sapientiae christianae. Via autem non est nisi per ardentissimum amorem Crucifixi, qui adeo Paulum adtertium caelum raptum transformavit in Christum, ut diceret: Christo confixus sum cruci, iam non ego; vivit vero in me Christus; qui etiam adeo mentem Francisci absorbuit, quod mens in carne patuit, dum sacratissima passionis stigmata in corpore suo ante mortem per biennium deportavit. Effigies igitur sex alarum seraphicarum insinuat sex illuminationes scalares, quae a creaturis incipiunt et perducunt usque ad Deum, ad quem nemo intrat recte nisi per Crucifixum.

3. For through those sixfold wings there can rightly be understood six suspensions of illuminations, by which the soul is disposed, as by certain steps or itineraries, to pass over unto peace through the ecstatic excesses of Christian sapience. The way, however, is nothing other than through the most ardent love of the Crucified, who so transformed Paul,rapt to the third heaven, into Christ that he said: I am co-fastened with Christ to the cross; now no longer I; but Christ truly lives in me; who also so absorbed the mind of Francis that mind became manifest in flesh, while he bore in his body for two years before death the most sacred stigmata of the Passion. The effigy, therefore, of the six seraphic wings insinuates six stepwise illuminations, which begin from creatures and lead through to God, into whom no one enters rightly except through the Crucified.

Nam qui non intrat per ostium, sed ascendit aliunde, ille fur est et latro. Si quis vero per ostium introierit, ingredietur et egredietur et pascua inveniet. Propter quod dicit Ioannes in Apocalypsi: Beati qui lavant vestimenta sua in sanguine Agni, ut sit potestas eorum in ligno vitae, et per portas ingrediantur civitatem; quasi dicat, quod per contemplationem ingredi non potest Ierusalem supernam, nisi per sanguinem Agni intret tanquam per portam. Non enim dispositus est aliquo modo ad contemplationes divinas, quae ad mentales ducunt excessus, nisi cum Daniele sit vir desideriorum. Desideria autem in nobis inflammantur dupliciter, scilicet per clamorem orationis, quae rugire facit a gemitu cordis, et per fulgorem speculationis, qua mens ad radios lucis directissime et intensissime se convertit.

For he who does not enter through the door, but climbs up some other way, that man is a thief and a robber. But if anyone shall have entered through the door, he will go in and go out and will find pastures. For which reason John says in the Apocalypse: Blessed are they who wash their garments in the blood of the Lamb, that their authority may be in the tree of life, and that through the gates they may enter the city; as if to say, that by contemplation one cannot enter the supernal Jerusalem, unless he enters through the blood of the Lamb as through a gate. For he is in no way disposed to divine contemplations, which lead to mental ecstasies, unless, with Daniel, he be a man of desires. Now desires in us are inflamed in a twofold way, namely by the cry of prayer, which makes one roar from the groan of the heart, and by the radiance of speculation, whereby the mind most directly and most intensely turns itself to the rays of light.

4. Igitur ad gemitum orationis per Christum crucifixum, per cuius sanguinem purgamur a sordibus vitiorum, primum quidem lectorem invito, ne forte credat quod sibi sufficiat lectio sine unctione, speculatio sine devotione, investigatio sine admiratione,, circumspectio sine exsultatione, industria sine pietate, scientia sine caritate, intelligentia sine humilitate, studium, absque divina gratia, speculum absque sapientia divinitus inspirata. - Praeventus igitur divina gratia, humilibus et piis, compunctis et devotis, unctisoleo laetitiae et amatoribus divinae sapientiae et eius desiderio inflammatis, vacare volentibus ad Deum magnificandum, admirandum et etiam degustandum, speculationes subiectas propono, insinuans, quod parum aut nihil est speculum exterius propositum, nisi speculum mentis nostrae tersum fuerit et politum. Exerce igitur te, homo Dei, prius ad stimulum conscientiae remordentem, antequam oculos eleves ad radios sapientiae in eius speculis relucentes, ne forte ex ipsa radiorum speculatione in graviorem incidas foveam tenebrarum.

4. Therefore, to the groan of prayer through Christ crucified, through whose blood we are purged from the filth of vices, first indeed I invite the reader, lest perchance he believe that reading without unction suffices for him, speculation without devotion, investigation without admiration,, circumspection without exultation, industry without piety, knowledge without charity, understanding without humility, zeal without divine grace, a mirror without wisdom divinely inspired. - Anticipated, therefore, by divine grace, to the humble and pious, the compunct and devout, anointedwith the oil of gladness and lovers of divine wisdom and inflamed with desire for it, willing to be at leisure for magnifying, admiring, and even tasting God, I set forth the following speculations, insinuating that the outward mirror set forth is little or nothing unless the mirror of our mind has been wiped and polished. Exercise yourself, therefore, man of God, first to the goad of conscience that bites back, before you lift your eyes to the rays of wisdom shining back in its mirrors, lest perhaps from that very speculation of the rays you fall into a graver pit of darkness.

5. Placuit autem distinguere tractatum in septem capitula, praemittendo titulos ad faciliorem intelligentiam dicendorum. Rogo igitur, quod magis pensetur intentio scribentis, quam opus, magis dictorum sensus quam sermo incultus, magis veritas quam venustas, magis exercitatio affectus quam eruditio intellectus. Quod ut fiat, non est harum speculationum progressus perfunctorie transcurrendus, sed morosissime ruminandus.

5. It seemed good, moreover, to distinguish the treatise into seven chapters, by prefixing titles for an easier understanding of the things to be said. I ask, therefore, that the intention of the writer be weighed more than the work, the sense of what is said more than the unpolished speech, truth rather than charm, the exercise of the affect rather than the erudition of the intellect. That this may be so, the progress through these speculations is not to be run through perfunctorily, but to be ruminated most lingeringly.

EXPLICIT PROLOGUS

HERE ENDS THE PROLOGUE

INCIPIT SPECULATIO PAUPERIS IN DESERTO

HERE BEGINS THE SPECULATION OF THE POOR MAN IN THE DESERT

CAPUT PRIMUM

CHAPTER ONE

DE GRADIBUS ASCENSIONIS IN DEUM ET DE SPECULATIONE IPSIUS PER VESTIGIA EIUS IN UNIVERSO

OF THE GRADES OF ASCENSION INTO GOD, AND OF THE SPECULATION OF HIM THROUGH HIS VESTIGES IN THE UNIVERSE

1.Beatus vir, cuius est auxilium abs te, ascensiones in corde suo disposuit in valle lacrymarum, in loco, quem posuit. Cum beatitudo nihil aliud sit, quam summi boni fruitio; et summum bonum sit supra nos: nullus potest effici beatus, nisi supra semetipsum ascendat, non ascensu corporali, sed cordiali. Sed supra nos levari non possumus nisi per virtutem superiorem nos elevantem. Quantumcumque enim gradus interiores disponantur, nihil fit, nisi divinum auxilium comitetur.

1.Blessed is the man whose help is from you, he has arranged ascents in his heart in the valley of tears, in the place which he has appointed. Since beatitude is nothing else than the fruition of the supreme good; and the supreme good is above us: no one can be made blessed unless he ascend above himself, not by bodily ascent, but by an ascent of the heart. But we cannot be lifted above ourselves except by a higher power lifting us. For however much the interior grades be arranged, nothing is accomplished unless divine help accompany.

Divinum autem auxilium comitatur eos qui petunt ex corde humiliter et devote; et hoc est ad ipsum suspirare in hac lacrymarum valle, quod fit per ferventem orationem. Oratio igitur est mater et origo sursum-actionis. Ideo Dionysius in libro De mystica theologia volens nos instruere ad excessus mentales, primo praemittit orationem.

But divine aid accompanies those who ask from the heart humbly and devoutly; and this is to sigh toward him in this vale of tears, which is done through fervent prayer. Prayer, therefore, is the mother and origin of the ascent. Therefore Dionysius, in the book On Mystical Theology, wishing to instruct us unto mental ecstasies, first prefaces with prayer.

Oremus igitur et dicamus ad Dominum Deum nostrum: Deduc me, Domine, in via tua, et ingrediar in veritate tua; laetetur cor meum, ut timeat nomen tuum.

Let us pray, therefore, and let us say to the Lord our God: Lead me, O Lord, in your way, and I will walk in your truth; let my heart rejoice, that it may fear your name.

2. In hac oratione orando illuminatur ad cognoscendum divinae ascensionis gradus. Cum rerum universitas sit scala ad ascendendum in Deum; et in rebus quaedam sint vestigium, quaedam imago, quaedam corporalia, quaedam spiritualia, quaedam temporalia, quaedam aeviterna, ac per hoc quaedam extra nos, quaedam intra nos: ad hoc, quod perveniamus ad primum principium considerandum, quod est spiritualissimum et aeternum et supra nos, oportet, nos transire per vestigium, quod est corporale et temporale et extra nos, et hoc est deduci in via Dei; oportet, nos intrare ad mentem nostram, quae est imago Dei aeviterna, spiritualis et intra nos, et hoc est ingredi in veritate Dei; oportet, nos transcendere ad aeternum, spiritualissimum, et supra nos aspiciendo ad primum principium, et hoc est laetari in Dei notitia et reverentia Maiestatis.

2. In this oration, by praying one is illuminated to know the grades of divine ascension. Since the universe of things is a ladder for ascending into God; and in things some are a vestige, some an image, some corporeal, some spiritual, some temporal, some aeviternal, and thereby some outside us, some within us: for this, that we may arrive at the first principle to be contemplated, which is most spiritual and eternal and above us, it is necessary, that we pass through the vestige, which is corporeal and temporal and outside us, and this is to be led along in the way of God; it is necessary, that we enter into our mind, which is the aeviternal image of God, spiritual and within us, and this is to enter into the truth of God; it is necessary, that we transcend to the eternal, the most spiritual, and that which is above us by looking toward the first principle, and this is to rejoice in the knowledge of God and in the reverence of Majesty.

3. Haec est igitur via trium dierum in solitudine; haec est triplex illuminatio unius diei, et prima est sicut vespera, secunda sicut mane, tertia sicut meridies; haec respicit triplicem rerum existentiam, scilicet in materia, in intelligentia et in arte aeterna, secundum quam dictum est;fiat, fecit, et factum est; haec etiam respicit triplicem substantiam in Christo, qui est scala nostra, scilicet corporalem, spiritualem et divinam.

3. This is therefore the way of three days in the solitude; this is the threefold illumination of one day, and the first is like evening, the second like morning, the third like midday; this has regard to the threefold existence of things, namely in matter, in intelligence, and in eternal art, according to which it has been said;let it be, he made, and it was made; this also has regard to the threefold substance in Christ, who is our ladder, namely corporeal, spiritual, and divine.

4. Secundum hunc triplicem progressum mens nostra tres habet aspectus principales. Unus est ad corporalia exteriora, secundum quem vocatur animalitas seu sensualitas: alius intra se et in se, secundum quem dicitur spiritus; tertius supra se, secundum quem dicitur mens. - Ex quibus omnibus disponere se debet ad conscendendum in Deum, ut ipsum diligatex tota mente, ex toto corde et ex tota anima, in quo consistit perfecta Legis observatio et simul cum hoc sapientia christiana.

4. According to this triple progress our mind has three principal aspects. One is toward external corporeals, according to which it is called animality or sensuality; another is within itself and in itself, according to which it is called spirit; a third is above itself, according to which it is called mind. - From all these it ought to dispose itself for ascending into God, that it may love himwith all the mind, with all the heart, and with all the soul, wherein consists the perfect observance of the Law, and together with this, Christian wisdom.

5. Quoniam autem quilibet praedictorum modorum geminatur, secundum quod contingit considerare Deum utalpha et omega, seu in quantum contingit videre Deum in unoquoque praedictorum modorum ut per speculum et ut in speculo, seu quia una istarum considerationum habet commisceri alteri sibi coniunctae et habet considerari in sua puritate; hinc est, quod necesse est, hos tres gradus principales ascendere ad senarium, ut, sicut Deus sex diebus perfecit universum mundum et in septimo requievit; sic minor mundus sex gradibus illuminationum sibi succedentium ad quietem contemplationis ordinatissime perducatur. In cuius rei figura sex gradibus ascendebatur ad thronum Salomonis; Seraphim, quae vidit Isaias, senas alas habebat; post sex dies vocavit Dominus Moysen de medio caliginis, et Christus post sex dies, ut dicitur Matthaeo, duxit discipulos in montem et transfiguratus est ante eos.

5. Now, since each of the aforesaid modes is doubled, inasmuch as it befalls us to consider God asalpha and omega, or inasmuch as it comes to see God in each of the aforesaid modes both through a mirror and in a mirror, or because one of these considerations ought to be mingled with the other conjoined to it and ought to be considered in its purity; hence it is necessary that these three principal steps be brought up to the senary, so that, just as God in six days perfected the whole universe and on the seventh rested; so the microcosm may by six steps of illuminations succeeding one another be led in most orderly fashion to the rest of contemplation. In a figure of which thing, one ascended by six steps to the throne of Solomon; the Seraph which Isaiah saw had six wings; after six days the Lord called Moses out of the midst of the darkness; and Christ, after six days, as is said in Matthew, led the disciples up the mountain and was transfigured before them.

6. Iuxta igitur sex gradus ascensionis in Deum, sex sunt gradus potentiarum animae per quos ascendimus ab imis ad summa, ab exterioribus ad intima, a temporalibus conscendimus ad aeterna, scilicet sensus, imaginatio, ratio, intellectus, intelligentia et apex mentis seu synderesis scintilla. Hos gradus in nobis habemus plantatos per naturam, deformatos per culpam, reformatos per gratiam; purgandos per iustitiam, exercendos per scientiam, perficiendos per sapientiam.

6. Accordingly, according to the six grades of ascent into God, there are six grades of the powers of the soul, through which we ascend from the lowest to the highest, from externals to internals, we climb from temporal things to eternal things, namely: sense, imagination, reason, intellect, intelligence, and the apex of the mind, or the scintilla of synderesis. We have these grades planted in us by nature, deformed by fault, reformed by grace; to be purged by justice, to be exercised by science/knowledge, to be perfected by wisdom.

7. Secundum enim primam naturae institutionem creatus fuit homo habilis ad contemplationis quietem, et ideo posuit eum Deus in paradiso deliciarum. Sed avertens se a vero lumine ad commutabile bonum, incurvatus est ipse per culpam propriam, et totum genus suum per originale peccatum, quod dupliciter infecit humanam naturam, scilicet ignorantia mentem et concupiscentia carnem; ita quod excaecatus homo et incurvatus in tenebris sedet et caeli lumen non videt nisi succurrat gratia cum iustitia contra concupiscentiam, et scientia cum sapientia contra ignorantiam. Quod totum fit per Iesum Christum, qui factus est nobis a Deo sapientia et iustitia et sanctificatio et redemptio. Qui cum sit Dei virtus et Dei sapientia, sit Verbum incarnatum plenum gratiae et veritatis, gratiam et veritatem fecit, gratiam scilicet caritatis infudit, quae, cum sit de corde puro et conscientia bona et fide non ficta, totam animam rectificat secundum triplicem ipsius aspectum supradictum; scientiam veritatis edocuit secundum triplicem modum theologiae, scilicet symbolicae, propriae et mysticae, ut per symbolum recte utamur sensibilibus, per propriam recte utamur intelligibilibus, per mysticam rapiamur ad supermentales excessus.

7. For according to the first institution of nature, man was created apt for the quiet of contemplation, and thereforeGod placed him in the paradise of delights. But turning himself away from the true light toward a changeable good, he was himself bent down by his own fault—and his whole race by original sin—which infected human nature in a twofold way, namely ignorance infecting the mind and concupiscence the flesh; so that, blinded and bowed down, man sits in darkness and does not see the light of heaven unless grace with justice come to succor against concupiscence, and knowledge with wisdom against ignorance. All this is accomplished through Jesus Christ, who has been made for us by God wisdom and justice and sanctification and redemption. Since he is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God, since he is the incarnate Word full of grace and truth, he wrought grace and truth: grace, namely, he poured in charity, which, since it is from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith, rectifies the whole soul according to its aforesaid triple aspect; the knowledge of truth he taught according to the threefold mode of theology, namely symbolic, proper, and mystical, so that through the symbolic we may use sensibles rightly, through the proper we may use intelligibles rightly, through the mystical we may be snatched up to supermental ecstasies.

8. Qui igitur vult in Deum ascendere necesse est, ut vitata culpa deformante naturam, naturales potentias supradictas exerceat ad gratiam reformantem, et hoc per orationem; ad iustitiam purificantem et hoc in conversatione; ad scientiam illuminantem et hoc in meditatione; ad sapientiam perficientem et hoc in contemplatione. Sicut igitur ad sapientiam nemo venit nisi per gratiam, iustitiam et scientiam; sic ad contemplationem non venitur nisi per meditationem perspicuam, conversationem sanctam et orationem devotam. Sicut igitur gratia fundamentum est rectitudinis voluntatis et illustrationis perspicuae rationis; sic primum orandum est nobis, deinde sancte vivendum, tertio veritatis spectaculis intendendum et intendendo gradatim ascendendum, quousque veniatur ad montem excelsum, ubivideatur Deus deorum in Sion.

8. Therefore, whoever wishes to ascend into God must, with guilt deforming nature avoided, exercise the aforesaid natural powers toward reforming grace—and this through prayer; toward purifying justice—and this in conversation; toward enlightening knowledge—and this in meditation; toward perfecting wisdom—and this in contemplation. As, then, no one comes to wisdom except through grace, justice, and knowledge, so one does not come to contemplation except through perspicuous meditation, holy conversation, and devoted prayer. And as grace is the foundation of the rectitude of the will and of the perspicuous illumination of reason, so first we must pray, then live holily, third direct our attention to the spectacles of truth, and by this intent look ascend step by step, until we come to the lofty mountain wherethe God of gods is seen in Zion.

9. Quoniam igitur prius est ascendere quam descendere in scala Iacob, primum gradum ascensionis collocemus in imo, ponendo totum istum mundum sensibilem nobis tanquam speculum, per quod transeamus ad Deum, opificem summum, ut simus veri Hebraei transeuntes de Aegypto ad terram Patribus repromissam, simus etiam Christiani cum Christo transeuntes ex hoc mundo ad Patrem, simus et sapientiae amatores, quae vocat et dicit: Transite ad me omnes, qui concupiscitis me, et a generationibus meis adimplemini. A magnitudine namque speciei et creaturae cognoscibiliter poterit Creator horum videri.

9. Since therefore it is prior to ascend than to descend on Jacob’s ladder, let us place the first step of the ascent at the lowest, by setting this whole sensible world for us as a mirror, through which we may pass over to God, the supreme Artificer, that we may be true Hebrews passing from Egypt to the land promised to the Fathers, let us also be Christians with Christ passing from this world to the Father, and let us be lovers of wisdom as well, which calls and says: Pass over to me, all you who desire me, and be filled from my generations. For from the magnitude of the beauty and of the creation the Creator of these can be seen intelligibly.

10. Relucet autem Creatoris summa potentia et sapientia et benevolentia in rebus creatis secundum quod hoc tripliciter nuntiat sensus carnis sensui interiori. Sensus enim carnis aut deservit intellectui rationabiliter investiganti, aut fideliter credenti, aut intellectualiter contemplanti. Contemplans considerat rerum existentiam actualem, credens rerum decursum habitualem, ratiocinans rerum praecellentiam potentialem.

10. Moreover, the supreme power and wisdom and benevolence of the Creator shine forth in created things, inasmuch as the sense of the flesh proclaims this in a threefold way to the inner sense. For the sense of the flesh either serves the intellect investigating rationally, or the one believing faithfully, or the one contemplating intellectually. The contemplative considers the actual existence of things, the believer the habitual course of things, the reasoner the potential preeminence of things.

11. Primo modo aspectus contemplantis, res in se ipsis considerans, videt in eis pondus, numerum et mensuram; pondus quoad situm, ubi inclinantur, numerum, quo distinguuntur, et mensuram, qua limitantur. Ac per hoc videt in eis modum, speciem et ordinem, nec non substantiam, virtutem et operationem. Ex quibus consurgere potest sicut ex vestigio ad intelligendum potentiam, sapientiam et bonitatem Creatoris immensam.

11. In the first way, the aspect of the contemplator, considering things in themselves, sees in them weight, number, and measure; weight with respect to situation, where they incline, number by which they are distinguished, and measure by which they are limited. And through this it sees in them mode, species, and order, and likewise substance, virtue (power), and operation. From which one can rise, as from a vestige, to understand the immense power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator.

12. Secundo modo aspectus fidelis, considerans hunc mundum attendit originem decursum et terminnum. Nam fide credimus,aptata esse saecula Verbo vitae; fide credimus, trium legum tempora, scilicet naturae, Scripturae et gratiae sibi succedere et ordinatissime decurrisse; fide credimus, mundum per finale iudicium terminandum esse; in primo potentiam, in secundo providentiam, in tertio iustitiam summi principii advertentes.

12. In a second mode, the gaze of the faithful, considering this world, attends to the origin, the course, and the terminus. For by faith we believe,that the ages have been fitted by the Word of life; by faith we believe that the times of three laws—namely of nature, of Scripture, and of grace—succeed one another and have run their course in the most orderly way; by faith we believe that the world is to be terminated by the final judgment; noting in the first the power, in the second the providence, and in the third the justice of the highest principle.

13. Tertio modo aspectus ratiocinabiliter investigantis videt, quaedam tantum esse, quaedam autem esse et vivere, quaedam vero esse, vivere et discernere; et prima quidem esse minora, secunda media, tertia meliora.- Videt iterum, quaedam esse tantum corporalia, quaedam partim corporalia, partim spiritualia; ex quo advertit, aliqua esse mere spiritualia tanquam utriusque meliora et digniora. Videt nihilominus, quaedam esse mutabilia et incorruptibilia, ut caelestia; ex quo advertit, quaedam esse immutabilia et incorruptibilia, ut supercaelestia. Ex his ergo visibilibus consurgit ad considerandum Dei potentiam, sapientiam, et bonitatem ut entem, viventem et intelligentem, mere spiritualem et incorruptibilem et intransmutabilem.

13. In a third way the gaze of one investigating rationally sees that certain things only are, others both are and live, and others indeed are, live, and discern; and the first are lesser, the second middling, the third better.- It sees again that some things are solely corporeal, others partly corporeal and partly spiritual; whence it notices that some things are purely spiritual as the better and more worthy than either. It sees nonetheless that some things are changeable and incorruptible, such as the celestial; whence it notices that some things are immutable and incorruptible, such as the supercelestial. From these visible things, therefore, it rises to consider God’s power, wisdom, and goodness as being, living, and intelligent, purely spiritual and incorruptible and intransmutable.

14. Haec autem consideratio dilatatur secundum septiformem conditionem creaturarum, quae est divinae potentiae et bonitatis testimonium septiforme, si consideretur cunctarum rerum origo et ordo.

14. Now this consideration is dilated according to the sevenfold condition of creatures, which is a sevenfold testimony of divine potency and goodness, if the origin and order of all things be considered.

Origo namque rerum secundum creationem, distinctionem et ornatum quantum ad opera sex dierum divinam praedicat potentiam cuncta de nihilo producentem, sepientiam cuncta lucide distinguentem et bonitatem cuncta largiter adornantem.

Origin indeed of things, according to creation, distinction, and ornament, as regards the works of the six days, proclaims the divine power bringing forth all things from nothing, the wisdom clearly distinguishing all things, and the goodness bountifully adorning all things.

Magnitudo autem rerum secundum molem longitudinis, latitudinis et profunditatis; secundum excellentiam virtutis longe, late et profunde se extendentis, sicut patet in diffusione lucis; secundum efficaciam operationis intimae, continuae et diffusae, sicut patet in operatione ignis, manifeste indicat immensitatem potentiae, sapientiae et bonitatis trini Dei qui in cunctis rebus per potentiam, praesentiam et essentiam incircumscriptus existit.

Magnitude however of things, according to the mass of length, breadth, and depth; according to the excellence of a power extending itself far, wide, and deep, as is evident in the diffusion of light; according to the efficacy of an operation that is intimate, continuous, and diffusive, as is evident in the operation of fire, clearly indicates the immensity of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the triune God, who in all things exists uncircumscribed through power, presence, and essence.

Multitudo vero secundum diversitatem generalem, specialem et individualem in substantia, in forma seu figura et efficacia ultra omnem humanam aestimationem, manifeste trium praedictarum conditionum in Deo immensitatem insinuat et ostendit.

Multitude indeed, according to general, special, and individual diversity in substance, in form or figure, and in efficacy, beyond all human estimation, manifestly insinuates and shows the immensity in God of the three aforesaid conditions.

Pulcritudo autem rerum secundum varietatem luminum, figurarum et colorum in corporibus simplicibus, mixtis et etiam complexionatis, sicut in corporibus caelestibus et mineralibus, sicut lapidibus et metallis, plantis et animalibus, tria praedicta evidenter proclamat.

Beauty moreover of things, according to the variety of lights, figures, and colors in simple bodies, mixed, and even composite, as in celestial and mineral bodies, as in stones and metals, plants and animals, evidently proclaims the aforesaid three.

Plenitudo autem rerum, secundum quod materia est plena formis secundum rationes seminales; forma est plena virtute secundum activam potentiam; virtus est plena effectibus secundum efficientiam, id ipsum maniteste declarat.

Plenitude however of things, inasmuch as matter is full of forms according to seminal reasons; form is full of virtue according to active potency; virtue is full of effects according to efficiency, clearly declares this very thing.

Operatio multiplex, secundum quod est naturalis, secundum quod est artificialis, secundum quod est moralis, sua multiplicissima varietate ostendit immensitatem illius virtutis, artis et bonitatis, quae quidem est omnibus "causa essendi, ratio intelligendi et ordo vivendi".

Operation, manifold—insofar as it is natural, insofar as it is artificial, insofar as it is moral—by its most manifold variety displays the immensity of that virtue, art, and goodness, which indeed is for all the "cause of being, the reason for understanding, and the order of living".

Ordo autem secundum rationem durationis et influentiae, scilicet per prius et posterius, superius et inferius, nobilius et ignobilius, in libro creaturae insinuat manifeste primi principii primitatem, sublimitatem et dignitatem quantum ad infinitatem potentiae; ordo vero divinarum legum, praeceptorum et iudiciorum in libro Scipturae immensitatem sapientiae; ordo autem divinorum Sacramentorum, beneficiorum et retributionum in corpore Ecclesiae immensitatem bonitatis, ita quod ipse ordo nos in primum et summum, potentissimum, sapientissimum et optimum evidentissime manuducit.

Order moreover, according to the reason of duration and of influence—namely by prior and posterior, superior and inferior, nobler and more ignoble—in the Book of Creation manifestly insinuates the primacy, sublimity, and dignity of the First Principle with respect to the infinitude of power; the order of divine laws, precepts, and judgments in the Book of Scripture (insinuates) the immensity of wisdom; and the order of the divine Sacraments, benefactions, and retributions in the body of the Church (insinuates) the immensity of goodness, such that this very order most evidently leads us by the hand to the First and Highest, the most powerful, most wise, and best.

15. Qui igitur tantis rerum creaturarum splendoribus non illustratur caecus est; qui tantis clamoribus non evigilat surdus est; qui ex omnibus his effectibus Deum non laudat mutus est; qui ex tantis indiciis primum principium non advertit stultus est. - Aperi igitur oculos, aures spirituales admove, labia tua solve et cor tuum appone, ut in omnibus creaturis Deum tuum videas, audias, laudes, diligas et colas, magnifices et honores, ne forte totus contra te orbis terrarum consurgat. Nam ob hocpugnabit orbis terrarum contra insensatos et econtra sensatis erit materia gloriae, qui secundum Prophetam possunt dicere: Delectasti me, Domine, in factura tua, et in operibus manuum tuarum exsultabo.

15. Therefore he who is not illuminated by such splendors of the things of creatures is blind; he who does not awaken at such clamors is deaf; he who from all these effects does not praise God is mute; he who from such indicia does not advert to the First Principle is foolish. - Open, therefore, your eyes, apply your spiritual ears, loose your lips and set your heart, that in all creatures you may see, hear, praise, love, and worship your God, you may magnify and honor him, lest perhaps the whole world rise up against you. For on this accountthe world will fight against the insensate, and conversely for the sensible it will be matter of glory, who, according to the Prophet, can say: You have delighted me, O Lord, in your handiwork, and in the works of your hands I will exult.

Quam magnificata sunt opera tua, Domine! omnia in sapientia fecisti, impleta est terra possessione tua.

How magnified are your works, O Lord! You have made all things in wisdom; the earth is filled with your riches.

CAPUT II

CHAPTER 2

DE SPECULATIONE DEI IN VESTIGIIS SUIS IN HOC SENSIBILI MUNDO

ON THE SPECULATION OF GOD IN HIS VESTIGES IN THIS SENSIBLE WORLD

1. Sed quoniam circa speculum sensibilium non solum contingit contemplari Deum per ipsa tanquam per vestigia, verum etiam in ipsis, in quantum est in eis per essentiam, potentiam et praesentiam; et hoc considerare est altius quam praecendens: ideo huiusmodi consideratio secundum tenet locum tanquam secundus contemplationis gradus, quo debemus manuduci ad contemplandum Deum in cunctis creaturis, quae ad mentem nostram intrant per corporales sensus. 2. Notandum igitur, quod iste mundus, qui dicitur macrocosmus, intrat ad animam nostram, quae dicitur minor mundus, per portas quinque sensuum, secundum ipsorum sensibilium apprehensionem, oblectationem et diiudicationem. Quod patet sic: quia in eo quaedam sunt generantia, quaedam generata, quaedam gubernantia haec et illa.

1. But since, concerning the mirror of sensibles, it happens not only to contemplate God through them as through footprints, but even in them, insofar as He is in them by essence, power, and presence; and to consider this is higher than the preceding: therefore this kind of consideration holds the second place as a second grade of contemplation, by which we ought to be led by the hand to contemplate God in all creatures which enter our mind through the bodily senses. 2. Therefore it must be noted that this world, which is called the macrocosm, enters our soul, which is called the lesser world, through the gates of the five senses, according to the apprehension, delight, and judgment of those sensibles. Which is plain thus: because in it some things are generating, some generated, some governing these and those.

Generantia sunt corpora simplicia, scilicet corpora caelestia et quatuor elementa. Nam ex elementis per virtutem lucis conciliantis contrarietatem elementorum in mixtis habent generari et produci, quaecumque generantur et producuntur per operationem virtutis naturalis. Generata vero sunt corpora ex elementis composita, sicut mineralia, vegetabilia, sensibilia et corpora humana.

Generative are the simple bodies, namely the celestial bodies and the four elements. For out of the elements, by the virtue of light reconciling the contrariety of the elements in mixed things, there come to be generated and produced whatever things are generated and produced through the operation of natural power. The generated, on the other hand, are the bodies composed from the elements, such as minerals, vegetals (i.e., plants), sensibles (i.e., animals), and human bodies.

Regentia haec et illa sunt substantiae spirituales sive omnino coniunctae, ut sunt animae brutales, sive coniunctae separabiliter, ut sunt spiritus rationales, sive coniunctae separabiliter, ut sunt spiritus caelestes, quos philosophi Intelligentias, nos Angelos appellamus. Quibus secundum philosophos competit movere corpora caelestia, ac per hoc eis attribuitur administratio universi, suscipiendo a prima causa, scilicet Deo, virtutis influentiam, quam refundunt secundum opus gubernationis, quod respicit rerum consistentiam naturalem. Secundum autem theologos attribuitur eisdem regimen universi secundum imperium summi Dei quantum ad opera reparationis, secundum, quae dicuntur administratorii spiritus, missi propter eos qui hereditatem capiunt salutis.

The rulers of these and those are spiritual substances, either wholly conjoined, as are brutish souls, or conjoined separably, as are rational spirits, or conjoined separably, as are celestial spirits, whom the philosophers call Intelligences, we Angels. To these, according to the philosophers, it is proper to move the celestial bodies, and through this the administration of the universe is attributed to them, as they receive from the First Cause, namely God, an influx of power, which they pour back according to the work of governance, which regards the natural consistency of things. But according to the theologians, the government of the universe is attributed to the same according to the command of the Most High God with respect to the works of reparation, according to which they are called administrative spirits, sent on behalf of those who take possession of the inheritance of salvation.

3. Homo igitur, qui dicitur minus mundus, habet quinque sensus quasi quinque portas, per quas intrat cognitio omnium, quae sunt in mundo sensibili, in animam ipius. Nam per visum intrant corpora sublimia et luminosa et cetera colorata, per tactum vero corpora solida et terrestria, per tres vero sensus intermedios intrant intermedia, ut per gustum aquea, per auditum aÎrea, per odoratum vaporabilia, quae aliquid habent de natura humida, aliquid de aÎrea, aliquid de ignea seu calida, sicut patet in fumo ex aromatibus resoluto. Intrant igitur per has portas tam corpora simplicia quam etiam composita, ex his mixta.

3. Man, therefore, who is called the lesser world (microcosm), has five senses as if five gates, through which the cognition of all things that are in the sensible world enters into his soul. For through sight there enter sublime and luminous bodies and other colored things; through touch, indeed, solid and terrestrial bodies; through the three intermediate senses there enter intermediates—through taste, aqueous things; through hearing, aerial things; through smell, vaporable things, which have something of a moist nature, something of the aerial, something of the igneous or hot, as is evident in smoke resolved from aromatics. Through these gates, therefore, there enter both simple bodies and also composites, mixed out of these.

Quia vero sensu percipimus non solum haec sensibilia particularia, quae sunt lux, sonus, odor, sapor et quatuor primariae qualitates, quas apprehendit tactus; verum etiam sensibilia communia, quae sunt numerus, magnitudo, figura, quies et motus; et "omne, quod movetur ab alio movetur", et quaedam a se ipsis moventur et quiescunt, ut sunt animalia: dum per hos quinque sensus motus corporum apprehendimus, manuducimur ad cognitionem motorum spiritualium tanquam per effectum cognitionem causarum.

Since indeed by sense we perceive not only these particular sensibles, which are light, sound, odor, savor, and the four primary qualities, which touch apprehends; but also the common sensibles, which are number, magnitude, figure, rest, and motion; and “everything that is moved is moved by another,” and certain things move themselves and come to rest, as animals: while through these five senses we apprehend the motions of bodies, we are led by the hand to the cognition of spiritual movers, as through the effect to the cognition of causes.

4. Intrat igitur quantum ad tria rerum genera in animam humanam per apprehensionem totus iste sensibilis mundus. Haec autem sensibilia exteriora sunt quae primo ingrediuntur in animam per portas quinque sensuum; intrant, inquam, non per substantias, sed per similitudines suas primo generatas in medio et de medio in organo et de organo exteriori in interiori et de hoc in potentiam apprehensivam; et sic generatio speciei in medio et de medio in organo et conversio potentiae apprehensivae super illam facit apprehensionem omnium eorum quae exterius anima apprehendit.

4. Thus, as regards the three genera of things, this whole sensible world enters into the human soul through apprehension. These exterior sensibles are what first enter into the soul through the gates of the five senses; they enter, I say, not by their substances, but by their similitudes, first generated in the medium, and from the medium into the organ, and from the external organ into the internal, and from this into the apprehensive power; and thus the generation of the species in the medium and from the medium in the organ, and the conversion of the apprehensive power upon it, brings about the apprehension of all those things which the soul apprehends from without.

5. Ad hanc apprehensionem, si sit rei convenientis, sequitur oblectatio. Delectatur autem sensus in obiecto per similitudinem abstractam percepto vel ratione speciositatis, sicut in visu, vel ratione suavitatis, sicut in odoratu et auditu, vel ratione salubritatis, sicut in gustu et tactu, appropriate loquendo. Omnis autem delectatio est ratione proportionalitatis.

5. To this apprehension, if it be of a thing that is fitting, there follows delight. Moreover, the sense is delighted in the object through the abstracted likeness perceived, either by reason of beauty, as in sight, or by reason of sweetness, as in smell and hearing, or by reason of healthfulness, as in taste and touch, speaking appropriately. Every delectation, moreover, is by reason of proportionality.

Sed quoniam species tenet rationem formae, virtutis et operationis, secundum quod habet respectum ad principium, a quo manat, ad medium, per quod transit, et ad terminum, in quem agit: ideo proportionalitas aut attenditur in similitudine, secundum quod tenet rationem speciei seu formae, et sic dicitur speciositas, quia "pulcritudo nihil aliud est quam aequalitas numerosa", seu "quidam partium situs cum coloris suavitate". Aut attenditur proportionalitas, in quantum tenet rationem potentiae seu virtutis, et sic dicitur suavitas, cum virtus agens non improportionaliter excedit recipientem; quia sensus tristatur in extremis et in mediis delectatur. Aut attenditur, in quantum tenet rationem efficaciae et impressionis, quae tunc est proportionalis, quando agens imprimendo replet indigentiam patientis, et hoc est salvare et nutrire ipsum, quod maxime apparet in gustu et tactu, Et sic per oblectationem delectabilia exteriora secundum triplicem rationem delectandi per similitudinem intrat in animam.

But since species holds the rationale of form, virtue/power, and operation, according as it has regard to the principle from which it flows, to the medium through which it passes, and to the terminus into which it acts: therefore proportionality is either attended to in the similitude, insofar as it holds the rationale of species or form, and thus it is called speciosity, because “beauty is nothing other than numbered equality,” or “a certain situs of parts with the suavity of color.” Or proportionality is attended to, inasmuch as it holds the rationale of power or virtue, and thus it is called suavity, when the acting power does not disproportionately exceed the recipient; because sense is saddened in extremes and in the mean is delighted. Or it is attended to, insofar as it holds the rationale of efficacy and impression, which then is proportional when the agent, by impressing, fills up the indigence of the patient, and this is to save and to nourish it, which most clearly appears in taste and touch, Et sic through delectation the exterior delectables, according to a threefold rationale of delighting, by similitude enters into the soul.

6. Post hanc apprehensionem et oblectationem fit diiudicatio, qua non solum diiudicatur, utrum hoc sit album, vel nigrum, quia hoc pertinet ad sensum particularem; non solum, utrum sit salubre, vel nocivum, quia hoc pertinet ad sensum interiorem; verum etiam, quia diiudicatur et ratio redditur, quare hoc delectat; et in hoc actu inquiritur de ratione delectationis, quae in sensu percipitur ab obiecto. Hoc est autem, cum quaeritur ratio pulcri, suavis et salubris: et invenitur quod haec est proportio aequalitatis. Ratio autem aequalitatis est eadem in magnis et parvis nec extenditur dimensionibus nec succedit seu transit cum transeuntibus nec motibus alteratur.

6. After this apprehension and oblectation there is a judging, whereby it is judged not only whether this is white or black—since this pertains to the particular sense; not only whether it is healthful or harmful—since this pertains to the interior sense; but also, an account is rendered why this delights; and in this act inquiry is made into the rationale of the delectation which in sense is perceived from the object. Now this is when the rationale of pulchritude, suavity, and salubrity is sought; and it is found that this is the proportion of equality. But the rationale of equality is the same in great things and small, nor is it extended by dimensions, nor does it succeed or pass along with things that pass away, nor is it altered by motions.

Abstrahit igitur a loco, tempore et motu, ac per hoc est incommutabilis, incircumscriptibilis et omnino spiritualis. Diiudicatio igitur est actio, quae speciem sensibilem, sensibiliter per sensus acceptam, introire facit depurando et abstrahendo in potentiam intellectivam. Et sic totus iste mundus introire habet in animam humanam per portas sensuum secundum tres operationes praedictas.

Therefore it abstracts from place, time, and motion, and through this it is immutable, incircumscriptible, and altogether spiritual. Judication, then, is the action which makes the sensible species, sensibly received through the senses, enter into the intellective power by purifying and abstracting. And thus this whole world is to enter into the human soul through the gates of the senses according to the three operations aforesaid.

7. Haec autem omnia sunt vestigia, in quibus speculari possumus Deum nostrum. Nam cum species apprehensa sit similitudo in medio genita et deinde ipsi organo impressa et per illam impressionem in suum principium, scilicet in obiectum cognoscendum, ducat; manifeste insinuat, quod ille qui estimago invisibilis Dei et splendor gloriae et figura substantiae eius, qui ubique est per primam sui generationem, sicut obiectum in toto medio suam generat similitudinem, per gratiam unionis unitur, sicut species corporali organo, individuo rationalis naturae, ut per illam unionem nos reduceret ad Patrem sicut ad fontale principium et obiectum. Sic ergo omnia cognoscibilia habent sui speciem generare, manifeste proclamant, quod in illis tanquam in speculis videri potest aeterna generatio Verbi, Imaginis et Filii a Deo Patre aeternaliter emanantis.

7. But all these are footprints, in which we can behold our God as in a mirror. For when the apprehended species is a likeness begotten in the medium and then impressed upon the organ itself, and through that impression leads back into its principle, namely into the object to be known, it plainly intimates that he who isthe image of the invisible God and the radiance of the glory and the figure of his substance, who is everywhere by his primary generation, just as an object generates its likeness throughout the whole medium, is united by the grace of union—like a species to the bodily organ—to an individual of rational nature, so that by that union he might lead us back to the Father as to the fontal principle and object. Thus, therefore, all things knowable, in that they have to generate a species of themselves, plainly proclaim that in them, as in mirrors, the eternal generation of the Word, the Image and Son eternally emanating from God the Father, can be seen.

8. Secundum hunc modum species delectans ut speciosa, suavis et salubris insinuat, quod in illa prima specie est prima speciositas, suavitas et salubritas, in qua est summa proportionalitas et aequitas ad generantem; in qua est virtus, non per phantasma, sed per veritatem apprehensionis illabens: in qua est impressio salvans et sufficientes et omnem apprehendentis indigentiam expellens. Si ergo "delectatio est coniunctio convenientis cum convenienti"; et solius Dei similitudo tenet rationem summe speciosi, suavis et salubris; et unitur secundum veritatem et secundum intimitatem et secundum plenitudinem replentem omnem capacitatem: manifeste videri potest, quod in solo Deo est fontalis et vera delectatio, et quod ad ipsam ex omnibus delectationibus manuducimur requirendam.

8. According to this mode, the species that delights as beautiful, sweet, and salutary insinuates that in that first Species there is the primal beauty, sweetness, and salubrity, in which there is the highest proportionality and equity toward the begetter; in which there is virtue, not through a phantasm but through the truth of apprehension, flowing in; in which there is an impression that saves and makes sufficient and expels every indigence of the apprehender. If therefore "delight is the conjunction of the fitting with the fitting"; and the likeness of God alone holds the notion of what is supremely beautiful, sweet, and salutary; and it is united according to truth and according to intimacy and according to a fullness filling every capacity: it can be clearly seen that in God alone is the fontal and true delight, and that by all delights we are led by the hand to seek it.

9. Excellentiori autem modo et immediatiori diiudicatio ducit nos in aeternam veritatem certius speculandam. Si enim diiudicatio habet fieri per rationem abstrahentem a loco, tempore et mutabilitate ac per hoc a dimensione, successione et transmutatione, per rationem immutabilem et incircumscriptibilem et interminabilem; nihil autem est omnino immutabile, incircumscriptibile et interminabile, nisi quod est aeternum; omne autem quod est aeternum, est Deus, vel in Deo: si ergo omnia, quaecumque certius diiudicamus, per huiusmodi rationem diiudicamus; patet, quod ipse est ratio omnium rerum et regula infallibilis et lux veritatis, in qua cuncta relucent infallibiliter, indelebiliter, indubitanter, irrefragabiliter, indiiudicabiliter, incommutabiliter, incoarctabiliter, interminabiliter, indivisibiliter et intellectualiter. Et ideo leges illae, per quas iudicamus certitudinaliter de omnibus sensibilibus, in nostram considerationem venientibus; cum sint infallibiles et indubitabiles intellectui apprehendentis, sint indelebiles a memoria recolentis tanquam semper praesentes, sint irrefragabiles et indiiudicabiles intellectui iudicantis, quia, ut dicit Augustinus, "nullus de eis iudicat, sed per illas": necesse est, eas esse incommutabiles et incorruptibiles tanquam necessarias, incoarctabiles tanquam incircumscriptas, interminabiles tanquam aeternas, ac per hoc indivisibiles tanquam intellectuales et incorporeas, non factas, sed increatas, aeternaliter existentes in arte aeterna, a qua, per quam et secundum quam formantur formosa omnia; et ideo nec certitudinaliter iudicari possunt nisi per illam quae non tantum fuit forma cuncta producens, verum etiam cuncta conservans et distinguens, tanquam ens in omnibus formam tenens et regula dirigens, et per quam diiudicat mens nostra cuncta, quae per sensus intrant in ipsam.

9. By a more excellent and more immediate mode, however, discriminative judgment leads us to contemplate the eternal truth more surely. For if judgment has to be made by a reason abstracting from place, time, and mutability and thus from dimension, succession, and transmutation, by a reason immutable and uncircumscribable and interminable; but nothing is altogether immutable, uncircumscribable, and interminable except what is eternal; and whatever is eternal is God, or in God: if therefore all the things that we judge more surely, we judge by a reason of this kind; it is evident that He Himself is the reason of all things and the infallible rule and the light of truth, in which all things shine back infallibly, indelibly, indubitably, irrefragably, injudicably, incommutably, incoarctably, interminably, indivisibly, and intellectually. And therefore those laws, by which we judge with certitude concerning all sensibles that come into our consideration; since they are infallible and indubitable to the intellect that apprehends, are indelible to the memory that recollects as if always present, are irrefragable and injudicable to the intellect that judges, because, as Augustine says, "no one judges about them, but by them": it is necessary that they be incommutable and incorruptible as necessary, incoarctable as uncircumscribed, interminable as eternal, and therefore indivisible as intellectual and incorporeal, not made but uncreated, existing eternally in the eternal art, from which, through which, and according to which all beautiful things are formed; and therefore they cannot be judged with certitude except through that which was not only the form producing all things, but also conserving and distinguishing all things, as a being in all things holding the form and directing as rule, and through which our mind judges all things that enter into it through the senses.

10. Haec autem speculatio dilatatur secundum considerationem septem differentiarum numerorum, quibus quasi septem gradibus conscenditur in Deum, secundum quod ostendit Augustinus in libroDe vera Religione et in sexto Musicae, ubi assignat differentias numerorum gradatim conscendentium ab his sensibilibus usque ad Opficem omnium, ut in omnibus videatur Deus. Dicit enim, numeros esse in corporibus et maxime in sonis et vocibus, et hos vocat sonantes; numeros ab his abstractos et in sensibus nostris receptos, et hos vocat occursores; numeros ab anima procedentes in corpus, sicut patet in gesticulationibus et saltationibus, et hos vocat progressores; numeros in delectationibus sensuum ex conversione intentionis super speciem receptam, et hos vocat sensuales; numeros in memoriam retentos, et hos vocat memoriales; numeros etiam, per quos de his omnibus iudicamus, et hos vocat iudiciales, qui ut dictum est necessario sunt supra mentem tanquam infallibiles et indiiudicabiles. Ab his autem imprimuntur mentibus nostris numeri artificiales, quos tamen inter illos gradus non enumerat Augustinus, quia connexi sunt iudicialibus; et ab his manant numeri progressores, ex quibus creantur numerosae formae artificiatorum, ut a summis per media ordinatus fiat descensus ad infima.

10. But this speculation is dilated according to the consideration of seven differences of numbers, by which, as by seven steps, one climbs up into God, as Augustine shows in the bookOn True Religion and in the sixth of the Music, where he assigns the differences of numbers ascending step by step from these sensibles up to the Artificer of all, so that in all things God may be seen. For he says that there are numbers in bodies and especially in sounds and voices, and he calls these “sounding”; numbers abstracted from these and received in our senses, and he calls these “occurrents”; numbers proceeding from the soul into the body, as is evident in gesticulations and dances, and he calls these “progressors”; numbers in the delights of the senses from the turning-back of intention upon the species received, and he calls these “sensual”; numbers retained in memory, and he calls these “memorial”; numbers also, by which we judge concerning all these, and he calls these “judicial,” which, as has been said, are necessarily above the mind as infallible and not subject to judgment. From these, moreover, there are imprinted upon our minds artificial numbers, which, however, Augustine does not enumerate among those grades, because they are connected with the judicial; and from these flow progressor numbers, from which the numerous forms of fabricated things are created, so that from the highest through the middle an ordered descent may be made to the lowest.

Ad hos etiam gradatim ascendimus a numeris sonantibus, mediantibus occursoribus, sensualibus et memorialibus. Cum igitur omnia sint pulcra et quodam modo delectabilia; et pulcritudo et delectatio non sint absque proportione; et proportio primo sit in numeris: necesse est, omnia esse numerosa; ac per hoc "numerus est praecipuum in animo Conditoris exemplar" et in rebus praecipuum vestigium ducens in Sapientiam. Quod cum sit omnibus evidentissimum et Deo propinquissimum, propinquissime quasi per septem differentias ducit in Deum et facit, eum cognosci in cunctis corporalibus et sensibilibus, dum numerosa apprehendimus, in numerosis proportionibus delectamur et per numerosarum proportionunm leges irrefragabiliter iudicamus.

To these also we ascend stepwise from the sounding numbers, with the occurser, sensual, and memorial mediating. Since, therefore, all things are beautiful and in a certain way delectable; and beauty and delectation are not without proportion; and proportion is first in numbers: it is necessary that all things be numerous; and through this “number is the chief exemplar in the mind of the Maker,” and in things the chief vestige leading into Wisdom. Which, since it is most evident to all and most near to God, most nearly, as it were, through seven differences leads into God and causes Him to be known in all bodily and sensible things, while we apprehend numerate things, take delight in numerical proportions, and by the laws of numerical proportions judge irrefragably.

11. Ex his duobus gradibus primis, quibus manuducimur ad speculandum Deum in vestigiis quasi ad modum duarum alarum descendentium circa pedes, colligere possumus, quod omnes creaturae istius sensibilis mundi animum contemplantis et sapientis ducunt in Deum aeternum, pro eo quod illius primi principii potentissimi, sapientissimi et optimi, illius aeternae originis, lucis et plenitudinis, illius, inquam, artis efficientis, exemplantis et ordinantis sunt umbrae, resonantiae et picturae, sunt vestigia, simulacra et spectacula nobis ad contuendum Deum proposita et signa divinitus data; quae, inquam, sunt exemplaria vel potius exemplata, proposita mentibus adhuc rudibus et sensibilibus, ut per sensibilia, quae vident transferantur ad intelligibilia, quae non vident, tanquam per signa ad signata.

11. From these two first steps, by which we are hand-led to contemplate God in the footprints, as after the manner of two wings descending around the feet, we can gather that all creatures of this sensible world lead the mind of the contemplative and wise into the eternal God, because they are shadows, resonances, and pictures of that first Principle—most powerful, most wise, and best—of that eternal origin, light, and plenitude; of that, I say, art that is efficient, exemplifying, and ordering; they are footprints, simulacra, and spectacles set before us for gazing upon God, and signs divinely given; which, I say, are exemplars, or rather exemplata, set before minds still rudimentary and sense-bound, so that through sensibles which they see they may be transferred to intelligibles which they do not see, as by signs to the signified.

12. Significant autem huiusmodi creaturae huius mundi sensibilisinvisibilia Dei, partim quia Deus est omnis creaturae origo, exemplar et finis, et omnis effectus est signum causae, et exemplatum exemplaris, et via finis, ad quem ducit: partim ex propria repraesentatione; partim ex prophetica praefiguratione; partim ex angelica operatione; partim ex superaddita institutione. Omnis enim creatura ex natura est illius aeternae sapientiae quaedam effigies et similitudo, sed specialiter illa quae in libro Scripturae per spiritum prophetiae assumpta est ad spiritualium praefigurationem; specialius autem illae creaturae, in quarum effigie Deus angelico ministerio voluit apparere; specialissime vero ea quam voluit ad significandum instituere, quae tenet non solum rationem signi secundum nomen commune, verum etiam Sacramenti.

12. Moreover, creatures of this sort of this sensible world signify theinvisible things of God, partly because God is the origin, exemplar, and end of every creature, and every effect is a sign of its cause, and an exemplatum of the exemplar, and a way to the end to which it leads; partly by their own representation; partly by prophetic prefiguration; partly by angelic operation; partly by a superadded institution. For every creature by nature is a certain effigy and likeness of that eternal Wisdom; but especially that which in the book of Scripture has been assumed through the spirit of prophecy for the prefiguration of spiritual things; more especially those creatures in whose effigy God willed to appear by angelic ministry; most especially indeed that which he willed to institute for signifying, which holds not only the rationale of a sign according to the common name, but also that of a Sacrament.

13. Ex quibus omnibus colligitur, quodinvisibilia Dei a creatura mundi, per ea quae facta sunt, intellecta conpiciuntur; ita ut qui nolunt ista advertere et Deum in his omnibus cognoscere, benedicere et amare inexcusabiles sint dum nolunt transferri de tenebris in admirabile lumen Dei. Deo autem gratias per Iesum Christum, Dominum nostrum, qui nos de tenebris transtulit in admirabile lumen suum, dum per haec lumina exterius data ad speculum mentis nostrae in quo relucent divina, disponimus ad reintrandum.

13. From all these things it is gathered thatthe invisible things of God from the creation of the world, through the things that have been made, being understood, are perceived; so that those who are unwilling to advert to these things and to know, bless, and love God in all these are inexcusable while they are unwilling to be transferred from darkness into the marvelous light of God. But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who has transferred us from darkness into his marvelous light, while through these lights given outwardly to the mirror of our mind, in which the divine things shine back, we dispose ourselves for re-entering.

CAPUT III

CHAPTER 3

DE SPECULATIONE DEI PER SUAM IMAGINEM NATURALIBUS POTENTIIS INSIGNITAM

ON THE CONTEMPLATION OF GOD THROUGH HIS OWN IMAGE ENDOWED WITH NATURAL POWERS

1. Quoniam autem duo gradus praedicti, ducendo nos in Deum per vestigia sua, per quae in cunctis creaturis relucet, manuduxerunt nos usque ad hoc, ut ad nos reintraremus, in mentem scilicet nostram, in qua divina relucet imago; hinc est quod iam in tertio loco, ad nosmetipsos intrantes et quasi atrium forinsecus relinquentes, in sanctis, scilicet anteriori parte tabernaculi, conari debemus per speculum videre Deum; ubi ad modum candelabri relucet lux veritatis in facie nostrae mentis, in qua scilicet resplendet imago beatissimae Trinitatis. Intra igitur ad te et vide, quoniam mens tua amat ferventissime semetipsam; nec se posset amare, nisi nosset; nec se nosset, nisi sui meminisset, quia nihil capimus per intelligentiam, quod non sit praesens apud nostram memoriam; et ex hoc advertis, animam tuam triplicem habere potentiam, non oculo carnis, sed oculo rationis. Considera igitur harum trium potentiarum operationes et habitudines, et videre poteris Deum per te tanquam per imaginem, quod est videre per speculum in aenigmate.

1. Since, however, the two aforesaid steps, leading us into God by his footprints, through which he shines back in all creatures, have led us by the hand to this point—that we re-enter into ourselves, namely into our mind, in which the divine image shines back—hence it is that now, in the third place, entering into ourselves and, as it were, leaving the outer court outside, in the holy place, namely the anterior part of the tabernacle, we ought to endeavor to see God through a mirror; where, after the manner of a candelabrum, the light of truth shines back upon the face of our mind, in which indeed the image of the most blessed Trinity resplends. Enter, therefore, into yourself and see, since your mind most fervently loves itself; nor could it love itself unless it knew itself; nor would it know itself unless it remembered itself, because we grasp nothing by understanding that is not present to our memory; and from this you notice that your soul has a threefold power, not with the eye of the flesh, but with the eye of reason. Consider, therefore, the operations and habitudes of these three powers, and you will be able to see God through yourself as through an image, which is to see through a mirror in an enigma.

2. Operatio autem memoriae est retentio et repraesentatio non solum praesentium, corporalium et temporalium, verum etiam succedentium, simplicium et sempiternalium. Retinet namque memoria praeterita per recordationem, praesentia per susceptionem, futura per praevisionem. Retinet etiam simplicia, sicut principia quantitatum continuarum et discretarum, ut punctum, instans et unitatem, sine quibus impossibile est meminisse aut cogitare ea quae principiantur per haec.

2. The operation of memory is the retention and representation not only of present, corporeal, and temporal things, but also of subsequent, simple, and sempiternal things. For memory retains past things by recollection, present things by reception, future things by prevision. It also retains simple things, such as the principles of continuous and discrete quantities, as point, instant, and unity, without which it is impossible to remember or to cogitate those things which are initiated through these.

Retinet nihilominus scientiarum principia et dignitates ut sempiternalia et sempiternaliter, quia nunquam potest sic oblivisci eorum, dum ratione utatur, quin ea audita approbet et eis assentiat, non tanquam de novo percipiat, sed tanquam sibi innata et familiaria recognoscat; sicut patet, se proponatur alicui: "De quolibet affirmatio, vel negatio"; vel: "Omne totum est maius sua parte", vel quaecumque alia dignitas, cui non est contradicere "ad interius rationem". Ex prima igitur retentione actuali omnium temporalium, praeteritorum scilicet, praesentium et futurorum, habet effigiem aeternitatis, cuius praesens indivisibile ad omnia tempora se extendit. Ex secunda apparet, quod ipsa non solum habet ab exteriori formari per phantasmata, verum etiam a superiori suscipiendo simplices formas, quae non possunt introire per portas sensuum et sensibilium phantasias. Ex tertia habetur, quod ipsa habet lucem incommutabilem sibi praesentem, in qua meminit invariabilium veritatum.

Nonetheless it retains the principles and dignities of the sciences as sempiternal and sempiternally, because it can never so forget them, so long as it uses reason, that on hearing them it does not approve and assent to them—not as though it were receiving them anew, but as recognizing them as innate and familiar to itself; as is clear if there be proposed to someone: “Of anything whatsoever, either affirmation or negation,” or: “Every whole is greater than its part,” or whatever other dignity, which one cannot contradict by inward reason. From the first, therefore—the actual retention of all things temporal, namely past, present, and future—it has the effigy of eternity, whose indivisible present extends itself to all times. From the second it appears that it is not only formed from without by phantasms, but also from above, by receiving simple forms which cannot enter through the gates of the senses and the phantasies of sensibles. From the third it is had that it has unchangeable light present to it, in which it remembers invariable truths.

Et sic per operationes memoriae apparet, quod ipsa anima est imago Dei et similitudo adeo sibi praesens et eum habens praesentem, quod eum actu capit et per potentiam "capax eius est et particeps esse potest".

And thus, through the operations of memory, it appears that the soul itself is the image of God and similitude, so present to itself and having him present, that it apprehends him in act, and by potency "is capable of him and can be participant".

3. Operatio autem virtutis intellectivae est in perceptione intellectus terminorum, propositionum et illationum. Capit autem intellectus terminorum sgnificata, cum comprehendit, quid est unumquodque per definitionem. Sed definitio habet fieri per superiora, et illa per superiora definiri habent, usquequo veniatur ad suprema et generalissima, quibus ignoratis, non possunt intelligi definitive inferiora.

3. The operation of the intellective virtue is in the perception by the intellect of terms, propositions, and illations. Moreover, the intellect grasps the significations of terms when it comprehends what each thing is through the definition. But a definition has to be made through higher things, and those have to be defined through higher things, until one comes to the highest and most general; without knowledge of these, the lower cannot be understood definitively.

Nisi igitur cognoscatur quid est ens per se, non potest plene sciri definitio alicuius specialis substantiae. Nec ens per se cognosci potest, nisi cognoscatur cum suis conditionibus, quae sunt; unum, verum, bonum. Ens autem, cum possit cogitari ut diminutum et completum, ut imperfectum et ut perfectum, ut ens in potentia et ut ens in actu, ut ens secundum quid et ut ens simpliciter, ut ens in parte et ut ens totaliter, ut ens transiens et ut ens manens, ut ens per aliud et ut ens per se, ut ens permixtum non-enti et ut ens purum, ut ens dependens et ut ens absolutum, ut ens posterius et ut ens prius, ut ens mutabile et ut ens immutabile, ut ens simplex et ut ens compositum, cum "privationes et defectus nullatenus possint cognosci nisi per positiones", non venit intellectus noster ut plene resolvens intellectum alicuius entium creatorum, nisi iuvetur ab intellectu entis purissimi, actualissimi, completissimi et absoluti; quod est ens simpliciter et aeternum, in quo sunt rationes omnium in sua puritate.

Therefore, unless it be known what being per se is, the definition of any special substance cannot be fully known. Nor can being per se be known unless it is known with its conditions, which are: the one, the true, the good. But being, since it can be thought of as diminished and as complete, as imperfect and as perfect, as being in potency and as being in act, as being in a certain respect and as being simply, as being in part and as being totally, as being transient and as being abiding, as being through another and as being through itself, as being commixed with non-being and as being pure, as being dependent and as being absolute, as being posterior and as being prior, as being mutable and as being immutable, as being simple and as being composite, since “privations and defects can in no way be known except through positions,” our intellect does not come to fully resolving the understanding of any of the created beings unless it be aided by the understanding of the most pure, most actual, most complete, and absolute being; which is being simply and eternal, in which are the reasons of all things in their purity.

Quomodo autem sciret intellectus, hoc esse ens defectivum et incompletum, si nullam haberet cognitionem entis absque omni defectu? Et sic de aliis conditionibus praelibatis. Intellectum autem propositionum tunc intellectus dicitur veraciter comprehendere, cum certitudinaliter scit, illas veras esse; et hoc scire est scire, quoniam non potest falli in illa comprehensione.

But how would the intellect know that this is a defective and incomplete being, if it had no cognition of being devoid of every defect? And so with the other prelibated conditions. As for the understanding of propositions, the intellect is then said truly to comprehend it, when it knows with certitude that they are true; and to know this is to know, inasmuch as it cannot be deceived in that comprehension.

Scit enim, quod veritas illa non potest aliter se habere; scit igitur, illam veritatem esse incommutabilem. Sed cum ipsa mens nostra sit commutabilis, illam sic incommutabiliter relucentem non potest videre nisi per aliquam lucem omnino incommutabiliter radiantem, quam impossibile est esse creaturam mutabilem. Scit igitur in illa luce, quae illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum, quae est lux vera et Verbum in principio apud Deum. Intellectum vero illationis tunc veraciter percipit noster intellectus, quando videt, quod conclusio necessario sequitur ex praemissis; quod non solum videt in terminis necessariis, verum etiam in contingentibus, ut: si homo currit, homo movetur.

For he knows that that truth cannot be otherwise; he knows therefore that that truth is immutable. But since our mind itself is mutable, it cannot see that which thus shines back immutably except through some light shining altogether immutably, which it is impossible should be a mutable creature. He knows, therefore, in that light, which enlightens every man coming into this world, which is the true Light and the Word in the beginning with God. As for the understanding of inference, our intellect then truly perceives it, when it sees that the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises; which it sees not only in necessary terms, but also in contingent ones, as: if a man runs, a man is moved.

Hanc autem necessariam habitudinem percipit non solum in rebus entibus, verum etiam in non entibus. Sicut enim, homine existente, sequitur: si homo currit, homo movetur; sic etiam, non existente. Huiusmodi igitur illationis necessitas non venit ab existentia rei in materia, quia est contingens, nec ab existentia rei in anima, quia tunc esset fictio, si non esset in re: venit igitur ab exemplaritate in arte aeterna, secundum quam res habent aptitudinem et habitudinem ad invicem secundum illius aeternae artis repraesentationem.

But he perceives this necessary habitude not only in beings, but also in non-beings. For just as, with a man existing, it follows: if a man runs, a man is moved; so also, with him not existing. Therefore the necessity of an illation of this kind does not come from the existence of the thing in matter, because that is contingent, nor from the existence of the thing in the soul, because then it would be a fiction, if it were not in the thing: it therefore comes from exemplariness in the eternal art, according to which things have aptitude and habitude toward one another according to the representation of that eternal art.

Omnis igitur, ut dicit Augustinus De vera Religione, vere ratiocinantis lumen accenditur ab illa veritate et ad ipsam nititur pervenire. Ex quo manifeste apparet, quod coniunctus sit intellectus noster ipsi aeternae veritati, dum non nisi per illam docentem nihil verum potest certitudinaliter capere. Videre igitur per te potes veritatem, quae te docet, si te concupiscentiae et phantasmata non impediant et se tanquam nubes inter te et veritatis radium non interponant.

Therefore, as Augustine says in On True Religion, the light of one truly reasoning is kindled by that truth and strives to reach unto it. Whence it plainly appears that our intellect is conjoined to the eternal truth itself, since it can with certitude grasp nothing true except through that one teaching. You can therefore see for yourself the truth that teaches you, if concupiscences and phantasms do not impede you and do not interpose themselves like clouds between you and the ray of truth.

4. Operatio autem virtutis electivae attenditur in consilio, iudicio et desiderio. Consilium autem est in inquirendo, quid sit melius hoc an illud. Sed melius non dicitur nisi per accessum ad optimum; accessus autem est secundum maiorem assimilationem; nullus ergo scit utrum hoc sit illo melius, nisi sciat, illud optimo magis assimilari.

4. But the operation of elective virtue is attended to in counsel, judgment, and desire. Counsel, moreover, consists in inquiring whether this or that is better. But “better” is not said except by an access to the best; and the access is according to a greater assimilation; therefore no one knows whether this is better than that unless he knows that that is more assimilated to the best.

Nullus autem, scit, aliquid alii magis assimilari, nisi illud cognoscat; non enim scio, hunc esse similem Petro, nisi sciam vel cognoscam Petrum: omni igitur consilianti necessario est impressa notio summi boni. Iudicium autem certum de consiliabilibus est per aliquam legem. Nullus autem certitudinaliter iudicat per legem, nisi certus sit quod illa lex recta est, et quod ipsam iudicare non debet; sed mens nostra iudicat de se ipsa: cum igitur non possit iudicare de lege, per quam iudicat; lex illa superior est mente nostra, et per hanc iudicat, secundum quod sibi impressa est.

No one, however, knows that something is more assimilated to another, unless he knows that other; for I do not know that this man is similar to Peter, unless I know or have cognized Peter: therefore to everyone deliberating there is necessarily an impressed notion of the supreme good. A certain judgment about matters for counsel is by some law. But no one judges with certitude by a law, unless he is certain that that law is right, and that he ought not to judge it itself; yet our mind judges about itself: since therefore it cannot judge about the law by which it judges, that law is superior to our mind, and by this it judges, according as it is impressed upon it.

Nihil autem est superior mente humana, nisi solus ille qui fecit eam: igitur in iudicando deliberativa nostra pertingit ad divinas leges, si plena resolutione dissolvat. Desiderium autem principaliter est illius quod maxime ipsum movet. Maxime autem movet quod maxime amatur; maxime autem amatur esse beatum; beatum autem esse non habetur nisi per optimum et finem ultimum: nihil igitur appetit humanum desiderium nisi quia summum bonum, vel quia est ad illud, vel quia habet aliquam effigiem illius.

Nothing, however, is superior to the human mind, save only He who made it: therefore, in judging, our deliberative faculty reaches to the divine laws, if it dissolves by a full resolution. Desire, moreover, is primarily for that which most moves it. But that most moves which is most loved; and what is most loved is to be beatified; but to be beatified is not had except through the best and the ultimate end: therefore human desire appetites nothing except because of the Supreme Good, either because it is toward that, or because it has some effigy of it.

Tanta est vis summi boni, ut nihil nisi per illius desiderium a creatura possit amari, quae tunc fallitur et errat, cum effigiem et simulacrum pro veritate acceptat. Vide igitur, quomodo anima Deo est propinqua, et quomodo memoria in aeternitatem, intelligentia in veritatem, electiva potentia ducit in bonitatem summam secundum operationes suas.

So great is the force of the supreme good, that nothing can be loved by a creature except through desire for it; and the creature is then deceived and errs when it accepts an effigy and simulacrum in place of the truth. See, therefore, how near the soul is to God, and how memory leads into eternity, intelligence into truth, and the elective power into the highest goodness, according to their operations.

5. Secundum autem harum potentiarum ordinem et originem et habitudinem ducit in ipsam beatissimam Trinitatem. Nam ex memoria oritur intelligentia ut ipsius proles, quia tunc intelligimus, cum similituto, quae est in memoria, resultat in acie intellectus, quae nihil aliud est quam verbum; ex memoria et intelligentia spiratur amor tanquam nexus amborum. Haec tria scilicet mens generans, verbum et amor, sunt in anima quoad memoriam, intelligentiam et voluntatem, quae sunt consubstantiales, coaequales et coaevae, se invicem circumincedentes.

5. Now according to the order, origin, and habitude of these powers, one is led into the most blessed Trinity itself. For from memory there arises intelligence as its offspring, because we understand then, when the likeness which is in memory comes forth into the keen edge of the intellect—and this is nothing other than the word; from memory and intelligence love is breathed as the bond of both. These three, namely the mind begetting, the word, and love, are in the soul as to memory, intelligence, and will, which are consubstantial, coequal, and coeval, circumincessing one another.

Si igitur Deus perfectus est spiritus, habet memoriam, intelligentiam et voluntatem, habet et Verbum genitum et Amorem spiratum, qui necessario distinguuntur, cum unus ab altero producatur, non essentialiter, non accidentaliter, ergo personaliter. Dum igitur mens se ipsam considerat, per se tanquam per speculum consurgit ad speculandam Trinitatem beatam Patris, Verbi et Amoris, trium personarum coaeternarum, coaequalium et consubstantialium, ita quod quilibet in quolibet est aliorum, unus tamen non est alius, sed ipsi tres sunt unus Deus.

If therefore God is perfect spirit, he has memory, intelligence, and will; he has also the begotten Word and the spirated Love, which are necessarily distinguished, since the one is produced from the other—not essentially, not accidentally, therefore personally. Therefore, while the mind considers itself, through itself as through a mirror it rises to contemplate the blessed Trinity of the Father, the Word, and the Love, of three persons coeternal, coequal, and consubstantial, such that each is in each of the others, yet the one is not the other, but these three themselves are one God.

6. Ad hanc speculationem quam habet anima de suo principio trino et uno per trinitatem suarum potentiarum, per quas est imago Dei, iuvatur per lumina scientiarum, quae ipsam perficiunt et informant et Trinitatem beatissimam tripliciter repraesentant. Nam omnis philosophia aut est naturalis, aut rationalis, aut moralis. Prima agit de causa essendi, et ideo ducit in potentiam Patris; secunda de ratione intelligendi, et ideo ducit in sapientiam Verbi; tertia de ordine vivendi, et ideo ducit in bonitatem Spiritus Sancti.

6. To this speculation which the soul has of its triune-and-one principle through the trinity of its powers, through which it is the image of God, it is aided by the lights of the sciences, which perfect and inform it and threefold-wise represent the most blessed Trinity. For all philosophy is either natural, or rational, or moral. The first treats of the cause of being, and therefore leads into the power of the Father; the second of the reason of understanding, and therefore leads into the wisdom of the Word; the third of the order of living, and therefore leads into the goodness of the Holy Spirit.

Rursus, prima dividitur in metaphysicam, mathematicam et physicam. Et prima est de rerum essentiis, secunda de numeris et figuris, tertia de naturis, virtutibus et operationibus diffusivis. Et ideo prima in primum principium, Patrem, secunda in eius imaginem, Filium, tertia ducit in Spiritus sancti donum.

Again, the first is divided into metaphysics, mathematics, and physics. And the first is about the essences of things, the second about numbers and figures, the third about natures, virtues, and diffusive operations. And therefore the first leads to the First Principle, the Father; the second to His image, the Son; the third leads to the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Secunda dividitur in grammaticam, quae facit potentes ad exprimendum; in logicam, quae facit perspicaces ad arguendum; in rethoricam, quae facit habiles ad persuadendum sive movendum. Et hoc similiter insinuat mysterium ipsius beatissimae Trinitatis. Tertia dividitur in monasticam, oeconomicam et politicam.

The second is divided into grammar, which makes one capable of expressing; into logic, which makes one perspicacious for arguing; into rhetoric, which makes one apt for persuading or moving. And this likewise insinuates the mystery of the most blessed Trinity itself. The third is divided into the monastic, the economic, and the political.

Et ideo prima insinuat primi principii innascibilitatem, secunda Filii familiaritatem, tertia Spiritus sancti liberalitatem.

And therefore the first insinuates the innascibility of the first principle, the second the familiarity of the Son, the third the liberality of the Holy Spirit.

7. Omnes autem hae scientiae habent regulas certas et infallibiles tanquam lumina et radios descendentes a lege aeterna in mentem nostram. Et ideo mens nostra tantis splendoribus irradiata et supefusa, nisi sit caeca, manuduci potest per semetipsam ad contemplandam illam lucem aeternam. Huius autem lucis irradiatio et consideratio sapientes suspendit in admirationem et econtra insipientes, qui non credunt, ut intelligant, ducit in perturbationem, ut impleatur illud propheticum:Illuminans tu mirabiliter a montibus aeternis, turbati sunt omnes insipientes corde.

7. But all these sciences have fixed and infallible rules, as lights and rays descending from the eternal law into our mind. And therefore our mind, irradiated and superfused with such splendors, unless it be blind, can be led by the hand through itself to contemplate that eternal light. Now the irradiation and consideration of this light suspends the wise into admiration, and on the contrary leads the foolish—who do not believe in order to understand—into perturbation, so that the prophetic word may be fulfilled:You, wondrously illuminating from the eternal mountains; all the foolish in heart were troubled.

CAPUT IV

CHAPTER 4

DE SPECULATIONE DEI IN SUA IMAGINE DONIS GRATUITIS REFORMATA

ON THE SPECULATION OF GOD IN HIS IMAGE REFORMED BY GRATUITOUS GIFTS

1. Sed quoniam non solum per nos transeundo, verum etiam in nobis contingit contemplari primum principium; et hoc maius est quam praecedens: ideo hic modus considerandi quartum obtinet contemplationis gradum. Mirum autem videtur, cum ostensum sit, quod Deus sit ita propinquus mentibus nostris, quod tam paucorum est in se ipsis primum principium speculari. Sed ratio est in promptu, quia mens humana, sollicitudinibus distracta, non intrat ad se per memoriam; phantasmatibus obnubilata, non redit ad se per intelligentiam; concupiscentiis illecta, ad se ipsam nequaquam revertitur per desiderium suavitatis internae et laetitiae spiritualis.

1. But since it happens that we contemplate the First Principle not only by passing through ourselves, but even in us; and this is greater than the preceding: therefore this mode of considering holds the fourth degree of contemplation. Yet it seems a wonder, since it has been shown that God is so proximate to our minds, that it is the part of so few to behold the First Principle in themselves. But the reason is at hand, because the human mind, distracted by solicitudes, does not enter to itself through memory; clouded by phantasms, it does not return to itself through understanding; enticed by concupiscences, it by no means turns back to itself through the desire of internal sweetness and spiritual joy.

Ideo totaliter in his sensibilibus iacens, non potest ad se tanquam ad Dei imaginem reintrare.

Therefore, lying totally in these sensibles, it cannot re-enter to itself as to the image of God.

2. Et quoniam, ubi quis ceciderit, necesse habet ibidem recumbere, nisi apponat quiset adiiciat, ut resurgat; non potuit anima nostra pefecte ab his sensibilibus relevari ad contuitum sui et aeternae Veritatis in se ipsa, nisi Veritas, assumpta forma humana in Christo, fieret sibi scala reparans priorem scalam, quae fracta fuerat in Adam. Ideo, quantumcumque sit illuminatus quis lumine naturae et scientiae acquisitae, non potest intrare in se, ut in se ipso delectetur in Domino, nisi mediante Christo, qui dicit: Ego sum ostium. Per me si quis introierit, salvabitur et ingredietur et egredietur et pascua inveniet. Ad hoc autem ostium non appropinquamus, nisi ipsum credamus, speremus et amemus.

2. And since, where someone has fallen, he must there recline, unless someone shouldadd and superadd, so that he may rise; our soul could not be perfectly lifted from these sensibles to the beholding of itself and of the eternal Truth in itself, unless the Truth, having assumed human form in Christ, became for it a ladder, repairing the former ladder, which had been broken in Adam. Therefore, however much someone may be illumined by the light of nature and of acquired science, he cannot enter into himself so as in himself to take delight in the Lord, except by the mediation of Christ, who says: I am the door. Through me if anyone shall enter, he will be saved and will go in and go out and will find pastures. But to this door we do not approach, unless we believe in him, hope in him, and love him.

Necesse est igitur, si reintrare volumus ad fruitionem Veritatis tanquam ad paradisum, quod ingrediamur per fidem, spem et caritatem mediatoris Dei et hominum Iesu Christi, qui est tanquam lignum vitae in medio paradisi.

It is necessary therefore, if we wish to re-enter to the fruition of Truth as to paradise, that we enter through faith, hope, and charity toward the mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, who is as the tree of life in the midst of paradise.

3. Supervestienda est igitur imago mentis nostrae tribus virtutibus theologicis, quibus anima purificatur, et sic imago reformatur et conformis supernae Ierusalem efficitur et pars Ecclesiae militantis, quae est proles, secundum Apostolum, Ierusalem caelestis. Ait enim:Illa quae sursum est Ierusalem libera est, quae est mater nostra. Anima igitur credens, sperans et amans Iesum Christum, qui est Verbum incarnatum, increatum et inspiratum, scilicet via, veritas et vita; dum per fidem credit in Christum tanquam in Verbum increatum, quod est Verbum et splendor Patris, recuperat spiritualem auditum et visum, auditum ad suscipiendum Christi sermones, visum ad considerandum illius lucis splendores. Dum autem spe suspirat ad suscipiendum Verbum inspiratum, per desiderium et affectum recuperat spiritualem olfactum.

3. Therefore the image of our mind must be over-clothed with the three theological virtues, by which the soul is purified, and thus the image is re-formed and made conform to the supernal Jerusalem, and is made a part of the Church militant, which is the offspring, according to the Apostle, of the heavenly Jerusalem. For he says:She who is above, Jerusalem, is free, and she is our mother. The soul, therefore, believing, hoping, and loving Jesus Christ, who is the Word incarnate, uncreated, and inspirited, namely the way, the truth, and the life; while by faith it believes in Christ as in the uncreated Word, who is the Word and splendor of the Father, it recovers spiritual hearing and sight—hearing for receiving the sayings of Christ, sight for considering the splendors of that Light. But while by hope it sighs to receive the inspired Word, through desire and affection it recovers spiritual smell.

Dum caritate complectitur Verbum incarnatum, ut suscipiens ab ipso delectationem et ut transiens in illud per exstaticum amorem, recuperat gustum et tactum. Quibus sensibus recuperatis, dum sponsum suum videt et audit odoratur, gustat et amplexatur, decantare potest tanquam sponsa Canticum canticorum, quod factum fuit ad exercitium contemplationis secundum hunc quartum gradum, quem nemo capit, nisi qui accipit, quia magis est in experientia affectuali quam in consideratione rationali. In hoc namque gradu, reparatis sensibus interioribus ad sentiendum summe pulcrum, audiendum summe harmonicum, odorandum summe odoriferum, degustandum summe suave, apprehendendum summe delectabile, disponitur anima ad mentales excessus, scilicet per devotionem, admirationem et exultationem, secundum illas tres exclamationes, quae fiunt in Canticis canticorum. Quarum prima fit per abundantiam devotionis, per quam fit anima sicut virgula fumi ex aromatibus, myrrhae et thuris: secunda per excellentiam admirationis, per quam fit anima sicut aurora, luna et sol, secundum processum illuminationum suspendentium animam ad admirandum sponsum consideratum; tertia per superabundantiam exsultationis, per quam fit anima suavissimis delectationis deliciis affluens, innixa totaliter super dilectum suum.

While by charity she embraces the Incarnate Word, so that, receiving from him delectation and passing into him through ecstatic love, she recovers taste and touch. With these senses recovered, while she sees and hears her bridegroom, she smells, tastes, and embraces, she can chant forth as a bride the Song of Songs, which was made for the exercise of contemplation according to this fourth grade, which no one grasps, unless he receives, because it is more in affectual experience than in rational consideration. For in this grade, the interior senses being restored—to sense what is supremely beautiful, to hear what is supremely harmonious, to smell what is supremely odoriferous, to taste what is supremely suave, to apprehend what is supremely delectable—the soul is disposed to mental excesses, namely through devotion, admiration, and exultation, according to those three exclamations which are made in the Song of Songs. Of which the first arises through an abundance of devotion, through which the soul becomes like a little wisp of smoke from aromatics, of myrrh and frankincense; the second through the excellence of admiration, through which the soul becomes like the dawn, the moon, and the sun, according to the progression of illuminations that suspend the soul to admire the bridegroom contemplated; the third through the superabundance of exultation, through which the soul becomes overflowing with the sweetest delights of delectation, leaning wholly upon her Beloved.

4. Quibus adeptis, efficitur spiritus noster hierarchicus ad conscendendum surcum secundum conformitatam ad illam Ierusalem supernam, in qua nemo intrat, nisi prius per gratiam ipsa in cor descendat, sicut vidit Ioannes in Apocalypsi sua. Tunc autem in cor descendit, quando per reformationem imaginis, per virtutes theologicas et per oblectationes spiritualium sensuum et suspensiones excessuum efficitur spiritus noster hierarchicus, scilicet purgatus, illuminatus et perfectus. - Sic etiam gradibus novem ordinum insignitur, dum ordinate in eo interius disponitur nuntiatio, dictatio, ductio, ordinatio, roboratio, imperatio, susceptio, revelatio, unctio, quae gradatim correspondent novem ordinibus Angelorum, ita quod primi trium praedictorum gradus respiciunt in mente humana naturam, tres sequentes industriam, et tres postremi gratiam.

4. With these things obtained, our spirit is made hierarchical for ascending upward according to a conformity to that supernal Jerusalem, into which no one enters unless first by grace she descend into the heart, as John saw in hisApocalypse. Then, moreover, she descends into the heart when, through the reformation of the image, through the theological virtues, and through the delectations of the spiritual senses and the suspensions of the excesses, our spirit is made hierarchical—namely, purged, illuminated, and perfected. - So also it is marked with the steps of the nine orders, as within it there are inwardly arranged in due order annunciation, dictation, guidance (duction), ordination, corroboration, imperation, reception, revelation, unction, which step by step correspond to the nine orders of Angels, so that the first three of the aforesaid degrees have regard, in the human mind, to nature, the next three to industry, and the last three to grace.

Quibus habitis, anima intrando in se ipsam, intrat in supremam Ierusalem, ubi ordines Angelorum considerans, videt in eis Deum, qui habitans in eis omnes eorum operatur operationes. Unde dicit Bernardus ad Eugenium, quod "Deus in Seraphim amat ut caritas, in Cherubim novit ut veritas, in Thronis sedet ut aequitas, in Dominationibus dominatur ut maiestas, in Principatibus regit ut principium, in Potestatibus tuetur ut salus, in Virtutibus operatur ut virtus, in Archangelis revelat ut lux, in Angelis assitit ut pietas". Ex quibus omnibus videtur Deus omnia in omnibus per contemplationem ipsius in mentibus, in quibus habitat per dona affluentissimae caritatis.

With these things attained, the soul, by entering into itself, enters into the supreme Jerusalem, where, considering the orders of the Angels, it sees in them God, who, dwelling in them, operates all their operations. Whence Bernard says to Eugenius, that "God in the Seraphim loves as charity, in the Cherubim knows as truth, in the Thrones sits as equity, in the Dominations rules as majesty, in the Principalities governs as principle, in the Powers protects as salvation, in the Virtues works as virtue, in the Archangels reveals as light, in the Angels assists as piety." From all this God is seen to be all things in all through the contemplation of himself in minds, in which he dwells through the gifts of most superabundant charity.

5. Ad autem speculationes gradum specialiter et praecipue adminiculatur consideratio sacrae Scripturae divinitus immissae, sicut philosophia ad praecedentem. Sacra enim Scriptura principaliter est de operibus reparationis. Unde et ipsa praecipue agit de fide, spe et caritate, per quas virtutes habet anima reformari, et specialissime de caritate.

5. But to the step of speculations there lends, in a special and principal way, support the consideration of Sacred Scripture, divinely inspired, just as philosophy to the preceding. For Sacred Scripture is principally about the works of reparation. Whence it chiefly treats of faith, hope, and charity, through which virtues the soul is to be reformed—and most especially of charity.

De qua dicit Apostolus, quod est finis praecepti, secundum quod est in corde puro et conscientia bona et fide non ficta. Ipsa est plenitudo Legis, ut dicit idem. Et Salvator noster asserit, totam Legem Prophetasque pendere in duobus praeceptis eiusdem, scilicet dilectione Dei et proximi; quae duo innuuntur in uno sponso Ecclesiae Iesu Christo, qui simul est proximus et Deus, simul frater et dominus, simul etiam rex et amicus, simul Verbum increatum et incarnatum, formator noster et reformator, ut alpha et omega; qui etiam summus hierarcha est, purgans et illuminans et perficiens sponsam, scilicet totam Ecclesiam et quamlibet animam sanctam.

Of which the Apostle says that it is the end of the precept, inasmuch as it is in a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith. It is the fullness of the Law, as the same says. And our Savior asserts that the whole Law and the Prophets hang upon two precepts of the same, namely the love of God and of neighbor; which two are intimated in the one Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ, who at once is neighbor and God, at once brother and lord, at once also king and friend, at once the uncreated and incarnate Word, our former and reformer, as alpha and omega; who also is the highest hierarch, purging and illuminating and perfecting the bride, namely the whole Church and any holy soul.

6. De hoc igitur hierarcha et ecclesiastica hierarchia est tota sacra Scriptura, per quam docemur purgari, illuminari et perfici, et hoc secundum triplicem legem in ea traditam, scilicet naturae, Scripturae et gratiae; vel potius secundum triplicem eius partem principalem, legem scilicet Moysaicam purgantem, revelationem propheticam illustrantem et eruditionem evangelicam perficientem; vel potissimum secundum triplicem eius intelligentiam spiritualem: tropologicam quae purgat ad honestatem vitae; allegoricam, quae illuminat ad claritatem intelligentiae; anagogicam, quae perficit per excessus mentales et sapientiae perceptiones suavissimas, secundum virtutes praedictas tres theologicas et sensus spirituales reformatos et excessus tres supradictos et actus mentis hierarchicos, quibus ad interiora regreditur mens nostra, ut ibidem speculetur Deumin splendoribus Sanctorm et in eisdem tanquam in cubilibus dormiat in pace et requiescat, sponso adiurante, quod non excitetur, donec de eius voluntate procedat.

6. Therefore concerning this Hierarch and the ecclesiastical hierarchy the whole Sacred Scripture treats, through which we are taught to be purged, illumined, and perfected, and this according to the triple law handed down in it, namely of nature, of Scripture, and of grace; or rather according to its triple principal part: namely the Mosaic law purging, the prophetic revelation illustrating, and the evangelical erudition perfecting; or most of all according to its triple spiritual understanding: the tropological, which purges unto the honesty of life; the allegorical, which illumines unto the clarity of understanding; the anagogical, which perfects through mental excesses and most sweet perceptions of wisdom—according to the aforesaid three theological virtues and the reformed spiritual senses and the three excesses above-mentioned and the hierarchical acts of the mind—by which our mind returns back to interior things, so that there it may speculate upon Godin splendoribus Sanctorm and in the same, as in beds, may sleep in peace and take rest, the Bridegroom adjuring that it not be awakened until it proceeds by his will.

7. Ex his autem duobus gradibus mediis, per quos ingredimur ad contemplandum Deum intra nos tanquam in speculis imaginum creatarum, et hoc quasi ad modum alarum expansarum ad volandum, quae tenebant medium locum, intelligere possumus, quod in divina manuducimur per ipsius animae reationalis potentias naturaliter insitas quantum ad earum operationes, habitudines et habitus scientiales; secundum quod apparet ex tertio gradu. Manuducimur etiam per ipsius animae potentias reformatas, et hoc gratuitis virtutibus, sensibus spiritualibus et mentalibus excessibus; sicut patet ex quarto. Manuducimur nihilominus per hierarchicas operationes, scilicet purgationis, illuminationis et perfectionis mentium humanarum, per hierarchicas revelationes sacrarum Scripturarum nobis per Angelos datarum, secundum illud Apostoli, quod Lex data estper Angelos in manu Mediatoris. Et tandem manuducimur per hierarchias et hierarchicos ordines, qui in mente nostra disponi habent ad instar supernae Ierusalem.

7. From these two intermediate steps, through which we enter to contemplate God within us as in mirrors of created images, and this as it were after the manner of wings outspread for flying, which held the middle place, we can understand that we are led into divine things through the powers of the rational soul naturally implanted, as regards their operations, habitudes, and scientific habits; as appears from the third step. We are led also through the same soul’s powers reformed, and this by gratuitous virtues, spiritual senses, and mental excesses; as is evident from the fourth. We are nonetheless led by hierarchic operations—namely of purgation, illumination, and perfection of human minds—by hierarchic revelations of the holy Scriptures given to us through Angels, according to the saying of the Apostle, that the Law was giventhrough Angels in the hand of the Mediator. And finally we are led by hierarchies and hierarchic orders, which are to be disposed in our mind after the likeness of the supernal Jerusalem.

8. Quibus omnibus luminibus intellectualibus mens nostra repleta, a divina Sapientia tanquam domus Dei inhabitatur, effecta Dei filia, sponsa et amica; effecta Christi capitis membrum, soror et coheres; effecta nihilominus Spiritus sancti templum, fundatum per fidem, elevatum per spem et Deo dedicatum per mentis et corporis sanctitatem. Quod totum facit sincerissima caritas Christi, quaediffunditur in cordibus nostris per Spiritum sanctum, qui datus est nobis, sine quo Spiritu non possumus scire secreta Dei. Sicut enim quae sunt hominis nemo potest scire nisi spiritus hominis, qui est in illo; ita et quae sunt Dei nemo scit nisi spiritus Dei. In caritate igitur radicemur et fundemur, ut possimus comprenhendere cum omnibus Sanctis, quae sit longitudo aeternitatis, quae latitudo liberalitatis, quae sublimitas maiestatis et quod profundum sapientiae iudicantis.

8. With all these intellectual lights our mind filled, it is inhabited by divine Wisdom as by the house of God, made God’s daughter, bride, and friend; made a member of Christ the Head, sister and coheir; made nonetheless the temple of the Holy Spirit, founded by faith, raised up by hope, and dedicated to God by the sanctity of mind and body. All this the most sincere charity of Christ effects, whichis poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us, without which Spirit we cannot know the secrets of God. For just as the things that are of a man no one can know except the spirit of the man who is in him; so too the things that are of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Therefore let us be rooted and founded in charity, that we may be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the length of eternity, what breadth of liberality, what sublimity of majesty, and what depth of judging wisdom.

CAPUT V

CHAPTER 5

DE SPECULATIONE DIVINAE UNITATIS PER EIUS NOMEN PRIMARIUM, QUOD EST ESSE

ON THE SPECULATION OF DIVINE UNITY THROUGH ITS PRIMARY NAME, WHICH IS TO BE

1. Quoniam autem contingit contemplari Deum non solum extra nos et intra nos, verum etiam supra nos: extra per vestigium, intra per imaginem et supra per lumen Veritatis aeternae, cum "ipsa mens nostra inmediate ab ipsa Veritate formetur"; qui exercitati sunt in primo modo intraverunt iam inatrium ante tabernaculum; qui vero in secundo, intraverunt in sancta; qui autem in tertio, intrat cum summo Pontifice in sancta sanctorum; ubi supra arcam sunt Cherubim gloriae obumbrantia propitiatorium; per quae intelligimus duos modos seu gradus contemplandi Dei invisibilia et aeterna, quorum unus versatur circa essentialia Dei, alius vero circa propria personarum.

1. Now since it happens that we contemplate God not only outside us and within us, but also above us: outside through the vestige, within through the image, and above through the light of Eternal Truth, since “our mind itself is immediately formed by Truth itself”; those who have been exercised in the first mode have already entered into theatrium before the tabernacle; but those in the second have entered into the holy place; whereas in the third, one enters with the High Pontiff into the holy of holies; where above the ark are the Cherubim of glory overshadowing the propitiatory; through which we understand two modes or degrees of contemplating the invisible and eternal things of God, of which one is occupied with the essentials of God, while the other concerns the properties proper to the Persons.

2. Primus modus primo et principaliter defigit aspectum in ipsum esse, dicens, quodqui est primum nomen Dei. Secundus modus defigit aspectum in ipsum bonum, dicens, hoc esse primum nomen Dei. Primum spectat potissime ad vetus testamentum, quod maxime praedicat divinae essentiae unitatem; unde dictum est Moysi: Ego sum qui sum; secundum ad novum, quod determinat personarum pluralitatem, baptizando in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti. Ideo magister noster Christus, volens adolescentem, qui servaverat Legem, ad evangelicam levare perfectionem, nomen bonitatis Deo principaliter et praecise attribuit.

2. The first mode, first and principally, fixes its gaze upon being itself, saying thathe who is is the primary name of God. The second mode fixes its gaze upon the good itself, saying that this is the primary name of God. The former pertains most of all to the Old Testament, which most chiefly proclaims the unity of the divine essence; whence it was said to Moses: I am who am; the latter to the New, which determines the plurality of persons, by baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore our teacher Christ, wishing to raise the youth who had kept the Law to evangelical perfection, attributed the name of goodness to God primarily and precisely.

Nemo, inquit, bonus nisi solus Deus. Damascenus igitur sequens Moysen dicit, quod qui est primum nomen Dei; Dionysius sequens Christum dicit, quod bonum est primum nomen Dei.

No one, he says, is good except God alone. Therefore the Damascene, following Moses, says that He who is is the first name of God; Dionysius, following Christ, says that good is the first name of God.

3. Volens igitur contemplari Dei invisibilia quoad essentiae unitatem primo defigat aspectum in ipsumesse et videat, ipsum esse adeo in se certissimum, quod non potest cogitari non esse, quia ipsum esse purissimum non occurrit nisi in plena fuga non-esse, sicut et nihil in plena fuga esse. Sicut igitur omnino nihil habet de esse nec de eius conditionibus; sic econtra ipsum esse nihil habet de non-esse, nec actu nec potentia, nec secundum veritatem rei nec secundum aestimationem nostram. Cum autem non-esse privatio sit essendi, non cadit in intellectum nisi per esse; esse autem non cadit per aliud, quia omne, quod intelligitur, aut intelligitur ut non ens, aut ut ens in potentia, aut ut ens in actu. Si igitur non-ens non potest intelligi nisi per ens, et ens in potentia non nisi per ens in actu; et esse nominat ipsum purum actum entis: esse igitur est quod primo cadit in intellectu, et illud esse est quod est actus purus. Sed hoc non est esse particulare, quod est esse analogum, quia minime habet de actu, eo quod minime est.

3. Therefore, willing to contemplate the invisibles of God as regards the unity of essence, let one first fix the gaze uponbeing itself and see that being itself is so most certain in itself that it cannot be thought not to be, because most pure being presents itself only in the complete flight of non-being, just as nothing is in the complete flight of being. Therefore, as nothing altogether has nothing of being nor of its conditions, so conversely being itself has nothing of non-being, neither in act nor in potency, neither according to the truth of the thing nor according to our estimation. But since non-being is the privation of being, it does not fall into the intellect except through being; whereas being does not fall [into the intellect] through another, because everything that is understood is understood either as non ens, or as ens in potentia, or as ens in actu. If, therefore, the non-ens cannot be understood except through ens, and the ens in potentia only through the ens in actu; and if esse names the pure act of being: esse, therefore, is what first falls in the intellect, and that esse is what is pure act. But this is not particular esse, which is analogical esse, because it has the least share of act, in that it least is.

Restat igitur, quod illud esse est esse divinum.

It therefore remains that that being is the divine being.

4. Mira igitur est caecitas intellectus, qui non considerat illud quod prius videt et sine quo nihil potest cognoscere. Sed sicut oculus intentus in varias colorum differentias lucem, per quam videt cetera, non videt, et si videt, non advertit; sic oculus mentes nostrae, intentus in entia particularia et universalia, ipsum esse extra omne genus, licet primo occurrat menti, et per ipsum alia, tamen non advertit. Unde verissime apparet, quod "sicut oculus vespertilionis se habet ad lucem, ita se habet oculus mentis nostrae ad manifestissima naturae"; quia assuefactus ad tenebras entium et phantasmata sensibilium, cum ipsam lucem summi esse intuetur, videtur sibi nihil videre; non intelligens, quod ipsa caligo summa est mentis nostrae illuminatio, sicut, quando videt oculus puram lucem, videtur sibi nihil videre.

4. Wondrous, then, is the blindness of the intellect, which does not consider that which it first sees and without which it can know nothing. But just as an eye intent upon the various differences of colors does not see the light by which it sees the rest, and, if it sees it, does not advert to it; so the eye of our mind, intent upon particular and universal entities, does not advert to being itself, outside every genus, although it first occurs to the mind, and through it the others. Whence it appears most truly that “just as the eye of the bat stands to the light, so the eye of our mind stands to the most manifest things of nature”; because, habituated to the darkness of beings and to the phantasms of sensibles, when it gazes upon the very light of the Supreme Being, it seems to itself to see nothing; not understanding that that very gloom is the highest illumination of our mind, just as, when the eye sees pure light, it seems to itself to see nothing.

5. Vide igitur ipsum purissimumesse, si potes, et occurrit tibi, quod ipsum non potest cogitari ut ab alio acceptum; ac per hoc necessario cogitatur ut omnimode primum, quod nec de nihilo nec de aliquo potest esse. Quid enim est per se, si ipsum esse non est per se nec a se? Occurrit etiam tibi ut carens omnino non-esse ac per hoc ut nunquam incipiens, nunquam desinens, sed aeternum. Occurrit etiam tibi ut nullo modo in se habes, nisi quod est ipsum esse, ac per hoc ut cum nullo compositum, sed simplicissimum.

5. See, then, the very purestbeing, if you can, and it occurs to you that it cannot be thought as received from another; and through this it is necessarily thought as in every way first, which can be neither from nothing nor from anything. For what is there per se, if being itself is not per se nor from itself? It also occurs to you as utterly lacking non-being and thus as never beginning, never ceasing, but eternal. It likewise occurs to you as in no way having in itself anything except what is being itself, and thus as compounded with nothing, but most simple.

Occurrit tibi ut nihil habens possibilitatis, quia omne possibile aliquo modo habet aliquid de non-esse, ac per hoc ut summe actualissimum. Occurrit ut nihil habens defectibilitatis, ac per hoc ut perfectissimum. Occurrit postremo ut nihil habens diversificationis, ac per hoc summe unum.

It occurs to you as having nothing of possibility, because whatever is possible has in some way something of non-esse; and through this, as supremely actual. It occurs as having nothing of defectibility, and therefore as most perfect. Finally, it occurs as having nothing of diversification, and therefore as supremely one.

Esse igitur, quod est esse purum et esse simpliciter et esse absolutum, est esse primarium, aeternum, simplicissimum, actualissimum, perfectissimum et summe unum.

Being, therefore, which is being pure and being simply and being absolute, is being primary, eternal, most simple, most actual, most perfect, and supremely one.

6. Et sunt haec ita certa,quod non potest ab intelligente ipsumesse cogitari horum oppositum, et unum necessario infert aliud. Nam quia simpliciter est esse, ideo simpliciter primum; quia simpliciter primum, ideo non est ab alio factum, nec a se ipso potuit, ergo aeternum. Idem, quia primum et aeternum; ideo non ex aliis, ergo simplicissimum.

6. And these things are so certain that the opposite of them cannot be conceived by one who understandsto be itself, and the one necessarily entails the other. For because it simply is to be, therefore it is simply the first; because it is simply the first, therefore it is not made by another, nor could it have been by itself; therefore eternal. Likewise, because it is first and eternal; therefore not from others, therefore most simple.

Item, quia primum, aeternum et simplicissimum; ideo nihil est in eo possibilitatis cum actu permixtum, et ideo actualissimum. Item, quia primum, aeternum, simplicissimum, actualissimum; ideo perfectissimum; tali omino nihil deficit, neque aliqua potest fieri additio. Quia primum, aeternum, simplicissimum, actualissimum perfectissimum; ideo summe unum.

Likewise, because it is first, eternal, and most simple; therefore there is nothing in it of possibility commixed with act, and therefore it is most actual. Likewise, because it is first, eternal, most simple, most actual; therefore most perfect; to such a being nothing at all is lacking, nor can any addition be made. Because it is first, eternal, most simple, most actual, most perfect; therefore supremely one.

Quod enim per omnimodam superabundantiam dicitur respectu omnium. "Quod etiam simpliciter per superabundantiam, dicitur, impossibile est, ut conveniat nisi uni soli". Unde si Deus nominat esse primarium, aeternum, simplicissimum, actualissimum, perfectissimum; impossibile est, ipsum cogitari non esse, nec esse nisi unum solum. Audi, igitur, Israel, Deus tuus Deus unus est. Si hoc vides in pura mentis simplicitate, aliqualiter perfunderis aeternae lucis illustratione.

For what is said by all-around superabundance with respect to all things. "That which also, simply by superabundance, is said, it is impossible that it should befit any but one alone." Whence, if “God” names the primary, the eternal, the most simple, the most actual, the most perfect; it is impossible to think it not to be, nor to be anything except one alone. Hear, therefore, Israel, your God is one God. If you see this in the pure simplicity of mind, you are in some measure suffused by the illumination of the eternal light.

7. Sed habes unde subleveris in admirationem. Nam ipsum esse est primum et novissimum, est aeternum et praesentissimum, est simplicissimum et maximum, est actualissimum et immutabilissimum, est perfectissimum et immensum, est summe unum et tamen omnimodum. Si haec pura mente miraris, maiore luce perfunderis, dum ulterius vides, quia ideo est novissimum, quia primum.

7. But you have whence you may be lifted into admiration. For being itself is the first and the last; it is eternal and most present; it is most simple and greatest; it is most actual and most immutable; it is most perfect and immense; it is supremely one and yet of every mode. If you marvel at these with a pure mind, you are suffused with greater light, while you see further that for this reason it is the last, because it is the first.

Quia enim est primum, omnia operatur propter se ipsum; et ideo necesse est, quod sit finis ultimus, initium et consummatio, alpha et omega. Ideo est praesentissimum, quia aeternum. Quia enim aeternum, non fluit ab alio nec deficit a se ipso nec decurrit ab uno in aliud: ergo nec habet praeteritum nec futurum, sed esse praesens tantum. Ideo maximum, quia simplicissimum.

Because it is first, it operates all things for its own sake; and therefore it is necessary that it be the ultimate end, the beginning and consummation, alpha et omega. Therefore it is most present, because eternal. For since it is eternal, it does not flow from another nor defect from itself nor run down from one into another: therefore it has neither past nor future, but only present being. Therefore the greatest, because the most simple.

Quia enim actualissimum est, ideo est actus purus; et quod tale est nihil novi acquirit, nihil habitum perdit, ac per hoc non potest mutari. Ideo immensum, quia perfectissimum. Quia enim perfectissimum, nihil potest cogitari ultra ipsum melius, nobilius nec dignius, ac per hoc nihil maius; et omne tale est immensum.

For since it is most actual, therefore it is pure act; and what is of such a kind acquires nothing new, loses nothing possessed, and through this cannot be changed. Therefore it is immense, because it is most perfect. For since it is most perfect, nothing beyond it can be thought as better, more noble, or more worthy, and through this nothing greater; and every such thing is immense.

Ideo omnimodum, quia summe unum. Quod enim summe unum est, est omnis multutudinis universale principium; ac per hoc ipsum est universalis omnium causa efficiens, exemplans et terminans, sicut "causa essendi, ratio intelligendi et ordo vivendi". Est igitur omnimodum non sicut omnium essentia, sed sicut cunctarum essentiarum superexcellentissima et universalissima causa; cuius virtus, quia summe unita in essentia, ideo summe infinitissima et mutiplicissima in efficacia.

Therefore all-comprehensive, because supremely one. For what is supremely one is the universal principle of every multitude; and through this it itself is the universal cause of all, efficient, exemplary, and terminating, just as "the cause of being, the reason of understanding, and the order of living." It is therefore all-comprehensive not as the essence of all things, but as the most super-excellent and most universal cause of all essences; whose power, because supremely united in essence, is therefore most supremely infinite and most manifold in efficacy.

8. Rursus reverentes dicamus: quia igituresse purissimum et absolutum, quod est simpliciter esse est primarium et novissimum. Quia aeternum et praesentissimum, ideo omnes durationes ambit et intrat, quasi simul existens earum centrum et circumferentia. Quia simplicissimum, ideo totum intra omnis et totum extra, ac per hoc "est sphaera intelligibilis, cuius centrum est ubique et circumferentia nusquam". Quia actualissimum et immutabilissimum, ideo "stabile manens moveri dat universa". Quia perfectissimum et immensum, ideo est intra omnia, non inclusum, extra omnia, non exclusum, supra omnia, non elatum, infra omnia, non prostratum.

8. Again, let us speak reverently: because thereforebeing most pure and absolute, which is simply to be, is the first and the last. Because eternal and most present, therefore it encompasses and enters all durations, as if at once existing as their center and circumference. Because most simple, therefore wholly within all things and wholly without, and through this “it is an intelligible sphere, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference nowhere.” Because most actual and most immutable, therefore “remaining stable, it grants all things to be moved.” Because most perfect and immense, therefore it is within all things, not enclosed; outside all things, not excluded; above all things, not exalted; below all things, not prostrated.

Quia vero est summe unum et omnimodum, ideo est omnia in omnibus. quamvis omnia sint multa et ipsum non sit nisi unum; et hoc, quia per simplicissimam unitatem, serenissimam veritatem, omnis exemplaritas et omnis communicabilitas; ac per hoc, ex ipso et per ipsum et in ipso sunt omnia et hoc, quia omnipotens, omnisciens et omnimode bonum, quod perfecte videre est esse beatum, sicut dictum est Moysi: Ergo ostendam tibi omne bonum.

Because indeed it is supremely one and omnimodal, therefore it is all things in all. although all things are many and it itself is nothing but one; and this, because through the most simple unity, the most serene truth, there is all exemplariness and all communicability; and therefore, from it and through it and in it are all things and this, because it is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnimodally good, which to see perfectly is to be blessed, as it was said to Moses: Therefore I will show you every good.

CAPUT VI

CHAPTER 6

DE SPECULATIONE BEATISSIMAE TRINITATIS IN EIUS NOMINE, QUOD EST BONUM

ON THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE MOST BLESSED TRINITY IN ITS NAME, WHICH IS GOOD

1. Post considerationem essentialium elevandus est oculus intelligentiae ad contuitionem beatissimae Trinitatis, ut alter Cherub iuxta alterum statuatur. Sicut autem visionis essentialium ipsum esse est principium radicale et nomen, per quod cetera innotescunt; sic contemplationis emanationum ipsum bonum est principalissimum fundamentum.

1. After the consideration of the essentials, the eye of understanding must be lifted to the contemplation of the most blessed Trinity, so that one Cherub may be set beside the other. And just as, for the vision of the essentials, the very being is the radical principle and the name by which the rest are made known; so, for the contemplation of the emanations, the Good itself is the most principal foundation.

2. Vide igitur et attende quoniam optimum quod simpliciter est quo nihil melius cogitari potest; et hoc tale sic est, quod non potest recte cogitari non esse, quia omnino melius est esse quam non esse; sic est, quod non potest recte cogitari, quin cogitetur trinum et unum. Nam "bonum dicitur diffusivum sui"; summum igitur bonum summe diffusivum est sui. Summa autem diffusio non potest esse, nisi sit actualis et intrinseca, substantialis et hypostatica, naturalis et voluntaria, liberalis et necessaria, indeficiens et perfecta.

2. See therefore and attend, since the optimum which simply is is that than which nothing better can be thought; and this such is thus, that it cannot be rightly thought not to be, because it is altogether better to be than not to be; so it is, that it cannot be rightly thought without being thought triune and one. For “the good is said to be diffusive of itself”; therefore the supreme good is supremely diffusive of itself. But supreme diffusion cannot be, unless it be actual and intrinsic, substantial and hypostatic, natural and voluntary, liberal and necessary, unfailing and perfect.

Nisi igitur in summo bono aeternaliter esset productio actualis et consubstantialis, et hypostais aeque nobilis, sicut est producens per modum generationis et spirationis - ita quod sit aeternalis principii aeternaliter comprincipiantis - ita quod esset dilectus et condilectus, genitus et spiratus, hoc est Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus; nequaquam esset summum bonum, quia non summe se diffunderet. Nam diffusio ex tempore in creatura non est nisi centralis vel punctualis respectu immensitatis bonitatis aeternae; unde et potest aliqua diffusio cogitari maior illa, ea videlicet, in qua diffundens communicat alteri totam substantiam et naturam. Nisi igitur summum bonum esset, si re, ve intellectu illa carere posset.

Unless, therefore, in the supreme Good there were eternally an actual and consubstantial production, and a hypostasis equally noble as the producing one, by the mode of generation and spiration — such that it is of an eternal principle eternally co-principiating — such that there be a beloved and co-beloved, begotten and spirated, that is, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; by no means would it be the supreme Good, because it would not most supremely diffuse itself. For diffusion in time within the creature is only central or point-like with respect to the immensity of eternal goodness; whence also one can conceive a diffusion greater than that, namely that in which the one diffusing communicates to another the whole substance and nature. Therefore it would not be the supreme Good, if in reality or in intellect it could lack that.

Si igitur potes mentis oculo contueri puritatem bonitatis, quae est actus purus principii caritative diligentis amore gratuito et debito et ex utroque permixto, quae est diffusio plenissimam per modum naturae et voluntatis, quae est diffusio per modum Verbi, in quo omnia dicuntur. et per modum Doni, in quo cetera dona donantur; potes videre, per summam boni communicabilitatem necesse esse Trinitatem Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti. In quibus necesse est propter summam bonitatem esse summam communicabilitatem, et ex summa communicabilitate summam consubstantialitatem, et ex summa consubstantialitate summam configurabilitatem, et ex his summam coaequalitatem, ac per hoc summam coaeternitatem, atque ex omnibus praedictis summam cointimitatem, qua unus est in altero necessario per summam circumincessionem et unus operatur cum alio per omnimodam indivisionem substantiae et virtutis et operationis ipius beatissimae Trinitatis.

If therefore you can, with the eye of the mind, behold the purity of goodness, which is the pure act of the Principle charitably loving with gratuitous and due love and with a mixture from both, which is a most plenary diffusion in the mode of nature and of will, which is a diffusion in the mode of the Word, in which all things are said. and in the mode of the Gift, in which the other gifts are given; you can see, through the highest communicability of the good, that the Trinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is necessary. In whom it is necessary, on account of the highest goodness, that there be the highest communicability, and from the highest communicability the highest consubstantiality, and from the highest consubstantiality the highest configurability, and from these the highest coequality, and thereby the highest coeternity, and from all the aforesaid the highest co-intimacy, whereby the one is in the other necessarily through the highest circumincession and the one works with the other through an all-mode indivision of substance and power and operation of the most blessed Trinity itself.

3. Sed cum haec contemplaris, vide, ne te existimes comprehendere incomprehensibilem. Habes enim adhuc in his sex conditionibus considerare quod vehementer in stuporem admirationis inducit oculum mentis nostrae. Nam ibi est summa communicabilitas cum personarum propritate, summa consubstantialitas cum hypostasum pluralitate, summa configurabilitas cum discreta personalitate, summa coaequalitas cum ordine, summa coaeternitas cum emanatione, summa cointimitas cum emissione.

3. But when you contemplate these things, see that you do not think you comprehend the incomprehensible. For in these six conditions you still have to consider what very strongly leads the eye of our mind into a stupor of admiration. For there is the highest communicability with the propriety of the persons, the highest consubstantiality with a plurality of hypostases, the highest configurability with distinct personality, the highest coequality with order, the highest coeternity with emanation, the highest cointimacy with emission.

Quis ad tantorum mirabilium aspectum non consurgat in admirationem? Sed haec omnia certissime intelligimus esse in beatissima Trinitate, si levamus oculos ad superexcellentissimam bonitatem. Si enim ibi est summa communicatio et vera diffusio, vera est ibi origo et vera distinctio; et quia totum communicatur, non pars; ideo ipsum datur, quod habetur, et totum: igitur emanans et producens et distinguuntur proprietatibus, et sunt essentialiter unum.

Who, at the sight of such great marvels, does not rise into admiration? But we most certainly understand that all these things are in the most blessed Trinity, if we lift our eyes to the most super-excellent goodness. For if there is there the highest communication and true diffusion, there is there true origin and true distinction; and because the whole is communicated, not a part; therefore the very thing is given which is possessed, and the whole: thus the emanant and the producer are distinguished by properties, and are essentially one.

Quia igitur distinguuntur proprietatibus, ideo habent personales proprietates et hypostasum pluralitatem et originis emanationem et ordinem non posterioritatis, sed originis, et emmissionem non localis mutationis, sed gratuitate inspirationis, per rationem auctoritatis producentis, quam habet mittens respectu missi. Quia vero sunt unum substantialiter, ideo oportet, quod sit unitas in essentia et forma et dignitate et aeternitate et existentia et incircumscriptibilitate. Dum ergo haec per se singillatim consideras, habes unde veritatem contempleris; dum haec ad invicem confers, habes unde in admirationem altissimam suspendaris: et ideo, ut mens tua per admirationem in admirabilem ascendat contemplationem, haec simul sunt consideranda.

Since therefore they are distinguished by properties, for that reason they have personal properties and a plurality of hypostases and an emanation of origin and an order not of posteriority but of origin, and an emission not of local change but by the gratuitousness of inspiration, by the rationale of producing authority which the sender has with respect to the one sent. But since they are one substantially, it is necessary that there be unity in essence and form and dignity and eternity and existence and incircumscriptibility. Therefore, while you consider these things singly by themselves, you have whence to contemplate the truth; while you bring these things into comparison with one another, you have whence to be suspended into the loftiest admiration: and so, that your mind may through admiration ascend into admirable contemplation, these things are to be considered together.

4. Nam et Cherubim hoc designant, quae se mutuo aspiciebant. Nec hoc vacat a mysterio, quod respiciebantse versus vultibus in propitiatorium, ut verificetur illud quod dicit Dominus in Ioanne: Haec est vita aeterna, ut cognoscant te solum verum Deum, et quam misisti Iesum Christum. Nam admirari debemus non solum conditiones Dei essentiales et personales in se, verum etiam per comparationem ad supermirabilem unionem Dei et hominis in unitate personae Christi.

4. For even the Cherubim designate this, who were looking at one another. Nor is it devoid of mystery that they were lookingwith their faces turned toward the propitiatory, so that there may be confirmed that which the Lord says in John: This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. For we ought to admire not only the essential and personal conditions of God in himself, but also by comparison to the most wondrous union of God and man in the unity of the person of Christ.

5. Si enim Cherub es essentialia Dei contemplando, et miraris, quia simul est divinum esse primum et novissimum, aeternum et praesentissimum, simplicissimum et maximum seu incircumscriptum, totum ubique et nunquam comprehensum, actualissimum et nunquam motum, perfectissimum et nihil habens superfluum nec diminutum, et tamen immensum et sine termino infinitum, summe unum, et tamen omnimodum, ut omnia si se habens, ut omnis virtus, omnis veritas, omne bonum; respice ad propitiatorium et mirare, quod in ipso principium primum iunctum est cum postremo, Deus cum homine sexto die formato, aeternum iunctum est cum homine temporali, in plenitudine temporum de Virgine nato, simplicissimum cum summe composito, actualissimum cum summe passo et mortuo, perfectissimum et immensum cum modico, summe unum et omnimodum cum individuo composito et a ceteris distincto. homine scilicet Iesu Christo.

5. For if, as a Cherub, you contemplate the essential things of God and you marvel, because at once the divine being is the first and the last, eternal and most present, most simple and greatest or uncircumscribed, whole everywhere and never comprehended, most actual and never moved, most perfect and having nothing superfluous nor diminished, and yet immense and without-end infinite, supremely one and yet of every mode, as having all things in itself, as every virtue, every truth, every good; look back to the propitiatory and marvel that in it the first principle is joined with the last, God with man formed on the sixth day, the eternal joined with temporal man, in the fullness of times born of the Virgin, the most simple with the most composite, the most actual with the most suffering and dead, the most perfect and immense with the small, supremely one and of every mode with the composite individual and distinct from the others: namely the man Jesus Christ.

6. Si autem alter Cherub es personarum propria contemplando, et miraris, communicabilitatem esse cum proprietate, consubstantialitatem cum pluralitate, configurabilitatem cum personalitate, coaequalitatem cum ordine, coaeternitatem cum productione, cointimitatem cum emissione, quia Filius missus est a Patre, et Spiritus sanctus ab utroque, qui tamen semper est cum eis et nunquam recedit ab eis; respice in propitiatorium et mirare, quia in Christo stat personalis unio cum trinitate substantiarum et naturarum dualitate; stat omnimoda consensio cum pluralitate voluntatum, stat Dei et hominis compraedicatio cum pluralitate proprietatum, stat coadoratio cum pluralitate nobilitatum, stat coexaltatio super omnia cum pluralitate dignitatum, stat condominatio cum pluralitate potestatum.

6. If, however, you are the other Cherub by contemplating the properties of the persons, and you marvel that communicability exists together with property, consubstantiality with plurality, configurability with personality, coequality with order, coeternity with production, co-intimacy with emission—since the Son is sent by the Father and the Holy Spirit by both, who nevertheless is always with them and never withdraws from them—look to the propitiatory and marvel, because in Christ there stands a personal union together with a trinity of substances and a duality of natures; there stands a complete concurrence together with a plurality of wills; there stands the co-predication of God and man together with a plurality of properties; there stands co-adoration together with a plurality of nobilities; there stands co-exaltation above all things together with a plurality of dignities; there stands co-dominion together with a plurality of powers.

7. In hac autem consideratione est perfectio illuminationis mentis, dum quasi in sexta die videt hominem factum ad imaginem Dei. Si enim imago est similitudo expressiva, dum mens nostra contemplatur in Christo Filio Dei, qui est imago Dei invisibilis per naturam, humanitatem nostram tam mirabiliter exaltatam, tam ineffabiliter unitam, videndo simul in unum primum et ultimum, summum et imum, circumferentiam et centrum,alpha et omega, causatum et causam, Creatorum et creaturam, librum scilicet scriptum intus et extra; iam pervenit ad quandam rem perfectam, ut cum Deo ad perfectionem suarum illuminationum in sexto gradu quasi in sexta die perveniat, nec aliquid iam amplius restet nisi dies requiei, in qua per mentis excessum requiescat humanae mentis perspicacitas ab omni opere, quod patrarat.

7. In this consideration, however, is the perfection of the illumination of the mind, while, as if on the sixth day, it sees man made to the image of God. For if an image is an expressive similitude, while our mind contemplates in Christ the Son of God, who by nature is the image of the invisible God, our humanity so wondrously exalted, so ineffably united—seeing together in one the first and the last, the highest and the lowest, the circumference and the center,alpha and omega, the caused and the cause, the Creator and the creature, the book, namely written within and without—it has now come to a certain perfect reality, so that with God it may attain to the perfection of its illuminations in the sixth grade, as it were on the sixth day; and now nothing further remains except the day of rest, in which, through an ecstasy of mind, the sharp-sightedness of the human mind may rest from every work which it had wrought.

CAPUT VII

CHAPTER 7

DE EXCESSU MENTALI ET MYSTICO, IN QUO REQUIES DATUR INTELLECTUI, AFFECTU TOTALITER IN DEUM PER EXCESSUM TRANSEUNTE

ON THE MENTAL AND MYSTICAL ECSTASY, IN WHICH REST IS GIVEN TO THE INTELLECT, THE AFFECTION PASSING WHOLLY INTO GOD THROUGH ECSTASY

1. His igitur sex considerationibus excursis tanquam sex gradibus throni veri Salomonis, quibus pervenitur ad pacem, ubi verus pacificus in mente pacifica tanquam in interiori Hierosolyma requiescit; tanquam etiam sex alis Cherub, quibus mens veri contemplativi plena illustratione supernae sapientiae valeat sursum agi; tanquam etiam sex diebus primis, in quibus mens exercitari habet, ut tandem perveniat ad sabbatum quietis; postquam mens nostra contuita est Deum extra se per vestigia et in vestigiis, intra se per imaginem et in imagine, supra se per divinae lucis similitudinem super nos relucentem et in ipsa luce, secundum quod possibile est secundum statum viae et exercitium mentis nostrae; cum tantum in sexto gradu ad hoc pervenerit, ut speculetur in principio primo et summo et mediatoreDei et hominum, Iesu Christo, ea quorum similia in creaturis nullatenus reperiri possunt, et quae omnem perspicacitatem humani intellectus excedunt: restat, ut haec speculando transcendat et transeat non solum mundum istum sensibilem, verum etiam semetipsam; in quo transitu Christus est via et ostium, Christus est scala et vehiculum tanquam propitiatorium super arcam Dei collocatum et sacramentum a saeculis absconditum.

1. Therefore, with these six considerations traversed, as by the six steps of the true throne of Solomon, by which one arrives at peace, where the true peacemaker in a peaceful mind, as in the inner Jerusalem, takes rest; and also as by the six wings of the Cherub, by which the mind of the true contemplative, full of the illumination of supernal wisdom, may be able to be borne upward; and likewise as by the first six days, in which the mind ought to be exercised so that at last it may arrive at the sabbath of quiet: after our mind has beheld God outside itself through the vestiges and in the vestiges, within itself through the image and in the image, above itself through the similitude of the divine light shining back over us and in the very light, insofar as is possible according to the state of the way and the exercise of our mind; when only on the sixth grade it has come to this, that it contemplates in the first and highest Principle and in the Mediatorof God and men, Jesus Christ, those things whose likenesses can by no means be found in creatures, and which exceed every perspicacity of the human intellect: it remains that, by speculating on these, it should transcend and pass beyond not only this sensible world, but even itself; in which transit Christ is the way and door, Christ is the ladder and vehicle, as a propitiatory set upon the ark of God and as a sacrament hidden from the ages.

2. Ad quod propitiatorium qui aspicit plena conversione vultus, aspiciendo eum in cruce suspensum per fidem, spem et caritatem, devotionem, admirationem, exsultationem, appretiationem, laudem et iubilationem; pascha, hoc est transitum, cum eo facit, ut per virgam crucis transeat mare rubrum, ab Aegypto intrans desertum, ubi gustet manna absconditum, et cum Christo requiescat in tumulo quasi exterius mortuus, sentiens, tamen, quantum possibile est secundum statum viae, quod in cruce dictum est latroni cohaerenti Christo: Hodie mecum eris in paradiso.

2. Whoever looks to that propitiatory with the full conversion of the countenance, beholding him hanging on the cross through faith, hope and charity, devotion, admiration, exultation, appreciation, praise and jubilation; he makes thepascha, that is, the transit, with him, so that by the rod of the cross he may pass through the Red Sea, going from Egypt into the desert, where he may taste the manna absconditum, and with Christ may rest in the tomb as if outwardly dead, yet feeling, so far as is possible according to the state of the way, that which was said on the cross to the thief cleaving to Christ: Today you will be with me in paradise.

3. Quod etiam ostensum est beato Francisco, cum in excessu contemplationis in monte excelso - ubi haec, quae scripta sunt, mente tractavi - apparuit Seraph sex alarum in cruce confixus, ut ibidem a socio eius, qui tunc cum eo fuit, ego et plures alii audivimus; ubi in Deum transiit per contemplationis excessum; et positus est in exemplum perfectae contemplationis; sicut prius fuerat actionis, tanquam alterIacob et Israel, ut omnes viros vere spirituales Deus per eum invitaret ad huiusmodi transitum et mentis excessum magis exemplo quam verbo.

3. Which also was shown to blessed Francis, when in an excess of contemplation on a high mountain - where I mentally considered these things that are written - there appeared a Seraph of six wings fixed on a cross, as there from his companion, who then was with him, I and many others heard; where he passed over into God through an excess of contemplation; and he was set as an example of perfect contemplation; just as earlier he had been of action, as anotherIacob and Israel, so that God might invite all truly spiritual men through him to a transition of this kind and an excess of mind more by example than by word.

4. In hoc autem transitu, si sit perfectus, oportet quod relinquantur omnes intellectuales operationes, et apex affectus totus transferatur et transformetur in Deum. Hoc autem est mysticum et secretissimum, quod nemo novit, nisi qui accipit, nec accipit nisi qui desiderat, nec desiderat nisi quem ignis Spiritus sancti medullitus inflammat, quem Christus misit in terram. Et ideo dicit Apostolus, hanc mysticam sapientiam esse per Spiritum sanctum revelatam.

4. In this passage, however, if it be perfect, it is necessary that all intellectual operations be left behind, and that the apex of affection be wholly transferred and transformed into God. But this is mystic and most secret, whichno one knows, except the one who receives; nor does anyone receive except the one who desires; nor does anyone desire except the one whom the fire of the Holy Spirit inflames to the marrow, which Christ sent upon the earth. And therefore the Apostle says that this mystic wisdom has been revealed through the Holy Spirit.

5. Quoniam igitur ad hoc nihil potest natura, modicum potest industria, parum est dandum inquisitioni, et multum unctioni; parum dandum est linguae, et plurimum internae laetitiae; parum dandum est verbo et scripto, et totum Dei dono, scilicet Spiritui sancto; parum aut nihil dandum est creaturae, et totum creatrici essentiae, Patri et Filio et Spiritui sancto, dicendo cum Dionysio ad Deum Trinitatem: "Trinitas superessentialis et superdeus et superoptime Christianorum inspector theosophiae, dirige nos in mysticorum eloquiorum superincognitum et superlucentem et sublimissimum verticem; ubi nova et absoluta et inconversibilia theologiae mysteria secundum superlucentem absconduntur occulte docentis silentii caliginem in obscurissimo, quod est supermanifestissimum, supersplendentem, et in qua omne relucet, et invisibilium superbonorum splendoribus superimplentem invisibiles intellectus". Hoc ad Deum. Ad amicum autem cui haec scribuntur, dicatur cum eodem: "Tu autem, o amice, circa mysticas visiones, corroborato itinere, et sensus desere et intellectuales operationes et sensibilia et invisibilia et omne non ens et ens, et ad unitatem, ut possibile est, inscius restituere ipsius, qui est super omnem essentiam et scientiam. Etenim te ipso et omnibus immensurabili et absoluto purae mentis excessu, ad superessentialem divinarum tenebrarum radium, omnia deserens et ab omnibus absolutus, ascendes".

5. Since therefore for this nature can do nothing, industry can do a little, little must be given to inquiry, and much to unction; little must be given to the tongue, and very much to internal joy; little must be given to word and writing, and the whole to the gift of God, namely to the Holy Spirit; little or nothing must be given to the creature, and the whole to the creative Essence, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, saying with Dionysius to God the Trinity: "Superessential Trinity and super-god and super-excellent inspector of the theosophy of Christians, direct us to the super-unknown and super-lucent and most lofty summit of the mystical utterances; where the new and absolute and inconvertible mysteries of theology, according to the super-lucent gloom of a silence that teaches secretly, are hidden in the most obscure—which is the most manifest—super-splendent, and in which all things shine back, super-filling the invisible intellects with the splendors of invisible super-goods." This to God. But to the friend to whom these things are written, let it be said with the same: "But you, O friend, concerning mystical visions, with your journey strengthened, abandon the senses and intellectual operations and things sensible and invisible and every non-being and being, and be restored, as far as possible, unknowing, to the unity of Him who is above every essence and knowledge. For by an immeasurable and absolute excess of pure mind beyond yourself and all things, abandoning all and loosed from all, you will ascend to the superessential ray of the divine darknesses."

6. Si autem quaeras, quomodo haec fiant, interroga gratiam, non doctrinam; desiderium, non intellectum; gemitum orationis, non studium lectionis; sponsum, non magistrum; Deum, non hominem: caliginem. non claritatem; non lucem, sed ignem totaliter inflammantem et in Deum excessivis unctionibus et ardentissimis affectionibus transferentem. Qui quidem ignis Deus est, et huiuscaminus est in Ierusalem, et Christus hunc accendit in fervore, suae ardentissimae passionis, quam solus ille vere percipit, qui dicit: Suspendium elegit anima mea, et mortem ossa mea. Quam mortem qui diligit videre potest Deum, quia indubitanter verum est: Non videbit me homo et vivet. Moriamur igitur et ingrediamur in caliginem, imponamus silentium sollicitudinibus, concupiscentiis et phantasmatibus; transeamus cum Christo crucifixo ex hoc mundo ad Patrem, ut, ostendo nobis Patre, dicamus cum Philippo: Sufficit nobis; audiamus cum Paulo: Sufficit tibi gratia mea; Exultemus cum David dicentes: Defecit caro mea et cor meum, Deus cordis mei et pars mea Deus in aeternum.

6. But if you ask how these things come to be, question grace, not doctrine; desire, not intellect; the groan of prayer, not the study of reading; the bridegroom, not the master; God, not man: gloom, not clarity; not light, but a fire wholly inflaming and transferring into God with excessive unctions and most ardent affections. This fire indeed is God, andits furnace is in Jerusalem, and Christ kindles it in the fervor of His most burning passion, which only he truly perceives who says: My soul has chosen hanging, and my bones death. He who loves that death can see God, because it is indubitably true: No man shall see me and live. Let us die, then, and enter into the gloom; let us impose silence upon anxieties, concupiscences, and phantasms; let us pass over with Christ crucified from this world to the Father, so that, the Father being shown to us, we may say with Philip: It suffices us; let us hear with Paul: My grace suffices for you; let us exult with David, saying: My flesh has failed, and my heart, God of my heart, and my portion, God, forever.

Benedictus Dominus in aeternum, et dicet omnis populus: Fiat, fiat. Amen.

Blessed be the Lord forever, and all the people will say: Let it be, let it be. Amen.

EXPLICIT ITINERARIUM MENTIS IN DEUM

HERE ENDS THE ITINERARY OF THE MIND INTO GOD