The Soul's Journey into God 1 part 2/3

According to this mode, the species delighting as beautiful, sweet, and wholesome intimates that in that First Species is the first beauty, sweetness, and wholesomeness, in which is the highest proportionality and equality to the One generating; in which is a power, not by a phantasm, but by the truth of apprehension, gliding in; in which is an impression that saves and suffices and expels every need of the one apprehending. If, then, 'delectation is the conjunction of the fitting with the fitting,' and the likeness of God alone holds the principle of the supremely beautiful, sweet, and wholesome, and is united according to truth and according to inwardness and according to a fullness that fills every capacity:

it can manifestly be seen that in God alone is the fontal and true delectation, and that we are led by the hand from all delectations to seek after it. 9. But in a more excellent and more immediate manner, judgment leads us to behold more surely the eternal truth. For if judgment has to be made through reason abstracting from place, time, and mutability—and through this from dimension, succession, and transmutation—through a reason immutable and uncircumscribable and unterminable; and nothing is wholly immutable, uncircumscribable, and unterminable except what is eternal; and everything that is eternal is God, or in God: if, then, all things, whatsoever we judge more surely, we judge by a reason of this kind;

it is clear that He Himself is the ground of all things, and the infallible rule, and the light of truth, in which all things shine forth infallibly, indelibly, indubitably, irrefragably, indistinguishably, unchangeably, uncoercibly, interminably, indivisibly, and intellectually. And therefore those laws, by which we judge with certainty concerning all sensible things coming into our consideration—since they are infallible and indubitable to the intellect of the one apprehending, indelible from the memory of the one recalling as ever-present, irrefragable and beyond judgment to the intellect of the one judging, because, as Augustine says, 'no one judges concerning them, but by them':

it is necessary that these laws be unchangeable and incorruptible as necessary, uncoercible as uncircumscribed, interminable as eternal, and through this indivisible as intellectual and incorporeal, not made but uncreated, eternally existing in the eternal Art, by which, through which, and according to which all beautiful things are formed; and therefore they cannot be judged with certainty except by that Art which not only was the form producing all things, but also conserving and distinguishing all things, as a being holding the form in all things and a rule directing them, and through which our mind judges all things which enter into it through the senses. 10.

Now this contemplation is enlarged according to the consideration of the seven differences of numbers, by which, as by seven steps, one ascends unto God—as Augustine shows in the book On True Religion and in the sixth book of On Music, where he assigns the differences of numbers ascending step by step from these sensible things up to the Maker 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 these he calls sounding numbers; numbers abstracted from these and received in our senses, and these he calls occurring numbers; numbers proceeding from the soul into the body, as is clear in gesticulations and dances, and these he calls advancing numbers;

numbers in the delectations of the senses arising from the turning of the attention upon the received species, and these he calls sensual numbers; numbers retained in the memory, and these he calls memorial numbers; and also numbers by which we judge concerning all these, and these he calls judicial numbers, which, as has been said, are necessarily above the mind as infallible and beyond judgment. From these, however, are impressed upon our minds the artificial numbers, which nevertheless Augustine does not enumerate among those degrees, because they are connected with the judicial; and from these flow the advancing numbers, from which are created the numerous forms of artificial things, so that from the highest, through the means, an ordered descent may be made to the lowest.

To these we likewise ascend step by step from the sounding numbers, through the mediation of the occurring, sensual, and memorial. Since, therefore, all things are beautiful and in a certain manner delightful, and beauty and delight are not without proportion, and proportion is primarily in numbers: it is necessary that all things be numerous; and through this 'number is the foremost exemplar in the mind of the Maker,' and in things the foremost vestige leading unto Wisdom.

Since this is most evident to all and nearest to God, it leads most nearly unto God, as it were through seven differences, and causes Him to be known in all corporeal and sensible things, while we apprehend things numerous, are delighted in numerous proportions, and judge irrefragably through the laws of numerous proportions. 11.

From these two first degrees, by which we are led by the hand to behold God in His vestiges, as it were by way of two wings descending about the feet, we can gather that all the creatures of this sensible world lead the mind of the one contemplating and being wise unto the eternal God—because they are the shadows, echoes, and pictures of that most powerful, most wise, and most good First Principle, of that eternal origin, light, and fullness, of that, I say, efficient, exemplating, and ordering Art; they are vestiges, simulacra, and spectacles set before us for the beholding of God, and signs divinely given;

These things, I say, are exemplars, or rather things exemplified, set before minds still untutored and tied to the senses, so that through sensible things, which they see, they may be carried over to intelligible things, which they do not see, as through signs to the things signified. 12. Now these creatures of this sensible world signify the invisible things of God: partly because God is the origin, exemplar and end of every creature, and every effect is a sign of its cause, the thing exemplified a sign of its exemplar, and the way a sign of 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 is by its nature a certain image and likeness of that eternal Wisdom, but in a special way that which in the book of Scripture has, through the spirit of prophecy, been taken up as a prefiguration of spiritual things; more specially still those creatures in whose likeness God willed to appear by angelic ministry; and most especially that which He willed to institute for signifying, which holds not only the character of a sign according to the common name, but indeed that of a Sacrament. 13. From all of which it is gathered that the invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood by the creature of the world through the things that are made;

so that those who are unwilling to heed these things and to know, bless and love God in them all are without excuse, since they refuse to be carried over out of darkness into the marvellous light of God. But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, who has carried us over out of darkness into His marvellous light, while through these lights given outwardly we dispose ourselves to re-enter into the mirror of our mind, in which divine things shine. 1. But since the two aforesaid steps, by leading us into God through His vestiges, by which He shines forth in all creatures, have led us by the hand even to this, that we should re-enter into ourselves, namely into our mind, in which the divine image shines;

hence it is that now, in the third place, entering into ourselves and as it were leaving the outer court behind, we ought to strive to see God through a mirror in the holy place, that is, the forward part of the tabernacle; where, after the manner of a lampstand, the light of truth shines in the face of our mind, in which, namely, the image of the most blessed Trinity is reflected. Enter therefore into yourself and see, for your mind most fervently loves itself; nor could it love itself unless it knew itself; nor could it know itself unless it remembered itself, for we grasp nothing by understanding that is not present to our memory; and from this you may observe that your soul has a threefold power, not with the eye of flesh but with the eye of reason.

Consider, therefore, the operations and dispositions 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. Now the operation of memory is the retention and representation not only of things present, corporeal and temporal, but also of things successive, simple and everlasting. For memory retains past things by recollection, present things by reception, future things by foresight. It also retains simple things, such as the principles of continuous and discrete quantities, like the point, the instant and unity, without which it is impossible to remember or to think of those things which take these as their principles.

It nonetheless retains the principles and axioms of the sciences as everlasting and everlastingly, for it can never so forget them, while it uses reason, that, upon hearing them, it would not approve and assent to them—not as though perceiving them anew, but recognizing them as innate and familiar to itself; as is evident, were one to propose to someone: 'Of anything whatever, affirmation or negation' [is true]; or: 'Every whole is greater than its part', or any other axiom which cannot be contradicted by the inner reason. Therefore, from this first actual retention of all temporal things—past, present and future—it has the image of eternity, whose indivisible present extends itself to all times.

From the second [retention] it appears that the memory must be informed not only from without by phantasms, but also from above by receiving simple forms which cannot enter through the gates of the senses and the imaginings of sensible things. From the third it is had that it has present to itself an unchangeable light, in which it remembers unvarying truths. And thus through the operations of memory it appears that the soul itself is the image of God and a likeness so present to itself and having Him so present that it actually grasps Him, and by its power 'is capable of Him and can be a partaker' of Him. 3. Now the operation of the intellective power consists in the perception of the intellect's understanding of terms, propositions and inferences.

Now the intellect grasps the things signified by terms when it comprehends what each thing is by its definition. But a definition has to be made by means of higher [terms], and those have to be defined by yet higher ones, until one arrives at the supreme and most general, which, if unknown, make it impossible to understand the lower ones by definition. Therefore, unless it be known what being in itself is, the definition of any particular substance cannot be fully known. Nor can being in itself be known unless it be known together with its conditions, which are: one, true, good.

Now 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 absolutely, as being in part and as being totally, as being passing and as being abiding, as being through another and as being through itself, as being mingled with non-being and as pure being, as being dependent and as being absolute, as being posterior and as being prior, as being changeable and as being unchangeable, 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 fully to resolve the understanding of any one of created beings unless it be aided by the understanding of being most pure, most actual, most complete and absolute;

which is being absolutely and eternal, in which are the reasons of all things in their purity. But how would the intellect know that this is a defective and incomplete being, if it had no knowledge of being without any defect? And so with the other aforementioned conditions. Now the intellect is said truly to comprehend the understanding of propositions when it knows with certainty that they are true; and to know this is to know that it cannot be deceived in that comprehension. For it knows that that truth cannot be otherwise; it knows therefore that that truth is unchangeable.

But since our mind itself is changeable, it cannot see that truth so unchangeably shining forth except through some light radiating altogether unchangeably, which it is impossible to be a mutable creature. It 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. Now our intellect truly perceives the understanding of an inference 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. And it perceives this necessary relation not only in beings, but also in non-beings.

For just as, when a man exists, it follows: if a man runs, a man is moved; so also when he does not exist. Therefore the necessity of an inference of this kind comes neither from the existence of the thing in matter, since that is contingent, nor from the existence of the thing in the soul, since then it would be a fiction if it were not in the thing: it comes therefore from the exemplarity in the eternal Art, according to which things have an aptitude and relation to one another according to the representation of that eternal Art. Therefore, as Augustine says in 'On True Religion', the light of everyone who truly reasons is kindled from that Truth and strives to attain to it.

From this it manifestly appears that our intellect is joined to that eternal Truth itself, since it can grasp nothing true with certainty except through that Truth teaching. You can therefore see by yourself the Truth which teaches you, if concupiscences and phantasms do not hinder you and do not interpose themselves like clouds between you and the ray of Truth. 4. Now the operation of the elective power is observed in counsel, judgment and desire. Counsel consists in inquiring which is better, this or that. But a thing is not called better except by an approach to the best; and the approach is according to greater assimilation; no one therefore knows whether this is better than that, unless he knows that it is more assimilated to the best.

But no one knows that something is more assimilated to another unless he knows that other; for I do not know that this man is like Peter unless I know or am acquainted with Peter: therefore on everyone who takes counsel there is necessarily impressed a notion of the highest good. Now a sure judgment about matters of counsel is by some law. But no one judges with certainty by a law unless he be certain that that law is right, and that he himself ought not to judge it; yet our mind judges about itself: since, then, it cannot judge about the law by which it judges, that law is higher than our mind, and by it the mind judges insofar as that law is impressed upon it. But nothing is higher than the human mind except He alone who made it:

therefore in judging, our deliberative power reaches as far as the divine laws, if it resolves with full resolution. Now desire is principally for that which most moves it. But what is most loved most moves it; and what is most loved is to be blessed; yet to be blessed is not had except through the best and the ultimate end: therefore human desire seeks nothing except either because it is the highest good, or because it is ordered toward it, or because it has some image of it. So great is the force of the highest 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 image and a simulacrum for the truth.

See therefore how the soul is near to God, and how, according to their operations, memory leads into eternity, intelligence into truth, and the elective power into the highest goodness. 5. Now according to the order, origin and relation of these powers it leads into the most blessed Trinity itself. For from memory arises intelligence as its offspring, since we understand then, when a likeness, which is in the memory, springs forth in the keen edge of the intellect, and this is nothing other than the word; from memory and intelligence is breathed forth love as the bond of both.

These three, namely the generating mind, the word and love, are in the soul as memory, intelligence and will, which are consubstantial, coequal and coeval, mutually circumincessing one another. If, therefore, God is a perfect Spirit, He has memory, intelligence and will, He has also the begotten Word and the breathed-forth Love, which are necessarily distinguished, since the one is produced from the other—not essentially, not accidentally, therefore personally.

While, therefore, the mind considers itself, it rises through itself as through a mirror to behold the blessed Trinity of the Father, the Word and Love—three persons coeternal, coequal and consubstantial, in such a way that each is in each of the others, yet one is not the other, but these three are one God. 6. To this contemplation which the soul has of its principle, three and one, through the trinity of its powers by which it is the image of God, it is aided by the lights of the sciences, which perfect and inform it and represent the most blessed Trinity in a threefold way. 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. 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, powers and diffusive operations. And therefore the first leads into the first principle, the Father; the second into His image, the Son; the third into the gift of the Holy Spirit. The second is divided into grammar, which makes [men] able to express; logic, which makes them keen to argue; and rhetoric, which makes them apt to persuade or move. And this likewise intimates the mystery of the most blessed Trinity.

The third [philosophy] is divided into the monastic, the economic and the political. And therefore the first intimates the unbegottenness of the first principle, the second the intimacy of the Son, the third the liberality of the Holy Spirit. 7. Now all these sciences have sure and infallible rules, as lights and rays descending from the eternal law into our mind. And therefore our mind, irradiated and suffused with such great splendors, unless it be blind, can be led by the hand through itself to contemplate that eternal Light. But the irradiation and consideration of this Light suspends the wise in admiration, and on the contrary leads the unwise, who do not believe in order that they may understand, into perturbation, so that there may be fulfilled that prophetic word:

'Thou enlightenest wonderfully from the everlasting mountains; all the foolish of heart were troubled.' 1. But since it falls to us to contemplate the first principle not only by passing through ourselves, but also within ourselves; and this is greater than the preceding: therefore this mode of considering obtains the fourth degree of contemplation. Now it seems wonderful, since it has been shown that God is so near to our minds, that so few are able to behold the first principle within themselves. But the reason is at hand, because the human mind, distracted by cares, does not enter into itself through memory; clouded over by phantasms, it does not return to itself through intelligence;

enticed by concupiscences, it in no way returns to itself through the desire of inward sweetness and spiritual gladness. Therefore, lying wholly amid these sensible things, it cannot re-enter into itself as into the image of God. 2. And since, where anyone has fallen, he must needs lie there, unless someone come and add help that he may rise again; our soul could not be perfectly raised up from these sensible things to the contemplation of itself and of the eternal Truth within itself, unless Truth, having assumed human form in Christ, became for itself a ladder restoring the former ladder which had been broken in Adam.

Therefore, however much one be enlightened by the light of nature and of acquired knowledge, he cannot enter into himself, that within himself he may delight in the Lord, except by the mediation of Christ, who says: 'I am the door. By me if anyone enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out and find pastures.' Now we do not draw near to this door unless we believe in Him, hope and love. It is necessary, therefore, if we wish to re-enter to the enjoyment of Truth as into paradise, that we enter through faith, hope and charity in the Mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, who is, as it were, the tree of life in the midst of paradise. 3.

The image of our mind must therefore be clothed over with the three theological virtues, by which the soul is purified, and thus the image is reformed and made conformable to the heavenly Jerusalem and a part of the Church militant, which, according to the Apostle, is the offspring of the heavenly Jerusalem. For he says: 'That Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother.' The soul, therefore, believing, hoping and loving Jesus Christ, who is the Word incarnate, uncreated and inspired, namely the way, the truth and the life; while by faith it believes in Christ as in the uncreated Word, which is the Word and splendor of the Father, recovers spiritual hearing and sight—hearing to receive the discourses of Christ, sight to consider the splendors of that Light.

Now while by hope it sighs to receive the inspired Word, through desire and affection it recovers spiritual smell. While by charity it embraces the incarnate Word, as receiving from Him delight and as passing over into Him through ecstatic love, it recovers taste and touch. These senses having been recovered, while it sees and hears its bridegroom, smells, tastes and embraces Him, it can sing, as the bride, the Song of Songs, which was composed for the exercise of contemplation according to this fourth degree, which no one grasps except him who receives it, because it consists more in affective experience than in rational consideration.

For in this degree, the interior senses being repaired to sense the supremely beautiful, to hear the supremely harmonious, to smell the supremely fragrant, to taste the supremely sweet, to apprehend the supremely delightful, the soul is disposed to mental ecstasies—namely through devotion, admiration and exultation—according to those three exclamations which occur in the Song of Songs. Of which the first occurs through abundance of devotion, by which the soul becomes 'like a column of smoke from the spices of myrrh and frankincense'; the second through excellence of admiration, by which the soul becomes 'like the dawn, the moon and the sun', according to the progress of the illuminations which suspend the soul in admiration of the bridegroom contemplated;

the third through the superabundance of exultation, by which the soul becomes overflowing with the most delicious delights of pleasure, leaning wholly upon her beloved. 4. These things being attained, our spirit is made hierarchical for ascending upward in conformity to that supernal Jerusalem, into which no one enters unless first it descend into the heart by grace, as John saw in his Apocalypse. Now it then descends into the heart, when, through the reformation of the image, through the theological virtues, through the delights of the spiritual senses and the suspensions of ecstasies, our spirit is made hierarchical, namely purged, illuminated and perfected.

—Thus it is also marked with the steps of the nine orders, when there are orderly disposed within it: annunciation, dictation, leading, ordering, strengthening, command, reception, revelation, anointing, which correspond step by step to the nine orders of Angels, so that the first three of the aforesaid steps regard, in the human mind, nature, the next three diligence, and the last three grace. These being had, the soul, entering into itself, enters into the supreme Jerusalem, where, considering the orders of Angels, it sees in them God, who, dwelling in them, works all their operations.

Hence Bernard says to Eugene 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 guards as salvation, in the Virtues works as virtue, in the Archangels reveals as light, in the Angels assists as piety.' From all of which God is seen to be all in all through contemplation of Him in the minds in which He dwells through the gifts of most overflowing charity. 5. Now to this degree of speculation the consideration of Sacred Scripture, divinely sent in, especially and chiefly lends help, just as philosophy does to the preceding.

For Sacred Scripture is principally about the works of restoration. Hence it too treats chiefly of faith, hope and charity, by which virtues the soul has to be reformed, and most especially of charity. Of which the Apostle says that it is 'the end of the commandment', inasmuch as it is 'from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned'. 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 commandments of the same, namely the love of God and of neighbor;