The Soul's Journey into God 1

1. In the beginning I invoke the First Principle, from whom all illuminations descend as from 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 the same God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and of blessed Francis, our leader and father, he may grant illumined eyes to our mind, to direct our feet into the way of that peace which surpasseth all understanding; which peace our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed and gave;

of which preaching our father Francis was the repeater, in all his preaching announcing peace at the beginning and at the end, in every greeting wishing peace, in every contemplation sighing for ecstatic peace, as a citizen of that Jerusalem of which that man of peace—who was peaceable with them that hated peace—says: Pray for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem. For he knew that the throne of Solomon was not save in peace, since it is written: In peace is his place made, and his dwelling in Sion. 2.

When therefore, after the example of the most blessed father Francis, I, a sinner, was seeking this peace with panting spirit—I who, in the place of that most blessed father himself, succeed as the seventh in the general ministry of the brethren after his passing, though in all things unworthy—it came to pass that by divine prompting, about the time of his passing, in the thirty-third year (1259), I withdrew to Mount Alverna as to a place of quiet, out of love for seeking peace of spirit; and being there, while in mind I was treating of certain mental ascents into God, among other things there occurred to me that miracle which befell blessed Francis himself in the aforesaid place, namely the vision of the winged Seraph in the likeness of the Crucified.

In the consideration of which it at once appeared to me that that vision portrayed the suspension of our father himself in contemplation, and the way by which one comes to it. 3. For by those six wings can rightly be understood the six suspensions of illuminations, by which the soul, as by certain steps or journeys, is disposed to pass over to peace through the ecstatic transports of Christian wisdom. But the way is none other than through the most ardent love of the Crucified, which so transformed Paul, caught up to the third heaven, into Christ, that he said: With Christ I am nailed to the cross; now not I, but Christ liveth in me;

which love also so absorbed the mind of Francis that his mind was made manifest in his flesh, while for two years before his death he bore the most sacred stigmata of the Passion in his body. The figure, therefore, of the six seraphic wings hints at six step-like illuminations, which begin from creatures and lead all the way up to God, to whom no one enters rightly save through the Crucified. For he that entereth not by the door, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber. But if any man enter in by the door, he shall go in and out and shall find pastures. On account of which John says in the Apocalypse: Blessed are they that wash their garments in the blood of the Lamb, that their power may be in the tree of life, and that they may enter through the gates into the city;

as if to say that one cannot enter the heavenly Jerusalem by contemplation unless one enter through the blood of the Lamb as through a gate. For no one is in any way disposed to the divine contemplations which lead to mental transports, unless, with Daniel, he be a man of desires. But desires are inflamed in us in two ways, namely by the cry of prayer, which makes one roar from the groaning of the heart, and by the brightness of speculation, by which the mind turns itself most directly and most intensely to the rays of light. 4.

Therefore, to the groaning of prayer through Christ crucified, by whose blood we are cleansed from the filth of vices, I first invite the reader, lest perchance he believe that reading suffices for him without unction, speculation without devotion, investigation without wonder, circumspection without exultation, industry without piety, knowledge without charity, understanding without humility, study without divine grace, the mirror without wisdom divinely inspired.

Therefore, having been prevented by divine grace, to the humble and the pious, the contrite and the devout, to those anointed with the oil of gladness and to lovers of divine wisdom inflamed with desire for it, who are willing to give themselves to magnifying, admiring, and even tasting God, I set forth the following speculations, intimating that the mirror set forth outwardly is little or nothing unless the mirror of our mind has been wiped clean and polished. Exercise thyself, therefore, O man of God, first at the remorse of a stinging conscience, before thou liftest thine eyes to the rays of wisdom shining back in its mirrors, lest perchance from the very speculation of the rays thou fall into a deeper pit of darkness. 5.

It has pleased me to divide the treatise into seven chapters, prefixing titles for the easier understanding of the things to be said. I ask, therefore, that the intent of the writer be weighed rather than the work, the sense of the words rather than the unpolished speech, the truth rather than the elegance, the exercise of affection rather than the erudition of the intellect. That this may be done, the progress of these speculations is not to be run through perfunctorily, but to be ruminated most slowly. 1. Blessed is the man whose help is from thee; he hath disposed ascents in his heart, in the vale of tears, in the place which he hath set. Since beatitude is nothing other than the enjoyment of the highest good; and the highest good is above us:

No one can be made blessed unless he ascend above his very self—not by a bodily ascent, but by an ascent of the heart. But we cannot be raised above ourselves except by a higher power lifting us up. For however the inner degrees be arranged, nothing comes to pass unless divine aid accompany it. And divine aid accompanies those who seek it from the heart, humbly and devoutly; and this is to sigh after Him in this valley of tears, which is done through fervent prayer. Prayer, therefore, is the mother and origin of all upward striving. And so Dionysius, in his book On Mystical Theology, wishing to instruct us toward mental ecstasies, sets prayer first. Let us therefore pray and say to the Lord our God:

Lead me, O Lord, in Thy way, and I shall walk in Thy truth; let my heart rejoice, that it may fear Thy name. 2. By praying in this prayer, one is enlightened to know the degrees of the divine ascent. Since the whole universe of things is a ladder for ascending unto God; and since among things some are a vestige, some an image, some are corporeal, some spiritual, some temporal, some everlasting, and through this some are outside us, some within us: in order that we may come to consider the First Principle, which is most spiritual and eternal and above us, we must pass through the vestige, which is corporeal and temporal and outside us—and this is to be led in the way of God;

we must enter into our own mind, which is the everlasting image of God, spiritual and within us—and this is to walk in the truth of God; we must transcend unto the eternal, the most spiritual, and that which is above us, by gazing toward the First Principle—and this is to rejoice in the knowledge of God and in reverence of His Majesty. 3. This, then, is the way of three days in the wilderness; this is the threefold illumination of a single day, the first being as evening, the second as morning, the third as midday; this regards the threefold existence of things, namely in matter, in intelligence, and in the eternal Art, according to which it was said: 'Let it be made, He made, and it was made';

this also regards the threefold substance in Christ, who is our ladder, namely the corporeal, the spiritual, and the divine. 4. According to this threefold progression our mind has three principal aspects. One is toward exterior corporeal things, according to which it is called animality or sensuality; another within itself and into itself, according to which it is called spirit; the third above itself, according to which it is called mind. From all these it ought to dispose itself to ascend unto God, so as to love Him with the whole mind, with the whole heart, and with the whole soul—in which consists the perfect observance of the Law and at the same time Christian wisdom. 5.

But since each of the aforesaid modes is doubled—according as it happens to consider God as Alpha and Omega, or inasmuch as it happens to see God in each of the aforesaid modes both as through a mirror and as in a mirror, or because one of these considerations may be mingled with the other joined to it, or may be considered in its own purity—hence it is necessary that these three principal degrees be ascended to a sixfold number; so that, just as God in six days perfected the whole world and rested on the seventh, so the lesser world may be led in most orderly fashion, by six degrees of illuminations following one upon another, to the rest of contemplation. As a figure of this, the throne of Solomon was ascended by six steps;

the Seraphim which Isaiah saw had six wings each; after six days the Lord called Moses out of the midst of the cloud, and Christ after six days, as is said in Matthew, led the disciples up the mountain and was transfigured before them. 6. According, then, to the six degrees of ascent unto God, there are six degrees of the soul's powers by which we ascend from the lowest to the highest, from the exterior to the innermost, from the temporal we climb to the eternal—namely sense, imagination, reason, intellect, intelligence, and the apex of the mind or the spark of synderesis. These degrees we have planted in us by nature, deformed by sin, reformed by grace; to be purged by justice, exercised by knowledge, perfected by wisdom. 7.

For according to the first institution of nature, man was created capable of the rest of contemplation, and therefore God placed him in the paradise of delights. But turning himself away from the true light toward a changeable good, he was bent down by his own fault, and his whole race by original sin, which doubly infected human nature, namely the mind with ignorance and the flesh with concupiscence; so that man, blinded and bent down, sits in darkness and does not see the light of heaven, unless grace with justice come to his aid against concupiscence, and knowledge with wisdom against ignorance. All this is wrought through Jesus Christ, who is made unto us by God wisdom and justice and sanctification and redemption.

Since He is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and is the Word incarnate full of grace and truth, He wrought grace and truth: namely, He infused the grace of charity, which—since it is from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned—rectifies the whole soul according to its threefold aspect aforesaid; and He taught the knowledge of truth according to the threefold mode of theology, namely the symbolic, the proper, and the mystical, so that through the symbolic we may rightly use sensible things, through the proper we may rightly use intelligible things, and through the mystical we may be caught up to supramental ecstasies. 8.

Whoever, then, wishes to ascend unto God must—having shunned the fault that deforms nature—exercise the aforesaid natural powers: toward reforming grace, and this through prayer; toward purifying justice, and this in conduct; toward illuminating knowledge, and this in meditation; toward perfecting wisdom, and this in contemplation. Therefore, just as no one comes to wisdom except through grace, justice, and knowledge, so no one comes to contemplation except through clear meditation, holy conversation, and devout prayer. As, then, grace is the foundation of the rectitude of the will and of the clear illumination of reason;

so we must first pray, then live in holiness, thirdly attend to the spectacles of truth, and by attending ascend step by step until we come to the high mountain where the God of gods is seen in Zion. 9. Since, therefore, in Jacob's ladder it is first to ascend rather than to descend, let us place the first step of ascent at the bottom, setting this whole sensible world before us as a mirror through which we may pass over to God, the supreme Craftsman—that we may be true Hebrews passing over from Egypt to the land promised to the Fathers; that we may also be Christians passing with Christ out of this world to the Father; that we may also be lovers of Wisdom, who calls and says:

Come over to me, all you who desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For from the greatness of the beauty and of the creature, the Creator of these may be knowably seen. 10. Now there shines forth in created things the supreme power and wisdom and benevolence of the Creator, according as the sense of the flesh announces this in threefold manner to the inner sense. For the sense of the flesh serves the intellect either in rationally investigating, or in faithfully believing, or in intellectually contemplating. The one contemplating considers the actual existence of things; the one believing, the habitual course of things; the one reasoning, the potential pre-eminence of things. 11.

In the first manner, the gaze of the one contemplating, considering things in themselves, sees in them weight, number, and measure: weight as to position, where they incline; number, by which they are distinguished; and measure, by which they are limited. And through this he sees in them mode, species, and order, and likewise substance, power, and operation. From these he can rise, as from a vestige, to understand the immense power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator. 12. In the second manner, the gaze of the believer, considering this world, attends to its origin, course, and end. For by faith we believe that the ages were framed by the Word of life; by faith we believe that the times of the three laws—namely of nature, of Scripture, and of grace—succeeded one another and ran their course in most orderly fashion;

by faith we believe that the world is to be ended by the final judgment: in the first noting the power, in the second the providence, in the third the justice of the Supreme Principle. 13. In the third manner, the gaze of the one rationally investigating sees that some things merely are; others are and live; and others are, live, and discern—and the first indeed are lesser, the second intermediate, the third better. He sees again that some things are merely corporeal, others partly corporeal and partly spiritual; from which he notes that some are purely spiritual, as the better and more worthy of both. He sees nonetheless that some things are mutable and incorruptible, as the heavenly bodies;

from which he notes that some things are immutable and incorruptible, as the supercelestial things. Therefore from these visible things he rises to consider the power, wisdom, and goodness of God as existing, living, and intelligent, purely spiritual and incorruptible and unchangeable. 14. Now this consideration is enlarged according to the sevenfold condition of creatures, which is a sevenfold testimony of the divine power and goodness, if the origin and order of all things be considered. For the origin of things, according to creation, distinction, and adornment—as regards the works of the six days—proclaims the divine power producing all things from nothing, the wisdom lucidly distinguishing all things, and the goodness lavishly adorning all things.

Now the magnitude 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 clear in the diffusion of light; according to the efficacy of an operation that is inmost, continuous, and diffused, as is clear in the operation of fire—manifestly indicates the immensity of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the triune God, who exists uncircumscribed in all things through power, presence, and essence. And the multitude of things, according to the general, special, and individual diversity in substance, in form or figure, and in efficacy, beyond all human estimation, manifestly intimates and shows the immensity of the three aforesaid conditions in God.

Now the beauty of things, according to the variety of lights, figures, and colors in bodies simple, mixed, and even complex—as in heavenly and mineral bodies, such as stones and metals, plants and animals—evidently proclaims the three aforesaid. And the fullness of things, according as matter is full of forms according to the seminal reasons, form is full of power according to active potency, and power is full of effects according to efficiency, manifestly declares the same thing.

The manifold operation—according as it is natural, according as it is artificial, according as it is moral—by its most manifold variety shows the immensity of that power, art, and goodness, which is indeed to all things 'the cause of being, the ground of understanding, and the order of living.' And the order, according to the principle of duration and of influence, namely by prior and posterior, higher and lower, nobler and ignobler, in the book of the creature manifestly intimates the primacy, sublimity, and dignity of the First Principle as regards the infinity of power; and the order of the divine laws, precepts, and judgments in the book of Scripture intimates the immensity of wisdom;

and the order of the divine Sacraments, benefits, and recompenses in the body of the Church intimates the immensity of goodness—so that this very order most evidently leads us by the hand to the First and Supreme, the most powerful, most wise, and most good. 15. Whoever, then, is not illumined by such great splendors of created things is blind; whoever does not awake at such great shouts is deaf; whoever does not praise God from all these effects is mute; whoever does not note the First Principle from such great signs is foolish.

Open therefore your eyes, apply your spiritual ears, unloose your lips, and apply your heart, that in all creatures you may see, hear, praise, love, and worship, magnify and honor your God—lest perchance the whole world rise up against you. For on this account the world shall fight against the senseless, and on the contrary it shall be a cause of glory to the sensible, who according to the Prophet can say: Thou hast delighted me, O Lord, in Thy doing, and in the works of Thy hands I shall rejoice. How magnified are Thy works, O Lord! Thou hast made all things in wisdom; the earth is filled with Thy possession. 1.

But since, in regard to the mirror of sensible things, it happens not only to contemplate God through them as through vestiges, but also in them, inasmuch as He is in them by essence, power, and presence—and to consider this is higher than the preceding—therefore a consideration of this kind holds the second place, as the second degree of contemplation, by which we ought to be led by the hand to contemplate God in all the creatures that enter into our mind through the bodily senses. 2. It is to be noted, then, that this world, which is called the macrocosm, enters into our soul, which is called the lesser world, through the gates of the five senses, according to the apprehension, delectation, and judgment of these sensible things. This is clear thus:

that in it some things are generating, some generated, some governing these and those. The generating are simple bodies, namely the heavenly bodies and the four elements. For from the elements, by the power of light reconciling the contrariety of the elements in compounds, whatsoever are generated and produced by the operation of natural power have their being generated and produced. The generated, indeed, are bodies composed of elements, such as minerals, vegetables, sensible things, and human bodies.

The things ruling these and those are spiritual substances, whether wholly conjoined, as are the souls of brutes; or conjoined separably, as are rational spirits; or conjoined separably, as are the heavenly spirits, which the philosophers call Intelligences and we call Angels. To these, according to the philosophers, it belongs to move the heavenly bodies, and through this is attributed to them the administration of the universe, in receiving from the First Cause, namely God, the influence of power, which they pour back according to the work of governance, which regards the natural subsistence of things.

But according to the theologians the governance of the universe is attributed to these same spirits according to the command of the Most High God as regards the works of restoration, according to which they are called ministering spirits, sent forth for the sake of those who receive the inheritance of salvation. 3. Man, therefore, who is called the lesser world, has five senses as it were five gates, through which the knowledge of all things that are in the sensible world enters into his soul.

For through sight enter sublime and luminous bodies and other colored things; through touch, indeed, solid and earthy bodies; through the three intermediate senses enter intermediate things, as through taste watery things, through hearing airy things, through smell vaporous things, which have something of a moist nature, something of the airy, something of the fiery or hot, as is clear in smoke dissolved from aromatic substances. Through these gates, therefore, enter both simple bodies and also composite ones mixed from these. But since 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,' while certain things are moved and at rest of themselves, as are animals: while through these five senses we apprehend the motions of bodies, we are led by the hand to the knowledge of spiritual movers, as through an effect to the knowledge of causes. 4. There enters, therefore, into the human soul through apprehension, as regards three kinds of things, this whole sensible world. Now these exterior sensibles are what first enter into the soul through the gates of the five senses; they enter, I say, not through their substances, but through their likenesses, first generated in the medium, and from the medium into the organ, and from the exterior organ into the interior, 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 turning of the apprehensive power upon it, brings about the apprehension of all those things which the soul apprehends exteriorly. 5. Upon this apprehension, if it be of a fitting thing, there follows delectation. Now the sense is delighted in an object perceived through an abstracted likeness, either by reason of beauty, as in sight; or by reason of sweetness, as in smell and hearing; or by reason of wholesomeness, as in taste and touch—speaking by appropriation. But every delectation is by reason of proportionality.

But since the species holds the principle of form, power, and operation, according as it has respect to the principle from which it flows, to the medium through which it passes, and to the term into which it acts: therefore proportionality is attended to either in the likeness, according as it holds the principle of species or form, and so it is called beauty, because 'beauty is nothing other than numerical equality,' or 'a certain arrangement of parts together with sweetness of color.' Or proportionality is attended to inasmuch as it holds the principle of potency or power, and so it is called sweetness, when the agent power does not disproportionately exceed the recipient; for sense is saddened in extremes and delighted in means.

Or it is attended to inasmuch as it holds the principle of efficacy and impression, which is then proportional when the agent by impressing fills the need of the patient—and this is to save and nourish it, which appears most of all in taste and touch. And thus, through delectation, the delightful exterior things enter into the soul through their likeness according to the threefold reason of delighting. 6. After this apprehension and delectation there comes judgment, by which it is judged not only whether this be white or black, since this pertains to the particular sense; not only whether it be wholesome or harmful, since this pertains to the interior sense; but also, since it is judged and a reason is rendered why this delights;

and in this act there is inquiry into the reason for the delectation which is perceived in the sense from the object. This is the case when the reason for the beautiful, the sweet, and the wholesome is sought: and it is found that this is the proportion of equality. Now the reason of equality is the same in great and small things, nor is it extended by dimensions, nor does it succeed or pass away with passing things, nor is it altered by motions. It abstracts, therefore, from place, time, and motion, and through this it is unchangeable, uncircumscribable, and wholly spiritual. Judgment, therefore, is the action which makes the sensible species, sensibly received through the senses, enter into the intellective power by purifying and abstracting it.

And thus this whole world has to enter into the human soul through the gates of the senses according to the three operations aforesaid. 7. Now all these are vestiges in which we can behold our God. For since the apprehended species is a likeness generated in the medium and then impressed upon the organ itself, and through that impression leads into its principle, namely into the object to be known;

it manifestly intimates that He who is the image of the invisible God and the splendor of glory and the figure of His substance, who is everywhere through His first generation—just as an object generates its likeness throughout the whole medium—through the grace of union is united, as the species to the bodily organ, to an individual of rational nature, so that through that union He might lead us back to the Father as to the fontal principle and object. So, then, all knowable things, having to generate their own species, manifestly proclaim that in them, as in mirrors, can be seen the eternal generation of the Word, the Image, and the Son eternally emanating from God the Father. 8.

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;

which two are signified in the one bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ, who is at once neighbor and God, at once brother and lord, at once also king and friend, at once the Word uncreated and incarnate, our former and reformer, as Alpha and Omega; who is also the supreme hierarch, purging, illuminating and perfecting the bride, namely the whole Church and every holy soul. 6. Concerning this hierarch and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, therefore, is the whole of Sacred Scripture, by which we are taught to be purged, illuminated and perfected, and this according to the threefold law handed down in it, namely of nature, of Scripture and of grace;

or rather according to its threefold principal part, namely the Mosaic law that purges, the prophetic revelation that illumines, and the evangelical instruction that perfects; or most of all according to its threefold spiritual understanding: the tropological, which purges unto honesty of life; the allegorical, which illumines unto clarity of understanding;

the anagogical, which perfects through mental ecstasies and the most sweet perceptions of wisdom, according to the three aforementioned theological virtues and the reformed spiritual senses and the three aforesaid ecstasies and the hierarchical acts of the mind, by which our mind returns to interior things, that there it may behold God in the splendors of the Saints, and in those same splendors, as in resting-chambers, may sleep in peace and rest, the bridegroom adjuring that it be not awakened until it proceed by His will. 7.

Now from these two middle degrees, by which we enter to contemplate God within us as in the mirrors of created images—and this as it were after the manner of wings spread out for flying, which held the middle place—we can understand that in divine things we are led by the hand through the powers of the rational soul itself, naturally implanted, as regards their operations, dispositions and scientific habits; as appears from the third degree. We are also led by the hand through the reformed powers of the soul itself, and this by the gratuitous virtues, the spiritual senses and the mental ecstasies; as is evident from the fourth.

We are nonetheless led by the hand through the hierarchical operations, namely of purgation, illumination and perfection of human minds, through the hierarchical revelations of the Sacred Scriptures given to us by the Angels, according to that saying of the Apostle, that the Law was given by Angels in the hand of a Mediator. And finally we are led by the hand through the hierarchies and hierarchical orders, which have to be arranged in our mind after the likeness of the supernal Jerusalem. 8. Our mind, filled with all these intellectual lights, is inhabited by divine Wisdom as the house of God, made the daughter, bride and friend of God; made a member of Christ the head, His sister and coheir;

made nonetheless the temple of the Holy Spirit, founded by faith, raised up by hope and dedicated to God by holiness of mind and body. All of which the most sincere charity of Christ effects, which is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, without which Spirit we cannot know the secret things of God. For just as the things which are of man no one can know but the spirit of man which is in him, so also the things which are of God no one knows but the Spirit of God. Let us therefore be rooted and grounded in charity, that we may be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the length of eternity, what the breadth of liberality, what the sublimity of majesty and what the depth of the judging Wisdom. 1.

Now since it falls to us to contemplate God not only outside us and within us, but also above us—outside through vestige, within through image, and above through the light of eternal Truth, since 'our very mind is immediately formed by Truth itself'—those who have been exercised in the first mode have already entered into the court before the tabernacle; those, however, in the second, have entered into the holy place; while those in the third enter with the high priest into the holy of holies; where above the ark are the Cherubim of glory overshadowing the propitiatory; by which we understand two modes or degrees of contemplating the invisible and eternal things of God, of which one is concerned with the essential attributes of God, the other with the proper attributes of the persons. 2.

The first mode first and principally fixes its gaze upon being itself, saying that 'He who is' is the first name of God. The second mode fixes its gaze upon the good itself, saying that this is the first name of God. The first regards most fittingly the Old Testament, which especially proclaims the unity of the divine essence; whence it was said to Moses: 'I am who am.' The second regards the New, which determines the plurality of persons, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore our Master Christ, wishing to raise the young man who had kept the Law to evangelical perfection, attributed the name of goodness to God principally and precisely. 'No one,' He says, 'is good but God alone.'

Damascene, therefore, following Moses, says that 'He who is' is the first name of God; Dionysius, following Christ, says that 'the good' is the first name of God. 3. He, therefore, who wishes to contemplate the invisible things of God as regards the unity of the essence, let him first fix his gaze upon being itself, and let him see that being itself is so most certain in itself that it cannot be thought not to be, because the most pure being does not present itself except in the full flight from non-being, just as nothing does in the full flight from being. As, therefore, utter nothing has nothing of being nor of its conditions; so, on the contrary, 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.

Now since non-being is the privation of being, it does not fall within the intellect except through being; but being does not fall within it through another, for everything that is understood is understood either as non-being, or as being in potency, or as being in act. If, therefore, non-being cannot be understood except through being, and being in potency only through being in act; and 'being' names the very pure act of a being: therefore being is what first falls within the intellect, and that being is what is pure act. But this is not particular being, which is analogous being, because it has the least of act, in that it least is. It remains, therefore, that that being is the divine being. 4.

Wondrous, therefore, is the blindness of the intellect, which does not consider that which it sees first and without which it can know nothing. But just as the eye, intent upon the various differences of colors, does not see the light through which it sees all the rest—and if it does see it, takes no notice of it—so the eye of our mind, intent upon particular and universal beings, does not advert to Being itself, which lies beyond every genus, even though it is the first thing to present itself to the mind and through it all other things are known. Hence it appears most truly that 'as the eye of the bat is disposed toward the light, so is the eye of our mind disposed toward the most manifest things of nature'; for, accustomed to the darkness of beings and to the phantasms of sensible things, when it gazes upon the very light of the supreme Being, it seems to itself to see nothing;