約伯倫理 第 251 章

Ibid. — And my ear received as it were by stealth the veins of his whisper. 51. He seeks a mind withdrawn from visible things. In how many ways He addresses it. — The ear of the heart receives by stealth the veins of the whisper on high, because the mind, breathed upon, comes to know the subtlety of the inmost utterance both suddenly and secretly. For unless it hides itself from outward desires, the inner light does not penetrate. And it is hidden that it may hear, and hears that it may be hidden; because, withdrawn from visible things, it beholds the invisible, and, filled with the invisible, it perfectly despises the visible. But it is to be noted that he does not say: My ear received as it were by stealth His whisper; but the veins of His whisper.

For the whisper of the hidden word is this very utterance of the inward inspiration. And the veins of the whisper are called the origins of the causes by which this inspiration itself is led to the mind. For God as it were opens the veins of His whisper when He secretly intimates to us by what modes He comes to the ear of our understanding. For sometimes He pricks us with love, sometimes with terror; sometimes He shows how utterly worthless present things are, and raises up our desire to love things eternal; sometimes He first points out things eternal, that afterward temporal things may grow vile. Sometimes He lays open to us our own evils, and extends us even to this, that we grieve also over the evils of others.

Sometimes He sets before our gaze the evils of others, and, having pricked us, wondrously corrects us from our own depravity. And so to hear by stealth the veins of the divine whisper is to acknowledge finely and secretly the hidden modes of the divine inspiration. 52. God whispers to us, because He does not make Himself fully manifest. Through created works, as through certain crannies, He offers Himself to be admired. — Yet we may understand the whisper, or the veins of the whisper, in still another way. For he who whispers speaks secretly, and does not express the voice, but imitates it. We, therefore, so long as we are pressed by the corruption of the flesh, in no way behold the brightness of the divine power as it remains unchangeable in itself:

because the keenness of our weakness does not endure that which flashes over us intolerably from the ray of His eternity. When, therefore, the almighty God shows Himself to us through the crannies of contemplation, He by no means speaks to us, but whispers, because, even though He does not fully make Himself known, yet He manifests something of Himself to the human mind. But then He no longer whispers, but speaks, when His sure appearance is revealed to us. For hence it is that in the Gospel the Truth says: I will openly announce to you concerning the Father (John xvi, 26). Hence John says: We shall see Him as He is (1 John iii, 2). Hence Paul says: Then shall I know, even as I am known (1 Cor. xiii, 12).

But now the divine whisper has as many veins toward us as there are created works over which the divinity itself presides. For while we behold all the things that are created, we are lifted up in admiration of the Creator. For just as water flowing gently is sought through the veins that have been channeled, so that it may be increased, and pours itself forth the more widely the more open veins it has found; so we, while we studiously gather the knowledge of the divinity from the consideration of His creature, as it were open the veins of His whisper toward us; because through that which we behold made, we admire the power of the Maker; and through the things that are in the open, that flows toward us which lies hidden in secret.

For it as it were bursts forth toward us through a certain sound, while it shows us His works to be considered, in which He in some manner indicates Himself, while He manifests how incomprehensible He is. Because, therefore, we cannot worthily consider Him, we hear not His voice, but scarcely His whisper. For because we are not even sufficient to weigh fully the very things that are created, it is rightly said: My ear received as it were by stealth the veins of His whisper. For, cast out from the joys of paradise and punished with the penalty of blindness, we scarcely lay hold of the veins of the whisper, because we too weigh His wondrous works but hurriedly and slightly. (Version XXI.)

But it is to be known that the more the mind, being lifted up, considers His power, the more, being restrained, it dreads His rectitude. Hence it is rightly subjoined: