1. Wherefore I have so proclaimed the sublimity of the contemplative life in the future, where the perfection is to be perfected, as not to deny that it can in the present be apprehended by all despisers of the world: if only they turn themselves to it with full devotion; if, kindled with desire of it, they scorn present allurements, and being made far stronger than that earthly occupations should ensnare them, they cleave to the consideration of divine matters and future promises. But if we consider the saying of the Apostle Paul, by which, distinguishing between the knowledge which is here and that which is to be there, he says: We know in part and we prophesy in part (1 Cor. 13:9);
we can neither nor ought we to compare the divine contemplation which is in this life with that future one; since the same Apostle adds and says: But when that which is perfect is come—signifying it in that life—then that which is in part shall be done away (Ibid., 10): and thus what now we perceive in part, we shall then, being brought to that fullness of the divine contemplation, see perfectly. 2. Nor indeed, because there the knowledge of all things will be seen not in parts but at once and whole, is even some knowledge of whatever sort to be despaired of in this frail body. For although the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the mind that thinks on many things (Wisdom 9:15);
nevertheless, as far as the human mind can—which its Creator made to his own image—let it strive even here to see God intelligibly through faith, so that it may see him more fully when it has come, by the gift of its Maker, to sight. Note how divinely the holy Apostle distinguished sight and faith, so as to say: We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). Faith therefore is that by which one walks, and sight is that which is seen: for in this life, where by living well through faith we make progress, we walk in a certain way by the steps of good works, but coming in the future to sight, there will no longer be any way for us to walk further as though making progress: