Chapter 3 · On the beholding of God through His image impressed upon the natural powers — The Journey of the Mind into God
On the beholding of God through His image impressed upon the natural powers
But, since the two grades above described, leading us to God by his footprints, whereby he is reflected in all created things, have guided us to the point where we entered into ourselves—that is, into our minds, in which the divine image is reflected—we must now, in the third place, enter into ourselves, and leaving, as it were, the forecourt outside, endeavor, through a mirror, to see God in the Holy Place—that is, in the forepart of the Tabernacle—wherein, as from a candlestick, the light of truth is reflected on the faces of our minds, in which, indeed, is resplendent the image of the most blessed Trinity.
Enter, therefore, into thyself and see that thy mind loves itself most fervently, and could not love itself if it did not know itself, or know itself if it did not remember itself, since we seize nothing through intelligence that is not present in our memory. And hereby thou perceivest, not with the eye of flesh, but with the eye of reason, that thy soul has a threefold power. Consider, therefore, the operations and habits of these three powers, and thou wilt be able to see God through thyself, as through a likeness, and this is seeing him through a glass and in a riddle.
But the operation of memory is retention and re-presentation, not only of things present, corporeal, and temporal, but also of things successive, simple, and sempiternal. For the memory retains past things through recollection, present things through susception, future things through foresight. It retains also simple things; for example, the principles of continuous and discreet quantities, as point, instant, unity, without which it is impossible to remember or to think the things which have these for their principles. No less does it retain, as sempiternal and sempiternally, the principles and dignities of the sciences, because it can never so forget them, while it uses reason, that it will not accept them and assent to them, as soon as it hears them, and this not as if it perceived them afresh, but as recognizing them to be innate in itself and familiar. This becomes clear as soon as we propose to any one a choice between affirmation and negation with regard to anything, whether “every whole is greater than its part,” or whatever other dignity, being above contradiction, is admitted by reason. From the first actual retention, therefore, of temporal things—that is, of things past, present, and future—it receives an image of eternity, whose indivisible present extends to all times. From the second it appears that it must not only be informed from without, through phantasms, but also from above, by taking up and having in itself simple forms which cannot enter through the gates of the senses and the phantasms of sensible things. From the third we learn that it has present in it an unchangeable light, in which it remembers the unvarying truths. And thus, through the operations of the memory, it appears that the mind itself is an image of God, and a similitude so present to him, and having him so present to it, that it actually grasps him, is potentially capable of holding him, and may become a partaker in him.
Again, the operation of the intellective power consists in the perception of the meaning of terms, propositions, and inferences. But the intellect seizes the meanings of terms when it comprehends, by definition, what any particular thing is. But a definition can be made only through higher notions, and these have to be defined by still higher ones, until we arrive at the highest and most general, without a knowledge of which the lower ones cannot be definitely understood. Unless, therefore, we know what being-in-itself is, we cannot know the definition of any special substance. But being-in-itself cannot be known unless it is known along with its conditions, which are unity, truth, and goodness. But, since being can be thought as diminished and as complete, as imperfect and as perfect, as potential and as actual, as relative and as absolute, as partial and as total, as transient and as permanent, as through another and as through itself, as mixed with non-being and as pure, as dependent and as absolute, as posterior and as prior, as mutable and as immutable, as simple and as compound—since the privations and defects can in no degree be known save through the positions, our intellect, as being purely analytical, does not attain an understanding of any created entity, unless it be aided by the understanding of that being which is altogether pure, altogether actual, altogether complete and absolute, which is simply and eternally being, in which are the grounds of all things in their purity. How, indeed, should our intellect know that this being is a defective and incomplete being, if it had no knowledge of that being which is without all defect? And so on of the other conditions above specified. But our intellect is then said to comprehend truly the meaning of propositions when it knows with certainty that they are true; and to know this is to know, since it cannot be deceived in that comprehension; for it knows that that truth cannot be otherwise. It knows, therefore, that this truth is unchangeable. But since our minds are changeable, they cannot see that truth unchangeably reflected except by some other light which radiates altogether unchangeably, and this cannot possibly be a mutable, created thing. It knows, therefore, in that light which lighteth every man as he cometh into the world. This is the true light, which in the beginning was with God. Our intellect, then, truly perceives the meaning of an inference when it sees that the conclusion necessarily follows from the premises. This it sees not only in necessary, but also in contingent, terms; as, for example, in this: If a man runs, a man moves. Again, he perceives this necessary habit not only in things that are, but also in things that are not. For example, the affirmation: If a man runs, a man moves, is equally true whether a man exist or do not exist. Hence the necessity of this sort of inference does not come from the existence of the thing in matter, because that is contingent; nor from the existence of the thing in the soul, because then it would be a fiction, if it were not in the thing. It comes, therefore, from the exemplarity in the eternal art, according to which things have mutually an aptitude and habit for the representation of that eternal art. Hence, as Augustine says in his treatise on “The True Religion,” the light of every man who reasons truly is lit by that truth, and endeavors to arrive at that truth; from which it is obvious that our intellect is joined to the eternal truth itself, inasmuch as it can grasp no truth with certainty except through its teaching. Thou mayest, therefore, of thyself see the truth which teaches thee, if appetites and phantasms do not prevent thee and interpose themselves, as clouds, between thee and the ray of the truth.
The action of the power of choice is observed in counsel, judgment, desire. Counsel consists in inquiring which is better—this or that. By “better” we mean approaching more closely to the best. But approach implies greater assimilation. No one, therefore, knows whether this is better than that, unless he knows that it more closely resembles the best. And no one knows that one thing more closely resembles another, unless he knows that other. For I do not know that this man resembles Peter, unless I know or am acquainted with Peter. Every one, therefore, who takes counsel is impressed with the knowledge of the highest good. But any certain judgment with respect to things about which counsel can be taken must follow some law. And no one judges with certainty according to a law, unless he is certain that that law is right, and that he must not judge it. But our minds judge with regard to themselves. Since, then, they may not judge the law according to which they judge, that law is superior to our minds, and by this they judge according as it has been impressed upon them. And nothing is superior to the human mind save him alone who made it. Therefore, in judging, our deliberative power ascends to the divine laws, if it analyze with complete analysis. Desire, again, is chiefly directed to that which most deeply moves it. But that moves it most deeply which is most deeply loved; and that which is most deeply loved is happiness. Again, happiness is not possessed except through the highest and ultimate end. But human desire craves nothing save the highest good, or what is co-ordinated with it, or what has some resemblance to it. Such is the power of the highest good that nothing can be loved by the creature save through the desire of that good. The creature is deceived and errs, when it accepts the semblance and image for the truth.
Behold, therefore, how near the soul is to God, and how memory leads to eternity, intelligence to truth, and power of choice to the highest goodness, according to their operations. Again, according to the order, origin, and habit of these powers, it leads up to the Blessed Trinity itself; for from memory arises intelligence, as its offspring; because then we understand, when a similitude which is in the memory, results in clearness of intellect, which is nothing else than the Word. From memory and intelligence is breathed forth love, as the bond between the two. These three—the generant mind, the word, and love—are in the soul as memory, intelligence, and love, which are consubstantial, coequal, and coeval, reciprocally passing in each other. If, therefore, God is perfect spirit, he has memory, intelligence, and will; he has the begotten Word and the breathed Love. These are necessarily distinguished, since the one is produced by the other, not essentially, not accidentally; therefore, personally. When, therefore, the mind considers itself, it rises through itself, as through a mirror, to behold the blessed Trinity of Father, Word, and Love—three persons coeternal, coequal, and consubstantial—so that each of the three is in each of the other two, whereas one is not the other, but these three are one God.
To this beholding of its own principle, three and one, through the trinity of its own powers, whereby it is the image of God, the soul is aided by the lights of the sciences, which perfect and inform it, and in three ways represent the most blessed Trinity; for all Philosophy is either natural, or rational, or moral. The first treats of the cause of being, and therefore leads to the Power of the Father; the second, of the ground of understanding, and therefore leads to the Wisdom of the Word; the third, of the order of living, and therefore leads to the Goodness of the Holy Spirit. Again, the first is divided into metaphysics, mathematics, and physics. Of these, the first treats of the essences of things, the second of their numbers and figures, the third of their natures, powers, and diffusive actions. Hence, the first leads to the First Principle, the Father; the second to his Image, the Son; the third to the Gift of the Holy Spirit. The second is divided into grammar, which imparts power of expression; logic, which imparts perspicacity in argument; rhetoric, which imparts skill in persuading or moving; and these, in like manner, involve the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity. The third is divided into monastics, economics, and politics. The first of these involves the innascibility of the First Principle; the second, the familiarity of the Son; the third, the liberality of the Holy Spirit. But all these sciences have fixed and infallible rules, as lights and rays descending from the eternal law into our minds. And thus our minds, being irradiated and superfused with so many splendors, may, if they be not blind, be led through themselves to the contemplation of that eternal light. And the irradiation and consideration of this light lifts up the wise into admiration, whereas it leads the foolish, who do not believe that they may understand, into confusion, so that the saying of the Prophet is fulfilled; “Thou shinest wondrously from the eternal hills: all the foolish were confounded in their hearts.”