Chapter 4 · On the beholding of God in His image, as reformed by gifts of grace — The Journey of the Mind into God
On the beholding of God in His image, as reformed by gifts of grace
But since, not only by passing through ourselves, but also within ourselves, we may behold the First Principle, and this vision is superior to the preceding, this mode of consideration occupies the fourth grade of contemplation. Strange it seems, when it has been shown that God is so near to our minds, that so few are able to behold the First Principle in themselves. But the reason is not far to seek. The human mind, distracted by cares, does not enter into itself through memory; beclouded with phantasms, it does not return to itself through intelligence; allured by appetites, it does not revert to itself through desire for internal sweetness and spiritual joy. Wherefore, being totally prostrate among these sensible things, it cannot enter in into itself, as into the image of God.
And since a man must lie in the spot where he falls, unless some one sets to work and helps him to rise, our souls could not be perfectly raised from these sensible things to the intuition of itself, and of eternal truth in itself, had not Truth, taking on human form in Christ, become a stair for it, repairing the former stair, which in Adam had been broken down. Hence, however far a man may be illuminated by the light of nature and acquired science, he cannot enter into himself, to enjoy himself in the Lord, save through the mediation of Christ, who says: “I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and shall find pasture.” But we do not approach this door unless we believe in him, hope for him, love him. If, therefore, we wish to re-enter to the fruition of truth, as into Paradise, we must go in through faith, hope, and love toward the mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ, who is, as it were, the tree of life in the midst of Paradise.
The image of our mind, therefore, must be clothed with the three theological virtues, whereby the soul is purified, illuminated, and perfected, and thus the image is reformed, repaired, and made suitable for 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: “The Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother.” The soul, therefore, that believes in, hopes for, and loves Jesus Christ, who is the Word of the Father, incarnate, uncreated, inspired—that is, the way, the truth, and the life—does three things. In believing, through faith, in Christ as the uncreated Word, which is the word and glory of the Father, it recovers spiritual hearing and sight—hearing to receive the sayings of Christ, sight to behold the glories of his light. In longing with hope to receive the inspired word, through desire and affection it recovers its spiritual scent. In embracing with love the incarnate Word, as deriving delight from it, and in passing over into it through ecstatic love, it recovers spiritual taste and touch.
Having recovered these senses, and seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and embracing its spouse, it is able to sing, like a bride, the Song of Songs, which was composed for the exercise of contemplation in this fourth grade, which no one comprehends save him who receives it, because it consists rather of affectional experience than of rational reflection. For in this grade, having recovered its interior senses, so as to see that which is supremely beautiful, to hear that which is supremely harmonious, to smell that which is supremely odoriferous, to taste that which is supremely sweet, to apprehend that which is supremely delightful, the mind is disposed to mental ecstasies—that is, through devotion, admiration, and exultation, according to the three exclamations uttered in the Song of Songs. Of these, the first is uttered through superabundance of devotion, whereby the soul becomes like a rod of smoke from the perfumes of myrrh and frankincense. The second is uttered through excellence of admiration, whereby the soul becomes as the dawn, the moon, and the sun, according to that process of illuminations which lift up the soul to consider and admire its spouse. The third takes place through superabundance of exultation, whereby the soul becomes rich in the joys of the sweetest delight, resting wholly upon its Beloved. Having acquired these things, our spirits become hierarchic to ascend aloft, through conformity to that supernal Jerusalem into which none enters, unless it first descend into his heart through grace, as John saw in his Apocalypse. But it descends into the heart when, through reformation of the image, through the theologic virtues, and through delights of the spiritual senses and upliftings of ecstasies, our spirits become hierarchic—that is, purged, illuminated, and perfected. Thus, likewise, it is marked by the grades of the nine orders, inasmuch as within it are disposed, in due order, annunciation, dictation, guidance, ordination, invigoration, command, acceptance, revelation, unification, which, in their grades, correspond to the nine orders of the Angels, so that the grades of the three first named have regard to the nature of the human soul; the three following grades, to its industry; the last three to grace. Possessing these, the soul, when it enters into itself, enters the supernal Jerusalem, where, considering the orders of the Angels, it sees in them God, who, dwelling in them, performs all their actions. Whence Bernard says to Eugenius that God in the Seraphim loves as charity; in the Cherubim knows as truth; in the Thrones sits as equity; in the Dominions rules as majesty; in the Principalities guides as principle; in the Powers preserves as health; in the Virtues acts as virtue; in the Archangels reveals as light; in the Angels assists as piety. From all these God is seen as all in all, through contemplation of him in those minds in which he dwells through gifts of the most abounding charity.
For this grade of speculation the special and principal aid is the consideration of Holy Scripture divinely inspired, just as Philosophy was the chief aid for the preceding grade; for Holy Scripture deals chiefly with works of reparation; whence it treats mainly of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and most especially of Charity. Of this the Apostle says: “The end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.” It is the fulfilment of the law, as he likewise says. And our Saviour himself asserts that all the Law and the Prophets hang upon his two precepts—that is, on love to God and our neighbor. These two are implied in the one spouse of the Church, Jesus Christ, who is at once our neighbor and God; at once our brother and Lord; at once the Word increate and incarnate, our former and reformer, Alpha and Omega. He is also the supreme hierarch, purging, illuminating, and perfecting his spouse—that is, the whole Church and every holy soul. Wherefore, of this Hierarch and this ecclesiastical Hierarchy the whole Scripture treats, by which we are taught to purge, illuminate, and perfect ourselves; and this according to the threefold law laid down in it, the natural law, the written law, and the law of grace; or, rather, according to its threefold principal part—viz., the Mosaic law, purging; the prophetic revelation, illuminating; and the Gospel teaching, perfecting; or, still rather, according to its triple spiritual meaning, the tropologic, which purges to honesty of life; the allegorical, which illuminates to clearness of understanding; the anagogic, which perfects through mental ecstasies and the sweetest participations in wisdom; according to the three theological virtues above-named, the spiritual senses as reformed, the three ecstasies above mentioned, and the hierarchical acts of the mind, whereby our minds revert to interior things, in them to behold God in the glories of the saints, and on them to sleep and rest in peace, as on couches, their spouse adjuring them not to stir, until they please.
From these two middle steps, over which we pass to the contemplation of God within us, as in mirrors of created images, and, as it were, after the manner of wings outstretched for flight—wings holding the middle place—we may understand that we are led to divine things through the natural powers of the rational soul, in accordance with their operations, habitudes, and scientific habits, as appears from the third grade. We are led, in the same manner, through the hierarchic acts of human minds—viz., purgation, illumination, and perfection; by the hierarchic revelations of the Holy Scriptures, given to us through the Angels, according to the saying of the Apostle, that “the law was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator”; and, finally, we are led through the hierarchies and hierarchic orders, which in our minds have to be disposed after the manner of the heavenly Jerusalem. Our minds, filled full with all these lights, are inhabited by the divine Wisdom, like houses of God, being made daughters, spouses, and friends of God, members, sisters, and co-heirs of Christ the head, and, likewise, temples of the Holy Spirit, founded by faith, reared by hope, and dedicated to God by sanctity of mind and body. All this is accomplished by the perfectly sincere love of Christ, “shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost which was given to us,” and without which we cannot know the secret things of God. For, as no one can know the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him, even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. Let us, therefore, be rooted and grounded in love, that we may be strong to apprehend, with all the saints, what is the length of eternity, the breadth of liberality, the height of majesty, and the depth of judging wisdom.