Chapter 6 · On the beholding of the Most Blessed Trinity in its name which is Good — The Journey of the Mind into God
On the beholding of the Most Blessed Trinity in its name which is Good
After the consideration of essentials, the eye of the intelligence must be raised to the contemplation of the Most Blessed Trinity, so that the second Cherub may be set up beside the first. For, as being is the principle of the vision of essentials and the name whereby other things are known, so the good is the chief foundation for the contemplation of emanations. Behold, therefore, and observe how the Best—which simply is, than which nothing better can be thought, and which is such that it cannot be thought not to be, because to be is altogether better than not to be—is in such a way that it cannot be rightly thought unless it be thought as three and one; for by the good is meant that which is self-diffusive. Therefore the Supreme Good is supremely self-diffusive. But the highest diffusion cannot be unless it be actual and intrinsic, substantial and hypostatic, natural and voluntary, free and necessary, indeficient and perfect. Unless, therefore, there were eternally in the Highest Good an actual, consubstantial, and hypostatic production, as noble as that which produces, in the form of generation and spiration, so as to produce an eternal principle eternally acting as co-principle, and which shall be beloved and beloved in company, that is, begotten and breathed forth—that is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—it would in no way be the Highest Good, because it would not be in the highest degree diffused; for temporal diffusion in created things is only as a centre or point in comparison with the infinity of eternal goodness. Hence no diffusion can be thought greater than this, in which the diffuser communicates to another his whole substance and nature. It would not be the Highest Good, if it could lack reality or intellect. If, therefore, with thy mind’s eye, thou canst behold the purity of goodness—which is the pure act of a principle, in charity loving with a love that is gratuitous, due, and compounded of grace and duty; which is the most complete diffusion, in the manner of nature and of will; which is a diffusion after the manner of the Word, in which all things are said, and after the manner of a gift, in which all other gifts are given—thou mayest see, through the supreme communicability of the Good, that the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is necessary. In these, by reason of their supreme goodness, there must be the highest communicability, and through the highest communicability the highest consubstantiality, and through the highest consubstantiality the highest configurality, and through these the highest co-equality, and through this the highest co-eternity, and through all the aforesaid the highest co-intimity, whereby one is necessarily in the other through the highest circumincession, and one acts along with the other through the omnifarious indivision of the substance, the virtue, and the action of the Most Blessed Trinity.
But, when thou contemplatest these things, see thou think not that thou comprehendest the Incomprehensible; for thou must needs still reflect upon these six conditions, and this brings the eyes of our minds mightily into the amazement of admiration. For here is the highest communicability, along with distinction of persons; the highest consubstantiality, along with plurality of hypostases; the highest configurality, along with discreet personality; the highest co-equality, along with order; the highest co-eternity, along with emanation; the highest co-intimity, along with emission. Who, at sight of these wondrous things, does not rise up into admiration? But all these things we most clearly understand to be in the Blessed Trinity, if we lift up our eyes to the altogether superexcellent goodness; for, if there are here the highest communication and true diffusion, there are here true origin and true distinction. And, since the whole is communicated, and not the part, that same which is kept is given, and given entire. Therefore the emanating and the producing are both distinguished by properties and are essentially one. Since, therefore, they are distinguished by properties, they have properties of persons, plurality of hypostases, emanation of origin, order not of posteriority, but of origin, and emission, not of local change, but of gratuitous inspiration, by reason of the authority of the producer—an authority which the sender exercises over the sent. But, since they are one substantially, they must have unity in essence, form, dignity, eternity, existence, and incircumscribability. When, therefore, thou considerest these things one by one, thou hast wherewithal to contemplate the truth. When thou comparest them mutually with each other, thou hast wherewithal to arise to the highest admiration. And, therefore, that thy mind may arise through admiration to admirable contemplation, these things must be considered together; for this is indicated by the Cherubim, which looked at each other. Nor is it a thing without mystery that they looked at each other with their faces turned toward the mercy-seat, that it may be fulfilled, which is spoken by the Lord in John: “This is eternal life, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.” For we must admire God’s essential and personal conditions not only in themselves, but also in comparison with the superadmirable union of God and man in the person of Christ.
For, if thou art the one Cherub, contemplating the essential things of God, and wonderest because the Divine Being is at once first and last, eternal and most present, most simple and greatest or uncircumscribed, wholly everywhere and comprehended nowhere, most actual and never moved, most perfect, without excess or defect, and yet immeasurable and infinite without bound, supremely one and yet omnifarious, as containing all things, as being all power, all truth, all good—look at the mercy-seat and behold with wonder that therein the first principle is joined to the last term—God with man formed on the sixth day—the eternal joined to temporal man, born of a virgin in the fulness of time; the most simple with the most composite; the most actual with the most passive and dead; the most perfect and infinite with the modified; the absolutely one and omnifarious with the individual composite and distinct from all others, with man, with Jesus Christ.
If thou art the other Cherub, contemplating the special attributes of the (three) persons, and wonderest that communicability co-exists with property; consubstantiality with plurality; configurality with personality; co-equality with order; eternity with production; co-intimity with emission (for the Son is sent [forth] by the Father, and the Holy Spirit by both, while, nevertheless, he is always with them and never departs from them), look at the mercy-seat and behold with wonder how in Christ personal unity co-exists with trinity of substances and duality of natures; omnifarious agreement with plurality of wills; compredication of God and man with plurality of properties; co-adoration with plurality of nobilities; co-exaltation above all things with plurality of dignities; condomination with plurality of powers. But in this consideration is the perfection of mental illumination; the mind, as on the sixth day, sees man made in the image of God. For, if image is expressive similitude, when our mind contemplates in Christ, the Son of God (who is by nature the invisible image of God) our humanity so wonderfully exalted, so ineffably united, seeing at once in one the first and the last, the highest and the lowest, the circumference and the centre, Alpha and Omega, the cause and the caused, the Creator and the creature—in a word, the book written within and without—it has already arrived at a certain perfect thing, arriving with God at the perfection of its illuminations, in the sixth grade, on the sixth day. And nothing more remains but the day of rest, on which, through mental ecstasy, the perspicacity of the human mind may rest from all the works which it has performed.