Ch. IV.
On the contemplation of God in His image reformed by gratuitous gifts.
1. But since it happens that the first principle is contemplated not only by passing through us, but also in us; and this is greater than the preceding: therefore this mode of considering obtains the fourth degree of contemplation. It seems wonderful, however, since 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 readily at hand, because the human mind, distracted by cares, does not enter into itself through memory; clouded by phantasms, does not return to itself through intelligence; enticed by concupiscences, it in no way turns back to itself through the desire for interior sweetness and spiritual joy. Therefore, lying wholly amid these sensible things, it cannot re-enter into itself as into the image of God.
2. And since, where anyone has fallen, he must lie there, unless someone lends a hand and assists him to rise: our soul could not be perfectly raised from these sensible things to the contemplation of itself and of the eternal Truth in itself, unless the Truth, having assumed human form in Christ, had become for it a ladder repairing the prior ladder, which had been broken in Adam.
Therefore, however much one may be illuminated by the light of nature and acquired knowledge, one cannot enter into oneself so as within oneself to delight in the Lord, except through the mediation of Christ, who says: I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures. But to this door we do not draw near unless we believe in him, hope in him, and love him. It is necessary, therefore, if we wish to re-enter into the enjoyment of Truth as into paradise, that we enter through faith, hope, and charity in the mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, who is as the tree of life in the midst of paradise. 3. The image of our mind must therefore be clothed with the three theological virtues, by which the soul is purified, illuminated, and perfected, and thus the image is reformed and made conformable to the supernal Jerusalem and becomes a part of the Church militant, which is the offspring, according to the Apostle, of the heavenly Jerusalem. For he says: That Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother. - The soul, therefore, believing, hoping in, and loving Jesus Christ, who is the Word incarnate, uncreated, and inspired, that is, the way, the truth, and the life: when through faith it believes in Christ as the Word uncreated, which is the Word and splendor of the Father, it recovers spiritual hearing and sight, hearing to receive the words of Christ, sight to consider the splendors of that light. When, however, through hope it sighs to receive the Word inspired, through desire and affection it recovers spiritual smell. When through charity it embraces the Word incarnate, receiving from it delight and passing over into it through ecstatic love, it recovers taste and touch. When these senses have been recovered, while the soul sees and hears, smells, tastes, and embraces its spouse, it can sing as a bride the Song of Songs, which was composed for the exercise of contemplation according to this fourth degree, which no one grasps unless he receives it, because it consists more in affective experience than in rational consideration. For in this degree, when the interior senses have been restored to sense the supremely beautiful, to hear the supremely harmonious, to smell the supremely fragrant, to taste the supremely sweet, to apprehend the supremely delightful, the soul is disposed to mental transports, namely through devotion, admiration, and exultation, according to those three exclamations which are made in the Song of Songs. The first of these arises from the abundance of devotion, through which the soul becomes like a column of smoke from the aromatics of myrrh and frankincense ; the second from the excellence of admiration, through which the soul becomes like the dawn, the moon, and the sun, according to the progression of illuminations that suspend the soul in admiration of the spouse contemplated; the third from the superabundance of exultation, through which the soul of most sweet pleasure, flowing with delights, leans entirely upon her beloved.
4. When these things have been attained, our spirit becomes hierarchical for ascending upward according to its conformity to that supernal Jerusalem, into which no one enters unless it first descends into the heart through grace, as John saw in his Apocalypse. It descends into the heart, then, when through the reformation of the image, through the theological virtues, and through the delights of the spiritual senses and the suspensions of ecstasy, our spirit becomes hierarchical, that is, purged, illuminated, and perfected.
So also it is marked with the degrees of the nine orders, when within it there is disposed in due order announcement, dictation, guidance, ordering, strengthening, commanding, reception, revelation, anointing, which correspond step by step to the nine orders of Angels, so that the first three of the aforesaid degrees pertain in the human mind to nature, the next three to effort, and the last three to grace. When these have been possessed, the soul, entering into itself, enters into the supernal Jerusalem, where, considering the orders of Angels, it sees God in them, who, dwelling in them, works all their operations. 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 Dominations rules as majesty, in the Principalities governs as principle, in the Powers protects as salvation, in the Virtues works as power, in the Archangels reveals as light, in the Angels assists as piety." From all of which God is seen to be all in all through the contemplation of Him in minds in which He dwells through the gifts of most abundant charity.
5. To this grade of speculation there especially and principally gives aid the consideration of sacred Scripture divinely bestowed, just as philosophy aids the preceding grade. For sacred Scripture is principally concerned with the works of reparation. Whence it treats chiefly of faith, hope, and charity, through which virtues the soul must be reformed, and most especially of charity. Of which the Apostle says that it is the end of the commandment, insofar as it proceeds from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned. It is the fullness of the Law, as the same Apostle says. And our Savior asserts that the whole Law and the Prophets depend on the two precepts of the same, namely the love of God and of neighbor; which two are intimated in the one Spouse of the Church, Jesus Christ, who is at once neighbor and God, at once brother and lord, at once also king and friend, at once the uncreated and incarnate Word, our maker and remaker, as the Alpha and the Omega; who is also the supreme hierarch, purging and illuminating and perfecting the spouse, namely the whole Church and every holy soul.
6. Concerning this hierarch, then, and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the whole of sacred Scripture exists, through which we are taught to be purged, illumined, and perfected, and this according to the threefold law handed down in it, namely of nature, of Scripture, and of grace; or rather according to its threefold principal part, namely the Mosaic law which purges, the prophetic revelation which illumines, and the evangelical teaching which perfects; or most especially according to its threefold spiritual understanding: the tropological, which purges unto uprightness of life; the allegorical, which illumines unto clarity of understanding; the anagogical, which perfects through mental ecstasies and the sweetest perceptions of wisdom, according to the three aforesaid theological virtues and the reformed spiritual senses and the three above-mentioned ecstasies and the hierarchical acts of the mind, by which our mind returns to its interior, so that there it may contemplate God in the splendors of the Saints and in them as in resting-places may sleep in peace and rest, the Bridegroom adjuring that it not be awakened until it proceed of His will.
7. From these two middle steps, however, through which we enter into the contemplation of God within us as in mirrors of created images, and this as it were after the manner of wings spread for flying, which held the middle place, we can understand that we are led by the hand to divine things through the powers of the rational soul itself naturally implanted, as regards their operations, dispositions, and scientific habits, as is apparent from the third step.
We are also led by the hand through the reformed powers of the soul itself, and this by gratuitous virtues, spiritual senses, and mental ecstasies, as is evident from the fourth step. We are led by the hand no less through hierarchical operations, namely of purgation, illumination, and perfection of human minds, through the hierarchical revelations of sacred Scriptures given to us through Angels, according to that saying of the Apostle, that the Law was given through Angels by the hand of a Mediator . And finally we are led by the hand through hierarchies and hierarchical orders, which must be disposed in our mind after the pattern of the heavenly Jerusalem.
8. When our mind has been filled with all these intellectual lights, it is inhabited by the divine Wisdom as a house of God, having been made a daughter of God, a spouse and friend; having been made a member of Christ the Head, a sister and co-heir; having been made no less a temple of the Holy Spirit, founded through faith, elevated through hope, and dedicated to God through holiness of mind and body. All of which the most sincere charity of Christ accomplishes, which is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us, without which Spirit we cannot know the secrets of God. For just as the things of a man no one can know except the spirit of man which is in him, so also the things of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
In charity, therefore, let us be rooted and grounded, that we may be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the length of eternity, what the breadth of liberality, what the height of majesty, and what the depth of judging wisdom.