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1. It happens that we may contemplate God not only outside of us
but also
within us and above us. [Thus we contemplate Him] outside through
His
traces, inside through His image, and above us through His light,
which has
signed upon our minds the light of eternal Truth, since the mind
itself is
immediately formed by Truth itself. Those who exercise themselves
in the
first manner have already entered into the atrium of the
tabernacle; the
second have entered into the sanctum; but the third have entered
into the
Holy of Holies with the High Priest, the Holy of Holies where
above the ark
are the Cherubim of glory overshadowing the propitiatory.
By these
modes we
understand two ways or degrees of contemplation of the invisible
and
eternal things of God, of which one deals with God's essential
attributes,
the other with the properties of the Persons.
2. The first way first and foremost signifies Him in Being itself,
saying
He Who Is is the primary name of God. The second signifies Him in
His
goodness, saying this [goodness] is the primary name of God. The
former
refers above all to the Old Testament, which preaches the unity of
the
divine essence, whence it was said to Moses, "I am Who I am."
The
second
refers to the New Testament, which lays down the plurality of the
Persons,
by baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy
Spirit. Therefore our Master Christ, wishing to elevate the youth
who had
served the law to evangelical perfection, attributed the name of
goodness
principally and precisely to God. No one, He said, is good but God
alone
[Luke, 18, 19]. Damascenus ["De fide orthodox.," 1, 9] therefore,
following
Moses, says that "He Who Is" is the primary name of God.
Dionysius,
following Christ, says that goodness is God's primary name.
3. If you wish then to contemplate the invisible traits of God in
so far as
they belong to the unity of His essence, fix your gaze upon Being
itself,
and see that Being is most certain in itself; for it cannot be
thought not
to be, since the purest Being occurs only in full flight from
Non-Being,
just as nothingness is in full flight from Being. Therefore, just
as the
utterly nothing contains nought of Being nor of its conditions, so
contrariwise Being itself contains no Non-Being, neither in
actuality nor
in potency, neither in matters of fact nor in our thinking.
Since,
however,
Non-Being is the privation of Being, it cannot enter the intellect
except
through Being; Being, however, cannot enter through anything other
than
itself. For everything which is thought of is either thought of as
Non-Being or as Being-in-potency or as Being-in-actuality. If,
therefore, Non-Being is intelligible only through Being, and if Being-in-potency
can be
understood only through Being-in-actuality, and if Being is the
name of
that pure actuality of Being, Being then is what first enters the
intellect, and that Being is pure actuality. But this is not
particular
Being, which is restricted Being, since that is mixed with
potentiality.
Nor is this analogous Being, for such has a minimum of actuality
since it
has only a minimum of being. It remains, therefore, that that
Being is
divine Being.
4. Marvelous then is the blindness of the intellect which does not
consider
that which is its primary object and without which it can know
nothing. But
just as the eye intent upon the various differences of the colors
does not
see the light by which it sees the other things and, if it sees
it, does
not notice it, so the mind's eye, intent upon particular and
universal
beings, does not notice Being itself, which is beyond all genera,
though
that comes first before the mind and through it all other things.
Wherefore
it seems very true that just as the bat's eye behaves in the
light, so the
eye of the mind behaves before the most obvious things of nature.
Because
accustomed to the shadows of beings and the phantasms of the
sensible
world, when it looks upon the light of the highest Being, it seems
to see
nothing, not understanding that darkness itself is the fullest
illumination
of the mind [Ps., 138, 11], just as when the eye sees pure light
it seems
to itself to be seeing nothing.
5. See then purest Being itself, if you can, and you will
understand that
it cannot be thought of as derivative from another. And thus
necessarily
that must be thought of as absolutely primal which can be
derivative
neither from nothing nor from anything. For what exists through
itself if
Being does not exist through itself and of itself? You will
understand
that, lacking Non-Being in every respect and therefore having no
beginning
nor end, it is eternal. You will understand also that it contains
nothing
in itself save Being itself, for it is in no way composite, but is
most
simple. You will understand that it has no potentialities within
it, since
every possible has in some way something of Non-Being, but Being
is the
highest actuality. You will understand that it has no defect, for
it is
most perfect. Finally, you will understand that it has no
diversity, for it
is One in the highest degree.
Being, therefore, which is pure Being and most simply Being and
absolutely
Being, is Being primary, eternal, most simple, most actual, most
perfect,
and one to the highest degree.
6. And these things are so certain that Being itself cannot be
thought of
by an intellect as opposed to these, and one of these traits
implies the
others. For since it is simply Being, therefore it is simply
primary;
because it is simply primary, therefore it is not made from
another nor
from itself, and therefore it is eternal. Likewise, since it is
primary and
eternal, and therefore not from others, it is therefore most
simple.
Furthermore, since it is primary, eternal, and most simple,
therefore it
contains no potentiality mixed with actuality, and therefore it is
most
actual. Likewise, since it is primary, eternal, most simple, most
actual,
it is most perfect.
To such a Being nothing is lacking, nor can
anything be
added, Since it is primary, eternal, most simple, most actual,
most
perfect, it is therefore one to the highest degree. For what is
predicated
because of its utter superabundance is applicable to all things.
For what
is simply predicated because of superabundance cannot possibly be
applied
to anything but the one.[1] Wherefore, if God is the name of the
primary,
eternal, most simple, most actual, most perfect Being, it is
impossible
that He be thought of as not being nor as anything save One alone.
"Hear, O
Israel, the Lord our God is one God." If you see this in the pure
simplicity of your mind, you will somehow be infused with the
illumination
of eternal light.
7. But you have ground for rising in wonder. For Being itself is
first and
last, is eternal and yet most present, is simplest and greatest,
is most
actual and immutable, is perfect and immense, is most highly one
and yet
all inclusive.
If you wonder over these things with a pure mind,
while you
look further, you will be infused with a greater light, until you
finally
see that Being is last because it is first. For since it is first,
it
produces all things for its own sake alone; and therefore it must
be the
very end, the beginning and the consummation, the alpha and the
omega.
Therefore it is most present because it is eternal. For since it
is
eternal, it does not come from another; nor does it cease to be
nor pass
from one thing to another, and therefore has no past nor future
but only
present being. Therefore it is greatest because most simple.
For
since it
is most simple in essence, therefore it is greatest in power;
because
power, the more greatly it is unified, the closer it is to the
infinite.
Therefore it is most immutable, because most actual. For that
which is most
actual is therefore pure act. And as such it acquires nothing new
nor does
it lose what it had, and therefore cannot be changed. Therefore it
is most
immense, because most perfect. For since it is most perfect,
nothing can be
thought of which is better, nobler, or more worthy. And on this
account
there is nothing greater. And every such thing is immense.
Therefore it is
all-inclusive ("omnimodal"), because it is one to the highest
degree. For
that which is one to the highest degree is the universal source of
all
multiplicity. And for this reason it is the universal efficient
cause of
all things, the exemplary and the final cause, as the cause of
Being, the
principle of intelligibility, the order of living.[2]
And
therefore it is
all-inclusive, not as the essence of all things, but as the
superexcellent
and most universal and most sufficient cause of all essences,
whose power,
because most highly unified in essence, is therefore most highly
infinite
and most fertile in efficacy.
8. Recapitulating, let us say: Because, then, Being is most pure
and
absolute, that which is Being simply is first and last and,
therefore, the
origin and the final cause of all. Because eternal and most
present,
therefore it encompasses and penetrates all duration, existing at
once as
their center and circumference. Because most simple and greatest,
therefore
it is entirely within and entirely without all things and,
therefore, is an
intelligible sphere whose center is everywhere and whose
circumference
nowhere. Because most actual and most immutable, then "remaining
stable it
causes the universe to move" [Boethius, Cons. III, met. 9].
Because most
perfect and immense, therefore within all, though not included in
them;
beyond all, but not excluded from them; above all, but not
transported
beyond them; below all, and yet not cast down beneath them.
Because most
highly one and all-inclusive, therefore all in all, although all
things are
many and it is only one.
And this is so since through most simple
unity,
clearest truth, and most sincere goodness there is in it all
power, all
exemplary causality, and all communicability. And therefore from
it and by
it and in it are all things. And this is so since it is
omnipotent,
omniscient, and all-good. And to see this perfectly is to be
blessed. As
was said to Moses, "I will show thee all good" [Exod. 33, 19].
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