The Mind’s Ascent to God by a Ladder of Created ThingsTwelfth step. CONSIDERATION OF THE GREATNESS OF THE WISDOM OF GOD BY THE LIKENESS OF CORPOREAL MAGNITUDE

How truly the Apostle wrote at the end of his

Epistle to the Romans, that God is alone wise, we may easily understand, if we will consider carefully the breadth, the length, the height, and depth of the wisdom of God.

And to begin with the breadth. The wisdom of God is described as very wide, because God knows distinctly and perfectly all things that are in nature, from the first angel to the last worm; not only does he know their whole substance, but also their parts, properties, powers, qualities, actions. Hence those words, * Thou numberest my steps,’? and, ‘The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.’3 And if he numbers and considers each step, how much more the actions of the mind, good or bad. And if God reckoneth the hairs of our head, according to the Word of the Lord, ‘The hairs of your head are all numbered,’4 how much more doth he know all the members of the body and all the powers of the soul. And if he knows the number of the sands of the sea and the drops of rain, as we gather from the Wise Man,' how much more may we believe that he knows the number of the stars and of the angels. And if all the idle words of all men are to be brought into judgement, as the Lord himself declares, certainly his ears will at once hear all the voices of all men, and not only the voices of the body, but also of the mind, that is, the thoughts and desires. How great then, and how boundless, is this breadth of wisdom which comprehends at once all things that are, that have been, that will be, and that can be.

And this divine mind is not worn out by such a variety of separate and inferior things, as the foolish wisdom of some philosophers would have it. Perchance we might imagine this, if God had to obtain knowledge from things as we do: but since he sees all things in his own being, there is no danger of wearing out: although the acquiring of knowledge by seeking after it, which is the method of mankind, is far more noble than the entire lack of knowledge which is the portion of brutes, in the same way as it is more excellent to be blind, in the way animals are, than not being blind, to be unable to see, as stones: and other members of the body are not more worthy of honour than the eyes because they can not be blind, but the eyes although they can be blind, are more worthy of honour since they have the faculty of seeing, as Saint Augustine rightly argues in his books on the City of God. 3

Hence, my soul, thou oughtest at every time and in every place to be careful what thou doest, what thou sayest, what thou thinkest, since thou dost never act, speak, or think without God seeing, hearing, observing thee: for if thou wouldst not dare to do or say anything evil though urged thereto by the strongest desire, if thou thoughtest that thou wert heard or seen by man, how darest thou think those things with an angry God looking upon thee,

‘Be it so,’ saith Saint Augustine in his rule for nuns, ‘that what you do is seen by no man, it is beheld by him who looketh from above, and from him nothing can be hid.’

And Saint Basil, in his book on virginity, addressing a virgin shut up alone in her cell, warns her to reverence her Bridegroom present everywhere and his Father and the Holy Spirit and the countless multitudes of angels, and with them the holy spirits of the Fathers: ‘For there is no one of them,’ he says, ‘who does not see all things in every place.’ 2

O thou blessed soul of mine, if thou considerest always that thou art continually in view of this assembly, even in the darkness and silence of midnight: what a perfect life wilt thou spend, how carefully wilt thou avoid all levity and wandering abroad.

This is indeed the word which the Lord spake once to the patriarch Abraham, ‘Walk before me and be thou perfect’;3 that is, bethink thee that thou art always seen by me, and without any doubt thou wilt be perfect.

The length of wisdom appears in knowledge of future events: for God so clearly sees, that from eternity itself he saw what will happen in the last days and beyond, even in eternity, and indeed nothing greater than this length can be thought of.

‘Thou understandest my thoughts long before,’ said David in the Psalms; and a little after, ‘There is not a word in my tongue but thou, O Lord, knowest it altogether’;⁴ that is, all things future, and all things past. ‘The books of the prophets are full of the clearest and truest predictions, which were not spoken by themselves, but, as sings Zacharias, ‘God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began.’ 2

And this foresight and prediction is proper to God alone, as God himself says by Isaiah, ‘Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods.’3 And that from the many we may consider the few, Isaiah thus speaks, ‘Thus saith the Lord to his Anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him, etc.,’4 where the Persian monarchy is foretold and Cyrus the first king of the Persians is called by his own name, and the reason. is added why God willed to exalt Cyrus, namely, because it was he who should loose the Babylonian captivity: and all these things were fulfilled about two hundred years later. And by the similitude of an immense image whose ‘head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his feet part of iron and part of clay,’ 5 Daniel clearly foretold four kingdoms, Babylon, Persian, Greece, and Rome, and in the time of the last monarchy, the kingdom of Christ, that is, the Christian Church, greater than all the other kingdoms: and next he so plainly describes the wars of the successors of Alexander the Great that certain unbelievers have suspected that those descriptions were written after the wars were ended.

And, setting aside all the rest, Saint Luke tells how Christ himself bewailed the overthrow of Jerusalem, which was to happen after many years, and he so distinctly describes everything in detail as if he were telling, not of future, but of past, events.

I omit numberless other prophecies, of which, as I said, the books of the prophets are full.

Next are the astrologers and certain other diviners, who as though desirous of being imitators of God, are altogether ridiculous: for it cannot be that they predict the truth concerning future events, unless perchance now and again they happen to get near the truth. For, since in all causes and happenings the will of God presides and rules, and can hinder the lesser causes when it wills, no one can foretell the truth unless God hath willed to manifest his will to him, as he often manifested it to his prophets.

And so this is true that demons desired to be considered gods specially because they established oracles and foretold future events, as Saint Augustine testifies in his books on the City of God. And the same celebrated doctor of the Church in his book on the divining of demons openly shows their divination to be false, as their divinity is false: for they declare nothing plainly but that which they themselves are about to do; or what has already taken place, they by their natural swiftness represent to those at a distance as about to take place; or again, that which from daily experience they consider will take place, as mariners foretell many things of the winds, husbandmen of the weather, physicians of diseases; and when the devils are asked about things to come which they know not, they make answer in ambiguous words or in equivocation, and when those things prove false, they lay the fault on their interpreters or soothsayers.

Therefore our Lord only, ‘Whose wisdom is infinite,’ 2 founded true oracles, and foretelleth the truth in all things which shall come to pass both by happenings and by choice.

God’s wisdom is most high and far surpasses the wisdom of men or of angels. The height of wisdom is discerned by nobility of the object, of its power, of its form, and of its action.

The object of divine wisdom both natural and proportionate is the divine Essence itself which is so high that it has no proportion to any understanding either angelic or human: and angels of the highest order cannot ascend to see God unless they are lifted up by the light of glory: and this is the reason why in holy writ God is said to be invisible: ‘To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God,’ saith the Apostle in his former Epistle to Timothy,! and he afterwards adds: that God dwelleth in light that cannot be approached.

Then secondly, power, which in us is an accident, is in God a divine substance, and therefore exists in him in a much higher and nobler degree than in us. The form also is the higher the more it doth represent: and therefore those angels that have fewer and more universal forms are said to have so much the higher knowledge.

How great then is the height of divine wisdom, which has no form but its own Essence, which is but one, and is sufficient of itself alone for God to represent and to know himself and all things which are made, shall be made, or may be made.

And in the last place, that wisdom is accounted most sublime which knoweth most by fewest acts: but God by one single act of intuition perfectly knoweth himself and all other things.

The wisdom of God therefore hath the pre-eminence and ought to be called most high.

Lift up thine eyes now, O my soul, and see how vast a distance there is between thy knowledge and that of thy Maker. For thou by many acts in running hither and thither canst hardly know any one thing perfectly, but thy Maker doth by one only act most clearly and distinctly see himself and all others. And yet thou thyself, now lying in darkness, mayst, if thou wilt, ascend so high upon the wings of faith and love that after laying down this mortal body, being changed from glory to glory, thou mayst, in the light of God, see God who is light. And being made like unto God, thou also at one beholding and that lasting for ever, shalt be able to see God in himself and thyself and all creatures in God. ‘For what is there that he doth not see,’ saith Saint Gregory, ‘who seeth him that seeth all things? How great then shall be that pleasure, that glory, that plenty of all things, when thou art admitted to that inaccessible light and art a partaker in all the good things of thy Lord.’ The Queen of Sheba, when she heard of the wisdom of Solomon and saw the wonderful order of the servants of his house, was so astonished that,.as the Scripture saith, ‘There was no more spirit in her,’ and she said, ‘Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.’ 3 And what proportion is there between the wisdom of Solomon and the wisdom of God, who is the only wise, yea Wisdom itself? And what is the order of his servants compared with the nine orders of angels of God of whom ‘Thousand thousands ministered unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him’? 4

Surely if thou couldst taste of these things even in a small measure, thou wouldst most willingly do or suffer anything that thou mightest obtain the favour of God. Therefore in the mean time ‘humble thyself under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt thee in the day of visitation’;1 subject thine understanding to faith, that thou mayst be exalted to vision; subject thy will to obey the commandments that thou mayst be exalted ‘into the glorious liberty of the children of God’;? humble thy flesh also to patience and labour, that God may glorify it and exalt it to eternal rest.

It remains for us to consider the depth of the divine wisdom, which consists chiefly in the discerning of the reins and the heart, that is, in the knowledge of men’s thoughts and desires, especially those which are to come. For we read, ‘Man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh upon the heart’; 3 ‘‘Thou alone knowest the hearts of the children of men’; 4 “Thou understandest my thoughts’;5 ‘He knoweth the hidden things of the heart’; 6 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,’ where the Septuagint translates, ‘the heart of man is deep and unscrutable,’ and Saint Jerome expounding this passage, rightly shows that Christ is truly God because he saw the thoughts of men, which God alone can see;7 ‘And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts ?’;8 ‘But he knew their thoughts’;9 Why reason ye these things in your hearts?’ Therefore every thought and desire of men, although present and really existing, is so deep that neither angels nor demons nor men can search or

II St. Pet.v.6. 2 Rom. viii. 21. 3 1 Sam. xvi. 7.

4 2 Chron. vi. 30. 5Ps.cxxxix.2. 6Ps.xliv.21. 7 Com. Jer. L. penetrate into it, but far deeper is the thought or desire of things to come: for not only are men and angels not able to penetrate it, but they cannot penetrate the way by which God, who alone knows it, cometh to the knowledge thereof. And this David seems to wish to signify when he says, ‘Such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for me.’⁴ For that ex me signifies in Hebrew phrase, ‘before me’ or ‘over me,’ and the sense is ‘Thy knowledge is more wonderful than | am able to understand how it exists.’ For he adds, “It is high and great and I cannot attain unto it,’ that is, it is raised above my knowledge, and I cannot by any reasoning reach up to understand it. But he speaks of the knowledge of future thoughts: for he had said, ‘‘Thou knowest my thoughts long before’: of the foreknowledge of these thoughts and ways he says, ‘I cannot attain unto it.’ It may perchance be answered that God sees those future thoughts in his eternity, to which all things are present, or in the predetermination of his will: but if it were so, such knowledge would not be wonderful, for we ourselves are easily able to know what we are about to do, or what things are before our eyes. But the Scripture saith that God searcheth the reins and the heart and that there he sees what man desires and thinks or what afterwards he will desire and think. But this is exceeding wonderful, that God by searching the hearts and reins sees what is not yet in being there, and what depends on the choice of the will whether it ever shall be. Therefore as it pertains to the depth of the power of God to make something out of nothing, and to call those things that are not, but shall be, as the things which are, so it belongs to the depth of the divine wisdom that by searching out the reins and the heart, to see what is not yet there and as if it already were, and which doubtless will exist.

But since I undertook not to dispute questions but to stir the soul to rise up to God, rouse up thyself, my soul, and mount above thyself, as Jeremiah advises, 'Let us lift up our heart unto God in the heavens,' and consider that profound abyss of the divine wisdom which searches the depth of the heart and sees many things which the heart cannot see. O blessed Peter, when thou didst say to thy Lord, ‘Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee,' surely thou didst not speak with a double heart, but with sincerity and uprightness, nor didst thou see the infirmity of thy heart which thy Lord saw in it when he said, ‘Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice': for that most skilful Physician saw the weakness in thine heart which thou sawest not, and that was true, and the Physician foretold not what the sick man boasted of. But give thanks to the Physician who, as he fore-saw and foretold the disease, breathed into thy soul from above the powerful medicine of repentance and quickly cured it.

O good, O kind, O most wise and powerful Physician, cleanse me from my secret faults. How many are there which I do not bewail nor wash away with tears because I do not see them. Let thy grace be ever present with me, by which thou searchest the reins and the hearts, and do thou discover to me the evil desires and evil deeds which I do not see, but which thou seest, and looking mercifully upon me, open such a fountain of tears that while there is time, they may be cleansed and washed away by thy grace. Amen.