Chapter Two

The Consideration of God in His Footsteps in This Visible World


1. We may behold God in the mirror of visible creation, not only by considering creatures as vestiges of God, but also by seeing Him in them; for He is present in them by His essence, His power, and His presence. And because this is a higher way of considering than the preceding one, it follows as the second level of contemplation, on which we ought to be led to the contemplation of God in every creature that enters our mind through the bodily senses.

2. It should be noted that this world, which is called the macrocosm, enters our soul, the microcosm, through the portals of the five senses in so far as sense objects are apprehended, enjoyed, and judged. This may be illustrated in the following way. In the visible world there are some things that generate, others that are generated, and still others that govern them both. Those things that generate are simple bodies, such as the heavenly, bodies and the four elements. For everything that is generated or produced by a natural agency must be generated and produced from these elements through the power of light that harmonizes the contrariety of the elements in composite things. Those things that are generated are bodies composed of the elements, as are minerals, plants, animals, and human bodies. Those that govern both what generate and what are generated are spiritual substances, which may either be completely bound up with matter, as the souls of brutes, or separably linked with it, as rational spirits; or they may be altogether free from matter, as the celestial spirits, which the philosophers call Intelligences, and we, angels. According to the philosophers, it is the function of these latter to move the heavenly bodies. Consequently, the administration of the universe is attributed to them, inasmuch as they receive from the first cause, God, an influx of power which they, in turn, dispense in the work of administration that has to do with the natural stability of things. According to thc theologians, however, the ruling of the universe is attributed to the angels according to the command of the most high God with reference to the works of reparation. Accordingly they are called ministering spirits, sent for service, for the sake of those who shall inherit salvation.

3. Man, therefore, who is called a smaller world, has five senses, which serve as five portals through which the knowledge of all things existing in the visible world enters his soul. For through sight enter sublime and luminous bodies, and all other colored things; through touch, solid and terrestrial bodies; through the three intermediate senses, intermediate things; the aqueous through taste, the aerial through hearing, the vaporous through smell. These last have in them something of the humid, something of the aerial, and something of the fiery or the hot, as is evidenced in the aroma from spices.
Through these portals, then, both simple bodies and composite bodies made up of simple ones enter the soul. We perceive by the senses not only particular sense objects, such as light, sound, smell, taste, and the four primary qualities which the sense of touch apprehends, but also common sense objects, such as number, size, form, rest, and motion. And since everything that is moved is moved by another, and since, also! certain things move and come to rest of themselves - animals, for instance - we are led, when we perceive bodily motion through the five senses, to the knowledge of spiritual rnotions, as through the effect to the knowledge of causes.

4. The whole of this visible world, then, in its three classes of things, enters the human soul through apprehension. These visible and eternal things are what first enter the soul through the doors of the five senses. Yet these enter, not through their substances, but through similitudes generated in the medium, and from the medium they pass into the organ. From the external organ they pass into the internal organ and then into the apprehensive faculty. Thus the generation of the species in the medium, and from the medium in the organ, and the directing of the apprehensive faculty upon it leads to the apprehension of all those things which the soul apprehends outside itself.

5. From this apprehension, if it is of a suitable object, pleasure follows. The senses are delighted in an object, perceived through the abstracted similitude, either by reason of its beauty as in sight, or of its sweetness as in smell or hearing, or of its wholesomeness as in taste and touch, by way of appropriation. For all pleasure is founded in a proportionality. But the species holds the notion of form, power, and activity, according as it has reference to the principle from which it emanates, to the medium through which it passes, or to the object on which it acts. Consequently, proportion is observed in the similitude in so far as it has the character of the species or form, and then it is called beauty, because beauty is nothing other than numbered equality, or a certain disposition of parts, together with a suavity of color. Again, proportionality is observed in so far as it has the character of power or strength, and then it is called sweetness, when the acting power does not disproportionally exceed the recipient sense. For the senses are pained by extremes and delighted by moderation. Finally, proportionality is observed in so far as it has the character of an efficacious impression which is proportionate when the agent, by its impression, fulfills a need of the recipient. This the agent does by preserving and nourishing it, and this is most apparent in taste and touch. Thus through pleasure, external delights enter the soul by means of the similitudes, according to any of the three kinds of pleasure.

6. After this apprehension and delight, there follows judgment by which one not only decides whether this thing is black or white, for this pertains to a particular sense, or whether it is wholesome or harmful, for this pertains to an internal sense, but rather it judges and gives an account why this object delights. In this act of judging, one inquires into the reason for the pleasure which the senses derive from the object. Now when we inquire into the reason why an object is beautiful, sweet, and wholesome, we find that it consists in a certain proportion of equality. But the nature of equality is the same in both large and small objects; it is not extended by dimensions nor does it change or pass away with transitory things nor is it changed by movement. It abstracts, therefore, from place and time and motion, and for this reason it cannot challenge, nor can it have any limits in space and time but is absolutely spiritual, Judgment, therefore, is an action which, by purifying and abstracting the sensory likeness received sentiently by the senses, causes it to enter into the intellective faculty. And this whole external world must enter the human soul through the doors of the senses, according to the three aforementioned activities.

7. Yet these activities are vestiges in which we can see our God. For the perceived species is a similitude generated in the medium and then impressed on the organ itself, and through this impression it leads us to its starting point, that is, to the object to be known. Hence this process manifestly suggests that the Eternal Light begets of Himself a Likeness or a co-equal, constubstantial, and co-eternal Splendor; that He Who Is the image of the invisible God and the brightness of his glory and the image of his substance, Who is everywhere by His first generation like an object that generates its similitude in the entire medium, is united by the grace of union to the individual of rational nature as the species is united with the bodily organ, so that through this union He may lead us back to the Father, as to the Fountain-head and Object. If, therefore, all knowable things must generate a likeness of themselves, they manifestly proclaim that in them, as in mirrors, can be seen the eternal generation of the Word, the Image, and the Son, eternally emanating from God the Father.

8. Similarly the species which delights as beautiful, as sweet, as wholesome, leads one to realize that there exists a first beauty, sweetness, and wholesomeness in that first Species, in which there is the utmost proportionality to and equality with the One generating, and there is power, intimated, not by means of phantasms, but by the truth of apprehension, and also an impression that preserves, satisfies, and completely dispels the needs of the beholder. Therefore, if delight is the union of the suitable with the suitable, and if the Likeness of God alone has the character of that which is most beautiful, most sweet, and most wholesome, and if it is united in truth, intimacy, and a plenitude that fills every capacity, it can be seen clearly that in God alone is the fountain of true delight and that from all other delights we are led on to the seeking of Him.

9. Judgment, however, leads us in a still more excellent and more immediate way to a surer beholding of eternal truth. For judgment has to be made by reason that abstracts from place, time, and change, and hence it abstracts from dimension, succession, and transmutation by a reason which cannot change nor have any limits in time or space. But nothing is absolutely immutable and unlimited in time and space unless it is eternal, and everything that is eternal is either God or in God. If, therefore, everything which we judge in a more certain manner, we judge by such a reason, then the following is clear: He is for all things the reason and the infallible rule and the light of truth. All things shine forth in this light in a manner which is infallible and indelible, in a manner which does not admit of doubt or possibility of refutation or judgment on our part, or change or limit in space and time, and in a manner indivisible and intellectual. Therefore, those laws by which we judge with certainty about all sense objects that come to our knowledge, since they are infallible and indubitable to the intellect of him who apprehends, since they cannot be eradicated from the memory of him who recalls, for they are always present, since they do not admit of refutation or judgment by the intellect of him who judges, because, as St. Augustine say, No one judges of them but by them, these laws must be changeless and incorruptible, since they are necessary. They must be without limits in space because they are not circumscribed by any place. They must be without limits in time since they are eternal and, for this reason, they cannot be divided into parts since they are intellectual and incorporeal, not made but uncreated, existing eternally in the Eternal Art, by which, through which, and according to which all beautiful things are formed. Therefore they cannot be judged with certainty except by that Eternal Art which is the form that not only produces all things, but also conserves and differentiates them, for this is the Being that contains the form in all creatures, and is the rule that directs all things. Through it our mind judges all things that enter it through the senses.

10. This speculation is extended by considering the seven differences of numbers by which, as by seven steps, we ascend to God, as St. Augustine makes clear in his books, De Vera Religione and DeMusica, Book Six. In these passages he points out the differences of numbers, which ascend step by step from these visible creatures to the artificer of all, so that God may, be seen in all of them.
He declares that there are numbers in bodies and especially in sounds and voices, and these he calls "sounding numbers." Secondly, there are numbers which are drawn from these and which are received into the sense faculty, and these he calls "occurring numbers." Thirdly, there are numbers that proceed from the soul into the body, as is clear in gesturing and in dancing, and these he calls forthcoming numbers." Fourthly, there are numbers in the pleasures of the senses, which result when the attention turns toward the likenesses they have perceived, and these he calls "sensuous numbers." Fifthly, there are numbers retained in the memory, and these he calls "memorial numbers." Sixthly, there are numbers by which we judge all the foregoing numbers, and these he calls "judicial," which, as has been said, are necessarily above the mind, since they are infallible and beyond any judgment on our part. These last are the ones that impress on our minds the "artistic numbers," which, however, St. Augustine does not enumerate in the classification because they are bound up with the "judicial numbers." And from these "judicial numbers" also flow the "forthcoming numbers" from which are created the numerous forms of artifacts. Thus from the highest numbers, through the intermediate, to the lowest, the is a gradated descent. And to the highest numbers in turn, we ascend step by step from the "sounding numbers," by means of the "occurring," the "sensuous," and the "memorial numbers."
Therefore, since all things are beautiful and in some way delightful, and since beauty and delight do not exist without proportion, and since proportion exists primarily in numbers, all things are subject to number. Hence, number is the principal exemplar in the mind of the Creator, and in things, the principal vestige leading to Wisdom. And since number is most evident to all and very close to God, it leads us, by its sevenfold distinction, very close to Him: it makes Him known in all bodily and visible things when we apprehend numerical things, when we delight in numerical proportions, and when we judge irrefutably by the laws of numerical proportions.

11. From these first two steps by which we are led to behold God in vestiges, like the two wings drooping about the feet of the Seraph, we can gather that all creatures in this visible world lead the spirit of the contemplative and wise man to the eternal God. For creatures are shadows, echoes, and pictures of that first, most powerful, most wise, and most perfect Principle, of that eternal Source, Light, Fullness, of that efficient, exemplar; and ordering Art. They are the vestiges, images, and displays presented to us for the contuition of God, and the divinely given signs wherein we can see God. These creatures are exemplars, or rather illustrations offered to souls as yet untrained and immersed in the senses, so that through these sensible things that they can see they may be transported to the intelligible which they do not see, as through signs to that which is signified.

12. For creatures of this visible world signify the invisible things of God: partly, because God is the origin, exemplar, and end of every creature and the effect is the sign of the cause; the thing exemplified, of the exemplar; and the way, of the end to which it leads. This they do also partly by their own proper representation; partly because of their prophetic profiguration; partly by reason of angelic operation; partly also by reason of superadded institution. For every creature is by its very nature some kind of image and likeness of the eternal Wisdom, but especially one who, according to the Book of Scriptures, has been raised by the Spirit of Prophecy to prefigure spiritual things; and more especially those creatures in whose likeness it pleased God to appear through the ministry of the angels; and, finally, most especially, that one which He willed to institute for signifying, and which not only has the character of sign in the ordinary sense of the term, but also the character of sacrament as well.

13. From all this, one can gather that since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made. And so they are without excuse who are unwilling to take notice of these things, or to know, bless, and love God in them, since they are unwilling to be transported out of darkness into the marvelous light of God. But thanks be to God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has transported us out of darkness into his marvelous light, since by the light externally given, we are disposed to re-enter the mirror of our mind, wherein shine forth divine things.