On the Sight of God through His Image Marked on Natural Powers

CHAPTER III – ON THE SIGHT OF GOD 
THROUGH HIS IMAGE MARKED ON NATURAL POWERS

1. Moreover since the two aforesaid steps, by leading us into God through His vestiges, though which He glitters in all other creatures, has lead us by hand even unto this, to reenter ourselves, that is our mind, in which the Divine Image glitters; hence it is that already in the third place, entering our very selves and as if reliquishing the outer entrance hall, in the Holies, that is in the anterior part of the Tabernacle, we ought to begin to see God as through a mirror; where after the manner of a candlestick the Light of Truth glitters upon the face of our mind, in which, that is, the Image of the Most Blessed Trinity glitters again. Enter therefore yourself and see, that your mind most fervently loves itself; nor can it love itself, unless it knows; nor does it know itself, unless it remembers itself, because we can sieze nothing through understanding, that is not present among our memory; and from this you advert, that your soul has a threefold power, not in the eye of the flesh, but in the eye of the mind. Therefore consider the activities and characteristics of these three powers, and you can see God through yourself as through an image, which is to see (Him) through a mirror in mystery.

2. Moreover the activity of the memory is the retention and representation not only of things present, corporal and temporal, but also of things coming afterwards, simple and sempiternal. For the memory retains things past through remembrance, things present through capture, things future through foresight. It also retains simple things, like the principles of continuous and discrete quantities, such as point, presence and unity, without which it is impossible to remember or think of those things which are derived by means of them. Nevertheless it retains the principles and ranks of the sciences, as sempiternal things and in a sempiternal manner, because it can never so forget them, while it uses reason, on the contrary it approves those things heard and assents to them, perceives (them) not as from something new, but recognizes them as things innate and familiar to itself; as is clear, is the self-evident: “The affirmation and/or negation of anything”; and/or “Every whole is greater than its part”, and/or whatever other rank, for which there is no contradiction “in accord with internal reason”. 

Therefore from the first actual retention of all temporal things, that is of all things past, present, and future, it has a likeness to eternity, whose indivisible presence extends itself to all times. From the second it appears, that it not only has to be itself formed from the exterior through phantasms, but also from the superior by taking up simple forms, which cannot not enter through the gates of the senses and the phantasies of sensibles. From the third is had, that it has itself a thoroughly unchangeable light present to itself, in which it remembers the truth of invariables. And thus through the activities of memory it appears, that the soul itself is an image and similitude of God, to this extent, that present to itself and having Him present, it seizes Him by act and through power ” it is capable of Him and can be a participant” (in Him).

3. Moreover the activity of intellective virtue is in the perception of the understanding of terms, propositions, and illations. Moreover it siezes what is signified by the understanding of terms, when it comprehends, what each thing is by definition. But definition has to occur through things superior, and these latter have to be defined by things superior, until one comes to things supreme and most general, which when ignored, inferiors cannot be definitively understood. Therefore unless what one become acquainted with what a being is through itself, there cannot be fully a definition of anything of a special substance. Nor can one become acquainted with a being through itself, unless one become acquainted with it together with its conditions, which are: the one, the true, the good. Moreover with being, when it can be thought of as diminished and complete, as imperfect and as perfect, as being in potency and as being in act, as being secundum quid and as being simply-speaking, as partly being and wholly being, as transient being and as stable being, as being through another and as being through itself, as being commingled with non-being as as pure being, as dependent being and as absolute being, as posterior being and as prior being, as mutable being and as immutable being, as simple being as as composite being, since “its privations and defects one can be in nowise become acquainted except through its positions”, our intellect does not come to resolve fully the understanding of anything of existing creatures, unless it be aided by the understanding of the most pure, most actual, most complete and absolute being; which is Being simply and eternal, in which there are reasons for all things in its purity. Moreover in what manner does the intellect know, that this being is defective and incomplete, if it has no acquaintance with being apart from any fault? And thus concerning the other things already touched upon. Moreover the intellect is said next to truly comprehend the understanding of propositions, when it knows with certitude, that they are true; and to know this is to know, since it cannot fail in its comprehension. For it knows, that that truth cannot otherwise be regarded; therefore it knows, that that truth is not thoroughly changeable. But since our mind itself is thoroughly changeable, it cannot see that (truth) glittering in so thoroughly an unchangeable manner unless through another light radiating entirely in a thoroughly unchangeable manner, which cannot possibly be a mutuable creature. 

Therefore it knows in that light, which illumines every man comming into this world, which is the True Light and the Word in the begining with God. But our intellect next truly perceives the understanding of illation, when it sees, that the conclusion follows necessariloy from the premises; because not only does it see in necessary terms, but al in contingents, as, if a man run, a man is moved. Moreover it perceives this necessary characteristic not only in things existing, but also in non-existing ones. For as, with man existing, it follows: if man runs, man is moved; so also, (when) non-existing. Therefore the necessity of illations of this manner does not come from the existence of a thing in matter, which is contingent, nor from existence of a thing in the soul, which then would be a fiction, if did not exist in the thing: therefore it comes from the exemplarity in the eternal Art, according to which the thing has an aptitude and characteristic alternatively according to the eternal Art’s representation of it. Therefore, as Augustine says in De vera religione, every light of one who reasons truly is enkindled by that Truth and exerts itself to arrive at It. From which it appears manifestly, that our intellect has been conjoined to eternal Truth itself, while it cannot with certitude sieze anything truly unless through learning about It. Therefore you can see through youself the Truth, which teachs you, if concupiscences and phantasms do not impede you and do not interpose themselves as clouds between you and the ray of Truth.

4. Moreover the activity of elective virtue is attended in counsel, judgement and desire. Moreover counsel is in inquiring, what be better this or that. But it is not called better unless through access to the best; however access is according to the greater assimiliation; therefore no one knows whether this be better than that, unless he knows, that it is more assimilated to the best. However, no one knows, that anything is assimilated more to another, unless he becomes acquainted with it; for not I do not know, that this is like Peter, unless I know or become acquainted with Peter; therefore upon everyone giving counsel there is necessarily impressed the notion of the Most High Good. Moreover certain judgement from those able to give counsel es through some law. However no one judges with certainty through law, unless he be certain that that law is upright, and that one ought not judge it; but our mind judges about its very self: therefore since it cannot judge about the law, through which it judges; that law is superior to our mind, and it judges through this, according to that which is impressed upon itself. 

However nothing is superior to the human mind, except the One alone who made it; therefore in judging our deliverative (power) extends to divine laws, if it would give a full explanation. Moreover desire is principally for that which most moves it. However that moves most which loves most; however to be blessed is loved most; however to be blessed is not had except through the best and last end: therefore human desire seeks after nothing except because (it is) the Most High Good, and/or because it is for That, and/or because it has come likeness to It. So great is the force of the Most High Good, that nothing can be loved by a creature except through a desire for It, which (creature) thereby fails and errs, since it accepts a likeness and imitation in place of the Truth. Therefore see, in what manner the soul is nigh to God, and in what manner the memory leads into eternity, the intelligence into Truth, the elective power into the Most High Goodness according to their activities.

5. Moreover according to the order and origin and characteristic of these powers (the soul) leads into the Most Blessed Trinity Itself. For from memory there arises intelligence as its offspring, because we next understand, since the similitude, which is in the memory, results in the keeness of the intellect, which is nothing other than a word; from memory and intelligence is spirated love as the connexion of both. These three, that is the generating mind, word, and love, are in the soul in regard to the memory, intelligence and the will, which are consubstantial, coeternal and coeval, circumcessing one another. Therefore if the perfect God is a spirit, He has memory, intelligence and will, He has also a begotten Word and a spirated Love, which are necessarily distinguished, since one is produced from the other, not essentially, not accidentally, therefore personally. Therefore while the mind considers its very self, through itself as through a mirror it rises together to gaze upon the Blessed Trinity of the Father, the Word and the Love, of the three coeternal, coequal and consubstantial persons, so that whoever in whomever is of the others, is nevertheless one not the other, but the three themselves are the One God.

6. Towards this speculation which the soul has concerning its own beginning, triune and one through the trinity of its powers, through which it is an image of God, one is assisted through the lights of the sciences, which perfect it and inform it and represent the Most Blessed Trinity in a threefold manner. For every philosophy either is natural, or rational, or moral. The first deals with the cause of existing, and for that reason leads into the power of the Father; the second with the reason for understanding, and for that reason leads into the wisdom of the Word; the third with the order of living, and for that reason leads into the goodness of the Holy Spirit. Again, the first is divided into metaphysics, mathematics and physics. And the first concerns the beings of things, the second numbers and figures, the third natures, virtues and diffuse accitivies. And for that reason the first leads into the First Principle, the Father, the second into His Image, the Son, the third into the gift of the Holy Spirit. The second is divided into grammer, which makes us able to express; into logic, which makes us perspicacious to argue; into rhetoric, which makes us skillful to persuade or move. And this similarly intimates the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity Itself. The third is divided into the monastic, the domestic and the political. And for that reason the first intimates the unbegottenness of the First Principle, the second the Son’s being-in-a-family, the third the liberality of the Holy Spirit.

7. Moreover all these sciences have certain and infallible rules as lights and rays descending from the eternal law in our mind. And for that reason our mind irradiated and superfused by so great splendors, unless it be blind, can be lead by hand through its very self to contemplate that eternal ligbht. Moreover the irradiation and consideration of this light suspends wise men into admiration and conversely it leads the foolish, who do not believe, that they do understand, into confusion, to fulfill that prophetic (word): Thou illuminating from eternal mountains, have unsettled the foolish of heart.

from Journey of the Mind into God by Saint Bonaventure

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