Chapter X
THE MYSTICAL ARK
inwardly, and those who held as sacred the alter of fortune believed that the goddess gave no attention to human affairs in view of the fact that they perceived that good and evil happen alike to a good person and an evil person, a just person and an unjust person, a person sacrificing victims and a person despising them. But He himself, whose eyes examine the sons of men (Ps.
10:5), makes His sun rise upon good and evil persons, and causes rain to fall equally on the just and the unjust (Matt.
5:45). Now we, for whom gold already abounds as much from the profit of our labors as from the spoils of the Egyptians, should take care to clothe our ark with gold—not only exteriorly but also interiorly. Let us pay attention to how He made all these things in His wisdom, how He founded the earth by means of His wisdom and stabilized the heavens by means of prudence; how the abysses of the heavens burst forth and clouds increase from dew by means of His wisdom—and we shall have gilded our ark, but only exteriorly. Let us consider no less that the universal ways of the Lord are truth and mercy; let us also consider how the Lord is just in all His ways and holy in all His works—and we shall have gilded our ark internally. How, do you think, had he covered over all the beauty of the pieces of wood in his ark with gold who had clearly grasped and constantly affirmed concerning the Lord that His mercies were over all His works (Ps.
144:9)? Let us also strive, according to the example of the Prophet, to cover all things of this kind with gold and to conceal the morning star under such glittering, although to our eyes it appears small or nothing in comparison to the divine reason and disposition by which the beauty of all exterior things has been created and disposed.
Chapter X Concerning the division of the second contemplation When we spoke above concerning the first kind of contemplation, we divided it into seven stages.
It would be too lengthy just now to mention each one in series and to show how the ark ought to be gilded along every cubit, in length as much as in width or height.
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So, in order that we may not go on at too great a length, we have judged it best to refrain from these things at this time. However, if anyone should undertake to gird himself for this work and should strive to cover over his ark with gold, nothing prevents him from borrowing the gold of knowledge from external knowledge and secular disciplines, provided that he knows how to cleanse himself from all the dross of falsity or vanity and to purify himself in the innermost part to a full and perfect purity, such as the dignity of these works requires. However, we have said that the gilding of our ark consists of assigning the rational principle of visible things.
Now who does not know how almost all earthly philosophy labors especially in this, so that by means of its sagacious investigation, it may discover and bring forth in public the hidden causes of visible things? See how great, how many riches of doctrine and treasures of knowledge these excellent geniuses among the philosophers collected, preserved and bequeathed to you for uses of this sort.
Nevertheless, as has been said, all these things are insufficient even for the external gilding of the ark. However, if you desire to gild it internally as well, it is better for you in such an undertaking to seek material from Christian theologians rather than philosophers of the world. Just as the treasures of the latter are insufficient for the external gilding of the ark, so those of the former are insufficient for the internal gilding of the ark. For neither are the latter able to perceive fully the hidden nature of things, nor are the former able to penetrate perfectly the hidden justice of God. But behold: Now we show you one treasure chest that we know is superabundant and inexhaustible for this kind of activity. Certainly where it lacks the gold of understanding, it will not be wanting in the pure gold of faith. Surely if you were able to examine thoroughly and to commit to memory all the words of the philosophers and all the investigations of the Catholic religion, nevertheless you would find countless things in the hidden territory of nature and in the hidden things of divine judgments, the rational principle of which you would be unable to penetrate. But what you cannot understand, you can believe. Notwithstanding that you are unable to perceive the rational principle of these, nevertheless you should not doubt that, according to the rule of faith, they are just and ordered. For this reason, it is said to you in this manner: "If you do not believe, you
THE MYSTICAL ARK
shall not understand" (Isa. 7:9). Therefore, believe with the blessed Job that nothing is done on the earth without a cause (Job.
5.6).
Believe that the judgments of the Lord are judged true in themselves (Ps.
18:10), and you have gilded your ark inside and out.
Chapter XI Concerning the particular nature of the second contemplation It has been said that the second kind of contemplation has this in common with the previously discussed kind—that is, it is engaged with imagination and employed in consideration of visible and imaginable things.
Nevertheless, they differ especially in this—that in the former one nothing is sought by reasoning, but it is led wholly by imagination. The present one, however, is woven together by reasoning and formed according to reason. The former one is in imagination according to imagination, while the present one is in imagination according to reason.
It ought to be noted that in the part that is supported by faith more than woven together by understanding— in that part,
I say, it nowhere goes beyond the limits of its particular nature. For when it examines the innumerable separate and ordered works of God and His innumerable just and true judgments by means of the liveliness of its understanding, it understands from these which things are right, and it judges those things also are right whose rational principle it does not suffice to penetrate. You see, therefore, that where it follows the traces of faith, this speculation certainly is not led wholly away from the path of its reasoning. This speculation about which we are now speaking is moved according to reason to such an extent that in it even imagination itself seems to be disposed and ordered according to reason. For certainly in the first speculation, the thought by which wonder leads it follows imagination alone; in this present speculation, however, imagination is formed, disposed and moderated by reason. For while a person seeks the rational principle of invisible things by means of silent investigation, not only does he conceive them in another order than if he discovers them by means of the senses, but he also often depicts them under
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another form. Hence he discovers more quickly the reason why they ought to be done and ordered in this manner, since he sees the evil that would follow if they were otherwise. And so, just as in the first, imagination draws thought after it, so in this, reason surrounds and disposes imagination. However, for that reason, both are said to be in imagination because both are certainly occupied by intention and investigation with that which we represent by means of imagination as often as we wish. For by whatever the rational soul is snatched through diverse watchtowers in this twofold speculation, the eye of speculation is always fixed in imagination by the plan of its intention or by zeal.
Chapter XII Concerning the third kind of contemplation Now let us see about the third kind of contemplation.
It pertains to this kind whenever we grasp the quality of invisible things by means of the similitude of visible things, and whenever we know the invisible things of God by means of visible things of the world.
So it is agreed as it is found written, that "the invisible things of God from the creation of the world have been seen, being understood by means of those things which have been made" (Rom.
1:20).
Rightly, however, this contemplation that, in order that it may rise to invisible things, supports itself with the staff of a corporeal similitude and lifts itself up to high things by means of a ladder, so to speak, of the particular natures of corporeal things— rightly, I say, such a speculation is indicated by the crown of the ark that is fastened in the lower part to pieces of wood but in the upper part rises above the extent of the wood. And so the crown encircles the upper part of the ark and descends in part below the wood, although for the greater part it goes beyond the extent of the wood. So it is no wonder that this speculation spontaneously inclines itself to investigating the particular natures of corporeal things, so that it may have something from which it may draw a simiUtude from one thing to another. However, spreading itself more widely, it includes the narrowness of lower things within