Chapter XVI
THE MYSTICAL ARK
miserable of all people.
See, we have left everything behind and have followed after Him. What, therefore, will we have if the dead do not rise again? Why do we die the whole day long on account of Him if no crown of justice is to be hoped for from Him, if the death of human beings and beasts is completely the same, and likewise the original condition of both? What advantage will it be for me if I do a great work of wisdom and justice? Do not they who eat and drink and pass their days in the good life and who feast ostentatiously daily do much better than those who are dying the whole day? Will it not be much better to go to the house of entertainment than to the house of mourning if after this life a person has no more than a beast has? (cf. Eccles. 7:3). If the dead do not rise again, why should I not rush and overflow with delights and enjoy the good things that exist? Why should we not willingly hear that voice which is saying: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die"?
(1 Cor.
15:32; cf. Wisd. 2:6; Isa. 22:13, 56:12). You certainly see how many evils would follow if there were doubt concerning the immortality of the soul. We ought not to disdain in the least what we are able to accomplish with respect to this cubit, although we do not suffice for its completion. Therefore, the work of our propitiatory is begun with this triple consideration of essence (spiritual, that is) and of its discretion and will, and our work is drawn out to a definite measure. He who has exercised his soul fully in speculation of these things has finished the length of his propitiatory. Now that we have said these things concerning the length of the propitiatory, we now turn the hand of investigation to its width.
Chapter XVI Concerning the subdivision of the second stage of contemplation As we have said, those things which are at the beginning pertain to the width. However, justification enlarges our good that begins with the work of creation and on account of this shows that it pertains to the width. Yet without two things this, work cannot be consummated. For it is never accomplished if the Creator does not cooperate with His creature. Indeed, if He willed, the Creator could complete everything by Himself without the work of the
RICHARD OF ST. VICTOR
creature, just as when He willed, He was able to create so many and such great things from nothing. If we presume to push forward with our own strength without His aid, we labor in vain. He bears witness to this who says in His Gospel: "Without me you can do nothing" (John 15:5), because it is He "who works in us to will and to accomplish according to a good will" (Phil. 2:13). For it is "not of the one willing nor of the one running, but it is of God who shows mercy" (Rom. 9:16). For without Him, what will I be able to do by myself, who cannot even say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.
12:3)? Certainly it is He who works all things in all persons, apportioning to each one as He wills (1 Cor.
12:11).
Nevertheless, in the work of our justification voluntary consent is required by Him who says: "If you are willing and listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the land"
(Isa.
1:19). He ascribes free will to persons when this work is hindered, where it is said: "If my people had listened to me, if Israel had walked in my ways, I would perhaps have humiliated their enemies for nothing and laid my hand upon those troubling them" (Ps. 80:14-15). If we do nothing at all in such a work, we appeal in vain for His aid, and falsely call
Him helper. For it is one thing to do; it is another to give aid. For what does it mean to give aid except to cooperate with one who is working? That one understood that he had His aid and cooperation with regard to good who said, "Lord you are my helper and my deliverer; do not delay" (Ps. 69:6). We seek His aid daily when we cry out to Him in daily prayers: "Help us, O God our salvation"
(Ps.
78:9).
Therefore it is obvious that this work in which the Creator cooperates with His creature is accomplished by two. In this work, there is need for one's own activity and for divine grace.
For anyone depends in vain upon free will unless he is supported by divine assistance. Our justification is accomplished by our own deliberation and divine inspiration. For to will only just things is already to be just. Indeed we are rightly said to be just or unjust from the will alone although we are judged in both cases from what we do. God cooperates with us in two modes, namely inwardly and outwardly: inwardly by secret aspiration; outwardly by the open aid of His works. But that cooperation which is exterior has nothing to do with this kind of contemplation, since our propitiatory must be made of pure gold, and this speculation ought to subsist in pure
THE MYSTICAL ARK
understanding. And so our own deliberation and divine inspiration are the two things by which the width of our propitiatory is brought to completion.
Chapter XVII That, similarly, there are some things in the second stage of this contemplation that cannot be comprehended
We learn by daily use what this deliberation is and after so much experience we cannot hesitate concerning certitude of it. For this reason we are able to extend our knowledge in this respect as far as a full cubit. But I ask, who in this life, at least, suffices to comprehend in what manner divine grace is accustomed to visit the heart and by its inspiration to incline everything to its will? However much we labor in this consideration we do not extend our work in this respect to a full cubit. For how can human understanding comprehend the manner of divine inspiration since in His Gospel the Lord reminds us of the incomprehensibility of the same thing:
"The Spirit blows where it wills and you hear its voice, and you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes" (John 3:8). And so we are taught by the authority of Scripture about the assistance of divine grace, a thing we prove by the daily failure due to our infirmity and the clear effect of the cooperation of grace. Indeed with regard to this. His grace is often withdrawn from us so that human infirmity may be taught by its own failure how it cannot do anything good by itself. Again with regard to this, the same grace that earlier had been removed is restored again so that by its effect we may experience what we are as the result of a gift from God.
Why is it that in one and the same thing now we are able, now we are not able, except that now we have helping grace, now we do not have it? And so it is clear that we are allowed to doubt very little concerning the assistance of divine grace, although we are able to comprehend very little about the modes of its cooperation. We are not able to complete a cubit in the work of this consideration of ours because we do not extend our natural ability as far as the limit of comprehension in the width of this investigation. The reason is