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Itinerarium mentis in Deum · Cap. VI: De speculatione beatissimae Trinitatis in eius nomine, quod est bonum

Textus Latinus
p. 310

Cap. VI. De speculatione beatissimae Trinitatis in eius nomine, quod est bonum.

1. Post considerationem essentialium elevandus est oculus intelligentiae ad contuitionem beatissimae Trinitatis, ut alter Cherub iuxta alterum statuatur6. Sicut autem visionis essentialium ipsum esse est principium radicale et nomen, per quod cetera innotescunt; sic contemplationis emanationum ipsum bonum est principalissimum fundamentum.

2. Vide igitur et attende, quoniam optimum quod simpliciter est quo nihil melius cogitari potest; et hoc tale sic est, quod non potest recte cogitari non esse, quia omnino melius est esse quam non esse7; sic est, quod non potest recte cogitari, quin cogitetur trinum et unum. Nam « bonum dicitur diffusivum sui »; summum igitur bonum summe diffusivum est sui. Summa autem diffusio non potest esse, nisi sit actualis et intrinseca, substantialis et hypostatica, naturalis et voluntaria, liberalis et necessaria, indeficiens et perfecta. Nisi igitur in summo bono aeternaliter esset productio actualis et consubstantialis, et hypostasis8 aeque nobilis, sicut est producens, per modum generationis et spirationis — ita quod sit aeternalis principii aeternaliter comprincipiantis — ita quod esset dilectus et condilectus, genitus et spiratus, hoc est Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus; nequaquam esset summum bonum, quia non summe se diffunderet. Nam diffusio ex tempore in creatura non est nisi centralis vel punctalis respectu immensitatis bonitatis aeternae9; unde et potest aliqua diffusio cogitari maior illa, ea videlicet, in qua diffundens communicat alteri totam substan- p. 311 tiam et naturam. Non igitur summum bonum esset, si re, vel intellectu illa carere posset.

Si igitur potes mentis oculo contueri puritatem bonitatis, quae est actus purus principii caritative diligentis amore gratuito et debito et ex utroque permixto1, quae est diffusio plenissima per modum naturae et voluntatis, quae est diffusio per modum Verbi, in quo omnia dicuntur, et per modum Doni, in quo cetera dona donantur; potes videre, per summam boni communicabilitatem necesse esse Trinitatem Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti. In quibus necesse est propter summam bonitatem esse summam communicabilitatem, et ex summa communicabilitate summam consubstantialitatem, et ex summa consubstantialitate summam configurabilitatem, et ex his summam coaequalitatem, ac per hoc summam coaeternitatem, atque ex omnibus praedictis summam cointimitatem, qua unus est in altero necessario per summam circumincessionem et unus operatur cum alio per omnimodam2 indivisionem substantiae et virtutis et operationis ipsius beatissimae Trinitatis.

3. Sed cum haec contemplaris, vide, ne te existimes comprehendere incomprehensibilem. Habes enim adhuc in his sex conditionibus considerare quod vehementer in stuporem admirationis inducit oculum mentis nostrae3. Nam ibi est summa communicabilitas cum personarum proprietate, summa consubstantialitas cum hypostasum pluralitate, summa configurabilitas cum discreta personalitate, summa coaequalitas cum ordine, summa coaeternitas cum emanatione, summa cointimitas cum emissione. Quis ad tantorum mirabilium aspectum non consurgat in admirationem? — Sed haec omnia certissime intelligimus esse in beatissima Trinitate, si levamus oculos ad superexcellentissimam bonitatem. Si enim ibi est summa communicatio et vera diffusio, vera est ibi origo et vera distinctio; et quia totum communicatur, non pars; ideo4 ipsum datur, quod habetur, et totum: igitur emanans et producens et distinguuntur proprietatibus et sunt essentialiter unum. Quia igitur distinguuntur proprietatibus, ideo habent personales proprietates et hypostasum pluralitatem et originis emanationem et ordinem non posterioritatis, sed originis, et emissionem non localis mutationis, sed gratuitae inspirationis, per rationem auctoritatis producentis, quam habet mittens respectu missi. — Quia vero sunt unum substantialiter, ideo oportet, quod sit unitas in essentia et forma et dignitate et aeternitate et existentia et incircumscriptibilitate. — Dum ergo haec per se singillatim consideras, habes unde veritatem contempleris; dum haec ad invicem confers, habes unde in admirationem altissimam suspendaris: et ideo, ut mens tua per admirationem in admirabilem ascendat contemplationem, haec simul sunt consideranda.

4. Nam et Cherubim hoc designant, quae se mutuo aspiciebant. Nec hoc vacat a mysterio, quod respiciebant se versis vultibus in propitiatorium5 ut verificetur illud quod dicit Dominus in Ioanne: Haec est vita aeterna, ut cognoscant te solum verum Deum, et quem misisti Iesum Christum. Nam admirari debemus non solum conditiones Dei essentiales et personales in se, verum etiam per comparationem ad supermirabilem unionem Dei et hominis in unitate personae Christi.

5. Si enim Cherub es essentialia Dei contemplando, et miraris, quia simul est divinum esse primum et novissimum, aeternum et praesentissimum, simplicissimum et maximum seu incircumscriptum, totum ubique et nusquam comprehensum, actualissimum et nunquam motum, perfectissimum et nihil habens superfluum nec diminutum, et tamen immensum et sine termino infinitum, summe unum, et tamen omnimodum, ut omnia in se habens, ut omnis virtus, omnis veritas, omne bonum; respice ad propitiatorium et mirare, quod in ipso principium primum iunctum est cum postremo, Deus cum homine sexto die formato6, aeternum iunctum est cum homine temporali, in plenitudine temporum de Virgine nato, simplicissimum cum summe composito, actualissimum cum summe passo et mortuo, perfectissimum et immensum cum modico, summe unum et omnimodum cum individuo composito et a ceteris distincto, homine scilicet Iesu Christo.

6. Si autem alter Cherub es personarum propria contemplando, et miraris, communicabilitatem esse cum proprietate, consubstantialitatem cum pluralitate, configurabilitatem cum personalitate, coaequalitatem cum ordine, coaeternitatem cum productione, cointimitatem cum emissione, quia Filius missus est a Patre, et Spiritus sanctus ab utroque, qui tamen semper est cum eis et nunquam recedit ab eis; respice in propitiatorium et mirare, quia in Christo stat personalis unio cum trinitate substantiarum7 et naturarum dualitate; stat omnimoda consensio cum pluralitate voluntatum, stat Dei et hominis compraedicatio cum pluralitate proprietatum, p. 312 stat coadoratio cum pluralitate nobilitatum, stat coexaltatio super omnia cum pluralitate dignitatum, stat condominatio cum pluralitate potestatum.

7. In hac autem consideratione est perfectio illuminationis mentis, dum quasi in sexta die videt hominem factum ad imaginem Dei1. Si enim imago est similitudo expressiva, dum mens nostra contemplatur in Christo Filio Dei, qui est imago Dei invisibilis per naturam, humanitatem nostram tam mirabiliter exaltatam, tam ineffabiliter unitam, videndo simul in unum primum et ultimum, summum et imum, circumferentiam et centrum, alpha et omega, causatum et causam, Creatorem et creaturam, librum scilicet scriptum intus et extra; iam pervenit ad quandam rem perfectam, ut cum Deo ad perfectionem suarum illuminationum in sexto gradu quasi in sexta die perveniat; nec aliquid iam amplius restet nisi dies requiei, in qua per mentis excessum requiescat humanae mentis perspicacitas ab omni opere, quod patrarat2.

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English Translation
p. 310

Cap. VI. On the speculation of the most blessed Trinity in its name, which is the good.

1. After the consideration of the essential attributes, the eye of the understanding must be raised to the contuition of the most blessed Trinity, so that the one Cherub may be set beside the other6. Now just as, for the vision of the essential attributes, being itself is the radical principle and the name through which the rest become known; so, for the contemplation of the emanations, the good itself is the most principal foundation.

2. See therefore and attend, since the best is that which simply is that than which nothing better can be thought; and such a thing is so, that it cannot rightly be thought not to be, because it is altogether better to be than not to be7; so it is, that it cannot rightly be thought without being thought three and one. For «the good is said to be diffusive of itself»; the highest good, therefore, is supremely diffusive of itself. But the highest diffusion cannot be, unless it is actual and intrinsic, substantial and hypostatic, natural and voluntary, liberal and necessary, unfailing and perfect. Unless, therefore, there were eternally in the highest good a production actual and consubstantial, and a hypostasis8 as noble as is the producer, by way of generation and of spiration — so that it is of an eternal principle eternally co-principiating — so that there were a beloved and a co-beloved, one begotten and one spirated, that is, Father and Son and Holy Spirit; it would in no way be the highest good, because it would not diffuse itself supremely. For the diffusion in time in the creature is only central or punctual in respect of the immensity of the eternal goodness9; whence too some diffusion can be thought greater than that one, namely that in which the one diffusing communicates to another the whole substance p. 311 and nature. It would not therefore be the highest good, if it could lack these either in reality or in understanding.

If, therefore, you can behold with the mind's eye the purity of the goodness, which is the pure act of a principle lovingly loving with a love gratuitous and owed and mixed of both1, which is the fullest diffusion by way of nature and of will, which is the diffusion by way of the Word, in whom all things are said, and by way of the Gift, in whom the other gifts are given; you can see, through the highest communicability of the good, that there must be a Trinity of Father and Son and Holy Spirit. In whom, on account of the highest goodness, there must be the highest communicability, and from the highest communicability the highest consubstantiality, and from the highest consubstantiality the highest configurability, and from these the highest coequality, and through this the highest coeternity, and from all the foregoing the highest cointimacy, by which one is necessarily in the other through the highest circumincession and one operates with the other through an omnimodal2 indivision of the substance and the power and the operation of that same most blessed Trinity.

3. But when you contemplate these things, see that you do not think yourself to comprehend the incomprehensible. For you have still, in these six conditions, to consider that which vehemently leads the eye of our mind into the stupor of admiration3. For there is there the highest communicability with propriety of the persons, the highest consubstantiality with plurality of hypostases, the highest configurability with distinct personality, the highest coequality with order, the highest coeternity with emanation, the highest cointimacy with emission. Who would not rise into admiration at the sight of such great marvels? — But we understand all these things most certainly to be in the most blessed Trinity, if we raise our eyes to the most superexcellent goodness. For if there is there the highest communication and a true diffusion, there is there a true origin and a true distinction; and because the whole is communicated, and not a part; therefore4 that very thing is given which is had, and the whole of it: therefore there is one emanating and one producing, and they are distinguished by properties and are essentially one. Because, therefore, they are distinguished by properties, they have personal properties and a plurality of hypostases and an emanation of origin and an order not of posteriority but of origin, and an emission not of local change but of gratuitous inspiration, by the account of the authority of the producer, which the sender has in respect of the one sent. — But because they are substantially one, it must therefore be that there is unity in essence and form and dignity and eternity and existence and incircumscriptibility. — While therefore you consider these things singly in themselves, you have whereby to contemplate the truth; while you compare them with one another, you have whereby to be suspended in the highest admiration: and therefore, that your mind may through admiration ascend into admirable contemplation, these things are to be considered together.

4. For the Cherubim also signify this, which looked upon one another mutually. Nor is it without mystery that they looked with faces turned toward the propitiatory5, so that what the Lord says in John might be verified: This is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. For we ought to admire not only the essential and personal conditions of God in themselves, but also by comparison with the supermarvellous union of God and man in the unity of the person of Christ.

5. For if you are a Cherub in contemplating the essential attributes of God, and you marvel that the divine being is at once first and last, eternal and most present, most simple and greatest or uncircumscribed, wholly everywhere and nowhere comprehended, most actual and never moved, most perfect and having nothing superfluous nor diminished, and yet immense and infinite without term, supremely one, and yet omnimodal, as having all things in itself, as being all power, all truth, every good; look to the propitiatory and marvel that in it the first principle is joined with the last, God with man formed on the sixth day6, the eternal is joined with temporal man, born of the Virgin in the fulness of times, the most simple with the supremely composite, the most actual with the one supremely suffering and dead, the most perfect and immense with the small, the supremely one and omnimodal with an individual composite and distinct from the rest, namely the man Jesus Christ.

6. But if you are the other Cherub in contemplating the proper attributes of the persons, and you marvel that communicability is with propriety, consubstantiality with plurality, configurability with personality, coequality with order, coeternity with production, cointimacy with emission, because the Son was sent by the Father, and the Holy Spirit by both, who nevertheless is always with them and never departs from them; look into the propitiatory and marvel that in Christ there stands a personal union with a trinity of substances7 and a duality of natures; there stands an omnimodal consent with a plurality of wills, there stands a co-predication of God and man with a plurality of properties, p. 312 there stands a co-adoration with a plurality of nobilities, there stands a co-exaltation above all things with a plurality of dignities, there stands a co-dominion with a plurality of powers.

7. Now in this consideration is the perfection of the mind's illumination, when, as on the sixth day, it sees man made to the image of God1. For if an image is an expressive likeness, then, while our mind contemplates in Christ the Son of God, who is the image of the invisible God by nature, our humanity so marvellously exalted, so ineffably united, seeing at once in one the first and the last, the highest and the lowest, the circumference and the centre, the alpha and the omega, the caused and the cause, the Creator and the creature, that is to say the book written within and without; it has now arrived at a certain perfect thing, so that with God it may arrive at the perfection of its illuminations on the sixth step as on the sixth day; nor does anything further now remain but the day of rest, on which, through the transport of the mind, the perspicacity of the human mind may rest from all the work which he had done2.

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Apparatus Criticus
  1. 6
    Exod. 25, 19: Cherub unus sit in latere uno, et alter in altero. — Per verba inferius posita principium radicale etc. insinuatur quod nunc communiter dicitur essentia metaphysica.
    Exodus 25:19: Let one cherub be on the one side, and the other on the other. — By the words set down below, radical principle etc., there is intimated what is now commonly called the metaphysical essence.
  2. 7
    Secundum Anselm.; cfr. supra pag. 47, nota 7. — De seqq. vide supra Quaest. de mysterio Trin. per totum et Breviloq. p. I. c. 2. seqq. — Sententia illa: « Bonum dicitur diffusivum sui », est secundum Dionys. supra pag. 60, nota 7. allegatum. — Supra post optimum supple: est.
    According to Anselm; cf. above, p. 47, note 7. — On what follows see above, the Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity throughout, and the Breviloquium p. I, c. 2 ff. — That sentence, «the good is said to be diffusive of itself», is according to Dionysius, cited above, p. 60, note 7. — Above, after optimum supply: est.
  3. 8
    Cum A C E I P et 1, 2 substituimus hypostasis pro hypostaticalis, B hypostalis (!). De parenthesi cfr. I. Sent. d. 29. a. 2. et dubia; scil. principium « stat pro paternitate simul et spiratione » (ibid., dub. 1.).
    With A C E I P and 1, 2 we have substituted hypostasis for hypostaticalis, B hypostalis (!). On the parenthesis cf. I Sentences, d. 29, a. 2, and the dubia; namely, principium «stands for paternity together with spiration» (ibid., dub. 1).
  4. 9
    Alan. ab Insulis, Theolog. regul. regul. 7, explicans verba circa finem praeced. cap. posita Deus est sphaera intelligibilis etc. ait: Centrum dicitur creatura; quia, sicut tempus collatum aeternitati reputatur momentum, sic creatura, immensitati comparata, punctum vel centrum. — Pro centralis vel punctalis [B I P omittunt vel punctalis, D centralis vel] H K L M N perperam essentialis; F G legunt non est essentialis. Mox pro unde et potest, quod exhibent A B P, alii codd. et edd. perperam unde [edd. addunt et] non potest.
    Alan of Lille, Theological Rules, rule 7, explaining the words set down near the end of the preceding chapter, God is an intelligible sphere etc., says: The creature is called a centre; because, just as time compared with eternity is reckoned a moment, so the creature, compared with immensity, is a point or a centre. — For centralis vel punctalis [B I P omit vel punctalis, D centralis vel] H K L M N wrongly read essentialis; F G read non est essentialis. Shortly after, for unde et potest, which A B P exhibit, the other codices and the editions wrongly read unde [the editions add et] non potest.
  5. 1
    Hanc divisionem amoris proponit Richard. a S. Vict., V. de Trin. c. 16. seqq. Cfr. tom. I. pag. 57, nota 7. et pag. 199, nota 4. — De seq. propos. cfr. supra pag. 87, nota 1; pag. 211, nota 3. et I. Sent. lit. Magistri, d. XVIII. c. 1.
    Richard of St Victor proposes this division of love, On the Trinity V, c. 16 ff. Cf. tome I, p. 57, note 7, and p. 199, note 4. — On the proposition following, cf. above, p. 87, note 1; p. 211, note 3; and I Sentences, the Master's text, d. XVIII, c. 1.
  6. 2
    B D H K M N summam.
    B D H K M N read summam.
  7. 3
    A tuae.
    A reads tuae.
  8. 4
    Ita D F H K L N; alii codd. et edd. idem.
    So D F H K L N; the other codices and the editions read idem.
  9. 5
    Exod. 25, 20: Respiciantque se mutuo versis etc. (Non pauci codd. in propitiatorio). — Seq. locus est Ioan. 17, 3: Haec est autem etc.
    Exodus 25:20: And let them look one towards the other, their faces being turned etc. (Not a few codices read in propitiatorio). — The passage following is John 17:3: Now this is etc.
  10. 6
    Gen. 1, 26. — Expositio haec est secundum Irenaeum; cfr. supra pag. 241, nota 6. — De incarnatione vide Breviloq. p. IV. c. 1. seqq. — Pro postremo M extremo.
    Genesis 1:26. — This exposition is according to Irenaeus; cf. above, p. 241, note 6. — On the incarnation see the Breviloquium p. IV, c. 1 ff. — For postremo M reads extremo.
  11. 7
    Cfr. supra c. 1. n. 3. et pag. 64, nota 10. — Maior pars codd. omittit respice in propitiatorium et.
    Cf. above, c. 1, n. 3, and p. 64, note 10. — The greater part of the codices omit respice in propitiatorium et.
  12. 1
    Gen. 1, 26. — Inferius respicitur Apoc. 1, 8: Ego sum alpha et omega, principium et finis etc. (Post primum plures codd. addunt principium); Apoc. 5, 1. et Ezech. 2, 9: Qui [liber] erat scriptus intus et foris (cfr. Breviloq. p. II. c. 11.).
    Genesis 1:26. — Below, Apocalypse 1:8 is had in view: I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end etc. (After primum several codices add principium); Apocalypse 5:1 and Ezechiel 2:9: Which [book] was written within and without (cf. the Breviloquium p. II, c. 11).
  13. 2
    Gen. 2, 2: Et requievit die septimo ab universo opere etc. Cfr. Breviloq. p. II. c. 2. — Pro restet A G K L M N restat.
    Genesis 2:2: And he rested on the seventh day from all the work etc. Cf. the Breviloquium p. II, c. 2. — For restet A G K L M N read restat. ---
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