Breviloquium

From what has been said it is gathered that, just as God founded things in an orderly way with respect to time and disposed them in an orderly way with respect to position, so also he governs them in an orderly way with respect to influence; and Scripture narrates concerning the world in an orderly way with respect to the sufficiency of doctrine; although Scripture¹ does not explicitly describe the distinction of the orbs, whether celestial or elementary, says little or nothing about the motions and virtues of superior bodies and about the mixtures of the elements and elemented things, and, what is more, narrates nothing explicitly about the condition of the supernal spirits, especially when it describes this universe as produced into being.

The reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: since the first principle renders itself knowable to us both through Scripture and through the creature, through the book of the creature it manifests itself as the efficient principle, and through the book of Scripture as the reparative principle; and because the reparative principle cannot be known unless the efficient principle also is known, therefore Sacred Scripture, although it treats principally of the works of reparation, must nonetheless treat of the work of creation, insofar as it leads to knowledge of the first principle, both efficient and restorative; and therefore it is sublime and salutary knowledge: sublime, because it concerns the efficient principle, which is God the Creator; salutary, because it concerns the reparative principle, which is Christ the Savior and Mediator.

Again, because it is sublime, inasmuch as it treats of the first principle and highest being, therefore it does not descend to describe the special natures, motions, virtues, and differences of beings; but stands in a certain generality in which particulars are enfolded, describing namely the condition of the world with respect to disposition and influence, with respect to luminous, opaque, and pervious nature, in a certain generality.

And since the first principle, of which it treats, has in itself the order of nature in existing, the order of wisdom in disposing, and the order of goodness in influencing, so that the order of nature has simultaneity and equality;² the order of wisdom considers priority and posteriority, and the order of influence superiority and inferiority, therefore, to intimate the order of nature, Scripture determines, according to what was fitting for God to do, that in the beginning, before the course of time, that threefold nature was produced from non-being into being, when it says³: In the beginning God created heaven and earth; and the Spirit of God was borne over the waters. Here, by the name of heaven, luminous nature is intimated; by the name of earth, opaque nature; by the name of water, pervious or perspicuous nature, whether subject to contrariety or elevated above contrariety. — Here also the eternal Trinity is intimated, namely, the Father in the name of the creating God, the Son in the name of the principle, and the Holy Spirit in the name of the Spirit of God. — And thus is to be understood what is said:⁴ He who lives forever created all things together; not because he created them in a chaos of utter confusion, as the poets imagined, since he produced this threefold nature, the highest in the highest place, the middle in the middle, and the lowest in the lowest; nor yet in a state of utter distinction, since heaven was perfect and earth unformed,⁵ while the middle nature, as holding the middle position, had not yet been brought to perfect distinction.

But, to intimate the order of wisdom in disposing, it determines that this threefold nature⁶ was not at once distinguished and adorned, but, according to the exigency of the created threefold nature, was distinguished through three days and adorned through another three days; so that, just as God in the beginning created the threefold nature at once in the origin of time, so in the succession of time, in a threefold measure of time, namely, of a threefold day, he might make a threefold distinction of the created threefold nature; and again, in another three days, a threefold adornment of the distinguished threefold nature.

But, to intimate the order of goodness in influencing, it determines that this threefold nature was placed in the world according to below and above, in keeping with its dignity and influence. — And because the luminous has most of species, therefore the circumference is owed to it; because the opaque has least of species, therefore the center is owed to it; but because⁷ the pervious holds the middle, therefore it received the middle position. And since the nature of the pervious and perspicuous is common to celestial and elementary nature, and again the luminous is common to both, therefore it is rightly said that the firmament was made in the midst of the waters,⁸ not because the waters above the heavens are flowing, cold, heavy, and corruptible waters, but because they are subtle and incorruptible, pervious and elevated above all contrariety, and thereby of celestial nature and to be placed in the heavens by reason of the nobility of their form.

They are also placed by reason of virtue and influence. For since all corporeal action in lower things takes its rule, origin, and vigor from celestial nature; since there are two active qualities, namely, hot and cold, and there is a heaven that chiefly exerts influence and is hot, namely, the starry heaven by reason of its luminosity⁹, it was fitting that one should exert influence upon the cold, and thus the crystalline heaven. — And just as the starry heaven, although it exerts influence toward heat, is not formally hot, so also the heaven called aqueous or crystalline is not essentially cold. — Hence what the Saints say, that the waters are there placed to repress the heat of superior bodies, and other similar things, are to be understood not according to formal predication, but according to efficiency and influence. — The condition of the creature therefore corresponds, according to the aforesaid order, to the order of creative wisdom and of divine Scripture, because it is sublime science.

Again, because it is salutary science, therefore it determines concerning the work of creation only on account of the work of reparation. And since the Angels were created in such a way that, if they fall, they are in no way restored, as will appear in what follows,¹⁰ therefore the fall and condition of the Angels are passed over in silence according to the outward letter, because reparation was not to follow.

But because it did not befit the sublimity of Scripture to be wholly silent about the condition of the most sublime creature, therefore Sacred Scripture describes the condition of things in this way, according as sublime and salutary science demands; yet so that, according to spiritual understanding, the whole condition literally described may be spiritually referred to the description of the angelic and ecclesiastical hierarchy: therefore, according to the spiritual understanding¹¹ the angelic hierarchy is described in those three natures first produced by the name of heaven, the ecclesiastical hierarchy by the name of earth, and grace, by which both are watered, by the name of water.

Again, through the sevenfold number of days is understood the sevenfold state of the Church according to the course of the seven ages.¹² By the same sevenfold number is also understood the sevenfold conversion of the Angels from the creature to God. — And thus from the aforesaid there appears the sufficiency and truth of Scripture in the diverse opinions of the Saints, namely, of Augustine and others, which do not contradict one another, since they are true if rightly understood.