Breviloquium

Concerning the ramification of grace into the habits of beatitudes these things are to be held: that there are seven beatitudes, which the Savior enumerates in the sermon on the mount¹, namely poverty of spirit, meekness, mourning, hunger for justice, mercy, cleanness of heart and peace. — To these beatitudes, on account of their perfection and plenitude, twelve fruits of the Spirit and five spiritual senses follow; which do not bespeak new habits, but states of delights and uses of spiritual speculations, by which the spirits of just men are replenished and consoled.

The reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: because, since the reparative principle is most perfect and most perfectly reparative and reformative through the gratuitous gift; therefore the gift of grace flowing from it liberally and abundantly must ramify even unto the habits of perfections, which, since they approximate to the end, are rightly named by the name of beatitudes; whose sufficiency, number and order is gathered from the integrity of perfection, from the modes of perfections and from the dispositions to perfection.

First, therefore, for the integrity of perfection there is necessarily required perfect withdrawal from evil, perfect progress in good and perfect state in the best. Since, however, evil proceeds either from the swelling of pride, or from the rancor of malice, or from the languor of concupiscence²; therefore for perfectly withdrawing from this threefold kind of evil three beatitudes are necessary, namely poverty of spirit withdrawing from the evil of swelling, meekness withdrawing from the evil of rancor, and mourning withdrawing from the evil of lust and of concupiscible languor. — Since, however, perfect progress in good is attended according to divine imitation; and all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth³; hence it is that there is a twofold beatitude according to these two ways, namely hunger or zeal for justice, and affection of mercy. — Since, however, state in the best is either through limpid cognition or through tranquil affection; hence it is that there are the two last beatitudes, namely cleanness of heart for seeing God and peace of mind for perfectly enjoying.

Second, also, if the modes of perfections be attended, there must be seven habits of beatitudes. For there is perfection of religion, of prelacy and of interior holiness⁴. For the perfection of religion, however, there is necessarily required abdication of private good, acceptance of fraternal good and appetite for eternal good; the first is done through poverty of spirit, the second through meekness of affection, the third through the bitterness of mourning. — For the perfection of prelacy, however, two are necessarily required, namely zeal for justice and affection of mercy; for mercy and truth keep the king⁵. According to these two the regime of prelacy in the Church militant must be disposed. — For the perfection of interior holiness, however, there is necessarily required purity of conscience and tranquility of the whole soul through the peace of God surpassing all human sense.

Third, if the preambulary dispositions be attended, there must be seven beatitudes. For fear makes one withdraw from evil and from the occasion of evil; and because the root of all evils is cupidity⁶; therefore fear disposes to poverty of spirit, in which humility is joined together with poverty, so that the perfect man is thus separated from the source of all fault, namely from pride and cupidity. And hence it is that poverty of spirit is the foundation of all evangelical perfection. Whence first he must lay this foundation who wishes to come to the height of perfection, according to that of Matthew in the nineteenth⁷: If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast; behold, perfect poverty, which retains nothing at all for itself; and follow me; behold, humility⁸, which makes man by denying himself to take up his cross and follow Christ, who is the most principal foundation of all perfection. Fear therefore disposes to poverty of spirit. — Piety, however, to meekness; for he who is piously affected toward someone neither irritates him nor is irritated by him. — Knowledge disposes to mourning, since through knowledge we know ourselves relegated from the state of beatitude into this valley of misery and tears. — Fortitude, however, disposes to hunger for justice; for he who is strong holds himself so avidly with justice that he prefers to be separated from bodily life than from justice. — Counsel disposes to mercy; for nothing does God counsel more in Scripture than to do mercy, which he reckons above all holocausts⁹. — Understanding disposes to cleanness of heart; for the speculation of truth cleanses our heart from all phantasms. — Wisdom disposes to peace; for wisdom joins us to the highest true and good, in which is the end and tranquility of all our rational appetite.

With peace obtained, there necessarily follows superabundant spiritual delight, which is contained in the duodenary of fruits for insinuating the superabundance of delights¹⁰. For the duodenary is an abundant number, in which is insinuated the exuberance of spiritual charisms, which the holy soul enjoys and delights in¹¹; and then man is fit for contemplation and for the aspects and embraces of bridegroom and bride, which must occur according to the spiritual senses, by which is seen the highest beauty of Christ the bridegroom under the aspect of Splendor; is heard the highest harmony under the aspect of the Word; is tasted the highest sweetness under the aspect of Wisdom comprehending both, namely the Word and Splendor; is smelled the highest fragrance under the aspect of the Word inspired in the heart; is clasped the highest suavity under the aspect of the incarnate Word, dwelling corporally among us and rendering himself to us palpable, kissable, embraceable through most ardent charity, which makes our mind pass through ecstasy and rapture from this world to the Father.

From what has been said, therefore, it is manifestly gathered that the habits of virtues dispose principally to the exercise of the active life; the habits of gifts, however, to the leisure of the contemplative; the habits of beatitudes, however, to the perfection of both¹². The fruits of the Spirit, however, which are charity, joy, peace, patience, longanimity, goodness, benignity, meekness, faith, modesty, continence, chastity¹³, bespeak delights consequent upon perfect works. The spiritual senses, however, bespeak mental perceptions concerning truth to be contemplated. Which contemplation in the Prophets was through revelation as to the threefold vision, namely corporeal, imaginative and intellectual¹⁴; in other just men, however, it is found through speculation, which begins from sense and arrives at imagination, and from imagination to reason, from reason to understanding, from understanding to intelligence; from intelligence, however, to wisdom or excessive knowledge, which here in the way begins, but is consummated in everlasting glory.

And in these grades consists the ladder of Jacob, whose top touches heaven; and the throne of Solomon¹⁵, in which resides the most wise King and truly pacific and amorous as the most beautiful bridegroom and wholly desirable; on whom the Angels desire to look, and toward whom sighs the desire of holy souls, as the stag desires the fountains of waters. By which most fervent desire, as fire, our spirit is made not only agile for ascent, but also by a certain learned ignorance is rapt above itself into darkness and excess, so that not only with the bride it says: We will run in the odor of thy ointments, but also with the Prophet it sings: And night is my illumination in my delights¹⁶. Which nocturnal and delicious illumination no one knows but he who proves it, no one however proves it but through grace divinely given, it is given to none but to him who exercises himself to it; therefore in sequence the exercises of merits are to be considered.