De visione Dei

IF I strive to carry you in human fashion to divine things, this must be done by a certain likeness. But among human works I have found no image more fitting to our purpose than the image of one seeing all things: such that the face by subtle painter's art so disposes itself as though it gazed upon all things around. And although many of these are found excellently painted, as that of the Archer in the marketplace of Nuremberg, and at Brussels that of Roger, the greatest painter, in the most precious panel kept in the town hall, and at Koblenz in my chapel the Veronica, and at Brixen in the castle the angel holding the arms of the church, and many others everywhere: lest you fail in the practice for want of such a sensible figure, I send to your charity such a small panel as I could obtain, holding the figure of one seeing all things, which I call the icon of God. You shall affix it in some place, say on the northern wall, and you brethren shall stand around it a little apart from it and gaze upon it: and each of you will experience, from whatever place he looks upon it, that he is seen by it as though alone. And to the brother stationed in the east the face will seem to look eastward, and to him in the south, southward, and to him in the west, westward. First, therefore, you will marvel how it can be that it looks upon all and each at once. For the imagination of one standing in the east in no way grasps the gaze of the icon as turned toward another quarter, namely the west or the south. Then let the brother who was in the east place himself in the west, and he will experience the gaze fixed upon him in the west just as before in the east; and since he knows the icon fixed and unchanged, he will marvel at the change of the unchangeable gaze. And if, fixing his gaze upon the icon, he walks from west to east, he will find the gaze of the icon continually going with him; and if from the east he returns to the west, it will likewise not leave him; and he will marvel how it moved immovably. Nor will the imagination be able to grasp that it moves likewise with another meeting him with a contrary motion. And when, wishing to test this, he has made a confrater, while gazing upon the icon, pass from east to west while he himself goes from west to east, and has asked the one meeting him whether the gaze of the icon continually turns with him, and has heard that it moves likewise in the opposite manner, he will believe him. And unless he believed, he would not grasp this to be possible. And thus by the report of the relator he will arrive at knowing that that face deserts none of those who advance, even with contrary motions. He will experience, therefore, the immovable face to move thus eastward that it also moves at once westward, and thus northward that also southward, and thus to one place that also to all places at once, and thus to regard one motion that it regards all motions at once. And when he attends to how that gaze deserts no one, he sees that it takes care of each as diligently as though of him alone who experiences that he is seen, and cared for no other: so much so that even by the one whom it regards it cannot be conceived that it takes care of another. He will see also that it has the most diligent care of the least creature as of the greatest, and of the whole universe. From this sensible appearance I propose to raise you, most loving brethren, by a certain practice of devotion into mystical theology, premising three things opportune for this.

MARG: mystica theologia

The perfection of the appearance to be verified of the most perfect God. In the first place I judge it must be supposed that nothing can appear concerning the gaze of the icon of God but is more truly in the true gaze of God. For God, who is the very height of all perfection and greater than can be thought, is called theos for this reason, because he beholds all things. Wherefore, if a painted gaze can appear in an image beholding all and each at once, since this belongs to the perfection of gaze, what appears of the icon or appearance cannot less truly befit the truth. For if among us one gaze is keener than another, and one scarcely discerns near things while another discerns distant things, and one reaches its object slowly, another swiftly, there is no hesitation that the absolute gaze, from which is every gaze of those who see, excels in act every keenness, every swiftness, and every power of all who actually see and who can come to see. For if I look to the abstract gaze which in mind I have absolved from all eyes and organs, and consider how that abstract gaze in its contracted being, according as those who see see through that gaze, is toward time and the quarters of the world, toward singular objects and other such conditions of contraction, and that the abstract gaze is likewise abstracted and absolved from these conditions, I grasp full well that it is not of the essence of gaze to regard one object more than another, although it accompanies gaze in contracted being that, while it regards one thing, it cannot regard another, or all things absolutely. But God, as he is the true uncontracted gaze, is not less than what can be conceived of the abstract gaze by intellect, but improportionably more perfect. Wherefore the appearance of the gaze of the icon can less attain to the height of the excellence of the absolute gaze than the concept. That therefore which appears in that image is excellently in the absolute gaze is not to be doubted.

The absolute gaze embraces all modes. Take note after these things that gaze is varied in those who see from the variety of its contraction. For our gaze follows the affections of the organ and of the mind. Hence now one sees lovingly and gladly, afterwards sorrowfully and angrily; now childishly, afterwards manfully, then gravely and as an old man. But the absolute gaze, absolved from all contraction, embraces at once and together all and each of the modes of seeing, as the most adequate measure of all gazes and the truest exemplar. For without the absolute gaze there cannot be contracted gaze. It embraces in itself all modes of seeing, and all in such a way as each; and it remains wholly absolved from all variety. For in the absolute gaze are all contracted modes of seeing uncontractedly. For every contraction is in the absolute, because absolute vision is the contraction of contractions. For contraction is incontrahible. The most simple contraction therefore coincides with the absolute. But without contraction nothing is contracted. Thus absolute vision is in every gaze, because through it is every contracted vision, and without it it can in no way be.

The things said of God do not really differ. Consequently attend that all things said of God cannot really differ on account of the highest simplicity of God, although we attribute to God other and other names according to other and other reasons. But God, since he is the absolute reason, enfolds in himself all reasons of all formal reasons. Whence, although we attribute to God gaze, hearing, taste, smell, touch, sense, reason, and intellect, and such things, according to other and other reasons of the significations of each name, yet in him to see is not other than to hear, and to taste, and to smell, and to touch, and to sense, and to understand. And thus the whole of theology, placed in a circle, says that it affirms one of the attributes of another. And to have of God is his being, and to move is to stand, and to run is to rest, and so of the other attributes. Thus, although we attribute to him to move by one reason and to stand by another, yet because he himself is the absolute reason in which all otherness is unity and all diversity identity, then the diversity of reasons which is not the very identity, according as we conceive diversity, cannot be in God.

The vision of God is called providence, grace, and eternal life.¹ Approach now, thou brother contemplator, to the icon of God, and first place thyself to the east, then to the south, and lastly to the west. And because the gaze of the icon regards thee equally from every side and deserts thee not whithersoever thou goest, speculation will be excited in thee, and thou wilt be provoked and wilt say. Lord, now in this image of thine I behold thy providence by a certain sensible experience. For if thou desertest not me, who am most vile, of no account, thou wilt fail no one anywhere. Thus indeed thou art present to all and each, as being is present to all and each of them, without which they cannot be. For thus thou, the absolute being of all things, art present to all, as though thou hadst no care for any other. And this happens because there is no thing which does not prefer its own being to all things, and its own mode of being to all modes of being of others; and thus it guards its own being, so that it would sooner let the being of all others go to perdition than its own. For thus, Lord, thou beholdest whatever is, that it cannot be conceived through all that is that thou hast other care than that it alone be in the best mode in which it can be, and that all other things that are be only for this, that they serve so that that which thou regardest be in the best way. Suffer me not, Lord, by any imagination to conceive that thou, Lord, lovest another more than me, since thy gaze alone deserts me not. And since where the eye is there is love, then I experience that thou lovest me, because upon me, thy little servant, thine eyes are most attentively. Lord, thy seeing is loving. And as thy gaze so attentively beholds me that it never turns itself from me, so too thy love. And since thy love is ever with me, and thy love, Lord, is nothing other than thou thyself who lovest me, hence thou art ever with me, Lord. Thou desertest me not, Lord. Thou guardest me on every side, because thou takest most diligent care of me. Thy being, Lord, abandons not my being. For I am inasmuch as thou art with me. And since thy seeing is thy being, therefore I am because thou regardest me. And if thou shouldst withdraw thy face from me, I should in no way subsist. But I know that thy gaze is that greatest goodness which cannot but communicate itself to every capable one. Thou therefore wilt never be able to leave me, as long as I shall be capable of thee. It belongs to me, therefore, that as much as I can I render myself continually more capable of thee. But I know that the capacity which bestows union is nothing but likeness; incapacity, however, from unlikeness. If therefore I render myself in every possible way like unto thy goodness, according to the degrees of likeness I shall be capable of the truth. Thou hast given me, Lord, being, and that very being such that it can by grace render itself continually more capable of thy goodness. And this power which I have from thee, in which I hold the living image of thy omnipotent virtue, is free will, through which I can either enlarge or restrict the capacity of thy grace: enlarge indeed by conformity, when I strive to be good because thou art good; when I strive to be just because thou art just; when I strive to be merciful because thou art merciful; when every striving of mine is turned only to thee, because every striving of thine is turned to me; when I most attentively regard thee alone and never turn away the eyes of the mind, because thou embracest me with continual vision; when I turn my love to thee alone, because thou who art charity art turned to me alone. And what

MARG: Capacitas Incapacitas

is, Lord, my life, but that embrace by which thy sweetness of love so lovingly embraces me? I love my highest life, because thou art the sweetness of my life. I now contemplate in a mirror, in an icon, in an enigma, eternal life, because it is nothing but the blessed vision by which vision thou never ceasest most lovingly to see me even to the inmost depths of my soul. And thy seeing is nothing but to give life, but continually to send in the sweetest love of thee, to inflame me to love of thee by the sending in of love, and by inflaming to feed, and by feeding to kindle desires, and by kindling to give drink with the dew of joy, and by giving drink to send in the fountain of life, and by sending in to increase and make perpetual, and to communicate thy immortality, to bestow the unfading glory of the heavenly and highest and greatest kingdom, to make partaker of that inheritance which is of the Son alone, and to constitute possessor of eternal felicity. Where is the source of all delights that can be desired, than which nothing better can be thought, not only by every man or angel, but can be in no mode of being. For it is the very absolute greatest of all rational desire, which cannot be greater. The vision of God is called providence, grace, and eternal life.²

O great multitude of your sweetness which you have hidden from those who fear you. For it is an inexplicable treasure, most full of joy and gladness. For to taste your very sweetness is to grasp, by experiential touch, the delight of all delightful things in its source. It is to attain the reason of all desirable things in your wisdom. To see, therefore, the absolute reason which is the reason of all things is nothing other than to taste you, God, with the mind, since you are sweetness itself of being, of life, and of intellect. What else, Lord, is your seeing, when you look upon me with the eye of mercy, than your being seen by me? By seeing me, you grant that you be seen by me, you who are the hidden God. No one can see you except insofar as you grant that you be seen. Nor is your being seen anything other than your seeing the one who sees you. I see in this image of yours that you are inclined, Lord, to show your face to all who seek you. For you never close your eyes; you never turn them elsewhere. And although I turn myself away from you when I turn myself wholly to something else, you nonetheless on this account change neither your eyes nor your gaze. If you do not look upon me with the eye of grace, the fault is mine, for I am divided from you by turning away, and turning toward something else which I prefer to you. Yet you do not turn yourself away wholly even then, but your mercy follows me, to see whether I might at some time wish to return to you, so that I may be capable of grace. For your not looking upon me is because I do not look upon you, but I reject and despise you. O infinite mercy: how unhappy is every sinner who abandons you, the true life, and seeks you not in yourself, but in that which in itself is nothing, and would have remained nothing if you had not called it forth from nothing! How insane is he who seeks you who are goodness, and while seeking you recedes from you and turns his eyes away? Every seeker, therefore, seeks nothing but the good,¹ and everyone who seeks the good and recedes from you recedes from what he seeks. Every sinner, therefore, wanders from you and goes farther away. But when he returns to you, without delay you run to meet him. And before he looks upon you,² you cast the eyes of mercy upon him with a father's affection. Nor is your having mercy anything other than your seeing. Your mercy therefore follows every man as long as he lives, wherever he goes, just as your gaze deserts no one. As long, therefore, as a man lives, you do not cease to follow him, and to urge him with sweet and inward admonition to cease from error, and to turn to you that he may live happily. You, Lord, are the companion of my pilgrimage. Wherever I go, your eyes are always upon me. But your seeing is your moving. You are moved, therefore, with me, and you never cease from motion as long as I am moved. If I rest, you too are with me. If I ascend, you ascend. If I descend, you descend. Wherever I turn, you are present. Nor do you desert me in the time of tribulation. As often as I call upon you, you are near. For to call upon you³ is to turn myself to you. You cannot fail him who turns himself to you. Nor can anyone turn to you unless you are present first. You are present before I turn to you.⁴ For unless you were present and were urging me, I would be wholly ignorant of you. And being ignorant of you, to whom would I turn?

You therefore are my God, who see all things. And your seeing is your working. You work all things, therefore. To us, therefore, Lord, not to us, but to your great name, which is theos, I sing eternal glory. For I have nothing which you do not give. Nor would I retain what you have given, unless you yourself preserved it. You therefore furnish me with all things. You are the mighty and merciful Lord, who give all things. You are the servant who serves all things. You are the provider, and you have care, and the preserver. And all these things you work by your one most simple gaze, you who are blessed forever.

The longer, Lord my God, I behold thy face, the more it appears to me that thou directest upon me the keenness of thine eyes. But thy look acts so that I consider how this image of thy face is for this reason thus sensibly painted, because a face could not be painted without color, nor does color exist without quantity. But I see, not with fleshly eyes which behold this icon of thine, but with mental and intellectual eyes, the invisible truth of thy face, which is here contractedly signified in shadow. Which true face of thine is absolved from all contraction. For it is neither how great, nor of what quality, nor temporal, nor local. For it is the absolute form, which is the face of faces. When therefore I attend to how that face is the truth and most adequate measure of all faces, I am led into amazement. For that face which is the truth of all faces is not how great; wherefore neither greater nor less. Nor yet is it equal to each, because it is not how great but absolute and superexalted. It is therefore the truth which is equality, absolved from all quantity. Thus therefore I comprehend that thy countenance, Lord, precedes every formable face, and is the exemplar and truth of all faces, and that all faces are images of thy incontrahible and imparticipable face. Every face therefore which can look into thy face sees nothing other or diverse from itself, because it sees its own truth. But the truth of the exemplar cannot be other or diverse; but those things befall the image from this, that it is not the exemplar itself. As therefore when I behold this painted face eastward, likewise it appears that thus it regards me; and when westward or southward, it likewise. Thus however I change my face, the face is seen turned toward me. So is thy face turned toward all faces beholding thee. Thy gaze, Lord, is thy face. Whoever therefore beholds thee with loving face will find nothing but thy face lovingly beholding him. And the more he strives to behold thee more lovingly, the more lovingly will he likewise find thy face. Who beholds thee indignantly will likewise find thy face such. Who beholds thee gladly will thus find thy glad face, according as is his who sees thee. For as this fleshly eye, beholding through red glass, judges all things it sees to be red, and if through green glass, all green, so every eye of the mind, wrapped in contraction and passion, judges thee, who art the object of the mind, according to the nature of the contraction and passion.

Man cannot judge but humanly. For when man attributes a face to thee, he seeks it not outside the human species, because his judgment is contracted below human nature. And from the passion of this contraction he goes not out in judging. Thus if a lion attributed a face to thee, it would judge none but a leonine one; and an ox, bovine; and an eagle, aquiline.

O Lord, how wonderful is thy face, which if a youth wished to conceive, he would feign a youthful one; and a man, a manly one; and an old man, an old one. Who could conceive this one most true and most adequate exemplar of all faces, thus of all that of each, and thus most perfectly of each as though of no other? He must leap beyond the forms of all formable faces, and all figures. And how would he conceive the face, when he had transcended all faces, and all likenesses and figures of the faces of all, and all concepts that can be made of a face,¹ and all color of the faces of all, and ornament, and beauty? Whoever therefore proceeds to see thy face, as long as he conceives anything, is far from thy face. For every concept of a face is less than thy face, Lord. And every beauty that can be conceived is less than the beauty of thy face. All faces have beauty, and are not beauty itself. But thy face, Lord, has beauty, and this having is being. It is therefore beauty itself absolute, which is the form giving being to every beautiful form. O face too comely, whose beauty all things to whom it is given to behold it suffice not to admire. In all faces the face of faces is seen veiled and in an enigma. But unveiled it is not seen as long as entrance is not made above all faces into a certain secret and hidden silence, where there is nothing of knowledge and concept of a face. For this darkness, cloud, shadows, or ignorance into which one seeking thy face enters, when he passes beyond all knowledge and concept, is that below which thy face cannot be found but veiled. But the darkness itself reveals that the face is there above all veils. As when our eye seeks to see the light of the sun, which is its face: first it beholds it veiled in the stars, and colors, and all things partaking its light. But when it strives to behold it unveiled, it leaps beyond every visible light, because every such is less than that which it seeks. But because it seeks to see the light which it cannot see, this it knows, that as long as it sees anything, it is not that which it seeks. It must therefore leap beyond every visible light. Whoever therefore must leap beyond every light must enter that which lacks visible light. And thus it is to the eye, so to speak, darkness. And when it is in those shadows which are darkness, then if it knows that it is in darkness, it knows that it has drawn near to the face of the sun. For from the excellence of the light of the sun arises that darkness in the eye. The greater darkness therefore it knows, the more truly it attains in darkness the invisible light. I see, Lord, that thus and not otherwise the inaccessible light and beauty and splendor of thy face can be approached unveiled.

What the fruit of facial vision is, and how it will be had. So great is that sweetness wherewith now, Lord, thou feedest my soul, that it in every way aids itself with those things it experiences in this world, and through those most grateful likenesses which thou inspirest. For since thou art that power, Lord, or principle from which are all things, and thy face is that power and principle from which all faces are what they are, then I turn myself to this great and lofty walnut tree, whose principle I seek to see. And I see it with the sensible eye great and lofty, colored, laden with branches, leaves, and nuts. Then I see with the eyes of the mind that that tree was in the seed, not in the mode in which I here behold it, but virtually. I attentively mark the admirable power of that seed, in which were that whole tree, and all the nuts, and all the power of the seed of the nuts, and all trees in the power of the seeds of nuts. And I see how that power is never in any time fully explicable by the motion of heaven; but that power of the seed, though also inexplicable, is yet contracted, because it has power only in this species of nuts. Wherefore, although in the seed I see the tree, yet not but in contracted power. I consider then, Lord, in the seedbeds of all trees of diverse species the power contracted to the species of each, and in the seeds themselves I see the trees in power. If therefore I wish to see, in the power of all such powers of seeds, the absolute power which is the power and principle giving power to all seeds, I must pass beyond every seminal power that can be known and conceived, and enter into that ignorance in which nothing at all remains of seminal power or vigor; and then in darkness I find the most stupendous power, accessible by no power that can be thought, which is the principle giving being¹ to every seminal and non-seminal power. Which power, absolute and superexalted, since it gives to each seminal power such a power in which it enfolds virtually the tree with all things required for the sensible tree and consequent upon the being of the tree, then that principle and cause has in itself enfoldedly and absolutely as cause whatever it gives to the effect. And thus I see that power to be the face or exemplar of every arboreal face and of any tree whatever, where I see that walnut tree not as in its contracted seminal power, but as in the cause and constitutive power of that seminal power. And therefore I see that tree to be a certain unfolding of the seminal power, and the seed a certain unfolding of the omnipotent power. And thus I see that as the tree in the seed is not a tree but the power of the seed, and that power of the seed is that from which the tree is unfolded, so that nothing is to be found in the tree which does not proceed from the power of the seed, so the seminal power in its cause, which is the power of powers, is not seminal power but absolute power. And thus the tree is in thee, my God, thou thyself my God, and in thee is the truth and exemplar of itself. Likewise also the seed of the tree in thee is the truth and exemplar of itself and of the tree and of the seed. Thou, God, art the truth and exemplar. And that power of the seed which is contracted is the power of the nature of the species, which is contracted to the species, and is in it as contracted principle. But thou, my God, art the absolute power, and for this reason the nature of all natures. O God, whither hast thou led me, that I see thy absolute face to be the natural face of every nature, to be the face which is the absolute entity of all being, to be the art and knowledge of every knowable thing. Whoever therefore merits to see thy face sees all things openly, and nothing remains hidden to him. Here he knows all things. He has all things, Lord, who has thee. He has all things who sees thee. For no one sees thee but he who has thee. No one can approach thee, because thou art inaccessible. No one therefore will grasp thee unless thou givest thyself to him. How do I have thee, Lord, who am not worthy to appear in thy sight? How does my prayer reach thee, who art in every way inaccessible? How shall I seek thee? For what is more absurd than to ask that thou givest thyself to me, who art all things in all? And how wilt thou give thyself to me, if thou givest me not at the same time heaven and earth and all things that are in them? Nay, how wilt thou give thyself to me, if thou givest me not even myself? And when thus in the silence of contemplation I rest, thou, Lord, within my heart answerest, saying: be thou thine, and I shall be thine. O Lord, sweetness of all sweetness, thou hast placed it in my freedom that I be, if I will, mine own. Hence unless I be mine own, thou art not mine. For thou wouldst necessitate freedom, since thou canst not be mine unless I also be mine own. And because thou hast placed this in my freedom, thou dost not necessitate me, but awaitest that I choose to be mine own. Through me therefore it stands, not through thee, Lord, who contractest not thy greatest goodness, but most lavishly pourest it forth upon all capable ones. But thou, Lord, art thy goodness. But how shall I be mine own, unless thou, Lord, teachest me? But thou teachest me this, that sense obey reason, and reason rule. When therefore sense serves reason, I am mine own. But reason has not whence to direct unless through thee, Lord, who art the word and reason of reasons. Whence now I see that if I hear thy word, which ceases not to speak in me and continually shines in reason, I shall be mine own, free, and not a servant of sin. And thou wilt be mine, and wilt give to see thy face, and then I shall be saved. Blessed therefore be thou, God, in thy gifts, who alone art able to console my soul and to raise it to hope to attain thyself and to enjoy thee as its own proper gift and the infinite treasure of all desirable things.

How the vision of God is to love, to cause, to read, and to hold all things in itself. My heart rests not, Lord, because thy love has inflamed it with such desire that it can rest in thee alone. I began to pray the Lord's prayer, and thou didst inspire me to attend to how thou art our Father. Thy loving is thy seeing. Thy fatherhood is thy vision, which paternally embraces us all. For we say: our Father. For thou art the universal father and the singular. For each one says, because thou art our Father. Paternal love embraces all and each of the sons. For the father so loves all that he loves each, because he is so the father of all that he is of each. So he loves each one of the sons that each of the sons conceives himself to be preferred to all. If therefore thou art father, and our father, we therefore are thy sons. But paternal love precedes filial. As long as we thy sons behold thee as sons, thou ceasest not to regard us paternally. Thou wilt therefore be our paternal provider, having paternal care of us. Thy vision is providence. But if we thy sons renounce thee the father, we cease to be sons. Nor are we then free sons in our own power, but we go into a far region, separating us from thee. And then we undergo heavy servitude under the prince who is opposed to thee, God. But thou, father, who on account of the freedom granted us because we are thy sons, who art liberty itself, sufferest us not to depart and to consume freedom and the best substance according to the corrupt desires of the senses, yet thou desertest us not wholly, but art continually present soliciting. And thou speakest in us, and recallest us that we return to thee, ever ready to regard us with the former paternal eye, if, having returned, we shall have been turned to thee. O loving God, look upon me, who, smitten with compunction for the miserable service of the slippery filth of swine, where I failed with hunger, now return, that in thy house I may in any way be fed. Feed me with thy gaze, Lord, and teach how thy gaze sees every seeing gaze, and every visible thing, and every act of vision, and every seeing power, and every visible power, and the seeing arising from them all. For thy seeing is causing: thou seest all things who causest all things. Teach me, Lord, how with one look thou discernest at once and severally. When I open a book to read, I see confusedly the whole page. And if I wish to discern the single letters, syllables, and words, I must turn myself severally to each in series, and I cannot but read successively one letter after another, and one word after another, and one passage after another. But thou, Lord, regardest and readest at once the whole page without delay of time. And if two of us read the same thing, one more quickly, the other more slowly, when thou readest them both, thou art seen to read in time, because thou readest with those who read, and above time thou seest and readest all things at once. For thy seeing is thy reading. All books written and that can be written thou hast at once and together above the delay of time from eternity seen and read at once, and with this with all who read thou readest them in series. Nor dost thou read one thing in eternity and another in time with those who read, but the same, holding thyself in the same manner, because thou art not changeable, since thou art fixed eternity. But eternity, because it deserts not time, is seen to be moved with time, although motion in eternity is rest. Lord, thou seest and hast eyes. Thou art therefore an eye, because thy having is being. For this reason in thyself thou seest all things as in a mirror. For if in me gaze were an eye, as in thee my God, then in myself I would see all things. Since the eye is mirror-like, and however small a mirror beholds in itself figuratively a great mountain, and all things that exist on the surface of that mountain, and thus the species of all things are in the mirror-like eye, yet because our gaze sees not through the medium of the mirror-like eye but that particularly to which it turns itself, because its power cannot be determined but particularly by the object, therefore it sees not all things that are grasped in the mirror of the eye. But thy gaze, since it is a living eye or mirror, sees all things in itself. Nay, because it is the cause of all visible things, hence it embraces and sees all things in the cause and reason of all things, that is, in itself. Thine eye, Lord, goes to all things without bending. For that our eye bends itself to the object is from this, that our gaze sees through an angle however much it sees. But the angle of thine eye, God, is not how great, but is infinite, which is a circle, nay also an infinite sphere. Because thy gaze is an eye of infinite sphericity and perfection. All things therefore it sees at once in circuit, and above, and below. O how wonderful is thy gaze, which is theos, God, to all who search it out! How beautiful and lovable to all who love thee! How terrible to all who have forsaken thee, Lord my God! For with thy gaze thou givest life, Lord, to every spirit, and gladdenest every blessed one, and puttest to flight all sorrow. Look therefore upon me mercifully, and my soul is made safe.

How it is universal and particular alike: and what the way to the vision of God is. I marvel, Lord, after¹ you look upon all and each at once, as this painted image too which I gaze upon portrays: how in your power of vision the universal coincides with the singular? But I note that my imagination does not grasp how this comes about for this reason: that I seek your vision in my own power of vision, which, since it is not contracted to a sensible organ as mine is: I am therefore deceived in judgment. Your gaze, Lord, is your essence. If therefore I look to humanity, which is simple and one in all men: I find it in all and each man, and although in itself it is neither eastern nor western, nor southern, nor northern, yet in eastern men it is in the east, and in western men in the west. And so although neither motion nor rest belong to the essence of humanity: yet it moves with moving men, and rests with resting men, and stands with standing men at once and together for the same now, because humanity does not desert men: whether they move, or do not move, or sleep, or rest. Whence this nature of humanity, which is contracted, and is not found outside men, if it so holds itself that it is no more present to one man than to another, and thus perfectly to one as if to no other: much more highly the uncontracted humanity, which is the exemplar and idea of this contracted nature, and which is as the form and truth of this form of contracted humanity. For it can never desert contracted humanity in individuals: for it is the form giving being to the formal nature itself. Without it, therefore, the specific form cannot be: since it has not being of itself. For it is from that which is of itself: before which, there is no other. That form therefore which gives being to the species: is the absolute form. And you are that, God: who are the maker of heaven and earth and all things. When therefore I look to contracted humanity, and through it to the absolute, namely by seeing in the contracted the absolute as in the effect the cause, and in the image the truth and exemplar: you meet me, my God, as the exemplar of all men, and man of himself, that is, absolute. But when likewise in all species I turn myself to the form of forms: in all things you meet me as idea and exemplar. And since you are the absolute exemplar and most simple: you are not composed of many exemplars, but are one most simple exemplar, infinite, so that of all and each that can be formed: you are the truest and most adequate exemplar. You are therefore the essence of essences: giving to contracted essences that they be what they are. Outside you therefore, Lord: nothing can be. If therefore your essence penetrates all things: then also your gaze, which is your essence. As therefore nothing of all that are, can flee its own proper being: so neither your essence which gives being of essence to all, nor therefore your gaze. All and each at once, therefore, you see, Lord: and with all that move you move, and with those that stand you stand. And since those are found who, while others stand, move: then you, Lord, stand and move at once, proceed and rest at once. For if moving is found at once in time with resting in diverse contracted things, and nothing can be outside you, neither is motion outside you nor rest: to all those at once and together and wholly to each you are present, Lord. And yet you neither move, nor rest: for you are superexalted and absolute from all those things which can be conceived or named. You stand therefore and proceed: and neither stand, nor proceed at once. This depicted face shows me this very thing. For if I move, its gaze appears to move: because it does not desert me. If, while I move,, another who

MARG: Humanitas.

gazes upon the face stands: likewise its gaze does not desert him, but stands with the one standing. Yet properly it cannot suit the absolute face, from these regards,, that it stand or move: for it is above all standing and motion in most simple and most absolute infinity, after which infinity indeed is motion and rest and opposition, and whatever can be said or conceived. Whence I experience how I must enter the darkness, and admit the coincidence of opposites above every capacity of reason: and seek truth there where impossibility meets me. And above all that intellectual highest ascent, when I arrive at what is unknown to every intellect, and what every intellect judges most remote from truth: there you are, my God, who are absolute necessity. And the more that dark impossibility is known as more obscure and impossible: the more truly necessity shines forth, and the less veiled it is present and draws near. Wherefore I give you thanks, my God,, for you lay open to me that there is no other way of approaching you: except that which to all men, even the most learned philosophers, seems utterly inaccessible and impossible. Since you have shown me that you cannot be seen elsewhere: than where impossibility meets and opposes. And you have encouraged me, Lord, who are the food of the great: to do violence to myself. For impossibility coincides with necessity. And I have found the place in which you will be found unveiled: girt with the coincidence of contradictories. And this is the wall of paradise: in which you dwell, whose gate the highest spirit of reason guards: which unless conquered, the entrance will not lie open. Beyond the coincidence of contradictories, therefore, you can be seen: and nowhere this side of it. If therefore impossibility is necessity in your gaze, Lord: there is nothing which your gaze does not see.

How God is seen beyond the coincidence of contradictories: and how seeing is being. I stand before the image of your face, my God: which I look upon with sensible eyes: and I strive with inward eyes to behold the truth, which is signed in the picture: and it meets me, Lord, that your gaze speaks. For your speaking is not other, than your seeing: since they do not differ really in you, who are absolute simplicity itself. Then clearly I experience: that you see all and each at once. For I at once and together while I preach: speak to the gathered church, and to each existing in the church, I speak one word: and in that one I speak to each. What the church is to me: this to you, Lord, is this whole world, and each creature that is or can be. Thus therefore you speak to each: and what you speak to, you see. Lord, who are the highest consolation of those hoping in you: you inspire that I praise you from myself. For you have given me one face¹ as you willed: and it is seen by all to whom I preach singly and at once. My one face is therefore seen through each: and my simple speech is heard whole by each. I, however, cannot hear all speaking discretely at once, but one after another: nor see all discretely at once, but one after another. But if there were in me such power that being heard coincided with hearing, so too being seen and seeing, so too speaking and hearing as in you, Lord, who are the highest power: then I would hear and see all and each at once. And as I would speak to each at once: so also in the same then when I spoke, I would see and hear the answers of all and each. Whence in the gate of the coincidence of opposites which the angel set in the entrance of paradise guards: I begin to see you, Lord. For there you are: where speaking, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, reasoning knowing, and understanding are the same, and where seeing coincides with being seen, and hearing with being heard, and tasting with being tasted, and touching with being touched, and speaking with hearing and creating with speaking. If I saw as I am visible: I would not be a creature. And if you, God, did not see as you are visible: you would not be omnipotent God. By all creatures you are visible: and you see all. For in that you see all: you are seen by all. For otherwise creatures cannot be: for by your vision they are. But if they did not see you seeing: they would not receive being from you. The being of the creature: is your seeing, alike and being seen. You speak by your word to all that are: and call to being what are not. You call therefore that they hear you: and when they hear you, then they are. When therefore you speak: you speak to all, and all hear you, to whom you speak. You speak to the earth, and call it to human nature: and the earth hears you. And this hearing of it: is becoming man. You speak to nothing as if it were something, and call nothing to something: and nothing hears you, for it becomes something which was nothing. O infinite power: your conceiving is speaking. You conceive heaven: and it is as you conceive. You conceive earth: and it is as you conceive. While you conceive: you see, and speak, and work, and whatever can be said. But you are wonderful, my God. Once you speak. Once you conceive. How then are not all things at once, but many successively? How so many diverse things from one concept? You enlighten me standing at the threshold of the gate: for your concept is eternity itself most simple. But nothing is possible to become after most simple eternity. Infinite duration therefore, which is eternity itself,, encompasses all succession. All therefore that appears to us in succession: is by no means after your concept, which is eternity. For your one concept, which is also your word: enfolds all and each. Your eternal word: cannot be manifold, nor diverse, nor variable, nor mutable, for it is simple eternity. Thus I see, Lord, after your concept there is nothing: but all things are because you conceive. But you conceive in eternity. Succession, however, in eternity: is without succession eternity itself, your word itself, Lord God. A thing which appears to us temporally: you did not conceive before it is. For in eternity in which you conceive: all temporal succession coincides in the same now of eternity. There is therefore nothing past or future: where future and past coincide with present. But that things in this world exist according to before and after: is because you did not conceive such things to be before. If you had conceived before: they would have been before. But in whose concept before and after can fall, so that he conceives one thing before and another after: he is not omnipotent. Thus because you are omnipotent God: you are within the wall in paradise. But the wall is that coincidence: where the later coincides with the earlier, where the end: coincides with the beginning, where alpha and ω are the same. Always therefore things are: for you say that they be. And they are not before: for you do not say before. And when I read Adam was so many years ago, and today such a one is born: it seems impossible that Adam then was, for then you willed, and likewise today born for now you willed, and that yet you did not will Adam to be before today born. But what seems impossible: is necessity itself. For now and then: are after your word. And therefore to one approaching you: they meet in the wall which surrounds the place where you dwell in coincidence. For now and then coincide: in the circle of the wall of paradise. But you, my God, exist and speak beyond now and then: who are absolute eternity.