De visione Dei

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.