De visione Dei
Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464)
De visione Dei sive de icona
De visione Dei, or De icona (On the Vision of God, 1453), addressed to the Benedictines of Tegernsee: seeing God through the icon that gazes on all. Latin transcribed from the 1514 Paris Opera; English translation new.
Letter to the Abbot and Brethren of Tegernsee
Preface
Capitulum I: That the perfection of appearance holds true of the most perfect God
Capitulum II: That absolute sight embraces all modes
Capitulum III: That the things said of God do not really differ
Capitulum IV: God's vision bespeaks providence, grace, and eternal life
Capitulum V: O how great the multitude of your sweetness
Capitulum VI: On facial vision
Capitulum VII: What fruit facial vision bears
Capitulum VIII: How seeing God is loving
Capitulum IX: How God is universal and particular together
Capitulum X: How God is seen beyond the coincidence of contradictories
Capitulum XI: How succession is seen in God without succession
Capitulum XII: Where the invisible is seen, the uncreated is created
Capitulum XIII: God is seen as absolute infinity
Capitulum XIV: How God enfolds all things without otherness
Capitulum XV: How actual infinity is unity
Capitulum XVI: Unless God were infinite He would not be the end of desire
Capitulum XVII: God can be perfectly seen only as triune
Capitulum XVIII: Unless God were triune there would be no happiness
Capitulum XIX: How Jesus is the union of God and man
Capitulum XX: How Jesus is understood as the bond
Capitulum XXI: Without Jesus happiness is not possible
That without Jesus happiness is not possible. Jesus, end of the universe, in whom every creature rests as in the ultimate of perfection: you are wholly unknown to all the wise men of this world, because we affirm of you the most true contradictories, since you are creator and creature alike, drawing and drawn alike, finite and infinite alike. yet the foolish assert that it is possible to believe this. they flee therefore your name: and do not grasp your light by which you have illuminated us. but while they think themselves wise: they remain foolish and ignorant and blind forever. If they believed that you are Christ, God and man! and received and pondered the words of the gospel as of so great a master: they would at last see most clearly, that all things in comparison with that light hidden in the simplicity of your words there: are utterly the thickest darkness and ignorance.
Only therefore the believing little ones: attain this most gracious and life-giving revelation. For in your most sacred gospel, which is heavenly food, as in manna every sweetness of desire is hidden: which cannot be tasted except by one who believes and eats you. for if anyone believes and receives: he experiences most truly, that you descended from heaven, and alone are the master of truth.
O good Jesus: you are the tree of life in the paradise of delights. for no one will be able to be fed with the desirable life: except from your fruit. You are the food forbidden, Jesus, to all the sons of Adam: who, expelled from paradise, seek in the earth in which they labor whence they may live.
It is necessary therefore for every man to put off the old man of presumption, and to put on the new man of humility, who is according to you: if he hopes to taste the food of life within the paradise of delights. one is the nature of the new and the old Adam: but in the old Adam it is animal, in you the new Adam spiritual. because in you, Jesus, it is united to God: who is spirit. it is necessary therefore for every man: as through the common human nature of himself and of you, so also to be united to you, Jesus, in one spirit. that so in his own nature, common to you, Jesus, he may be able to approach God the father: who is in paradise.
To see therefore God the father and you, Jesus, his son: is to be in paradise, and eternal glory. because one established outside paradise: cannot have such a vision. since neither God the father, nor you, Jesus: can be found outside paradise.
Every man therefore has attained happiness: who is united to you, Jesus, as member to head. no one can come to the father: except drawn by the father.
The father drew your humanity, Jesus, through his son: and through you, Jesus, the father draws all men. as therefore your humanity, Jesus, is united to the son of God the father, as to the medium through which the father drew it: so the humanity of every man is united to you, Jesus, as to the unique medium through which the father draws all men. You are therefore, Jesus: without whom it is impossible for anyone to attain happiness. You are, Jesus, the revelation of the father. For the father is invisible to all men: and visible to you alone, his son. and after you to him: who through you and your revelation shall merit to see him. You are therefore the one uniting every happy man. and every happy man subsists in you: as the united in the uniting. None of the wise men of this world can grasp true happiness: when he does not know you. no happy man can see the father except with you, Jesus, within paradise. Of the happy man contradictories are verified: as of you, Jesus, since he is united to you in a rational, natural, and one spirit. for every happy spirit subsists in yours: as the enlivened in the enlivening. every happy spirit sees the invisible God: and is united in you, Jesus, to the inaccessible and immortal God. and so in you the finite is united to the infinite and invisible. and the incomprehensible is grasped in eternal enjoyment: which is the most delightful happiness never to be consumed. have mercy, Jesus, have mercy: and grant me to see you unveiled, and my soul is made safe.