Itinerarium mentis in Deum

1. After the consideration of the essentials, the eye of understanding must be raised to the beholding of the most blessed Trinity, that one Cherub may stand beside the other. But as of the vision of the essentials, being itself is the radical beginning and the name through which the rest become known, so of the contemplation of the emanations, the good itself is the principal foundation.

2. See, then, and attend: for the best, which simply is that than which nothing better can be thought — and what is such is so that it cannot rightly be thought not to be, for it is altogether better to be than not to be — is so that it cannot rightly be thought without being thought three and one. For good is said to be diffusive of itself; the highest good, then, is supremely diffusive of itself. But the highest diffusion cannot be unless it be actual and intrinsic, substantial and hypostatic, natural and voluntary, liberal and necessary, unfailing and perfect. Unless, then, in the highest good there were eternally actual and consubstantial production, and a hypostasis equally noble as the producer, by mode of generation and spiration — so that there be from the eternal principle one eternal who is eternally co-principiant with Him — so that there be the beloved and the co-beloved, the begotten and the breathed, that is, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, it would in no way be the highest good, for it would not supremely diffuse itself. For diffusion in time into the creature is but central or punctual in respect of the immensity of the eternal goodness; whence a greater diffusion can be thought than it: namely that in which the diffuser communicates to another the whole substance and nature. It would not, then, be the highest good if in reality or in understanding it could lack that.

If, then, thou canst behold with the eye of mind the purity of goodness — which is the pure act of a principle loving charitably with free and due love and with the two commingled, which is the fullest diffusion by mode of nature and of will, which is diffusion by mode of the Word, in whom all things are said, and by mode of the Gift, in whom the other gifts are given — thou canst see that through the highest communicability of good the Trinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is necessary. In whom, on account of the highest goodness, there must be the highest communicability, and from the highest communicability the highest consubstantiality, and from the highest consubstantiality the highest configurability, and from these the highest co-equality, and hence the highest co-eternity, and from all the aforesaid the highest co-intimacy, by which one is in the other necessarily through the highest circumincession, and one works with the other through the all-mannered undivision of the substance and power and operation of the most blessed Trinity itself.

3. But when thou contemplatest these things, see that thou think not to comprehend the incomprehensible. For thou hast still in these six conditions to consider what vehemently draws the eye of our mind into the stupor of wonder. For there is the highest communicability with property of persons, the highest consubstantiality with plurality of hypostases, the highest configurability with discrete personality, the highest co-equality with order, the highest co-eternity with emanation, the highest co-intimacy with emission. Who at the sight of such marvels would not rise into wonder? — But all these we understand most certainly to be in the most blessed Trinity, if we lift our eyes to the super-excellent goodness. For if there is the highest communication and true diffusion, there is true origin and true distinction; and since the whole is communicated, not a part, therefore what is had is given, and the whole: therefore the emanant and the producer are distinguished by properties and are essentially one. Since, then, they are distinguished by properties, therefore they have personal properties and plurality of hypostases and emanation of origin and order not of posteriority but of origin, and emission not of local change but of free inspiration, by reason of the authority of the producer, which the sender has in respect of the sent. — But since they are substantially one, therefore there must be unity in essence and form and dignity and eternity and existence and uncircumscribability. — While, then, thou considerest these singly by themselves, thou hast whence to contemplate the truth; while thou conferrest these with one another, thou hast whence to be suspended in highest wonder: and therefore, that thy mind through wonder may ascend to wondrous contemplation, these must be considered together.

4. For the Cherubim also designate this, who looked upon one another. Nor is it void of mystery that they looked upon one another with faces turned to the propitiatory, that there be verified what the Lord says in John: This is eternal life, that they know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. For we must wonder not only at the essential and personal conditions of God in themselves, but also by comparison to the super-wondrous union of God and man in the unity of the person of Christ.

5. For if thou art a Cherub contemplating the essentials of God, and wonderest that at once the divine being is first and last, eternal and most present, most simple and greatest or uncircumscribed, wholly everywhere and nowhere comprehended, most actual and never moved, most perfect and having nothing superfluous nor diminished, and yet immense and infinite without end, supremely one and yet all-mannered, as having all things in itself — as all power, all truth, all good — look to the propitiatory and wonder that in it the first beginning is joined with the last, God with man formed on the sixth day, the eternal joined with temporal man, born of the Virgin in the fullness of time, the most simple with the supremely composite, the most actual with the supremely suffering and dead, the most perfect and immense with the lowly, the supremely one and all-mannered with the composite individual distinct from others: namely the man Jesus Christ.

6. But if thou art the other Cherub contemplating the properties of the persons, and wonderest that communicability is with property, consubstantiality with plurality, configurability with personality, co-equality with order, co-eternity with production, co-intimacy with emission — for the Son was sent by the Father, and the Holy Spirit by both, who yet is ever with them and never departs from them — look on the propitiatory and wonder that in Christ stands personal union with trinity of substances and duality of natures; stands all-mannered agreement with plurality of wills; stands co-predication of God and man with plurality of properties; stands co-adoration with plurality of nobilities; stands co-exaltation above all with plurality of dignities; stands co-domination with plurality of powers.

7. But in this consideration is the perfection of the illumination of mind, while as on the sixth day it sees man made to the image of God. For if an image is an expressive likeness, while our mind contemplates in Christ the Son of God, who is the image of the invisible God by nature, our humanity so wondrously exalted, so ineffably united, seeing at once in one the first and the last, the highest and the lowest, the circumference and the center, alpha and omega, the caused and the cause, the Creator and the creature — namely the book written within and without — it has now arrived at a certain perfect thing, so that with God it arrives at the perfection of its illuminations in the sixth step as on the sixth day; nor does anything now remain except the day of rest, on which through mental transport the perspicacity of the human mind may rest from every work it has wrought.