CAPUT XV. Quomodo infirmorum speculationi divinae Scripturae alludant
Scripture's Accommodation to Human Weakness
The divine Scriptures stoop to human weakness by describing invisible realities through visible forms, using images like the promised land and heavenly Jerusalem to lead us toward contemplation.
But this too must not be left out: how the divine Scriptures speak to this kind of contemplation and stoop to human weakness. For they describe invisible realities through the forms of visible things, and they impress the memory of those realities on our minds through the beauty of certain desirable appearances.1 That’s why they sometimes promise a land flowing with milk and honey; sometimes they mention flowers or fragrances; and sometimes, through human song or the chorus of birds, they point toward the harmony of heavenly joys. Read the Apocalypse of John, and you’ll find the adornment of the heavenly Jerusalem described in many ways through gold, silver, pearls, or any other precious gems you can imagine.
The Figurative Presence of Heavenly Things
Although none of these images exist literally in heaven, all are present by likeness, and this service of imagination aids the soul by making spiritual realities recallable at will.
And we know, of course, that none of all these things is actually there—yet there, nothing at all can be lacking. For of such things nothing is there in its actual form, and yet everything is there by likeness.2 In all of this, Bala has something with which she can usefully serve her mistress, since she brings back to her the memory of all these things, wherever and whenever she wants, just as she desires.3 For we can imagine these things at once, whenever we want.
Imagination's Highest Service to Reason
Imagination proves most useful to reason precisely when it renders this kind of service, aiding the mind's ascent to contemplation.
Imagination can never be more useful to reason than when it serves reason in this kind of service.
Read the original Latin
Sed nec hoc praetereundum, quomodo Scripturae divinae huic speculationi alludant et humanae infirmitati condescendant. Res enim invisibiles, per rerum visibilium formas describunt, et earum memoriam per quarumdam concupiscibilium specierum pulchritudinem mentibus nostris imprimunt. Hinc est quod nunc terram lacte et melle manantem promittunt; nunc flores, nunc odores nominant, nunc per cantus hominum, nunc per concentus avium coelestium gaudiorum harmoniam designant. Legite Apocalypsim Joannis et invenietis coelestis Hierusalem ornatum per aurum, et argentum, per margaritas vel alias quaslibet gemmas pretiosas multipliciter descriptum. Et scimus quidem quia horum omnium nihil ibi est, ubi tamen nihil omnino deesse potest. Talium namque nihil ibi est per speciem, ubi tamen totum est per similitudinem. In his omnibus habet Bala unde dominae suae utiliter deserviat, quandoquidem ei horum omnium memoriam, ubi et quando voluerit pro voto repraesentat. Haec enim statim cum voluerimus imaginari possumus.
Nunquam imaginatio rationi utilior esse poterit, quam cum ei in tali obsequio deservit.
Notes
- 1 ↩concupiscibilium specierum: not lustful desire, but appearances attractive enough to draw the mind; 'desirable' keeps the appetitive force without erotic coloring.
- 2 ↩per speciem / per similitudinem: technical contrast between presence in proper form and presence by likeness or figure; not mere resemblance as ornament.
- 3 ↩Bala (Bilhah) = imagination; her mistress = Rachel/reason, continuing the allegory from the previous chapter.
Benjamin Minor (The Twelve Patriarchs / Preparation of the Mind for Contemplation) companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent