De quatuor modis exeundi per contemplationem.
The Four Paths of Contemplation
The soul begins to go out through contemplation by seeing every creature on its own terms and finding all things to be vanity, since each comes from nothing and tends toward nothing.
There are also four ways we go out through contemplation. The first way is when we consider every creature on its own terms, and we find that all things are vanity, because every creature comes into being from nothing, and so its daily change shows that, as far as it depends on itself, it tends toward nothing.
The Trace of Divine Reason
The second way of contemplation sees in creatures a likeness of divine reason, because their continued existence by the Creator's bounty imitates eternal stability.
The second way is when we consider what is present in a given creature by the Creator's gift, and we perceive in it a likeness of divine reason: though these things are by their own nature subject to change, they receive from the Creator's bounty the gift of never entirely ceasing to exist, so that in a way the temporal work of the eternal Maker imitates his own stability.
God's Instruments and the Three Voices
The third way of contemplation considers how God uses creatures to carry out judgments of mercy or punishment, so that all things become instruments of divine ordering and evidence of human crookedness, speaking with three voices.
The third way is when we consider how God uses the service of creatures to carry out his judgments, whether by bestowing blessings out of his own mercy, or by sending punishments because of our own deserving. In this kind of reflection, we find that all things are instruments of God's ordering and evidence of our own crookedness. In this kind of contemplation, we hear every creature speaking to us with three voices.
The Voice of the Servant
Heaven, air, and water speak as servants, offering light and darkness, the seasons, breath, birds, drink, cleansing, and fish for food.
The first voice says, "Receive"; the second says, "Give back"; the third says, "Flee": "Receive a benefit, give back what you owe, flee punishment." The first voice is that of a servant, the second of someone who warns, the third of someone who threatens. The voice of a servant speaks. Heaven says: "I serve you with light in the day so that you may keep watch; with darkness in the night so that you may rest." For your delight I bring forth the welcome changes of the seasons: in springtime, the warmth of summer, the fullness of autumn, and the cold of winter. As the lengths of days and nights alternate, I stretch out their spans by a similar principle but in varying ways, so that variety may relieve weariness and their order may produce delight. The air says: "I offer you the breath of life, and I send every kind of bird for your service." Water says: "I offer you drink, I cleanse your filth, I refresh what is parched, and I serve you diverse kinds of fish for your food."
The Voice of the One Warning
The earth speaks as one who warns, carrying and nourishing humanity with bread, wine, fruits, and animals, and calling people to repay the kindness they have received with love.
The earth says: I carry you, I nourish you, I strengthen you with bread, I gladden you with wine, I delight you with all kinds of fruit, and I fill your tables with a variety of animals. This is the voice of the one warning. The world says: See, O person, how the one who made me loved you for your own sake. I serve you because I was made for your sake, so that you in turn might serve the one who made both me and you. On your account there is me, and on his account there is you. If you have received a good, repay the debt. You receive kindness; repay with love.
The Voice of the One Threatening
Fire, water, earth, and hell threaten sinners with burning, drowning, swallowing, and devouring, so that the wicked flee even when no one pursues, while the righteous are secure even in suffering.
God gives this, and God demands this. It is the voice of one who threatens. Fire says: You'll be burned by me. Water says: You'll be drowned in me. Earth says: You'll be swallowed up by me. Hell says: You'll be devoured by me. Because every creature, just as it serves humanity by its own nature, so too threatens sinners on account of the conscience of their evil deeds, so that in each creature they may fear to suffer what they know they have deserved.1 For this reason it has even been said that the wicked person flees when no one is pursuing, because the wicked person is terrified in their safety, just as the righteous person is secure in their suffering.✦2
The Raven and the Dove
The fourth mode of contemplation looks at creatures only to satisfy carnal desire, like Eve seeing the beautiful tree, and those who go out this way are like the raven that never returned, while the other three modes are figured in the dove that went out empty but returned carrying an olive branch.
The fourth mode of contemplation is when we look at creatures inasmuch as a person can use them to satisfy the pleasure of carnal desire, and in them we think not of the support that natural weakness needs, but of the delight that lust craves. With this eye Eve saw the tree — how beautiful it was to look at, and how sweet to eat — and she took some of its fruit and ate it.✦ Those who go out through thought in this way are like the raven that never returned, because while they find outside what wrongly delights them, they no longer want to return to the ark of conscience.✦ The remaining three kinds of contemplation are figured in the going out of the dove, which, when it was sent out and could not find anywhere to rest its foot, returned in the evening carrying an olive branch in its beak.✦ She went out empty, but she did not return empty, because outside she found what she did not have within; nor, however, did she love outside what she brought back within.
Read the original Latin
Quatuor etiam modis eximus per contemplationem. Primus modus est, quando consideramus omnem creaturam quid sit ex se, et invenimus omnia esse vanitatem, quia omnis creatura sicut de nullo adesse venit, ita et quotidiana immutatione indicat, quod quantum in se est ad nihilum tendit.
Secundus modus est, quando consideramus quid sit in eadem creatura ex dono Creatoris, et cernimus in ea divinae rationis similitudinem, quia ipsa, quae pro sua conditione mutabilitati subjacent, dum hoc ex beneficio Creatoris accipiunt, ut nunquam prorsus esse desinant, quodammodo opus temporale aeterni opificis imitatur stabilitatem.
Tertius modus est, quando consideramus quomodo utatur Deus ministerio creaturarum ad implenda judicia sua, sive pro sua misericordia beneficia largiendo, sive pro nostro merito supplicia. In hac autem consideratione invenimus omnia esse instrumentum divinae dispensationis, et nostrae pravitatis argumentum. In hoc genere contemplationis audimus omnem creaturam tribus vocibus nobis loquentem.
Prima vox dicit accipe, secunda dicit redde, tertia dicit fuge: « Accipe beneficium, redde debitum, fuge supplicium. » Prima vox est famulantis, secunda admonentis, tertia comminantis. Vox famulantis est. Coelum dicit: Ministro tibi lucem in die ut vigiles; tenebras in nocte ut pauses. Ego ad oblectationem tuam gratas temporum vicissitudines pario, tempore veris, et aestatis fervorem, autumni plenitudinem et algorem hiemis. Ego alternantibus incrementis dierum et noctium spatia simili ratione dissimiliter extendo, ut et varietas tollat fastidium et ratio pariat oblectamentum. Aer dicit: Vitalem tibi praebeo flatum, et omne genus avium ad tuum mitto obsequium. Aqua dicit: Potum tibi praebeo, sordes purgo, arentia vegeto, et diversorum genera piscium ad tuum esum ministro.
Terra dicit. Ego te porto, te nutrio, pane conforto, vino laetifico, omnigenis fructibus oblecto, diversis animalibus mensas teas repleo. Vox admonentis est. Mundus dicit: Vide homo quomodo amavit te, qui propter te fecit me. Servio tibi, quia factus sum propter te, ut et tu servias illi, qui fecit et me, et te. Me propter te, et te propter se. Si sentis beneficium, redde debitum. Accipis benignitatem, redde charitatem.
Hoc tribuit, et hoc exigit Deus. Vox comminantis est. Ignis dicit: A me combureris. Aqua dicit: In me submergeris. Terra dicit: A me absorbeberis. Infernus dicit: A me deglutieris. Quia omnis creatura sicut ex conditione sua homini famulatur, sic etiam peccatoribus pro malorum meritorum conscientia comminatur, ut in singulis creaturis perpeti timeant, quod se meruisse cognoscunt. Propter quod etiam dictum est, quod nemine persequente fugit impius, quoniam ita est in securitate impius pavidus, sicut justus in supplicio securus.
Quartus modus contemplationis est, quando inspicimus creaturas, secundum hoc quod homo eis uti potest ad explendam carnalis concupiscentiae voluptatem, et in eis cogitamus non naturalis infirmitas subsidium, sed libidinis oblectamentum. Hoc oculo Eva lignum vidit, quam esset pulchrum visu, et ad vescendum suave, et tulit de fructu ejus, et comedit. Qui hoc modo per cogitationem exeunt, similes sunt corvo, qui reversus non est, quia dum foris quod male delectat inveniunt, ad arcam conscientiae amplius redire nolunt. Reliqua vero tria contemplationis genera in exitu columbae figurata sunt, quae cum emissa esset, et non inveniret ubi requiesceret pes ejus, reversa est ad vesperum portans ramum olivae virentis in ore suo. Vacua exiit, sed vacua non rediit, quia foris invenit, quod intus non habuit, nec tamen foris amavit, quod intro detulit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Prov.28.1 — The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.
- ↩Gen.3.6 — And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
- ↩Gen.8.7 — And he sent out the raven, and it kept going out and returning until the waters had dried up from the earth.
- ↩Gen.8.8-Gen.8.11 — Then he sent out the dove from him, to see whether the waters had receded from the face of the earth. Gen.8.9 — But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him into the ark, for the waters were over the face of all the earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and brought her to himself into the ark. Gen.8.10 — And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark. Gen.8.11 — and the dove came to him at evening time, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.
Notes
- 1 ↩conscientia is taken as conscience (moral awareness of guilt) rather than mere consciousness; this shapes the whole sentence's logic of deserved punishment.
- 2 ↩The sententia 'nemine persequente fugit impius' echoes a known proverbial/scriptural topos (cf. Prov. 28:1, 'the wicked flee when no one pursues'); final source resolution belongs to the scripture-reference stage.
De Arca Noe Morali et Mystica (On the Moral and Mystical Ark of Noah) companion
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