Quod aliter pensant electi opera Dei, et aliter reprobi.
Two Weighings of Divine Works
The elect prize the works of restoration for salvation, while the reprobate prefer the works of creation for present delight.
But it must be understood that the elect and the reprobate weigh divine works differently. The elect, for their part, prefer the works of restoration to the works of the first creation, because the former were made for servitude, the latter for salvation. But the reprobate, by contrast, love the works of creation more than the works of restoration, because they seek present delight, not future happiness.
Philosophers Lost and Found
Pagan philosophers vanish into curiosity about creation, while Christian philosophers drive out vanity by meditating on restoration.
The philosophers of the pagans, investigating the natures of things—that is, the works of creation—with a kind of superstitious curiosity, have vanished into their own thoughts. The philosophers of the Christians, by continually meditating on the works of restoration, drive all vanity away from their thoughts.
The Fire of Love and the Cold of Forgetfulness
The elect burn with divine love through remembering their restoration, while the reprobate grow cold and forget their Creator amid transitory things.
The elect, considering their own restoration, burn with the fire of divine love. The reprobate, however, perversely loving the beauty of created things, grow cold from the love of God. The reprobate, while they immerse their thoughts in transitory things, forget their Creator.
Remembering and Forgetting the Creator
The chosen ones, meditating on divine mercy, never forget God and advance from temporal benefits to eternal knowledge, whereas the reprobate lose eternal knowledge by gaping after temporal things.
The chosen ones, however, cannot forget their Creator, whose mercy they are always meditating on for their restoration. The reprobate, while they gape after temporal things, lose the knowledge of eternal things. The chosen ones, however, while they recall the temporal benefits of God, advance toward the knowledge of eternal things.
Ascent Through Visible Things to the Invisible
The reprobate fall away from the invisible through the visible, but the chosen ascend from creation through restoration to God, the Author of both.
The reprobate fall away from invisible things through visible things; the chosen ones, however, ascend through visible things to invisible things. But it must be known that some visible things are those from which people ascend, and other visible things are those through which they ascend. From the works of creation, through the works of restoration, they ascend to the Author of both creation and restoration.
The Interior Ladder of Ascent
This ascent is internal, understood through ordered steps of virtue in the heart, to be explained more fully in what follows.
This ascent, however, is not external but internal—to be thought of through the steps arranged in the heart, from virtue to virtue. We will perhaps be able to understand this more easily in what follows.
Read the original Latin
Sed sciendum est quod opera divina aliter electi atque aliter reprobi pensant. Electi namque opera restaurationis praeferunt operibus primae conditionis, quia illa ad servitutem, ista ad salutem facta sunt. Sed e contrario reprobi plus amant opera conditionis, quam opera restaurationis quia praesentem quaerunt delectationem, non futuram felicitatem. Philosophi gentillum superstitiosa quadam curiositate naturas rerum, id est opera conditionis investigando, in cogitationibus suis evanuerunt. Philosophi Christianorum opera restaurationis jugiter meditando, omnem a cogitationibus suis vanitatem repellunt. Electi restaurationem sui considerantes, igne divini amoris inardescunt. Reprobi autem pulchritudinem rerum conditarum perverse amantes ab amore Dei refrigescunt. Reprobi dum rebus transitoriis cogitationes suas immergunt Creatoris sui obliviscuntur.
Electi autem Creatoris sui oblivisci non possunt, de cujus misericordia semper circa sui reparationem meditantur. Reprobi dum temporalibus inhiant, cognitionem aeternorum perdunt. Electi autem dum temporalia Dei beneficia recolunt, ad agnitionem aeternorum proficiunt. Reprobi per visibilia ab invisibilibus cadunt; electi autem per visibilia ad invisibilia ascendunt. Sed sciendum est, quod alia sunt illa visibilia, de quibus ascendunt, alia illa sunt, per quae ascendunt. De operibus conditionis per opera restaurationis, ad conditionis et restaurationis auctorem ascendunt. Ascensus autem isti non extrinsecus, sed intrinsecus cogitandi sunt, per gradus in corde de virtute in virtutem dispositos. Quod sic fortassis facilius intelligere poterimus.
De Arca Noe Morali et Mystica (On the Moral and Mystical Ark of Noah) companion
Keep the ark under construction
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Hugh's daily discipline of ordered meditation continues in Chosen Portion, which serves one structured devotional portion each day so the mind returns to the same interior work Hugh prescribed.
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