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Chapter 51BernC.1.51

Liber Quintus, Caput XIII. De longitudine, latitudine, profunditate, et sublimitate Dei profunde et eleganter discurrit.

The Question and the Fourfold Mirror

Bernard opens with the question 'What is God?' and introduces length, breadth, height, and depth as a fourfold mirror through which the simple God is glimpsed in this life.

What is God? Length, breadth, height, and depth. What do you mean? We hold you, whom we have come to detest, as the professor of a quaternity. Not at all. I have detested, and I detest. I seem to have brought forth many things, but it is one. One God is marked out within our capacity, not within his own state. This one is divided, not that one. Diverse voices, many paths — but one is signified through them, one is sought. No divisions of substance are expressed in this fourfold scheme; no dimensions like those we gaze at in bodies; no personal distinction like the one we worship in the Trinity; no number of properties like the one we confess to belong to the persons themselves, even though they are not other than the persons.1 Otherwise, what is one among these in God is four at the same time; what is four is what is one. But in our case, since we can't match God's simplicity, while we strive to grasp the one, as we reach for it we encounter what seems like a fourfold form.2 This is the mirror and the enigma, through which for now God is given to be seen only.✦ But when we see face to face, we will see as he is.✦ For on that occasion, the keen but fragile sight of our mind, no matter how intensely it strains forward, will to some degree fall back — even break apart — into its own fragmented state.

The Chariot of Comprehension

The soul is invited to climb into the four-horse chariot of Ephesians 3:18, not merely to know but to lay hold of God, for the fruit is in comprehension, not curiosity.

God will draw himself together more fully, unite himself, and shape himself to the unity of that one—or rather, to that one's unity—so that one face may answer face to face.✦ Indeed, we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is.✦ Blessed vision! For this vision the psalmist rightly sighed when he said: My whole being has sought you out; your face, Lord, I will seek.✦ And since the matter is still one of seeking, let us meanwhile climb into this four-horse chariot—we who are weak and feeble, needing such a vehicle—so that perhaps in this way, or thus, we may lay hold of that in which we have been laid hold of: that is, the meaning of this very vehicle.✦ For we have this instruction from the charioteer himself, the one who first brought forth this chariot: that we should strive, together with all the saints, to comprehend what is the length, the breadth, the height, and the depth.✦ He said 'comprehend,' not merely 'know'—so that we would not, satisfied with the curiosity of knowledge, direct all our energy toward the harvest of fruit. The fruit is not in knowing, but in laying hold. After all, knowing what is good and not doing it is, as someone has said, a sin for that person; and Paul himself says elsewhere, 'Run so that you may lay hold of it.'✦✦ I’ll explain what it means to lay hold of it further on.

Length and Breadth: Eternity and Love

God's length is eternity without limit, and his breadth is love that embraces even enemies and surpasses all knowledge, yet both are one in the immeasurable God.

What, then, is God? Length, I say. And what is that itself? Eternity. This length is so great that it has no limit—no more in space than in time. There is also breadth. And what is that itself? Love. By what boundaries, then, can these things be narrowed in God, who hates nothing of what he has made? He makes his sun rise on the good and the evil alike, and he rains on the just and the unjust.✦ So that embrace encloses even enemies. Nor is he satisfied even with this: he breaks out into the infinite. It surpasses every affection, and not only affection but knowledge as well — with the Apostle adding his voice and saying, "To know also the surpassing knowledge of the charity of Christ."✦ What more should I say? It is eternal. Unless, perhaps, this is something more — because it is eternity. You see how great the breadth is—and the length is just as great. Would that you might see it so — not just how great it is, but the thing itself: that the one is the other, that the one is no less than the two, and the two no more than the one. God is eternity, God is love: length without extension, breadth without distension. In both, it indeed surpasses our local and temporal constraints, yet it does so by the freedom of its nature, not by any vastness of substance. In this way, it is immeasurable, the one who made all things in measure; and though it is immeasurable, this too is the measure, even of immensity itself.

Height and Depth: Power and Wisdom

God's height is his unattainable power and his depth his inscrutable wisdom, and the chapter closes by gathering all four dimensions into the one reality of God.

What about God, then? Height and depth. In the one, he is above all things; in the other, he is below all things. It is clear that in the Godhead equality never falters; it stands firm on every side and remains immovably consistent with itself.3 Consider his height as his power, and his depth as his wisdom. These correspond to each other on equal terms, since his height is recognized as unattainable and his depth as equally inscrutable—Paul marveling and crying out: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!✦ How inscrutable are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways!✦ We, too, want to cry out with Paul, looking however dimly at these attributes in God, and at the utter simplicity of his unity with God: O mighty wisdom, reaching powerfully everywhere!4 O wise power, disposing all things sweetly! One reality, yet its effects are many and its workings diverse. And that one reality is length because of eternity, breadth because of love, height because of majesty, and depth because of wisdom.

Read the original Latin

Quid est Deus? Longitudo, latitudo, sublimitas, et profundum. Quid, inquis? tenemus te quaternitatis, quam abominatus es, professorem. Minime. Abominatus sum, et abominor. Visus sum protulisse plura, sed unum est. Unus Deus signatus est pro captu nostro, non pro suo statu.

Divisus est hic, non ille. Voces diversae, semitae multae: sed unum per eas significatur, unus quaeritur. Non divisiones substantiae in quaternario isto expressae sunt; non dimensiones, quales in corporibus intuemur; non distinctio personalis, qualem in Trinitate adoramus; non numerus proprietatum, qualem personis ipsis inesse fatemur, etsi non aliud a personis. Alioquin hoc singulum horum in Deo, quod quatuor simul; hoc quatuor ipsa, quod singulum est. Nobis autem, quia non possumus cum Deo simplicitate contendere, dum contendimus apprehendere unum, occurrit veluti quadruplicatum. Facit hoc speculum et aenigma, per quod solum interim videri datur. Cum autem videbimus facie ad faciem, videbimus sicuti est. Nec enim jam tunc fragilis acies mentis nostrae, quantumlibet vehementer intendens, aliquatenus resiliet, dissilietve in suam pluralitatem.

Colliget sese magis, adunabit, conformabitque unitati illius, vel potius unitati illi, ut una uni facies respondeat faciei. Nempe similes ei erimus, quia videbimus eum sicuti est. Beata visio! ad quam merito suspirabat, qui ait: Exquisivit te facies mea; faciem tuam, Domine, requiram. Et quia adhuc in quaerendo res est, interim ascendamus quadrigam istam, utpote infirmi et imbecilles, indigentes tali vehiculo, si forte vel sic apprehendemus, in quo apprehensi sumus, id est, hujus ipsius vehiculi rationem. Nam hoc monitum habemus ab ipso auriga et primo currus hujus exhibitore, ut studeamus comprehendere cum omnibus sanctis, quae sit longitudo, latitudo, sublimitas, et profundum. Comprehendere dixit, non, Cognoscere: ut non curiositate contenti scientiae, tota cura fructui inhiemus. Non in cognitione est fructus, sed in comprehensione.

Alioquin scienti bonum, et non facienti, ut ait quidam, peccatum est ei: et ipse Paulus alio loco, Sic currite, inquit, ut comprehendatis. Quid sit comprehendere, inferius declarabo.

Quid igitur est Deus? Longitudo, inquam. Quid ipsa? Aeternitas. Haec tam longa, ut non habeat terminum, non magis loci, quam temporis. Est et latitudo. Et ipsa quid? Charitas.

Quibus et ista terminis angustetur in Deo, qui nihil odit eorum quae fecerit? Denique solem suum oriri facit super bonos et malos, pluit super justos et injustos. Ergo et inimicos concludit sinus ille. Nec hoc quoque contentus, evadit in infinitum. Omnem non modo affectionem, sed et cognitionem excedit, adjiciente Apostolo et dicente: Scire etiam supereminentem scientiae charitatem Christi. Quid plus dicam? Aeterna est. Nisi quod hoc plus forsitan est, quia aeternitas est.

Vides tantam esse latitudinem, quantam et longitudinem? Utinam sic videas non tantam esse, sed ipsam: id esse unam quod alteram; non minus unam quam duas, nec plus duas quam unam. Deus aeternitas, Deus charitas est: longitudo sine protensione, latitudo sine distensione. In utroque pariter locales quidem excedit temporalesque angustias, sed libertate naturae, non enormitate substantiae. Tali modo immensus est qui omnia fecit in mensura; et quamvis immensus, hic tamen modus et ipsius immensitatis.

Quid item Deus? Sublimitas et profundum. In altero supra omnia, in altero infra omnia. Liquet in deitate nusquam claudicare aequalitatem, stare eam undique firmiter, constare immobiliter sibi. Sublime, potentiam; profundum, sapientiam ejus considera. Ex aequo et ista respondent sibi, dum et sublimitas inattingibilis, et profunditas aeque inscrutabilis cognoscatur, Paulo admirante et exclamante: O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei! quam inscrutabilia sunt judicia ejus, et investigabiles viae illius! Libet et nos exclamare cum Paulo, horum utcumque intuentes in Deo, et cum Deo simplicissimam unitatem: O sapientia potens, attingens ubique fortiter!

o potentia sapiens, disponens omnia suaviter! Res una, effectus multiplex, operationesque diversae. Et illa una res est longitudo propter aeternitatem, latitudo propter charitatem, sublimitas propter majestatem, profunditas propter sapientiam.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩1Cor.13.12 — For now we see in a mirror, dimly; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
  2. ↩1Cor.13.12 — For now we see in a mirror, dimly; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
  3. ↩1Cor.13.12 — For now we see in a mirror, dimly; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
  4. ↩1John.3.2 — Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
  5. ↩Ps.27.8 — My heart says of you, 'Seek my face.' Your face, LORD, I will seek.
  6. ↩1Cor.9.24 — Do you not know that those who run in a stadium all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
  7. ↩Eph.3.18 — rooted and grounded in love, that you may have the power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
  8. ↩Jas.4.17 — So then, for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
  9. ↩1Cor.9.24 — Do you not know that those who run in a stadium all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
  10. ↩Matt.5.45 — so that you may become sons of your Father who is in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
  11. ↩Eph.3.19 — to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God
  12. ↩Rom.11.33 — Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways!
  13. ↩Rom.11.33 — Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways!

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The four terms (length, breadth, depth, height) are applied to God analogically: they do not map onto material dimensions or Trinitarian personal distinction, but are a figurative accommodation to human cognition.
  2. 2 ↩The fourfold (quaternarium) is a concession to human weakness: God is simple, but our act of apprehending breaks into four aspects.
  3. 3 ↩The verb 'claudicare' literally means 'to limp' or 'to falter'; here it is used metaphorically for a lack of evenness in the divine equality.
  4. 4 ↩The phrase 'cum Deo simplicissimam unitatem' likely refers to the absolute simplicity of the divine unity itself, rather than a unity 'with' God as though separate. Rendered to preserve the focus on the simplicity of the unity in God.

De consideratione (On Consideration) companion

Make consideration a daily appointment

Bernard told Eugene to set aside time every day. Chosen Portion holds that time for you, free.

Bernard's core prescription — a fixed daily time reserved for examining the soul — is exactly the habit Chosen Portion installs with its daily devotional portion.

  • One 10-minute daily portion for self-examination and prayer
  • Reflection prompts drawn from historic texts, not improvised journaling
  • A visible streak that protects the daily interval Bernard insisted on
Chosen Portion — Daily Prayer (free iOS app) →