SENTENTIA EIUSDEM DE APOSTATA SERAPHIM, NON A DOCTORIBUS ASSUMPTA, SED AB IPSO SCRIPTORE INVENTA.
The Seal of God in Paradise
Made in God's image and placed in paradise, the soul is urged to rest in its God-given dignity and not reach beyond itself.
And yet you — a seal bearing the likeness of God — were placed not in paradise itself, but in the very delights of paradise.✦ What more should you be looking for? You are therefore full of wisdom and perfect in beauty; do not seek things beyond yourself, and do not probe into things too strong for you.✦ Stand firm in yourself, so you don't fall from yourself — if you walk among great and wonderful things beyond you.
The Restless Glance Toward the North
The soul's proud curiosity reaches toward forbidden heights, disrupting heavenly harmony and the rest of the Trinity itself.
But what are you glancing at sideways, off toward the north?✦ Now I see you, now I catch you — I don't even know what lofty things you're prying into beyond yourself, far too curiously. 'I will set my seat in the north,' you say.✦ While the other heavenly beings stand in attendance, you alone want to sit — and in doing so you disturb the harmony of the brethren, the peace of the whole heavenly homeland, and the very rest of the Trinity, as far as it depends on you.
Presumption Against Heaven's King
The soul's singular presumption scandalizes the heavenly citizens and injures the King, as it foolishly presumes to sit in heaven and be like the Most High.
Where is your wretched curiosity leading you, that you don't hesitate, in your singular presumption, to cause scandal to your fellow citizens and do injury to the King? Thousands upon thousands serve him, and tens of hundreds of thousands stand before him — where no one is said to sit except the one alone who sits above the Cherubim, and from whom the others receive their ministry. And you, peering out with some strange superiority over the rest, prying more curiously, pushing forward more irreverently, seat yourself in heaven so that you can be like the Most High?✦✦ To what end? With what confidence? Take measure of your strength, fool — weigh the outcome, consider the method. Do you presume the Most High knows this, or does he not know? With his consent, or against his will? But how can the One whose will is perfect goodness and whose knowledge is complete — how could he either will or be unaware of whatever evil you are plotting? Surely you don't doubt that he both knows and does not will it — but do you think he cannot resist you?
The Creator's Omnipotence and Goodness
The soul is reminded that the Creator's omnipotence, knowledge, and goodness are beyond question, making resistance to His will absurd.
But truly, unless you doubt that you were created, I would not believe you doubt the omnipotence, or the boundless knowledge and goodness of the Creator, who was able to make you out of nothing, who knew you as such, and willed to create you so greatly.12 How, then, can you think God consents to what He does not will to happen, and that He can be refuted?3
The Evil Eye of Pride
The chapter closes with a proverb on reckless authority and the soul's wicked presumption, which takes shameless confidence from the very goodness of God.
Is it perhaps in you that I see fulfilled — no, rather, begun by you — what after you and through you, by those like you in the lands, is commonly and vulgarly said: "A lord without a flock breeds reckless men"? Is your eye wicked because that one is good?✦ While you take wicked confidence from the very goodness of the One who made you, you have become shameless against knowledge and bold against power.
Read the original Latin
Sed et tu, signaculum similitudinis, non in paradiso, sed in deliciis paradisi Dei positus es. Quid amplius quaerere debes? Plenus ergo sapientia et perfectus decore, altiora te ne quaesieris et fortiora te ne scrutatus fueris. Sta in te, ne cadas a te, si ambulas in magnis et in mirabilibus super te. Sed quid interim ex obliquo intendis ad aquilonem? Iam te video, iam te perspicio nescio quae supra te curiosius alta rimantem. Ponam, inquis sedem meam ad Aquilonem. Ceteris astantibus caelicolis, dum tu sedere solus affectas, fratrum concordiam, totius caelestis patriae pacem ipsius, quantum in te est, quietem Trinitatis infestas.
Quo te tua, miser curiositas ducit, ut praesumptione singulari non dubites civibus scandalum, iniuriam facere Regi? Millia millium ministrant ei, et decies centena millia assistunt ei, ubi nemo sedere perhibetur, nisi solus is qui sedet super Cherubim, cui a ceteris ministratur; et tu nescio quae prae ceteris differentius prospiciendo, curiosius inquirendo, irreverentius, pervadendo, sedem tibi collocas in caelo, ut sis similis Altissimo? Quo fine? Qua fiducia? Metire, insipiens, vires pensa finem, excogita modum Sciente hoc Altissimo praesumis, an nesciente? Volente, an nolente? Sed quomodo malum quodcumque machinaris, aut velle, aut ignorare potest, cuius optima voluntas, cuius perfecta scientia est? Numquid autem et scire, et nolle non dubitas, sed non posse resistere putas?
At vero nisi te conditum esse dubitaveris, dubitare te non crediderim de omnipotentia, sive de omnimoda scientia ac bonitate Conditoris, qui te de nihilo potuit, talem scivit, tantum condere voluit. Quomodo ergo Deum consentire aestimas, quod fieri nolit, ac refellere possit?
An forte in te video compleri, immo a te initiari, quod post te ac per te a tui similibus in terris frequentatum solet vulgariter dici: Privatus dominus temerarios nutrit? An oculus tuus nequam est, quia ille bonus? De cuius bonitate dum fiduciam nefariam sumis, factus es et contra scientiam impudens, et contra potentiam audax.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.1.26-Gen.1.27 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
- ↩Ezek.28.12-Ezek.28.13 — Son of man, take up a lament over the king of Tyre, and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You are the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Ezek.28.13 — You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering: carnelian, topaz, and emerald; chrysolite, onyx, and jasper; sapphire, turquoise, and beryl; and gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day you were created they were prepared.
- ↩Isa.14.13 — And you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to the heavens; above the stars of God I will raise my throne, and I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north." Keep the quotation open into v.14 for continuity.
- ↩Isa.14.13 — And you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to the heavens; above the stars of God I will raise my throne, and I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north." Keep the quotation open into v.14 for continuity.
- ↩Dan.7.10 — A river of fire flowed and poured out before him. A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.
- ↩Isa.14.14 — I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.'" Close the quotation here so the transition to v.15 lands clearly.
- ↩Matt.6.22-Matt.6.23 — The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. Matt.6.23 — But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Notes
- 1 ↩crediderim rendered as 'I would believe' to capture the potential/subjunctive force of modesty rather than a simple future.
- 2 ↩At vero carries adversative + confirmatory force: 'But truly' captures both the turn from the preceding argument and the emphatic reinforcement.
- 3 ↩ergo rendered as 'then' to capture the inferential force drawing a conclusion from the preceding argument.
De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae (On the Steps of Humility and Pride) companion
Humility is climbed one day at a time
Take the next step each morning with a free daily devotional in Chosen Portion.
Bernard frames humility as a ladder climbed by small repeated acts; Chosen Portion turns that into practice with one daily devotional step at a time.
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