VISIO QUARTA, cap. XVIII
The Body's Balanced Design
The equal measure of the lips and the balanced span from ear to throat reveal a divine proportion woven into the human frame.
The upper lip and the lower lip, which both at once discharge the phlegm of the head and of the belly in a person's mouth, are of one measure, just as also the black fire effecting purging in the vengeance of God, and the strong and bright and white air, moderating those things by tempering, are of equal density. This is also shown in the measure that extends equally from one ear of a person to the other ear across the back, obliquely over the head, and from the ear-holes all the way to the shoulders, and from the shoulders to the end of the throat.
Praise from a Measured Life
Because the body is proportioned with equal measure, a person should receive God's commands with humble obedience and praise God with balanced devotion in all things.
In these things, then, it is shown that a person, both in what is above, that is in heavenly things, and in what is below, namely in earthly things, casting away the evils of both soul and body from themselves, ought to praise God with equal devotion by their mouth, since God is the preserver both of souls and of bodies. And that there is one measure, as said before, from ear to ear, and from ears to shoulders, and from shoulders to the end of the throat, signifies that a person, receiving God's commands with the ears and faithfully laying them upon their shoulders, as it were drawing them into the throat, ought to have an equal and measured manner in all things, so as to arrive at that equality where there is no pride of strength.
Soul and Body in Penance
The soul suffers when the body sins and rejoices when the body is disciplined in penance, calling a person to weigh both the beginning and the end of their works.
For as long as the body sins, so long is the soul, given over to sins in the body, troubled, and as much as the body is afflicted through abstinence in penance, so much does the soul rejoice in the reward of eternal glory, since just as a person looks to the beginning of their works, so also should they diligently consider their end and their merits.
The Soul's Knowledge of God
The soul animates the body and, recognizing its Creator, moves a person to seek and name God, ascending in devotion through disciplined reverence.
The soul, then, is sent into the human form to such an extent that the same form may be given life through it, and because it agrees that it has come from its Creator, therefore also a person, whether placed in some sect or in right faith, names God, since this is implanted in them from the good powers of the soul. And so, seeking the name of God, the person ascends into the height, and through a certain law inscribes a discipline by which they may venerate the one they name.
Tears of Compunction
The soul, foreseeing God's judgment, grieves over its stored-up sins and moves the body to tears and blushing, purging guilt as phlegm is discharged through the lips.
But the soul also knows that the judgment of God is going to fall upon the transgression of the law, and so for the crimes that it has stored up with grief, it sometimes causes its covering to bring forth tears, just as phlegm is discharged through the lips, and by this grief it so seizes the body in which it dwells as to make it blush for its unjust works.
The Body Resists, the Soul Still Grieves
Though the flesh often resists the soul and blinds it, the soul cannot be fully oppressed and still grieves for sin — a penitence unknown to wicked spirits.
Nevertheless, the body follows the taste of the flesh and often resists the soul, so that it doesn't ascend to that height where it perceives God, and thus blinds it; but still, it isn't able to oppress it so completely that it doesn't grieve for its sins, even though a person takes delight in them. And wicked spirits have never had this kind of penitence, which is why they blush deeply, because they cannot take it away from a person.1
The Two Powers of the Soul
The soul exercises two powers: one turned toward God in contemplation, the other governing and giving life to the body.
Regarding the two powers of the soul: one is engaged in the things that concern God, the other is at work giving life to or governing its body.2
Read the original Latin
Superius quoque ac inferius labium, quae utraque pariter flegma capitis et ventris ejiciunt, in ore hominis unius mensurae sunt, sicut etiam niger ignis purgationem in vindicta Dei faciens, fortisque et albus lucidusque aer illa temperando moderans aequalis densitatis sunt. Quod etiam in mensura, quae ab aure hominis ad alteram aurem a retro per obliquum capitis, et a foraminibus aurium usque ad humeros, ab humeris quoque ad finem gutturis aequaliter procedit manifestatur. In his ergo ostenditur quod homo et in superioribus, id est in coelestibus, et in inferioribus, videlicet in terrenis, mala tam animae quam corporis de se abjiciens, ore suo Deum aequali studio laudare debeat, quoniam ipse conservator et animarum et corporum est. Quod etiam ab aure ad alteram aurem, et ab auribus ad humeros, atque ab humeris ad finem gutturis, una mensura, ut praedictum est, existens, significat quod homo praecepta Dei auribus percipiens, humerisque suis illa fideliter imponens, et quasi gutture suo ea in se trahens, in omnibus aequalem et discretum modum habere debet, quatenus ad aequitatem illam perveniat, ubi nulla fortitudo est. Nam quandiu corpus peccat, tandiu anima in corpore peccatis dedita conturbatur, et quantum corpus per abstinentiam in poenitentia affligitur, tantum anima de praemio aeternae gloriae gaudet, quoniam sicut homo initium operum suorum inspicit, ita etiam finem eorum et merita diligenter consideret. Anima itaque adeo in formam hominis mittitur, quatenus eadem forma per ipsam vivificetur, et quia a Creatore suo se venisse consentit, idcirco etiam homo tam in secta aliqua, quam in fide recta positus, Deum nominat, quoniam hoc ex bonis viribus animae sibi insitum habet. Quapropter et ipse nomen Dei quaerendo in altitudinem ascendit, atque per quamdam legem disciplinam excribrat, qua illum quem nominat veneretur. Sed et anima judicium Dei supra praevaricationem legis casurum cognoscit, unde et pro criminibus suis quae thesaurizavit cum dolore, tegmen suum aliquando lacrymas educere facit, sicut etiam flegma per labia ejicitur, atque eum dolore isto corpus in quo latet ita capit, ut illud de injustis operibus suis erubescere faciat.
Attamen corpus gustum carnis sequitur, animaeque multoties resistit, ne in altitudinem illam ascendat, in qua Deum sentit, et eam sic excaecat, sed tamen ita opprimere non valet, quin pro peccatis doleat, quamvis homo in ipsis delectetur, et hujusmodi poenitentiam maligni spiritus nunquam habuerunt, unde et valde erubescunt quia eam homini abstrahere non possunt.
De duabus viribus animae, quarum altera in his quae ad Deum spectant juvatur, altera in vivificando vel regendo corpore suo fungitur.
Notes
- 1 ↩The conjunction quin literally means 'but that' or 'without'; here it governs the subjunctive doleat, indicating that the body's oppression cannot prevent the soul's grief for sin.
- 2 ↩The phrase 'juvatur' (is helped/aided) in the first clause is rendered actively as 'is engaged in' to capture the sense of the soul's power being oriented toward divine things, though a more literal 'is helped' is also possible.
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