VISIO QUARTA, cap. XII
The Light-Bearer Adorned
God stamps the full beauty of creative power on the first angel, naming him Lucifer as the bearer of light.
God stamped the full beauty of his creative power on the first angel, and adorned him with stars, with the beauty of green things, and with every kind of shining stone, like a star-strewn sky, and named him Lucifer, because he carried light from the one who alone is eternal.✦
The Empty Northern Wall and the Place of Darkness
God displays works in three directions but leaves the north empty, where hell exists without roof or floor, and darkness serves as the necessary contrast by which light is known.
For I, who am present in three walls, displayed my works — in the east, in the south, and in the west; but the fourth wall, in the north, I left empty, where neither sun nor moon shines. And so in that region outside the firmament hell is, which has neither upper roof nor lower floor, and there too the darkness that dwells there is the ministry of all the bright things of my praise — because how would light be known except through darkness? And how would darkness be known except through the radiant brightness of my ministers?
The Fullness of Divine Power Through Contrast
Without this contrast God's power would lack fullness and wonders would go unnamed, but now divine power is perfect and without defect.
If this were not so, my power would lack its fullness, so that all my wonders would not be named. But now my power is full and perfect, and there is no defect in my wonders.
Light Known by Its Opposite
Light is named light only because it exists apart from darkness, just as the living eye is light while blindness is darkness.
For since light exists apart from darkness, it is therefore called light. For the living eye is light; blindness, however, is darkness.✦
Knowledge of Good and Evil Through Light and Darkness
All things are known through light and darkness: light reveals God's works, while darkness marks the flight of the proud who refuse to confess him.
For in these two parts everything is made plain, whether it's good or evil: through light, indeed, the works of God; but through darkness, the flight from God that the light doesn't reach — in those, namely, who through a proud part refuse to confess him.
The Fall of the Proud Angels
The pride of the first angel and his followers leads to their casting down into darkness, while the blessed angels cry out in denunciation.
On the pride or swelling of the first angel and his followers against God, and their casting down into the place of darkness, and the cry of the blessed angels denouncing them.
Read the original Latin
Omnem quippe pulchritudinem operum possibilitatis suae Deus in primo angelo signavit, ipsumque stellis et pulchritudine viriditatis, omnique genere fulgentium lapidum, quasi stellatum coelum ornavit, et eum Luciferum nominavit, quoniam ab ipso, qui solus aeternus est, lucem portavit. Ego enim qui sum in tribus parietibus opera mea ostendi, videlicet in oriente, in austro et in occidente; quartum autem parietem in septentrione vacuum dimisi, in quo nec sol nec luna lucet. Quapropter et in illa plaga extra firmamentum infernus est, qui nec superius tectum, nec inferius fundum habet, et etiam ibi tenebrae existentes, ministerium omnium lucidorum laudis meae sunt, quia quomodo lux cognosceretur nisi per tenebras? Et quomodo tenebrae scirentur, nisi per radiantem fulgorem ministrorum meorum? Si hoc non esset, potestas mea plenitudine careret, ita ut omnia miracula mea non nominarentur. Sed nunc potestas mea plena et perfecta est, nec ullus defectus in miraculis meis est. Quoniam enim lumen absque tenebris est, ideo lux nominatur. Vivens quippe oculus lux est, caecitas autem tenebrae sunt.
In his etenim duobus partibus omnia cognoscuntur, sive bona, sive mala sint; per lucem quidem opera Dei, per tenebras vero fuga a Deo quae lucem non tangit, in illis scilicet qui per superbam partem ipsum confiteri nolunt.
De superbia vel tumore primi angeli et sequacium ejus in Deum, et de praecipitatione eorum in locum tenebrarum et clamor beatorum angelorum illos detestantium.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.14.12 — How you have fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who laid low the nations!
- ↩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!
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