VISIO QUARTA, cap. XIV
God's Warfare and the Garment of Knowledge
God wages open warfare against Satan so that the loss of the primordial garment of knowledge will culminate in Satan's eternal shame at the end of the ages.
So God himself waged open warfare against him, specifically so that he might look upon the garment he had possessed in his knowledge from before all beginning—a garment that Satan, who had fled from him, will never be able to gaze upon perfectly, until he has finished all his warfare against him. And then he will see him in the deepest pain of his confusion, when he is utterly put to shame by that same just Judge at the end of the ages.
The Divine Counsel and the Formation of Humanity
In God's eternal counsel he ordained the formation of humanity, creating man from the earth through the hidden Word, and made humanity in his own image as a living cover for the holy divinity.
And in his ancient counsel, which was always with him, he ordained how he would bring that work to completion. He formed man from the muddy earth, just as he had ordained his form before the age—much as the human heart holds rationality within itself and arranges all the sounding words it afterward sends forth. So also God made all things in his Word, because in the Father the Word, which is the Son, lay hidden—just as the heart lies hidden in a human being. And God made the form of humanity in his own image and likeness, because he also willed that his form should cover the holy divinity. So he marked all creatures in humanity, just as every creature also came forth through his Word.
The Human Body as Cosmic Ladder
The human head is crowned with a ladder of senses by which all creatures are known, and the whole body—flesh, blood, and bones—is fashioned with the same ordered firmness with which God established the firmament, sun, moon, and stars in their measured courses.
So in the head of a human being—that is, in the surrounding wheel—the crown of the brain is the summit, to which a ladder is set, with steps of ascent: seeing with the eyes, hearing with the ears, smelling with the nostrils, speaking with the mouth. Through these a human being sees, recognizes, discerns, distinguishes, and names all creatures. For God formed the human being and brought them to life with the living breath that is the soul. He also bound them together with flesh and blood, and he strengthened them by building them up with bones—just as earth is made firm by stones. For just as earth is not earth without stones, so a human being could not exist without bones. The firmament too, the sun, the moon, and the stars do not have fixed foundations for the places in which they run their course, because these constellations could in no way be made firm without the designation of their places. So all their places have been established by right measure, so that the circle of the firmament's wheel may travel correctly—just as all these things are also marked in the form of the human being, though not in the same order or with the same perfection as they exist in the higher realm. These things too look toward the soul.
The Outer Bearing and the Soul's Progress
The outward form of a person reflects the inner state of the soul, whether in progress or in failure.
How the outer bearing — or the form of the person as it concerns the soul — can be assigned according to inner progress or failure.
Read the original Latin
Quapropter ipse Deus manifestum praelium contra illum fecit, ita scilicet ut ad indumentum suum, quod in scientia sua absque initio habuerat respiceret, in quo eum Satan qui ab eo fugerat, nunquam perfecte intueri poterit, donec omne praelium suum adversus illum perfecerit, et tunc ipsum in maximo dolore confusionis suae videbit, cum ab eodem justo judice in fine saeculorum totus confundetur. Et in antiquo consilio suo quod semper cum ipso fuit ordinavit, quomodo opus illud perficeret, et de lutulenta terra hominem formavit, sicut formam illius ante aevum ordinaverat, quemadmodum cor hominis rationalitatem in se claudit, et omnia sonantia verba ordinat, quae postmodum emittit. Sic etiam Deus in verbo suo fecit, cum omnia crearet, quoniam in Patre Verbum, quod Filius est, latuit, velut cor in homine latet. Et Deus ad imaginem et similitudinem suam formam hominis fecit, quia etiam ut forma illius sanctam divinitatem tegeret voluit; ideoque et omnes creaturas in homine signavit, quemadmodum etiam omnis creatura per verbum suum processit. In capite itaque hominis, videlicet in circumeunte rota, cerebri vertex est, ad quem scala posita est, quae gradus ascensionis habet, scilicet oculis videndo, auribus audiendo, naribus odorando, ore loquendo, in quibus homo omnes creaturas videt, cognoscit, discernit, dividit, et nominat. Deus enim hominem formavit, eumque cum viventi spiramine, quod anima est, vivificavit, carne quoque et sanguine coagulavit, et ossibus exaggerans firmavit, quemadmodum terra per lapides firmata est, quia sicut terra sine lapidibus non est, ita nec homo sine ossibus esse posset. Firmamentum etiam, solem, lunam et stellas absque locorum suorum constitutionibus, in quibus cursum suum peragunt non habet, quoniam constellationes istae sine designatione locorum suorum nequaquam firmari possent, unde omnia eorum loca recta mensura constituta sunt, quatenus circulus rotae firmamenti recte circuire valeat, sicut etiam omnia haec in forma hominis signata sunt, quamvis non eo ordine, nec ea perfectione, ut in exsuperioribus existunt; haec quoque ad animam prospiciunt.
Quomodo exterior habitudo, vel forma hominis animae secundum interiorem profectum vel defectum assignetur.
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