VISIO SEPTIMA, cap. IV
Two Ages Joined at the Rising of Justice
Two images near the eastern end signify the pre-flood age without law and the post-flood age under law, joined together at the rising of justice revealed in Abel.
Just as you see, then, near the eastern end already mentioned, two other images stand close to one another, signifying that at the rising of justice — the justice revealed in Abel — God made known two different periods of human ways, now joined together side by side: one before the flood, without law, and the other after the flood, under law.
The Leopard Figure and the Bestial Life Before the Flood
The first image, with a leopard's head and chest, human arms, and bear-like hands and feet, depicts pre-flood humanity living under the devil's deception in bestial vice, neglecting honor and discipline, and clothed in a stony tunic of impenitent sin turned toward the north.
Of these two, the one that comes first has a head and chest like a leopard, but its arms are like a person's, while its hands and feet are like a bear's. The other form you don't see in it, because that time before the flood, which was without law, showed in human ways the power and strength of various bestial natures, since people then, entangled through the devil's first deception in every vice, were handing God over to oblivion and living by the cravings of their own will — at times working with their arms as a person does, at other times imitating in their handiwork the nature and plunder of cruel beasts. And so people neglected what is honorable in how they lived, nor did they strive to live by human discipline; they simply remained unformed, just like that. Its stony tunic is not moved this way or that, but turns its gaze toward the north, because those same people who lived in the time spoken of had surrounded themselves with the hardness and heaviness of their sins, and did not turn themselves from evil to good. In their own knowledge they could see that the evil and shameful works they were doing — the kind the ancient serpent delights in — yet they still refused to abandon them.
Human Mutability and the Darkness of the Soul
God formed man from the changeable part of creation, so a person is mutable in waking and sleeping; even when awake, the soul's inner light is darkened as if in night.
For when God created heaven and earth, he divided the earth so that one part of it is unchanging and the other is changeable — and from this same part God also formed man. So too a person, in waking and in sleeping, is changeable. For when a person is awake, by the sun's course he has no light from the light of his own eyes; it is as if the one who is in his soul is darkened, as though in night.
The Ruin of Pre-Flood Humanity
A summary statement on the strength, cruelty, and impure ways of people before the flood, and how by the devil's craft all but a few turned away from the worship of God.
On the strength, cruelty, and impure ways of people before the flood, and how, by the devil's craft, all but a few turned away from the worship of God.
Read the original Latin
Quemadmodum autem vides, juxta praefatum orientalem finem, aliae duae imagines sibi vicinae stant, significantes quod in ortu justitiae qui in Abel demonstratus est, jam titubante, duo tempora diversorum morum hominum sibi in vicinitate conjuncta, Deus propalavit, aliud quidem ante diluvium sine lege, aliud vero post diluvium sub lege. Quarum altera quae prior est caput et pectus quemadmodum leopardus habet, brachia vero ut homo, sed manus ejus ursi pedibus assimilantur; aliam autem formam in ea non vides, quia tempus illud quod ante diluvium sine lege fuit, in moribus hominum potestatem et fortitudinem diversarum bestialium naturarum ostendebat, quoniam tunc homines per primam diabolicam deceptionem omnibus vitiis implicati erant, Deum oblivioni tradentes, et secundum gustum voluntatis suae viventes; interdum vero quasi in brachiis suis ut homo operantes, interdum autem in operibus manuum suarum crudelium bestiarum naturam et rapinam imitantes. Quapropter et honestatem morum homines negligebant, nec secundum humanam disciplinam vivere studebant; sed tantum informes sic remanebant. Tunica autem lapidea induitur, nec hac nec illac movetur, sed visum suum ad aquilonem retorquet, quia iidem homines, qui in praefato tempore fuerunt, duritiam et gravedinem peccatorum sibi circumdederant, nec se a malo ad bonum convertebant, in scientia sua quidem videntes, quod mala et turpia opera, quibus antiquus serpens congaudet, faciebant, nec tamen ea deserere volebant. Cum enim Deus coelum et terram creavit, terram divisit ita, ut quaedam pars terrae immutabilis, quaedam vero mutabilis fit, ex qua etiam Deus hominem plasmavit. Homo quoque vigilando et dormiendo mutabilis est. Quando enim vigilat, secundum cursum solis lumine oculorum suorum lumen non habet, sic est quasi ille qui in anima sua velut in nocte obtenebratur.
De fortitudine, crudelitate et impuris moribus hominum ante diluvium, et quomodo arte diaboli praeter paucos a cultu Dei recesserunt.
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