PARS TERTIA, cap. II
The Vision of God's Foreknowledge
God's eternal foreknowledge encompasses all creatures and unfolds in a luminous vision of divine justice, power, and creative will.
God knows everything in his foreknowledge, because before creatures came into being in their forms, he foreknew them, and nothing that unfolds from the beginning of the world to its end was hidden from him. And the vision of the present moment makes this plain. You see, as it were, a squared instrument of a great city, which marks out the stable and firm work of divine predestination, enclosed as if by a certain brightness and by certain darknesses, like a wall on either side, because by a just judgment the faithful are set apart for glory and the unfaithful for punishment, separated from one another, and also adorned, as it were, with certain mountains and images—that is, fortified and exalted by the great wonders of miracles and mighty works—since God, making all his works true and just, has strengthened them with such firmness that no assault can overthrow their order. And what you see as if in the middle of the eastern quarter, like a great and lofty mountain of hard and white stone, having the form of that stone from which fire is struck, this signifies that in the strength of justice God is great in power, lofty in glory, unyielding in severity, and white in gentleness, because he brings all his judgments to completion in the burning heat of equity. For he is just, and he crushes injustice completely, because the heavens and the earth are founded upon him, and he upholds the firmament together with all creatures, just as a cornerstone holds the whole building together. At its summit there shines, like a mirror, such clarity and purity that it seems to surpass even the brightness of the sun, because in the excellence of God his foreknowledge is so luminous and so transparent that it exceeds all the brilliance of creatures. In this same vision a dove also appears, with wings spread as if ready to fly, because within that same foreknowledge divine providence unfolded itself and came forth to reveal itself. For when God willed it, he brought every creature forth into being.
Providence's Wings and the Soul's Flight
Divine providence spreads its wings over all things, calling souls to fly rightward toward life, and the Son of God clothes himself in flesh to sanctify and lift humanity upward.
And just as elsewhere two wings are ready for flying, and just as someone sitting on a mountain looks out to decide where to fly, so divine providence, having two wings in angels and in human beings, sits as if on a mountain arranging all things within its power — much like a person who silently orders everything he wills, and who, protecting the human person with the defenses of angels, gave that person, together with will and effort, as it were wings to fly; and under the old covenant it kept silent, as if in silence, because the whole law was symbolic. For it had foreseen in every detail that the figure in which the living breath and knowledge resided would know what it ought to do: when it looked either to the right or to the left through the living wind, that is, the soul, and if it flew to the right it would receive the reward of life; but if it turned to the left, it would fall there under the punishments it deserved. So then God holds this ordering under the covering of his wings, so that the one who flies to him, saying: 'I will rejoice in you, for you have made me, and my soul clings to you,' he receives with his right hand, protecting and welcoming him, and grants him many adornments; but the one who refuses to cling to him, he lets perish, as was said before. But also, when the Son of God took on the garment of flesh — which clung to his holy divinity, through which his work, not yet perfect in his humanity, could advance — he soon flew powerfully among humankind (a thing at which angels marveled), something no other human being except the Word of God made flesh could do; and through that same garment he sanctified them, so that looking to him they would deny themselves, and spread their wings to fly with him toward the highest desires.
The Hidden Depths of Divine Knowledge
God's knowledge holds hidden wonders that it reveals according to its own pleasure, showing the significance of the three-fold quality of angels in the vision.
Because the knowledge of God holds within itself many unknown and hidden things, it brings forth the display of its wonders according to its own pleasure, and it shows what the threefold quality of angels appearing in this vision might signify.
Read the original Latin
Deus in praescientia sua omnia novit, quoniam antequam creaturae in formis suis fierent, eas praescivit nec quidquam eum latuit, quod a principio mundi usque ad finem ejus procedit. Quod et praesens visio declarat. Vides enim quasi cujusdam magnae civitatis instrumentum quadratum, quod designat divinae praedestinationis opus stabile et firmum, velut quodam splendore et quibusdam tenebris, quasi muro hinc et hinc circumdatum, quia fideles ad gloriam, infideles autem ad poenas justo judicio ab invicem separati deputantur, ac etiam quemadmodum quibusdam montibus et imaginibus exornatum, id est magnis prodigiis miraculorum et virtutum munitum et exaltatum, quoniam Deus omnia opera sua vera et justa faciens, ea tanta fortitudine corroboravit, ut nullo impulsu illius defectus exterminari possint. Quod autem velut in medio orientalis plagae vides quasi montem magnum et excelsum duri albique lapidis, sicut ejus de quo ignis ejicitur, formam habentem, hoc designat quod in fortitudine justitiae Deus est, magnus in potestate, excelsus in gloria, durus in severitate, albus in lenitate, quoniam omnia judicia sua in ardore aequitatis perficit. Ipse enim justus est, et injustitiam omnino conterit, quia coelum et terra super eum fundata sunt firmamentumque cum omnibus creaturis sustinet quemadmodum lapis angularis totum aedificium continet. In cujus summitate sicut speculum tantae claritatis et puritatis resplendet, ut etiam splendorem solis excellere videatur, quia in excellentia Dei praescientia ipsius tam lucida tamque perspicua existit, ut omnem fulgorem creaturarum excedat. In quo etiam velut columba expansis alis apparet, quasi ad volandum praeparata, quoniam in eadem praescientia divina ordinatio se expandens, ad manifestationem sui processit. Nam cum Deus voluit, omnem creaturam prodire fecit.
Et ut alibi duae alae ad volandum assunt, et ut supra montem sedens considerat, quo volare velit, ita et divina ordinatio duas alas in angelis et hominibus habens, in possibilitate sua velut in monte omnia ordinando sedet; quemadmodum etiam vir qui silendo omnia quae vult ordinat, atque in praesidiis angelorum hominem muniens, ipsi cum voluntate et opere quasi alas ad volandum dedit, et in veteri lege velut tacens siluit, quoniam lex tota significativa fuit. Ipsa enim in omnibus praeviderat, quod figura in quo vivens spiraculum et scientia erat, nosset quid operari deberet, cum per viventem ventum, id est animam, seu ad dexteram seu ad sinistram respiceret, et si ad dexteram volaret mercedem vitae acciperet; si vero ad sinistram tenderet, debitis poenis ibidem subjaceret. Ordinationem itaque istam Deus sub velamento alarum suarum habet, ita ut illum qui ad eum volat sic dicendo: « In te exsultabo quoniam fecisti me, unde et anima mea haeret post te, » ipsius dextera protegens suscipiat, plurimaque ornamenta illi tribuat; hunc vero qui ei adhaerere recusat, perire permittat ut praefatum est. Sed et cum Filius Dei indumentum carnis assumpsit, quod sanctae divinitati adhaesit, per quam ipse opus suum quod nondum perfectum erat, in humanitate sua proficeret, mox virtuose cum hominibus, de quo angeli mirabantur, volavit, quod nullus alius hominum nisi Verbum Dei incarnatum facere potuit, illosque per idem indumentum suum sanctificavit, quatenus in eum aspicientes, seipsos abnegarent, atque ut in expansis alis suis cum eo ad superna desideria volarent.
Quod scientia Dei multa incognita et secreta in se habens, ostensionem mirabilium suorum secundum placitum suum producat, et quid significet trimoda angelorum qualitas in hac visione apparentium.
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