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Chapter 28PsAug.1.28

De praedestinationis ac praescientiae Dei mysterio.

God's Delight and Human Frailty

The soul marvels that the eternal Truth delights in humanity despite human corruption and vanity, and petitions God to weigh the burden of bodily flesh so that the soul may behold His wonders.

For you have said, O ancient Truth, "My delight is to be with the children of men" (Prov.✦ 8:31).✦ Is not man mere rot, and the son of man a worm? (Job 25:6)✦ Is not every living man nothing but vanity? (Ps.✦ 38:6)✦ And do you consider it worthwhile to open your eyes upon such a one, and to bring him into judgment with you! Teach me, O deepest abyss, wisdom that creates all things. You who balanced the mountains in weight, and the hills on a scale, and weighed the mass of the earth with three fingers — suspend the mass of this bodily flesh that I carry, by your three detested fingers, before you, so that I may see and know how wonderful you are in all the earth.✦

The Pure Light and the Soul's Sanctuary

The soul contemplates God as the most ancient, pure Light before whom all things are naked, and asks where in humanity such a light could find delight, concluding that only a pure heart can be His worthy dwelling.

Most ancient Light, who were shining before every light in the holy mountains of ancient eternity, to whom all things were naked and open (Heb.✦ IV, 13) before they were made; a light that holds every stain in hatred, being most pure and most immaculate — a light that delights in man?✦ What agreement does light have with darkness? (II Cor.✦ VI, 14)?✦ Where in man are your delights? Where have you prepared in me a worthy sanctuary for your majesty, into which, on entering, you might have the delights of your love? For a clean chamber befits you, O cleansing power, who can be seen only by pure hearts (Matt.✦ V, 8), and much more, to be contained.✦

No Temple Clean Enough

The soul confesses that no human temple is pure enough to receive God, since all are born from an unclean seed and carry defilement that only God Himself can cleanse.

But where in any person is there a temple pure enough to receive you — you who rule the world? Who can make something clean from an unclean seed of conception? Are you not the one who alone is pure (Job 14:4)? For who will be made clean from what is unclean (Eccli. 34:4)? For also according to the law that you gave our fathers — in fire burning the mountain and in a cloud covering the dark water — whatever the unclean one touches will be unclean (Num.1 19:22). Yet all of us are like a cloth of a menstruating woman (Isa.

The Mystery of Predestination

The soul trembles before the inscrutable mystery of divine election — that God predestines, calls, justifies, and glorifies some but not all, making vessels of honor and vessels of disgrace from the same clay, yet cleansing His chosen temple and writing their names in the book of life.

(Ps. 64:6) Coming from a corrupted and unclean mass, we carry the stain of our uncleanness on our foreheads — a stain we cannot hide even from you, who see all things. And so we cannot be clean unless you cleanse us, you who alone are clean.✦ From among us children of men, you cleanse those in whom it has pleased you to dwell — those whom, from the inaccessible depths and secrets of judgments beyond comprehension that belong to your wisdom, always just though hidden apart from their own merits, you predestined before the world, called out of the world, justified in the world, and glorify after the world.✦ But you do not do this for all, and at this all the wise of the earth marvel in their wasting away. And I, Lord, considering this, tremble and am astonished at the depth of the riches of your wisdom and knowledge — which I cannot reach — and at the incomprehensible judgments of your justice. (Rom.✦ (Rom. 11:33): because from the same clay you make some vessels for honor and others for everlasting disgrace. (Rom. 9:21).✦✦ (Rom. 9:21).✦ Those, then, whom you have chosen for yourself out of many as your temple, you cleanse — pouring clean water over them, whose names and number you know, you who alone count the multitude of stars and call all of them by name. (Ps.✦ (Ps. 146:4); they also are written in the book of life, and can by no means perish — for whom all things work together for good, even their very sins.✦✦

The Elect Held, the Reprobate Foreknown

The soul contrasts the destiny of the righteous, whom God sustains so they are not shattered, with the foreknown reprobate whom God leaves in their impurities, whose very prayers turn to sin and whose pride ends in destruction.

For when they fall, they are not dashed to pieces, because you hold them up with your hand (Psalm 36:24); he guards all their bones, so that not one of them is crushed. Nevertheless, the death of sinners is worst of all (Psalm✦ 33:22) — of those, I say, whom before you made heaven and earth, according to the great abyss of your hidden judgments — always, however, the judgments concerning the just — you foreknew unto eternal death; whose reckoning of names and depraved merits is known to you, who have counted the number of the sand of the sea and measured the depth of the abyss; whom you have left in their own impurities, for whom all things work together for evil, and even prayer itself is turned into sin; so that even if they should ascend all the way to the heavens, and their head should touch the cloud, and they should build their nest among the stars of heaven, like a dung-heap in the end they are destroyed (Obadiah 4).✦✦✦

Read the original Latin

Dixisti enim, Veritas antiqua, Deliciae meae, esse cum filiis hominum (Prov. VIII, 31). Nonne homo putredo, et filius hominis vermis (Job XXV, 6)? Nonne universa vanitas omnis homo vivens (Psal. XXXVIII, 6)? Et dignum ducis super hujuscemodi aperire oculos tuos, et adducere eum tecum in judicium! Doce me, abyssus profundissima, creatrix sapientia. Qui librasti in pondere montes, et colles in statera, et appendisti molem terrae tribus digitis, suspende molem corporalitatis hujus, quam gero, tribus invisis digitis tuis ad te, ut videam et cognoscam, quam admirabilis es in universa terra.

Lux antiquissima, quae lucebas ante omnem lucem in montibus sanctis aeternitatis antiquae, cui nuda et aperta erant omnia (Hebr. IV, 13) antequam fierent; lux, quae odio habes omnem maculam, utpote mundissima et immaculatissima, quae tibi deliciae cum homine? quae conventio lucis ad tenebras (II Cor. VI, 14)? Ubi sunt in homine deliciae tuae? ubi praeparasti tibi in me dignum sanctuarium majestatis tuae, in quod introiens habeas delicias dilectionis tuae? Mundum enim coenaculum decet te, mundans virtus, quae nonnisi a mundis cordibus videri potes (Matth. V, 8), multo magis nec haberi.

In homine autem ubi templum tam mundum, ut te suscipiat, qui regis mundum? Quis potest facere mundum de immundo conceptum semine? nonne tu qui solus es mundus (Job XIV, 4)? ab immundo enim quis mundabitur (Eccli. XXXIV, 4)? Nam et secundum legem, quam dedisti patribus nostris in igne comburente montem, et in nube tegente aquam tenebrosam, quidquid tetigerit immundus, immundum erit (Num. XIX, 22). Omnes autem nos quasi pannus menstruatae (Isai.

LXIV, 6) de massa corrupta et immunda venientes, maculam immunditiae nostrae, quam celare saltem tibi qui omnia vides, non possumus, in frontibus portamus; quare mundi esse non possumus, nisi tu mundaveris, qui solus es mundus. Mundas autem de nobis filiis hominum eos in quibus tibi complacuit habitare; quos ab inaccessibilibus profundis secretis judiciorum incomprehensibilium sapientiae tuae, semper justorum, licet occultorum, sine eorum meritis praedestinasti ante mundum, vocasti de mundo, justificasti in mundo, et magnificas eos post mundum. Non autem omnibus hoc facis, quod admirantur tabescentes omnes sapientes terrae. Et ego, Domine, hoc considerans expavesco, et obstupesco de altitudine divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae tuae, ad quam ego non pertingo, et incomprehensibilia judicia justitiae tuae (Rom. XI, 33): quoniam ex eodem luto alia quidem facis vasa in honorem, alia in contumeliam sempiternam (Id. IX, 21). Quos igitur tibi elegisti de multis in templum, ipsos mundas, effundens super eos aquam mundam, quorum nomina numerumque tu nosti, qui solus numeras multitudinem stellarum, et omnibus eis nomina vocas (Psal. CXLVI, 4); qui etiam scripti sunt in libro vitae, qui nequaquam perire possunt, quibus omnia cooperantur in bonum, etiam ipsa peccata.

Cum enim cadunt, non colliduntur, quia tu supponis manum tuam (Psal. XXXVI, 24); custodiens omnia ossa eorum, ut unum ex eis non conteratur. Attamen mors peccatorum pessima (Psal. XXXIII, 22); illorum, inquam, quos antequam faceres coelum et terram, secundum abyssum multam judiciorum tuorum occultorum, semper autem justorum, praescivisti ad mortem aeternam; quorum dinumeratio nominum et meritorum pravorum apud te est, qui numerum arenae maris dinumerasti, et dimensus es profundum abyssi, quos reliquisti in immunditiis suis, quibus omnia cooperatur in malum, et ipsa etiam oratio vertitur in peccatum; ut si etiam usque ad coelos ascenderint, et caput eorum nubes tetigerit, et inter sidera coeli collocaverint nidum suum, quasi sterquilinium in fine perdantur (Abdiae 4).

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Prov.8.31 — rejoicing in his inhabited earth, and my delight is with the children of man
  2. ↩Prov.8.31 — rejoicing in his inhabited earth, and my delight is with the children of man
  3. ↩Job.25.6 — how much less, then, is man—a maggot—and the son of man—a worm!
  4. ↩Ps.38.6;Ps.40.5 — My wounds are foul and festering because of my folly. Ps.40.5 — Blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, and has not turned to the arrogant or those who follow falsehood.
  5. ↩Ps.38.6 — My wounds are foul and festering because of my folly.
  6. ↩Isa.40.12 — Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the heavens with a span, and enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
  7. ↩Heb.4.13 — And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
  8. ↩Heb.4.13 — And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
  9. ↩2Cor.6.14 — Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
  10. ↩2Cor.6.14 — Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
  11. ↩Matt.5.8 — Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
  12. ↩Matt.5.8 — Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
  13. ↩Ps.63.6;Ps.65.6 — Like fat and rich fare my soul is satisfied, and with lips of joyful singing I praise you. Ps.65.6 — With awesome deeds in righteousness you answer us, O God of our salvation, the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.
  14. ↩Eph.1.4-Eph.1.5 — just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love Eph.1.5 — He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
  15. ↩Rom.11.33 — Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways!
  16. ↩Rom.9.21 — Does not the potter have authority over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
  17. ↩Rom.11.33 — Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways!
  18. ↩Rom.9.21 — Does not the potter have authority over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
  19. ↩Isa.40.26 — Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? The One who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and the strength of his power, not one is missing.
  20. ↩Ps.146.4 — When his spirit departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.
  21. ↩Rom.8.28 — And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good — for those who are called according to his purpose.
  22. ↩Ps.33.22 — Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
  23. ↩Ps.33.22 — Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
  24. ↩Obad.1.4 — Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the LORD.
  25. ↩Rom.8.28 — And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good — for those who are called according to his purpose.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The image of fire burning the mountain and cloud covering dark water evokes Sinai (Exod 19–20); the citation is to Num 19:22, which concerns the water of purification. The author appears to blend the Sinai theophany with the Numbers purity law.

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