Part 17 (1/2)
[Footnote 464: Psalm 92.]
[Footnote 465: Exod. 24. Ezek. 1, 10.]
[Footnote 466: Isa. 6.]
THEO. Nevertheless so vast and limitless a s.p.a.ce must be filled with air or fire, since there are no spheres there, nor will nature suffer any vacuum.
MYST. If then the firmament occupies the middle position between the two waters, then by this hypothesis you must admit that the s.p.a.ce beyond the spheres is empty of elemental and celestial bodies; otherwise you would have to admit that the last sphere extends on even to the crystalline orb, which can in no way be reconciled with the Holy Scriptures and still less with reason because of the incredible velocity of this sphere. Therefore it is far more probable that this s.p.a.ce is filled with angels.
THEO. Is there some medium between G.o.d and the angels which shares in the nature of both?
MYST. What is incorporeal and indivisible cannot communicate any part of its essence to another; for if a creature had any part of the divine essence, it would be all G.o.d, since G.o.d neither has parts nor can be divided, therefore He must be separated from all corporeal contact or intermixture.
_Section 12_: On guardian angels.
THEO. What then in corporeal nature is closest to G.o.d?
MYST. The two Seraphim, who stand near the eternal Creator,[467] and who are said to have six wings, two wherewith to fly, the others to cover head and feet. By this is signified the admirable swiftness with which they fulfill His commands, yet head and feet are veiled for so the purpose of their origin and its earliest beginning are not known to us. Also they have eyes scattered in all parts of their bodies to indicate that nothing is hidden from them. And they also pour oil for lighting through a funnel into the seven-branched candlestick; that is, strength and power are poured forth by the Creator to the seven planets, so that we should turn from created things to the wors.h.i.+p and love of the Creator.
[Footnote 467: Isa. 6. Ezek. 1 and 10. Zach. 4. Exod. 24, 25.]
THEO. Since nothing is more fitting for the Divine goodness than to create, to generate, and to pile up good things for all, whence comes the destruction of the world and the ruin of all created things?
MYST. It is true Plato and Aristotle attributed the cause of all ills to the imperfection of matter in which they thought was some _kakopoion_,[468] but that is absurd since it is distinctly written: All that G.o.d had made was good, or as the Hebrews express it, beautiful,--so evil is nothing-else than the absence[469] or privation of good.
[Footnote 468: Maleficium quidam, _i.e._, some evil-power. Job 5.]
[Footnote 469: Augustine against Faustus wrote that vanity is not produced from the dust, nor evil from the earth.]
THEO. Can not wicked angels be defined without privation since they are corporeal essences?
MYST. Anything that exists is said to be good and to be a partic.i.p.ant by its existence in the divine goodness; and even as in a well regulated Republic, executioners, lictors, and corpse-bearers are no less necessary than magistrates, judges and overseers; so in the Republic of this world, for the generation, management and guardians.h.i.+p of things G.o.d has gathered together angels as leaders and directors for all the celestial places, for the elements, for living beings, for plants, for minerals, for states, provinces, families and individuals. And not only has He done this, but He has also a.s.signed His servants, lictors, avengers and others to places where they may do nothing without His order, nor inflict any punishment upon wicked men unless the affair has been known fully and so decided. Thus G.o.d is said[470] to have made Leviathan, which is the outflow of Himself, that is, the natural rise and fall of all things. ”I have created a killer,”[471] He said, ”to destroy,” and so also Behemoth, and the demons cleaving to him, which are often called ravens, eagles and lions, and which are said to beg their food of G.o.d, that is, the taking of vengeance upon the wicked whose punishment and death they feed upon as upon ordinary fare. From these, therefore, or rather from ourselves, come death, pestilence, famine, war and those things we call ills, and not from the Author of all good things except by accident. For so G.o.d says of Himself:[472] ”I am the G.o.d making good and creating evil, making light and creating darkness.” For when He withdraws His spirit, evil follows the good; when He takes the light away, darkness is created; as when one removes the pillars of a building, the ruin of a house follows. If He takes the vital spark away, death follows; nor can He be said to do evil[473] to anyone in taking back what is His own.
[Footnote 470: Job 41 and 49. Isa. 54. Ezek. 31.]
[Footnote 471: Isa. 54.]
[Footnote 472: Isa. 45.]
[Footnote 473: Job 34.]
THEO. When the Legislator asked Him to disclose His face to his gaze, why did the Architect of the universe and the Author of all things reply: ”My face is to be seen by no mortal man, but only my back?”
MYST. This fine allegory signifies that G.o.d cannot be known from superior or antecedent causes but from behind His back, that is, from results, for a little later He adds, ”I will cover thine eyes with My hand.” Thus the hand signifies those works which He has placed before anyone's eyes, and it indicates that He places man not in an obscure corner but in the center of the universe so that He might better and more easily than in heaven contemplate the universe and all His works through the sight of which, as through spectacles, the Sun, that is, G.o.d Himself, may be disclosed. And therefore we undertook this disputation concerning nature and natural things, so that even if they are but slightly explained, nevertheless we may attain from this disquisition an imperfect knowledge of the Creator and may break forth in His praises with all our might, that at length by degrees we may be borne on high and be blessed by the Divine reward; for this is indeed the supreme and final good for a man.
Here endeth the Drama of Nature which Jean Bodin wrote while all France was aflame with civil war.
FINIS
APPENDIX D.