Book I, Part 2, Chapter 4. Of the third Privilege of Virtue, viz. Supernatural Light and Knowledge

1. The third privilege of virtue is a particular light and wisdom God grants the just, which, like all the rest, comes from that grace we have spoken of. For as it is the business of grace to cure nature, and to heal the infirmities occasioned by sin in the appetite and will, so it enlightens the understanding, which was no less obscured by sin ; to the end that man, through the one, may know his duty, and by the help of the other may put it in execution. It is on this account St. Gregory says, in his Morals, " That as man's not knowing his duty is a punishment for his sins, so is his not being able to perforin it when he does know it ;" L. 25. c. 9. For the same reason the psalmist so often repeats, The Lord is my light against ignorance ; The Lord is my salvation against the want of power. By the one we are taught what we are to desire, and we are enabled by the other to bring our desires about ; but they both depend on grace. And, therefore, besides the habits of faith and of infused wisdom, which instruct us in what we are to believe, and what we are to do, there are added, the gifts of the Holy Ghost ; whereof four belong to the understanding ; which are, that of wisdom, to give us the knowledge of the sublimest things ; that of knowledge, for those things that are lower ; that of understanding, to dive into the divine mys-teries, and see how beautiful they are, and how consonant to one another ; and that of counsel, to direct us how to conduct ourselves amidst the difficulties so frequent to be met with in this life.

All these rays of the divine light are reflected on us by grace, which, in the Holy Scripture is called an unction or anointing : " And this anointing" says St. John, " instructeth you in all things ;" 1 John ii. 20. For as oil, above all other liquid things, is good both for the nourishing of light and for the curing of wounds, so this divine unction performs both, curing the wounds of our will, and enlightening the darkness of our understanding. This is the oil more precious than any balsam, which David gloried in, when he said : " Thou, 0 Lord, hast anointed my head with oil ;" Ps. xxii. 5. It is plain he speaks not here of a corporeal head, or of material oil, but of a spiritual head, which is the noblest part of our souls ; and, according to Dydimus, on this text, the seat of the understanding, and of the spiritual oil, which is the light of the Holy Ghost, that feeds this lamp and keeps it in. This holy king was sensible of the light this oil gave, as he himself confesses in these words : " The uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast manifested to me ;" Ps. 1. 6.

2. Another reason is, that since it is grace makes a man virtuous, and since it cannot do this without disposing him to a sorrow for his past life, to a horror of sin, to a love of God, to a desire of heavenly things, and to a contempt of the earthly, the will can never be excited to such affections unless the understanding receive a sufficient light and knowledge to produce them. For the will is a blind faculty, altogether unfit to act, unless the understanding go before, and inform it what is good or bad, that so it may, accordingly, fix or withdraw its affection. St. Thomas, to this purpose, says, "that the knowledge of God's goodness and beauty increases in the souls of the just proportionably to the love they have for him. So that, if the one advance a hundred degrees, the other will advance as many ; because he that loves much must know a great many qualities in the thing he love* which make it deserve his love ; and so on the contrary ;" St. Th. 2. 2. qu. 2. ar. 4. What we say of the love of God is also to be understood of fear, of hope, and of the horror of sin, which he can never have above all things, if he does not know that it is so great an evil as to deserve such hatred. For as the Holy Ghost requires all these affections to be in the soul of a just man, he expects there should be cause to occasion and produce them ; even as when he designed to work different effects on the earth, he appointed there should be different causes and influences in the heavens.

3. Moreover, since, as we have said before, grace makes God dwell in the soul of a just man, and God, according to St. John (i. 9) " is a light enlightening every man that cometh into this world," it is certain, the purer and cleaner he finds this habitation, the rays of his divine light will shine the brighter on it ; as a glass, the clearer it is, the brighter and the stronger it reflects the sun. St. Augustine, therefore, calls God " the wisdom of a purified soul" (Lib. 2. de Lib. Arbit.), for enlightening the soul, which is in such a state, with the rays of his light, and instructing it in what is necessary to its salvation. And what wonder that God should do this for man, since it is, in some manner, what he does for other creatures? For they, by a certain natural instinct, know all those things that are necessary for the preservation of their being. Who has taught the sheep, among so many different plants, to avoid those which are hurtful to them, and to browse on those which are not ? From whom has it learned what creature is its enemy, and what its friend ; and by this means to run from the wolf, and to follow the mastiff ? Is it not from God ? Now, if God, thus instructs the brutes, for the preserving of their natural life, how much more reason have we to think he will enlighten the just with such a knowledge as shall be necessary to the maintaining of their spiritual life, considering that man stands in no less need of those things, that are above his nature, than brutes do of such as are suitable to theirs ? And if the divine providence has been so careful in providing what regards nature only, how much more solicitous will it be in furnishing us with such things as regard grace, which are infinitely more excellent, but, at the same time, far above the reach and power of man !

4. This example teaches us, not only that there is such a knowledge, but what a kind of knowledge it is, which consists not so much in the speculation as in the practice ; since it is given us more for the direction of our actions than for the improvement of our understanding, and is rather to instruct us how to perform all we do virtuously than how to discourse learnedly. For this reason, it stops not at the understanding, as that knowledge we acquire in the schools does, but communicates itself to the will, and makes it ready in the performance of whatever this knowledge inclines it to. This is the property of the inspirations of the Holy Ghost, who, like an accomplished master, perfectly instructs those under his care, in all that is requisite for them to know. And, therefore, the Spouse, in the Canticles (ch. v. 6), says, " My soul melted away when my beloved spake." Thus we may see what difference there is between this and human learning. For, whereas the one does nothing else but increase the understanding, the other, moreover, governs and excites the will, and, by its virtue, searches unto all the recesses of our souls, doing all that is necessary for the reformation of each in particular. Whereon the apostle says, " The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword" (Heb. iv. 12) ; because it separates the sensual part of man from the spiritual, cutting asunder those unhappy knots which generally tie the flesh and the spirit together, when the spirit, closely contracting with the wicked flesh, becomes one with it. It is the force and efficacy of the word of God that breaks this knot, and makes man follow, not the dictates of the flesh, but of the spirit.

5. This is one of the chief effects of grace, and a particular privilege of virtuous men in this life. But, because carnal and sensual men, perhaps, can neither understand, nor will so readily believe this truth, I will make it plainly appear to them, by several passages both of the Old and New Testament. In the New, our Saviour says : " The Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you ;" John xiv. 26. He tells us in another place (ch. vi. 45), " It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught by God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." Isa. liv. 13. He hath told us, in like manner, by his prophet Jeremy, " I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord ; for they shall all know me." Isa. xxxi. 33, 34. In the prophet Isaias (ch. liv. 11, 12, 13), the Lord, speaking of the prosperity of his church, uses these words : " O, thou afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not comforted ! Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord." He repeats the same again, elsewhere, by the same prophet : " I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldst go ;" ch. xlviii. 16. By these words are understood two sorts of knowledge, that of saints, and that of wise men. It is 15 K2 that of the saints which Solomon speaks of, when he says, knowledge of the holy is understanding ;" Prov. ix. 10. For bare knowledge does but teach us how to know, but prudence instructs us how to act by what we know; and this is the knowledge of holy men.

6. Besides, how often shall we find this very same wisdom promised to the just, in David's Psalms. In one of them, he says, " The mouth of the righteous shall be exercised in wisdom, and his tongue will be talking of judgment ;" Ps. xxxvi, 30. God, in another, makes the good man this promise : " I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go ;" Ps. xxxi. 8. In another, as if it were a business of the greatest consequence, the prophet puts the question, saying, "What man is he that feareth the Lord ? him shall he teach in the way he shall choose ;" Ps. xxiv. 12. And in the same psalm we have these words : "The salvation of the just is of the Lord ;" which St. Jerome renders thus: "The Lord discovers his secrets to those that fear him, and he will show them his covenant;" that is, his holy Ltws are made known to them. This knowledge is a great light to the understanding, a delicious food to the will, and the greatest pleasure man can enjoy. The same prophet calls it a pasture in which God fed him ; a water with which he refreshed his soul ; and a table upon which were placed such meats as might strengthen him against all the power of his enemies ; Ps. xxii. 2, 5. For which reason, the same prophet so frequently begs for this inward light, and for their inward instructions, in that divine psalm, which begins, " Blessed are the undefiled ;" Ps. cxviii. To this end he says, in one place, " O Lord, I am thy servant ; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies;" ver. 12. In another place, " Open thou my eyes, O Lord, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law ;" ver. 18. And again, " Give me understanding, and I shall search into thy law, and I shall observe it with my whole heart ;" ver. 34. This is, in fine, the petition he so often makes in this psalm. Nor would he have done it with such earnestness, had he not been very well acquainted with its efficacy, and with the manner of God's communicating the same.

7. All this being undeniably true, what greater honor can man receive, than to have such a master and such a school to go to, wThere the Lord himself teaches his elect this heavenly wTisdom? If, as St. Jerome says, men in former times went as far as Rome, from the remotest parts of France and Spain, to see Livy, a man so renowned for his eloquence (Ep. 120, ad Paulin.) ; and if Apollonius, who had the false reputation of one of the wise men of his age, went to mount Caucasus, and traversed the greatest part of the world, to see Hiarchas sitting among a few scholars, on a golden throne, disputing with them on the motions of the heavens and of the planets; what should men do to hear God, seated on the throne of their hearts, not to teach them how the heavens move, but how they themselves may move thither ?

8. And, that you may not look on this doctrine as contemptible, hear the royal prophet's commendations of it ; "I have more understanding than all my teachers, because thy testimonies are my meditation ; I understand more than the aged, because I have sought after thy commandments;" Ps. cxviii. 99, 100. Nay, the Lord promises more than all this, by his prophet Isaias, to those that serve him. " The Lord," says he, " shall give thee rest, and shall fill thy soul with brightness, and shall set thy bones at liberty ; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters should not fail ;" Isa. lviii. 11. What brightness is this, wherewith God fills the souls of his servants, but the knowledge he gives them of things necessary to their salvation? For it is he that shows them how beautiful virtue is, and how deformed vice ; he it is that tells them how vain a thing the world is, that informs them of the worth of grace, the greatness of eternal glory, the sweetness of those consolations which the Holy Ghost bestows, the goodness of God, the malice of the devil, the shortness of life, and the general mistake of most men. God, as the same prophet observes, by virtue of this knowledge, makes his servants dwell on high, " that they may behold the king in his beauty, and look down upon the earth that is very far off ;" Isa. xxxiii. 17. Therefore, the things of this world are of so little value with them, because, besides their being generally so, they see them only at a distance ; but as to the riches of the other world, they prize them at what they are worth, as having a very near view of them. The wicked, on the contrary, having a distant prospect of heavenly things, and standing so close by the earthly, undervalue those, and overrate these. This is what preserves such persons as partake of this heavenly gift from being either puffed up with prosperity, or cast down by adversity ; for they, by the help of this light, see how little what the world can give them is in comparison of what they have from God. And therefore, Solomon says, " The goodly man remaineth in wisdom like the sun, but the fool is changed like the moon ;" Ecclus. xxvii.

^12. Upon which words St. Ambrose says, "That, as for the wise man, neither can fear move him, nor power change him; amidst his prosperity he is never proud (Epist. L. 2), nor melancholy in the midst of troubles (Ep. 7) ; because virtue, strength and courage are the perpetual attendants on wisdom." Such a man's soul is always in an even temper; no change makes him either greater or less ; nor is he to be carried away by the winds of a new doctrine, but remains steady in Jesus Christ, immovable in his charity, unshaken in his faith.

9. Nor are we to wonder at the force of this wisdom, since it is not earthly, but heavenly ; which does not puff up, but edify which does not enlighten the understanding by its speculation, but inflames the will with its heat. Thus wonderfully was St. Augustine touched and moved, that, as is written of him, he never heard the psalms and hymns of the church sung but he wept. The words, entering in at his ears, sunk down to the very bottom of his heart, whilst the warmth of his devotion spread the truth of them throughout his whole soul. This made him break out into tears, and, according to his own confession, gave him a great deal of joy and comfort. O blessed tears ! O divine school ! O happy wisdom, that bears such fruit as this ! Conf. L. 9. v. 24. Is there any in the world we can compare with this wisdom ? Job says, " It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls, for the price of wisdom is above rubies," &c. Job xxviii. 15, 16, &c. After all these commendations, the holy man concludes : " Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding ;" ver. 28.

10. This is one of the greatest rewards that can be offered to excite you to follow virtue. And Solomon makes this proposal to encourage men to a good life : " My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom ; out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." Prov. i. 5, 6. This wisdom does not always continue in the same degree, but receives a daily increase of light and knowledge, as the same wise man has hinted to us : " The part of the just," says he, " is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Prov. iv. 18) ; the day of this blessed eternity, wherein we shall receive the divine inspirations. I will not say, with Job's friends, by stealth, but shall have a full sight and knowledge of God himself; Job iv. 12.

11. Of this true wisdom the children of light partake, whilst the wicked, on the contrary, live in such ignorance, that like the Egyptian darkness, they may feel it with their hands. We have a lively figure of the one in the land of Jessen, where the Israelites lived, which always enjoyed the light: and of the other in the land of Egypt (Exod. x. 22, 23), which was quite covered over with darkness, a true emblem of that horrible blindness in which the wicked live, as they themselves acknowledge in Isaias, when they say, " We look for light, but behold obscurity ; for brightness, and we have walked in the dark. We have groped for the wall, and like the blind, we have groped as if we had no eyes ; we have stumbled at noon-day as in the dark ; we are in dark places as dead men." Isa. lix. 9, 10. What greater blindness than whftt the wicked fall into every step they take ? What greater blindness than for a man to sell the solid joys of heaven for the vanities of the world ? What greater blindness than for a man not to be afraid of hell, not to seek after heaven, not to have a horror for sin, not to think of the last judgment, not to regard the threats or promises which God has made, not to be afraid of death, which may every moment surprise him, not to prepare himself for the making up of his accounts, not to see how short and momentary his delights are, whilst the torments that shall follow them are to last forever ? " They will not be learned nor understand," says the royal prophet, " but walk on in darkness" (Ps. lxxxi. 5) ; from an inward darkness to an outward one, from the darkness of this life to that of the next.

12. I shall conclude this chapter with a word or two of advice, which is, that, notwithstanding the truth of all I have said upon this matter, a man, how just soever he is, should not on this account withdraw himself from the humble submission he owes to the opinion and counsel of those above him, especially of such as are looked upon as the doctors of the church. For was ever man more enlightened than St. Paul or Moses, who talked with God face to face ? And yet one of them goes to Jerusalem to confer with the apostles on the gospel he had learned in the third heaven (Galat. ii. 1, 2) ; and the other refuses not the advice of Jethro his father-in-law, though a heathen ; Exod. xviii. The reason is, because the inward helps of grace exclude the outward assistance of the church, since the Divine Providence has been pleased to allow them both to supply our weakness, which stands much in need of them. As, therefore, the outward heat of the air maintains the inward natural heat, and as nature, after all its care to procure the health of every particular, is assisted with such medicines as have been created for this end, so is the light and doctrine of the church a help to the inward lights and assistance of grace, and whosoever refuses with humility to submit to the authority of the one, is to be judged unworthy to receive the favors and helps of the other.