HOME
Intro. MT ST TEI Ethics TPT Corr. Index PrevPg NextPg

Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being:
Part 2, Chapter 22.
ON TRUE KNOWLEDGE, REGENERATION, Etc.

  ST222-P01. PREV - NEXT - THIS - UPPER - TOP
    Since, then, Reason has no power to lead us to the attainment of our well-being, it remains for us to inquire whether we can attain it through the fourth, and last, kind of knowledge. Now we have said that this kind of knowledge does not result from something else, but from a direct revelation of the object itself to the understanding. And if that object is glorious and good, then the soul becomes necessarily united with it, as we have also remarked with reference to our body. Hence it follows incontrovertibly that it is this knowledge which evokes love. So that when we get to know God after this manner then (as he cannot reveal himself, nor become known to us otherwise than as the most glorious and best of all) we must necessarily become united with him. And only in this *union,* as we have already remarked, does our blessedness consist.

  ST222-P02. PREV - NEXT - THIS - UPPER - TOP
    I do not say that we must know him just as he is, *or adequately,* for it is sufficient for us to know him to some extent, in order to be united with him. For even the knowledge that we have of the body is not such that we know it just as it is, or perfectly; and yet, what a union! what a love!

  ST222-P03. PREV - NEXT - THIS - UPPER - TOP
    That this fourth [kind of] knowledge, which is the knowledge of God, is not the consequence of something else, but immediate, is evident from what we have proved before, [namely,] that he is the cause of all knowledge that is acquired through itself alone, and through no other thing; moreover, also from this, that we are so united with him by nature that without him we can neither be, nor be known. And for this reason, since there is such a close union between God and us, it is evident that we cannot know him except directly.

  ST222-P04. PREV - NEXT - THIS - UPPER - TOP
    We shall endeavour to explain, next, this union of ours with him through nature and love.

  ST222-P05. PREV - NEXT - THIS - UPPER - TOP
    We said before that in Nature there can be nothing of which there should not be an Idea in the soul of that same thing.[N1] And according as the thing is either more or less perfect, so also is the union and the influence of the Idea with the thing, or with God himself, less or more perfect. For as the whole of Nature is but one only substance, and one whose essence is infinite, all things are united through Nature, and they are united into one [being], namely, God. And now, as the body is the very first thing of which our soul becomes aware (because as already remarked, no thing can exist in Nature, the Idea of which is not in the thinking thing, this Idea being the soul of that thing) so that thing must necessarily be the first cause of the Idea.[N2]
[Note N1]: This also explains what we said in the first part, namely, that the infinite understanding must exist in Nature from all eternity, and why we called it the son of God. For, as God existed from eternity, his Idea must also be in the thinking thing, that is, in himself *from eternity*, "objective" this Idea coincides with himself; see page [ST109].

[Note N2]: That is [N2N1] our soul being an Idea of the body derives its first being from the body, but [N2N2] it is only a representation of the body, both as a whole and in its parts, in the thinking thing.

[Note N2N1]: B inserts "in" after "is."
[Note N2N2]: A: for; B: but.

  ST222-P06. PREV - NEXT - THIS - UPPER - TOP
    But, as this Idea can by no means find rest in the knowledge of the body without passing on to the knowledge of that without which the body and Idea could neither be, nor be understood, so (after knowing it first) it becomes united with it immediately through love. This union is better understood, and one may gather what it must be like, from its action with the body, in which we see how through knowledge of, and feelings towards corporeal things, there arise in us all the effects which we are constantly becoming aware of in the body, through the movements of the [vital] spirits; and therefore (if once our knowledge and love come to embrace that without which we can neither be, nor be understood, and which is in no way corporeal) how incomparably greater and more glorious will and must be the kind of effects resulting from this union; for these must necessarily be commensurate with the thing with which it is united. And when we become aware of these *excellent* effects, then we may say with truth, that we have been born again. For our first birth took place when we were united with the body, through which the activities and movements of the [vital] spirits have arisen; but this our other or second birth will take place when we become aware in us of entirely different effects of love, commensurate with the knowledge of this incorporeal object, and as different from the first as the corporeal is different from the incorporeal, spirit from flesh. And this may, therefore, all the more justly and truly be called Regeneration, inasmuch as only from this love and union does Eternal and unchangeable existence ensue, as we shall prove.
 
Intro. MT ST TEI Ethics TPT Corr. Index PrevPg NextPg
 
 
Slack padding.