Chapter XIIWhat Theology Absolutely So Called Is. Thesis XXIII

Our theology, absolutely so called, is the wisdom of divine things according to divine truth, inspired by God, committed to his servants in Christ through enunciative speech, and set down in the Old and New Testaments through the Prophets, Apostles, and Evangelists, so far as it is expedient for it to be revealed to us here, for his glory and the good of the elect. Although some definition of our theology absolutely so called could be had from what precedes, it seemed necessary here to supply a somewhat fuller and more precise one, so that a more convenient place might be had for speaking of each of the things that pertain to its essence and true nature. For as the essence of the thing in question must be contained in a just definition, so also from a just definition must be sought the seeds, as it were, [col. 1400] of the thing defined, from which the parts of the definition may be explained one by one. Before we undertake to speak of the parts of this definition, however, for the sake of order [p. 75] we must set out the bars, as it were, by which this theology of ours absolutely so called is fenced off from that other which we said is called theology in a certain respect; so that, with this account and way established, we may then consider each in its order, as the nature of each requires. For brevity, then, we shall set two boundaries for each theology, from which we may come to know their nature at least in some measure. The boundaries of theology absolutely so called (which God offers to the human race as a most pure and incorrupt gift, and delivers to his Church) are properly two: one is that of the subject treated by this theology of ours; the other is that of the mode pertaining to this theology and divine wisdom according to the capacity of nature and the plan of our salvation. When these two have been set out, we shall come also to setting the boundaries of theology called in a certain respect. The subject, then, about which men are instructed by the teachings of this theology of ours, is one, most ample, indeed infinite: God, who is the universal principle, exemplar, and end of all things that have been until now, or are at this time, or ever will be; infinite in himself, and testifying to his infinity in all things by the most ample proofs of his essence, power, and operations common and singular; which no creature at all, not even a heavenly one, can in fact perceive to perfection by its own work, or express in speech, or encompass by understanding. Since, therefore, created things can find or devise no way to grasp, and as it were to define, that infinite essence and majesty by the narrowness of mind, speech, and this nature, there would certainly have been no knowledge or grasp of that God of ours (infinite as he is) in created things, had not that best and greatest God, infinite though he is, of his own accord in some manner limited himself, so that a knowledge and sure wisdom of him might come to created things. Thus God provided, first, that he should be grasped by Christ our Savior in the grace of union according to his human nature, as far as a created nature raised to the highest and incomparable summit of wisdom can contain him through that singular theology which we therefore called of union. Thus by the same providence he further brought it about that he should be perceived by angels and spiritual intelligences, present to them present, by a kind of vision, according as those heavenly essences could enjoy the glorious vision of God present: whence it is likewise called the theology of vision. Thus, finally, by the same providence, but through his most ample and never sufficiently praised mercy, that most wise Father of mercies provided and appointed beforehand that there should stand before the eyes of the human race a singular mirror, as it were, and a singular form communicated by God, by which he himself, though infinite in all respects, might exhibit himself in a quasi-finite way to lower creatures to be beheld, known, understood, and (so to speak) savored, through the theology of revelation, which we also call ours. Since, therefore, the mode of that subject, as it is infinite, cannot be contained by anyone, we must consider the mode of theology, that is, of that wisdom by which the infinite willed to stand forth as if defined. Reason itself teaches, and our nature requires, that the mode of this wisdom, which we call our theology or the theology of revelation, is in no way adequate to its subject, nor can ever in fact be. For what is more reasonable than that we understand that the infinite is one, and that nothing can be compared or made equal with that one which is infinite? Otherwise the nature of both would have to perish by their concurrence, as it were, and the infinite cease to be, since one would be bounded by the other. And whoever does not know that our nature is not so constituted as to grasp the infinite God, or even things next to the infinite, does not know common nature and does not know himself. Especially if we consider that God willed his wisdom and goodness to be communicated to the human race; for the accomplishment of which there would never have been any way unless he had furnished, [p. 76] by the same wisdom and goodness, a mode tempered to the small measure of our nature and condition and of his Church. Surely no man will fail to hold that the mode communicated by that wisdom and goodness had to be given us for our benefit far lower than, and in no way adequate to, his infinity. And this is the reason why he constituted that communication of his wisdom [col. 1401] in content and in mode most suited to the capacity of men, of his elect, and of his Church. In content, he declared whatever is needful to be known; whatever he saw to be either not needful or not usefully communicable to us he passed over most wisely. In mode, he showed his grace illustriously when he clothed divine, spiritual, and heavenly things (so to speak) in a human, bodily, and earthly mode, so that nothing would escape us of the things it concerned us to know. Above all, this is singular in the mode of this divine communication, that he conformed that teaching of saving grace to the order of the natural sciences and disciplines, and accommodated the doctrine of grace to our nature. For as for receiving any human discipline there is need of principles, of reasoning arising from the principles as a middle term, and of the conclusions and determinations that pertain to the just knowledge of the disciplines found among men; so also, in communicating that heavenly discipline to the human race, God, best and greatest, provided principles established by the higher light of that grace, as by a heavenly torch, from which he might imbue our minds with divine reasoning and open a way to conclusions and determinations suited to heavenly knowledge, sketching savingly on earth that heavenly wisdom according to the condition of his elect Church. It is true that the perfection of those heavenly things which this wisdom teaches is infinite, and that the perfection of words, whatever they may be, could not attain the perfection of the things. Yet God brought it about most graciously and wisely that nothing perfect which it is needful for us to know should be left unexpressed, and that nothing imperfect should be in the truth of that theology communicated by God's grace. God displayed, I say, by the communication of this theology the perfection of the things which he has prepared for them that fear him (which would indeed suffice), providing most wisely that the several necessary heads of a most perfect thing should be had in a most perfect form by the communication of divine theology. Therefore: a most perfect subject, but infinite in its perfection; a most perfect wisdom, but finite in its perfection; and finally a most perfect mode of wisdom, but with a perfection analogous to the truth of that wisdom which we call our theology absolutely.

These very things by which we have shown that theology absolutely so called is marked off are in reality, according to their account, common with that other kind of theology which we call theology in a certain respect. For the subject is common, and the mode of that wisdom and knowledge is in substance the same; for theology cannot be more than one according to its essence and the truth of the thing in itself. But since that other theology, which we call in a certain respect, has something mixed and conjoined with it, and that (if we wish to speak properly) as if materialized in its subject, two boundaries have likewise been added to the account of the theology called in a certain respect, without which theology in a certain respect can never be fittingly delivered or savingly received. For theology absolutely so called is truly the essential form pertaining to the Church of God by divine communication; theology in a certain respect is like the material element, to which that form cannot adhere without the observance of these boundaries. The first boundary is that of the subject in which this theology resides by divine communication; the second is that of the mode by whose gluing-on divine theology absolutely so called is fastened to this subject, however unfit in itself. The subject (not to linger) is man, an animal adorned by God's kindness with the most ample gifts of nature, but gifts corrupted [p. 77] by his depravity; and those gifts, even in his state of integrity, would never have raised man to the summit of salvation and heavenly glory except by the working of God's singular and supernatural grace. There were therefore in this subject, according to its nature, its own instruments fit for receiving disciplines, but instruments that always settled on natural things and stopped in them. There were principles, partly perceived by sense from without, and partly clinging to and inborn in our intellect within. There was reasoning, gathering, comparing, and establishing thoughts from those principles. There were conclusions and determinations dug out of the principles by sure reasoning. There was, finally, knowledge; but natural, earthly, carnal, and so constituted by most imperfect natural [col. 1402] modes that it could rise to nothing supernatural and nothing perfect, nor be touched by any sense of supernatural and perfect things. For, as the Apostle says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them (1 Cor. 2:14). What, then, has this boundary, set so very far from divine things, to do with that most holy theology absolutely so called? Or what has that most chaste theology to do with most impure and unfit man, unless that best and heavenly Father, who had supplied the mode of communicating theology absolutely so called, had also most graciously arranged for us a mode of applying theology in a certain respect?

And this is the second boundary, which we set down earlier as necessary for receiving theology in a certain respect: namely, the mode of applying that knowledge usefully to that weak and wretched subject of which we were just briefly treating. In establishing the mode of applying that most perfect knowledge to this most imperfect subject, God, according to his infinite mercy, furnished men with the divine light of heavenly grace, by which, through the power of the Spirit, he might accomplish all in all that is necessary for this saving application and performance. And therefore whatever has been implanted in human nature for perceiving things, God has so taken over by the power of his Spirit that he has joined to each good of nature the gifts of grace that correspond to it. To the principles placed in the intellect by nature he has glued the principles of grace; on reason rising from principles he has built the increments of his divine light; to the conclusions and determinations that reason reached by the most imperfect light of nature he has added supernatural and most perfect demonstrations, from which heavenly knowledge might be established in the minds of the godly; finally, he both set heavenly objects before our mind and will to be perceived in a heavenly manner and stirred up that same will to grasp those objects. These, then, are the two modes which the wisdom of God judged must be applied singularly, besides the things we set out concerning theology absolutely so called, so that this other theology, which we call in a certain respect, might dwell fittingly among men and be received by them profitably. Otherwise neither would a subject so foreign as man have been capable of that heavenly wisdom, nor would heavenly wisdom ever have reached men so unfit by even the faintest trace. These things posited, which pertain to the account by which this theology is distinguished from that, we must see to it that we now speak in order of each, according to our plan, as far as seems to pertain to the present matter. We expressed the definition of our theology absolutely so called at the beginning of the chapter, setting out its genus (as in what precedes) and its difference through the causes. Its genus is wisdom, and truly wisdom, not called so by misuse of the term (καταχρηστικῶς) or by men's opinion (as very often happens). The several places of the causes pertaining to the difference of theology are run through in the common order. First we declared the efficient cause and whatever pertains to it, saying that this theology is inspired by God, committed to his servants in Christ through enunciative speech, and set down in the [p. 78] Old and New Testaments through the Prophets, Apostles, and Evangelists. The matter we comprised under the name of divine things; the form, under that of truth; and finally the end, so far as it is expedient for it to be revealed to us here, for his glory and the good of the elect. So let us close this topic in few words: the genus and common difference of this theology is that it is called (as before) the wisdom of divine things; its singular difference is explained through the causes in what follows. Come, then, let us consider them in the same order and, leaving aside the genus and common difference, undertake the explanation of its causes.