|
Those holy angels come to the knowledge of God not by audible words,
but by the presence to their souls of immutable truth, i.e., of the
only-begotten Word of God; and they know this Word Himself, and
the Father, and their Holy Spirit, and that this Trinity is
indivisible, and that the three persons of it are one substance, and
that there are not three Gods but one God; and this they so know that
it is better understood by them than we are by ourselves. Thus, too,
they know the creature also, not in itself, but by this better way,
in the wisdom of God, as if in the art by which it was created; and,
consequently, they know themselves better in God than in themselves,
though they have also this latter knowledge. For they were created,
and are different from their Creator. In Him, therefore, they
have, as it were, a noonday knowledge; in themselves, a twilight
knowledge, according to our former explanations? For there is a great
difference between knowing a thing in the design in conformity to which
it was made, and knowing it in itself, e.g., the straightness of
lines and correctness of figures is known in one way when mentally
conceived, in another when described on paper; and justice is known in
one way in the unchangeable truth, in another in the spirit of a just
man. So is it with all other things, as, the firmament between the
water above and below, which was called the heaven; the gathering of
the waters beneath, and the laying bare of the dry land, and the
production of plants and trees; the creation of sun, moon, and
stars; and of the animals out of the waters, fowls, and fish, and
monsters of the deep; and of everything that walks or creeps on the
earth, and of man himself, who excels all that is on the earth, all
these things are known in one way by the angels in the Word of God,
in which they see the eternally abiding causes and reasons according to
which they were made, and in another way in themselves: in the
former, with a clearer knowledge; in the latter, with a knowledge
dimmer, and rather of the bare works than of the design. Yet, when
these works are referred to the praise and adoration of the Creator
Himself, it is as if morning dawned in the minds of those who
contemplate them.
|
|