TO THE CANDID

READER.

Ornamental drop cap 'T' decorated with scrolling foliage and a figure.

Isa. 64.

1 Cor. 2.

John 1.
1 John 4.
1 Tim. 6.
Rom. 1.

It might indeed seem rash for anyone to wish to begin to speak or write concerning those things which the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man: just as it might perhaps seem concerning me, as I think to write and speak something concerning the heavenly city of Jerusalem, and concerning those things which pertain to it. For by the testimony of both Testaments—namely, of Isaiah and of Saint Paul: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." How then can anyone speak of those things which the heart of man is not able to imagine or conceive? Certainly, indeed, it must be said that the words of Holy Scripture are most true, nor do we think we say anything rashly if these words are understood soundly. Do not all the holy Doctors truly confess that God, the Best and Greatest, is both ineffable and unthinkable? And yet we truly say very many things concerning Him; and Scripture itself also testifies to this, and we truly think much more concerning the same. Does not the same sacred speech likewise assert that no one has seen God? "No one," it says, "has seen God, nor can see Him." And yet the same Paul cries out, saying: "The invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through those things which have been made, as also is His supreme Divinity." Wherefore, in soundly expounding the first-cited authorities of the Divine page, we say that it is one thing to perceive clearly, distinctly, and perfectly, as they are in themselves—whether by the hearing of the body's ears, or by imagination, or by the intellect—those things which we have heard or thought; just as we see perfectly and distinctly the whiteness of some colored object, presented from nearby to a sharp, clear, and healthy eye. And it is another thing to apprehend something of a matter for a time by the intellect, only under a certain obscure figure, or some other likeness, by means of a most dark representation of it. For of those things which God [gives] to His elect in that blessed and holy, supernal and everlasting city...