EXPLANATIO IN CANTICUM B. MARIAE

413BI find this to be the greatest difficulty in the divine Scriptures: that where the surrounding occasion sometimes compels us to seek out certain great and sublime things, there the letter seems to hold out nothing beyond the ordinary, nothing that is difficult to say. For I do not think it so laborious a thing that the reader's mind should be able to comprehend those things which are set forth as new and wonderful — however forceful they may be, and overshadowed by figures of words — as that it should raise to a sublime understanding those things which at the first entrance it has found slight and lowly. For behold the canticle of Mary, which the holy Church throughout the world repeats with so renowned and constant, indeed daily, a recitation — who does not know that it contains the greatest mysteries of spiritual understanding? For, to pass over what by itself alone could have sufficed to commend its 413Cauthority — namely, that not without great and very reasonable cause has ecclesiastical custom held this, above all the other canticles found in Holy Scripture, in such great veneration — to pass over this, I say, who would doubt that blessed Mary, freshly filled with so great a fullness and grace of the Holy Spirit coming upon her, could not have brought forth, in praise of her Savior, something small and such as would not be 414Bbeyond the capacity of earthly minds? It is certain, therefore, that she — pouring forth out of so great a fullness, and jubilating with so great devotion in that new joy, unwonted to human minds, over her Jesus — proclaimed with new praise and singular heralding a new gladness at the new coming of the eternal Lord. And yet, running through the very sequence and text of her canticle, we find certain things set forth at first sight of the narration in such a way that nothing further would seem to need to be sought in it: although nevertheless, granted that these very things are also true, it may be doubted whether they suffice, perhaps, for so great mysteries and so great sacraments. Wherefore I am the more afraid in expounding it, lest I either bring in things foreign or pass over what is proper; and so, bound by the charge either of negligence or of rashness, I incur, instead of your favor, the danger of 414Cgiving offense — even though you yourselves have asked it. I have added to this same explanation certain things on the side, which, once inserted, may perhaps seem to someone less aptly joined. But I know a fitting reason why it was becoming that you should ask this, and that it is not unbecoming for me to comply with the desire of those who ask, as far as possibility might suffice.

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413DMy soul doth magnify the Lord. If we are willing to weigh the circumstance of the event, it will appear clearer than light of how great consideration these words are worthy. For a sacred interpretation is then more conveniently drawn out to clarity, 414Dwhen it has been made known either through whom the mystical account was brought, or by what cause the narrator himself was impelled, so that he was either able or willing to relate such things. Let us therefore see how blessed Mary came 415Ato the saying of these things which have been set forth. It is read in the Gospel of Luke (Luc. I), that the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary: to proclaim the new coming of the Son of God into flesh. He, entering, venerates the virgin with a new homage of salutation, saying: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. And when Mary had heard this, not without great wonder she was troubled at the saying of the angel, and thought what manner of salutation this should be. But the angel, setting forth the cause of such a salutation and so great a veneration, comforted the holy virgin, that is, soothed her with sweet words, saying: Fear not, Mary. For thou hast found grace with the Lord. Behold, 415Bthou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the seat of David his father shall be given to him, and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. And Mary: How, she says, shall this be done, because I know not a man? To whom at once the angel, setting forth the cause and manner of so ineffable a sacrament: The Holy Spirit, he says, shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: and therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God: and, that all ambiguity of believing might be taken away, by adding another miracle — wonderful, yet unlike — he makes manifest the efficacy of the divine power, saying: And behold, Elisabeth thy kinswoman, she also hath conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: because 415Cno word shall be impossible with God. Straightway the virgin, full of faith and exultation, answered to this with great rejoicing, saying: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word. At once, therefore, when the Holy Spirit came upon the Virgin, and the grace of all virtues filled the most sacred dwelling-place at the coming of the Son of God, there is no doubt that the Virgin herself conceived a wondrous and unspeakable sweetness of heavenly joys and of eternal sweetness, when that eternal light with all the splendor of its majesty descended into her; and that which the world does not contain placed itself wholly within the virgin's womb.

Filled therefore with such and so great a presence of divinity, what she saw, or what she felt, who can tell? I boldly declare that not even she herself could fully explain 415Dwhat she was able to grasp. Amid such great wonders, then, how could a human tongue have kept silent, unless the same Spirit who had filled the virgin were tempering the torrent-rush of his own abundance with a most sweet embrace? The wisdom of God cried out then from afar in that blessed soul: The Spirit breatheth where it will, and thou hearest its voice: but thou knowest not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth (Joan. III). For thou, it says, didst suddenly receive the Holy Spirit as it entered into thee; nor didst thou by thy knowledge anticipate its coming, so as either to seek it as about to come, or to love it as it came, or to open to it as it entered. Suddenly it glided into thee, freely offered itself, came unsought, unforeseen poured itself in. Thou perceivest the infusion, but thou dost not reach out 416Ato the fountain of its immensity. And therefore thou knowest not whence it comes, because thou canst feel how much has been given to thee, but out of how great a source it has been given thou canst not search out. If therefore thou couldst not go before it as it came into thee, presume not to go before it as it will proceed through thee; for thou knowest not whither it goes, just as thou art ignorant whence it comes. Keep the secret, guard what is committed, hide what is entrusted. It is not for thee to know the times or the moments, which the Father hath put in his own power (Act. I). He himself knows when, and to whom, and in what manner he may reveal the secrets of his magnificence; be thou only ready to obey him who commands, to render service to him who enjoins. Governing herself, therefore, by such consideration, Mary prudently chose meanwhile to keep silent, until the giver of the gift should by his wisdom deign to become the author of the revelation.

416BBut because, taught by the same Holy Spirit, she had learned, as to cover her own things through humility, so to rejoice together in the goods of others through charity, she rises straightway, and with the abundance of so great grace hastens to feast at the banquet of one lesser. She climbs up into the hill country of Judaea to see and to congratulate Elisabeth: that what, believing, she had heard about her she might see present in her, and receive it with worthy exultation. But she who had already run devoutly to proclaim the good things of another, deserved rightly to hear her own things proclaimed by others: so that her glory might grow also from this, that she did not envy the exaltation of another. Whence Elisabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, recognized of what sort and how great she was who had come, and disclosed how unworthy she judged herself of her visitation, saying: Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come 416Cto me? For behold, as soon as the voice of thy salutation came in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished in thee that were spoken to thee by the Lord (Luc. III). Then Mary said:

My soul doth magnify the Lord. She could therefore no longer contain herself, when she perceived that the Spirit, which she felt overflowing with such fullness within the secret places of her heart, had burst forth through the barriers of another's mouth. Then therefore, at the manifestation of the Spirit, she opened her mouth, and pouring forth the good word which she had conceived, cried out in praise of the Savior, saying: My soul doth magnify the Lord. Let no one, then, think these words to be lightly esteemed. For the things which were uttered out of so profound a conception cannot worthily be penetrated 416Dwithout profound investigation. And would that it might befall us, as we seek their secrets, to advance under the leading of that Spirit, filled with which Mary merited to conceive the Word of the Father, and to magnify the Father of the Word with a word of exultation. She says, therefore: My soul doth magnify the Lord.

And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.

Truly beloved, and only one, and led into that wine-cellar by the king thy spouse, made drunk with the plenty of his house, and given to drink of the fountain of life (which is with him), thou hast poured forth the memory of the abundance of his sweetness, and hast exulted in his justice. Thou hast seen and hast tasted; thou hast seen majesty, thou hast tasted sweetness. And therefore what thou hadst drawn within, thou hast poured out abroad. My soul 417Adoth magnify the Lord. See what she says: My soul, she says, doth magnify. And my spirit hath rejoiced. Two and two: soul and spirit, magnifies and hath rejoiced. The soul magnifies, the spirit exults; and again two: Lord and Savior; two words, one thing, and yet two: Lord and Savior; by Lord mark power, by Savior mercy. Let us therefore see the distinction of the words. First the soul magnifies the Lord; then the spirit exults in the Savior — she does not say the soul exults. Nor did she say: the spirit magnifies; but the soul, she says, magnifies, and the spirit exults; nor does she say it magnifies the Savior and exults in the Lord; but it magnifies the Lord, and exults in its Savior. First let us discern why she set them distinctly, magnifies and exults; or why 417Bfirst it magnifies, afterward exults. For nothing is without reason; because everything that was said flowed forth from that inmost light of the highest truth, to which the virgin's mind excellently clung. Nor could she say otherwise — she who spoke not by meditating, but by tasting; whom not a thought running through diverse things taught, but a devotion of mind clinging through contemplation to the one fountain of wisdom. My soul doth magnify the Lord, she says, and my spirit hath rejoiced. For there are two things which the blessed spirits of angels and of men draw in eternal contemplation from that fountain of good. Namely, the incomprehensible majesty of God, and his ineffable goodness; of which the one begets chaste fear, the other brings forth love. For on account of majesty they venerate God, and on account of goodness they love him, lest either love 417Cwithout reverence be dissolute, or reverence without love be penal. For wondering they love, and loving they wonder, so that love may burn inextinguishably through wonder, and wonder may glow sweetly in love.

On account of this reverence it is said that the pillars of heaven tremble before him; because doubtless even the powers of the heavens cannot behold so great a majesty without wonder. But the trembling of the blessed spirits is not a shaking of their tranquillity, but the unceasing and life-giving intentness of perpetual contemplation. For because they can never perfectly comprehend him whom they see, they ever look above themselves; wherein, as it were, they keep awake through wonder, lest they grow numb 417Dat that which they can never comprehend. But the more keenly they behold, the more ardently they love; because to see him is to taste, and that which is seen is sweetness. But true sweetness, the more perfectly it is felt, the more desirably it is sought; because if what is perceived is truly sweet, it must needs be sweeter still, if it be more fully perceived. To this light of contemplation, therefore, the mind of Mary had been lifted up — she who expressed the sweetness of the heavenly homeland in her words as wonderfully as she comprehended it ineffably. For when she declared that she magnified the Lord, she manifestly showed that she beheld with inward vision that majesty of the eternal Godhead, venerable and to be revered by all. But when she asserted that she exulted in her Savior, 418Ashe showed that she had perceived a taste of inward sweetness. Whence she professed both, namely Lord and Savior: that on account of the power by which he rules over all his creation she might show him to be rightly feared even by those by whom he is not loved; but on account of the goodness by which he mercifully saves some, she might demonstrate him worthy of love. Of course, because all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Psal. XXIV), it is perfect praise to confess him Lord and Savior, since truth is commended in the Lord and mercy in the Savior. For truth pertains to the Lord, and mercy to the Savior. For, because he governs all his works with so great and so perfect a justice that even that which is found in them to have been done apart from justice he does not leave disordered; and because what has been done wrongly 418Bcan neither escape his judgment nor run counter to the laws of the eternal disposition, he keeps the tenor of justice in truth.

But because he gathers certain wandering things freely unto life, and restores them unto salvation in his judgment, he tempers justice by the gentleness of mercy. Therefore we magnify the Lord, and exult in the Savior; because the justice of the Lord is to be revered by everyone, and the mercy of the Savior to be observed with exultation. And therefore, Mary says: My soul doth magnify the Lord: And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Why does the soul magnify, and the spirit exult? Perhaps the same thing is repeated in another word. For soul and spirit in man are the same, although soul denotes one thing and spirit another. For spirit is said with reference to 418Csubstance, soul with reference to vivification. Nevertheless, since the occasion has offered itself, I think it not out of place to recall here the error of certain men. For there are those who contend that in each man there are two souls: one rational and one sensual, devoid of reason, such as are the souls of brute animals. And this opinion they attempt to confirm by certain reasonings and authorities. For they say that the rational soul is infused only into a body already formed in the womb, just as it is read that in the first man the body was first formed, and then the breath of life breathed in. And Moses says in the law: But if anyone strike a pregnant woman and she miscarry: if the abortive fetus were formed, let the striker 418Drender a life for a life; but if it were not formed, let him be fined a sum of money (Exod. XXI). Certain of the holy Fathers also are found to have asserted this in their treatises.

And therefore, since it is established that the rational soul is given only to a formed body, and again that matter, like the body itself, is moved and grows before it receives human form, and by the very vital motion which is in it is led to this very form, they think it must be conceded without any contradiction that, before the human body receives a rational soul, it has a sensual soul, by which it lives and is quickened and takes on growth and form, so much so that, if to the seed once conceived and formed a rational soul were not given, then, with that irrational soul which it has from 419Athe first conception, there would be born of the man, in human form, a brute animal, differing in nothing from the other irrational creatures, except that it had drawn its substance from human seed. For since this belongs naturally to the seed of brute animals, that of itself, when the time comes, it receives vivification, it seems unworthy to deny this to human seed, which is established to be more excellent in its nature. After all this they also bring forward, in testimony of their assertion, that in the catholic Scriptures we frequently find, in one person, soul and spirit named by a doubled term; and in the prayers of the Church daily, without any suspicion of error, when we render the office at the funeral of the faithful, we commend the soul and spirit of the deceased to the Lord. By this 419Breasoning, then, they wish to prove that each man has two souls: one by which he lives, another by which he knows; and both to be beatified hereafter in the elect — the one, that is, the rational, through the vision of the Creator; the other, that is, the sensual, through the incorruption of the body. Likewise in the reprobate, both to be tormented: the one by fire, the other by an evil conscience.

But the catholic faith does not accept an assertion of this kind, but most truly testifies that the soul is one and the same, which in man both furnishes the life of the body through sense, and lives in itself through the intellect. Nor, if a rational soul is not given to the human body before its formation — although it be moved and grow before it receives human form — is it therefore necessary 419Cthat we say this comes about through some soul, since we manifestly see shoots and herbs move and have growth without a soul. Unless perhaps someone should wish to call this very vegetation and natural motion a soul. But this force, although in some respect it may be called a soul, is nevertheless in no way to be called sensual, or such as would make a soul. For it is ridiculous, and altogether beyond reason, that we should say a human body is born a beast without a rational soul, and not rather that it neither lives nor is born, if it has not been vivified by a rational soul. For as to what they say — that it is unworthy that human seed, according to the natural conception, should be believed weaker unto vivification than the seeds of the other animals, and less 419Defficacious — it is plain that this is of no weight, since we see nearly all brute animals surpass man in vigor of sensation; nay rather, from this very fact it is more probably proved that the seed is vivified and perceives sense only from a rational soul; because it was perfectly just that to brute animals, to which nothing was to be given in intellect, something more should be given in sense, and, on the contrary, that so much the greater necessity of exercising reason should be laid upon man, the greater the defect he suffered in his bodily senses. But that too — that in Holy Scripture we sometimes find the words spirit and soul in designating one and the same person — was not done for the sake of signifying diverse essences, but for the sake of a diverse property of the same essence. For one and the same spirit 420Ais called spirit with reference to itself, and soul with reference to the body. Whence also those spirits which were first created, that they might persist in their purity and not be mingled with bodies, can be called spirits, but cannot be called souls; because they have a spiritual nature, but have not bodily animation. But the spirits of brute animals, because they are essentially body, and have no being outside bodily vivification, are more properly called souls than spirits. But the human soul, because it has being both in the body and outside the body, is properly called both soul and spirit. But it is called soul in so far as it is the life of the body; and spirit in so far as it is a spiritual substance endowed with reason. Therefore in this life the soul is lost that the spirit may be saved, when this life 420Bis despised for God's sake, that afterward eternal life may be granted by God. But because that which we lose is, as to essence, the very same as that which we receive, therefore the Lord in the Gospel by no means commanded us to lose the soul that we might receive the spirit safe, but said that this very same soul must be lost here, that in the future it might be received safe (Matth. X), signifying assuredly this: that whoever for God's sake willingly despises this life, which now consists of the body's vivification from the soul and is temporally mortal, shall in the future receive that same life of the body (not only of the soul) as eternal and immortal. Whence also the holy Church, which most faithfully believes the resurrection of the flesh, prays not only for the spirits, but also for the souls of her faithful 420C: asking indeed this, that in the visitation of the just, together with that beatitude which shall belong to clean hearts from the vision of God, they may also receive, unto the glory of eternal life, as immortal and incorruptible through the resurrection of the flesh, that which now, through the death of the flesh, they lay down as corruptible. And these things indeed concerning the difference of soul and spirit we have said beside the point, but perhaps not without profit. Now let us return to the order of our narration, as we began.

We ask, then, what such a distinction of words means; whether it hints something to us that she says not the spirit, but the soul magnifies the Lord, and testifies that the spirit, not the soul, exults in its Savior. And perhaps someone may think it is to be ascribed to curiosity rather than to diligence 420Dthus to scrutinize each single thing, and not to pass over even the least without its own consideration. I know that many things in this manner, for the sake of stirring the affections, are in the Scriptures either said by way of emphasis, or repeated by way of inculcation. And if anyone should say that the same was likewise done in this case, there is nothing unfitting. For it was said thus: My soul magnifies and my spirit exults, as if it were said: I, out of my soul and my spirit, that is, out of my whole heart and my whole will, praise God, and over his salvation, which I now see being prepared for the human race, I exult with all my heart. For now I see that which I believe ought to be offered for me being taken from me. But nevertheless, that I may confess my Savior, who, although he has not yet offered the victim of his flesh, has nevertheless already taken on the flesh 421Awhich, when the time comes, he may offer as a victim. Therefore he is Savior even now; and not only now, but from eternity Savior, who has now come to save through the flesh he has assumed, but has from eternity purposed to give that salvation which he will manifest in its own time. Or certainly, according to the distinction of the words, the soul is fittingly said to magnify God, and the spirit is declared to exult in its Savior. For often in the Scriptures a certain affection and tenderness of mind is wont to be designated by the soul; and therefore, when she asserts that she magnifies out of her soul, she shows that she venerates God by no means with servile fear, but with the affection of love. And again, when she declares that her spirit exults in its Savior, she manifestly shows that this is not a salvation over which the flesh 421Bmay rejoice, but rather an eternal one, prepared in invisible goods, over which the spirit exults. Because, therefore, that blessed soul had conceived the sweetness of chaste fear, she said that she magnified the Lord not with servile dread, but with filial love. For in the soul, as has been said, the affection and devotion of one who loves is expressed, since to praise out of the soul is nothing other than to venerate out of affection, and to revere out of love. But because again she had drawn the certainty of eternal salvation from that fountain of piety, therefore she exulted in spirit in her Savior.

Nor is it to be passed over in silence that, when she named the Lord, she added nothing. But when she said Savior, she named not simply Savior, but her Savior. For almighty God, by the power 421Cby which he rules over all his creation, is the Lord of all; but by the mercy by which he restores to life only some, and not all, he is not the Savior of all. For his dominion regards all equally; but his goodness sets apart only some for salvation. And therefore his lordship is said specially of no one; but of the salvation which is from him, the elect alone (as of a gift proper to them) rightly glory in a singular way. This is why in Holy Scripture he willed himself to be called specially the God of certain ones: because he who granted to all that they might be, gave himself as a reward to the good alone, that they might be blessed. I am, he says, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob (Matth. XXII), because, whereas the rest have from me only that they may be, these, chosen by grace that they may be blessed, 421Dare what they are from him from whom they have their being; that is, I gave them my very self; and therefore I will to be called their God: because I am theirs whom they have taken, or received, through grace — whom they could not have through nature, nor deserved through fault. But now they possess me, and behold I am their inheritance, I am their God and Savior, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Rightly, therefore, the blessed virgin, who saw herself singularly chosen because she had singularly received grace, as if confirmed by a certain privilege of divine election, confidently calls him whom she had conceived as a son for the salvation of the world her own Savior too, with gladness and exultation.

Because he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaid. This is 422Athe cause of her exultation, because he regarded the lowliness of his handmaid. As if she should say: Rightly do I exult in him, because it is from him that I exult; and because I love his gifts for his own sake, therefore I exult in him. Let us distinguish these two: Some exult neither from God nor in God: for those who exult in the pleasure of the flesh, or who, according to Solomon, rejoice when they have done evil, and exult in the most wicked things (Prov. II): these exult neither from God nor in God. For, because that whence they exult is evil, it is plainly evident that that whence they exult is not from God. And because again they exult from evil to evil, and set their joy in malice, therefore they in no way exult in God. There are others who abuse the gifts of grace they have received, and turn those things which were given for the salvation of the soul to the use of the flesh and the glory 422Bof the world. They rejoice in the gifts of God they have received, and are glad to have what God has bestowed: not that by this they may be helped to reach him, but that they may be shown to go before others in the reception of grace. These, although they may seem to have from God that whence they rejoice, nevertheless by no means rejoice in God, because they love neither in God nor for God's sake that which they have received from God. But those who, having received grace, turn that very thing which they receive from him to the love of God, these assuredly are proved to exult both from God and in God. Wherefore we must carefully consider, while we feel our mind perhaps touched by some gladness, lest that very thing which lifts up the mind through joy either arise from evil, or, having arisen from good, drive the mind toward evil through its intention. Mary therefore, that she might show her joy to be her wonted joy 422C, showed it to be neither sprung from vanity nor turned to vanity: but declared that she loved God's gifts unto God, and that on account of the regard of grace by which she had been prevented, she exulted in her Savior, saying: My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior; because he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaid. Of course, the regard of God in Holy Scripture is wont to be taken in three ways: namely, according to knowledge, according to grace, according to judgment. Concerning the regard of divine knowledge the Apostle says: All things are naked and open to his eyes (Hebr. IV). Therefore through knowledge God regards all things; but through grace he does not regard all. For concerning the regard of grace it is said: The eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and his ears unto their prayers 422D(Psal. XXXIII). Which regard, namely, those do not merit to whom at the end it shall be said: I know you not (Matth. XXV). Concerning the regard of judgment it is said: The eyes of the Lord behold the good and the evil (Prov. XV). And again: His eyes are upon [respicit Dominus] every way of the sons of man, and he considereth all their steps. There is no darkness, and there is no shadow of death, that they who work iniquity may be hid there (Prov. V). Therefore for God to see through knowledge is to be ignorant of none of the things that are. To see through grace is to bestow the gifts of mercy. To see through judgment is to destine each one according to his works, either to punishment or to glory. But because in this place it is the regard of grace that is treated, let us yet more diligently consider how God regards man through grace. For the very word 423Aregard marks a certain emphasis, so that to regard seems to be something more than to see. For to regard is, as it were, to visit those previously cast off and forsaken. For God is said to be, as it were, turned away from man when, through the severity of judgment, he withdraws the gifts of his grace. But when, appeased through mercy, he restores what was withdrawn, he again turns himself toward him through the regard of grace. Well, therefore, does Mary testify that the Lord regarded in her humility alone, because the propitiation of the Godhead, which human nature lost in the first parents through pride, it recovered in Mary through humility. For, because in her the Word of the Father took on the substance of flesh, which he would unite to himself, he looked, as it were, through mercy 423Btoward exalting that nature which he had previously cast off. God, therefore, regarded the humility of Mary: to whom, on account of the merit of humility, he granted that she should conceive his Son in her flesh, and of her flesh bring forth true God and man, the Savior of all men (as far as in him lies). The virtue of which humility, determining it straightway, she subjoins: of his handmaid. For, because she humbly recognized herself to be what she was, a handmaid, therefore she merited to be sublimely what she was not, a mother; but because we have said that in this, that she called herself a handmaid, the virtue of humility is expressed, that it may appear how this saying commends humility, we ought to distinguish the kinds of servitude. For servitude is varied in four ways: according to condition, according to necessity, according to fear, according to love. According to condition, all things 423Cought to be subject to the divine servitude, because a work owes this to its maker, from its own condition, that it obey his dispositions and follow his ordinances: so that, just as it was made by him, so it may proceed only under him and according to him. But according to necessity, perverse wills are said to serve God, which, although they strive to run counter to his commands, are nevertheless constrained by his ineffable disposition, so that they can bring nothing to effect without his nod. They serve his disposition unwillingly, who are not willingly subject to his precept. There follows the third servitude, which is done through fear, when we fulfill the divine precepts not out of love, but out of dread. But the fourth servitude is when we voluntarily obey his commands; because we love him who commands, 423Dand seek no other advantage in our servitude outside himself, than that, walking according to him, we may be able to reach him. For this is to do for his sake what he commands: to do what he commands for the sake of attaining him. But of these four servitudes, that one especially seems to me to be commended in this place, which is according to condition. This indeed our parents in paradise refused to render to their Creator, when, lifted up into pride, they disdained to be under him by whom they had been created, and perversely wished to be like him in majesty, who were not equal to him in nature. Fittingly, therefore, does grace answer to fault. Eve, through pride, not considering that she was a creature of God and the work of God, 424Atherefore wished to be made equal; but Mary, humbly submitting herself to her maker, called herself a handmaid: and therefore the one was cast off, and this one chosen. The proud he disdained, and the humble he regarded: and what the proud woman lost, the humble one received. Therefore she says: He hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaid. He regarded the humility, he regarded the humiliation. He regarded the humility, rewarding the humble; he regarded the humiliation, exalting her who was humbled. There are two things, humility and humiliation: humility is within, in the virtue of the mind; humiliation is without, in the abjection of human esteem. But the servants of God sometimes have, along with humility, humiliation also. Sometimes they have humility, but do not have humiliation. But never do they have humiliation without humility. They have humility with humiliation 424Bwho are both humble before God and despicable before men. They have humility without humiliation who, although before men outwardly they do not appear despicable, nevertheless inwardly preserve the merit of humility inviolate before God. To these the world is crucified, and they to the world, because through humility they despise the world, and through humiliation they are despised by the world. But to these others the world indeed is not crucified; yet they themselves are crucified to the world, because the human glory which they receive outwardly unsought, they inwardly despise, offered through the virtue of humility. Therefore Mary, who was humble before God and, for God's sake, cast off before men, testifies that in both she was regarded by God, because both her humility was made acceptable before God 424C, and her humiliation before men was changed into glory. Whence there follows:

For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For until then she had borne among men the reproach of barrenness, because she preferred the integrity of virginity to the marriage-bed. But whence, in the former carnal generation, she bore as it were a sentence of malediction, thence now she is praised by every generation with a merited benediction: to whom alone among all women this was granted, that she should both have the fruit of fecundity, and not lose the integrity of virginity. For God regarded her humility, and took away her humiliation, and therefore, she says, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. All the generations, which shall recover through the fruit 424Dof my womb the lost beatitude of which they were deprived through the fruit of the forbidden tree; all shall call me blessed, so that it is now a small thing to have borne in the past generation the reproach of barrenness — I who by every future generation, on account of the fruit of my fecundity, shall be called blessed. From henceforth, she says. As if Elisabeth should say: From the time when through thy mouth he opened his great deeds, which he wrought in me, from henceforth he will magnify the same, making them manifest unto all generations.

Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me: and holy is his name. It was a great thing that a virgin should conceive a son without the seed of man. It was a great thing that she should carry in her womb the Word of God the Father, clothed with her flesh. It was a great thing that, while she confessed herself a handmaid, she should become the mother 425Aof her own fashioner. But if all these things are great, they are nevertheless not impossible to him by whom they were done, because he is mighty. And therefore he that is mighty hath done great things to me, and singularly great things, because he is singularly mighty. Therefore she does not say, he can do this or that: but he is mighty, she says, that thou mayest understand him almighty, who is called absolutely mighty, because he can do all things. She confessed him mighty, therefore, and said no more: because his power can be believed, that it is; but how great or of what sort it is cannot be comprehended. Therefore she only confessed it, she did not presume to examine his power, because it cannot be known how great it is: of which it is most truly known that it is immense. Let them go now, then, and glory in their own understanding, who think to examine the divine works by reason, and to confine his power under measure. For when 425Bthey say, He can do thus far, and no further, what else is this than to enclose his power (which is infinite) and restrict it to measure? For they say: God cannot do otherwise than he does, nor do better than he has done. For if he can do otherwise than he does, he can do what he did not foresee, and if he can do what he did not foresee, God can work without providence, because everything which he foresaw that he would do, he does, nor does he do anything which he did not foresee. If, therefore, his providence can neither be changed, so that something other be done than was foreseen, nor annulled, so that this not be done which was foreseen: it is necessary that all be done which was foreseen, and that nothing be done which was not foreseen. Furthermore, whatever is foreseen, it is established to be; and whatever is foreseen, there is no doubt 425Cthat it comes to be. But if it is impossible that anything come to be apart from providence (and everything which is foreseen to be, must needs come to be), then in no way can anything other come to be than what does come to be. Further. Whatever God does, if he can do it better than he does, in this very thing he does not do well, in that he does not do what he does in the best way: for he would do better, if he did better what he does. For to do, and to be unwilling to do better, is, even for one doing good, to do ill. But a pious mind does not endure that these things be said of God. And on this account it seems close at hand and consequent, that he cannot do better than he does, because he does in such a way that he does not do ill in that which he thus does.

By causes and reasonings of this kind certain men are led 425Dto say that God is so bound and fettered by the measure and law of his own works, that besides what he does, he can neither do anything else nor anything better. And by this they are plainly convicted of binding that infinite and immense power of the Godhead under a limit and measure, who extend it only as far as something which truly has an end itself, and deny that it proceeds beyond. For it is certain that everything which has been made in number and weight and measure has its lawful limit and end: and therefore, if the Creator's power and manner is composed to the measure of the work, it is without doubt declared to be bounded both by end and by measure. Wherefore, lest we seem either to deny assent without cause to these which seem to be reasons, or, credulous of men, to receive without consideration 426Athe false for the true, it behooves us, for the present summary, briefly to respond to the things which have been said.

First it must be considered whether God can in any way, his providence being neither changed nor annulled, do otherwise than he does. For it is established that everything which comes to be was from eternity foreseen to be future: because that is from eternity future which nevertheless from eternity is not: and we say that it is possible for that not to come to be which is future. And if that which will come to be, and which is possible not to come to be, were not to come to be, it would never have been future, nor foreseen. But because it will come to be, it is always future, and is foreseen. No change, therefore, or annulment of providence appears here: because just as it was foreseen, so it will come to be; so, if it had not been foreseen, it would not come to be. 426BBut now, they say, it has been foreseen. It has been well foreseen, because it is future; and they say: But providence can neither be changed nor annulled: yet the outcome can be impeded, so that what is future not come to be: but if the outcome of the thing were impeded (which can happen), providence would be changed or annulled, which absolutely cannot happen. But we respond to this, that if the outcome were changed (which can happen), providence would neither be changed nor annulled, because this absolutely cannot happen: but rather it would never have been foreseen, which had never been future, and providence would stand firm in this, that it should not come to be, just as now it consists in this, that it should come to be — not changed, so that after one it should be another, but so that it should never be other. Therefore God can do otherwise than he has done: yet in such a way that he himself, by doing otherwise, be not other; 426Cbut whether he do the same or another thing, he himself nevertheless be always the same.

Now it remains that we examine whether God can do anything better than he does. Here those searchers of ours, who have failed in searching out searchings, say that they bring forward something new — and truly new, yet not so much true as new. And they will have it that individual creatures, indeed, considered in themselves, must fall short of the perfect; but that the totality of all things is expressed in so great a consummation of good that it cannot be better than it is. Here first I demand that answer be made to me, when they say that the totality of all things cannot be better than it is: in what way that is to be understood which they say, that it 426Dcannot be better: whether it cannot be better because it is supremely good, so that no perfection of good at all is lacking to it; or whether it cannot be better because it cannot itself receive the greater good which is lacking to it. But if it is so supremely good that no good perfection is lacking to it, then the work is plainly made equal to its Creator, and either that which is below is extended beyond its bound, or that which is highest is confined within immensity: both of which, with equal unfittingness, are impossible. But if it cannot be better because it cannot itself receive the further good which is lacking to it, then this very inability belongs to defect, not to consummation, and it can be better if it be made capable of a greater good, because this too he who made it can do. Therefore in itself it cannot, in God it can, because it itself cannot 427A, but God can, and how much he himself can, cannot be told: therefore he himself cannot be better, but everything which he has made can be better, if only he himself, who is able, should will it. And he can make what he has made better, yet not correcting what was ill-done, but promoting what was well-done into something better, not that he himself, as regards himself, may do better, but that what he has made (he himself working again and again, and persevering in the same) may become better. Therefore he is supremely mighty, who can do everything that is possible; nor can he do less because he cannot do the impossible, because to be able to do the impossible would not be to be able, but to be unable. Therefore Mary says: Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is his name. She does not say, he hath done great things through me, or in me, but to me, she says, he hath done. For that which was done in her for the salvation of all 427Bwas by the privilege of election singularly ordained to her glory. And therefore she says, great things, and did not add, of what kind; because, since all the works of God surpass the capacity of human sense, especially the sacrament of redemption, the mystery of the Word is established to be above all things ineffable. For nothing more wonderful was ever done than that God should become man, and that a nature incomprehensible should so unite to itself the substance of a body, that it was neither less in it, because in itself it was immense, nor less in itself, because it had been whole in it.

These, therefore, are great things, and ineffably great, which were done in Mary for the salvation of all, and were done to Mary for her singular glory. Therefore she says: Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is 427Chis name. His name is holy in itself, and is sanctified in us, while we are sanctified in his name. What is his name? His renown. His name, the knowledge of him. His faith, his name. This name is holy with the holy, because it is glorified by the holy and blessed; by the perverse it is blasphemed. And the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you (Rom. II). Therefore, because he hath done great things, his name is sanctified, because, while the Word is wonderfully born in the flesh, the glory of God is declared through the Word among men. Father, he says, I have manifested thy name to men, and I have glorified thee upon the earth (Joan. XVII). And therefore he that is mighty hath done great things, and holy is his name.

427DAnd his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him. To me, she says, he hath done, yet not to me alone singularly, but to one preeminently. Nevertheless his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him. No one is excluded from grace, but in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh justice is acceptable to him. From generation unto generations, that is, unto all generations. In this grace nothing distinguishes a man, except the fear of God. Be he Greek, be he Barbarian, be he Scythian; be he male, be he female, be he free, be he slave; let him have the fear of God, and he shall be saved. His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him. And here again we ought not to pass over the things which are to be said concerning fear. Holy Scripture distinguishes four fears: servile, worldly, initial, filial. Servile fear 428Ais to abstain from evil for the sake of avoiding punishment, while an evil will is retained. Worldly fear is to abstain from good for the sake of avoiding punishment, while a good will is retained. Initial fear is, for the sake of avoiding punishment, to cut off, along with perverse deeds, also depraved thoughts. Filial fear is to cleave firmly to the good, because thou wouldst not lose it.

Of these four fears two are evil, that is, servile and worldly; but two are good, that is, initial and filial. Servile fear fears the punishment which is inflicted by men, and therefore it suffices it to cease from evil deed: because it serves to the eye, and does not fear the guilt of conscience, seeing itself please men. But worldly fear, not seeking to please men, yet fearing to displease, itself also feigns what it is not, 428Bas lying in denying the truth as the other is deceitful in covering falsehood, and each offends against the truth. The one, because it timidly denies what is; the other, because it perversely simulates what is not. But initial fear, because it strives to avoid the punishment which God threatens, in no way sees it to suffice for itself to restrain itself from unlawful action; because for him who beholds the heart it is not enough for proof if the action be innocent, unless also the very thought of the heart appear before his eyes sincere and unpolluted. Because, therefore, it fears to displease him who sees the whole, let it consider that for perfect innocence before him it is necessary that it cleanse the whole; and therefore this fear is called initial, because under it, through good will, both virtue takes its beginning and vice its end, yet it is not yet perfection: 428Cbecause, while one thing is done and another intended, the good itself is not yet loved for its own sake. Then charity draws near, and enters through this fear, which, while it shows the danger we ought to flee, in a certain way makes us seek and desire a protection. It turns the heart, therefore, to God, so that in a certain way it flees from him to him: that is, while guarding against having him angry, it is eager to have him propitious. This is followed by filial fear, which is born of the charity that succeeds; so that this fearing is nothing other than to be now unwilling to lose the good tasted in charity. And this fear indeed has something of punishment joined to it, while we walk in uncertainty, and the state of a changeable life can still incline to either side. But when there shall be no mutability 428D, then there shall be present no punishment of suspicion arising from uncertainty: and then fear will in a certain way be without fear, when we shall be both certain of our stability, and yet shall not cease to show reverence to the Creator. Therefore his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him. And not only to them that fear with perfect charity, but also to them that begin to fear, and that turn themselves through beginning wisdom, his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him. And then she begins to explain more fully that mercy which is afforded to them that fear God, and to weave together, in a clear narration, the very order and manner of human redemption, saying:

He hath showed might in his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the mind of his heart. This is that mercy which God showed to them that 429Afear him; because he sent his Word through assumed flesh into this world: that through him he might war down the aerial powers with mighty strength, and redeem the human race from their power. For these are the proud whom he scattered, casting them out from the hearts of men, and plundering their spoils. For the power by which they previously held rule in men, he dissipated. He hath showed, she says, might in his arm; because through the humility of his Son he conquered the devil. Therefore he showed might in his arm. His arm is his Son. He showed might in his arm; because through that which was made in him was redeemed that which was made by him. He showed might, he showed weakness, and that very weakness was might; because through it the devil was conquered, and man snatched from his power. He hath showed 429Bmight in his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the mind of his heart. What is, in the mind of his heart? In the mind of his heart he scattered them, by his profound counsel he scattered them. Profound was the counsel, that for man's sake God should become man, and the innocent one suffer, that the guilty might be redeemed: and in all these things the counsel was profound, nor could the devil foresee them. But Leviathan was caught with a hook, and the prudence of God struck the proud one. Of the mystery, says the Apostle, kept silent through eternal times, known to God alone (Rom. XVI), which none of the princes of this world knew; for, if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (I Cor. II). This is, in the mind of his heart: this God was turning over in his heart — nay, he was not turning it over, but holding it — and the devil knew it not. The foolish princes of Tanis, the wise counselors 429Cof Pharaoh gave foolish counsel: Where are now thy wise men? Let them tell thee, and let them declare what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt. The princes of Tanis are become fools, the princes of Memphis are withered away: they have deceived Egypt, the corner of her peoples. The Lord hath mingled in the midst of her a spirit of giddiness (Isa. XIX). And there: He hath scattered the proud in the mind of his heart; and he hath showed might in his arm; because through the incarnation of his Son he both powerfully vanquished the demons, and prudently supplanted them. He hath showed might in his arm: and he hath scattered the proud in the mind of his heart. We can also, not unfittingly, understand by the proud the Jews, who gloried that they were of the race of Abraham, and presumed upon their own justice, and therefore were not subject to the justice of God. These 429Dproud ones, therefore, God scattered in the mind of his heart, might having been showed in his arm; because through his Son coming in the flesh he taught that no one could be justified by the works of the law, but through the faith which is from God. But the Jews, who attempted to defend the works of the law against the justice of God, and proudly despised the humble coming of Christ, he cast off from his grace, in which they seemed to stand; and he took up the Gentiles, who humbly confessing their sins and preferring the justice of God. Whence there is fittingly added:

He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. For he put down the mighty from their seat; because he cast off the Jews, who seemed to be the sons of the kingdom, and exalted the humble, namely the Gentile men; because the Gentiles, who had been cast off 430A, he took up, through humble confession, into fellowship of the kingdom and into the adoption of sons. Or according to the earlier exposition, he put down the mighty from their seat; because he cast the malign spirits out of the hearts of men, and exalted the humble — namely those very men whom he had previously cast off on account of pride, restoring them once humbled. Therefore he hath showed might in his arm, he hath scattered the proud in the mind of his heart; he hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. But I see there is yet something which we may add to the things said concerning the scattering of the proud. For as to what she says: In the mind of his heart — if we expound it according to the former meaning — it is clear that it was done by the deep and unsearchable counsel of God, that the Jews who were first chosen should afterward be reprobated, and the Gentiles who previously 430Bwere reprobate should afterward be taken up. This was done by so profound and inscrutable a counsel, that God shut up all things under sin, and had mercy upon all. And therefore the Apostle, astonished in the consideration of this profundity, exclaimed: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how incomprehensible are his judgments, and his ways unsearchable! (Rom. XI.) This, therefore, we can consider in that which was said: In the mind of his heart.

And if we should wish to apply yet another exposition, the meaning will be not to be despised. For the mind of the heart of God is that living and abiding disposition of inward and hidden predestination. It is the book of life, in which are written the names of those who are saved and written unto life in Jerusalem. The same, therefore 430C, is mind as is book, and, as it were, that is written in the book as destined to remain, which, retained in the mind through memory, is not deleted. That which, therefore, was said in this place: He hath scattered the proud in the mind of his heart — this same thing the Psalmist expressed in other words, saying: Let them be blotted out of the book of the living (Psal. LXVIII). But because the foreknowledge of the divine predestination is not changed, and to be blotted out or scattered from it is not to cease to be there, but never to have been, he rightly added, saying: And let them not be written with the just (Ibid.). It is to be known that in three ways someone is said to be written in the book of life: according to foreknowledge, according to cause, and according to operation. According to foreknowledge, those are written in the book of life who are predestined to life, who are never blotted out 430D, because of those who were foreseen unto salvation, no one will be allowed to perish, although for a time he be permitted to err from the way of truth as though about to perish. According to cause, those are written in the book of life who for a time walk in justice: and such there sometimes are, who would prove worthy of salvation, if they remained such unto the end. But these are blotted out, when they abandon the justice they had begun, and, by declining to errors, withdraw from the way of truth by which they had begun to walk. According to operation, or rather according to human estimation, those are said to be written in the book of life whose works, according to human judgment, appear such that on their account they seem worthy to be written in the book of life: who again, when they abandon it those good things which they seemed to do, are judged as though to be blotted out of the book of life. Those, therefore 431A, who are so blotted out of the book of life that they do not again merit to be inscribed in it, even if for a time they seemed to be written either according to the cause of justice, or according to the judgment of human estimation, nevertheless were never written according to foreknowledge. Because, therefore, the rational creature, in angels and in men, had been inscribed in the book of life by its condition unto the title of the heavenly homeland and the supernal inheritance, but through the elation by which, in both, it perversely wished to compare itself to its Creator, was cast off and deprived of its honor: even then indeed he scattered the proud from the mind of his heart, when, casting out from inward stability those who swelled up around themselves, he permitted them to toss about outwardly through earthly desires. He hath scattered the proud in the mind of his heart: He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. 431BFirst he cast the angel from heaven, and man, growing proud, from paradise; and afterward he restored man, humbled through penitence, to his pristine glory. But daily too he puts down and humbles all the proud, by withdrawing his grace, and afterward exalts those same humbled ones, restoring their former grace. To which also pertains that which follows:

432AHe hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away. He calls hungry those who recognize that they lack the true good; by the rich he wishes to be understood those who are proud and elated, and think themselves to abound above others in the gifts of graces. Therefore, just as the humble, by thinking little of themselves, merit to receive greater grace, so the proud and elated, by presuming upon themselves, lose even those things which they have received.

He hath received Israel his child. He received him as a physician receives the sick, Israel his child, namely his people: Israel the child, that is, the humble and innocent one, he received, that he might heal the sick, redeem the captive, justify the ungodly, save the just. He received Israel, whom he did not find Israel, but that he might make him Israel. He hath received Israel his child.

432BBeing mindful of his mercy. That which he had once promised, but had long deferred, he at last was manifesting.

As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever. Merciful in promising, truthful in fulfilling, because he promised without being in debt, and fulfilled without guile. As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever.