The Light of God
Augustine of Hippo’s A Heavenly Treasure of Confortable Meditations is a Catholic devotional text, published on the continent for illicit dissemination to English readers. The selected passage comes from Batt’s (a Jesuit priest) translation of Augustine’s Soliloquies, a text in which the Church Father enters into dialogue with his soul, in an attempt to understand it. The biblical references are to the apocryphal Book of Tobias, and to Genesis.
Of the admirable light of God. CHAPT. III.
O Light, which ould Tobias being blinde, did see, when he taught his sonne the way of life. That light, which Isaac (albeit his corporall eies failled him) sawe within him, when outwardlye he foretolde to this sonne thinges that were to come. That inuisible light (I say) that seethe plainely the vnspeakeable depthe of mans harte. That light which lacob did see, when he prophesied of future euents to his children, according to that, which thou didst inwardly dictate vnto him Beholde (o Lord) darknes doth ouershadowe the face of the bottomlesse depth of my minde, thou art light. Beholde an obscure mist doth ouerwhelme the waters of my harte thou art the truthe.
O Worde, by which all thinges were made, and without which was made nothing. That Worde, which is before all thinges, and before which, there was nothinge. That Worde, which gouerneth all thinges, without which all thinges are nothing.
That Worde, which in the beginning hast saied; Let light be made, and it was donne. Say likewise to me, let light be made, and let it be donne, and let me see the light, and knowe whatsoeuer is not light, because without thee, darknes wil be vnto me as light, and light as darknesse. And soe without thy light there is noe veritie; there is nothing els but errour and vanitie: there is confusion, and noe discretion, there is ignorance, and noe knowledge; blindenes, and noe seeing: going astray, and noe walking in the right way: deathe, and noe life.
Nicholas of Cusa was a German philosopher and jurist, whose works were influential in humanist Europe. In this translation of Ophthalmos aplois or the single eye, entituled the vision of God, Cusa considers the nature of God as light, in a passage reminiscent of Corinthians 13.12: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
Ophthalmos aplois
As our eye, whiles it seeks to see the light of the Sun which is the face thereof, first it beholds it under a veile or Coverture in the Stars in Colours, and in all things that partake the light thereof, but when it strives to see it revealedly, and manifestly, it transcends all visible light because all such is lesse than that which he seeketh, but because hee would faine see the light which hee cannot see, hee knowes this, that as long as hee sees any thing, it is not that which he would see, and consequently he must go beyond all visible light, & hee that would so transcend all light that may be seene, must of necessity enter into that which wants visible light which to the eye is (that I may so say) darknesse and when hee is in that darkenesse or mist, then if hee know himselfe to be in the mist, he knowes himselfe now to be come to the face of the Sunne, for from the Excellency of the light of the sun doth that darknes and mist in the eye proceed, and by how much he knowes the darknesse to be greater, so much more truely doth hee in that mist attaine to the invisible light, so O Lord and no otherwise do I see the unaproachable light, beauty and shining of thy face may be without veile or shadow approached unto.