The names of God and Meditative summaries of the divine perfections

Front matter

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Author's Preface

IF we had remained in the state of innocence, * meditation on divine things would have been easy. It would have been a constant delight to walk in the presence of God and to excite in the heart acts of faith, hope, charity, thanksgiving, humility, reverence, obedience and the like. In that happy state man enjoyed a very special as*- sistance, which enabled him to know his Creator and to fulfil with the greatest joy all the duties that the various virtues enjoined. But when that blissful condition ceased in consequence of sin, this help was withdrawn, and our natural weakness made the contemplation of divine things irksome and the practice of virtue difficult. Earthly and material things now appeal to us powerfully and we readily give days to discuss and examine them. The wars and battles of history or fiction fascinate us, but we have to force ourselves to contemplate the things of heaven. The perfections or attributes of God are particularly difficult, and yet there is nothing more helpful to salvation, nor more agreeable and consoling when once we have made a little progress; none are more efficacious for the acquisition of virtue nor better calculated to clarifv the mind and to throw vi Author's Preface

light on all the duties of life. For the Holy Scripture says : "To know Thee is perfect justice and to know Thy justice and Thy power is the root of immortality. (Wis. xv.)

Hence following the example of St. Denis the Areopagite whose works have for fifty years exercised on me a most marvellous charm, I have resolved to explain very briefly the divine perfections or attributes ascribed to God by the Holy Books. In this short exposition I omitted designedly the testimony of the Scriptures and the Fathers and also all theological proofs in order that the reader may more readily form a clear idea of these divine attributes, excite in his heart affections worthy of such sublime considerations and by this exercise, as St. Denis says, make his soul "deiform," or like unto God.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

A LTHOUGH three hundred years have ** elapsed since the illustrious Leonard Lessius, S.J. wrote his treatise on "The Names of God," and in a series of "Meditative Summaries" condensed his great work on "The Divine Perfections," no English translation of either work has yet appeared. Some early versions in French and Flemish were published as far back as the seventeenth century, and Father Bouix, S.J., gave us his translation in French in 1882, but it is only now in 1912, that an effort is made to put. this splendid spiritual book in the hands of English readers.

"The Names of God" — there are fifty in all — is the last work that Lessius ever wrote. Five or six days after he laid aside his manuscript the Angel of Death wrote finis on the story of the great man's life. The concluding chapter was fittingly entitled "God our Last End," and its closing paragraph reads as if he were gazing into the face of the Lord and expecting to be called to heaven. "During all eternity" he tells us, "all the angels and all the blessed will so rest in the vision, the love and the beatific vision of God that they will desire nothing more, but

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will find in Him the term of all their desires and enjoy in Him a blessed repose."

This part of the book is made up of fifty chapters, most of them very brief, but all of them replete with the sublimest theology and furnishing a superabundance of matter for devout consideration.

"The Meditative Summaries" which constitute the second half of the work are the concluding chapters of his fifteen famous treatises on "The Divine Perfections." He calls them "Recollectiones Precatorice." Father Bouix who was evidently thinking of Bossuet and possibly making a mental comparison between the two men entitles them "Elevations et Prieres' which is rather a free translation. "Meditative Summaries" we think more accurately describes their character, for they are like the Colloquies which St. Ignatius recommends us to make at the end of our meditations. They are in reality a succinct resume of all the theology that had been elaborated and discussed in the previous disquisitions, combined with fervid outpourings of the heart in prayer, adoration and love. He seems to forget the presence of his students and addresses himself directly to Almighty God. Happy students to have had a teacher with the mind of a seer and the heart of a seraph.

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On account of the sublime doctrines which he is expounding, the terminology is at times unavoidably technical. But this is true only of the opening chapters. Ordinarily his language is extremely simple and he never hesitates to repeat his expressions in order to make his meaning clear. Moreover what at first seems hard to understand clarifies itself as he proceeds and even where we are unable to follow him we cannot fail to contemplate with amazement the flight of his marvellously illumined intellect into the divine mysteries.

The few explanatory notes taken from the standard treatises of philosophy and theology and appended by the translator may contribute somewhat to a better understanding of the terms employed, but the main body of the work is within the reach of ordinary readers especially those who live in the light of the Sacraments.

The literary tone of the "Summaries" cannot fail to please. They are written in what rhetoricians call the cumulative style, which consists in piling up new thoughts and new aspects of things, each following closely on the other, and all hurrying onward to a sublime and splendid climax. It is like listening to the utterances of an inspired orator.

Lessius was one of the most illustrious thex Translator's Preface

ologians of the Society of Jesus, the glory of the University of Louvain and the especial pride of Catholic Belgium. He was born at Brecht near Antwerp in 1554; at the time when the Protestant Reformation was in full blast; when Charles V reigned in Spain, Henry II in France and Mary Tudor in England. He was 12 years old when Philip II sent the Duke of Alva to the Netherlands.

He was only 17 when he entered the University of Louvain but his unusual ability won for him almost immediately both from masters and students the title of "Prince of Philosophers." Shortly after beginning his studies in the University, he entered the Society of Jesus which was then in the 37th year of its existence.

At 20 he was teaching philosophy at Douai and continued at that work for seven consecutive years. But philosophy alone was not sufficient to absorb his powers. He became a profound Hellenist and it is asserted by a grave historian that in two months time he mastered Greek so as to be able to converse in it. He was even then familiar with all the great thelogians, the Fathers of the Church and the notable writers on Holy Scripture. He was an authority in the oriental languages, canon and civil law, history and mathematics, and conversant with medicine, be-

Translators Preface xi

sides speaking with facility several modern languages. All this was before he had reached his 27th year; so that there is small wonder he was an invalid for the rest of his life; but illness never made him work less.

When he was ordained he was sent to Rome where Suarez taught him for two years. It was this great master who emancipated him from an excessive anxiety about theological and philosophical authority. "In every question," he was told, "in which faith and morals are not involved, you are to follow your own opinion provided you can show that it is founded on reason. Such an utterance from an oracle like Suarez dissipated his fears and after that, says his biographer "the eagle took its flight."

From Rome he was recalled to Belgium to teach dogmatic theology at Louvain, and for thirty-eight years he was not only the pride of that University but one of the most brilliant theologians of his age. He was esteemed and praised by several great popes, and in 1587 when certain doctors of Louvain, probably prompted by Baius, took exception to some of his propositions, Sixtus V undertook his defense and sent a Nuncio to Belgium invested with the power of a legate a latere to declare in the name of the Pope that the propositions were absolutely in conformity with xii Translator's Preface

sound doctrine. Such a pronouncement made the reputation of Lessius world-wide and the Universities of Mayence, Treves, Ingolstadt and Louvain hastened to declare in his favor. He was consulted by theologians from all parts of the world, and his word was law for them. Paul V thanked him publicly in Rome for his labors for the Church, and years afterwards when Lessius had gone to his reward Urban VIII said of him : "I knew Leonard Lessius perfectly. I was intimately associated with him in Rome and I have always held him in the highest regard on account of his extraordinary learning. But I esteemed him incomparably more for his virtue. He was a most humble man and endowed with unusual piety. I regard him as holding a high place in heaven. "

When he was sent as Delegate to the 6th and 7th General Congregations of his Order, he was consulted by the learned men of every city through which he passed. He was called "The Oracle of the Low Countries." Prince Albert who then governed Belgium took him as his adviser, and in the Council Chamber had always before him on the table the treatise of Lessius De Jure et Justitia, Justus Lipsius the great literary man of the period died in his arms. Lipsius had left the faith but his friend won him back again to God.

Translator s Preface xiii

The list of his works is enormous. The annotated catalogue of them fills several pages of the great folio edition of the Bibliotheca Scriptorum SJ. Among the translations of some parts of his works we find two by the famous Father Schall in Chinese and one in English by a timorous Briton who had undertaken the task at the command of Sir Walter Raleigh's ghost. The ghost declared that such a work would serve to check the growth of unbelief in England and would also exculpate the famous knight himself from the charge of infidelity.

His most important treatises are: 1. Justice and Right; 2. Faith; 3. The Providence of God; 4. Immortality of the Soul; 5. Efficacious Grace, the Divine Decrees, Free Will, Conditional Foreknowledge of God; 6. The Predestination and the Reprobation of Angels and Men — the Predestination of Christ; 7. The Sovereign Good; 8. The Divine Perfections; 9. The Power of the Roman Pontiff; 10. What Faith and Religion should be embraced; (This treatise St. Francis of Sales said was rather the work of the Angel of the Great Council than of Lessius. It brought back Prince John of Nassau and many other distinguished personages to the Church.) 11. Abstinence; 12. The Choice of a State of Life, and Celibacy; 13. The Names of God.

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In the Imago Primi Sceculi Societatis Jesu, Lessius is described as follows: "His soul, greater than the world, was always turned towards God, so that on earth he seemed to lead the life of heaven. Taking but little nourishment and that only once a day, he was nevertheless constantly occupied in reading and writing on divine things. His countenance was resplendent with the light of sanctity."

He was particularly remarkable for his Christian patience. Though afflicted with bodily infirmities from his earliest youth, and suffering particularly in the four last years of his life, he never prayed for any alleviation of his pain. On the contrary he was continually thanking God for giving him a share of the cross. His only remedy was abstinence, and in that respect he was a source of astonishment to those who lived with him. His unusual intellectual powers which always seemed to be flooded with light enabled him to surmount his bodily suffering. Indeed it was while he was undergoing what amounted almost to martyrdom that he wrote his masterpieces. His friends regarded it as miraculous.

His writings reveal his soul, especially those on the Sovereign Good and the Divine Names. With St. Denis and St. Augustine he rises to the

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contemplation of the Divinity and speaks of God as if his heart were on lire.

He died at Louvain January 15, 1623 at the age of sixty-nine. In Belgium and elsewhere he was regarded as a saint. He was buried before the main altar of the church of the Society in the Rue de Namur next to the college where he had labored for thirty-nine years. St. Michel, as it is called, is no longer a Jesuit church although it still bears on its fagade and in the interior the emblems and statues of the saints of the Society. The present Jesuit establishment is in what used to be a somewhat mean street called the Rue des Recollets. Near the Scholasticate however in somewhat neighborly fashion is a dormitory erected by the University and named after the distinguished friend of Lessius, Justus Lipsius. Between the two buildings and in striking contrast, historically and otherwise, is the Tower of Jansenius where the Augustinus is said to have been written. Thirty-five years ago if memory serves us right there was a tradition in the Scholasticate, that the chair in the pulpit of the Professor of Dogma was the identical one used by Lessius in his time. Of course one may be skeptical on that score, for such a fragile article of furniture could scarcely have survived the storms through which the Society has passed xvi Translator's Preface

during the long period that intervened between then and now. Some years ago, the bones of the great man were carried over from the Rue de Namur to the Rue des Recollets and deposited in a marble tomb near the altar where the heart of St. John Berchmans is enshrined. Of that relic at least, there can be no doubt.

Immediately after his death, an ecclesiastical tribunal was instituted for an official inquiry into his life and virtues, with view to his canonization. The testimony taken at the time was deposited in the archives of the Archbishopric of Malines, but for a long time the process was interrupted on account of political upheaval, and only in our times has it been resumed.

It is superfluous to say that the works of such a man must be of great value not only to priests and religious, but also to people of the world who are desirous of knowing more than the mere rudiments of their religion. They ought also to be especially serviceable both for the Directors of retreats and for those who follow the Exercises. Indeed there is every reason why "The Meditative Summaries" on account of their devotional character might be used very profitably for visits to the Blessed Sacrament or even while assisting at Holy Mass.

We have used the Latin text as well as the

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French translation of Bouix in preparing this English version. There was thus less danger of making the great man say what he never intended. The conciseness of his style contributed not a little to the difficulty of the task but we trust we have succeeded in making the translation coincide strictly with the meaning of the author. We commend the book in its new dress to the benignity of the reader.

Table Of Contents

Preface v

CHAPTER.

I — God and the Divinity 1

CHAPTER I. God and the Divinity

Dionys. C I. de Div. Nom. ; De Myst. theol. C 3.

C T. DENIS tells us we can form an idea of God in two ways: affirmatively and negatively. The first is by positive concepts or by ascribing every possible perfection to God; the second by negative concepts, or by denying that any perfection conceivable by a created mind unillumined by the light of glory can be properly predicated of Him.

If we follow the first method we say, for instance that He is a spirit, most sovereignly exalted, good, great, eternal, powerful, wise, sweet, holy, just, merciful, beautiful; intimately present in all creatures, creating them, forming them, conserving them, governing them, and ordaining them to His glory, which is the first beginning and last end of all created things.

St. Augustine in his Confessions Bk. 1, c. 4, has given us such a description while adding something that partakes to a certain degree of the second method. "God is a spirit," he says, "sovereign and sovereignly good, great, and sempiternal; most powerful and most benign, most merciful and most just, most hidden and omnipresent, most strong and most beautiful, most simple and most perfect, indivisible and immeasurable, stable and incomprehensible ; changeless, yet changing all things; always in action, yet ever in repose, amassing yet lacking naught ; creating, nourishing, perfecting, upholding, completing and protecting all things; the Being from whom are all things; by whom are all things,, and for whom are all things."

St. Bernard in his book De Consider atione addressed to Pope Eugenius, asks : "What is God?" "God," he answers, "is an all powerful will, a sweet force, eternal light, immutable reason, sovereign beatitude; creating the soul to make it participate in Himself; vivifying it, to make it feel its Creator; in touch with it to make it long to come to Him; dilating it to make it receive Him ; justifying it to enable it to merit ; inflaming it to set it on fire with zeal ; fecundating it to make it fruitful; leading it to justice; forming it to benevolence; moulding it to wisdom; visiting it to console it; illuminating it to increase its vision; guarding it for immortality ; filling it to overflow-

God and the Divinity 3

ing with felicity, encompassing it for salvation." Here as elsewhere, St. Bernard describes God by attributing to Him all perfections. He follows the affirmative method.

An example of the negative method would be to say that God is a spirit, infinite, immense, sempiternal, infinitely above all perfection, all excellence and all greatness conceivable by a created mind. He is above all substance, all power, all wisdom, all intelligence, all light, all beauty, all sanctity, all justice, all goodness, all beatitude, all glory, so that nothing of these things can be properly predicated of Him. He is like none of them, but is infinitely more sublime and excellent than them all.

The reason of this is that all perfections conceivable by us or by the angels unaided by the light of glory are limited. Moreover they are not included in each other; and besides all perfections conceived by a created intelligence are conceived as accidental forms, such as are in created beings; whereas in God they are a most simple substance or a self-subsisting form. 1

1 All Being is divided into substance and accident. Substance is that which exists per se; that is, which exists or subsists in itself; whereas an accident is that which inheres in another as in its subject. The primary element in the notion of substance is subsistence. Hence substance may be defined as a subsisting something that abides the same amid change of its

In many of his writings St. Denis seems to prefer the negative to the affirmative method. Instances of it may be found in Chapter II of The Celestial Hierarchy, Chapter I and II of The Names of God, and in Chapter III of Mystic Theology.

The two however, may be combined, as in the following description of the Divinity : "God is incomprehensible goodness in His essence, inscrutable depth in His wisdom, inaccessible height in His elevation; ineffable breadth in His love; infinite length in His eternity; superlative purity in His holiness; absolute immensity in His greatness, an obscurity most luminous, a solitude most peopled, and a simplicity most perfect. For Himself and for all the blessed He is paradise, heaven, eternal rest, eternal beatitude, and the infinite plenitude of all that is good."

Although in fact, as well as in the concept of those who have the vision of God, there is, in no accidents. There are spiritual as well as material substances. The soul is a spiritual substance ; angels are spiritual substances ; and it is part of our faith that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is of the same substance with the Father.

Substance, essence and nature severally denote the same object, but connote more especially different features. Substance points to the general fact of existence per se; essence to the reality of which the being is constituted; nature signifies the essence as a principle of vitality.

Stonyhurst Series Psychol.

God and the Divinity 5

way, any distinction between the Divinity and God, yet in our concept or in our manner of conceiving things, there is a distinction to be made. For we conceive the Divinity as the form, and God as the being resulting from form and substance.

We may conceive the Divinity in two ways: First as an infinite intellectual Essence or Nature from which flow in some way all those perfections which are called attributes. These attributes, however, are conceived not as formally contained in the Divinity or in the Divine Essence, but as being in the Divinity or Divine Essence as in their foundation. We conceive them as we do properties in created things.

Secondly, we may conceive the Divinity as a most simple self-subsisting form of infinite perfection, and containing formally all perfections in their highest degree, in such a way that God, by that form is formally powerful, wise, good, holy, just, etc. ; nay is formally power itself, wisdom itself, goodness itself, holiness itself, justice itself ; not accidental but substantial and self-subsistent. This manner of conceiving God is more elevated, more noble and more worthy of God as we have explained at length in Book 1, De Perfect, divinis, c. 1 and 3.

Reason and the testimony of the Holy Fathers also show this; for conceived in this manner the Divine Essence contains formally all simple perfections, and is not considered merely as the basis or foundation of them. Moreover the perfections themselves are presented to us as substantial and not as accidental, or accessory things. 1

1 Nowadays the word form usually signifies shape or figure, or something superficial as when we speak of formal observances, formalities, etc. In scholastic philosophy it signifies the active factor which determines the essential nature of each being. There are substantial forms and accidental forms. Substantial forms are the essential constituents of a thing. Accidental forms are mere accidental modes or determinations which conceivably might be removed without affecting the nature of the substance, e. g., heat, color, etc.

When we say that God. is formally, good, just, wise, etc., we mean that He is essentially so. When we say that He is formal justice, formal goodness, etc., we mean that He is justice itself, goodness itself, etc. — Stonyhurst Series. Psychol.

CHAPTER II. ' He Who Is

Dionys. de Div. Nom., 5; St. Thos. I p. q. 13.

r^ OD is called Being, He Who Is, Self -Exist- ^* ent, in five ways or for five reasons.

First. Because He is the source and cause of all being; for all being comes from Him and depends on Him continually, as the light depends on the sun.

Second. Because His being is not limited. He is not this or that being, as an angel or a man is, but He Is universally. He comprises in Himself and anticipates every kind of being, from all eternity; for the whole plentitude, the whole latitude, and the whole amplitude of being is most fully and eminently contained in Him.

Third. Because He Is eternally, and because by His Being and by His life, He fills, equals, comprises and includes in Himself all eternity.

Fourth. Because He Is limitlessly, and fills the entire immensity of all imaginable space.

Fifth. Because He Is immutably, possessing everything simultaneously and securely in a way that He can never lose anything ; for He possesses all things by His immutable Essence to which nothing can be added, and from which nothing can be withdrawn.

CHAPTER III. The Infinite God

Ps. cxliv., 3; Dionys. c. 9; St. Thos., 1 p. q. 7.

/** OD is infinite in His essence, not only in some ^* kind of perfection, as power, wisdom, holiness, justice, mercy, etc., but He is absolutely infinite in all kinds of perfection and consequently in the whole range of being.

First. As the fruitful Cause in which the whole amplitude of being eminently exists and which includes the infinite species of every genus ; the infinite individuals of every species, and consequently whatever in the nature of being is conceivable by the intelligence of the angels and even by that of God.

That is why St. Gregory, of Nazianzen, in his Oratio in Natalia calls God the immense ocean of being. In it there are infinite worlds, infinite species of angels, one excelling the other, on and on through infinity ; infinite nations of peoples, infinite species of animals, infinite natures and varieties of plants, of minerals and precious stones. There is an infinity of gold and silver ; there are 8

The Infinite God 9

infinite pearls of rarest size, and every description of precious stones. There are infinite species of colors, of paintings, of harmonies, of odors, of savors and delectable objects, of the flesh and the senses; infinite regions and cities, and fields and forests, and groves and gardens; infinite fountains and hills; infinite rivers and seas, infinite palaces and temples, infinite furnishings of every kind and of inestimable price. In it finally are contained an infinite abundance of all that the mind can conceive of precious and beautiful and splendid and delectable. All these things and an infinity of others that no created intellect can grasp, exist in the essence, wisdom, and omnipotence of God, and shine before His mind in such a manner that He can with a single sign of His will produce them outside of Himself in all conceivable multitudes and splendors.

Hence it follows that whoever possesses God possesses at the same time all those things and enjoys them in God in a most exalted manner.

Second. God is called absolutely infinite, because alone, by Himself He is infinitely more excellent, more grand, more beautiful, more lovable than all those infinite things which are contained eminently in His essence, His wisdom, His power. And even if God were to make them pass from nothing into being, He would still be infinitely above them all. Nay all those things taken collectively and considered together, are but as nothing in comparison with the divine excellence. Hence he who possesses God, and rejoices in Him, enjoys by that possession alone a happiness incomparably greater than he would possess if outside of God he owned all that there is of beauty, splendor, glory and happiness. For God is all those things and infinitely more than all those things.

Third. From the fact that God is infinite in His Essence, it follows that He Himself is necessarily infinite in every kind of perfection that belongs to Him, namely, in greatness, power, wisdom, holiness, benignity, mercy, justice, beauty, etc. The reason is because such perfections can correspond to the Divine Essence only in an infinite perfection and degree; for they must be proportionate and equal to His Essence, from which, according to our manner of conceiving, they seem to flow. Secondly because these perfections are in God by a single and most simple form, which is absolutely infinite and unlimited. For they are not real properties proceeding from the Essence, but are the Divine self-subsisting Essence Itself, and consequently are a simple form of the Divinity which can be comprehended by us only imperfectly.

CHAPTER IV. The God of Immensity

Ps. cxliv; Barnch iii ; Dionys. 9; St. Thos. i p. q. 8.

HP HIS name is given to the Almighty because of * His greatness and for the want of a better word what we call His extension. He is extended and so to say, diffused everywhere ; above, below, on the right, on the left, before and back of us. He is circumscribed by no limit and by no space. The mind contemplating this is lost in amazement. Were we to imagine an extent beyond the universe of a thousand leagues in every direction, God would still be there. Were we to add a million more, God would still be beyond them. Imagine it to extend as many millions of leagues as there are grains of sand on the shores of the sea, as drops of water in the ocean, or as there would be grains of dust to fill the whole universe, God is still by infinite millions of leagues beyond them all, and that most completely and perfectly, namely in the Three Persons, with all the perfections and the gifts and the riches which are eminently contained in Him.

Finally no human mind can conceive so vast an extent that God is not infinitely greater than it; and infinitely diffused without and beyond it ; not merely in parts as the air and other material substances, but complete by Himself and if I may so speak in His totalities, as a spirit, so that He is entire in every point of all space ; not, as it were, floating or mobile but most firmly and immovably and as the foundation of all things.

All the vastness of the universe compared to the magnitude and extension of God is like a little drop of water in comparison with the immensity of the ocean, or as a grain of dust in comparison with the vastness of the whole universe. Thus the Book of Wisdom (xi, 23) tells us: "The whole world before Thee is the least grain in the balance, and as a drop of the morning dew that falleth upon the earth." Or to speak more correctly there is no proportion between the magnitude and the extension of God and the magnitude and extension of the universe, for the magnitude of the extension of God not only infinitely exceeds the magnitude of the universe, but all magnitude conceivable by a created intelligence.