QUEST. XLVI. Whether the Divine Essence can be seene and comprehended by the minde of man in this life.

NOw it followeth to be considered, seeing Gods essence cannot be seene by our bodily eyes, either in this life or the next; whether that in our minde and understanding here in this life, wee may at∣taine to the fight and knowledge of God: where that position of Thomas Aquine is to be held: Im∣possibile est animae hominis secundum hanc vitam viventis essentiam Dei videre: It is impossible for the soule of man in this life, to see the essence of God: the reasons whereof are these.

1. Because the soule being in the body naturally, knoweth not any thing, nisi qu• habent form•• in materia, but such things as have their forme in some matter, or may be knowne by such things: but the essence of God, per naturas rerum materialium, &c. by the nature of materiall things cannot be knowne,*Thomas.

2. Almost all our knowledge, initium habet à sensibus, taketh the beginning from the sense: but God cannot be perceived by sense, Simler.

3. Ambrose likewise saith,*Anima carnis hujus maculis & co•••vionibus obumbratae faciem Dei s•ncere videre non possunt; The soules being shadowed and obscured with the spots and blemishes of the flesh, cannot cleerely here see the face of God, &c. And he further giveth this reason: Qui faciem Dei videt, esse •ine peccato; He that seeth the face of God, must be without sin: as our Saviour saith,*Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. But none are here without sin, therefore none here can see God.

4. Gregorie Nyss•n; Propri•m suum est ut omnem cognitionem excedat; It is proper and peculiar unto God, to exceed and goe beyond all knowledge: Qui ver• est is cognitione non comprehenditur; He tha• truly is, and the cause of the being of all things, cannot be comprehended by any knowledge, &c. The minde of man being of a finite nature, cannot comprehend that which is infinite and incomprehensible.

5. Further, Bernard to this purpose urgeth that place, 1 Ioh. 3.2. We know that when he shall appeare,*we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he i•; whereupon he inferreth thus: Videre illum jam in hoc mund• illuminatus potest, tanquam jam in aliquo similis, sicuti est, non omnino potest, quia nondum perfecte similis; He that is illuminate may see him in this world, as in some thing like unto him; but as he is, hee cannot see him, because he is not perfectly like him, &c. If then we shall only see him as he is, when wee shall be like him, then now in this life we cannot see God, because we are not like him.

6. Irenaeus enforceth this argument: Si neque Moses vidit Deum, nec Helias, &c.* If neither Moses saw God, nor Elias, nor Ezechiel, but those things which they saw were similitudines claritatis Domini, only similitudes of divine brightnesse, and prophecies of things to come, it is manifest, quoniam Pater in∣visibilis, that the father is invisible; of whom the Scripture saith, Never any man saw God, &c. For if any had seene God, it is most like those great Prophets should have had a sight of him, but they saw him not otherwise than by certaine similitudes.

7. Cyrillus affirmeth the same out of that place, Ioh. 1.18. No man hath seene God at any time:*the only begotten Son of God, &c. hath declared him: Soli consubstantiali •ilio Pater visibilis est, & nulli praeter eum alii; Only the Father is visible to his Son, of the same substance with him, and beside him unto none.

8. Whereas then the Prophet Isaiah saith, that he saw the Lord, chap. 5.1. and the Scripture testifieth that God spake with Moses face to face: and that the pure in heart shall see God, Matth. 5.8. These pla∣ces are either understood of the vision and sight of God by faith, as Ioh. 14.9. He that seeth mee, seeth my Father: or else of the symbolicall sight of God, by certaine similitudes and representations: as Cyrillus calleth it, symbolica similitudo divin• gloriae, a symbolicall similitude of the divine glorie:* as Ezechiel also saith, it was visio similitudinis gloria Domini, a vision or appearance of the similitude of the glorie of the Lord. And so Bernard well concludeth, Itaque de ipso vides, sed non ipsum;* Therefore in this life thou seest somewhat of God, but not God himselfe.