Discourse 44

There are many measures of knowledge, and measures of the degrees of faith. There is knowledge that precedes faith, and there is knowledge that is born from faith. Knowledge that precedes faith is natural knowledge. That which is born from faith is spiritual knowledge. What is natural knowledge? It is knowledge that distinguishes good from evil, and it is also called natural discernment. This ability to know good from evil is naturally present, without instruction, placed in the rational soul by God. From instruction, however, it receives an addition. There is no one who does not possess this. And this power of knowledge of the rational soul is natural; this, however, the discernment of good and evil, is ceaselessly agitated in it. Those who are deficient in this fall below the order of rationality. Those, however, in whom this is abundant stand rightly in their own rational soul, while that which was given to the rational soul by God for the honor of its rationality is not corrupted by them. As for those who lose this knowledge that distinguishes good from evil, woe to them! A human being who does not stand in his honor was not established. The honor of the rational soul is precisely this discernment, the distinguishing of good from evil.

is that which belongs to those who have lost this: it is like a beast that does not possess a rational and articulate soul. By this means one cannot find the path to God; and this is the natural knowledge that precedes faith, and it is the path toward God. Through this knowledge, one distinguishes good from evil, and receives faith. When the pure power testifies that it is good for a person to believe, then all these things come to fulfillment, and one submits to the word of His commandments and does what is commanded. And from this faith, the fear of God is born. Then, from the fear of God, when one perseveres in its practice and gradually ascends in it through practice, it gives birth to that spiritual knowledge of which we spoke, which is born from faith. Not simply from faith is it born. From faith alone, which is habitual, spiritual knowledge is not born; rather, it is born from the fear of God. And from the fear of God, when one persists in its practice, from the practice of the fear of God is born spiritual knowledge, as the blessed interpreter says: "For what else is the will that is attached to the fear of God and right intention, if not that it secretly receives the revelation of hidden things?" The revelation of hidden things he calls spiritual knowledge.

it is not that the fear of God gives birth to this. Something that is not rational is set for generation: it cannot. Rather, it is a gift that is given, this knowledge, for the service of the fear of God. When, however, one pursues rightly, the service of the fear of God can be found: that is repentance. And the spiritual knowledge here is that which was said: that which in the mystery of the sacrament receives its breadth; in repentance it receives its place. The place of which it was said that in repentance it receives: that is the knowledge of the spirit, which is given as a gift through the service of the fear of God. Spiritual knowledge is the perception of hidden things. When a person perceives those things that are invisible and very superior, from which it takes its name, that is the spirituality of knowledge. Born from this perception is another faith, not opposed to the first, but confirming that in which it believes. It is called, however, the faith of seers. Until then: hearing. Now, however: seeing. True vision is from hearing. All these are from that knowledge which distinguishes good from evil, which are born from the rational soul. And this is the seed of the superiority of which was spoken.

When, however, it is for this reason that it is made to serve the desire of the lover of passions, then from these all the good things fall away. This knowledge is not bound to that which is called the fear of the heart: anxiety, and grief, the fear of God, and the departure from nature, grief over the faces of the transitory things that have passed, and the solicitude for those that are due, the constant remembrance of death, and the anxious thought of this passage, and the care for its provisions, and the earnest supplication from God that it may be well to enter by this door, which is the passage of the whole of nature, simplicity concerning the world, and a good departure from the face of superfluity. All these are found in this natural knowledge. But if a person’s conduct is from these, when he is in these as a human being, he walks the path of purity. When, however, he is raised from these and attains to love, he is raised from that purity, and from it depart departure and fear and weariness. From these that were spoken of, let a person examine his intentions: by which does he walk? By that which is beneath nature, or by that which is above nature? From these distinctions that have been clearly spoken, a person can easily discern the conduct of all his life.

When, however, it is for this reason that it is made to serve the desire of the lover of passions, then from these all the good things fall away. This knowledge is not bound to that which is called the fear of the heart: for the fear of the pure heart, which is from the impressions of the truth, is not present; and the fear which is above nature is not known; it is that which is beneath nature that is loosed.