7

Now at the Creation, man was made fit for the repose of contemplation,

and therefore God placed him in a paradise of delight [Gen., 2, 16]. But

turning himself away from the true light to mutable goods, he was bent over

by his own sin, and the whole human race by original sin, which doubly

infected human nature, ignorance infecting man's mind and concupiscence his

flesh. Hence man, blinded and bent, sits in the shadows and does not see

the light of heaven unless grace with justice succor him from

concupiscence, and knowledge with wisdom against ignorance. All of which is

done through Jesus Christ, Who of God is made unto us wisdom and justice

and sanctification and redemption [I Cor., 1, 30]. He is the virtue and

wisdom of God, the Word incarnate, the author of grace and truth - that is,

He has infused the grace of charity, which, since it is from a pure heart

and good conscience and unfeigned faith, rectifies the whole soul in the

threefold way mentioned above. He has taught the knowledge of the truth

according to the triple mode of theology - that is, the symbolic, the

literal, and the mystical - so that by the symbolic we may make proper use

of sensible things, by the literal we may properly use the intelligible,

and by the mystical we may be carried aloft to supermental levels.