The Twofold Knowledge and the Eye of the Heart

The light of God is perceived at once, providing sight and enlightening it. To those who are blind and do not know Him when He rises, He grants even more: to have the eyes of the mind and to perceive the light. In this way, the covenant is not suddenly released; rather, if someone today makes himself worthy to be the son of the One who possesses and is an heir, then it is revealed to him. 'My eyes are continually toward the Lord' (Ps 25:15). Since 'the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous' (Ps 34:15), it is necessary that the righteous also have their eyes continually toward Him.

They do not see Him at all times, but sometimes they see one of the forbidden things; for just as 'no one can serve two masters' (Matt 6:24), so no one can have his eyes toward God and toward evil or the maker of evil first. God is a spiritual essence seen by the eyes of the intellect. When the eyes of the intellect are stretched toward Him alone, they see nothing else. And the physical hands are not able to see when we see God, just as one serving God is not able to serve Mammon.

And regarding 'is not able' I say this: he is not able to do justice while he is doing injustice; for I do not say as I say 'it is not possible for a man to fly,' but rather that as far as he is righteous, he is not able toward sin, and when he is a sinner, he is not able toward virtue. 'My eyes' therefore 'are continually toward the Lord' (Ps 25:15). I always see Him. And he who sees God does not sin; 'everyone who sins has not seen Him nor known Him' (1 John 3:6). And behold the piety of the saints; even if he himself chooses to direct his eyes toward the Lord, it is evident that he is not sinning; the achievement of sinlessness is inscribed by God: 'since my eyes are continually toward Him' (Ps 25:15), because of this I escape the snare which sin prepares; for 'He Himself will rescue my feet from the snare' (Ps 124:7).

I searched for some of the ancients, which is a fine thing to say, that sometimes the eye is named in the singular of the inner man, and sometimes in the plural. In the Song of Songs, for instance, it is said: 'You have made us one from your eyes' (Song 6:9). 'My eye brought forth tears.' 'My eye was troubled from my spirit.' But in the plural: 'I lifted up my eyes to the mountains' (Song 6:4); and in the present verse: 'my eyes...'

Because of all things toward the Lord. And 'having been enlightened the eyes of the heart' (Eph 1:18). We have a twofold knowledge; for then it is knowledge of truth, when the form of each thing being known is received into itself.

The works of God are both visible and invisible; and from the greatness of these and from their beauty, the one who constructed them is perceived. And our mind is an eye seeing the invisible, the pure heart, which also sees God. And we also have the sense of eyes. And if it applies to the visible works of God in this way, as they were constructed and possess nature, it is healthy. But when, I say, seeing the sun we think it is God himself, seeing the heavenly arrangement we regard as mere idle chatter, this eye does not see correctly; for it was necessary 'that the invisible things of God be seen through the works of the creation of the world' (Rom 1:20).

The invisible things of God are seen then, when we apply our sight to the visible creations of God and thus from the creation of this sensible world we see clearly the invisible things of God. We are not able to see the arts and the sciences in the minds of men except when the mind is invisible. And from the constructed works or scientific contemplations we receive the sense of the mind, according to what science or art has made it. Primarily, therefore, one perceives the science of the mechanic; he who is able to receive the principles of mechanical constructions into his own intellect. Similarly also regarding others; we call that one a physician who knows medical matters as they ought to be, as the science dictates.

When, therefore, someone sees the invisible as it ought to be—and by 'as it ought to be' I say, as it is possible—and sees also the invisible creations of God, of which the human soul is also a creation, he has this eye seeing toward God and pure through all things. When he also correctly perceives the sensible creations and the providence concerning them, he has the sensory desire—not this I mean the one of the body, but the intellect of the sensibles, the visible—succeeding, and thus he has the eyes toward the Lord through all things.

As a slave speaks. And a slave is the one serving God, who both in disposition and in deed confesses the lordship, 'he who does the will of the Father in the heavens' (Matt 7:21). 'Because he himself will drag the feet out of the snare' (Ps 91:3).