# Paradise Canto  7

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

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> 
> Canto VII
> 
> Argument
> 
>      In consequence of what had been said by Justinian, who together with the
> other spirits has now disappeared, some doubts arise in the mind of Dante
> respecting the human redemption. These difficulties are fully explained by
> Beatrice.
> 
> "Hosanna[1] Sanctus Deus Sabaoth,
> Superillustrans claritate tua
> Felices ignes horum malahoth."
> Thus chanting saw I turn that substance bright,[2]
> With fourfold lustre to its orb again,
> Revolving; and the rest, unto their dance,
> With it, moved also; and, like swiftest sparks,
> In sudden distance from my sight were veil'd.
> 
> [1: "Hosanna." "Hosanna holy God of Sabaoth, abundantly illumining
> with thy brightness the blessed fires of these kingdoms."]
> 
> [2: Justinian.]
> 
> Me doubt possess'd; and "Speak," it wispher'd me,
> "Speak, speak unto thy lady; that she quench
> Thy thirst with drops of sweetness." Yet blank awe,
> Which lords it o'er me, even at the sound
> Of Beatrice's name, did bow me down
> As one in slumber held. Not long that mood
> Beatrice suffer'd; she, with such a smile,
> As might have made one blest amid the flames,[3]
> Beaming upon me, thus her words began:
> "Thou in thy thought art pondering (as I deem,
> And what I deem is truth) how just revenge
> Could be with justice punish'd: from which doubt
> I soon will free thee; so thou mark my words;
> For they of weighty matter shall possess thee.
> Through suffering not a curb upon the power
> That will'd in him, to his own profiting,
> That man, who was unborn,[4] condemn'd himself;
> 
> [3: So Giusto de' Conti.]
> 
> [4: Adam.]
> 
> And, in himself, all, who since him have lived,
> His offspring: whence, below, the human kind
> Lay sick in grievous error many an age;
> Until it pleased the Word of God to come
> Amongst them down, to His own person joining
> The nature from its Maker far estranged,
> By the mere act of His eternal love.
> Contemplate here the wonder I unfold:
> The nature with its Maker thus conjoin'd,
> Created first was blameless, pure and good;
> But, through itself alone, was driven forth
> From Paradise, because it had eschew'd
> The way of truth and life, to evil turn'd.
> Ne'er then was penalty so just as that
> Inflicted by the Cross, if thou regard
> The nature in assumption doom'd; ne'er wrong
> So great, in reference to Him, who took
> Such nature on Him, and endured the doom.
> So different effects[5] flow'd from one act:
> For by one death God and the Jews were pleased;
> And Heaven was open'd, though the earth did quake.
> Count it not hard henceforth, when thou dost hear
> That a just vengeance[6] was, by righteous court,
> Justly revenged. But yet I see thy mind,
> By thought on thought arising, sore perplex'd;
> And, with how vehement desire, it asks
> Solution of the maze. What I have heard,
> Is plain, thou sayst: but wherefore God this way
> For our redemption chose, eludes my search.
> 
> [5: The death of Christ was pleasing to God, inasmuch as it satisfied
> the divine justice; and to the Jews, because it gratified their malignity; and
> while Heaven opened for joy at man's ransom, the earth trembled through
> compassion for its Maker.]
> 
> [6: The punishment of Christ by the Jews, although just as far as
> regarded the human nature assumed by Him, and so a righteous vengeance of sin,
> yet being unjust as regards the divine nature, was itself justly revenged on
> the Jews by the destruction of Jerusalem.]
> 
> "Brother! no eye of man not perfected,
> Nor fully ripen'd in the flame of love,
> May fathom this decree. It is a mark,
> In sooth, much aim'd at, and but little kenn'd:
> And I will therefore show thee why such way
> 
> Was worthiest. The celestial Love, that spurns
> All envying in its bounty, in itself
> With such effulgence blazeth, as sends forth
> All beauteous things eternal. What distils
> Immediate thence, no end of being knows;
> Bearing its seal immutably imprest.
> Whatever thence immediate falls, is free,
> Free wholly, uncontrollable by power
> Of each thing new: by such conformity
> More grateful to its Author, whose bright beams,
> Though all partake their shining, yet in those
> Are liveliest, which resemble Him the most.
> These tokens of pre - eminence[7] on man
> Largely bestow'd, if any of them fail,
> He needs must forfeit his nobility,
> No longer stainless. Sin alone is that,
> Which doth disfranchise him, and make unlike
> To the Chief Good; for that its light in him
> Is darken'd. And to dignity thus lost
> Is no return; unless, where guilt makes void,
> He for ill pleasure pay with equal pain.
> Your nature, which entirely in its seed
> Transgress'd, from these distinctions fell, no less
> Than from its state in Paradise; nor means
> Found of recovery (search all methods out
> As strictly as thou may) save one of these,
> The only fords were left through which to wade:
> Either, that God had of His courtesy
> Released him merely; or else, man himself
> For his own folly by himself atoned.
> 
> [7: The before - mentioned gifts of immediate creation by God,
> independence on secondary causes, and consequent similitude and agreeableness
> to the Divine Being, all at first conferred on man.]
> 
> "Fix now thine eye, intently as thou canst,
> On the everlasting counsel; and explore,
> Instructed by my words, the dread abyss.
> 
> "Man in himself had ever lack'd the means
> Of satisfaction, for he could not stoop
> Obeying, in humility so low,
> As high, he, disobeying, thought to soar:
> 
> And, for this reason, he had vainly tried,
> Out of his own sufficiency to pay
> The rigid satisfaction. Then behoved
> That God should by His own ways lead him back
> Unto the life, from whence he fell, restored;
> By both His ways, I mean, or one alone.[8]
> But since the deed is ever prized the more,
> The more the doer's good intent appears;
> Goodness celestial, whose broad signature
> Is on the universe, of all its ways
> To raise ye up, was fain to leave out none.
> Nor aught so vast or so magnificent,
> Either for Him who gave or who received,
> Between the last night and the primal day,
> Was or can be. For God more bounty show'd,
> Giving Himself to make man capable
> Of his return to life, than had the terms
> Been mere and unconditional release.
> And for His justice, every method else
> Were all too scant, had not the Son of God
> Humbled Himself to put on mortal flesh.
> 
> [8: Either by mercy and justice united or by mercy alone.]
> 
> "Now, to content thee fully, I revert;
> And further in some part[9] unfold my speech,
> That thou mayst see it clearly as myself.
> 
> [9: She reverts to that part of her discourse where she had said that
> what proceeds immediately from God "no end of being knows." She then proceeds
> to tell him that the elements, which, though he knew them to be created, he
> yet saw dissolved, received their form not immediately from God, but from a
> virtue or power created by God; that the soul of brutes and plants is in like
> manner drawn forth by the stars with a combination of those elements meetly
> tempered. "di complession potenziata"; but that the angels and the heavens may
> be said to be created in that very manner in which they exist, without any
> intervention of agency.]
> 
> "I see, thou sayst, the air, the fire I see,
> The earth and water, and all things of them
> Compounded, to corruption turn, and soon
> Dissolve. Yet these were also things create.
> Because, if what were told me, had been true,
> They from corruption had been therefore free.
> 
> "The Angels, O my brother! and this clime
> Wherein thou art, impassable and pure,
> I call created, even as they are
> 
> In their whole being. But the elements,
> Which thou hast named, and what of them is made,
> Are by created virtue inform'd: create,
> Their substance; and create, the informing virtue
> In these bright stars, that round them circling move.
> The soul of every brute and of each plant,
> The ray and motion of the sacred lights,
> Draw from complexion with meet power endued.
> But this our life the Eternal Good inspires
> Immediate, and enamours of itself;
> So that our wishes rest for ever here.
> 
> "And hence thou mayst by inference conclude
> Our resurrection certain, if thy mind
> Consider how the human flesh was framed,
> When both our parents at the first were made."
>
> — *Paradise Canto  7*