de Waerheyt is so ghy, en
Ghy zijt de Waerheyt so.
ll. 11-12. As lightning, or a Tapers light
Thine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd mee.
'A sodain light brought into a room doth awaken some men; but yet a noise does it better.' Sermons 50. 38. 344.
'A candle wakes some men as well as a noise.' Sermons 80. 61. 617.
ll. 15-16. But when I saw thou sawest my heart,
And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an Angels art.
Modern editors, by removing the comma after 'thoughts', have altered the sense of these lines. It is not that she could read his thoughts better than an angel, but that she could read them at all, a power which is not granted to Angels.
St. Thomas (Summa Theol. Quaest. lvii. Art. 4) discusses 'Utrum angeli cognoscant cogitationes cordium', and concludes, 'Cognoscunt Angeli cordium cogitationes in suis effectibus: ut autem in se ipsis sunt, Deo tantum sunt naturaliter cognitae.' Angels may read our thoughts by subtler signs than our words and acts, or even those changes of countenance and pulsation which we note in each other, 'quanto subtilius huiusmodi immutationes occultas corporales perpendunt.' But to know them as they are in the intellect and will belongs only to God, to whom only the freedom of the human will is subject, and a man's thoughts are subject to his will. 'Manifestum est autem, quod ex sola voluntate dependet, quod aliquis actu aliqua consideret; quia cum aliquis habet habitum scientiae, vel species intelligibiles in eo existentes, utitur eis cum vult. Et ideo dicit Apostolus I Corinth. secundo: quod quae sunt hominis, nemo novit nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est.'