Writings of Augustine. Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichæans.
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St. Augustin,
Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichæans.
[de natura boni contra manichæos].
circa A.D. 405.
translated by Albert H. Newman, D.D., LL.D.,
Professor of Church History and Comparative Religion, in Toronto
Baptist (Theological) College, Toronto, Canada.
Published in 1886 by Philip Schaff,
New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co.
In One Book.
Written after the year 404. It is put in the Retractations
immediately after the De Actis cum Felice Manichæo, which was written
about the end of the year 404. It is one of the most argumentative of
the Anti-Manichæan treatises, and so one of the most abstruse and
difficult. The lines of argument here pursued have already been
employed in part in the earlier treatises. The most interesting
portions of the contents of the treatise, and the most damaging to the
Manichæans, are the long extracts from Mani's Thesaurus, and his
Fundamental Epistle.--A.H.N.
Chapter 1.--God the Highest and Unchangeable Good, from Whom are All
Other Good Things, Spiritual and Corporeal.
The highest good, than which there is no higher, is God, and
consequently He is unchangeable good, hence truly eternal and truly
immortal. All other good things are only from Him, not of Him. For
what is of Him, is Himself. And consequently if He alone is
unchangeable, all things that He has made, because He has made them
out of nothing, are changeable. For He is so omnipotent, that even
out of nothing, that is out of what is absolutely non-existent, He is
able to make good things both great and small, both celestial and
terrestrial, both spiritual and corporeal. But because He is also
just, He has not put those things that He has made out of nothing on
an equality with that which He begat out of Himself. Because,
therefore, no good things whether great or small, through whatever
gradations of things, can exist except from God; but since every
nature, so far as it is nature, is good, it follows that no nature can
exist save from the most high and true God: because all things even
not in the highest degree good, but related to the highest good, and
again, because all good things, even those of most recent origin,
which are far from the highest good, can have their existence only
from the highest good. Therefore every spirit, though subject to
change, and every corporeal entity, is from God, and all this, having
been made, is nature. For every nature is either spirit or body.
Unchangeable spirit is God, changeable spirit, having been made, is
nature, but is better than body; but body is not spirit, unless when
the wind, because it is invisible to us and yet its power is felt as
something not inconsiderable, is in a certain sense called spirit.
Chapter 2.--How This May Suffice for Correcting the Manichæans.
But for the sake of those who, not being able to understand that all
nature, that is, every spirit and every body, is naturally good, are
moved by the iniquity of spirit and the mortality of body, and on this
account endeavor to bring in another nature of wicked spirit and
mortal body, which God did not make, we determine thus to bring to
their understanding what we say can be brought. For they acknowledge
that no good thing can exist save from the highest and true God, which
also is true and suffices for correcting them, if they are willing to
give heed.
Chapter 3.--Measure, Form, and Order, Generic Goods in Things Made by
God.
For we Catholic Christians worship God, from whom are all good things
whether great or small; from whom is all measure great or small; from
whom is all form great or small; from whom is all order great or
small. For all things in proportion as they are better measured,
formed, and ordered, are assuredly good in a higher degree; but in
proportion as they are measured, formed, and ordered in an inferior
degree, are they the less good. These three things, therefore,
measure, form, and order,--not to speak of innumerable other things
that are shown to pertain to these three,--these three things,
therefore, measure, form, order, are as it were generic goods in
things made by God, whether in spirit or in body. God is, therefore,
above every measure of the creature, above every form, above every
order, nor is He above by local spaces, but by ineffable and singular
potency, from whom is every measure, every form, every order. These
three things, where they are great, are great goods, where they are
small, are small goods; where they are absent, there is no good. And
again where these things are great, there are great natures, where
they are small, there are small natures, where they are absent, there
is no nature. Therefore all nature is good.
Chapter 4.--Evil is Corruption of Measure, Form, or Order.
When accordingly it is inquired, whence is evil, it must first be
inquired, what is evil, which is nothing else than corruption, either
of the measure, or the form, or the order, that belong to nature.
Nature therefore which has been corrupted, is called evil, for
assuredly when incorrupt it is good; but even when corrupt, so far as
it is nature it is good, so far as it is corrupted it is evil.
Chapter 5.--The Corrupted Nature of a More Excellent Order Sometimes
Better Than an Inferior Nature Even Uncorrupted.
But it may happen, that a certain nature which has been ranked as more
excellent by reason of natural measure and form, though corrupt, is
even yet better than another incorrupt which has been ranked lower by
reason of an inferior natural measure and form: as in the estimation
of men, according to the quality which presents itself to view,
corrupt gold is assuredly better than incorrupt silver, and corrupt
silver than incorrupt lead; so also in more powerful spiritual natures
a rational spirit even corrupted through an evil will is better than
an irrational though incorrupt, and better is any spirit whatever even
corrupt than any body whatever though incorrupt. For better is a
nature which, when it is present in a body, furnishes it with life,
than that to which life is furnished. But however corrupt may be the
spirit of life that has been made, it can furnish life to a body, and
hence, though corrupt, it is better than the body though incorrupt.
Chapter 6.--Nature Which Cannot Be Corrupted is the Highest Good; That
Which Can, is Some Good.
But if corruption take away all measure, all form, all order from
corruptible things, no nature will remain. And consequently every
nature which cannot be corrupted is the highest good, as is God. But
every nature that can be corrupted is also itself some good; for
corruption cannot injure it, except by taking away from or diminishing
that which is good.
Chapter 7.--The Corruption of Rational Spirits is on the One Hand
Voluntary, on the Other Penal.
But to the most excellent creatures, that is, to rational spirits, God
has offered this, that if they will not they cannot be corrupted; that
is, if they should maintain obedience under the Lord their God, so
should they adhere to his incorruptible beauty; but if they do not
will to maintain obedience, since willingly they are corrupted in
sins, unwillingly they shall be corrupted in punishment, since God is
such a good that it is well for no one who deserts Him, and among the
things made by God the rational nature is so great a good, that there
is no good by which it may be blessed except God. Sinners, therefore,
are ordained to punishment; which ordination is punishment for the
reason that it is not conformable to their nature, but it is justice
because it is conformable to their fault.
Chapter 8.--From the Corruption and Destruction of Inferior Things is
the Beauty of the Universe.
But the rest of things that are made of nothing, which are assuredly
inferior to the rational soul, can be neither blessed nor miserable.
But because in proportion to their fashion and appearance are things
themselves good, nor could there be good things in a less or the least
degree except from God, they are so ordered that the more infirm yield
to the firmer, the weaker to the stronger, the more impotent to the
more powerful; and so earthly things harmonize with celestial, as
being subject to the things that are pre-eminent. But to things
falling away, and succeeding, a certain temporal beauty in its kind
belongs, so that neither those things that die, or cease to be what
they were, degrade or disturb the fashion and appearance and order of
the universal creation; as a speech well composed is assuredly
beautiful, although in it syllables and all sounds rush past as it
were in being born and in dying.
Chapter 9.--Punishment is Constituted for the Sinning Nature that It
May Be Rightly Ordered.
What sort of punishment, and how great, is due to each fault, belongs
to Divine judgment, not to human; which punishment assuredly when it
is remitted in the case of the converted, there is great goodness on
the part of God, and when it is deservedly inflicted, there is no
injustice on the part of God; because nature is better ordered by
justly smarting under punishment than by rejoicing with impunity in
sin; which nature nevertheless, even thus having some measure, form,
and order, in whatever extremity there is as yet some good, which
things, if they were absolutely taken away, and utterly consumed,
there will be accordingly no good, because no nature will remain.
Chapter 10.--Natures Corruptible, Because Made of Nothing.
All corruptible natures therefore are natures at all only so far as
they are from God, nor would they be corruptible if they were of Him;
because they would be what He himself is. Therefore of whatever
measure, of whatever form, of whatever order, they are, they are so
because it is God by whom they were made; but they are not immutable,
because it is nothing of which they were made. For it is sacrilegious
audacity to make nothing and God equal, as when we wish to make what
has been born of God such as what has been made by Him out of nothing.
Chapter 11.--God Cannot Suffer Harm, Nor Can Any Other Nature Except
by His Permission.
Wherefore neither can God's nature suffer harm, nor can any nature
under God suffer harm unjustly: for when by sinning unjustly some do
harm, an unjust will is imputed to them; but the power by which they
are permitted to do harm is from God alone, who knows, while they
themselves are ignorant, what they ought to suffer, whom He permits
them to harm.
Chapter 12.--All Good Things are from God Alone.
All these things are so perspicuous, so assured, that if they who
introduce another nature which God did not make, were willing to give
attention, they would not be filled with so great blasphemies, as that
they should place so great good things in supreme evil, and so great
evil things in God. For what the truth compels them to acknowledge,
namely, that all good things are from God alone, suffices for their
correction, if they were willing to give heed, as I said above. Not,
therefore, are great good things from one, and small good things from
another; but good things great and small are from the supremely good
alone, which is God.
Chapter 13.--Individual Good Things, Whether Small or Great, are from
God.
Let us, therefore, bring before our minds good things however great,
which it is fitting that we attribute to God as their author, and
these having been eliminated let us see whether any nature will
remain. All life both great and small, all power great and small, all
safety great and small, all memory great and small, all virtue great
and small, all intellect great and small, all tranquillity great and
small, all plenty great and small, all sensation great and small, all
light great and small, all suavity [1086] great and small, all measure
great and small, all beauty great and small, all peace great and
small, and whatever other like things may occur, especially such as
are found throughout all things, whether spiritual or corporeal, every
measure, every form, every order both great and small, are from the
Lord God. All which good things whoever should wish to abuse, pays
the penalty by divine judgment; but where none of these things shall
have been present at all, no nature will remain.
Footnotes
[1086] Or sanity, according to another reading.--A.H.N.
Chapter 14.--Small Good Things in Comparison with Greater are Called
by Contrary Names.
But in all these things, whatever are small are called by contrary
names in comparison with greater things; as in the form of a man
because the beauty is greater, the beauty of the ape in comparison
with it is called deformity. And the imprudent are deceived, as if
the former is good, and the latter evil, nor do they regard in the
body of the ape its own fashion, the equality of members on both
sides, the agreement of parts, the protection of safety, and other
things which it would be tedious to enumerate.
Chapter 15.--In the Body of the Ape the Good of Beauty is Present,
Though in a Less Degree.
But that what we have said may be understood, and may satisfy those
too slow of comprehension, or that even the pertinacious and those
repugnant to the most manifest truth may be compelled to confess what
is true, let them be asked, whether corruption can harm the body of an
ape? But if it can, so that it may become more hideous, what
diminishes but the good of beauty? Whence as long as the nature of
the body subsists, so long something will remain. If, accordingly,
good having been consumed, nature is consumed, the nature is therefore
good. So also we say that slow is contrary to swift, but yet he who
does not move at all cannot even be called slow. So we say that a
heavy voice is contrary to a sharp voice, or a harsh to a musical; but
if you completely remove any kind of voice, there is silence where
there is no voice, which silence, nevertheless, for the simple reason
that there is no voice, is usually opposed to voice as something
contrary thereto. So also lucid and obscure are called as it were two
contrary things, yet even obscure things have something of light,
which being absolutely wanting, darkness is the absence of light in
the same way in which silence is the absence of voice.
Chapter 16.--Privations in Things are Fittingly Ordered by God.
Yet even these privations of things are so ordered in the universe of
nature, that to those wisely considering they not unfittingly have
their vicissitudes. For by not illuminating certain places and times,
God has also made the darkness as fittingly as the day. For if we by
restraining the voice fittingly interpose silence in speaking, how
much more does He, as the perfect framer of all things, fittingly make
privations of things? Whence also in the hymn of the three children,
light and darkness alike praise God, [1087] that is, bring forth
praise in the hearts of those who well consider.
Footnotes
[1087] Dan. iii. 72.
Chapter 17.--Nature, in as Far as It is Nature, No Evil.
No nature, therefore, as far as it is nature, is evil; but to each
nature there is no evil except to be diminished in respect of good.
But if by being diminished it should be consumed so that there is no
good, no nature would be left; not only such as the Manichæans
introduce, where so great good things are found that their exceeding
blindness is wonderful, but such as any one can introduce.
Chapter 18.--Hyle, Which Was Called by the Ancients the Formless
Material of Things, is Not an Evil.
For neither is that material, which the ancients called Hyle, to be
called an evil. I do not say that which Manichæus with most senseless
vanity, not knowing what he says, denominates Hyle, namely, the former
of corporeal beings; whence it is rightly said to him, that he
introduces another god. For nobody can form and create corporeal
beings but God alone; for neither are they created unless there
subsist with them measure, form, and order, which I think that now
even they themselves confess to be good things, and things that cannot
be except from God. But by Hyle I mean a certain material absolutely
formless and without quality, whence those qualities that we perceive
are formed, as the ancients said. For hence also wood is called in
Greek hule, because it is adapted to workmen, not that itself may make
anything, but that it is the material of which something may be made.
Nor is that Hyle, therefore, to be called an evil which cannot be
perceived through any appearance, but can scarcely be thought of
through any sort of privation of appearance. For this has also a
capacity of forms; for if it cannot receive the form imposed by the
workman, neither assuredly may it be called material. Hence if form
is some good, whence those who excel in it are called beautiful,
[1088] as from appearance they are called handsome, [1089] even the
capacity of form is undoubtedly something good. As because wisdom is
a good, no one doubts that to be capable of wisdom is a good. And
because every good is from God, no one ought to doubt that even
matter, if there is any, has its existence from God alone.
Footnotes
[1088] Forma--formosus.
[1089] Species--speciosus.
Chapter 19.--To Have True Existence is an Exclusive Prerogative of
God.
Magnificently and divinely, therefore, our God said to his servant:
"I am that I am," and "Thou shalt say to the children of Israel, He
who is sent me to you." [1090]For He truly is because He is
unchangeable. For every change makes what was not, to be: therefore
He truly is, who is unchangeable; but all other things that were made
by Him have received being from Him each in its own measure. To Him
who is highest, therefore nothing can be contrary, save what is not;
and consequently as from Him everything that is good has its being, so
from Him is everything that by nature exists; since everything that
exists by nature is good. Thus every nature is good, and everything
good is from God; therefore every nature is from God.
Footnotes
[1090] Ex. iii. 14.
Chapter 20.--Pain Only in Good Natures.
But pain which some suppose to be in an especial manner an evil,
whether it be in mind or in body, cannot exist except in good
natures. For the very fact of resistance in any being leading to
pain, involves a refusal not to be what it was, because it was
something good; but when a being is compelled to something better, the
pain is useful, when to something worse, it is useless. Therefore in
the case of the mind, the will resisting a greater power causes pain;
in the case of the body, sensation resisting a more powerful body
causes pain. But evils without pain are worse: for it is worse to
rejoice iniquity than to bewail corruption; yet even such rejoicing
cannot exist save from the attainment of inferior good things. But
iniquity is the desertion of better things. Likewise in a body, a
wound with pain is better than painless putrescence, which is
especially called the corruption which the dead flesh of the Lord did
not see, that is, did not suffer, as was predicted in prophecy: "Thou
shall not suffer Thy Holy one to see corruption." [1091]For who
denies that He was wounded by the piercing of the nails, and that He
was stabbed with the lance? [1092]But even what is properly called
by men corporeal corruption, that is, putrescence itself, if as yet
there is anything left to consume, increases by the diminution of the
good. But if corruption shall have absolutely consumed it, so that
there is no good, no nature will remain, for there will be nothing
that corruption may corrupt; and so there will not even be
putrescence, for there will be nowhere at all for it to be.
Footnotes
[1091] Ps. xvi. 10.
[1092] John xix. 18, 34.
Chapter 21.--From Measure Things are Said to Be Moderate-Sized. [1093]
Therefore now by common usage things small and mean are said to have
measure, because some measure remains in them, without which they
would no longer be moderate-sized, but would not exist at all. But
those things that by reason of too much progress are called
immoderate, are blamed for very excessiveness; but yet it is necessary
that those things themselves be restrained in some manner under God
who has disposed all things in extension, number, and weight. [1094]
Footnotes
[1093] Modus, modica.
[1094] Wisd. xi. 21.
Chapter 22.--Measure in Some Sense is Suitable to God Himself.
But God cannot be said to have measure, lest He should seem to be
spoken of as limited. Yet He is not immoderate by whom measure is
bestowed upon all things, so that they may in any measure exist. Nor
again ought God to be called measured, as if He received measure from
any one. But if we say that He is the highest measure, by chance we
say something; if indeed in speaking of the highest measure we mean
the highest good. For every measure in so far as it is a measure is
good; whence nothing can be called measured, modest, modified, without
praise, although in another sense we use measure for limit, and speak
of no measure where there is no limit, which is sometimes said with
praise as when it is said: "And of His kingdom there shall be no
limit." [1095]For it might also be said, "There shall be no
measure," so that measure might be used in the sense of limit; for He
who reigns in no measure, assuredly does not reign at all.
Footnotes
[1095] Luke i. 33.
Chapter 23.--Whence a Bad Measure, a Bad Form, a Bad Order May
Sometimes Be Spoken of.
Therefore a bad measure, a bad form, a bad order, are either so called
because they are less than they should be, or because they are not
adapted to those things to which they should be adapted; so that they
may be called bad as being alien and incongruous; as if any one should
be said not to have done in a good measure because he has done less
than he ought, or because he has done in such a thing as he ought not
to have done, or more than was fitting, or not conveniently; so that
the very fact of that being reprehended which is done in a bad
measure, is justly reprehended for no other cause than that the
measure is not there maintained. Likewise a form is called bad either
in comparison with something more handsome or more beautiful, this
form being less, that greater, not in size but in comeliness; or
because it is out of harmony with the thing to which it is applied, so
that it seems alien and unsuitable. As if a man should walk forth
into a public place naked, which nakedness does not offend if seen in
a bath. Likewise also order is called bad when order itself is
maintained in an inferior degree. Hence not order, but rather
disorder, is bad; since either the ordering is less than it should be,
or not as it should be. Yet where there is any measure, any form, any
order, there is some good and some nature; but where there is no
measure, no form, no order, there is no good, no nature.
Chapter 24.--It is Proved by the Testimonies of Scripture that God is
Unchangeable. The Son of God Begotten, Not Made.
Those things which our faith holds and which reason in whatever way
has traced out, are fortified by the testimonies of the divine
Scriptures, so that those who by reason of feebler intellect are not
able to comprehend these things, may believe the divine authority, and
so may deserve to know. But let not those who understand, but are
less instructed in ecclesiastical literature, suppose that we set
forth these things from our own intellect rather than what are in
those Books. Accordingly, that God is unchangeable is written in the
Psalms: "Thou shalt change them and they shall be changed; but Thou
thyself art the same." [1096]And in the book of Wisdom, concerning
wisdom: "Remaining in herself, she renews all things." [1097]
Whence also the Apostle Paul: "To the invisible, incorruptible, only
God." [1098]And the Apostle James: "Every best giving and every
perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of light, with
whom there is no changeableness, neither obscuring of influence."
[1099]Likewise because what He begat of Himself is what He Himself
is, it is said in brief by the Son Himself: "I and the Father are
one." [1100]But because the Son was not made, since through Him
were all things made, thus it is written: "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word; this was in the
beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him
was made nothing;" [1101] that is, without Him was not anything made.
Footnotes
[1096] Ps. cii. 27.
[1097] Wisd. vii. 27.
[1098] 1 Tim. i. 17.
[1099] James i. 17.
[1100] John x. 30.
[1101] John i. 1-3.
Chapter 25.--This Last Expression Misunderstood by Some.
For no attention should be paid to the ravings of men who think that
nothing should be understood to mean something, and moreover think to
compel any one to vanity of this kind on the ground that nothing is
placed at the end of the sentence. Therefore, they say, it was made,
and because it was made, nothing is itself something. They have lost
their senses by zeal in contradicting, and do not understand that it
makes no difference whether it be said: "Without Him was made
nothing," or "without Him nothing was made." For even if the order
were the last mentioned, they could nevertheless say, that nothing is
itself something because it was made. For in the case of what is in
truth something, what difference does it make if it be said "Without
him a house was made," so long as it is understood that something was
made without him, which something is a house? So also because it is
said: "Without Him was made nothing," since nothing is assuredly not
anything, when it is truly and properly spoken, it makes no difference
whether it be said: "Without Him was made nothing or Without Him
nothing was made," or "nothing was made." But who cares to speak with
men who can say of this very expression of mine "It makes no
difference," "Therefore it makes some difference, for nothing itself
is something?" But those whose brains are not addled, see it as a
thing most manifest that this something is to be understood when it
says "It makes no difference," as when I say "It matters in no
respect." But these, if they should say to any one, "What hast thou
done?" and he should reply that he has done nothing, would, according
to this mode of disputation, falsely accuse him saying, "Thou hast
done something, therefore, because thou hast done nothing; for nothing
is itself something." But they have also the Lord Himself placing
this word at the end of a sentence, when He says: "And in secret have
I spoken nothing." [1102]Let them read, therefore, and be silent.
[1103]
Footnotes
[1102] John xviii. 20.
[1103] It is difficult for us to understand why Augustin should have
thought it worth while to refute so elaborately an argument so
puerile. But it is his way to be prolix in such matters.--A.H.N.
Chapter 26.--That Creatures are Made of Nothing.
Because therefore God made all things which He did not beget of
Himself, not of those things that already existed, but of those things
that did not exist at all, that is, of nothing," the Apostle Paul
says: "Who calls the things that are not as if they are." [1104]
But still more plainly it is written in the book of Maccabees: "I
pray thee, son, look at the heaven and the earth and all the things
that are in them; see and know that it was not these of which the Lord
God made us." [1105]And from this that is written in the Psalm:
"He spake, and they were made." [1106]It is manifest, that not of
Himself He begat these things, but that He made them by word and
command. But what is not of Himself is assuredly of nothing. For
there was not anything of which he should make them, concerning which
the apostle says most openly: "For from Him, and through Him, and in
Him are all things." [1107]
Footnotes
[1104] Rom. iv. 17.
[1105] 2 Mac. vii. 28.
[1106] Ps. cxlviii. 5.
[1107] Rom. xi. 36.
Chapter 27.--"From Him" And "Of Him" Do Not Mean The Same Thing.
But "from Him" does not mean the same as "of Him." [1108]For what
is of Him may be said to be from Him; but not everything that is from
Him is rightly said to be of Him. For from Him are heaven and earth,
because He made them; but not of Him because they are not of His
substance. As in the case of a man who begets a son and makes a
house, from himself is the son, from himself is the house, but the son
is of him, the house is of earth and wood. But this is so, because as
a man he cannot make something even of nothing; but God of whom are
all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things, had
no need of any material which He had not made to assist His
omnipotence.
Footnotes
[1108] Ex ipso and de ipso.
Chapter 28.--Sin Not From God, But From The Will of Those Sinning.
But when we hear: "All things are from Him, and through Him, and in
Him," we ought assuredly to understand all natures which naturally
exist. For sins, which do not preserve but vitiate nature, are not
from Him; which sins, Holy Scripture in many ways testifies, are from
the will of those sinning, especially in the passage where the apostle
says: "But dost thou suppose this, O man, that judgest those who do
such things, and doest them, that thou shall escape the judgment of
God? Or dost thou despise the riches of His goodness, and patience,
and long-suffering, not knowing that the patience of God leadeth thee
to repentance? But according to the hardness of thy heart and thy
impenitent heart, thou treasurest up for thyself wrath against the day
of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will
render unto every one according to his works." [1109]
Footnotes
[1109] Rom. ii. 3-6.
Chapter 29.--That God is Not Defiled by Our Sins.
And yet, though all things that He established are in Him, those who
sin do not defile Him, of whose wisdom it is said: "She touches all
things by reason of her purity, and nothing defiled assails her."
[1110]For it behooves us to believe that as God is incorruptible
and unchangeable, so also is He consequently undefilable.
Footnotes
[1110] Wisd. vii. 24, 25.
Chapter 30.--That Good Things, Even the Least, and Those that are
Earthly, are by God.
But that God made even the least things, that is, earthly and mortal
things, must undoubtedly be understood from that passage of the
apostle, where, speaking of the members of our flesh: "For if one
member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it, and if one
member suffers, all the members suffer with it;" also this he then
says: "God has placed the members each one of them in the body as he
willed;" and "God has tempered the body, giving to that to which it
was wanting greater honor, that there should be no schism in the body,
but that the members should have the same care one for another."
[1111]But what the apostle thus praises in the measure and form and
order of the members of the flesh, you find in the flesh of all
animals, alike the greatest and the least; for all flesh is among
earthly goods, and consequently is esteemed among the least.
Footnotes
[1111] 1 Cor. xii. 26, 18, 24, 25.
Chapter 31.--To Punish and to Forgive Sins Belong Equally to God.
Likewise because it belongs to divine judgment, not human, what sort
of punishment and how great is due to every fault, it is thus
written: "O the height of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God! how inscrutable are His judgments and his ways past finding
out!" [1112]Likewise because by the goodness of God sins are
forgiven to the converted, the very fact that Christ was sent
sufficiently shows, who not in His own nature as God, but in our
nature, which He assumed from a woman, died for us; which goodness of
God with reference to us, and which love of God, the apostle thus sets
forth: "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were
yet sinners Christ died for us; much more now being justified in His
blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much
more being reconciled we shall be saved in His life." [1113]But
because even when due punishment is rendered to sinners, there is no
unrighteousness on God's part, he thus says: "What shall we say? Is
God unrighteous who visiteth with wrath?" [1114]But in one place he
has briefly admonished that goodness and severity are alike from Him,
saying: "Thou seest then the goodness and severity of God; toward
them that have fallen, severity, but towards thee goodness, if thou
shouldst continue in goodness." [1115]
Footnotes
[1112] Rom. xi. 33.
[1113] Rom. v. 8-10.
[1114] Ibid. iii. 5.
[1115] Ibid. xi. 22.
Chapter 32.--From God Also is the Very Power to Be Hurtful.
Likewise because the power even of those that are hurtful is from God
alone, thus it stands written, Wisdom speaking: "Through me kings
reign and tyrants hold the land through me." [1116]The apostle also
says: "For there is no power but of God." [1117]But that it is
worthily done is written in the book of Job: "Who maketh to reign a
man that is a hypocrite, on account of the perversity of the people."
[1118]And concerning the people of Israel God says: "I gave them a
king in my wrath." [1119]For it is not unrighteous, that the wicked
receiving the power of being hurtful, both the patience of the good
should be proved and the iniquity of the evil punished. For through
power given to the Devil both Job was proved so that he might appear
righteous, [1120] and Peter was tempted lest he should be
presumptuous, [1121] and Paul was buffeted lest he should be exalted,
[1122] and Judas was damned so that he should hang himself. [1123]
When, therefore, through the power which He has given the Devil, God
Himself shall have done all things righteously, nevertheless
punishment shall at last be rendered to the Devil not for these things
justly done, but for the unrighteous willing to be hurtful, which
belonged to himself, when it shall be said to the impious who
persevered in consenting to his wickedness, "Go ye into everlasting
fire which my God has prepared for the Devil and his angels." [1124]
Footnotes
[1116] Prov. viii. 15.
[1117] Rom. xiii. 1.
[1118] Job xxxiv. 30. Compare the Revised English Version. The sense
seems to be completely missed in Augustin's text.--A.H.N.
[1119] Hos. xiii. 11.
[1120] Job i. and ii.
[1121] Matt. xxvi. 31-35, 69-75.
[1122] 2 Cor. xii. 7.
[1123] Matt. xxvii. 5.
[1124] Matt. xxv. 41.
Chapter 33.--That Evil Angels Have Been Made Evil, Not by God, But by
Sinning.
But because evil angels also were not constituted evil by God, but
were made evil by sinning, Peter in his epistle says: "For if God
spared not angels when they sinned, but casting them down into the
dungeons of smoky hell, He delivered them to be reserved for
punishment in judgment." [1125]Hence Peter shows that there is
still due to them the penalty of the last judgment, concerning which
the Lord says: "Go ye into everlasting fire, which has been prepared
for the Devil and his angels." Although they have already penally
received this hell, that is, an inferior smoky air as a prison, which
nevertheless since it is also called heaven, is not that heaven in
which there are stars, but this lower heaven by the smoke of which the
clouds are conglobulated, and where the birds fly; for both a cloudy
heaven is spoken of, and flying things are called heavenly. As when
the Apostle Paul calls those evil angels, against whom as enemies by
living piously we contend, "spiritual things of wickedness in heavenly
places." [1126]That this may not be understood of the upper
heavens, he plainly says elsewhere: "According to the presence of the
prince of this air, who now worketh in the sons of disobedience."
[1127]
Footnotes
[1125] 2 Pet. ii. 4.
[1126] Eph. vi. 12.
[1127] Ibid. ii. 2.
Chapter 34.--That Sin is Not the Striving for an Evil Nature, But the
Desertion of a Better.
Likewise because sin, or unrighteousness, is not the striving after
evil nature but the desertion of better, it is thus found written in
the Scriptures: "Every creature of God is good." [1128]And
accordingly every tree also which God planted in Paradise is assuredly
good. Man did not therefore strive after an evil nature when he
touched the forbidden tree; but by deserting what was better, he
committed an evil deed. Since the Creator is better than any creature
which He has made, His command should not have been deserted, that the
thing forbidden, however good, might be touched; since the better
having been deserted, the good of the creature was striven for, which
was touched contrary to the command of the Creator. God did not plant
an evil tree in Paradise; but He Himself was better who prohibited its
being touched.
Footnotes
[1128] 1 Tim. iv. 4.
Chapter 35.--The Tree Was Forbidden to Adam Not Because It Was Evil,
But Because It Was Good for Man to Be Subject to God.
For besides, He had made the prohibition, in order to show that the
nature of the rational soul ought not to be in its own power, but in
subjection to God, and that it guards the order of its salvation
through obedience, corrupting it through disobedience. Hence also He
called the tree, the touching of which He forbade, the tree "of the
knowledge of good and evil;" [1129] because when man should have
touched it in the face of the prohibition, he would experience the
penalty of sin, and so would know the difference between the good of
obedience, and the evil of disobedience.
Footnotes
[1129] Gen. ii. 9.
Chapter 36.--No Creature of God is Evil, But to Abuse a Creature of
God is Evil.
For who is so foolish as to think a creature of God, especially one
planted in Paradise, blameworthy; when indeed not even thorns and
thistles, which the earth brought forth, according to the judiciary
judgment of God, for wearing out the sinner in labor, should be
blamed? For even such herbs have their measure and form and order,
which whoever considers soberly will find praiseworthy; but they are
evil to that nature which ought thus to be restrained as a recompense
for sin. Therefore, as I have said, sin is not the striving after an
evil nature, but the desertion of a better, and so the deed itself is
evil, not the nature which the sinner uses amiss. For it is evil to
use amiss that which is good. Whence the apostle reproves certain
ones as condemned by divine judgment, "Who have worshipped and served
the creature more than the Creator." [1130]He does not reprove the
creature, which he who should do would act injuriously towards the
Creator, but those who, deserting the better, have used amiss the
good.
Footnotes
[1130] Rom. i. 25.
Chapter 37.--God Makes Good Use of the Evil Deeds of Sinners.
Accordingly, if all natures should guard their own proper measure and
form and order, there would be no evil: but if any one should wish to
misuse these good things, not even thus does he vanquish the will of
God, who knows how to order righteously even the unrighteous; so that
if they themselves through the iniquity of their will should misuse
His good things, He through the righteousness of His power may use
their evil deeds, rightly ordaining to punishment those who have
perversely ordained themselves to sins.
Chapter 38.--Eternal Fire Torturing the Wicked, Not Evil.
For neither is eternal fire itself, which is to torture the impious,
an evil nature, since it has its measure, its form and its order
depraved by no iniquity; but it is an evil torture for the damned, to
whose sins it is due. For neither is yonder light, because it
tortures the blear-eyed, an evil nature.
Chapter 39.--Fire is Called Eternal, Not as God Is, But Because
Without End.
But fire is eternal, not as God is eternal, because, though without
end, yet is not without beginning; but God is also without beginning.
Then, although it may be employed perpetually for the punishment of
sinners, yet it is mutable nature. But that is true eternity which is
true immortality, that is that highest immutability, which cannot be
changed at all. For it is one thing not to suffer change, when change
is possible, and another thing to be absolutely incapable of change.
Therefore, just as man is called good, yet not as God, of whom it was
said, "There is none good save God alone;" [1131] and just as the soul
is called immortal, yet not as God, of whom it was said, "Who alone
hath immortality;" [1132] and just as a man is called wise, yet not as
God, of whom it was said, "To God the only wise;" [1133] so fire is
called eternal, yet not as God, whose alone is immortality itself and
true eternity.
Footnotes
[1131] Mark. x. 18.
[1132] 1 Tim. vi. 16.
[1133] Rom. xvi. 27.
Chapter 40.--Neither Can God Suffer Hurt, Nor Any Other, Save by the
Just Ordination of God.
Since these things are so, according to the Catholic faith, and
wholesome doctrine, and truth perspicuous to those of good
understanding, neither can any one hurt the nature of God, nor can the
nature of God unrighteously hurt any one, or suffer any one to do hurt
with impunity. "For he that doeth hurt shall receive," says the
apostle, "according to the hurt that he has done; and there is no
accepting of persons with God." [1134]
Footnotes
[1134] Col. iii. 25.
Chapter 41.--How Great Good Things the Manichæans Put in the Nature of
Evil, and How Great Evil Things in the Nature of Good.
But if the Manichæans were willing, without pernicious zeal for
defending their error, and with the fear of God, to think, they would
not most criminally blaspheme by supposing two natures, the one good,
which they call God, the other evil, which God did not make: so
erring, so delirious, nay so insane, are they that they do not see,
that even in what they call the nature of supreme evil they place so
great good things: life, power, safety, memory, intellect,
temperance, virtue, plenty, sense, light, suavity, extensions,
numbers, peace, measure, form, order; but in what they call supreme
good, so many evil things: death, sickness, forgetfulness,
foolishness, confusion, impotence, need, stolidity, blindness, pain,
unrighteousness, disgrace, war, intemperance, deformity, perversity.
For they say that the princes of darkness also have been alive in
their own nature, and in their own kingdom were safe, and remembered
and understood. For they say that the Prince of Darkness harangued in
such a manner, that neither could he have said such things, nor could
he have been heard by those by whom he was said to have been heard,
without memory and understanding; and to have had a temper suitable to
his mind and body, and to have ruled by virtue of power, and to have
had abundance and fruitfulness with respect to his elements, and they
are said to have perceived themselves mutually and the light as near
at hand, and to have had eyes by which they could see the light afar
off; which eyes assuredly could not have seen the light without some
light (whence also they are rightly called light); and they are said
to have enjoyed exceedingly the sweetness of their pleasures, and to
have been determined by measured members and dwelling-places. But
unless there had been some sort of beauty there, they would not have
loved their wives, nor would their bodies have been steady by
adaptation of parts; without which, those things could not have been
done there which the Manichæans insanely say were done. And unless
some peace had been there, they would not have obeyed their Prince.
Unless measure had been there, they would have done nothing else than
eat or drink, or rage, or whatever they might have done, without any
society: although not even those that did these things would have had
determinate forms, unless measure had been there. But now the
Manichæans say that they did such things that they cannot be denied to
have had in all their actions measures suitable to themselves. But if
form had not been there, no natural quality would have there
subsisted. But if there had been no order there, some would not have
ruled, others been ruled; they would not have lived harmoniously in
their element; in fine, they would not have had their members adapted
to their places, so that they could not do all those things that the
Manichæans vainly fable. But if they say that God's nature does not
die, what according to their vanity does Christ raise from the dead?
If they say that it does not grow sick, what does He cure? If they
say that it is not subject to forgetfulness, what does He remind? If
they say that it is not deficient in wisdom, what does He teach? If
they say that it is not confused, what does He restore? If they say
that it was not vanquished and taken captive, what does He liberate?
If they say that it was not in need, to what does He minister aid? If
they say that it did not lose feeling, what does He animate? If they
say that it has not been blinded, what does He illuminate? If it is
not in pain, to what does He give relief? If it is not unrighteous,
what does He correct through precepts? If it is not in disgrace, what
does He cleanse? If it is not in war, to what does He promise peace?
If it is not deficient in moderation, upon what does He impose the
measure of law? If it is not deformed, what does He reform? If it is
not perverse, what does He emend? For all these things done by
Christ, they say, are to be attributed not to that thing which was
made by God, and which has become depraved by its own free choice in
sinning, but to the very nature, yea to the very substance of God,
which is what God Himself is.
Chapter 42.--Manichæan Blasphemies Concerning the Nature of God.
What can be compared to those blasphemies? Absolutely nothing, unless
the errors of other sectaries be considered; but if that error be
compared with itself in another aspect, of which we have not yet
spoken, it will be convicted of far worse and more execrable
blasphemy. For they say that some souls, which they will have to be
of the substance of God and of absolutely the same nature, which have
not sinned of their own accord, but have been overcome and oppressed
by the race of darkness, which they call evil, for combating which
they descended not of their own accord, but at the command of the
Father, are fettered forever in the horrible sphere of darkness. So
according to their sacrilegious vaporings, God liberated Himself in a
certain part from a great evil, but again condemned Himself in another
part, which He could not liberate, and triumphed over the enemy itself
as if it had been vanquished from above. O criminal, incredible
audacity, to believe, to speak, to proclaim such things about God!
Which when they endeavor to defend, that with their eyes shut they may
rush headlong into yet worse things, they say that the commingling of
the evil nature does these things, in order that the good nature of
God may suffer so great evils: for that this good nature in its own
sphere could or can suffer no one of these things. As if a nature
were lauded as incorruptible, because it does not hurt itself, and not
because it cannot suffer hurt from another. Then if the nature of God
hurt the nature of darkness, and the nature of darkness hurt the
nature of God, there are therefore two evil things which hurt each
other in turn, and the race of darkness was the better disposed,
because if it committed hurt it did it unwillingly; for it did not
wish to commit hurt, but to enjoy the good which belonged to God. But
God wished to extinguish it, as Manichæus most openly raves forth in
his epistle of the ruinous Foundation. For forgetting that he had
shortly before said: "But His most resplendent realms were so founded
upon the shining and happy land, that they could never be either moved
or shaken by any one;" he afterwards said: "But the Father of the
most blessed light, knowing that great ruin and desolation which would
arise from the darkness, threaten his holy worlds, unless he should
send in opposition a deity excellent and renowned, mighty in strength,
by whom he might at the same time overcome and destroy the race of
darkness, which having been extinguished, the inhabitants of light
would enjoy perpetual rest." Behold, he feared ruin and desolation
that threatened his worlds! Assuredly they were so founded upon the
shining and happy land that they never could be either moved or shaken
by any one? Behold, from fear he wished to hurt the neighboring race,
which he endeavored to destroy and extinguish, in order that the
inhabitants of light might enjoy perpetual rest. Why did he not add,
and perpetual bondage? Were not these souls that he fettered forever
in the sphere of darkness, the inhabitants of light, of whom he says
plainly, that "they have suffered themselves to err from their former
bright nature?" when against his will he is compelled to say, that
they sinned by free will, while he wishes to ascribe sin only to the
necessity of the contrary nature: everywhere ignorant what to say,
and as if he were himself already in the sphere of darkness which he
invented, seeking, and not finding, how he may escape. But let him
say what he will to the seduced and miserable men by whom he is
honored far more highly than Christ, that at this price he may sell to
them such long and sacrilegious fables. Let him say what he will, let
him shut up, as it were, in a sphere, as in a prison, the race of
darkness, and let him fasten outside the nature of light, to which he
promised perpetual rest on the extinction of the enemy: behold, the
penalty of light is worse than that of darkness; the penalty of the
divine nature is worse than that of the adverse race. But since
although the latter is in the midst of darkness it pertains to its
nature to dwell in darkness; but souls which are the very same thing
that God is, cannot be received, he says, into those peaceful realms,
and are alienated from the life and liberty of the holy light, and are
fettered in the aforesaid horrible sphere: whence he says, "Those
souls shall adhere to the things that they have loved, having been
left in the same sphere of darkness, bringing this upon themselves by
their own deserts." Is not this assuredly free voluntary choice? See
how insanely he ignores what he says, and by making self-contradictory
statements wages a worse war against himself than against the God of
the race of darkness itself. Accordingly, if the souls of light are
damned, because they loved darkness, the race of darkness, which loved
light, is unjustly damned. And the race of darkness indeed loved
light from the beginning, violently, it may be, but yet so as to wish
for its possession, not its extinction: but the nature of light
wished to extinguish in war the darkness; therefore when vanquished it
loved darkness. Choose which you will: whether it was compelled by
necessity to love darkness, or seduced by free will. If by necessity,
wherefore is it damned? if by free will, wherefore is the nature of
God involved in so great iniquity? If the nature of God was compelled
by necessity to love darkness, it did not vanquish, but was
vanquished: if by free will, why do the wretches hesitate any longer
to attribute the will to sin to the nature which God made out of
nothing, lest they should thereby attribute it to the light which He
begat?
Chapter 43.--Many Evils Before His Commingling with Evil are
Attributed to the Nature of God by the Manichæans.
What if we should also show that before the commingling of evil, which
stupid fable they have most madly believed, great evils were in what
they call the nature of light? what will it seem possible to add to
these blasphemies? For before the conflict, there was the hard and
inevitable necessity of fighting: here is truly a great evil, before
evil is commingled with good. Let them say whence this is, when as
yet no commingling had taken place? But if there was no necessity,
there was therefore free will: whence also this so great evil, that
God himself should wish to hurt his own nature, which could not be
hurt by the enemy, by sending it to be cruelly commingled, to be
basely purged, to be unjustly damned? Behold, the great evil of a
pernicious, noxious, and savage will, before any evil from the
contrary nature was mingled with it! Or perchance he did not know
that this would happen to his members, that they should love darkness
and become hostile to holy light, as Manichæus says, that is, not only
to their own God, but also to the Father from whom they had their
being? Whence therefore this so great evil of ignorance, before any
evil from the nature of darkness was mingled with it? But if he knew
that this would happen, either there was in him everlasting cruelty,
if he did not grieve over the contamination and damnation of his own
nature that was to take place, or everlasting misery, if he did so
grieve: whence also this so great evil of your supreme good before
any commingling with your supreme evil? Assuredly that part of the
nature itself which was fettered in the eternal chain of that sphere,
if it knew not that this fate awaited it, even so was there
everlasting ignorance in the nature of God, but if it knew, then
everlasting misery: whence this so great evil before any evil from
the contrary nature was commingled? Or perchance did it, in the
greatness of its love (charity), rejoice that through its punishment
perpetual rest was prepared for the residue of the inhabitants of
light? Let him who sees how abominable it is to say this, pronounce
an anathema. But if this should be done so that at least the good
nature itself should not become hostile to the light, it might be
possible, perchance, not for the nature of God indeed, but for some
man, as it were, to be regarded as praiseworthy, who for the sake of
his country should be willing to suffer something of evil, which evil
indeed could be only for a time, and not forever: but now also they
speak of that fettering in the sphere of darkness as eternal, and not
indeed of a certain thing but of the nature of God; and assuredly it
were a most unrighteous, and execrable, and ineffably sacrilegious
joy, if the nature of God rejoiced that it should love darkness, and
should become hostile to holy light. Whence this so monstrous and
abominable evil before any evil from the contrary nature was
commingled? Who can endure insanity so perverse and so impious, as to
attribute so great good things to supreme evil, and so great evils to
supreme good, which is God?
Chapter 44.--Incredible Turpitudes in God Imagined by Manichæus.
But now when they speak of that part of the nature of God as
everywhere mixed up in heaven, in earth, in all bodies dry and moist,
in all sorts of flesh, in all seeds of trees, herbs, men, and
animals: not as present by the power of divinity, for administering
and ruling all things, undefilably, inviolably, incorruptibly, without
any connection with them, which we say of God; but fettered,
oppressed, polluted, to be loosed and liberated, as they say, not only
through the running to and fro of the sun and the moon, and through
the powers of light, but also through their Elect: what sacrilegious
and incredible turpitudes this kind of error recommends to them even
if it does not induce them to accept, it is horrible to speak of. For
they say that the powers of light are transformed into beautiful males
and are set over against the women of the race of darkness; and that
the same powers again are transformed into beautiful females and are
set over against the males of the race of darkness; that through their
beauty they enkindle the foulest lust of the princes of darkness, and
in this manner vital substance, that is, the nature of God, which they
say is held fettered in their bodies, having been loosed from their
members relaxed through lust, flies away, and when it has been taken
up or cleansed, is liberated. This the wretches read, this they say,
this they hear, this they believe, this they put as follows, in the
seventh book of their Thesaurus (for so they call a certain writing of
Manichæus, in which these blasphemies stand written): "Then the
blessed Father, who has bright ships, little apartments,
dwelling-places, or magnitudes, according to his indwelling clemency,
brings the help by which he is drawn out and liberated from the
impious bonds, straits, and torments of his vital substance. And so
by his own invisible nod he transforms those powers of his, which are
held in this most brilliant ship, and makes them to bring forth
adverse powers, which have been arranged in the various tracts of the
heavens. Since these consist of both sexes, male and female, he
orders the aforesaid powers to bring forth partly in the form of
beardless youths, for the adverse race of females, partly in the form
of bright maidens, for the contrary race of males: knowing that all
these hostile powers on account of the deadly and most foul lust
innate in them, are very easily taken captive, delivered up to these
most beautiful forms which appear, and in this manner they are
dissolved. But you may know that this same blessed Father of ours is
identical with his powers, which for a necessary reason he transforms
into the undefiled likeness of youths and maidens. But these he uses
as his own arms, and through them he accomplishes his will. But there
are bright ships full of these divine powers, which are stationed
after the likeness of marriage over against the infernal races, and
who with alacrity and ease effect at the very moment what they have
planned. Therefore, when reason demands that these same holy powers
should appear to males, straightway also they show by their dress the
likeness of most beautiful maidens. Again when females are to be
dealt with, putting aside the forms of maidens, they show the forms of
beardless youths. But by this handsome appearance of theirs, ardor
and lust increase, and in this way the chain of their worst thoughts
is loosed, and the living soul which was held by their members,
relaxed by this occasion escapes, and is mingled with its own most
pure air; when the souls thoroughly cleansed ascend to the bright
ships, which have been prepared for conveying them and for ferrying
them over to their own country. But that which still bears the stains
of the adverse race, descends little by little through billows and
fires, and is mingled with trees and other plants and with all seeds,
and is plunged into divers fires. And in what manner the figures of
youths and maidens from that great and most glorious ship appear to
the contrary powers which live in the heavens and have a fiery nature;
and from that handsome appearance, part of the life which is held in
their members having been released is conducted away through fires
into the earth: in the same manner also, that most high power, which
dwells in the ship of vital waters appears in the likeness of youths
and holy maidens to those powers whose nature is cold and moist, and
which are arranged in the heavens. And indeed to those that are
females, among these the form of youths appears, but to the males, the
form of maidens. By his changing and diversity of divine and most
beautiful persons, the princes male and female of the moist and cold
race are loosed, and what is vital in them escapes; but whatever
should remain, having been relaxed, is conducted into the earth
through cold, and is mingled with all the races of darkness" Who can
endure this? Who can believe, not indeed that it is true, but that it
could even be said? Behold those who fear to anathematize Manichæus
teaching these things, and do not fear to believe in a God doing them
and suffering them!
Chapter 45.--Certain Unspeakable Turpitudes Believed, Not Without
Reason, Concerning the Manichæans Themselves.
But they say, that through their own Elect that same commingled part
and nature of God is purged, by eating and drinking forsooth, (because
they say that it is held fettered in all foods); that when they are
taken up by the Elect for the nourishment of the body in eating and
drinking, it is loosed, sealed, and liberated through their sanctity.
Nor do the wretches pay heed to the fact that this is believed about
them not without good reason, and they deny it in vain, so long as
they do not anathematize the books of Manichæus and cease to be
Manichæans. For if, as they say, a part of God is fettered in all
seeds, and is purged by eating on the part of the Elect; who may not
properly believe, that they do what they read in the Thesaurus was
done among the powers of heaven and the princes of darkness; since
indeed they say that their flesh is also from the race of darkness,
and since they do not hesitate to believe and to affirm that the vital
substance fettered in them is a part of God? Which assuredly if it is
to be loosed, and purged by eating, as their lamentable error compels
them to acknowledge; who does not see, who does not shudder at the
greatness and the unspeakableness of what follows?
Chapter 46.--The Unspeakable Doctrine of the Fundamental Epistle.
For they even say that Adam, the first man, was created by certain
princes of darkness so that the light might be held by them lest it
should escape. For in the epistle which they call Fundamental,
Manichæus wrote as follows respecting the way in which the Prince of
Darkness, whom they represent as the father of the first man, spoke to
the rest of his allied princes of darkness, and how he acted:
"Therefore with wicked inventions he said to those present: What does
this huge light that is rising seem to you to be? See how the pole
moves, how it shakes most of the powers. Wherefore it is right for me
rather to ask you beforehand for whatever light you have in your
powers: since thus I will form an image of that great one who has
appeared in his glory, through which we may be able to rule, freed in
some measure from the conversation of darkness. Hearing these things,
and deliberating for a long time among themselves, they thought it
most just to furnish what was demanded of them. For they did not have
confidence in being able to retain the light that they had forever;
hence they thought it better to offer it to their Prince, by no means
without hope that in this way they would rule. It must be considered
therefore how they furnished the light that they had. For this also
is scattered throughout all the divine scriptures and the heavenly
secrets; but to the wise it is easy enough to know how it was given:
for it is known immediately and openly by him who should truly and
faithfully wish to consider. Since there was a promiscuous throng of
those who had come together, females and males of course, he impelled
them to copulate among themselves: in which copulation the males
emitted seed, the females were made pregnant. But the offspring were
like those who had begotten them, the first obtaining as it were the
largest portion of the parents' strength. Taking these as a special
gift their Prince rejoiced. And just as even now we see take place,
that the nature of evil taking thence strength forms the fashioner of
bodies, so also the aforesaid Prince, taking the offspring of his
companions, which had the senses of their parents, sagacity, light,
procreated at the same time with themselves in the process of
generation, devoured them; and very many powers having been taken from
food of this kind, in which there was present not only fortitude, but
much more astuteness and depraved sensibilities from the ferocious
race of the progenitors, he called his own spouse to himself,
springing from the same stock as himself, emitted, like the rest the
abundance of evils that he had devoured, himself also adding something
from his own thought and power, so that his disposition became the
former and arranger of all the things that he had poured forth; whose
consort received these things as soil cultivated in the best way is
accustomed to receive seed. For in her were constructed and woven
together the images of all heavenly and earthly powers, so that what
was formed obtained the likeness, so to speak, of a full orb."
Chapter 47.--He Compels to the Perpetration of Horrible Turpitudes.
O abominable monster! O execrable perdition and ruin of deluded
souls! I am not speaking of the blasphemy of saying these things
about the nature of God which is thus fettered. Let the wretches
deluded and hunted by deadly error give heed to this at least, that if
a part of their God is fettered by the copulation of males and females
which they profess to loose and purge by eating it, the necessity of
this unspeakable error compels them not only to loose and purge the
part of God from bread and vegetables and fruits, which alone they are
seen publicly to partake of, but also from that which might be
fettered through copulation, if conception should take place. That
they do this some are said to have confessed before a public tribunal,
not only in Paphlagonia, but also in Gaul, as I heard in Rome from a
certain Catholic Christian; and when they were asked by the authority
of what writing they did these things, they betrayed this fact
concerning the Thesaurus that I have just mentioned. But when this is
cast in their teeth, they are in the habit of replying, that some
enemy or other has withdrawn from their number, that is from the
number of their Elect, and has made a schism, and has founded a most
foul heresy of this kind. Whence it is manifest that even if they do
not themselves practise this thing, some who do practise it do it on
the basis of their books. Therefore let them reject the books, if
they abhor the crime, which they are compelled to commit, if they hold
to the books; or if they do not commit them, they endeavor in
opposition to the books to live more purely. But what do they do when
it is said to them, either purge the light from whatever seeds you
can, so that you cannot refuse to do that which you assert that you do
not do; or else anathematize Manichæus, when he says that a part of
God is in all seeds, and that it is fettered by copulation, but that
whatever of light, that is, of the aforesaid part of God, should
become the food of the Elect, is purged by being eaten. Do you see
what he compels you to believe, and do you still hesitate to
anathematize him? What do they do, I say, when this is said to them?
To what subterfuges do they betake themselves, when either so
nefarious a doctrine is to be anathematized, or so nefarious a
turpitude committed, in comparison with which all those intolerable
evils to which I have already called attention, seem tolerable,
namely, that they say of the nature of God that it was pressed by
necessity to wage war, that it was either secure by everlasting
ignorance, or was disturbed by everlasting grief and fear, when the
corruption of commingling and the chain of everlasting damnation
should come upon it, that finally as a result of the conflict it
should be taken captive, oppressed, polluted, that after a false
victory it should be fettered forever in a horrible sphere and
separated from its original blessedness, while if considered in
themselves they cannot be endured?
Chapter 48.--Augustin Prays that the Manichæans May Be Restored to
Their Senses.
O great is Thy patience, Lord, full of compassion and gracious, slow
to anger, and plenteous in mercy, and true; [1135] who makest Thy sun
to rise upon the good and the evil, and who sendest rain upon the just
and the unjust; [1136] who willest not the death of the sinner, so
much as that he return and live; [1137] who reproving in parts, dost
give place to repentance, that wickedness having been abandoned, they
may believe on Thee, O Lord; [1138] who by Thy patience dost lead to
repentance, although many according to the hardness of their heart and
their impenitent heart treasure up for themselves wrath against the
day of wrath and of the revelation of Thy righteous judgment, who wilt
render to every man according to his works; [1139] who in the day when
a man shall have turned from his iniquity to Thy mercy and truth, wilt
forget all his iniquities: [1140]stand before us, grant unto us
that through our ministry, by which Thou hast been pleased to refute
this execrable and too horrible error, as many have already been
liberated, many also may be liberated, and whether through the
sacrament of Thy holy baptism, or through the sacrifice of a broken
spirit and a contrite and humbled heart, [1141] in the sorrow of
repentance, they may deserve to receive the remission of their sins
and blasphemies, by which through ignorance they have offended Thee.
For nothing is of any avail, save Thy surpassing mercy and power, and
the truth of Thy baptism, and the keys of the kingdom of heaven in Thy
holy Church; so that we must not despair of men as long as by Thy
patience they live on this earth, who even knowing how great an evil
it is to think or to say such things about Thee, are detained in that
malign profession on account of the use or the attainment of temporal
or earthly convenience, if rebuked by Thy reproaches they in any way
flee to Thy ineffable goodness, and prefer to all the enticements of
the carnal life, the heavenly and eternal life.
Footnotes
[1135] Ps. ciii. 8.
[1136] Matt. v. 45.
[1137] Ezek. xxxiii. 11.
[1138] Wisd. xii. 2.
[1139] Rom. ii. 4-6.
[1140] Ezek. xviii. 21.
[1141] Ps. li. 17.
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