Writings of Augustine. The Confessions of St. Augustin
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The Confessions of St. Augustin
St. Aurelius Augustin, Bishop of Hippo
In Thirteen Books
Translated and Annotated by J.G. Pilkington, M.A.,
Vicar of St. Mark's, West Hackney; And Sometime
Clerical Secretary of the Bishop of London's Fund.
Published in 1886 by Philip Schaff,
New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co.
.
Book XI.
The design of his confessions being declared, he seeks from God the
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and begins to expound the words of
Genesis I. I, concerning the creation of the world. The questions of
rash disputers being refuted, "What did God before he created the
world?" That he might the better overcome his opponents, he adds a
copious disquisition concerning time.
Chapter I.--By Confession He Desires to Stimulate Towards God His Own
Love and That of His Readers.
1. O Lord, since eternity is Thine, art Thou ignorant of the things
which I say unto Thee? Or seest Thou at the time that which cometh to
pass in time? Why, therefore, do I place before Thee so many relations
of things? Not surely that Thou mightest know them through me, but
that I may awaken my own love and that of my readers towards Thee,
that we may all say, "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised."
[999] I have already said, and shall say, for the love of Thy love do
I this. For we also pray, and yet Truth says, "Your Father knoweth
what things ye have need of before ye ask Him." [1000] Therefore do we
make known unto Thee our love, in confessing unto Thee our own
miseries and Thy mercies upon us, that Thou mayest free us altogether,
since Thou hast begun, that we may cease to be wretched in ourselves,
and that we may be blessed in Thee; since Thou hast called us, that we
may be poor in spirit, and meek, and mourners, and hungering and
athirst after righteousness, and merciful, and pure in heart, and
peacemakers. [1001] Behold, I have told unto Thee many things, which I
could and which I would, for Thou first wouldest that I should confess
unto Thee, the Lord my God, for Thou art good, since Thy "mercy
endureth for ever." [1002]
Footnotes
[999] Ps. xcvi. 4. See note 3, page 45, above.
[1000] Matt. vi. 8.
[1001] Matt. v. 3-9.
[1002] Ps. cxviii. 1.
Chapter II.--He Begs of God that Through the Holy Scriptures He May Be
Led to Truth.
2. But when shall I suffice with the tongue of my pen to express all
Thy exhortations, and all Thy terrors, and comforts, and guidances,
whereby Thou hast led me to preach Thy Word and to dispense Thy
Sacrament [1003] unto Thy people? And if I suffice to utter these
things in order, the drops [1004] of time are dear to me. Long time
have I burned to meditate in Thy law, and in it to confess to Thee my
knowledge and ignorance, the beginning of Thine enlightening, and the
remains of my darkness, until infirmity be swallowed up by strength.
And I would not that to aught else those hours should flow away, which
I find free from the necessities of refreshing my body, and the care
of my mind, and of the service which we owe to men, and which, though
we owe not, even yet we pay. [1005]
3. O Lord my God, hear my prayer, and let Thy mercy regard my longing,
since it bums not for myself alone, but because it desires to benefit
brotherly charity; and Thou seest into my heart, that so it is. I
would sacrifice to Thee the service of my thought and tongue; and do
Thou give what I may offer unto Thee. For "I am poor and needy,"
[1006] Thou rich unto all that call upon Thee, [1007] who free from
care carest for us. Circumcise from all rashness and from all lying my
inward and outward lips. [1008] Let Thy Scriptures be my chaste
delights. Neither let me be deceived in them, nor deceive out of them.
[1009] Lord, hear and pity, O Lord my God, light of the blind, and
strength of the weak; even also light of those that see, and strength
of the strong, hearken unto my soul, and hear it crying "out of the
depths." [1010] For unless Thine ears be present in the depths also,
whither shall we go? whither shall we cry? "The day is Thine, and the
night also is Thine." [1011] At Thy nod the moments flee by. Grant
thereof space for our meditations amongst the hidden things of Thy
law, nor close it against us who knock. For not in vain hast Thou
willed that the obscure secret of so many pages should be written. Nor
is it that those forests have not their harts, [1012] betaking
themselves therein, and ranging, and walking, and feeding, lying down,
and ruminating. Perfect me, O Lord, and reveal them unto me. Behold,
Thy voice is my joy, Thy voice surpasseth the abundance of pleasures.
Give that which I love, for I do love; and this hast Thou given.
Abandon not Thine own gifts, nor despise Thy grass that thirsteth. Let
me confess unto Thee whatsoever I shall have found in Thy books, and
let me hear the voice of praise, and let me imbibe Thee, and reflect
on the wonderful things of Thy law; [1013] even from the beginning,
wherein Thou madest the heaven and the earth, unto the everlasting
kingdom of Thy holy city that is with Thee.
4. Lord, have mercy on me and hear my desire. For I think that it is
not of the earth, nor of gold and silver, and precious stones, nor
gorgeous apparel, nor honours and powers, nor the pleasures of the
flesh, nor necessaries for the body, and this life of our pilgrimage;
all which are added to those that seek Thy kingdom and Thy
righteousness. [1014] Behold, O Lord my God, whence is my desire. The
unrighteous have told me of delights, but not such as Thy law, O Lord.
[1015] Behold whence is my desire. Behold, Father, look and see, and
approve; and let it be pleasing in the sight of Thy mercy, that I may
find grace before Thee, that the secret things of Thy Word may be
opened unto me when I knock. [1016] I beseech, by our Lord Jesus
Christ, Thy Son, "the Man of Thy right hand, the Son of man, whom Thou
madest strong for Thyself," [1017] as Thy Mediator and ours, through
whom Thou hast sought us, although not seeking Thee, but didst seek us
that we might seek Thee, [1018] --Thy Word through whom Thou hast made
all things, [1019] and amongst them me also, Thy Only-begotten,
through whom Thou hast called to adoption the believing people, and
therein me also. I beseech Thee through Him, who sitteth at Thy right
hand, and "maketh intercession for us," [1020] "in whom are hid all
treasures of wisdom and knowledge." [1021] Him [1022] do I seek in Thy
books. Of Him did Moses write; [1023] this saith Himself; this saith
the Truth.
Footnotes
[1003] He very touchingly alludes in Serm. ccclv. 2 to the way in
which he was forced against his will (as was frequently the custom in
those days), first, to become a presbyter (A.D. 391), and, four years
later, coadjutor to Valerius, Bishop of Hippo (Ep. xxxi. 4, and Ep.
ccxiii. 4), whom on his death he succeeded. His own wish was to
establish a monastery, and to this end he sold his patrimony, "which
consisted of only a few small fields" (Ep. cxxvi. 7). He absolutely
dreaded to become a bishop, and as he knew his name was highly
esteemed in the Church, he avoided cities in which the see was vacant.
His former backsliding had made him humble; and he tells us in the
sermon above referred to, "Cavebam hoc, et agebam quantam poteram, ut
in loco humili salvarer ne in alto periclitarer." Augustin also
alludes to his ordination in Ep. xxi., addressed to Bishop Valerius.
[1004] "He alludes to the hour-glasses of his time, which went by
water, as ours do now by sand."--W. W.
[1005] Augustin, in common with other bishops, had his time much
invaded by those who sought his arbitration or judicial decision in
secular matters, and in his De Op. Monach. sec. 37, he says, what many
who have much mental toil will readily appreciate, that he would
rather have spent the time not occupied in prayer and the study of the
Scriptures in working with his hands, as did the monks, than have to
bear these tumultuosissimas perplexitates. In the year 426 we find him
(Ep. ccxiii) designating Eraclius, in public assembly, as his
successor in the see, and to relieve him (though, meanwhile, remaining
a presbyter) of these anxious duties. See vi. sec. 15, and note 1,
above; and also ibid. sec. 3.
[1006] Ps. lxxxvi. 1.
[1007] Rom. x. 12.
[1008] Ex. vi. 12.
[1009] Augustin is always careful to distinguish between the certain
truths of faith and doctrine which all may know, and the mysteries of
Scripture which all have not the ability equally to apprehend. "Among
the things," he says (De Doctr. Christ. ii. 14), "that are plainly
laid down in Scripture, are to be found all matters that concern
faith, and the manner of life." As to the Scriptures that are obscure,
he is slow to come to conclusions, lest he should "be deceived in them
or deceive out of them." In his De Gen. ad Lit. i. 37, he gives a
useful warning against forcing our own meaning on Scripture in
doubtful questions, and, ibid. viii. 5, we have the memorable words:
"Melius est dubitare de rebus occultis, quam litigare de incertis."
For examples of how careful he is in such matters not to go beyond
what is written, see his answer to the question raised by Evodius,--a
question which reminds us of certain modern speculations (see The
Unseen Universe, arts. 61, 201, etc.),--whether the soul on departing
from the body has not still a body of some kind, and at least some of
the senses proper to a body; and also (Ep. clxiv.) his endeavours to
unravel Evodius' difficulties as to Christ's preaching to the spirits
in prison (1 Pet. iii. 18-21). Similarly, he says, as to the
Antichrist of 2 Thess. ii. 1-7 (De Civ. Dei, xx. 19): "I frankly
confess I know not what he means. I will, nevertheless, mention such
conjectures as I have heard or read." See notes, pp. 64 and 92, above.
[1010] Ps. cxxx. 1.
[1011] Ps. lxxiv. 16.
[1012] Ps. xxix. 9. In his comment on this place as given in the Old
Version, "vox Domini perficientis cervos," he makes the forest with
its thick darkness to symbolize the mysteries of Scripture, where the
harts ruminating thereon represent the pious Christian meditating on
those mysteries (see vi. sec. 3, note, above). In this same passage he
speaks of those who are thus being perfected as overcoming the
poisoned tongues. This is an allusion to the fabled power the stags
had of enticing serpents from their holes by their breath, and then
destroying them. Augustin is very fond of this kind of fable from
natural history. In his Enarr. in Ps. cxxix. and cxli., we have
similar allusions to the supposed habits of stags; and, ibid. ci., we
have the well-known fable of the pelican in its charity reviving its
young, and feeding them with its own blood. This use of fables was
very common with the mediæval writers, and those familiar with the
writings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries will recall many
illustrations of it amongst the preachers of those days.
[1013] Ps. xxvi. 7.
[1014] Matt. vi. 33.
[1015] Ps. cxix. 85.
[1016] See p. 48, note 5, above.
[1017] Ps. lxxx. 17.
[1018] See note 9, p. 74, above.
[1019] John i. 3.
[1020] Rom. viii. 34.
[1021] Col. ii. 3.
[1022] Many mss., however, read ipsos, and not ipsum.
[1023] John v. 4-6.
Chapter III.--He Begins from the Creation of the World--Not
Understanding the Hebrew Text.
5. Let me hear and understand how in the beginning Thou didst make the
heaven and the earth. [1024] Moses wrote this; he wrote and
departed,--passed hence from Thee to Thee. Nor now is he before me;
for if he were I would hold him, and ask him, and would adjure him by
Thee that he would open unto me these things, and I would lend the
ears of my body to the sounds bursting forth from his mouth. And
should he speak in the Hebrew tongue, in vain would it beat on my
senses, nor would aught touch my mind; but if in Latin, I should know
what he said. But whence should I know whether he said what was true?
But if I knew this even, should I know it from him? Verily within me,
within in the chamber of my thought, Truth, neither Hebrew, [1025] nor
Greek, nor Latin, nor barbarian, without the organs of voice and
tongue, without the sound of syllables, would say, "He speaks the
truth," and I, forthwith assured of it, confidently would say unto
that man of Thine, "Thou speakest the truth." As, then, I cannot
inquire of him, I beseech Thee,--Thee, O Truth, full of whom he spake
truth,--Thee, my God, I beseech, forgive my sins; and do Thou, who
didst give to that Thy servant to speak these things, grant to me also
to understand them.
Footnotes
[1024] Gen. i. 1.
[1025] Augustin was not singular amongst the early Fathers in not
knowing Hebrew, for of the Greeks only Origen, and of the Latins
Jerome, knew anything of it. We find him confessing his ignorance both
here and elsewhere (Enarr. in Ps. cxxxvi. 7, and De Doctr. Christ. ii.
22); and though he recommends a knowledge of Hebrew as well as Greek,
to correct "the endless diversity of the Latin translators" (De Doctr.
Christ. ii. 16); he speaks as strongly as does Grinfield, in his
Apology for the Septuagint, in favour of the claims of that version to
"biblical and canonical authority" (Eps. xxviii., lxxi., and lxxv.; De
Civ. Dei, xviii. 42, 43; De Doctr. Christ. ii. 22). He discountenanced
Jerome's new translation, probably from fear of giving offence, and,
as we gather from Ep. lxxi. 5, not without cause. From the tumult he
there describes as ensuing upon Jerome's version being read, the
outcry would appear to have been as great as when, on the change of
the old style of reckoning to the new, the ignorant mob clamoured to
have back their eleven days!
Chapter IV.--Heaven and Earth Cry Out that They Have Been Created by
God.
6. Behold, the heaven and earth are; they proclaim that they were
made, for they are changed and varied. Whereas whatsoever hath not
been made, and yet hath being, hath nothing in it which there was not
before; this is what it is to be changed and varied. They also
proclaim that they made not themselves; "therefore we are, because we
have been made; we were not therefore before we were, so that we could
have made ourselves." And the voice of those that speak is in itself
an evidence. Thou, therefore, Lord, didst make these things; Thou who
art beautiful, for they are beautiful; Thou who art good, for they are
good; Thou who art, for they are. Nor even so are they beautiful, nor
good, nor are they, as Thou their Creator art; compared with whom they
are neither beautiful, nor good, nor are at all. [1026] These things
we know, thanks be to Thee. And our knowledge, compared with Thy
knowledge, is ignorance.
Footnotes
[1026] It was the doctrine of Aristotle that excellence of character
is the proper object of love, and in proportion as we recognise such
excellence in others are we attracted to become like them (see
Sidgwick's Methods of Ethics, book iv. c. 5, sec. 4). If this be true
of the creature, how much more should it be so of the Creator, who is
the perfection of all that we can conceive of goodness and truth.
Compare De Trin. viii. 3-6, De Vera Relig. 57, and an extract from
Athanese Coquerel in Archbishop Thomson's Bampton Lectures, note 73.
Chapter V.--God Created the World Not from Any Certain Matter, But in
His Own Word.
7. But how didst Thou make the heaven and the earth, and what was the
instrument of Thy so mighty work? For it was not as a human worker
fashioning body from body, according to the fancy of his mind, in
somewise able to assign a form which it perceives in itself by its
inner eye. [1027] And whence should he be able to do this, hadst not
Thou made that mind? And he assigns to it already existing, and as it
were having a being, a form, as clay, or stone, or wood, or gold, or
such like. And whence should these things be, hadst not Thou appointed
them? Thou didst make for the workman his body,--Thou the mind
commanding the limbs,--Thou the matter whereof he makes anything,
[1028] --Thou the capacity whereby he may apprehend his art, and see
within what he may do without,--Thou the sense of his body, by which,
as by an interpreter, he may from mind unto matter convey that which
he doeth, and report to his mind what may have been done, that it
within may consult the truth, presiding over itself, whether it be
well done. All these things praise Thee, the Creator of all. But how
dost Thou make them? How, O God, didst Thou make heaven and earth?
Truly, neither in the heaven nor in the earth didst Thou make heaven
and earth; nor in the air, nor in the waters, since these also belong
to the heaven and the earth; nor in the whole world didst Thou make
the whole world; because there was no place wherein it could be made
before it was made, that it might be; nor didst Thou hold anything in
Thy hand wherewith to make heaven and earth. For whence couldest Thou
have what Thou hadst not made, whereof to make anything? For what is,
save because Thou art? Therefore Thou didst speak and they were made,
[1029] and in Thy Word Thou madest these things. [1030]
Footnotes
[1027] See x. sec 40, note 6, and sec. 53, above.
[1028] That is, the artificer makes, God creates. The creation of
matter is distinctively a doctrine of revelation. The ancient
philosophers believed in the eternity of matter. As Lucretius puts it
(i. 51): "Nullam rem e nihilo gigni divinitus unquam." See Burton,
Bampton Lectures, lect. iii. and notes 18-21, and Mansel, Bampton
Lectures, lect. iii. note 12. See also p. 76, note 8, above, for the
Manichæan doctrine as to the hule; and The Unseen Universe, arts. 85,
86, 151, and 160, for the modern doctrine of "continuity." See also
Kalisch, Commentary on Gen. i. 1.
[1029] Ps. xxxiii. 9.
[1030] Ibid. ver. 6.
Chapter VI.--He Did Not, However, Create It by a Sounding and Passing
Word.
8. But how didst Thou speak? Was it in that manner in which the voice
came from the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved Son"? [1031] For that
voice was uttered and passed away, began and ended. The syllables
sounded and passed by, the second after the first, the third after the
second, and thence in order, until the last after the rest, and
silence after the last. Hence it is clear and plain that the motion of
a creature expressed it, itself temporal, obeying Thy Eternal will.
And these thy words formed at the time, the outer ear conveyed to the
intelligent mind, whose inner ear lay attentive to Thy eternal word.
But it compared these words sounding in time with Thy eternal word in
silence, and said, "It is different, very different. These words are
far beneath me, nor are they, since they flee and pass away; but the
Word of my Lord remaineth above me for ever." If, then, in sounding
and fleeting words Thou didst say that heaven and earth should be
made, and didst thus make heaven and earth, there was already a
corporeal creature before heaven and earth by whose temporal motions
that voice might take its course in time. But there was nothing
corporeal before heaven and earth; or if there were, certainly Thou
without a transitory voice hadst created that whence Thou wouldest
make the passing voice, by which to say that the heaven and the earth
should be made. For whatsoever that were of which such a voice was
made, unless it were made by Thee, it could not be at all. By what
word of Thine was it decreed that a body might be made, whereby these
words might be made?
Footnotes
[1031] Matt. xvii. 5.
Chapter VII.--By His Co-Eternal Word He Speaks, and All Things are
Done.
9. Thou callest us, therefore, to understand the Word, God with Thee,
God, [1032] which is spoken eternally, and by it are all things spoken
eternally. For what was spoken was not finished, and another spoken
until all were spoken; but all things at once and for ever. For
otherwise have we time and change, and not a true eternity, nor a true
immortality. This I know, O my God, and give thanks. I know, I confess
to Thee, O Lord, and whosoever is not unthankful to certain truth,
knows and blesses Thee with me. We know, O Lord, we know; since in
proportion as anything is not what it was, and is what it was not, in
that proportion does it die and arise. Not anything, therefore, of Thy
Word giveth place and cometh into place again, because it is truly
immortal and eternal. And, therefore, unto the Word co-eternal with
Thee, Thou dost at once and for ever say all that Thou dost say; and
whatever Thou sayest shall be made, is made; nor dost Thou make
otherwise than by speaking; yet all things are not made both together
and everlasting which Thou makest by speaking.
Footnotes
[1032] John i. 1.
Chapter VIII.--That Word Itself is the Beginning of All Things, in the
Which We are Instructed as to Evangelical Truth.
10. Why is this, I beseech Thee, O Lord my God? I see it, however; but
how I shall express it, I know not, unless that everything which
begins to be and ceases to be, then begins and ceases when in Thy
eternal Reason it is known that it ought to begin or cease where
nothing beginneth or ceaseth. The same is Thy Word, which is also "the
Beginning," because also It speaketh unto us. [1033] Thus, in the
gospel He speaketh through the flesh; and this sounded outwardly in
the ears of men, that it might be believed and sought inwardly, and
that it might be found in the eternal Truth, where the good and only
Master teacheth all His disciples. There, O Lord, I hear Thy voice,
the voice of one speaking unto me, since He speaketh unto us who
teacheth us. But He that teacheth us not, although He speaketh,
speaketh not to us. Moreover, who teacheth us, unless it be the
immutable Truth? For even when we are admonished through a changeable
creature, we are led to the Truth immutable. There we learn truly
while we stand and hear Him, and rejoice greatly "because of the
Bridegroom's voice," [1034] restoring us to that whence we are. And,
therefore, the Beginning, because unless It remained, there would not,
where we strayed, be whither to return. But when we return from error,
it is by knowing that we return. But that we may know, He teacheth us,
because He is the Beginning and speaketh unto us.
Footnotes
[1033] John viii. 25, Old Ver. Though some would read, Qui et
loquitur, making it correspond to the Vulgate, instead of Quia et
loquitur, as above, the latter is doubtless the correct reading, since
we find the text similarly quoted in Ev. Joh. Tract. xxxviii. 11,
where he enlarges on "The Beginning," comparing principium with arche.
It will assist to the understanding of this section to refer to the
early part of the note on p. 107, above, where the Platonic view of
the Logos, as endiathetos and prophorikos, or in the "bosom of the
Father" and "made flesh," is given; which terminology, as Dr. Newman
tells us (Arians, pt. i. c. 2, sec. 4), was accepted by the Church.
Augustin, consistently with this idea, says (on John viii. 25, as
above): "For if the Beginning, as it is in itself, had remained so
with the Father as not to receive the form of a servant and speak as
man with men, how could they have believed in Him, since their weak
hearts could not have heard the word intelligently without some voice
that would appeal to their senses? Therefore, said He, believe me to
be the Beginning; for that you may believe, I not only am, but also
speak to you." Newman, as quoted above, may be referred to for the
significance of arche as applied to the Son, and ibid. sec. 3, also,
on the "Word." For the difference between a mere "voice" and the
"Word," compare Aug. Serm. ccxciii. sec. 3, and Origen, In Joann. ii.
36.
[1034] John iii. 29.
Chapter IX.--Wisdom and the Beginning.
11. In this Beginning, O God, hast Thou made heaven and earth,--in Thy
Word, in Thy Son, in Thy Power, in Thy Wisdom, in Thy Truth,
wondrously speaking and wondrously making. Who shall comprehend? who
shall relate it? What is that which shines through me, and strikes my
heart without injury, and I both shudder and burn? I shudder inasmuch
as I am unlike it; and I burn inasmuch as I am like it. It is Wisdom
itself that shines through me, clearing my cloudiness, which again
overwhelms me, fainting from it, in the darkness and amount of my
punishment. For my strength is brought down in need, [1035] so that I
cannot endure my blessings, until Thou, O Lord, who hast been gracious
to all mine iniquities, heal also all mine infirmities; because Thou
shalt also redeem my life from corruption, and crown me with Thy
loving-kindness and mercy, and shalt satisfy my desire with good
things, because my youth shall be renewed like the eagle's. [1036] For
by hope we are saved; and through patience we await Thy promises.
[1037] Let him that is able hear Thee discoursing within. I will with
confidence cry out from Thy oracle, How wonderful are Thy works, O
Lord, in Wisdom hast Thou made them all. [1038] And this Wisdom is the
Beginning, and in that Beginning hast Thou made heaven and earth.
Footnotes
[1035] Ps. xxxi. 10.
[1036] Ps. ciii. 3-5.
[1037] Rom. viii. 24, 25.
[1038] Ps. civ. 24.
Chapter X.--The Rashness of Those Who Inquire What God Did Before He
Created Heaven and Earth.
12. Lo, are they not full of their ancient way, who say to us, "What
was God doing before He made heaven and earth? For if," say they, "He
were unoccupied, and did nothing, why does He not for ever also, and
from henceforth, cease from working, as in times past He did? For if
any new motion has arisen in God, and a new will, to form a creature
which He had never before formed, however can that be a true eternity
where there ariseth a will which was not before? For the will of God
is not a creature, but before the creature; because nothing could be
created unless the will of the Creator were before it. The will of
God, therefore, pertaineth to His very Substance. But if anything hath
arisen in the Substance of God which was not before, that Substance is
not truly called eternal. But if it was the eternal will of God that
the creature should be, why was not the creature also from eternity?"
Chapter XI.--They Who Ask This Have Not as Yet Known the Eternity of
God, Which is Exempt from the Relation of Time.
13. Those who say these things do not as yet understand Thee, O Thou
Wisdom of God, Thou light of souls; not as yet do they understand how
these things be made which are made by and in Thee. They even
endeavour to comprehend things eternal; but as yet their heart flieth
about in the past and future motions of things, and is still wavering.
Who shall hold it and fix it, that it may rest a little, and by
degrees catch the glory of that everstanding eternity, and compare it
with the times which never stand, and see that it is incomparable; and
that a long time cannot become long, save from the many motions that
pass by, which cannot at the same instant be prolonged; but that in
the Eternal nothing passeth away, but that the whole is present; but
no time is wholly present; and let him see that all time past is
forced on by the future, and that all the future followeth from the
past, and that all, both past and future, is created and issues from
that which is always present? Who will hold the heart of man, that it
may stand still, and see how the still-standing eternity, itself
neither future nor past, uttereth the times future and past? Can my
hand accomplish this, or the hand of my mouth by persuasion bring
about a thing so great? [1039]
Footnotes
[1039] See note 12, p. 174, below.
Chapter XII.--What God Did Before the Creation of the World.
14. Behold, I answer to him who asks, "What was God doing before He
made heaven and earth?" I answer not, as a certain person is reported
to have done facetiously (avoiding the pressure of the question), "He
was preparing hell," saith he, "for those who pry into mysteries." It
is one thing to perceive, another to laugh,--these things I answer
not. For more willingly would I have answered, "I know not what I know
not," than that I should make him a laughing-stock who asketh deep
things, and gain praise as one who answereth false things. But I say
that Thou, our God, art the Creator of every creature; and if by the
term "heaven and earth" every creature is understood, I boldly say,
"That before God made heaven and earth, He made not anything. For if
He did, what did He make unless the creature?" And would that I knew
whatever I desire to know to my advantage, as I know that no creature
was made before any creature was made.
Chapter XIII.--Before the Times Created by God, Times Were Not.
15. But if the roving thought of any one should wander through the
images of bygone time, and wonder that Thou, the God Almighty, and
All-creating, and All-sustaining, the Architect of heaven and earth,
didst for innumerable ages refrain from so great a work before Thou
wouldst make it, let him awake and consider that he wonders at false
things. For whence could innumerable ages pass by which Thou didst not
make, since Thou art the Author and Creator of all ages? Or what times
should those be which were not made by Thee? Or how should they pass
by if they had not been? Since, therefore, Thou art the Creator of all
times, if any time was before Thou madest heaven and earth, why is it
said that Thou didst refrain from working? For that very time Thou
madest, nor could times pass by before Thou madest times. But if
before heaven and earth there was no time, why is it asked, What didst
Thou then? For there was no "then" when time was not.
16. Nor dost Thou by time precede time; else wouldest not Thou precede
all times. But in the excellency of an ever-present eternity, Thou
precedest all times past, and survivest all future times, because they
are future, and when they have come they will be past; but "Thou art
the same, and Thy years shall have no end." [1040] Thy years neither
go nor come; but ours both go and come, that all may come. All Thy
years stand at once since they do stand; nor were they when departing
excluded by coming years, because they pass not away; but all these of
ours shall be when all shall cease to be. Thy years are one day, and
Thy day is not daily, but today; because Thy today yields not with
tomorrow, for neither doth it follow yesterday. Thy today is eternity;
therefore didst Thou beget the Co-eternal, to whom Thou saidst, "This
day have I begotten Thee." [1041] Thou hast made all time; and before
all times Thou art, nor in any time was there not time.
Footnotes
[1040] Ps. cii. 27.
[1041] Ps. ii. 7, and Heb. v. 5.
Chapter XIV.--Neither Time Past Nor Future, But the Present Only,
Really is.
17. At no time, therefore, hadst Thou not made anything, because Thou
hadst made time itself. And no times are co-eternal with Thee, because
Thou remainest for ever; but should these continue, they would not be
times. For what is time? Who can easily and briefly explain it? Who
even in thought can comprehend it, even to the pronouncing of a word
concerning it? But what in speaking do we refer to more familiarly and
knowingly than time? And certainly we understand when we speak of it;
we understand also when we hear it spoken of by another. What, then,
is time? If no one ask of me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who
asks, I know not. Yet I say with confidence, that I know that if
nothing passed away, there would not be past time; and if nothing were
coming, there would not be future time; and if nothing were, there
would not be present time. Those two times, therefore, past and
future, how are they, when even the past now is not; and the future is
not as yet? But should the present be always present, and should it
not pass into time past, time truly it could not be, but eternity. If,
then, time present--if it be time--only comes into existence because
it passes into time past, how do we say that even this is, whose cause
of being is that it shall not be--namely, so that we cannot truly say
that time is, unless because it tends not to be?
Chapter XV.--There is Only a Moment of Present Time.
18. And yet we say that "time is long and time is short;" nor do we
speak of this save of time past and future. A long time past, for
example, we call a hundred years ago; in like manner a long time to
come, a hundred years hence. But a short time past we call, say, ten
days ago: and a short time to come, ten days hence. But in what sense
is that long or short which is not? For the past is not now, and the
future is not yet. Therefore let us not say, "It is long;" but let us
say of the past, "It hath been long," and of the future, "It will be
long." O my Lord, my light, shall not even here Thy truth deride man?
For that past time which was long, was it long when it was already
past, or when it was as yet present? For then it might be long when
there was that which could be long, but when past it no longer was;
wherefore that could not be long which was not at all. Let us not,
therefore, say, "Time past hath been long;" for we shall not find what
may have been long, seeing that since it was past it is not; but let
us say "that present time was long, because when it was present it was
long." For it had not as yet passed away so as not to be, and
therefore there was that which could be long. But after it passed,
that ceased also to be long which ceased to be.
19. Let us therefore see, O human soul, whether present time can be
long; for to thee is it given to perceive and to measure periods of
time. What wilt thou reply to me? Is a hundred years when present a
long time? See, first, whether a hundred years can be present. For if
the first year of these is current, that is present, but the other
ninety and nine are future, and therefore they are not as yet. But if
the second year is current, one is already past, the other present,
the rest future. And thus, if we fix on any middle year of this
hundred as present, those before it are past, those after it are
future; wherefore a hundred years cannot be present. See at least
whether that year itself which is current can be present. For if its
first month be current, the rest are future; if the second, the first
hath already passed, and the remainder are not yet. Therefore neither
is the year which is current as a whole present; and if it is not
present as a whole, then the year is not present. For twelve months
make the year, of which each individual month which is current is
itself present, but the rest are either past or future. Although
neither is that month which is current present, but one day only: if
the first, the rest being to come, if the last, the rest being past;
if any of the middle, then between past and future.
20. Behold, the present time, which alone we found could be called
long, is abridged to the space scarcely of one day. But let us discuss
even that, for there is not one day present as a whole. For it is made
up of four-and-twenty hours of night and day, whereof the first hath
the rest future, the last hath them past, but any one of the
intervening hath those before it past, those after it future. And that
one hour passeth away in fleeting particles. Whatever of it hath flown
away is past, whatever remaineth is future. If any portion of time be
conceived which cannot now be divided into even the minutest particles
of moments, this only is that which may be called present; which,
however, flies so rapidly from future to past, that it cannot be
extended by any delay. For if it be extended, it is divided into the
past and future; but the present hath no space. Where, therefore, is
the time which we may call long? Is it nature? Indeed we do not say,
"It is long," because it is not yet, so as to be long; but we say, "It
will be long." When, then, will it be? For if even then, since as yet
it is future, it will not be long, because what may be long is not as
yet; but it shall be long, when from the future, which as yet is not,
it shall already have begun to be, and will have become present, so
that there could be that which may be long; then doth the present time
cry out in the words above that it cannot be long.
Chapter XVI.--Time Can Only Be Perceived or Measured While It is
Passing.
21. And yet, O Lord, we perceive intervals of times, and we compare
them with themselves, and we say some are longer, others shorter. We
even measure by how much shorter or longer this time may be than that;
and we answer, "That this is double or treble, while that is but once,
or only as much as that." But we measure times passing when we measure
them by perceiving them; but past times, which now are not, or future
times, which as yet are not, who can measure them? Unless, perchance,
any one will dare to say, that that can be measured which is not.
When, therefore, time is passing, it can be perceived and measured;
but when it has passed, it cannot, since it is not.
Chapter XVII.--Nevertheless There is Time Past and Future.
2. I ask, Father, I do not affirm. O my God, rule and guide me. "Who
is there who can say to me that there are not three times (as we
learned when boys, and as we have taught boys), the past, present, and
future, but only present, because these two are not? Or are they also;
but when from future it becometh present, cometh it forth from some
secret place, and when from the present it becometh past, doth it
retire into anything secret? For where have they, who have foretold
future things, seen these things, if as yet they are not? For that
which is not cannot be seen. And they who relate things past could not
relate them as true, did they not perceive them in their mind. Which
things, if they were not, they could in no wise be discerned. There
are therefore things both future and past.
Chapter XVIII.--Past and Future Times Cannot Be Thought of But as
Present.
23. Suffer me, O Lord, to seek further; O my Hope, let not my purpose
be confounded. For if there are times past and future, I desire to
know where they are. But if as yet I do not succeed, I still know,
wherever they are, that they are not there as future or past, but as
present. For if there also they be future, they are not as yet there;
if even there they be past, they are no longer there. Wheresoever,
therefore, they are, whatsoever they are, they are only so as present.
Although past things are related as true, they are drawn out from the
memory,--not the things themselves, which have passed, but the words
conceived from the images of the things which they have formed in the
mind as footprints in their passage through the senses. My childhood,
indeed, which no longer is, is in time past, which now is not; but
when I call to mind its image, and speak of it, I behold it in the
present, because it is as yet in my memory. Whether there be a like
cause of foretelling future things, that of things which as yet are
not the images may be perceived as already existing, I confess, my
God, I know not. This certainly I know, that we generally think before
on our future actions, and that this premeditation is present; but
that the action whereon we premeditate is not yet, because it is
future; which when we shall have entered upon, and have begun to do
that which we were premeditating, then shall that action be, because
then it is not future, but present.
24. In whatever manner, therefore, this secret preconception of future
things may be, nothing can be seen, save what is. But what now is is
not future, but present. When, therefore, they say that things future
are seen, it is not themselves, which as yet are not (that is, which
are future); but their causes or their signs perhaps are seen, the
which already are. Therefore, to those already beholding them, they
are not future, but present, from which future things conceived in the
mind are foretold. Which conceptions again now are, and they who
foretell those things behold these conceptions present before them.
Let now so multitudinous a variety of things afford me some example. I
behold daybreak; I foretell that the sun is about to rise. That which
I behold is present; what I foretell is future,--not that the sun is
future, which already is; but his rising, which is not yet. Yet even
its rising I could not predict unless I had an image of it in my mind,
as now I have while I speak. But that dawn which I see in the sky is
not the rising of the sun, although it may go before it, nor that
imagination in my mind; which two are seen as present, that the other
which is future may be foretold. Future things, therefore, are not as
yet; and if they are not as yet, they are not. And if they are not,
they cannot be seen at all; but they can be foretold from things
present which now are, and are seen.
Chapter XIX.--We are Ignorant in What Manner God Teaches Future
Things.
25. Thou, therefore, Ruler of Thy creatures, what is the method by
which Thou teachest souls those things which are future? For Thou hast
taught Thy prophets. What is that way by which Thou, to whom nothing
is future, dost teach future things; or rather of future things dost
teach present? For what is not, of a certainty cannot be taught. Too
far is this way from my view; it is too mighty for me, I cannot attain
unto it; [1042] but by Thee I shall be enabled, when Thou shalt have
granted it, sweet light of my hidden eyes.
Footnotes
[1042] Ps. cxxxix. 6.
Chapter XX.--In What Manner Time May Properly Be Designated.
26. But what now is manifest and clear is, that neither are there
future nor past things. Nor is it fitly said, "There are three times,
past, present and future;" but perchance it might be fitly said,
"There are three times; a present of things past, a present of things
present, and a present of things future." For these three do somehow
exist in the soul, and otherwise I see them not: present of things
past, memory; present of things present, sight; present of things
future, expectation. If of these things we are permitted to speak, I
see three times, and I grant there are three. It may also be said,
"There are three times, past, present and future," as usage falsely
has it. See, I trouble not, nor gainsay, nor reprove; provided always
that which is said may be understood, that neither the future, nor
that which is past, now is. For there are but few things which we
speak properly, many things improperly; but what we may wish to say is
understood.
Chapter XXI.--How Time May Be Measured.
27. I have just now said, then, that we measure times as they pass,
that we may be able to say that this time is twice as much as that
one, or that this is only as much as that, and so of any other of the
parts of time which we are able to tell by measuring. Wherefore, as I
said, we measure times as they pass. And if any one should ask me,
"Whence dost thou know?" I can answer, "I know, because we measure;
nor can we measure things that are not; and things past and future are
not." But how do we measure present time, since it hath not space? It
is measured while it passeth; but when it shall have passed, it is not
measured; for there will not be aught that can be measured. But
whence, in what way, and whither doth it pass while it is being
measured? Whence, but from the future? Which way, save through the
present? Whither, but into the past? From that, therefore, which as
yet is not, through that which hath no space, into that which now is
not. But what do we measure, unless time in some space? For we say not
single, and double, and triple, and equal, or in any other way in
which we speak of time, unless with respect to the spaces of times. In
what space, then, do we measure passing time? Is it in the future,
whence it passeth over? But what yet we measure not, is not. Or is it
in the present, by which it passeth? But no space, we do not measure.
Or in the past, whither it passeth? But that which is not now, we
measure not.
Chapter XXII.--He Prays God that He Would Explain This Most Entangled
Enigma.
28. My soul yearns to know this most entangled enigma. Forbear to shut
up, O Lord my God, good Father,--through Christ I beseech
Thee,--forbear to shut up these things, both usual and hidden, from my
desire, that it may be hindered from penetrating them; but let them
dawn through Thy enlightening mercy, O Lord. Of whom shall I inquire
concerning these things? And to whom shall I with more advantage
confess my ignorance than to Thee, to whom these my studies, so
vehemently kindled towards Thy Scriptures, are not troublesome? Give
that which I love; for I do love, and this hast Thou given me. Give,
Father, who truly knowest to give good gifts unto Thy children. [1043]
Give, since I have undertaken to know, and trouble is before me until
Thou dost open it. [1044] Through Christ, I beseech Thee, in His name,
Holy of Holies, let no man interrupt me. For I believed, and therefore
do I speak. [1045] This is my hope; for this do I live, that I may
contemplate the delights of the Lord. [1046] Behold, Thou hast made my
days old, [1047] and they pass away, and in what manner I know not.
And we speak as to time and time, times and times,--"How long is the
time since he said this?" "How long the time since he did this?" and,
"How long the time since I saw that?" and, "This syllable hath double
the time of that single short syllable." These words we speak, and
these we hear; and we are understood, and we understand. They are most
manifest and most usual, and the same things again lie hid too deeply,
and the discovery of them is new.
Footnotes
[1043] Matt. vii. 11.
[1044] Ps. lxxiii. 16.
[1045] Ps. cxvi. 10.
[1046] Ps. xxvii. 4.
[1047] Ps. xxxix. 5.
Chapter XXIII.--That Time is a Certain Extension.
29. I have heard from a learned man that the motions of the sun, moon,
and stars constituted time, and I assented not. [1048] For why should
not rather the motions of all bodies be time? What if the lights of
heaven should cease, and a potter's wheel run round, would there be no
time by which we might measure those revolutions, and say either that
it turned with equal pauses, or, if it were moved at one time more
slowly, at another more quickly, that some revolutions were longer,
others less so? Or while we were saying this, should we not also be
speaking in time? Or should there in our words be some syllables long,
others short, but because those sounded in a longer time, these in a
shorter? God grant to men to see in a small thing ideas common to
things great and small. Both the stars and luminaries of heaven are
"for signs and for seasons, and for days and years." [1049] No doubt
they are; but neither should I say that the circuit of that wooden
wheel was a day, nor yet should he say that therefore there was no
time.
30. I desire to know the power and nature of time, by which we measure
the motions of bodies, and say (for example) that this motion is twice
as long as that. For, I ask, since "day" declares not the stay only of
the sun upon the earth, according to which day is one thing, night
another, but also its entire circuit from east even to
east,--according to which we say, "So many days have passed" (the
nights being included when we say "so many days," and their spaces not
counted apart),--since, then, the day is finished by the motion of the
sun, and by his circuit from east to east, I ask, whether the motion
itself is the day, or the period in which that motion is completed, or
both? For if the first be the day, then would there be a day although
the sun should finish that course in so small a space of time as an
hour. If the second, then that would not be a day if from one sunrise
to another there were but so short a period as an hour, but the sun
must go round four-and-twenty times to complete a day. If both,
neither could that be called a day if the sun should run his entire
round in the space of an hour; nor that, if, while the sun stood
still, so much time should pass as the sun is accustomed to accomplish
his whole course in from morning to morning. I shall not therefore now
ask, what that is which is called day, but what time is, by which we,
measuring the circuit of the sun, should say that it was accomplished
in half the space of time it was wont, if it had been completed in so
small a space as twelve hours; and comparing both times, we should
call that single, this double time, although the sun should run his
course from east to east sometimes in that single, sometimes in that
double time. Let no man then tell me that the motions of the heavenly
bodies are times, because, when at the prayer of one the sun stood
still in order that he might achieve his victorious battle, the sun
stood still, but time went on. For in such space of time as was
sufficient was that battle fought and ended. [1050] I see that time,
then, is a certain extension. But do I see it, or do I seem to see it?
Thou, O Light and Truth, wilt show me.
Footnotes
[1048] Compare Gillies (Analysis of Aristotle, c. 2, p. 138): "As our
conception of space originates in that of body, and our conception of
motion in that of space, so our conception of time originates in that
of motion; and particularly in those regular and equable motions
carried on in the heavens, the parts of which, from their perfect
similarity to each other, are correct measures of the continuous and
successive quantity called Time, with which they are conceived to
co-exist. Time, therefore, may be defined the perceived number of
successive movements; for, as number ascertains the greater or lesser
quantity of things numbered, so time ascertains the greater or lesser
quantity of motion performed." And with this accords Monboddo's
definition of time (Ancient Metaphysics, vol. i. book 4, chap. i.), as
"the measure of the duration of things that exist in succession by the
motion of the heavenly bodies." See xii. sec. 40, and note, below.
[1049] Gen. i. 14.
[1050] Josh. x. 12-14.
Chapter XXIV.--That Time is Not a Motion of a Body Which We Measure by
Time.
31. Dost Thou command that I should assent, if any one should say that
time is "the motion of a body?" Thou dost not command me. For I hear
that no body is moved but in time. This Thou sayest; but that the very
motion of a body is time, I hear not; Thou sayest it not. For when a
body is moved, I by time measure how long it may be moving from the
time in which it began to be moved till it left off. And if I saw not
whence it began, and it continued to be moved, so that I see not when
it leaves off, I cannot measure unless, perchance, from the time I
began until I cease to see. But if I look long, I only proclaim that
the time is long, but not how long it may be because when we say, "How
long," we speak by comparison, as, "This is as long as that," or,
"This is double as long as that," or any other thing of the kind. But
if we were able to note down the distances of places whence and
whither cometh the body which is moved, or its parts, if it moved as
in a wheel, we can say in how much time the motion of the body or its
part, from this place unto that, was performed. Since, then, the
motion of a body is one thing, that by which we measure how long it is
another, who cannot see which of these is rather to be called time?
For, although a body be sometimes moved, sometimes stand still, we
measure not its motion only, but also its standing still, by time; and
we say, "It stood still as much as it moved;" or, "It stood still
twice or thrice as long as it moved;" and if any other space which our
measuring hath either determined or imagined, more or less, as we are
accustomed to say. Time, therefore, is not the motion of a body.
Chapter XXV.--He Calls on God to Enlighten His Mind.
32. And I confess unto Thee, O Lord, that I am as yet ignorant as to
what time is, and again I confess unto Thee, O Lord, that I know that
I speak these things in time, and that I have already long spoken of
time, and that very "long" is not long save by the stay of time. How,
then, know I this, when I know not what time is? Or is it, perchance,
that I know not in what wise I may express what I know? Alas for me,
that I do not at least know the extent of my own ignorance! Behold, O
my God, before Thee I lie not. As I speak, so is my heart. Thou shalt
light my candle; Thou, O Lord my God, wilt enlighten my darkness.
[1051]
Footnotes
[1051] Ps. viii. 28.
Chapter XXVI.--We Measure Longer Events by Shorter in Time.
33. Doth not my soul pour out unto Thee truly in confession that I do
measure times? But do I thus measure, O my God, and know not what I
measure? I measure the motion of a body by time; and the time itself
do I not measure? But, in truth, could I measure the motion of a body,
how long it is, and how long it is in coming from this place to that,
unless I should measure the time in which it is moved? How, therefore,
do I measure this very time itself? Or do we by a shorter time measure
a longer, as by the space of a cubit the space of a crossbeam? For
thus, indeed, we seem by the space of a short syllable to measure the
space of a long syllable, and to say that this is double. Thus we
measure the spaces of stanzas by the spaces of the verses, and the
spaces of the verses by the spaces of the feet, and the spaces of the
feet by the spaces of the syllables, and the spaces of long by the
spaces of short syllables; not measuring by pages (for in that manner
we measure spaces, not times), but when in uttering the words they
pass by, and we say, "It is a long stanza because it is made up of so
many verses; long verses, because they consist of so many feet; long
feet, because they are prolonged by so many syllables; a long
syllable, because double a short one." But neither thus is any certain
measure of time obtained; since it is possible that a shorter verse,
if it be pronounced more fully, may take up more time than a longer
one, if pronounced more hurriedly. Thus for a stanzas, thus for a
foot, thus for a syllable. Whence it appeared to me that time is
nothing else than protraction; but of what I know not. It is wonderful
to me, if it be not of the mind itself. For what do I measure, I
beseech Thee, O my God, even when I say either indefinitely, "This
time is longer than that;" or even definitely, "This is double that?"
That I measure time, I know. But I measure not the future, for it is
not yet; nor do I measure the present, because it is extended by no
space; nor do I measure the past, because it no longer is. What,
therefore, do I measure? Is it times passing, not past? For thus had I
said.
Chapter XXVII.--Times are Measured in Proportion as They Pass by.
34. Persevere, O my mind, and give earnest heed. od is our helper; He
made us, and not we ourselves. [1052] Give heed, where truth dawns.
Lo, suppose the voice of a body begins to sound, and does sound, and
sounds on, and lo! it ceases,--it is now silence, and that voice is
past and is no longer a voice. It was future before it sounded, and
could not be measured, because as yet it was not; and now it cannot,
because it no longer is. Then, therefore, while it was sounding, it
might, because there was then that which might be measured. But even
then it did not stand still, for it was going and passing away. Could
it, then, on that account be measured the more? For, while passing, it
was being extended into some space of time, in which it might be
measured, since the present hath no space. If, therefore, then it
might be measured, lo! suppose another voice hath begun to sound, and
still soundeth, in a continued tenor without any interruption, we can
measure it while it is sounding; for when it shall have ceased to
sound, it will be already past, and there will not be that which can
be measured. Let us measure it truly, and let us say how much it is.
But as yet it sounds, nor can it be measured, save from that instant
in which it began to sound, even to the end in which it left off. For
the interval itself we measure from some beginning unto some end. On
which account, a voice which is not yet ended cannot be measured, so
that it may be said how long or how short it may be; nor can it be
said to be equal to another, or single or double in respect of it, or
the like. But when it is ended, it no longer is. In what manner,
therefore, may it be measured? And yet we measure times; still not
those which as yet are not, nor those which no longer are, nor those
which are protracted by some delay, nor those which have no limits.
We, therefore, measure neither future times, nor past, nor present,
nor those passing by; and yet we do measure times.
35. Deus Creator omnium; this verse of eight syllables alternates
between short and long syllables. The four short, then, the first,
third, fifth and seventh, are single in respect of the four long, the
second, fourth, sixth, and eighth. Each of these hath a double time to
every one of those. I pronounce them, report on them, and thus it is,
as is perceived by common sense. By common sense, then, I measure a
long by a short syllable, and I find that it has twice as much. But
when one sounds after another, if the former be short the latter long,
how shall I hold the short one, and how measuring shall I apply it to
the long, so that I may find out that this has twice as much, when
indeed the long does not begin to sound unless the short leaves off
sounding? That very long one I measure not as present, since I measure
it not save when ended. But its ending is its passing away. What,
then, is it that I can measure? Where is the short syllable by which I
measure? Where is the long one which I measure? Both have sounded,
have flown, have passed away, and are no longer; and still I measure,
and I confidently answer (so far as is trusted to a practised sense),
that as to space of time this syllable is single, that double. Nor
could I do this, unless because they have past, and are ended.
Therefore do I not measure themselves, which now are not, but
something in my memory, which remains fixed.
36. In thee, O my mind, I measure times. [1053] Do not overwhelm me
with thy clamour. That is, do not overwhelm thyself with the multitude
of thy impressions. In thee, I say, I measure times; the impression
which things as they pass by make on thee, and which, when they have
passed by, remains, that I measure as time present, not those things
which have passed by, that the impression should be made. This I
measure when I measure times. Either, then, these are times, or I do
not measure times. What when we measure silence, and say that this
silence hath lasted as long as that voice lasts? Do we not extend our
thought to the measure of a voice, as if it sounded, so that we may be
able to declare something concerning the intervals of silence in a
given space of time? For when both the voice and tongue are still, we
go over in thought poems and verses, and any discourse, or dimensions
of motions; and declare concerning the spaces of times, how much this
may be in respect of that, not otherwise than if uttering them we
should pronounce them. Should any one wish to utter a lengthened
sound, and had with forethought determined how long it should be, that
man hath in silence verily gone through a space of time, and,
committing it to memory, he begins to utter that speech, which sounds
until it be extended to the end proposed; truly it hath sounded, and
will sound. For what of it is already finished hath verily sounded,
but what remains will sound; and thus does it pass on, until the
present intention carry over the future into the past; the past
increasing by the diminution of the future, until, by the consumption
of the future, all be past.
Footnotes
[1052] Ps. c. 3.
[1053] With the argument in this and the previous sections, compare
Dr. Reid's remarks in his Intellectual Powers, iii. 5: "We may measure
duration by the succession of thoughts in the mind, as we measure
length by inches or feet, but the notion or idea of duration must be
antecedent to the mensuration of it, as the notion of length is
antecedent to its being measured....Reason, from the contemplation of
finite extended things, leads us necessarily to the belief of an
immensity that contains them. In like manner, memory gives us the
conception and belief of finite intervals of duration. From the
contemplation of these, reason leads us necessarily to the belief of
an eternity, which comprehends all things that have a beginning and an
end." The student will with advantage examine a monograph on this
subject by C. Fortlage, entitled, Aurelii Augustini doctrina de
tempore ex libro xi. Confessionum depromta, Aristotelicæ, Kantianæ,
aliarumque theoriarium recensione aucta, et congruis hodiernæ
philosophiæ ideis amplificata (Heidelbergæ, 1836). He says that
amongst all the philosophers none have so nearly approached truth as
Augustin.
Chapter XXVIII.--Time in the Human Mind, Which Expects, Considers, and
Remembers.
37. But how is that future diminished or consumed which as yet is not?
Or how doth the past, which is no longer, increase, unless in the mind
which enacteth this there are three things done? For it both expects,
and considers, and remembers, that that which it expecteth, through
that which it considereth, may pass into that which it remembereth.
Who, therefore, denieth that future things as yet are not? But yet
there is already in the mind the expectation of things future. And who
denies that past things are now no longer? But, however, there is
still in the mind the memory of things past. And who denies that time
present wants space, because it passeth away in a moment? But yet our
consideration endureth, through which that which may be present may
proceed to become absent. Future time, which is not, is not therefore
long; but a "long future" is "a long expectation of the future." Nor
is time past, which is now no longer, long; but a long past is "a long
memory of the past."
38. I am about to repeat a psalm that I know. Before I begin, my
attention is extended to the whole; but when I have begun, as much of
it as becomes past by my saying it is extended in my memory; and the
life of this action of mine is divided between my memory, on account
of what I have repeated, and my expectation, on account of what I am
about to repeat; yet my consideration is present with me, through
which that which was future may be carried over so that it may become
past. Which the more it is done and repeated, by so much (expectation
being shortened) the memory is enlarged, until the whole expectation
be exhausted, when that whole action being ended shall have passed
into memory. And what takes place in the entire psalm, takes place
also in each individual part of it, and in each individual syllable:
this holds in the longer action, of which that psalm is perchance a
portion; the same holds in the whole life of man, of which all the
actions of man are parts; the same holds in the whole age of the sons
of men, of which all the lives of men are parts.
Chapter XXIX.--That Human Life is a Distraction But that Through the
Mercy of God He Was Intent on the Prize of His Heavenly Calling.
39. But "because Thy loving-kindness is better than life," [1054]
behold, my life is but a distraction, [1055] and Thy right hand upheld
me [1056] in my Lord, the Son of man, the Mediator between Thee,
[1057] The One, and us the many,--in many distractions amid many
things,--that through Him I may apprehend in whom I have been
apprehended, and may be recollected from my old days, following The
One, forgetting the things that are past; and not distracted, but
drawn on, [1058] not to those things which shall be and shall pass
away, but to those things which are before, [1059] not distractedly,
but intently, I follow on for the prize of my heavenly calling, [1060]
where I may hear the voice of Thy praise, and contemplate Thy
delights, [1061] neither coming nor passing away. But now are my years
spent in mourning. [1062] And Thou, O Lord, art my comfort, my Father
everlasting. But I have been divided amid times, the order of which I
know not; and my thoughts, even the inmost bowels of my soul, are
mangled with tumultuous varieties, until I flow together unto Thee,
purged and molten in the fire of Thy love. [1063]
Footnotes
[1054] Ps. lxiii. 3.
[1055] Distentio. It will be observed that there is a play on the word
throughout the section.
[1056] Ps. lxiii. 8.
[1057] 1 Tim. ii. 5.
[1058] Non distentus sed extentus. So in Serm. cclv. 6, we have: "Unum
nos extendat, ne multa distendant, et abrumpant ab uno."
[1059] Phil. iii. 13.
[1060] Phil. iii. 14. Many wish to attain the prize who never
earnestly pursue it. And it may be said here in view of the subject of
this book, that there is no stranger delusion than that which
possesses the idle and the worldly as to the influence of time in
ameliorating their condition. They have "good intentions," and hope
that time in the future may do for them what it has not in the past.
But in truth, time merely affords an opportunity for energy and life
to work. To quote that lucid and nervous thinker, Bishop Copleston
(Remains, p. 123): "One of the commonest errors is to regard time as
agent. But in reality time does nothing and is nothing. We use it as a
compendious expression for all those causes which operate slowly and
imperceptibly; but, unless some positive cause is in action, no change
takes place in the lapse of one thousand years; e. g., a drop of water
encased in a cavity of silex."
[1061] Ps. xxvi. 7.
[1062] Ps. xxvii. 4.
[1063] Ps. xxxi. 10.
Chapter XXX.--Again He Refutes the Empty Question, "What Did God
Before the Creation of the World?"
40. And I will be immoveable, and fixed in Thee, in my mould, Thy
truth; nor will I endure the questions of men, who by a penal disease
thirst for more than they can hold, and say, "What did God make before
He made heaven and earth?" Or, "How came it into His mind to make
anything, when He never before made anything?" Grant to them, O Lord,
to think well what they say, and to see that where there is no time,
they can not say "never." What, therefore, He is said "never to have
made," what else is it but to say, that in no time was it made? Let
them therefore see that there could be no time without a created
being, [1064] and let them cease to speak that vanity. Let them also
be extended unto those things which are before, [1065] and understand
that thou, the eternal Creator of all times, art before all times, and
that no times are co-eternal with Thee, nor any creature, even if
there be any creature beyond all times.
Footnotes
[1064] He argues similarly in his De Civ. Dei, xi. 6: "That the world
and time had but one beginning."
[1065] Phil. iii. 13.
Chapter XXXI.--How the Knowledge of God Differs from that of Man.
41. O Lord my God, what is that secret place of Thy mystery, and how
far thence have the consequences of my transgressions cast me? Heal my
eyes, that I may enjoy Thy light. Surely, if there be a mind, so
greatly abounding in knowledge and foreknowledge, to which all things
past and future are so known as one psalm is well known to me, that
mind is exceedingly wonderful, and very astonishing; because whatever
is so past, and whatever is to come of after ages, is no more
concealed from Him than was it hidden from me when singing that psalm,
what and how much of it had been sung from the beginning, what and how
much remained unto the end. But far be it that Thou, the Creator of
the universe, the Creator of souls and bodies,--far be it that Thou
shouldest know all things future and past. Far, far more wonderfully,
and far more mysteriously, Thou knowest them. [1066] For it is not as
the feelings of one singing known things, or hearing a known song,
are--through expectation of future words, and in remembrance of those
that are past--varied, and his senses divided, that anything happeneth
unto Thee, unchangeably eternal, that is, the truly eternal [1067]
Creator of minds. As, then, Thou in the Beginning knewest the heaven
and the earth without any change of Thy knowledge, so in the Beginning
didst Thou make heaven and earth without any distraction of Thy
action. [1068] Let him who understandeth confess unto Thee; and let
him who understandeth not, confess unto Thee. Oh, how exalted art
Thou, and yet the humble in heart are Thy dwelling-place; for Thou
raisest up those that are bowed down, [1069] and they whose exaltation
Thou art fall not.
Footnotes
[1066] Dean Mansel's argument, in his Bampton Lectures, as to our
knowledge of the Infinite, is well worthy of consideration. He refers
to Augustin's views on the subject of this book in note 13 to his
third lecture, and in the text itself says: "The limited character of
all existence which can be conceived as having a continuous duration,
or as made up of successive moments, is so far manifest that it has
been assumed almost as an axiom, by philosophical theologians, that in
the existence of God there is no distinction between past, present,
and future. `In the changes of things,' say Augustin, `there is a past
and a future; in God there is a present, in which neither past nor
future can be.' `Eternity,' says Beethius, `is the perfect possession
of interminable life, and of all that life at once;' and Aquinas,
accepting the definition, adds, `Eternity has no succession, but
exists all together.' But whether this assertion be literally true or
not (and this we have no means of ascertaining), it is clear that such
a mode of existence is altogether inconceivable by us, and that the
words in which it is described represent not thought, but the refusal
to think at all." See notes to xiii. 12, below.
[1067] "With God, indeed, all things are arranged and fixed; and when
He seemeth to act upon sudden motive, He doth nothing but what He
foreknew that He should do from eternity" (Aug. in Ps. cvi. 35). With
this passage may well be compared Dean Mansel's remarks (Bampton
Lectures, lect. vi., and notes 23-25) on the doctrine, that the world
is but a machine and is not under the continual government and
direction of God. See also note 4, on p. 80 and note 2 on p. 136,
above.
[1068] See p. 166, note 2.
[1069] Ps. cxlvi. 8.
.
Book XII.
He continues his explanation of the first Chapter of Genesis according
to the Septuagint, and by its assistance he argues, especially,
concerning the double heaven, and the formless matter out of which the
whole world may have been created; afterwards of the interpretations
of others not disallowed, and sets forth at great length the sense of
the Holy Scripture.
Chapter I .--The Discovery of Truth is Difficult, But God Has Promised
that He Who Seeks Shall Find.
1. My heart, O Lord, affected by the words of Thy Holy Scripture, is
much busied in this poverty of my life; and therefore, for the most
part, is the want of human intelligence copious in language, because
inquiry speaks more than discovery, and because demanding is longer
than obtaining, and the hand that knocks is more active than the hand
that receives. We hold the promise; who shall break it? "If God be for
us, who can be against us?" [1070] "Ask, and ye shall have; seek, and
ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one
that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that
knocketh it shall be opened." [1071] These are Thine own promises; and
who need fear to be deceived where the Truth promiseth?
Footnotes
[1070] Rom. viii. 31.
[1071] Matt. vii. 7, 8.
Chapter II.--Of the Double Heaven,--The Visible, and the Heaven of
Heavens.
2. The weakness of my tongue confesseth unto Thy Highness, seeing that
Thou madest heaven and earth. This heaven which I see, and this earth
upon which I tread (from which is this earth that I carry about me),
Thou hast made. But where is that heaven of heavens, [1072] O Lord, of
which we hear in the words of the Psalm, The heaven of heavens are the
Lord's, but the earth hath He given to the children of men? [1073]
Where is the heaven, which we behold not, in comparison of which all
this, which we behold, is earth? For this corporeal whole, not as a
whole everywhere, hath thus received its beautiful figure in these
lower parts, of which the bottom is our earth; but compared with that
heaven of heavens, even the heaven of our earth is but earth; yea,
each of these great bodies is not absurdly called earth, as compared
with that, I know not what manner of heaven, which is the Lord's, not
the sons' of men.
Footnotes
[1072] That is, not the atmosphere which surrounds the earth, as when
we say, "the birds of heaven" (Jer. iv. 25), "the dew of heaven" (Gen.
xxvii. 28); nor that "firmament of heaven" (Gen. i. 17) in which the
stars have their courses; nor both these together; but that "third
heaven" to which Paul was "caught up" (2 Cor. xii. 1) in his rapture,
and where God most manifests His glory, and the angels do Him homage.
[1073] Ps. cxv. 16, after the LXX., Vulgate, and Syriac.
Chapter III.--Of the Darkness Upon the Deep, and of the Invisible and
Formless Earth.
3. And truly this earth was invisible and formless, [1074] and there
was I know not what profundity of the deep upon which there was no
light, [1075] because it had no form. Therefore didst Thou command
that it should be written, that darkness was upon the face of the
deep; what else was it than the absence of light? [1076] For had there
been light, where should it have been save by being above all, showing
itself aloft, and enlightening? Darkness therefore was upon it,
because the light above was absent; as silence is there present where
sound is not. And what is it to have silence there, but not to have
sound there? Hast not Thou, O Lord, taught this soul which confesseth
unto Thee? Hast not Thou taught me, O Lord, that before Thou didst
form and separate this formless matter, there was nothing, neither
colour, nor figure, nor body, nor spirit? Yet not altogether nothing;
there was a certain formlessness without any shape.
Footnotes
[1074] Gen. i. 2, as rendered by the Old Ver. from the LXX.: aoratos
kai akataskeuastos. Kalisch in his Commentary translates T+¹H+W+u
W+oB+¹H+W+u: "dreariness and emptiness."
[1075] The reader should keep in mind in reading what follows the
Manichæan doctrine as to the kingdom of light and darkness. See notes,
pp. 68 and 103, above.
[1076] Compare De Civ. Dei, xi. 9, 10.
Chapter IV.--From the Formlessness of Matter, the Beautiful World Has
Arisen.
4. What, then, should it be called, that even in some ways it might be
conveyed to those of duller mind, save by some conventional word? But
what, in all parts of the world, can be found nearer to a total
formlessness than the earth and the deep? For, from their being of the
lowest position, they are less beautiful than are the other higher
parts, all transparent and shining. Why, therefore, may I not consider
the formlessness of matter--which Thou hadst created without shape,
whereof to make this shapely world--to be fittingly intimated unto men
by the name of earth invisible and formless?
Chapter V.--What May Have Been the Form of Matter.
5. So that when herein thought seeketh what the sense may arrive at,
and saith to itself, "It is no intelligible form, such as life or
justice, because it is the matter of bodies; nor perceptible by the
senses, because in the invisible and formless there is nothing which
can be seen and felt;--while human thought saith these things to
itself, it may endeavour either to know it by being ignorant, or by
knowing it to be ignorant.
Chapter VI.--He Confesses that at One Time He Himself Thought
Erroneously of Matter.
6. But were I, O Lord, by my mouth and by my pen to confess unto Thee
the whole, whatever Thou hast taught me concerning that matter, the
name of which hearing beforehand, and not understanding (they who
could not understand it telling me of it), I conceived [1077] it as
having innumerable and varied forms. And therefore did I not conceive
it; my mind revolved in disturbed order foul and horrible "forms," but
yet "forms;" and I called it formless, not that it lacked form, but
because it had such as, did it appear, my mind would turn from, as
unwonted and incongruous, and at which human weakness would be
disturbed. But even that which I did conceive was formless, not by the
privation of all form, but in comparison of more beautiful forms; and
true reason persuaded me that I ought altogether to remove from it all
remnants of any form whatever, if I wished to conceive matter wholly
without form; and I could not. For sooner could I imagine that that
which should be deprived of all form was not at all, than conceive
anything between form and nothing,--neither formed, nor nothing,
formless, nearly nothing. And my mind hence ceased to question my
spirit, filled (as it was) with the images of formed bodies, and
changing and varying them according to its will; and I applied myself
to the bodies themselves, and looked more deeply into their
mutability, by which they cease to be what they had been, and begin to
be what they were not; and this same transit from form unto form I
have looked upon to be through some formless condition, not through a
very nothing; but I desired to know, not to guess. And if my voice and
my pen should confess the whole unto Thee, whatsoever knots Thou hast
untied for me concerning this question, who of my readers would endure
to take in the whole? Nor yet, therefore, shall my heart cease to give
Thee honour, and a song of praise, for those things which it is not
able to express. For the mutability of mutable things is itself
capable of all those forms into which mutable things are changed. And
this mutability, what is it? Is it soul? Is it body? Is it the outer
appearance of soul or body? Could it be said, "Nothing were
something," and "That which is, is not," I would say that this were
it; and yet in some manner was it already, since it could receive
these visible and compound shapes.
Footnotes
[1077] See iii. sec. 11, and p. 103, note, above.
Chapter VII.--Out of Nothing God Made Heaven and Earth.
7. And whence and in what manner was this, unless from Thee, from whom
are all things, in so far as they are? But by how much the farther
from Thee, so much the more unlike unto Thee; for it is not distance
of place. Thou, therefore, O Lord, who art not one thing in one place,
and otherwise in another, but the Self-same, and the Self-same, and
the Self-same, [1078] Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, didst in
the beginning, [1079] which is of Thee, in Thy Wisdom, which was born
of Thy Substance, create something, and that out of nothing. [1080]
For Thou didst create heaven and earth, not out of Thyself, for then
they would be equal to Thine Only-begotten, and thereby even to Thee;
[1081] and in no wise would it be right that anything should be equal
to Thee which was not of Thee. And aught else except Thee there was
not whence Thou mightest create these things, O God, One Trinity, and
Trine Unity; and, therefore, out of nothing didst Thou create heaven
and earth,--a great thing and a small,because Thou art Almighty and
Good, to make all things good, even the great heaven and the small
earth. Thou wast, and there was nought else from which Thou didst
create heaven and earth; two such things, one near unto Thee, the
other near to nothing, [1082] --one to which Thou shouldest be
superior, the other to which nothing should be inferior.
Footnotes
[1078] See ix. sec. 11, above.
[1079] See p. 166, note, above.
[1080] See p. 165, note 2, above.
[1081] In the beginning of sec. 10, book xi. of his De Civ. Dei, he
similarly argues that the world was, not like the Son, "begotten of
the simple good," but "created." See also note 8, p. 76, above.
[1082] "Because at the first creation, it had no form nor thing in
it."--W. W.
Chapter VIII.--Heaven and Earth Were Made "In the Beginning;"
Afterwards the World, During Six Days, from Shapeless Matter.
8. But that heaven of heavens was for Thee, O Lord; but the earth,
which Thou hast given to the sons of men, [1083] to be seen and
touched, was not such as now we see and touch. For it was invisible
and "without form," [1084] and there was a deep over which there was
not light; or, darkness was over the deep, that is, more than in the
deep. For this deep of waters, now visible, has, even in its depths, a
light suitable to its nature, perceptible in some manner unto fishes
and creeping things in the bottom of it. But the entire deep was
almost nothing, since hitherto it was altogether formless; yet there
was then that which could be formed. For Thou, O Lord, hast made the
world of a formless matter, which matter, out of nothing, Thou hast
made almost nothing, out of which to make those great things which we,
sons of men, wonder at. For very wonderful is this corporeal heaven,
of which firmament, between water and water, the second day after the
creation of light, Thou saidst, Let it be made, and it was made.
[1085] Which firmament Thou calledst heaven, that is, the heaven of
this earth and sea, which Thou madest on the third day, by giving a
visible shape to the formless matter which Thou madest before all
days. For even already hadst Thou made a heaven before all days, but
that was the heaven of this heaven; because in the beginning Thou
hadst made heaven and earth. But the earth itself which Thou hadst
made was formless matter, because it was invisible and without form,
and darkness was upon the deep. Of which invisible and formless earth,
of which formlessness, of which almost nothing, Thou mightest make all
these things of which this changeable world consists, and yet
consisteth not; whose very changeableness appears in this, that times
can be observed and numbered in it. Because times are made by the
changes of things, while the shapes, whose matter is the invisible
earth aforesaid, are varied and turned.
Footnotes
[1083] Ps. cxv. 16.
[1084] Gen. i. 2.
[1085] Gen. i. 6-8.
Chapter IX.--That the Heaven of Heavens Was an Intellectual Creature,
But that the Earth Was Invisible and Formless Before the Days that It
Was Made.
9. And therefore the Spirit, the Teacher of Thy servant [1086] when He
relates that Thou didst in the Beginning create heaven and earth, is
silent as to times, silent as to days. For, doubtless, that heaven of
heavens, which Thou in the Beginning didst create, is some
intellectual creature, which, although in no wise co-eternal unto
Thee, the Trinity, is yet a partaker of Thy eternity, and by reason of
the sweetness of that most happy contemplation of Thyself, doth
greatly restrain its own mutability, and without any failure, from the
time in which it was created, in clinging unto Thee, surpasses all the
rolling change of times. But this shapelessness--this earth invisible
and without form--has not itself been numbered among the days. For
where there is no shape nor order, nothing either cometh or goeth; and
where this is not, there certainly are no days, nor any vicissitude of
spaces of times.
Footnotes
[1086] Of Moses.
Chapter X.--He Begs of God that He May Live in the True Light, and May
Be Instructed as to the Mysteries of the Sacred Books.
10. Oh, let Truth, the light of my heart, [1087] not my own darkness,
speak unto me! I have descended to that, and am darkened. But thence,
even thence, did I love Thee. I went astray, and remembered Thee. I
heard Thy voice behind me bidding me return, and scarcely did I hear
it for the tumults of the unquiet ones. And now, behold, I return
burning and panting after Thy fountain. Let no one prohibit me; of
this will I drink, and so have life. Let me not be my own life; from
myself have I badly lived,--death was I unto myself; in Thee do I
revive. Do Thou speak unto me; do Thou discourse unto me. In Thy books
have I believed, and their words are very deep. [1088]
Footnotes
[1087] See note 2, p. 76, above.
[1088] As Gregory the Great has it, Revelation is a river broad and
deep, "In quo et agnus ambulet, et elephas natet." And these deep
things of God are to be learned only by patient searching. We must,
says St. Chrysostom (De Prec. serm. ii.), dive down into the sea as
those who would fetch up pearls from its depths. The very
mysteriousness of Scripture is, doubtless, intended by God to
stimulate us to search the Scriptures, and to strengthen our spiritual
insight (Enar. in Ps. cxlvi. 6). See also, p. 48, note 5; p. 164, note
2, above; and the notes on pp. 370, 371, below.
Chapter XI.--What May Be Discovered to Him by God.
11. Already hast Thou told me, O Lord, with a strong voice, in my
inner ear, that Thou art eternal, having alone immortality. [1089]
Since Thou art not changed by any shape or motion, nor is Thy will
altered by times, because no will which changes is immortal. This in
Thy sight is clear to me, and let it become more and more clear, I
beseech Thee; and in that manifestation let me abide more soberly
under Thy wings. Likewise hast Thou said to me, O Lord, with a strong
voice, in my inner ear, that Thou hast made all natures and
substances, which are not what Thou Thyself art, and yet they are; and
that only is not from Thee which is not, and the motion of the will
from Thee who art, to that which in a less degree is, because such
motion is guilt and sin; [1090] and that no one's sin doth either hurt
Thee, or disturb the order of Thy rule, [1091] either first or last.
This, in Thy sight, is clear to me and let it become more and more
clear, I beseech Thee; and in that manifestation let me abide more
soberly under Thy wings.
12. Likewise hast Thou said to me, with a strong voice, in my inner
ear, that that creature, whose will Thou alone art, is not co-eternal
unto Thee, and which, with a most persevering purity [1092] drawing
its support from Thee, doth, in place and at no time, put forth its
own mutability; [1093] and Thyself being ever present with it, unto
whom with its entire affection it holds itself, having no future to
expect nor conveying into the past what it remembereth, is varied by
no change, nor extended into any times. [1094] O blessed one,--if any
such there be,--in clinging unto Thy Blessedness; blest in Thee, its
everlasting Inhabitant and its Enlightener! Nor do I find what the
heaven of heavens, which is the Lord's, can be better called than
Thine house, which contemplateth Thy delight without any defection of
going forth to another; a pure mind, most peacefully one, by that
stability of peace of holy spirits, [1095] the citizens of Thy city
"in the heavenly places," above these heavenly places which are seen.
[1096]
13. Whence the soul, whose wandering has been made far away, may
understand, if now she thirsts for Thee, if now her tears have become
bread to her, while it is daily said unto her "Where is thy God?"
[1097] if she now seeketh of Thee one thing, and desireth that she may
dwell in Thy house all the days of her life. [1098] And what is her
life but Thee? And what are Thy days but Thy eternity, as Thy years
which fail not, because Thou art the same? Hence, therefore, can the
soul, which is able, understand how far beyond all times Thou art
eternal; when Thy house, which has not wandered from Thee, although it
be not co-eternal with Thee, yet by continually and unfailingly
clinging unto Thee, suffers no vicissitude of times. This in Thy sight
is clear unto me, and may it become more and more clear unto me, I
beseech Thee; and in this manifestation may I abide more soberly under
Thy wings.
14. Behold, I know not what shapelessness there is in those changes of
these last and lowest creatures. And who shall tell me, unless it be
some one who, through the emptiness of his own heart, wanders and is
staggered by his own fancies? Who, unless such a one, would tell me
that (all figure being diminished and consumed), if the formlessness
only remain, through which the thing was changed and was turned from
one figure into another, that that can exhibit the changes of times?
For surely it could not be, because without the change of motions
times are not, and there is no change where there is no figure.
Footnotes
[1089] 1 Tim. vi. 16.
[1090] For Augustin's view of evil as a "privation of good," see p.
64, note 1, above, and with it compare vii. sec. 22, above; Con.
Secundin. c. 12; and De Lib. Arb. ii. 53. Parker, in his Theism,
Atheism, etc. p. 119, contends that God Himself must in some way be
the author of evil, and a similar view is maintained by
Schleiermacher, Christliche Glaube, sec. 80.
[1091] See ii. sec. 13, and v. sec. 2, notes 4, 9, above.
[1092] See iv. sec. 3, and note 1, above.
[1093] See sec. 19, below.
[1094] See xi. sec. 38, above, and sec. 18, below.
[1095] See xiii. sec. 50, below.
[1096] Eph. i. 20, etc.
[1097] Ps. xlii. 2, 3, 10.
[1098] Ps. xxvii. 4.
Chapter XII.--From the Formless Earth God Created Another Heaven and a
Visible and Formed Earth.
15. Which things considered as much as Thou givest, O my God, as much
as Thou excitest me to "knock," and as much as Thou openest unto me
when I knock, [1099] two things I find which Thou hast made, not
within the compass of time, since neither is co-eternal with Thee.
One, which is so formed that, without any failing of contemplation,
without any interval of change, although changeable, yet not changed,
it may fully enjoy Thy eternity and unchangeableness; the other, which
was so formless, that it had not that by which it could be changed
from one form into another, either of motion or of repose, whereby it
might be subject unto time. But this Thou didst not leave to be
formless, since before all days, in the beginning Thou createdst
heaven and earth,--these two things of which I spoke. But the earth
was invisible and without form, and darkness was upon the deep. [1100]
By which words its shapelessness is conveyed unto us, that by degrees
those minds may be drawn on which cannot wholly conceive the privation
of all form without coming to nothing,--whence another heaven might be
created, and another earth visible and well-formed, and water
beautifully ordered, and whatever besides is, in the formation of this
world, recorded to have been, not without days, created; because such
things are so that in them the vicissitudes of times may take place,
on account of the appointed changes of motions and of forms. [1101]
Footnotes
[1099] Matt. vii. 7.
[1100] Gen. i. 2.
[1101] See end of sec. 40, below.
Chapter XIII.--Of the Intellectual Heaven and Formless Earth, Out of
Which, on Another Day, the Firmament Was Formed.
16. Meanwhile I conceive this, O my God, when I hear Thy Scripture
speak, saying, In the beginning God made heaven and earth; but the
earth was invisible and without form, and darkness was upon the deep,
and not stating on what day Thou didst create these things. Thus,
meanwhile, do I conceive, that it is on account of that heaven of
heavens, that intellectual heaven, where to understand is to know all
at once,--not "in part," not "darkly," not "through a glass," [1102]
but as a whole, in manifestation, "face to face;" not this thing now,
that anon, but (as has been said) to know at once without any change
of times; and on account of the invisible and formless earth, without
any change of times; which change is wont to have "this thing now,
that anon," because, where there is no form there can be no
distinction between "this" or "that;"--it is, then, on account of
these two,--a primitively formed, and a wholly formless; the one
heaven, but the heaven of heavens, the other earth, but the earth
invisible and formless;--on account of these two do I meanwhile
conceive that Thy Scripture said without mention of days, "In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth." For immediately it
added of what earth it spake. And when on the second day the firmament
is recorded to have been created, and called heaven, it suggests to us
of which heaven He spake before without mention of days.
Footnotes
[1102] 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
Chapter XIV.--Of the Depth of the Sacred Scripture, and Its Enemies.
17. Wonderful is the depth of Thy oracles, whose surface is before us,
inviting the little ones; and yet wonderful is the depth, O my God,
wonderful is the depth. [1103] It is awe to look into it; and awe of
honour, and a tremor of love. The enemies thereof I hate vehemently.
[1104] Oh, if Thou wouldest slay them with Thy two-edged sword, [1105]
that they be not its enemies! For thus do I love, that they should be
slain unto themselves that they may live unto Thee. But behold others
not reprovers, but praisers of the book of Genesis,--"The Spirit of
God," say they, "Who by His servant Moses wrote these things, willed
not that these words should be thus understood. He willed not that it
should be understood as Thou sayest, but as we say." Unto whom, O God
of us all, Thyself being Judge, do I thus answer.
Footnotes
[1103] See p. 112, note 2, and p. 178, note 2, above. See also Trench,
Hulsean Lectures (1845), lect. 6, "The Inexhaustibility of Scripture."
[1104] Ps. cxxxix. 21.
[1105] Ps. cxlix. 6. He refers to the Manichæans (see p. 71, note l).
In his comment on this place, he interprets the "two-edged sword" to
mean the Old and New Testament, called two-edged, he says, because it
speaks of things temporal and eternal.
Chapter XV.--He Argues Against Adversaries Concerning the Heaven of
Heavens.
18. "Will you say that these things are false, which, with a strong
voice, Truth tells me in my inner ear, concerning the very eternity of
the Creator, that His substance is in no wise changed by time, nor
that His will is separate from His substance? Wherefore, He willeth
not one thing now, another anon, but once and for ever He willeth all
things that He willeth; not again and again, nor now this, now that;
nor willeth afterwards what He willeth not before, nor willeth not
what before He willed. Because such a will is mutable and no mutable
thing is eternal; but our God is eternal. [1106] Likewise He tells me,
tells me in my inner ear, that the expectation of future things is
turned to sight when they have come; and this same sight is turned to
memory when they have passed. Moreover, all thought which is thus
varied is mutable, and nothing mutable is eternal; but our God is
eternal." These things I sum up and put together, and I find that my
God, the eternal God, hath not made any creature by any new will, nor
that His knowledge suffereth anything transitory.
19. What, therefore, will ye say, ye objectors? Are these things
false? "No," they say. "What is this? Is it false, then, that every
nature already formed, or matter formable, is only from Him who is
supremely good, because He is supreme? . . . . Neither do we deny
this," say they. "What then? Do you deny this, that there is a certain
sublime creature, clinging with so chaste a love with the true and
truly eternal God, that although it be not co-eternal with Him, yet it
separateth itself not from Him, nor floweth into any variety and
vicissitude of times, but resteth in the truest contemplation of Him
only?" Since Thou, O God, showest Thyself unto him, and sufficest him,
who loveth Thee as much as Thou commandest, and, therefore, he
declineth not from Thee, nor toward himself. [1107] This is the house
of God, [1108] not earthly, nor of any celestial bulk corporeal, but a
spiritual house and a partaker of Thy eternity, because without
blemish for ever. For Thou hast made it fast for ever and ever; Thou
hast given it a law, which it shall not pass. [1109] Nor yet is it
co-eternal with Thee, O God, because not without beginning, for it was
made.
20. For although we find no time before it, for wisdom was created
before all things, [1110] --not certainly that Wisdom manifestly
co-eternal and equal unto Thee, our God, His Father, and by Whom all
things were created, and in Whom, as the Beginning, Thou createdst
heaven and earth; but truly that wisdom which has been created,
namely, the intellectual nature, [1111] which, in the contemplation of
light, is light. For this, although created, is also called wisdom.
But as great as is the difference between the Light which enlighteneth
and that which is enlightened, [1112] so great is the difference
between the Wisdom that createth and that which hath been created; as
between the Righteousness which justifieth, and the righteousness
which has been made by justification. For we also are called Thy
righteousness; for thus saith a certain servant of Thine: "That we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him." [1113] Therefore,
since a certain created wisdom was created before all things, the
rational and intellectual mind of that chaste city of Thine, our
mother which is above, and is free, [1114] and "eternal in the
heavens" [1115] (in what heavens, unless in those that praise Thee,
the "heaven of heavens," [1116] because this also is the "heaven of
heavens," which is the Lord's)--although we find not time before it,
because that which hath been created before all things also precedeth
the creature of time, yet is the Eternity of the Creator Himself
before it, from Whom, having been created, it took the beginning,
although not of time,--for time as yet was not,--yet of its own very
nature.
21. Hence comes it so to be of Thee, our God, as to be manifestly
another than Thou, and not the Self-same. [1117] Since, although we
find time not only not before it, but not in it (it being proper ever
to behold Thy face, nor is ever turned aside from it, wherefore it
happens that it is varied by no change), yet is there in it that
mutability itself whence it would become dark and cold, but that,
clinging unto Thee with sublime love, it shineth and gloweth from Thee
like a perpetual noon. O house, full of light and splendour! I have
loved thy beauty, and the place of the habitation of the glory of my
Lord, [1118] thy builder and owner. Let my wandering sigh after thee;
and I speak unto Him that made thee, that He may possess me also in
thee, seeing He hath made me likewise. "I have gone astray, like a
lost sheep;" [1119] yet upon the shoulders of my Sheperd, [1120] thy
builder, I hope that I may be brought back to thee.
22. "What say ye to me, O ye objectors whom I was addressing, and who
yet believe that Moses was the holy servant of God, and that his books
were the oracles of the Holy Ghost? Is not this house of God, not
indeed co-eternal with God, yet, according to its measure, eternal in
the heavens, [1121] where in vain you seek for changes of times,
because you will not find them? For that surpasseth all extension, and
every revolving space of time, to which it is ever good to cleave fast
to God." [1122] "It is," say they. "What, therefore, of those things
which my heart cried out unto my God, when within it heard the voice
of His praise, what then do you contend is false? Or is it because the
matter was formless, wherein, as there was no form, there was no
order? But where there was no order there could not be any change of
times; and yet this `almost nothing,' inasmuch as it was not
altogether nothing, was verily from Him, from Whom is whatever is, in
what state soever anything is." "This also," say they, "we do not
deny."
Footnotes
[1106] See xi. sec. 41, above.
[1107] In his De Vera Relig. c. 13, he says: "We must confess that the
angels are in their nature mutable as God is Immutable. Yet by that
will with which they love God more than themselves, they remain firm
and staple in Him, and enjoy His majesty, being most willingly subject
to Him alone."
[1108] In his Con. Adv. Leg. et Proph. i. 2, he speaks of all who are
holy, whether angels or men, as being God's dwelling-place.
[1109] Ps. cxlviii. 6.
[1110] Ecclus. i. 4.
[1111] "Pet. Lombard. lib. sent. 2, dist. 2, affirms that by Wisdom,
Ecclus. i. 4, the angels be understood, the whole spiritual
intellectual nature; namely, this highest heaven, in which the angels
were created, and it by them instantly filled."--W. W.
[1112] On God as the Father of Lights, see p. 76, note 2. In addition
to the references there given, compare in Ev. Joh. Tract. ii. sec. 7;
xiv. secs. 1, 2; and xxxv. sec. 3. See also p. 373, note, below.
[1113] 2 Cor. v. 21.
[1114] Gal. iv. 26.
[1115] 2 Cor. v. 1.
[1116] Ps. cxlviii. 4.
[1117] Against the Manichæans. See iv. sec. 26, and part 2 of note on
p. 76, above.
[1118] Ps. xxvi. 8.
[1119] Ps. cxix. 176.
[1120] Luke xv. 5.
[1121] 2 Cor. v. l.
[1122] Ps. lxxiii. 28.
Chapter XVI.--He Wishes to Have No Intercourse with Those Who Deny
Divine Truth.
23. With such as grant that all these things which Thy truth indicates
to my mind are true, I desire to confer a little before Thee, O my
God. For let those who deny these things bark and drown their own
voices with their clamour as much as they please; I will endeavour to
persuade them to be quiet, and to suffer Thy word to reach them. But
should they be unwilling, and should they repel me, I beseech, O my
God, that Thou "be not silent to me." [1123] Do Thou speak truly in my
heart, for Thou only so speakest, and I will send them away blowing
upon the dust from without, and raising it up into their own eyes; and
will myself enter into my chamber, [1124] and sing there unto Thee
songs of love,--groaning with groaning unutterable [1125] in my
pilgrimage, and remembering Jerusalem, with heart raised up towards
it, [1126] Jerusalem my country, Jerusalem my mother, and Thyself, the
Ruler over it, the Enlightener, the Father, the Guardian, the Husband,
the chaste and strong delight, the solid joy, and all good things
ineffable, even all at the same time, because the one supreme and true
Good. And I will not be turned away until Thou collect all that I am,
from this dispersion [1127] and deformity, into the peace of that very
dear mother, where are the first-fruits of my spirit, [1128] whence
these things are assured to me, and Thou conform and confirm it for
ever, my God, my Mercy. But with reference to those who say not that
all these things which are true and false, who honour Thy Holy
Scripture set forth by holy Moses, placing it, as with us, on the
summit of an authority [1129] to be followed, and yet who contradict
us in some particulars, I thus speak: Be Thou, O our God, judge
between my confessions and their contradictions.
Footnotes
[1123] Ps. xxviii. 1.
[1124] Isa. xxvi. 20.
[1125] Rom. viii. 26.
[1126] Baxter has a noteworthy passage on our heavenly citizenship in
his Saints' Rest: "As Moses, before he died, went up into Mount Nebo,
to take a survey of the land of Canaan, so the Christian ascends the
Mount of Contemplation, and by faith surveys his rest....As Daniel in
his captivity daily opened his window towards Jerusalem, though far
out of sight, when he went to God in his devotions, so may the
believing soul, in this captivity of the flesh, look towards
`Jerusalem which is above' (Gal. iv. 26). And as Paul was to the
Colossians (ii. 5) so may the believer be with the glorified spirits,
`though absent in the flesh,' yet with them `in the spirit,' joying
and beholding their heavenly `order.' And as the lark sweetly sings
while she soars on high, but is suddenly silenced when she falls to
the earth, so is the frame of the soul most delightful and divine
while it keeps in the views of God by contemplation. Alas, we make
there too short a stay, fall down again, and lay by our music!"
(Fawcett's Ed. p. 327).
[1127] See ii. sec. 1; ix. sec. 10; x. sec. 40, note; ibid. sec. 65;
and xi. sec. 39, above.
[1128] See ix. sec. 24, above; and xiii. sec. 13, below.
[1129] See p. 118, note 12, above.
Chapter XVII.--He Mentions Five Explanations of the Words of Genesis
I. I.
24. For they say, "Although these things be true, yet Moses regarded
not those two things, when by divine revelation he said, `In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth.' [1130] Under the name
of heaven he did not indicate that spiritual or intellectual creature
which always beholds the face of God; nor under the name of earth,
that shapeless matter." "What then?" "That man," say they, "meant as
we say; this it is that he declared by those words." "What is that?"
"By the name of heaven and earth," say they, "did he first wish to set
forth, universally and briefly, all this visible world, that
afterwards by the enumeration of the days he might distribute, as if
in detail, all those things which it pleased the Holy Spirit thus to
reveal. For such men were that rude and carnal people to which he
spoke, that he judged it prudent that only those works of God as were
visible should be entrusted to them." They agree, however, that the
earth invisible and formless, and the darksome deep (out of which it
is subsequently pointed out that all these visible things, which are
known to all, were made and set in order during those "days"), may not
unsuitably be understood of this formless matter.
25. What, now, if another should say "That this same formlessness and
confusion of matter was first introduced under the name of heaven and
earth, because out of it this visible world, with all those natures
which most manifestly appear in it, and which is wont to be called by
the name of heaven and earth, was created and perfected"? But what if
another should say, that "That invisible and visible nature is not
inaptly called heaven and earth; and that consequently the universal
creation, which God in His wisdom hath made,--that is, `in the
begining,'--was comprehended under these two words. Yet, since all
things have been made, not of the substance of God, but out of nothing
[1131] (because they are not that same thing that God is, and there is
in them all a certain mutability, whether they remain, as doth the
eternal house of God, or be changed, as are the soul and body of man),
therefore, that the common matter of all things invisible and
visible,--as yet shapeless, but still capable of form,--out of which
was to be created heaven and earth (that is, the invisible and visible
creature already formed), was spoken of by the same names by which the
earth invisible and formless and the darkness upon the deep would be
called; with this difference, however, that the earth invisible and
formless is understood as corporeal matter, before it had any manner
of form, but the darkness upon the deep as spiritual matter, before it
was restrained at all of its unlimited fluidity, and before the
enlightening of wisdom."
26. Should any man wish, he may still say, "That the already perfected
and formed natures, invisible and visible, are not signified under the
name of heaven and earth when it is read, `In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth;' but that the yet same formless
beginning of things, the matter capable of being formed and made, was
called by these names, because contained in it there were these
confused things not as yet distinguished by their qualities and forms,
the which now being digested in their own orders, are called heaven
and earth, the former being the spiritual, the latter the corporeal
creature."
Footnotes
[1130] Gen. i. 1.
[1131] See p. 165, note 4, above.
Chapter XVIII.--What Error is Harmless in Sacred Scripture.
27. All which things having been heard and considered, I am unwilling
to contend about words, [1132] for that is profitable to nothing but
to the subverting of the hearers. [1133] But the law is good to edify,
if a man use it lawfully; [1134] for the end of it "is charity out of
a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."
[1135] And well did our Master know, upon which two commandments He
hung all the Law and the Prophets. [1136] And what doth it hinder me,
O my God, Thou light of my eyes in secret, while ardently confessing
these things,--since by these words many things may be understood, all
of which are yet true,--what, I say, doth it hinder me, should I think
otherwise of what the writer thought than some other man thinketh?
Indeed, all of us who read endeavour to trace out and to understand
that which he whom we read wished to convey; and as we believe him to
speak truly, we dare not suppose that he has spoken anything which we
either know or suppose to be false. Since, therefore, each person
endeavours to understand in the Holy Scriptures that which the writer
understood, what hurt is it if a man understand what Thou, the light
of all true-speaking minds, dost show him to be true although he whom
he reads understood not this, seeing that he also understood a Truth,
not, however, this Truth?
Footnotes
[1132] See p. 164, note 2, above.
[1133] 2 Tim. ii. 14.
[1134] 1 Tim. i. 8.
[1135] Ibid. ver. 5.
[1136] Matt. xxii. 40. For he says in his Con. Faust. xvii. 6,
remarking on John i. 17, a text which he often quotes in this
connection: "The law itself by being fulfilled becomes grace and
truth. Grace is the fulfilment of love." And so in ibid. xix. 27 we
read: "From the words, `I came not to destroy the law but to fulfil
it,' we are not to understand that Christ by His precepts filled up
what was wanting in the law; but what the literal command failed in
doing from the pride and disobedience of men is accomplished by
grace....So, the apostle says, `faith worketh by love.'" So, again, we
read in Serm. cxxv.: "Quia venit dare caritatem, et caritas perficit
legem; merito dixit non veni legem solvere sed implere." And hence in
his letter to Jerome (Ep. clxvii. 19), he speaks of the "royal law" as
being "the law of liberty, which is the law of love." See p. 348, note
4, above.
Chapter XIX.--He Enumerates the Things Concerning Which All Agree.
28. For it is true, O Lord, that Thou hast made heaven and earth; it
is also true, that the Beginning is Thy Wisdom, in Which Thou hast
made all things. [1137] It is likewise true, that this visible world
hath its own great parts, the heaven and the earth, which in a short
compass comprehends all made and created natures. It is also true,
that everything mutable sets before our minds a certain want of form,
whereof it taketh a form, or is changed and turned. It is true, that
that is subject to no times which so cleaveth to the changeless form
as that, though it be mutable, it is not changed. It is true, that the
formlessness, which is almost nothing, cannot have changes, of times.
It is true, that that of which anything is made may by a certain mode
of speech be called by the name of that thing which is made of it;
whence that formlessness of which heaven and earth were made might it
be called "heaven and earth." It is true, that of all things having
form, nothing is nearer to the formless than the earth and the deep.
It is true, that not only every created, and formed thing, but also
whatever is capable of creation and of form, Thou hast made, "by whom
are all things." [1138] It is true, that everything that is formed
from that which is formless was formless before it was formed.
Footnotes
[1137] Ps. civ. 24. See p. 297 note 1, above.
[1138] 1 Cor. viii. 6.
Chapter XX.--Of the Words, "In the Beginning," Variously Understood.
29. From all these truths, of which they doubt not whose inner eye
Thou hast granted to see such things, and who immoveably believe
Moses, Thy servant, to have spoken in the spirit of truth; from all
these, then, he taketh one who saith, "In the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth,"--that is, "In His Word, co-eternal with
Himself, God made the intelligible and the sensible, or the spiritual
and corporeal creature." He taketh another, who saith, "In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth,"--that is, "In His
Word, co-eternal with Himself, God made the universal mass of this
corporeal world, with all those manifest and known natures which it
containeth." He, another, who saith, "In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth," that is, "In His Word, co-eternal with Himself,
God made the formless matter of the spiritual [1139] and corporeal
creature." He, another, who saith, "In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth,"--that is, "In His Word, co-eternal with
Himself, God made the formless matter of the corporeal creature,
wherein heaven and earth lay as yet confused, which being now
distinguished and formed, we, at this day, see in the mass of this
world." He, another, who saith, "In the beginning God created heaven
and earth,"--that is, "In the very beginning of creating and working,
God made that formless matter confusedly containing heaven and earth,
out of which, being formed, they now stand out, and are manifest, with
all the things that are in them."
Footnotes
[1139] Augustin, in his letter to Jerome (Ep. clxvi. 4) on "The origin
of the human soul," says: "The soul, whether it be termed material or
immaterial, has a certain nature of its own, created from a substance
superior to the elements of this world." And in his De Gen. ad Lit.
vii. 10, he speaks of the soul being formed from a certain "spiritual
matter," even as flesh was formed from the earth. It should be
observed that at one time Augustin held to the theory that the souls
of infants were created by God out of nothing at each fresh birth, and
only rejected this view for that of its being generated by the parents
with the body under the pressure of the Pelagian controversy. The
first doctrine was generally held by the Schoolmen; and William of
Conches maintained this belief on the authority of
Augustin,--apparently being unaware of any modification in his
opinion: "Cum Augustino," he says (Victor Cousin, Ouvrages ined.
d'Abelard, p. 673), "credo et sentio quotidie novas animas nom ex
traduce non ex aliqua substantia, sed ex nihilo, solo jussu creatoris
creari." Those who held the first-named belief were called Creatiani;
those who held the second, Truduciani. It may be noted as to the word
"Traduciani," that Tertullian, in his De Anima, chaps. 24-27, etc.,
frequently uses the word tradux in this connection. Augustin, in his
Retractations, ii. 45, refers to his letter to Jerome, and urges that
if so obscure a matter is to be discussed at all, that solution only
should be received: "Quæ contraria non sit apertissimis rebus quas de
originati peccato fides catholica novit in parvulis, nisi regenerentur
in Christo, sine dubitatione damnandis." On Tertullian's views, see
Bishop Kays, p. 178, etc.
Chapter XXI.--Of the Explanation of the Words, "The Earth Was
Invisible."
30. And as concerns the understanding of the following words, out of
all those truths he selected one to himself, who saith, "But the earth
was invisible and without form, and darkness was upon the deep,"--that
is, "That corporeal thing, which God made, was as yet the formless
matter of corporeal things, without order, without light." He taketh
another, who saith, "But the earth was invisible and without form, and
darkness was upon the deep,"--that is, "This whole, which is called
heaven and earth, was as yet formless and darksome matter, out of
which the corporeal heaven and the corporeal earth were to be made,
with all things therein which are known to our corporeal senses." He,
another, who saith, "But the earth was invisible and without form, and
darkness was upon the deep,"--that is, "This whole, which is called
heaven and earth, was as yet a formless and darksome matter, out of
which were to be made that intelligible heaven, which is otherwise
called the heaven of heavens, and the earth, namely, the whole
corporeal nature, under which name may also be comprised this
corporeal heaven,--that is, from which every invisible and visible
creature would be created." He, another, who saith, "But the carth was
invisible and without form, and darkness was upon the deep,"--"The
Scripture called not that formlessness by the name of heaven and
earth, but that formlessness itself," saith he, "already was, which he
named the earth invisible and formless and the darksome deep, of which
he had said before, that God had made the heaven and the earth,
namely, the spiritual and corporeal creature." He, another, who saith,
"But the earth was invisible and formless, and darkness was upon the
deep,"--that is, "There was already a formless matter, whereof the
Scripture before said, that God had made heaven and earth, namely, the
entire corporeal mass of the world, divided into two very great parts,
the superior and the inferior, with all those familiar and known
creatures which are in them."
Chapter XXII.--He Discusses Whether Matter Was from Eternity, or Was
Made by God. [1140]
31. For, should any one endeavour to contend against these last two
opinions, thus,--"If you will not admit that this formlessness of
matter appears to be called by the name of heaven and earth, then
there was something which God had not made out of which He could make
heaven and earth; for Scripture hath not told us that God made this
matter, unless we understand it to be implied in the term of heaven
and earth, or of earth only, when it is said, `In the beginning God
created heaven and earth,' as that which follows, but the earth was
invisible and formless, although it was pleasing to him so to call the
formless matter, we may not yet understand any but that which God made
in that text which hath been already written, `God made heaven and
earth.'" The maintainers of either one or the other of these two
opinions which we have put last will, when they have heard these
things, answer and say, "We deny not indeed that this formless matter
was created by God, the God of whom are all things, very good; for, as
we say that that is a greater good which is created and formed, so we
acknowledge that that is a minor good which is capable of creation and
form, but yet good. But yet the Scripture hath not declared that God
made this formlessness, any more than it hath declared many other
things; as the `Cherubim,' and `Seraphim,' [1141] and those of which
the apostle distinctly speaks, `Thrones,' `Dominions,'
`Principalities,' `Powers,' [1142] all of which it is manifest God
made. Or if in that which is said, `He made heaven and earth,' all
things are comprehended, what do we say of the waters upon which the
Spirit of God moved? For if they are understood as incorporated in the
word earth, how then can formless matter be meant in the term earth
when we see the waters so beautiful? Or if it be so meant, why then is
it written that out of the same formlessness the firmament was made
and called heaven, and yet it is not written that the waters were
made? For those waters, which we perceive flowing in so beautiful a
manner, remain not formless and invisible. But if, then, they received
that beauty when God said, Let the water which is under the firmament
be gathered together, [1143] so that the gathering be the very
formation, what will be answered concerning the waters which are above
the firmament, because if formless they would not have deserved to
receive a seat so honourable, nor is it written by what word they were
formed? If, then, Genesis is silent as to anything that God has made,
which, however, neither sound faith nor unerring understanding
doubteth that God hath made, [1144] let not any sober teaching dare to
say that these waters were co-eternal with God because we find them
mentioned in the book of Genesis; but when they were created, we find
not. Why--truth instructing us--may we not understand that that
formless matter, which the Scripture calls the earth invisible and
without form, and the darksome deep, [1145] have been made by God out
of nothing, and therefore that they are not co-eternal with Him,
although that narrative hath failed to tell when they were made?"
Footnotes
[1140] See xi. sec. 7, and note, above; and xii. sec. 33, and note,
below. See also the subtle reasoning of Dean Mansel (Bampton Lectures,
lect. ii.), on the inconsequence of receiving the idea of the creation
out of nothing on other than Christian principles. And compare
Coleridge, The Friend, iii. 213.
[1141] Isa. vi. 2, and xxxvii. 16.
[1142] Col. i. 16.
[1143] Gen. i. 9.
[1144] See p. 165, note 4, above.
[1145] See p. 176, note 5, above.
Chapter XXIII.--Two Kinds of Disagreements in the Books to Be
Explained.
32. These things, therefore, being heard and perceived according to my
weakness of apprehension, which I confess unto Thee, O Lord, who
knowest it, I see that two sorts of differences may arise when by
signs anything is related, even by true reporters,--one concerning the
truth of the things, the other concerning the meaning of him who
reports them. For in one way we inquire, concerning the forming of the
creature, what is true; but in another, what Moses, that excellent
servant of Thy faith, would have wished that the reader and hearer
should understand by these words. As for the first kind, let all those
depart from me who imagine themselves to know as true what is false.
And as for the other also, let all depart from me who imagine Moses to
have spoken things that are false. But let me be united in Thee, O
Lord, with them, and in Thee delight myself with them that feed on Thy
truth, in the breadth of charity; and let us approach together unto
the words of Thy book, and in them make search for Thy will, through
the will of Thy servant by whose pen Thou hast dispensed them.
Chapter XXIV.--Out of the Many True Things, It is Not Asserted
Confidently that Moses Understood This or That.
33. But which of us, amid so many truths which occur to inquirers in
these words, understood as they are in different ways, shall so
discover that one interpretation as to confidently say "that Moses
thought this," and "that in that narrative he wished this to be
understood," as confidently as he says "that this is true," whether he
thought this thing or the other? For behold, O my God, I Thy servant,
who in this book have vowed unto Thee a sacrifice of confession, and
beseech Thee that of Thy mercy I may pay my vows unto Thee, [1146]
behold, can I, as I confidently assert that Thou in Thy immutable word
hast created all things, invisible and visible, with equal confidence
assert that Moses meant nothing else than this when he wrote, "In the
beginning God created. the heaven and the earth." [1147] No. Because
it is not as clear to me that this was in his mind when he wrote these
things, as I see it to be certain in Thy truth. For his thoughts might
be set upon the very beginning of the creation when he said, "In the
beginning;" and he might wish it to be understood that, in this place,
"the heaven and the earth" were no formed and perfected nature,
whether spiritual or corporeal, but each of them newly begun, and as
yet formless. Because I see, that which-soever of these had been said,
it might have been said truly; but which of them he may have thought
in these words, I do not so perceive. Although, whether it were one of
these, or some other meaning which has not been mentioned by me, that
this great man saw in his mind when he used these words, I make no
doubt but that he saw it truly, and expressed it suitably.
Footnotes
[1146] Ps. xxii. 25.
[1147] It is curious to note here Fichte's strange idea (Anweisung zum
seligen Leben, Werke, v. 479), that St. John, at the commencement of
his Gospel, in his teaching as to the "Word," intended to confute the
Mosaic statement, which Fichte--since it ran counter to that idea of
"the absolute" which he made the point of departure in his
philosophy--antagonizes as a heathen and Jewish error. On "In the
Beginning," see p. 166, note 2, above.
Chapter XXV.--It Behoves Interpreters, When Disagreeing Concerning
Obscure Places, to Regard God the Author of Truth, and the Rule of
Charity.
34. Let no one now trouble me by saying, Moses thought not as you say,
but as I say." For should he ask me, "Whence knowest thou that Moses
thought this which you deduce from his words?" I ought to take it
contentedly, [1148] and reply perhaps as I have before, or somewhat
more fully should he be obstinate. But when he says, "Moses meant not
what you say, but what I say," and yet denies not what each of us
says, and that both are true, O my God, life of the poor, in whose
bosom there is no contradiction, pour down into my heart Thy
soothings, that I may patiently bear with such as say this to me; not
because they are divine, and because they have seen in the heart of
Thy servant what they say, but because they are proud, and have not
known the opinion of Moses, but love their own,--not because it is
true, but because it is their own. Otherwise they would equally love
another true opinion, as I love what they say when they speak what is
true; not because it is theirs, but because it is true, and therefore
now not theirs because true. But if they therefore love that because
it is true, it is now both theirs and mine, since it is common to all
the lovers of truth. But because they contend that Moses meant not
what I say, but I what they themselves say, this I neither like nor
love; because, though it were so, yet that rashness is not of
knowledge, but of audacity; and not vision, but vanity brought it
forth. And therefore, O Lord, are Thy judgments to be dreaded, since
Thy truth is neither mine, nor his, nor another's, but of all of us,
whom Thou publicly callest to have it in common, warning us terribly
not to hold it as specially for ourselves, lest we be deprived of it.
For whosoever claims to himself as his own that which Thou appointed
to all to enjoy, and desires that to be his own which belongs to all,
is forced away from what is common to all to that which is his
own--that is, from truth to falsehood. For he that "speaketh a lie,
speaketh of his own." [1149]
35. Hearken, O God, Thou best Judge! Truth itself, hearken to what I
shall say to this gainsayer; hearken, for before Thee I say it, and
before my brethren who use Thy law lawfully, to the end of charity;
[1150] hearken and behold what I shall say to him, if it be pleasing
unto Thee. For this brotherly and peaceful word do I return unto him:
"If we both see that that which thou sayest is true, and if we both
see that what I say is true, where, I ask, do we see it? Certainly not
I in thee, nor thou in me, but both in the unchangeable truth itself,
[1151] which is above our minds." When, therefore, we may not contend
about the very light of the Lord our God, why do we contend about the
thoughts of. our neighbour, which we cannot so see as incommutable
truth is seen; when, if Moses himself had appeared to us and said,
"This I meant," not so should we see it, but believe it? Let us not,
then, "be puffed up for one against the other," [1152] above that
which is written; let us love the Lord our God with all our heart,
with all our soul, and with