Writings of Augustine. On Christian Doctrine
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On Christian Doctrine
In Four Books.
Translated by Rev. Professor J. F. Shaw, of Londonderry.
Published in 1886 by Philip Schaff,
New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co.
Introductory Note by the Editor.
The four books of St. Augustin On Christian Doctrine (De Doctrina
Christiana, iv libri) are a compend of exegetical theology to guide
the reader in the understanding and interpretation of the Sacred
Scriptures, according to the analogy of faith. The first three books
were written a.d. 397; the fourth was added 426.
He speaks of it in his Retractations, Bk. ii., chap. 4, as follows:
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"Finding that the books on Christian Doctrine were not finished, I
thought it better to complete them before passing on to the revision
of others. Accordingly, I completed the third book, which had been
written as far as the place where a quotation is made from the Gospel
about the woman who took leaven and hid it in three measures of meal
till the whole was leavened. [1702]I added also the last book, and
finished the whole work in four books [in the year 426]: the first
three affording aids to the interpretation of Scripture, the last
giving directions as to the mode of making known our interpretation.
In the second book, [1703] I made a mistake as to the authorship of
the book commonly called the Wisdom of Solomon. For I have since
learnt that it is not a well-established fact, as I said it was, that
Jesus the son of Sirach, who wrote the book of Ecclesiasticus, wrote
this book also: on the contrary, I have ascertained that it is
altogether more probable that he was not the author of this book.
Again, when I said, `The authority of the Old Testament is contained
within the limits of these forty-four books,' [1704] I used the phrase
`Old Testament' in accordance with ecclesiastical usage. But the
apostle seems to restrict the application of the name `Old Testament'
to the law which was given on Mount Sinai. [1705]And in what I said
as to St. Ambrose having, by his knowledge of chronology, solved a
great difficulty, when he showed that Plato and Jeremiah were
contemporaries, [1706] my memory betrayed me. What that great bishop
really did say upon this subject may be seen in the book which he
wrote, `On Sacraments or Philosophy.'" [1707]
Footnotes
[1702] Bk. iii. chap. 25.
[1703] Chap. 8.
[1704] Bk. ii. chap. 8.
[1705] Gal. iv. 24.
[1706] Book. ii. chap. 28. See p. 547.
[1707] This book is among the lost works of Ambrose.
Contents of Christian Doctrine.
Preface,
Showing the Utility of the Treatise on Christian Doctrine.
Book I.
Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture.
The author divides his work into two parts, one relating to the
discovery, the other to the expression, of the true sense of
Scripture. He shows that to discover the meaning we must attend both
to things and to signs, as it is necessary to know what things we
ought to teach to the Christian people, and also the signs of these
things, that is, where the knowledge of these things is to be sought.
In this first book he treats of things, which he divides into three
classes,--things to be enjoyed, things to be used, and things which
use and enjoy. The only object which ought to be enjoyed is the
Triune God, who is our highest good and our true happiness. We are
prevented by our sins from enjoying God; and that our sins might be
taken away, "The Word was made Flesh," our Lord suffered, and died,
and rose again, and ascended into heaven, taking to Himself as his
bride the Church, in which we receive remission of our sins. And if
our sins are remitted and our souls renewed by grace, we may await
with hope the resurrection of the body to eternal glory; if not, we
shall be raised to everlasting punishment. These matters relating to
faith having been expounded, the author goes on to show that all
objects, except God, are for use; for, though some of them may be
loved, yet our love is not to rest in them, but to have reference to
God. And we ourselves are not objects of enjoyment to God: he uses
us, but for our own advantage. He then goes on to show that love--the
love of God for His own sake and the love of our neighbor for God's
sake--is the fulfillment and the end of all Scripture. After adding a
few words about hope, he shows, in conclusion, that faith, hope, and
love are graces essentially necessary for him who would understand and
explain aright the Holy Scriptures.
Book II.
Having completed his exposition of things, the author now proceeds to
discuss the subject of signs. He first defines what a sign is, and
shows that there are two classes of signs, the natural and the
conventional. Of conventional signs (which are the only class here
noticed), words are the most numerous and important, and are those
with which the interpreter of Scripture is chiefly concerned. The
difficulties and obscurities of Scripture spring chiefly from two
sources, unknown and ambiguous signs. The present book deals only
with unknown signs, the ambiguities of language being reserved for
treatment in the next book. The difficulty arising from ignorance of
signs is to be removed by learning the Greek and Hebrew languages, in
which Scripture is written, by comparing the various translations, and
by attending to the context. In the interpretation of figurative
expressions, knowledge of things is as necessary as knowledge of
words; and the various sciences and arts of the heathen, so far as
they are true and useful, may be turned to account in removing our
ignorance of signs, whether these be direct or figurative. Whilst
exposing the folly and futility of many heathen superstitions and
practices, the author points out how all that is sound and useful in
their science and philosophy may be turned to a Christian use. And in
conclusion, he shows the spirit in which it behoves us to address
ourselves to the study and interpretation of the sacred books.
Book III.
The author, having discussed in the preceding book the method of
dealing with unknown signs, goes on in this third book to treat of
ambiguous signs. Such signs may be either direct or figurative. In
the case of direct signs ambiguity may arise from the punctuation, the
pronunciation, or the doubtful signification of the words, and is to
be resolved by attention to the context, a comparison of translations,
or a reference to the original tongue. In the case of figurative
signs we need to guard against two mistakes:--1. the interpreting
literal expressions figuratively; 2. the interpreting figurative
expressions literally. The author lays down rules by which we may
decide whether an expression is literal or figurative; the general
rule being, that whatever can be shown to be in its literal sense
inconsistent either with purity of life or correctness of doctrine
must be taken figuratively. He then goes on to lay down rules for the
interpretation of expressions which have been proved to be figurative;
the general principle being, that no interpretation can be true which
does not promote the love of God and the love of man. The author then
proceeds to expound and illustrate the seven rules of Tichonius the
Donatist, which he commends to the attention of the student of Holy
Scripture.
Book IV.
Passing to the second part of his work, that which treats of
expression, the author premises that it is no part of his intention to
write a treatise on the laws of rhetoric. These can be learned
elsewhere, and ought not to be neglected, being indeed specially
necessary for the Christian teacher, whom it behoves to excell in
eloquence and power of speech. After detailing with much care and
minuteness the various qualities of an orator, he recommends the
authors of the Holy Scriptures as the best models of eloquence, far
excelling all others in the combination of eloquence with wisdom. He
points out that perspicuity is the most essential quality of style,
and ought to be cultivated with especial care by the teacher, as it is
the main requisite for instruction, although other qualities are
required for delighting and persuading the hearer. All these gifts
are to be sought in earnest prayer from God, though we are not to
forget to be zealous and diligent in study. He shows that there are
three species of style,--the subdued, the elegant, and the majestic;
the first serving for instruction, the second for praise, and the
third for exhortation: and of each of these he gives examples,
selected both from Scripture and from early teachers of the Church,
Cyprian and Ambrose. He shows that these various styles may be
mingled, and when and for what purposes they are mingled; and that
they all have the same end in view, to bring home the truth to the
hearer, so that he may understand it, hear it with gladness, and
practice it in his life. Finally, he exhorts the Christian teacher
himself, pointing out the dignity and responsibility of the office he
holds, to lead a life in harmony with his own teaching, and to show a
good example to all.
Preface.
Showing that to teach rules for the interpretation of Scripture is not
a superfluous task.
1. There are certain rules for the interpretation of Scripture which
I think might with great advantage be taught to earnest students of
the word, that they may profit not only from reading the works of
others who have laid open the secrets of the sacred writings, but also
from themselves opening such secrets to others. These rules I propose
to teach to those who are able and willing to learn, if God our Lord
do not withhold from me, while I write, the thoughts He is wont to
vouchsafe to me in my meditations on this subject. But before I enter
upon this undertaking, I think it well to meet the objections of those
who are likely to take exception to the work, or who would do so, did
I not conciliate them beforehand. And if, after all, men should still
be found to make objections, yet at least they will not prevail with
others (over whom they might have influence, did they not find them
forearmed against their assaults), to turn them back from a useful
study to the dull sloth of ignorance.
2. There are some, then, likely to object to this work of mine,
because they have failed to understand the rules here laid down.
Others, again, will think that I have spent my labor to no purpose,
because, though they understand the rules, yet in their attempts to
apply them and to interpret Scripture by them, they have failed to
clear up the point they wish cleared up; and these, because they have
received no assistance from this work themselves, will give it as
their opinion that it can be of no use to anybody. There is a third
class of objectors who either really do understand Scripture well, or
think they do, and who, because they know (or imagine) that they have
attained a certain power of interpreting the sacred books without
reading any directions of the kind that I propose to lay down here,
will cry out that such rules are not necessary for any one, but that
everything rightly done towards clearing up the obscurities of
Scripture could be better done by the unassisted grace of God.
3. To reply briefly to all these. To those who do not understand
what is here set down, my answer is, that I am not to be blamed for
their want of understanding. It is just as if they were anxious to
see the new or the old moon, or some very obscure star, and I should
point it out with my finger: if they had not sight enough to see even
my finger, they would surely have no right to fly into a passion with
me on that account. As for those who, even though they know and
understand my directions, fail to penetrate the meaning of obscure
passages in Scripture, they may stand for those who, in the case I
have imagined, are just able to see my finger, but cannot see the
stars at which it is pointed. And so both these classes had better
give up blaming me, and pray instead that God would grant them the
sight of their eyes. For though I can move my finger to point out an
object, it is out of my power to open men's eyes that they may see
either the fact that I am pointing, or the object at which I point.
4. But now as to those who talk vauntingly of Divine Grace, and boast
that they understand and can explain Scripture without the aid of such
directions as those I now propose to lay down, and who think,
therefore, that what I have undertaken to write is entirely
superfluous. I would such persons could calm themselves so far as to
remember that, however justly they may rejoice in God's great gift,
yet it was from human teachers they themselves learnt to read. Now,
they would hardly think it right that they should for that reason be
held in contempt by the Egyptian monk Antony, a just and holy man,
who, not being able to read himself, is said to have committed the
Scriptures to memory through hearing them read by others, and by dint
of wise meditation to have arrived at a thorough understanding of
them; or by that barbarian slave Christianus, of whom I have lately
heard from very respectable and trustworthy witnesses, who, without
any teaching from man, attained a full knowledge of the art of reading
simply through prayer that it might be revealed to him; after three
days' supplication obtaining his request that he might read through a
book presented to him on the spot by the astonished bystanders.
5. But if any one thinks that these stories are false, I do not
strongly insist on them. For, as I am dealing with Christians who
profess to understand the Scriptures without any directions from man
(and if the fact be so, they boast of a real advantage, and one of no
ordinary kind), they must surely grant that every one of us learnt his
own language by hearing it constantly from childhood, and that any
other language we have learnt,--Greek, or Hebrew, or any of the
rest,--we have learnt either in the same way, by hearing it spoken, or
from a human teacher. Now, then, suppose we advise all our brethren
not to teach their children any of these things, because on the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit the apostles immediately began to speak
the language of every race; and warn every one who has not had a like
experience that he need not consider himself a Christian, or may at
least doubt whether he has yet received the Holy Spirit? No, no;
rather let us put away false pride and learn whatever can be learnt
from man; and let him who teaches another communicate what he has
himself received without arrogance and without jealousy. And do not
let us tempt Him in whom we have believed, lest, being ensnared by
such wiles of the enemy and by our own perversity, we may even refuse
to go to the churches to hear the gospel itself, or to read a book, or
to listen to another reading or preaching, in the hope that we shall
be carried up to the third heaven, "whether in the body or out of the
body," as the apostle says, [1708] and there hear unspeakable words,
such as it is not lawful for man to utter, or see the Lord Jesus
Christ and hear the gospel from His own lips rather than from those of
men.
6. Let us beware of such dangerous temptations of pride, and let us
rather consider the fact that the Apostle Paul himself, although
stricken down and admonished by the voice of God from heaven, was yet
sent to a man to receive the sacraments and be admitted into the
Church; [1709] and that Cornelius the centurion, although an angel
announced to him that his prayers were heard and his alms had in
remembrance, was yet handed over to Peter for instruction, and not
only received the sacraments from the apostle's hands, but was also
instructed by him as to the proper objects of faith, hope, and love.
[1710]And without doubt it was possible to have done everything
through the instrumentality of angels, but the condition of our race
would have been much more degraded if God had not chosen to make use
of men as the ministers of His word to their fellow-men. For how
could that be true which is written, "The temple of God is holy, which
temple ye are," [1711] if God gave forth no oracles from His human
temple, but communicated everything that He wished to be taught to men
by voices from heaven, or through the ministration of angels?
Moreover, love itself, which binds men together in the bond of unity,
would have no means of pouring soul into soul, and, as it were,
mingling them one with another, if men never learnt anything from
their fellow-men.
7. And we know that the eunuch who was reading Isaiah the prophet,
and did not understand what he read, was not sent by the apostle to an
angel, nor was it an angel who explained to him what he did not
understand, nor was he inwardly illuminated by the grace of God
without the interposition of man; on the contrary, at the suggestion
of God, Philip, who did understand the prophet, came to him, and sat
with him, and in human words, and with a human tongue, opened to him
the Scriptures. [1712]Did not God talk with Moses, and yet he, with
great wisdom and entire absence of jealous pride, accepted the plan of
his father-in-law, a man of an alien race, for ruling and
administering the affairs of the great nation entrusted to him? [1713]
For Moses knew that a wise plan, in whatever mind it might
originate, was to be ascribed not to the man who devised it, but to
Him who is the Truth, the unchangeable God.
8. In the last place, every one who boasts that he, through divine
illumination, understands the obscurities of Scripture, though not
instructed in any rules of interpretation, at the same time believes,
and rightly believes, that this power is not his own, in the sense of
originating with himself, but is the gift of God. For so he seeks
God's glory, not his own. But reading and understanding, as he does,
without the aid of any human interpreter, why does he himself
undertake to interpret for others? Why does he not rather send them
direct to God, that they too may learn by the inward teaching of the
Spirit without the help of man? The truth is, he fears to incur the
re proach: "Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou oughtest to have
put my money to the exchangers." [1714]Seeing, then, that these men
teach others, either through speech or writing, what they understand,
surely they cannot blame me if I likewise teach not only what they
understand, but also the rules of interpretation they follow. For no
one ought to consider anything as his own, except perhaps what is
false. All truth is of Him who says, "I am the truth." [1715]For
what have we that we did not receive? and if we have received it, why
do we glory, as if we had not received it? [1716]
9. He who reads to an audience pronounces aloud the words he sees
before him: he who teaches reading, does it that others may be able
to read for themselves. Each, however, communicates to others what he
has learnt himself. Just so, the man who explains to an audience the
passages of Scripture he understands is like one who reads aloud the
words before him. On the other hand, the man who lays down rules for
interpretation is like one who teaches reading, that is, shows others
how to read for themselves. So that, just as he who knows how to read
is not dependent on some one else, when he finds a book, to tell him
what is written in it, so the man who is in possession of the rules
which I here attempt to lay down, if he meet with an obscure passage
in the books which he reads, will not need an interpreter to lay open
the secret to him, but, holding fast by certain rules, and following
up certain indications, will arrive at the hidden sense without any
error, or at least without falling into any gross absurdity. And so
although it will sufficiently appear in the course of the work itself
that no one can justly object to this undertaking of mine, which has
no other object than to be of service, yet as it seemed convenient to
reply at the outset to any who might make preliminary objections, such
is the start I have thought good to make on the road I am about to
traverse in this book.
Footnotes
[1708] 2 Cor. xii. 2-4.
[1709] Acts ix. 3.
[1710] Acts x.
[1711] 1 Cor. iii. 17.
[1712] Acts viii. 26.
[1713] Ex. xviii. 13.
[1714] Matt. xxv. 26, 27.
[1715] John xiv. 6.
[1716] 1 Cor. iv. 7.
.
Book I.
Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture.
Argument--The author divides his work into two parts, one relating to
the discovery, the other to the expression, of the true sense of
scripture. He shows that to discover the meaning we must attend both
to things and to signs, as it is necessary to know what things we
ought to teach to the Christian people, and also the signs of these
things, that is, where the knowledge of these things is to be sought.
In this first book he treats of things, which he divides into three
classes,--things to be enjoyed, things to be used, and things which
use and enjoy. The only object which ought to be enjoyed is the
triune God, who is our highest good and our true happiness. We are
prevented by our sins from enjoying God; and that our sins might be
taken away, "the word was made flesh," our Lord suffered, and died,
and rose again, and ascended into heaven, taking to himself as his
bride the church, in which we receive remission of our sins. And if
our sins are remitted and our souls renewed by grace, we may await
with hope the resurrection of the body to eternal glory; if not, we
shall be raised to everlasting punishment. These matters relating to
faith having been expounded, the author goes on to show that all
objects, except God, are for use; for, though some of them may be
loved, yet our love is not to rest in them, but to have reference to
God. And we ourselves are not objects of enjoyment to God; he uses
us, but for our own advantage. He then goes on to show that love--the
love of God for his own sake and the love of our neighbor for God's
sake--is the fulfillment and the end of all Scripture. After adding a
few words about hope, he shows, in conclusion, that faith, hope, and
love are graces essentially necessary for him who would understand and
explain aright the Holy Scriptures.
Chapter 1.--The Interpretation of Scripture Depends on the Discovery
and Enunciation of the Meaning, and is to Be Undertaken in Dependence
on God's Aid.
1. There are two things on which all interpretation of Scripture
depends: the mode of ascertaining the proper meaning, and the mode of
making known the meaning when it is ascertained. We shall treat first
of the mode of ascertaining, next of the mode of making known, the
meaning;--a great and arduous undertaking, and one that, if difficult
to carry out, it is, I fear, presumptuous to enter upon. And
presumptuous it would undoubtedly be, if I were counting on my own
strength; but since my hope of accomplishing the work rests on Him who
has already supplied me with many thoughts on this subject, I do not
fear but that He will go on to supply what is yet wanting when once I
have begun to use what He has already given. For a possession which
is not diminished by being shared with others, if it is possessed and
not shared, is not yet possessed as it ought to be possessed. The
Lord saith "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given." [1717]He will
give, then, to those who have; that is to say, if they use freely and
cheerfully what they have received, He will add to and perfect His
gifts. The loaves in the miracle were only five and seven in number
before the disciples began to divide them among the hungry people.
But when once they began to distribute them, though the wants of so
many thousands were satisfied, they filled baskets with the fragments
that were left. [1718]Now, just as that bread increased in the very
act of breaking it, so those thoughts which the Lord has already
vouchsafed to me with a view to undertaking this work will, as soon as
I begin to impart them to others, be multiplied by His grace, so that,
in this very work of distribution in which I have engaged, so far from
incurring loss and poverty, I shall be made to rejoice in a marvellous
increase of wealth.
Footnotes
[1717] Matt. xiii. 12.
[1718] Matt. xiv. 17, etc.; xx. 34, etc.
Chapter 2.--What a Thing Is, and What A Sign.
2. All instruction is either about things or about signs; but things
are learnt by means of signs. I now use the word "thing" in a strict
sense, to signify that which is never employed as a sign of anything
else: for example, wood, stone, cattle, and other things of that
kind. Not, however, the wood which we read Moses cast into the bitter
waters to make them sweet, [1719] nor the stone which Jacob used as a
pillow, [1720] nor the ram which Abraham offered up instead of his
son; [1721] for these, though they are things, are also signs of other
things. There are signs of another kind, those which are never
employed except as signs: for example, words. No one uses words
except as signs of something else; and hence may be understood what I
call signs: those things, to wit, which are used to indicate
something else. Accordingly, every sign is also a thing; for what is
not a thing is nothing at all. Every thing, however, is not also a
sign. And so, in regard to this distinction between things and signs,
I shall, when I speak of things, speak in such a way that even if some
of them may be used as signs also, that will not interfere with the
division of the subject according to which I am to discuss things
first and signs afterwards. But we must carefully remember that what
we have now to consider about things is what they are in themselves,
not what other things they are signs of.
Footnotes
[1719] Ex. xv. 25.
[1720] Gen. xxviii. 11.
[1721] Gen. xxii. 13.
Chapter 3.--Some Things are for Use, Some for Enjoyment.
3. There are some things, then, which are to be enjoyed, others which
are to be used, others still which enjoy and use. Those things which
are objects of enjoyment make us happy. Those things which are
objects of use assist, and (so to speak) support us in our efforts
after happiness, so that we can attain the things that make us happy
and rest in them. We ourselves, again, who enjoy and use these
things, being placed among both kinds of objects, if we set ourselves
to enjoy those which we ought to use, are hindered in our course, and
sometimes even led away from it; so that, getting entangled in the
love of lower gratifications, we lag behind in, or even altogether
turn back from, the pursuit of the real and proper objects of
enjoyment.
Chapter 4.--Difference of Use and Enjoyment.
4. For to enjoy a thing is to rest with satisfaction in it for its
own sake. To use, on the other hand, is to employ whatever means are
at one's disposal to obtain what one desires, if it is a proper object
of desire; for an unlawful use ought rather to be called an abuse.
Suppose, then, we were wanderers in a strange country, and could not
live happily away from our fatherland, and that we felt wretched in
our wandering, and wishing to put an end to our misery, determined to
return home. We find, however, that we must make use of some mode of
conveyance, either by land or water, in order to reach that fatherland
where our enjoyment is to commence. But the beauty of the country
through which we pass, and the very pleasure of the motion, charm our
hearts, and turning these things which we ought to use into objects of
enjoyment, we become unwilling to hasten the end of our journey; and
becoming engrossed in a factitious delight, our thoughts are diverted
from that home whose delights would make us truly happy. Such is a
picture of our condition in this life of mortality. We have wandered
far from God; and if we wish to return to our Father's home, this
world must be used, not enjoyed, that so the invisible things of God
may be clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
[1722] --that is, that by means of what is material and temporary we
may lay hold upon that which is spiritual and eternal.
Footnotes
[1722] Rom. i. 20.
Chapter 5.--The Trinity the True Object of Enjoyment.
5. The true objects of enjoyment, then, are the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit, who are at the same time the Trinity, one Being,
supreme above all, and common to all who enjoy Him, if He is an
object, and not rather the cause of all objects, or indeed even if He
is the cause of all. For it is not easy to find a name that will
suitably express so great excellence, unless it is better to speak in
this way: The Trinity, one God, of whom are all things, through whom
are all things, in whom are all things. [1723]Thus the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit, and each of these by Himself, is God, and
at the same time they are all one God; and each of them by Himself is
a complete substance, and yet they are all one substance. The Father
is not the Son nor the Holy Spirit; the Son is not the Father nor the
Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is not the Father nor the Son: but the
Father is only Father, the Son is only Son, and the Holy Spirit is
only Holy Spirit. To all three belong the same eternity, the same
unchangeableness, the same majesty, the same power. In the Father is
unity, in the Son equality, in the Holy Spirit the harmony of unity
and equality; and these three attributes are all one because of the
Father, all equal because of the Son, and all harmonious because of
the Holy Spirit.
Footnotes
[1723] Rom. xi. 36.
Chapter 6.--In What Sense God is Ineffable.
6. Have I spoken of God, or uttered His praise, in any worthy way?
Nay, I feel that I have done nothing more than desire to speak; and if
I have said anything, it is not what I desired to say. How do I know
this, except from the fact that God is unspeakable? But what I have
said, if it had been unspeakable, could not have been spoken. And so
God is not even to be called "unspeakable," because to say even this
is to speak of Him. Thus there arises a curious contradiction of
words, because if the unspeakable is what cannot be spoken of, it is
not unspeakable if it can be called unspeakable. And this opposition
of words is rather to be avoided by silence than to be explained away
by speech. And yet God, although nothing worthy of His greatness can
be said of Him, has condescended to accept the worship of men's
mouths, and has desired us through the medium of our own words to
rejoice in His praise. For on this principle it is that He is called
Deus (God). For the sound of those two syllables in itself conveys no
true knowledge of His nature; but yet all who know the Latin tongue
are led, when that sound reaches their ears, to think of a nature
supreme in excellence and eternal in existence.
Chapter 7.--What All Men Understand by the Term God.
7. For when the one supreme God of gods is thought of, even by those
who believe that there are other gods, and who call them by that name,
and worship them as gods, their thought takes the form of an endeavor
to reach the conception of a nature, than which nothing more excellent
or more exalted exists. And since men are moved by different kinds of
pleasures, partly by those which pertain to the bodily senses, partly
by those which pertain to the intellect and soul, those of them who
are in bondage to sense think that either the heavens, or what appears
to be most brilliant in the heavens, or the universe itself, is God of
gods: or if they try to get beyond the universe, they picture to
themselves something of dazzling brightness, and think of it vaguely
as infinite, or of the most beautiful form conceivable; or they
represent it in the form of the human body, if they think that
superior to all others. Or if they think that there is no one God
supreme above the rest, but that there are many or even innumerable
gods of equal rank, still these too they conceive as possessed of
shape and form, according to what each man thinks the pattern of
excellence. Those, on the other hand, who endeavor by an effort of
the intelligence to reach a conception of God, place Him above all
visible and bodily natures, and even above all intelligent and
spiritual natures that are subject to change. All, however, strive
emulously to exalt the excellence of God: nor could any one be found
to believe that any being to whom there exists a superior is God. And
so all concur in believing that God is that which excels in dignity
all other objects.
Chapter 8.--God to Be Esteemed Above All Else, Because He is
Unchangeable Wisdom.
8. And since all who think about God think of Him as living, they
only can form any conception of Him that is not absurd and unworthy
who think of Him as life itself; and, whatever may be the bodily form
that has suggested itself to them, recognize that it is by life it
lives or does not live, and prefer what is living to what is dead; who
understand that the living bodily form itself, however it may outshine
all others in splendor, overtop them in size, and excel them in
beauty, is quite a distinct thing from the life by which it is
quickened; and who look upon the life as incomparably superior in
dignity and worth to the mass which is quickened and animated by it.
Then, when they go on to look into the nature of the life itself, if
they find it mere nutritive life, without sensibility, such as that of
plants, they consider it inferior to sentient life, such as that of
cattle; and above this, again, they place intelligent life, such as
that of men. And, perceiving that even this is subject to change,
they are compelled to place above it, again, that unchangeable life
which is not at one time foolish, at another time wise, but on the
contrary is wisdom itself. For a wise intelligence, that is, one that
has attained to wisdom, was, previous to its attaining wisdom,
unwise. But wisdom itself never was unwise, and never can become so.
And if men never caught sight of this wisdom, they could never with
entire confidence prefer a life which is unchangeably wise to one that
is subject to change. This will be evident, if we consider that the
very rule of truth by which they affirm the unchangeable life to be
the more excellent, is itself unchangeable: and they cannot find such
a rule, except by going beyond their own nature; for they find nothing
in themselves that is not subject to change.
Chapter 9.--All Acknowledge the Superiority of Unchangeable Wisdom to
that Which is Variable.
9. Now, no one is so egregiously silly as to ask, "How do you know
that a life of unchangeable wisdom is preferable to one of change?"
For that very truth about which he asks, how I know it? is
unchangeably fixed in the minds of all men, and presented to their
common contemplation. And the man who does not see it is like a blind
man in the sun, whom it profits nothing that the splendor of its
light, so clear and so near, is poured into his very eye-balls. The
man, on the other hand, who sees, but shrinks from this truth, is weak
in his mental vision from dwelling long among the shadows of the
flesh. And thus men are driven back from their native land by the
contrary blasts of evil habits, and pursue lower and less valuable
objects in preference to that which they own to be more excellent and
more worthy.
Chapter 10.--To See God, the Soul Must Be Purified.
10. Wherefore, since it is our duty fully to enjoy the truth which
lives unchangeably, and since the triune God takes counsel in this
truth for the things which He has made, the soul must be purified that
it may have power to perceive that light, and to rest in it when it is
perceived. And let us look upon this purification as a kind of
journey or voyage to our native land. For it is not by change of
place that we can come nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the
cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits.
Chapter 11.--Wisdom Becoming Incarnate, a Pattern to Us of
Purification.
11. But of this we should have been wholly incapable, had not Wisdom
condescended to adapt Himself to our weakness, and to show us a
pattern of holy life in the form of our own humanity. Yet, since we
when we come to Him do wisely, He when He came to us was considered by
proud men to have done very foolishly. And since we when we come to
Him become strong, He when He came to us was looked upon as weak. But
"the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is
stronger than men." [1724]And thus, though Wisdom was Himself our
home, He made Himself also the way by which we should reach our home.
Footnotes
[1724] 1 Cor. i. 25.
Chapter 12.--In What Sense the Wisdom of God Came to Us.
And though He is everywhere present to the inner eye when it is sound
and clear, He condescended to make Himself manifest to the outward eye
of those whose inward sight is weak and dim. "For after that, in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." [1725]
12. Not then in the sense of traversing space, but because He
appeared to mortal men in the form of mortal flesh, He is said to have
come to us. For He came to a place where He had always been, seeing
that "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him." But,
because men, who in their eagerness to enjoy the creature instead of
the Creator had grown into the likeness of this world, and are
therefore most appropriately named "the world," did not recognize Him,
therefore the evangelist says, "and the world knew Him not." [1726]
Thus, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Why
then did He come, seeing that He was already here, except that it
pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe?
Footnotes
[1725] 1 Cor. i. 21.
[1726] John i. 10.
Chapter 13.--The Word Was Made Flesh.
In what way did He come but this, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us"? [1727]Just as when we speak, in order that what we have
in our minds may enter through the ear into the mind of the hearer,
the word which we have in our hearts becomes an outward sound and is
called speech; and yet our thought does not lose itself in the sound,
but remains complete in itself, and takes the form of speech without
being modified in its own nature by the change: so the Divine Word,
though suffering no change of nature, yet became flesh, that He might
dwell among us.
Footnotes
[1727] John i. 14.
Chapter 14.--How the Wisdom of God Healed Man.
13. Moreover, as the use of remedies is the way to health, so this
remedy took up sinners to heal and restore them. And just as
surgeons, when they bind up wounds, do it not in a slovenly way, but
carefully, that there may be a certain degree of neatness in the
binding, in addition to its mere usefulness, so our medicine, Wisdom,
was by His assumption of humanity adapted to our wounds, curing some
of them by their opposites, some of them by their likes. And just as
he who ministers to a bodily hurt in some cases applies contraries, as
cold to hot, moist to dry, etc., and in other cases applies likes, as
a round cloth to a round wound, or an oblong cloth to an oblong wound,
and does not fit the same bandage to all limbs, but puts like to like;
in the same way the Wisdom of God in healing man has applied Himself
to his cure, being Himself healer and medicine both in one. Seeing,
then, that man fell through pride, He restored him through humility.
We were ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent: we are set free by the
foolishness of God. Moreover, just as the former was called wisdom,
but was in reality the folly of those who despised God, so the latter
is called foolishness, but is true wisdom in those who overcome the
devil. We used our immortality so badly as to incur the penalty of
death: Christ used His mortality so well as to restore us to life.
The disease was brought in through a woman's corrupted soul: the
remedy came through a woman's virgin body. To the same class of
opposite remedies it belongs, that our vices are cured by the example
of His virtues. On the other hand, the following are, as it were,
bandages made in the same shape as the limbs and wounds to which they
are applied: He was born of a woman to deliver us who fell through a
woman: He came as a man to save us who are men, as a mortal to save
us who are mortals, by death to save us who were dead. And those who
can follow out the matter more fully, who are not hurried on by the
necessity of carrying out a set undertaking, will find many other
points of instruction in considering the remedies, whether opposites
or likes, employed in the medicine of Christianity.
Chapter 15.--Faith is Buttressed by the Resurrection and Ascension of
Christ, and is Stimulated by His Coming to Judgment.
14. The belief of the resurrection of our Lord from the dead, and of
His ascension into heaven, has strengthened our faith by adding a
great buttress of hope. For it clearly shows how freely He laid down
His life for us when He had it in His power thus to take it up again.
With what assurance, then, is the hope of believers animated, when
they reflect how great He was who suffered so great things for them
while they were still in unbelief! And when men look for Him to come
from heaven as the judge of quick and dead, it strikes great terror
into the careless, so that they betake themselves to diligent
preparation, and learn by holy living to long for His approach,
instead of quaking at it on account of their evil deeds. And what
tongue can tell, or what imagination can conceive, the reward He will
bestow at the last, when we consider that for our comfort in this
earthly journey He has given us so freely of His Spirit, that in the
adversities of this life we may retain our confidence in, and love
for, Him whom as yet we see not; and that He has also given to each
gifts suitable for the building up of His Church, that we may do what
He points out as right to be done, not only without a murmur, but even
with delight?
Chapter 16.--Christ Purges His Church by Medicinal Afflictions.
15. For the Church is His body, as the apostle's teaching shows us;
[1728] and it is even called His spouse. [1729]His body, then,
which has many members, and all performing different functions, He
holds together in the bond of unity and love, which is its true
health. Moreover He exercises it in the present time, and purges it
with many wholesome afflictions, that when He has transplanted it from
this world to the eternal world, He may take it to Himself as His
bride, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.
Footnotes
[1728] Compare Eph. i. 23 with Rom. xii. 5.
[1729] Rev. xix. 7; xxi. 9.
Chapter 17.--Christ, by Forgiving Our Sins, Opened the Way to Our
Home.
16. Further, when we are on the way, and that not a way that lies
through space, but through a change of affections, and one which the
guilt of our past sins like a hedge of thorns barred against us, what
could He, who was willing to lay Himself down as the way by which we
should return, do that would be still gracious and more merciful,
except to forgive us all our sins, and by being crucified for us to
remove the stern decrees that barred the door against our return?
Chapter 18.--The Keys Given to the Church.
17. He has given, therefore, the keys to His Church, that whatsoever
it should bind on earth might be bound in heaven, and whatsoever it
should loose on earth might be loosed in heaven; [1730] that is to
say, that whosoever in the Church should not believe that his sins are
remitted, they should not be remitted to him; but that whosoever
should believe and should repent, and turn from his sins, should be
saved by the same faith and repentance on the ground of which he is
received into the bosom of the Church. For he who does not believe
that his sins can be pardoned, falls into despair, and becomes worse
as if no greater good remained for him than to be evil, when he has
ceased to have faith in the results of his own repentance.
Footnotes
[1730] Compare Matt. xvi. 19 with xviii. 18.
Chapter 19.--Bodily and Spiritual Death and Resurrection.
18. Furthermore, as there is a kind of death of the soul, which
consists in the putting away of former habits and former ways of life,
and which comes through repentance, so also the death of the body
consists in the dissolution of the former principle of life. And just
as the soul, after it has put away and destroyed by repentance its
former habits, is created anew after a better pattern, so we must hope
and believe that the body, after that death which we all owe as a debt
contracted through sin, shall at the resurrection be changed into a
better form;--not that flesh and blood shall inherit the kingdom of
God (for that is impossible), but that this corruptible shall put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. [1731]And
thus the body, being the source of no uneasiness because it can feel
no want, shall be animated by a spirit perfectly pure and happy, and
shall enjoy unbroken peace.
Footnotes
[1731] 1 Cor. xv. 50-53.
Chapter 20.--The Resurrection to Damnation.
19. Now he whose soul does not die to this world and begin here to be
conformed to the truth, falls when the body dies into a more terrible
death, and shall revive, not to change his earthly for a heavenly
habitation, but to endure the penalty of his sin.
Chapter 21.--Neither Body Nor Soul Extinguished at Death.
And so faith clings to the assurance, and we must believe that it is
so in fact, that neither the human soul nor the human body suffers
complete extinction, but that the wicked rise again to endure
inconceivable punishment, and the good to receive eternal life.
Chapter 22.--God Alone to Be Enjoyed.
20. Among all these things, then, those only are the true objects of
enjoyment which we have spoken of as eternal and unchangeable. The
rest are for use, that we may be able to arrive at the full enjoyment
of the former. We, however, who enjoy and use other things are things
ourselves. For a great thing truly is man, made after the image and
similitude of God, not as respects the mortal body in which he is
clothed, but as respects the rational soul by which he is exalted in
honor above the beasts. And so it becomes an important question,
whether men ought to enjoy, or to use, themselves, or to do both. For
we are commanded to love one another: but it is a question whether
man is to be loved by man for his own sake, or for the sake of
something else. If it is for his own sake, we enjoy him; if it is for
the sake of something else, we use him. It seems to me, then, that he
is to be loved for the sake of something else. For if a thing is to
be loved for its own sake, then in the enjoyment of it consists a
happy life, the hope of which at least, if not yet the reality, is our
comfort in the present time. But a curse is pronounced on him who
places his hope in man. [1732]
21. Neither ought any one to have joy in himself, if you look at the
matter clearly, because no one ought to love even himself for his own
sake, but for the sake of Him who is the true object of enjoyment.
For a man is never in so good a state as when his whole life is a
journey towards the unchangeable life, and his affections are entirely
fixed upon that. If, however, he loves himself for his own sake, he
does not look at himself in relation to God, but turns his mind in
upon him self, and so is not occupied with anything that is
unchangeable. And thus he does not enjoy himself at his best, because
he is better when his mind is fully fixed upon, and his affections
wrapped up in, the unchangeable good, than when he turns from that to
enjoy even himself. Wherefore if you ought not to love even yourself
for your own sake, but for His in whom your love finds its most worthy
object, no other man has a right to be angry if you love him too for
God's sake. For this is the law of love that has been laid down by
Divine authority: "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself;" but,
"Thou shall love God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind:" [1733]so that you are to concentrate all your
thoughts, your whole life and your whole intelligence upon Him from
whom you derive all that you bring. For when He says, "With all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," He means that no
part of our life is to be unoccupied, and to afford room, as it were,
for the wish to enjoy some other object, but that whatever else may
suggest itself to us as an object worthy of love is to be borne into
the same channel in which the whole current of our affections flows.
Whoever, then, loves his neighbor aright, ought to urge upon him that
he too should love God with his whole heart, and soul, and mind. For
in this way, loving his neighbor as himself, a man turns the whole
current of his love both for himself and his neighbor into the channel
of the love of God, which suffers no stream to be drawn off from
itself by whose diversion its own volume would be diminished.
Footnotes
[1732] Jer. xvii. 5.
[1733] Matt. xxii. 37-39. Compare Lev. xix. 18; Deut. vi. 5.
Chapter 23.--Man Needs No Injunction to Love Himself and His Own Body.
22. Those things which are objects of use are not all, however, to be
loved, but those only which are either united with us in a common
relation to God, such as a man or an angel, or are so related to us as
to need the goodness of God through our instrumentality, such as the
body. For assuredly the martyrs did not love the wickedness of their
persecutors, although they used it to attain the favor of God. As,
then, there are four kinds of things that are to be loved,--first,
that which is above us; second, ourselves; third, that which is on a
level with us; fourth, that which is beneath us,--no precepts need be
given about the second and fourth of these. For, however far a man
may fall away from the truth, he still continues to love himself, and
to love his own body. The soul which flies away from the unchangeable
Light, the Ruler of all things, does so that it may rule over itself
and over its own body; and so it cannot but love both itself and its
own body.
23. Morever, it thinks it has attained something very great if it is
able to lord it over its companions, that is, other men. For it is
inherent in the sinful soul to desire above all things, and to claim
as due to itself, that which is properly due to God only. Now such
love of itself is more correctly called hate. For it is not just that
it should desire what is beneath it to be obedient to it while itself
will not obey its own superior; and most justly has it been said, "He
who loveth iniquity hateth his own soul." [1734]And accordingly the
soul becomes weak, and endures much suffering about the mortal body.
For, of course, it must love the body, and be grieved at its
corruption; and the immortality and incorruptibility of the body
spring out of the health of the soul. Now the health of the soul is
to cling steadfastly to the better part, that is, to the unchangeable
God. But when it aspires to lord it even over those who are by nature
its equals,--that is, its fellow-men,--this is a reach of arrogance
utterly intolerable.
Footnotes
[1734] Ps. x. 5(LXX.).
Chapter 24.--No Man Hates His Own Flesh, Not Even Those Who Abuse It.
24. No man, then, hates himself. On this point, indeed, no question
was ever raised by any sect. But neither does any man hate his own
body. For the apostle says truly, "No man ever yet hated his own
flesh." [1735]And when some people say that they would rather be
without a body altogether, they entirely deceive themselves. For it
is not their body, but its corruptions and its heaviness, that they
hate. And so it is not no body, but an uncorrupted and very light
body, that they want. But they think a body of that kind would be no
body at all, because they think such a thing as that must be a
spirit. And as to the fact that they seem in some sort to scourge
their bodies by abstinence and toil, those who do this in the right
spirit do it not that they may get rid of their body, but that they
may have it in subjection and ready for every needful work. For they
strive by a kind of toilsome exercise of the body itself to root out
those lusts that are hurtful to the body, that is, those habits and
affections of the soul that lead to the enjoyment of unworthy
objects. They are not destroying themselves; they are taking care of
their health.
25. Those, on the other hand, who do this in a perverse spirit, make
war upon their own body as if it were a natural enemy. And in this
matter they are led astray by a mistaken interpretation of what they
read: "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against
the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other." [1736]For
this is said of the carnal habit yet unsubdued, against which the
spirit lusteth, not to destroy the body, but to eradicate the lust of
the body--i.e., its evil habit--and thus to make it subject to the
spirit, which is what the order of nature demands. For as, after the
resurrection, the body, having become wholly subject to the spirit,
will live in perfect peace to all eternity; even in this life we must
make it an object to have the carnal habit changed for the better, so
that its inordinate affections may not war against the soul. And
until this shall take place, "the flesh lusteth against the spirit,
and the spirit against the flesh;" the spirit struggling, not in
hatred, but for the mastery, because it desires that what it loves
should be subject to the higher principle; and the flesh struggling,
not in hatred, but because of the bondage of habit which it has
derived from its parent stock, and which has grown in upon it by a law
of nature till it has become inveterate. The spirit, then, in
subduing the flesh, is working as it were to destroy the ill-founded
peace of an evil habit, and to bring about the real peace which
springs out of a good habit. Nevertheless, not even those who, led
astray by false notions, hate their bodies would be prepared to
sacrifice one eye, even supposing they could do so without suffering
any pain, and that they had as much sight left in one as they formerly
had in two, unless some object was to be attained which would
overbalance the loss. This and other indications of the same kind are
sufficient to show those who candidly seek the truth how well-founded
is the statement of the apostle when he says, "No man ever yet hated
his own flesh." He adds too, "but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even
as the Lord the Church." [1737]
Footnotes
[1735] Eph. v. 29.
[1736] Gal. v. 17.
[1737] Eph. v. 29.
Chapter 25.--A Man May Love Something More Than His Body, But Does Not
Therefore Hate His Body.
26. Man, therefore, ought to be taught the due measure of loving,
that is, in what measure he may love himself so as to be of service to
himself. For that he does love himself, and does desire to do good to
himself, nobody but a fool would doubt. He is to be taught, too, in
what measure to love his body, so as to care for it wisely and within
due limits. For it is equally manifest that he loves his body also,
and desires to keep it safe and sound. And yet a man may have
something that he loves better than the safety and soundness of his
body. For many have been found voluntarily to suffer both pains and
amputations of some of their limbs that they might obtain other
objects which they valued more highly. But no one is to be told not
to desire the safety and health of his body because there is something
he desires more. For the miser, though he loves money, buys bread for
himself,--that is, he gives away money that he is very fond of and
desires to heap up,--but it is because he values more highly the
bodily health which the bread sustains. It is superfluous to argue
longer on a point so very plain, but this is just what the error of
wicked men often compels us to do.
Chapter 26.--The Command to Love God and Our Neighbor Includes a
Command to Love Ourselves.
27. Seeing, then, that there is no need of a command that every man
should love himself and his own body,--seeing, that is, that we love
ourselves, and what is beneath us but connected with us, through a law
of nature which has never been violated, and which is common to us
with the beasts (for even the beasts love themselves and their own
bodies),--it only remained necessary to lay injunctions upon us in
regard to God above us, and our neighbor beside us. "Thou shalt
love," He says, "the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind; and thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets." [1738]Thus the end of the commandment is love, and that
twofold, the love of God and the love of our neighbor. Now, if you
take yourself in your entirety,--that is, soul and body together,--and
your neighbor in his entirety, soul and body together (for man is made
up of soul and body), you will find that none of the classes of things
that are to be loved is overlooked in these two commandments. For
though, when the love of God comes first, and the measure of our love
for Him is prescribed in such terms that it is evident all other
things are to find their centre in Him, nothing seems to be said about
our love for ourselves; yet when it is said, "Thou shall love thy
neighbor as thyself," it at once becomes evident that our love for
ourselves has not been overlooked.
Footnotes
[1738] Matt. xxii. 37-40.
Chapter 27.--The Order of Love.
28. Now he is a man of just and holy life who forms an unprejudiced
estimate of things, and keeps his affections also under strict
control, so that he neither loves what he ought not to love, nor fails
to love what he ought to love, nor loves that more which ought to be
loved less, nor loves that equally which ought to be loved either less
or more, nor loves that less or more which ought to be loved equally.
No sinner is to be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved as
a man for God's sake; but God is to be loved for His own sake. And if
God is to be loved more than any man, each man ought to love God more
than himself. Likewise we ought to love another man better than our
own body, because all things are to be loved in reference to God, and
another man can have fellowship with us in the enjoyment of God,
whereas our body cannot; for the body only lives through the soul, and
it is by the soul that we enjoy God.
Chapter 28.--How We are to Decide Whom to Aid.
29. Further, all men are to be loved equally. But since you cannot
do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the
accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer
connection with you. For, suppose that you had a great deal of some
commodity, and felt bound to give it away to somebody who had none,
and that it could not be given to more than one person; if two persons
presented themselves, neither of whom had either from need or
relationship a greater claim upon you than the other, you could do
nothing fairer than choose by lot to which you would give what could
not be given to both. Just so among men: since you cannot consult
for the good of them all, you must take the matter as decided for you
by a sort of lot, according as each man happens for the time being to
be more closely connected with you.
Chapter 29.--We are to Desire and Endeavor that All Men May Love God.
30. Now of all who can with us enjoy God, we love partly those to whom
we render services, partly those who render services to us, partly
those who both help us in our need and in turn are helped by us,
partly those upon whom we confer no advantage and from whom we look
for none. We ought to desire, however, that they should all join with
us in loving God, and all the assistance that we either give them or
accept from them should tend to that one end. For in the theatres,
dens of iniquity though they be, if a man is fond of a particular
actor, and enjoys his art as a great or even as the very greatest
good, he is fond of all who join with him in admiration of his
favorite, not for their own sakes, but for the sake of him whom they
admire in common; and the more fervent he is in his admiration, the
more he works in every way he can to secure new admirers for him, and
the more anxious he becomes to show him to others; and if he find any
one comparatively indifferent, he does all he can to excite his
interest by urging his favorite's merits: if, however, he meet with
any one who opposes him, he is exceedingly displeased by such a man's
contempt of his favorite, and strives in every way he can to remove
it. Now, if this be so, what does it become us to do who live in the
fellowship of the love of God, the enjoyment of whom is true happiness
of life, to whom all who love Him owe both their own existence and the
love they bear Him, concerning whom we have no fear that any one who
comes to know Him will be disappointed in Him, and who desires our
love, not for any gain to Himself, but that those who love Him may
obtain an eternal reward, even Himself whom they love? And hence it
is that we love even our enemies. For we do not fear them, seeing
they cannot take away from us what we love; but we pity them rather,
because the more they hate us the more are they separated from Him
whom we love. For if they would turn to Him, they must of necessity
love Him as the supreme good, and love us too as partakers with them
in so great a blessing.
Chapter 30.--Whether Angels are to Be Reckoned Our Neighbors.
31. There arises further in this connection a question about angels.
For they are happy in the enjoyment of Him whom we long to enjoy; and
the more we enjoy Him in this life as through a glass darkly, the more
easy do we find it to bear our pilgrimage, and the more eagerly do we
long for its termination. But it is not irrational to ask whether in
those two commandments is included the love of angels also. For that
He who commanded us to love our neighbor made no exception, as far as
men are concerned, is shown both by our Lord Himself in the Gospel,
and by the Apostle Paul. For when the man to whom our Lord delivered
those two commandments, and to whom He said that on these hang all the
law and the prophets, asked Him, "And who is my neighbor?" He told him
of a certain man who, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among
thieves, and was severely wounded by them, and left naked and half
dead. [1739]And He showed him that nobody was neighbor to this man
except him who took pity upon him and came forward to relieve and care
for him. And the man who had asked the question admitted the truth of
this when he was himself interrogated in turn. To whom our Lord says,
"Go and do thou likewise;" teaching us that he is our neighbor whom it
is our duty to help in his need, or whom it would be our duty to help
if he were in need. Whence it follows, that he whose duty it would be
in turn to help us is our neighbor. For the name "neighbor" is a
relative one, and no one can be neighbor except to a neighbor. And,
again, who does not see that no exception is made of any one as a
person to whom the offices of mercy may be denied when our Lord
extends the rule even to our enemies? "Love your enemies, do good to
them that hate you." [1740]
32. And so also the Apostle Paul teaches when he says: "For this,
Thou shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not kill, Thou shall not
steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shall not covet; and if
there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this
saying, namely, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh
no ill to his neighbor." [1741]Whoever then supposes that the
apostle did not embrace every man in this precept, is compelled to
admit, what is at once most absurd and most pernicious, that the
apostle thought it no sin, if a man were not a Christian or were an
enemy, to commit adultery with his wife, or to kill him, or to covet
his goods. And as nobody but a fool would say this, it is clear that
every man is to be considered our neighbor, because we are to work no
ill to any man.
33. But now, if every one to whom we ought to show, or who ought to
show to us, the offices of mercy is by right called a neighbor, it is
manifest that the command to love our neighbor embraces the holy
angels also, seeing that so great offices of mercy have been performed
by them on our behalf, as may easily be shown by turning the attention
to many passages of Holy Scripture. And on this ground even God
Himself, our Lord, desired to be called our neighbor. For our Lord
Jesus Christ points to Himself under the figure of the man who brought
aid to him who was lying half dead on the road, wounded and abandoned
by the robbers. And the Psalmist says in his prayer, "I behaved
myself as though he had been my friend or brother." [1742]But as
the Divine nature is of higher excellence than, and far removed above,
our nature, the command to love God is distinct from that to love our
neighbor. For He shows us pity on account of His own goodness, but we
show pity to one another on account of His;--that is, He pities us
that we may fully enjoy Himself; we pity one another that we may fully
enjoy Him.
Footnotes
[1739] Luke x. 29, foll.
[1740] Matt. v. 44.
[1741] Rom. xiii. 9, 10.
[1742] Ps. xxxv. 14.
Chapter 31.--God Uses Rather Than Enjoys Us.
34. And on this ground, when we say that we enjoy only that which we
love for its own sake, and that nothing is a true object of enjoyment
except that which makes us happy, and that all other things are for
use, there seems still to be something that requires explanation. For
God loves us, and Holy Scripture frequently sets before us the love He
has towards us. In what way then does He love us? As objects of use
or as objects of enjoyment? If He enjoys us, He must be in need of
good from us, and no sane man will say that; for all the good we enjoy
is either Himself, or what comes from Himself. And no one can be
ignorant or in doubt as to the fact that the light stands in no need
of the glitter of the things it has itself lit up. The Psalmist says
most plainly, "I said to the Lord, Thou art my God, for Thou needest
not my goodness." [1743]He does not enjoy us then, but makes use of
us. For if He neither enjoys nor uses us, I am at a loss to discover
in what way He can love us.
Footnotes
[1743] Ps. xvi. 2 (LXX.).
Chapter 32.--In What Way God Uses Man.
35. But neither does He use after our fashion of using. For when we
use objects, we do so with a view to the full enjoyment of the
goodness of God. God, however, in His use of us, has reference to His
own goodness. For it is because He is good we exist; and so far as we
truly exist we are good. And, further, because He is also just, we
cannot with impunity be evil; and so far as we are evil, so far is our
existence less complete. Now He is the first and supreme existence,
who is altogether unchangeable, and who could say in the fullest sense
of the words, "I AM That I AM," and "Thou shalt say to them, I AM hath
sent me unto you;" [1744] so that all other things that exist, both
owe their existence entirely to Him, and are good only so far as He
has given it to them to be so. That use, then, which God is said to
make of us has no reference to His own advantage, but to ours only;
and, so far as He is concerned, has reference only to His goodness.
When we take pity upon a man and care for him, it is for his advantage
we do so; but somehow or other our own advantage follows by a sort of
natural consequence, for God does not leave the mercy we show to him
who needs it to go without reward. Now this is our highest reward,
that we should fully enjoy Him, and that all who enjoy Him should
enjoy one another in Him.
Footnotes
[1744] Ex. iii. 14.
Chapter 33.--In What Way Man Should Be Enjoyed.
36. For if we find our happiness complete in one another, we stop
short upon the road, and place our hope of happiness in man or angel.
Now the proud man and the proud angel arrogate this to themselves, and
are glad to have the hope of others fixed upon them. But, on the
contrary, the holy man and the holy angel, even when we are weary and
anxious to stay with them and rest in them, set themselves to recruit
our energies with the provision which they have received of God for us
or for themselves; and then urge us thus refreshed to go on our way
towards Him, in the enjoyment of whom we find our common happiness.
For even the apostle exclaims, "Was Paul crucified for you? or were ye
baptized in the name of Paul?" [1745] and again: "Neither is he that
planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the
increase." [1746]And the angel admonisheth the man who is about to
worship him, that he should rather worship Him who is his Master, and
under whom he himself is a fellow-servant. [1747]
37. But when you have joy of a man in God, it is God rather than man
that you enjoy. For you enjoy Him by whom you are made happy, and you
rejoice to have come to Him in whose presence you place your hope of
joy. And accordingly, Paul says to Philemon, "Yea, brother, let me
have joy of thee in the Lord." [1748]For if he had not added "in
the Lord," but had only said, "Let me have joy of thee," he would have
implied that he fixed his hope of happiness upon him, although even in
the immediate context to "enjoy" is used in the sense of to "use with
delight." For when the thing that we love is near us, it is a matter
of course that it should bring delight with it. And if you pass
beyond this delight, and make it a means to that which you are
permanently to rest in, you are using it, and it is an abuse of
language to say that you enjoy it. But if you cling to it, and rest
in it, finding your happiness complete in it, then you may be truly
and properly said to enjoy it. And this we must never do except in
the case of the Blessed Trinity, who is the Supreme and Unchangeable
Good.
Footnotes
[1745] 1 Cor. i. 13.
[1746] 1 Cor. iii. 7.
[1747] Rev. xix. 10.
[1748] Philem. 20.
Chapter 34.--Christ the First Way to God.
38. And mark that even when He who is Himself the Truth and the Word,
by whom all things were made, had been made flesh that He might dwell
among us, the apostle yet says: "Yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more." [1749]For
Christ, desiring not only to give the possession to those who had
completed the journey, but also to be Himself the way to those who
were just setting out, determined to take a fleshly body. Whence also
that expression, "The Lord created [1750] me in the beginning of His
way," [1751] that is, that those who wished to come might begin their
journey in Him. The apostle, therefore, although still on the way,
and following after God who called him to the reward of His heavenly
calling, yet forgetting those things which were behind, and pressing
on towards those things which were before, [1752] had already passed
over the beginning of the way, and had now no further need of it; yet
by this way all must commence their journey who desire to attain to
the truth, and to rest in eternal life. For He says: "I am the way,
and the truth, and the life;" [1753] that is, by me men come, to me
they come, in me they rest. For when we come to Him, we come to the
Father also, because through an equal an equal is known; and the Holy
Spirit binds, and as it were seals us, so that we are able to rest
permanently in the supreme and unchangeable Good. And hence we may
learn how essential it is that nothing should detain us on the way,
when not even our Lord Himself, so far as He has condescended to be
our way, is willing to detain us, but wishes us rather to press on;
and, instead of weakly clinging to temporal things, even though these
have been put on and worn by Him for our salvation, to pass over them
quickly, and to struggle to attain unto Himself, who has freed our
nature from the bondage of temporal things, and has set it down at the
right hand of His Father.
Footnotes
[1749] 2 Cor. v. 16.
[1750] A.V. possessed.
[1751] Prov. viii. 22.
[1752] Comp. Phil. iii. 13.
[1753] John xiv. 6.
Chapter 35.--The Fulfillment and End of Scripture is the Love of God
and Our Neighbor.
39. Of all, then, that has been said since we entered upon the
discussion about things, this is the sum: that we should clearly
understand that the fulfillment and the end of the Law, and of all
Holy Scripture, is the love of an object which is to be enjoyed, and
the love of an object which can enjoy that other in fellowship with
ourselves. For there is no need of a command that each man should
love himself. The whole temporal dispensation for our salvation,
therefore, was framed by the providence of God that we might know this
truth and be able to act upon it; and we ought to use that
dispensation, not with such love and delight as if it were a good to
rest in, but with a transient feeling rather, such as we have towards
the road, or carriages, or other things that are merely means.
Perhaps some other comparison can be found that will more suitably
express the idea that we are to love the things by which we are borne
only for the sake of that towards which we are borne.
Chapter 36.--That Interpretation of Scripture Which Builds Us Up in
Love is Not Perniciously Deceptive Nor Mendacious, Even Though It Be
Faulty. The Interpreter, However, Should Be Corrected.
40. Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or
any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does
not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbor, does
not yet understand them as he ought. If, on the other hand, a man
draws a meaning from them that may be used for the building up of
love, even though he does not happen upon the precise meaning which
the author whom he reads intended to express in that place, his error
is not pernicious, and he is wholly clear from the charge of
deception. For there is involved in deception the intention to say
what is false; and we find plenty of people who intend to deceive, but
nobody who wishes to be deceived. Since, then, the man who knows
practises deceit, and the ignorant man is practised upon, it is quite
clear that in any particular case the man who is deceived is a better
man than he who deceives, seeing that it is better to suffer than to
commit injustice. Now every man who lies commits an injustice; and if
any man thinks that a lie is ever useful, he must think that injustice
is sometimes useful. For no liar keeps faith in the matter about
which he lies. He wishes, of course, that the man to whom he lies
should place confidence in him; and yet he betrays his confidence by
lying to him. Now every man who breaks faith is unjust. Either,
then, injustice is sometimes useful (which is impossible), or a lie is
never useful.
41. Whoever takes another meaning out of Scripture than the writer
intended, goes astray, but not through any falsehood in Scripture.
Nevertheless, as I was going to say, if his mistaken interpretation
tends to build up love, which is the end of the commandment, he goes
astray in much the same way as a man who by mistake quits the high
road, but yet reaches through the fields the same place to which the
road leads. He is to be corrected, however, and to be shown how much
better it is not to quit the straight road, lest, if he get into a
habit of going astray, he may sometimes take cross roads, or even go
in the wrong direction altogether.
Chapter 37.--Dangers of Mistaken Interpretation.
For if he takes up rashly a meaning which the author whom he is
reading did not intend, he often falls in with other statements which
he cannot harmonize with this meaning. And if he admits that these
statements are true and certain, then it follows that the meaning he
had put upon the former passage cannot be the true one: and so it
comes to pass, one can hardly tell how, that, out of love for his own
opinion, he begins to feel more angry with Scripture than he is with
himself. And if he should once permit that evil to creep in, it will
utterly destroy him. "For we walk by faith, not by sight." [1754]
Now faith will totter if the authority of Scripture begin to shake.
And then, if faith totter, love itself will grow cold. For if a man
has fallen from faith, he must necessarily also fall from love; for he
cannot love what he does not believe to exist. But if he both
believes and loves, then through good works, and through diligent
attention to the precepts of morality, he comes to hope also that he
shall attain the object of his love. And so these are the three
things to which all knowledge and all prophecy are subservient:
faith, hope, love.
Footnotes
[1754] 2 Cor. v. 7.
Chapter 38.--Love Never Faileth.
42. But sight shall displace faith; and hope shall be swallowed up in
that perfect bliss to which we shall come: love, on the other hand,
shall wax greater when these others fail. For if we love by faith
that which as yet we see not, how much more shall we love it when we
begin to see! And if we love by hope that which as yet we have not
reached, how much more shall we love it when we reach it! For there
is this great difference between things temporal and things eternal,
that a temporal object is valued more before we possess it, and begins
to prove worthless the moment we attain it, because it does not
satisfy the soul, which has its only true and sure resting-place in
eternity: an eternal object, on the other hand, is loved with greater
ardor when it is in possession than while it is still an object of
desire, for no one in his longing for it can set a higher value on it
than really belongs to it, so as to think it comparatively worthless
when he finds it of less value than he thought; on the contrary,
however high the value any man may set upon it when he is on his way
to possess it, he will find it, when it comes into his possession, of
higher value still.
Chapter 39.--He Who is Mature in Faith, Hope and Love, Needs Scripture
No Longer.
43. And thus a man who is resting upon faith, hope and love, and who
keeps a firm hold upon these, does not need the Scriptures except for
the purpose of instructing others. Accordingly, many live without
copies of the Scriptures, even in solitude, on the strength of these
three graces. So that in their case, I think, the saying is already
fulfilled: "Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether
there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away." [1755]Yet by means of these instruments (as
they may be called), so great an edifice of faith and love has been
built up in them, that, holding to what is perfect, they do not seek
for what is only in part perfect--of course, I mean, so far as is
possible in this life; for, in comparison with the future life, the
life of no just and holy man is perfect here. Therefore the apostle
says: "Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the
greatest of these is charity:" [1756]because, when a man shall have
reached the eternal world, while the other two graces will fail, love
will remain greater and more assured.
Footnotes
[1755] 1 Cor. xiii. 8.
[1756] 1 Cor. xiii. 13.
Chapter 40.--What Manner of Reader Scripture Demands.
44. And, therefore, if a man fully understands that "the end of the
commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience,
and of faith unfeigned," [1757] and is bent upon making all his
understanding of Scripture to bear upon these three graces, he may
come to the interpretation of these books with an easy mind. For
while the apostle says "love," he adds "out of a pure heart," to
provide against anything being loved but that which is worthy of
love. And he joins with this "a good conscience," in reference to
hope; for, if a man has the burthen of a bad conscience, he despairs
of ever reaching that which he believes in and loves. And in the
third place he says: "and of faith unfeigned." For if our faith is
free from all hypocrisy, then we both abstain from loving what is
unworthy of our love, and by living uprightly we are able to indulge
the hope that our hope shall not be in vain.
For these reasons I have been anxious to speak about the objects of
faith, as far as I thought it necessary for my present purpose; for
much has already been said on this subject in other volumes, either by
others or by myself. And so let this be the end of the present book.
In the next I shall discuss, as far as God shall give me light, the
subject of signs.
Footnotes
[1757] 1 Tim. i. 5.
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