by God out of nothing, and therefore that they when he wrote these things, as I see it to be are not co-eternal with Him, although that nar- certain in Thy truth. For his thoughts might rative hath failed to tell when they were made?" CHAP. 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 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 and as yet formless. Because I see, that whichor corporeal, but each of them newly begun, soever of these had been said, it might have have thought in these words, I do not so perbeen said truly; but which of them he may ceive. Although, whether it were one of these, tioned by me, that this great man saw in his or some other meaning which has not been menmind when he used these words, I make no doubt but that he saw it truly, and expressed it suitably. 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 CHAP. XXV. —IT BEHOVES INTERPRETERS, WHEN 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. CHAP. XXIV.-OUT OF THE MANY TRUE THINGS, DISAGREEING CONCERNING OBSCURE PLACES, TO 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,3 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 33. But which of us, amid so many truths which occur to inquirers in these words, under- soothings, that I may patiently bear with such stood as they are in different ways, shall so dis- and because they have seen in the heart of Thy as say this to me; not because they are divine, cover that one interpretation as to confidently servant what they say, but because they are say "that Moses thought this," and "that in proud, and have not known the opinion of that narrative he wished this to be understood," Moses, but love their own, as confidently as he says "that this is true," true, but because it is their own. Otherwise they whether he thought this thing or the other? would equally love another true opinion, as I For behold, O my God, I Thy servant, who in love what they say when they speak what is true ; UNDERSTOOD THIS OR THAT. not because it is 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 this book have vowed unto Thee a sacrifice of confession, and beseech Thee that of Thy mercy I may pay my vows unto Thee,' 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."2 No. Because it is not as clear to me that this was in his mindness is not of knowledge, but of audacity; and 1 Ps. xxii. 25. 2 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. "In the Beginning," see p. 166, note 2, above. On what they themselves say, this I neither like nor love; because, though it were so, yet that rash 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 3 See p. 48, note, and p. 164, note 2, above. us terribly not to hold it as specially for our- 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; 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,3 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," above that which is written; let us love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, and our neighbour as ourself. As to which two precepts of charity, unless we believe that Moses meant whatever in these books he did mean, we than I should wish and desire for myself from Thee, had I been born in his time, and hadst Thou placed me in that position that through the service of my heart and of my tongue those books might be distributed, which so long after were to profit all nations, and through the whole world, from so great a pinnacle of authority, were to surmount the words of all false and proud teachings. I should have wished truly had I then been Moses (for we all come from the same mass; and what is man, saving that Thou art mindful of him?). I should then, had I been at that time what he was, and enjoined by Thee to write the book of Genesis, have wished that such a power of expression and such a method of arrangement should be given me, that they who cannot as yet understand how God creates might not reject the words as surpassing their powers; and they who are already able to do this, would find, in what true opinion soever they had by thought arrived at, that it was not passed over in the few words of Thy servant; and should another man by the light of truth have discovered another, neither should that fail to be found in those same words. CHAP. XXVII. -THE STYLE OF SPEAKING IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS IS SIMPLE AND CLEAR. 37. For as a fountain in a limited space is more plentiful, and affords supply for more streams over larger spaces than any one of those from the same fountain; so the narrative of Thy streams which, after a wide interval, is derived dispenser, destined to benefit many who were shall make God a liar when we think otherwise likely to discourse thereon, does, from a limited concerning our fellow-servants' mind than He clear truth, whence each one may draw out for measure of language, overflow into streams of hath taught us. Behold, now, how foolish it is, himself that truth which he can concerning these in so great an abundance of the truest opinions subjects, this one that truth, that one another, which can be extracted from these words, rashly by larger circumlocutions of discourse. to affirm which of them Moses particularly meant; and with pernicious contentions to offend some, when they read or hear these words, think that God as a man or some mass gifted with charity itself, on account of which he hath spoken immense power, by some new and sudden reall the things whose words we endeavour to ex-solve, had, outside itself, as if at distant places, plain ! CHAP. XXVI. GOD HAD HE BEEN ENJOINED TO WRITE THE BOOK OF GENESIS. For created heaven and earth, two great bodies above and below, wherein all things were to be WHAT HE MIGHT HAVE ASKED OF contained. And when they hear, God said, Let it be made, and it was made, they think of words begun and ended, sounding in times and passing away, after the departure of which that came into being which was commanded to be; and whatever else of the kind their familiarity with the world would suggest. In whom, being as yet little ones, while their weakness by this humble kind of speech is carried on as if in a mother's bosom, their faith is healthfully built 36. And yet, O my God, Thou exaltation of my humility, and rest of my labour, who hearest my confessions, and forgivest my sins, since Thou commandest me that I should love my neighbour as myself, I cannot believe that Thou gavest to Moses, Thy most faithful servant, a less gift I John viii. 44. 21 Tim. i. 8. up, by which they have and hold as certain that God made all natures, which in wondrous variety their senses perceive on every side. Which words, if any one despising them, as if trivial, with proud weakness shall have stretched himself beyond his fostering cradle, he will, alas, fall miserably. Have pity, O Lord God, lest they who pass by trample on the unfledged bird; and send Thine angel, who may restore it to its nest, that it may live until it can fly.' But they who under the name of "heaven and earth" understand matter as yet formless, out of which were to be formed heaven and earth, do not themselves understand it in one manner; but one, that matter out of which the intelligible and the sensible creature were to be completed; another, that only out of which this sensible corporeal mass was to come, holding in its vast bosom these visible and prepared natures. Nor are they who believe that the creatures already set in order and arranged are in this place called "heaven and earth of one accord; but the one, both the invisible and visible; the other, the visible only, in which we admire the luminous heaven and darksome earth, and the things that are therein. THE WORDS, IN THE BEGINNING,' AND, THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH," ARE 66 DIFFERENTLY UNDERSTOOD. CHAP. XXIX. CONCERNING THE OPINION OF THOSE 38. But others, to whom these words are no longer a nest, but shady fruit-bowers, see the fruits concealed in them, fly around rejoicing, and chirpingly search and pluck them. For they see when they read or hear these words, O God, that all times past and future are sur- 40. But he who does not otherwise undermounted by Thy eternal and stable abiding, and stand, "In the beginning He made," than if it still that there is no temporal creature which were said, "At first He made," can only truly Thou hast not made. And by Thy will, because understand heaven and earth of the matter of it is that which Thou art, Thou hast made all heaven and earth, namely, of the universal, that things, not by any changed will, nor by a will is, intelligible and corporeal creation. For if which before was not, not out of Thyself, in he would have it of the universe, as already Thine own likeness, the form of all things, but formed, it might rightly be asked of him: "If out of nothing, a formless unlikeness which at first God made this, what made He aftershould be formed by Thy likeness (having re- wards?" And after the universe he will find course to Thee the One, after their settled capa- nothing; thereupon must he, though unwilling, city, according as it has been given to each thing hear, "How is this first, if there is nothing afterin his kind), and might all be made very good; wards?" But when he says that God made whether they remain around Thee, or, being by matter first formless, then formed, he is not abdegrees removed in time and place, make or surd if he be but able to discern what precedes undergo beautiful variations. These things they by eternity, what by time, what by choice, what see, and rejoice in the light of Thy truth, in the by origin. By eternity, as God is before all little degree they here may. things; by time, as the flower is before the fruit; 39. Again, another of these directs his atten- by choice, as the fruit is before the flower; by tion to that which is said, "In the beginning origin, as sound is before the tune. Of these God made the heaven and the earth," and be- four, the first and last which I have referred to holdeth Wisdom, — the Beginning, because It are with much difficulty understood; the two also speaketh unto us.3 Another likewise di- middle very easily. For an uncommon and too rects his attention to the same words, and by lofty vision it is to behold, O Lord, Thy Eternity, "beginning" understands the commencement immutably making things mutable, and thereby of things created; and receives it thus, - In before them. Who is so acute of mind as to be the beginning He made, as if it were said, He able without great labour to discover how the at first made. And among those who under- sound is prior to the tune, because a tune is stand "In the beginning" to mean, that "in a formed sound; and a thing not formed may Thy Wisdom Thou hast created heaven and exist, but that which existeth not cannot be earth," one believes the matter out of which formed ?4 So is the matter prior to that which the heaven and earth were to be created to be is made from it; not prior because it maketh it, there called "heaven and earth ;" another, that since itself is rather made, nor is it prior by an they are natures already formed and distinct; interval of time. For we do not as to time first another, one formed nature, and that a spiritual, utter formless sounds without singing, and then under the name of heaven, the other formless, adapt or fashion them into the form of a song, of corporeal matter, under the name of earth. just as wood or silver from which a chest or Because such materials do by vessel is made. 4 See a similar argument in his Con. adv. Leg. et Proph. i. 9; and sec. 29, and note, above. these was the meaning of Thy servant Moses?” these were not the utterances of my confessions, should I not confess unto Thee, "I know not; and yet I know that those opinions are true, with the exception of those carnal ones concerning which I have spoken what I thought well. However, these words of Thy Book affright not those little ones of good hope, treating few of high things in a humble fashion, and few things in varied ways.5 But let all, whom I acknowledge to see and speak the truth in these words, love one another, and equally love Thee, our God, fountain of truth, if we thirst not for time also precede the forms of the things which are made from them; but in singing this is not so. For when it is sung, its sound is heard at the same time; seeing there is not first a formless sound, which is afterwards formed into a song. For as soon as it shall have first sounded it passeth away; nor canst thou find anything of it, which being recalled thou canst by art compose. And, therefore, the song is absorbed in its own sound, which sound of it is its matter. Because this same is formed that it may be a tune; and therefore, as I was saying, the matter of the sound is prior to the form of the tune, not before through any power of making it a vain things, but for it; yea, let us so honour tune; for neither is a sound the composer of the tune, but is sent forth from the body and is subjected to the soul of the singer, that from it he may form a tune. Nor is it first in time, for it is given forth together with the tune; nor first in choice, for a sound is not better than a tune, since a tune is not merely a sound, but a beautiful sound. But it is first in origin, because the CHAP. XXXI. tune is not formed that it may become a sound, but the sound is formed that it may become a tune. By this example, let him who is able understand that the matter of things was first made, and called heaven and earth, because out of it heaven and earth were made. Not that it was made first in time, because the forms of things give rise to time,' but that was formless; but now, in time, it is perceived together with its form. Nor yet can anything be related concerning that matter, unless as if it were prior in time, while it is con sidered last (because things formed are assuredly superior to things formless), and is preceded by the Eternity of the Creator, so that there might be out of nothing that from which something might be made. CHAP. XXX. — IN THE GREAT DIVERSITY OF OPIN- DIVINE TRUTH. 41. In this diversity of true opinions let Truth itself beget concord; and may our God have mercy upon us, that we may use the law lawfully,3 the end of the commandment, pure charity. And by this if any one asks of me, "Which of 1 See xi. sec. 29, above, and Gillies' note thereon; and compare with it Augustin's De. Gen. ad Lit. v. 5: "In vain we inquire after time before the creation as though we could find time before time, for if there were no motion of the spiritual or corporeal creatures whereby through the present the future might succeed the past, there would be no time at all. But the creature could not have motion unless it were. Time, therefore, begins rather from the creation, than creation from time, but both are from God." 2 See p. 164, note 2, above. 31 Tim. i. 8. 4 See p. 183, note, above; and on the supremacy of this law of love, may be compared Jeremy Taylor's curious story (Works, iv. 477, Eden's ed.): "St. Lewis, the king, having sent Ivo, Bishop of Chartres, on an embassy, the bishop met a woman on the way, grave, sad, fantastic, and melancholy, with fire in one hand, and water in this servant of Thine, the dispenser of this Scripture, full of Thy Spirit, as to believe that when Thou revealedst Thyself to him, and he wrote these things, he intended that which in them chiefly excels both for light of truth and fruitfulness of profit. MOSES IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE PERCEIVED WHATEVER OF TRUTH CAN BE DISCOVERED IN HIS WORDS. 42. Thus, when one shall say, "He [Moses] meant as I do," and another, "Nay, but as I do," I suppose that I am speaking more religiously when I say, "Why not rather as both, if - were I to both be true?" And if there be a third truth, the other. He asked what those symbols meant. She answered, My flesh and blood, if man doth see anything less, purpose is with fire to burn Paradise, and with my water to quench the flames of hell, that men may serve God without the incentives of hope and fear, and purely for the love of God.'” 5 See end of note 17, p. 197, below. can anything lie hid from "Thy good Spirit," many things we have written concerning a few who shall lead me into the land of upright- words, how many, I beseech Thee! What ness," which Thou Thyself, by those words, strength of ours, what ages would suffice for all wert about to reveal to future readers, although Thy books after this manner? Permit me, therehe through whom they were spoken, amid the fore, in these more briefly to confess unto Thee, many interpretations that might have been found, and to select some one true, certain, and good fixed on but one? Which, if it be so, let that sense, that Thou shalt inspire, although many which he thought on be more exalted than the senses offer themselves, where many, indeed, rest. But to us, O Lord, either point out the may; this being the faith of my confession, that same, or any other true one which may be if I should say that which Thy minister felt, pleasing unto Thee; so that whether Thou mak- rightly and profitably, this I should strive for est known to us that which Thou didst to that the which if I shall not attain, yet I may say man of Thine, or some other by occasion of the that which Thy Truth willed through Its words same words, yet Thou mayest feed us, not error to say unto me, which said also unto him what deceive us. Behold, O Lord my God, how It willed. ; (De Unit. Eccl. ch. 5). It should also be noted that, however varied the meaning deduced from a doubtful Scripture, he ever maintained that such meaning must be sacræ fidei congruam. Compare De Gen. ad Lit. end of book i.; and ibid. viii. 4 and 7. See also notes, pp. 164 and 178, above. |