BOOK XIII.

OF THE GOODNESS OF GOD EXPLAINED IN THE CREATION OF THINGS, AND OF THE TRINITY AS FOUND IN THE FIRST WORDS OF GENESIS. THE STORY CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD (GEN. I.) IS ALLEGORICALLY EXPLAINED, AND HE APPLIES IT TO THOSE THINGS WHICH GOD WORKS FOR SANCTIFIED AND BLESSED MAN. FINALLY, HE MAKES AN END OF THIS WORK, HAVING IMPLORED ETERNAL REST FROM GOD.

CHAP. I. HE CALLS UPON GOD, AND PROPOSES TO | Thou madest in the beginning, deserve of Thee?

HIMSELF TO WORSHIP HIM.

Let those spiritual and corporeal natures, which I. I CALL upon Thee, my God, my mercy, deserve of Thee to depend thereon, — even the Thou in Thy wisdom madest, declare what they who madest me, and who didst not forget me, inchoate and formless, each in its own kind, though forgetful of Thee. I call Thee into ' my soul, which by the desire which Thou inspirest either spiritual or corporeal, going into excess, in it Thou preparest for Thy reception. Do not and into remote unlikeness unto Thee (the spirThou forsake me calling upon Thee, who didst itual, though formless, more excellent than if it anticipate me before I called, and didst importu, were a formed body; and the corporeal, though nately urge with manifold calls that I should hear Thee from afar, and be converted, and call upon Thee who calledst me. For Thou, O Lord, hast

blotted out all my evil deserts, that Thou mightest not repay into my hands wherewith I have fallen from Thee, and Thou hast anticipated all my good deserts, that Thou mightest repay into Thy hands wherewith Thou madest me; because before I was, Thou wast, nor was I [anything] to which Thou mightest grant being. And yet behold, I am, out of Thy goodness, anticipating all this which Thou hast made me, and of which Thou hast made me. For neither hadst Thou stood in need of me, nor am I such a good as to be helpful unto Thee,' my Lord and God; not that I may so serve Thee as though Thou wert fatigued in working, or lest Thy power may be less if lacking my assistance; nor that, like the land, I may so cultivate Thee that Thou wouldest be uncultivated did I cultivate Thee not; but that I may serve and worship Thee, to the end that I may have well-being from Thee, from whom it is that I am one susceptible of wellbeing.

formless, more excellent than if it were altogether nothing), and thus they as formless would depend upon Thy Word, unless by the same Word they were recalled to Thy Unity, and endued with form, and from Thee, the one sovereign Good, were all made very good. How have they deserved of Thee, that they should be even formless, since they would not be even this except from Thee?

3. How has corporeal matter deserved of Thee, to be even invisible and formless,3 since it were not even this hadst Thou not made it; and therefore since it was not, it could not deserve of Thee that it should be made? Or how could the inchoate spiritual creature deserve of Thee, that even it should flow darksomely like the deep, — unlike Thee, had it not been by the same Word turned to that by Whom it was created, and by Him so enlightened become light, although not equally, yet conformably to that Form which is equal unto Thee? For as to a body, to be is not all one with being beautiful, for then it could not be deformed; so also to a created spirit, to live is not all one with living wisely, for then it would be wise unchangeably. But it is good 5 for it always to hold fast unto Thee, lest, in turning from Thee, it lose that light which it hath obtained in turning to Thee,

6

6 Similarly, in his De Civ. Dei, xii. 1, he argues that true blessedness is to be attained "by adhering to the Immutable Good, the Supreme God." This, indeed, imparts the only true life (see note, p. 133, above); for, as Origen says (in S. Joh. ii. 7), “the good man is he who truly exists," and " to be evil and to be wicked are the same as not to be." See notes, pp. 75 and 151, above.

and relapse into a light resembling the darksome For those in whom Thy good Spirit is said to deep. For even we ourselves, who in respect rest," He causes to rest in Himself. But Thy of the soul are a spiritual creature, having turned incorruptible and unchangeable will, which in away from Thee, our light, were in that life itself is all-sufficient for itself, was borne over "sometimes darkness; "I and do labour amidst that life which Thou hadst made, to which to the remains of our darkness, until in Thy Only live is not all one with living happily, since, flowOne we become Thy righteousness, like the ing in its own darkness, it liveth also; for which mountains of God. For we have been Thy it remaineth to be converted unto Him by whom judgments, which are like the great deep.2 it was made, and to live more and more by "the fountain of life," and in His light to see light,' CHAP. III. GENESIS I. 3,- OF "LIGHT," HE and to be perfected, and enlightened, and made UNDERSTANDS AS IT IS SEEN IN THE SPIRITUAL happy.

CREATURE.

66

FIRST TWO VERSES OF GENESIS.

4. But what Thou saidst in the beginning of CHAP. V. — HE RECOGNISES THE TRINITY IN THE the creation, "Let there be light, and there was light," 3 I do not unfitly understand of the spiritual creature; because there was even then a kind of life, which Thou mightest illuminate. But as it had not deserved of Thee that it should be such a life as could be enlightened, so neither, when it already was, hath it deserved of Thee that it should be enlightened. For neither could its formlessness be pleasing unto Thee, unless it became light,- not by merely existing, but by beholding the illuminating light, and cleaving unto it; so also, that it lives, and lives happily, it owes to nothing whatsoever but to Thy grace; being converted by means of a better change unto that which can be changed neither into better nor into worse; the which Thou only art because Thou only simply art, to whom it is not one thing to live, another to live blessedly, since Thou art Thyself Thine own Blessedness.

CHAP. IV. —ALL THINGS HAVE BEEN CREATED BY
THE GRACE OF GOD, AND ARE NOT OF HIM AS

STANDING IN NEED OF CREATED THINGS.

6. Behold now, the Trinity appears unto me in an enigma, which Thou, O my God, art, since Thou, O Father, in the Beginning of our wisdom, Which is Thy Wisdom, born of Thyself, equal and co-eternal unto Thee, that is, in Thy Son, hast created heaven and earth. Many things have we said of the heaven of heavens, and of the earth invisible and formless, and of the darksome deep, in reference to the wandering defects of its spiritual deformity, were it not converted unto Him from whom was its life, such as it was, and by His enlightening became a beauteous life, and the heaven of that heaven which was afterwards set between water and water. And under the name of God, I now held the Father, who made these things; and under the name of the Beginning, the Son, in whom He made these things; and believing, as I did, that my God was the Trinity, I sought further in His holy words, and behold, Thy Spirit was borne over the waters. Behold the Trinity, O my God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the Creator of all creation.

CHAP. VI. -WHY THE HOLY GHOST SHOULD HAVE
BEEN MENTIONED AFTER THE MENTION OF
HEAVEN AND EARTH.

5. What, therefore, could there be wanting unto Thy good, which Thou Thyself art, although these things had either never been, or had remained formless, — the which Thou madest not out of any want, but out of the plenitude of Thy goodness, restraining them and converting them 7. But what was the cause, O Thou true-speakto form not as though Thy joy were perfected ing Light? Unto Thee do I lift up my heart, by them? For to Thee, being perfect, their let it not teach me vain things; disperse its imperfection is displeasing, and therefore were darkness, and tell me, I beseech Thee, by our they perfected by Thee, and were pleasing unto mother charity, tell me, I beseech Thee, the reaThee; but not as if Thou wert imperfect, and son why, after the mention of heaven, and of the wert to be perfected in their perfection. For Thy good Spirit was borne over the waters,5 not borne up by them as if He rested upon them.

earth invisible and formless, and darkness upon the deep, Thy Scripture should then at length mention Thy Spirit? Was it because it was meet that it should be spoken of Him that He was "borne over," and this could not be said, unless that were first mentioned "over" which Thy Spirit may be understood to have been "borne?" For neither was He "borne over"

Why, trouble me, as if I could enlighten any man Why is that cometh into the world?" 9

CHAP. XI. THAT THE SYMBOLS OF THE TRINITY
IN MAN, TO BE, TO KNOW, AND TO WILL, ARE
NEVER THOROUGHLY EXAMINED.

Ghost were borne "over the waters." then, is this said of Thy Spirit only? it said of Him alone? As if He had been in place who is not in place, of whom only it is written, that He is Thy gift? In Thy gift we rest; there we enjoy Thee. Our rest is our place. Love lifts us up thither, and Thy good Spirit lifteth our lowliness from the gates of 12. Which of us understandeth the Almighty death. In Thy good pleasure lies our peace.3 Trinity? 10 And yet which speaketh not of It, Rare is that soul which, The body by its own weight gravitates towards if indeed it be It? its own place. Weight goes not downward only, while it speaketh of It, knows what it speaketh but to its own place. Fire tends upwards, a of. And they contend and strive, but no one stone downwards. They are propelled by their without peace seeth that vision. I could wish own weights, they seek their own places. Oil that men would consider these three things that poured under the water is raised above the are in themselves. These three are far other water; water poured upon oil sinks under the than the Trinity; but I speak of things in which oil. They are propelled by their own weights, they may exercise and prove themselves, and they seek their own places. Out of order, they feel how far other they be." are restless; restored to order, they are at rest. things I speak of are, To Be, to Know, and to My weight is my love; 4 by it am I borne Will. For I Am, and I Know, and I Will; I whithersoever I am borne. By Thy Gift we are Am Knowing and Willing; and I Know myself inflamed, and are borne upwards; we wax hot to Be and to Will; and I Will to Be and to inwardly, and go forwards. We ascend Thy Know. In these three, therefore, let him who ways that be in our heart,5 and sing a song of degrees; we glow inwardly with Thy fire, with Thy good fire, and we go, because we go upwards to the peace of Jerusalem; for glad was I when they said unto me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord." There hath Thy good pleasure placed us, that we may desire no other thing than to dwell there for ever.

CHAP. X.

But the three

even

can see how inseparable a life there is,
one life, one mind, and one essence; finally,
how inseparable is the distinction, and yet a dis-
tinction. Surely a man hath it before him; let
him look into himself, and see, and tell me. But

9 John i. 9; see p. 76, note 2, and p. 181, note 2, above. 10 As Augustin constantly urges of God, "Cujus nulla scientia est in anima, nisi scire quomodo eum nesciat" (De Ord. ii. 18), so we may say of the Trinity. The objectors to the doctrine sometimes speak as if it were irrational (Mansel's Bampton Lectures, lect. vi., notes 9, 10). But while the doctrine is above reason, it is not con

THAT NOTHING AROSE SAVE BY THE trary thereto; and, as Dr. Newman observes in his Grammar of

GIFT OF GOD.

pose

Assent, v. 2 (a book which the student should remember has been written since his union with the Roman Church), though the doctrine be mysterious, and, when taken as a whole, transcends all our experience, there is that on which the spiritual life of the Christian can reof intellectual and thoughtful minds only, but of all religious minds in its "propositions taken one by one, and that not in the case whatever, in the case of a child or a peasant as well as of a philosopher." With the above compare the words of Leibnitz in his "Discours de la Conformité de la Foi avec la Raison," sec. 56: "Il en est jours une explication suffisante pour croire, et jamais autant qu'il en de même des autres mystères, où les esprits modérés trouveront toufaut pour comprendre. Il nous suffit d'un certain ce que c'est (Ti oT); mais le comment (s) nous passe, et ne nous est point nécessaire" (Euvres de Locke et Leibnitz). See also p. 175, note 1, above, on the "incomprehensibility" of eternity.

11 While giving illustrations of the Trinity like the above, he would

these, Unchangeable." (See also De Trin. xv. 5, end.) He is very

11. Happy creature, which, though in itself it was other than Thou, hath known no other state than that as soon as it was made, it was, without any interval of time, by Thy Gift, which is borne over everything mutable, raised up by that calling whereby Thou saidst, "Let there be light, and there was light." Whereas in us there is a difference of times, in that we were darkness, and are made light; but of that it not have a man think" that he has discovered that which is above is only said what it would have been had it not fond of such illustrations. In his De Civ. Dei, xi. 26, 27, for exbeen enlightened. And this is so spoken as if ample, we have a parallel to this in our text, in the union of existence, knowledge, and love in man; in his De Trin. ix. 4, 17, 18, we have it had been fleeting and darksome before; that mind, knowledge, and love; ibid. x. 19, memory, understanding, and In his De Lib. so the cause whereby it was made to be other-will; and ibid. xi. 16, memory, thought, and will. Arb. ii. 7, again, we have the doctrine illustrated by the union of wise might appear, that is to say, being turned being, life, and knowledge in man. He also finds illustrations of the to the unfailing Light it might become light. number (De Trin. xi. 18), and their existence, figure, and order doctrine in other created things, as in their measure, weight, and Let him who is able understand this; and let (De Vera Relig. xiii.). The nature of these illustrations would at him who is not, ask of Thee. first sight seem to involve him in the Sabellian heresy, which denied Why should he the fulness of the Godhead to each of the three Persons of the Trinity; but this is only in appearance. He does not use these illustrations as presenting anything analogous to the union of the three Persons in the Godhead, but as dimly illustrative of it. He declares his belief in the Athanasian doctrine, which, as Dr. Newman observes (Grammar of Assent, v. 2), “ may be said to be summed up in this very formula on which St. Augustin lays so much stress,Tres et Unus,' not merely 'Unum."" Nothing can be clearer than his words in his De Civ. Dei, xi. 24: "When we inquire regarding each singly, it is said that each is God and Almighty; and when we speak of all together, it is said that there are not three Gods, nor three Almighties, but one God Almighty." Compare with this his De

8

1 See De Trin. xv. 17-19.

2 Ps. ix. 13.

3 Luke ii. 14. Vulg.

4 Compare De Civ. Dei, xi. 28: "For the specific gravity of bodies is, as it were, their love, whether they are carried downwards by their weight, or upwards by their levity.'

5 Ps. lxxxiv. 5.

6 Ps. cxxii. 1.

7 Eph. v. 8.

Et qui non potest, which words, however, some MSS. omit, Trin. vii., end of ch. 11, where the language is equally emphatic. reading, Qui potest intelligat; a te petat.

See also Mansel, as above, lect. vi. and notes 11 and 12.

66

THAT THE RENEWAL OF MAN IS NOT COMPLETED IN THIS WORLD.

11 16 And

when he discovers and can say anything of CHAP. XIII. these, let him not then think that he has discovered that which is above these Unchangeable, 14. But as yet "by faith, not by sight," 13 for which Is unchangeably, and Knows unchangeably, and Wills unchangeably. And whether on is not hope." 14 As yet deep calleth unto deep 5 we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen account of these three there is also, where they but in "the noise of Thy waterspouts." are, a Trinity; or whether these three be in as yet doth he that saith, I “could not speak Each, so that the three belong to Each; or unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal," 17 whether both ways at once, wondrously, simply, even he, as yet, doth not count himself to have and yet diversely, in Itself a limit unto Itself, apprehended, and forgetteth those things which yet illimitable; whereby It is, and is known unto are behind, and reacheth forth to those things Itself, and sufficeth to Itself, unchangeably the which are before, 18 and groaneth being burSelf-same, by the abundant magnitude of its dened; 19 and his soul thirsteth after the living Unity, who can readily conceive? Who in God, as the hart after the water-brooks, and any wise express it? Who in any way rashly saith, "When shall I come?" 20" desiring to be pronounce thereon?

CHAP. XII.

ALLEGORICAL EXPLANATION OF GENESIS, CHAP. I., CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH AND ITS WORSHIP.

13. Proceed in thy confession, say to the Lord thy God, O my faith, Holy, Holy, Holy, O Lord my God, in Thy name have we been baptized, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in Thy name do we baptize, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, because among us also in His Christ did God make heaven and earth, namely, the spiritual and carnal people of His Church. Yea, and our earth, before it received the "form of doctrine," 3 was invisible and formless, and we were covered with the darkness of ignorance. For Thou correctest man for iniquity, and "Thy judgments are a great deep." 5' But because Thy Spirit was "borne over the waters," Thy mercy forsook not our misery, and Thou saidst, "Let there be light," "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Repent ye, let there be light. And because our soul was troubled within us,10

clothed upon with his house which is from heaven ; " 21 "21 and calleth upon this lower deep, saying, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." 22 And, "Be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children," that in "understanding ye may be perfect ; " 23 and "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?" 24 But now not in his own voice, but in Thine who sentest Thy Spirit from above; 25 through Him who "ascended up on high," 26 and set open the flood-gates of His gifts,27 that the force of His streams might make glad the city of God.28 For, for Him doth "the friend of the bridegroom " 29 sigh, having now the first-fruits of the Spirit laid up with Him, yet still groaning within himself, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of his body; 3° to Him he sighs, for he is a member of the Bride; for Him is he jealous, for he is the friend of the Bridegroom; 29 for Him is he jealous, not for himself; because in the voice of Thy "waterspouts,' "16 not in his own voice, doth he call on that other deep, for whom being we remembered Thee, O Lord, from the land jealous he feareth, lest that, as the serpent beof Jordan, and that mountain " equal unto Thy-guiled Eve through his subtilty, so their minds self, but little for our sakes; and upon our being should be corrupted from the simplicity that is displeased with our darkness, we turned unto Thee, in our Bridegroom, Thine only Son.31 What a "and there was light." And, behold, we were light of beauty will that be when “ we shall see sometimes darkness, but now light in the Lord." Him as He is," 32 and those tears be passed away

I Matt. xxviii. 19.

2 He similarly interprets "heaven and earth" in his De Gen. ad Lit. ii. 4. With this compare Chrysostom's illustration in his De Pænit. hom. 8. The Church is like the ark of Noah, yet different from it. Into that ark as the animals entered, so they came forth. The fox remained a fox, the hawk a hawk, and the serpent a serpent. But with the spiritual ark it is not so, for in it evil dispositions are changed. This illustration of Chrysostom is used with an effective but rough eloquence by the Italian preacher Segneri, in his Quaresimale, serm iv. sec.

3 Rom. vi. 17.
4 Ps. xxxix. 11.

5 Ps. xxxvi. 6.

6 Gen. i. 3.

7 See p. 47,

8 Matt. iii. 2.

note 10,

above.

9"His putting repentance and light together is, for that baptism was anciently called illumination, as Heb. vi. 4, Ps. xlii. 2."-W. W. See also p. 118, note 4, part 1, above, for the meaning of "illumination."

24 Gal. iii. 1.

25 Acts ii. 19.
26 Eph. iv. 8.

27 Mal. iii. 10.
28 Ps. xlvi. 4.

29 John iii. 29.

30 Rom. viii. 23.

31 2 Cor. xi. 3, and 1 John iii. 3.

32 Ibid. ver. 2.