cult 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 accom- plishing the work rests on Him who has al- ready 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 Chap. IV.]
ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
5-3 ought to be possessed. The Lord saith, "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given."1 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 per- fect 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.2 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 multi- plied 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.
CHAP. 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 ex- ample, 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,3 nor the stone which Jacob used as a pillow,4 nor the ram which Abra- ham offered up instead of his son;5 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 tilings, to wit, which are used to indi- cate something else. Accordingly, every sign thing; for what is not a thing is Every thing, however, is not regard to this dis- and signs, I shall, is also a nothing at all.
also a sign. And so, in tinctlon between things 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 after- wards. 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.
CHAP. 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 hin- dered in our course, and sometimes even led away from it; so that, getting entangled m the love of lower gratifications, we lag behind in, or even altogether turn back from, the pursuit of the real and proper objects of en- joyment.
CHAP. 4. DIFFERENCE OF USE AND ENJOY- MENT.
4. For to enjoy a thing is to rest with satis- factiofTin 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 un- lawful 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 facti- tious delight, our thoughts are diverted from that home whose delights would make us truly happy. Such is a picture of our condi- tion in this life of mortality. We have wan- dered 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,6— that is, that by means of what is material and temporary we may lay hold upon that which is spiritual and eternal.
2 Matt. xiv. 17, etc.; xx. 34, etc. 4 Gen. xxviii. 11. 5 Gen. xxii. 13.
6 Rom. i. 20.
524 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
[Book I.
CHAP. 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 cawse 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.1 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 attri- butes are all one because of the Father, all equal because of the Son, and all harmonious because of the Holy Spirit.
CHAP. 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 unspeak- able, 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 op- position 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 conde- scended 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 1 Rom. xi. 36.
1 Rom. xi. 36.
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.
CHAP. 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 per- tain 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 bril- liant 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 vague- ly as infinite, or of the most beautiful form conceivable; or they represent it in the form of the human body, if they think that supe- rior 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 excel- lence. Those, on the other hand, who en- deavor 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 era- ulously 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.
CHAP. 8. GOD TO BE ESTEEMED ABOVE ALL ELSE, BECAUSE HE IS UNCHANGEABLE WIS- DOM.
8. And since all who think about God think of Him as living, they only can form any con- ception of Him that is not absurd and un- worthy who think of Him as life itself; and, whatever may be the bodily form that has sug- gested 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 Chap. XII.)
ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
5*5 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 in- comparably 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 senti- ent 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 it- self. For a wise intelligence, that is, one that has attained to wisdom, was, previous to its attaining wisdom, unwise. But wisdom it- self never was unwise, and never can become so. And if men never caught sight of this wisdom, they could never with entire confi- dence 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 un- changeable: 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.
CHAP. 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 un- changeable wisdom is preferable To one of change?**~ For that very truth about which Tie 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 dwell- ing long among the shadows of the flesh. And thus men are driven back from their na- tive 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.
CHAP. IO. 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.et 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.
CHAP. II.- — 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 fool- ishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men."1 And thus, though Wisdom was Himself our home, He made Himself also the way by which we should reach our home.
CHAP. 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." 2 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." 3 Thus, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Why then did He come, seeing that He was al- ready here, except that it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe?
"Book I.
CHAP. 13. THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH.
In what way did He come but this, " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us "? x Just as when we speak, in order that what we nave 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 com- plete in itself, and takes the form of speech without being modified in its own nature by the change: so the Divine Word, though suf- fering no change of nature, yet became flesh, that He might dwell among us.
CHAP. 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 sur- geons, 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 assump- tion of humanity adapted to our wounds, cur- ing 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 ap- plies 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 ser- pent: we are set free by the foolishness of God. Moreover, just as the former was called wis- dom, but was in reality the folly of those who despised God, so the latter is called foolishness, but is true wisdom in those who over- come 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 vir- tues. 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 1 John i. 14.
us who fell through a woman: He came as a man to save us who are men, as a mortal to save us whojare mortals, by death to save us who were dead. And those wTTo Call follow out the matter more fully, who are not hur- ried 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.
CHAP. 15. FAITH IS BUTTRESSED BY THE RE- SURRECTION 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 clear- ly 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 re- flect how great He was who suffered so great things for them while they were still in unbe- lief! 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 prepara- tion, 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?
CHAP. 16. — CHRIST PURGES HIS CHURCH BY MEDICINAL AFFLICTIONS.
15. For the Church is His body, as the apostle's teaching shows us;2 and it is even called His spouse.3 His body, then, which has many members, and all performing differ- ent 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 wrin- kle, or any such thing.
2 Compare Eph. i. 23 with Rom. xii. 5.
3 Rev. xix. 7; xxi. 9.
Chap. XXII.]
ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
52, CHAP. 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?
CHAP. 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 what- soever it should loose on earth might be loosed in heaven;1 that is to say, that whoso- ever 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 repen- tance 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 par- doned, 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.
CHAP. 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 im- possible), but that this corruptible shaK put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality.2 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.
1 Compare Matt, xvi. 19 with xviii. 18.
2 i Cor. xv. 50-53.
CHAP. 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.
CHAP. 21. NEITHER BODY NOR SOUL EXTIN- GUISHED 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.
CHAP. 22. GOD ALONE TO BE ENJOYED.