The Confessions of St. Augustine
order, are called Heaven and Earth, the one being the spiritual, the
other the corporeal, creation."
All which things being heard and well considered, I will not strive
about words: for that is profitable to nothing, but the subversion of
the hearers. But the law is good to edify, if a man use it lawfully: for
that the end of it is charity, out of a pure heart and good conscience,
and faith unfeigned. And well did our Master know, upon which two
commandments He hung all the Law and the Prophets. And what doth it
prejudice me, O my God, Thou light of my eyes in secret, zealously
confessing these things, since divers things may be understood under
these words which yet are all true,--what, I say, doth it prejudice me,
if I think otherwise than another thinketh the writer thought? All we
readers verily strive to trace out and to understand his meaning whom we
read; and seeing we believe him to speak truly, we dare not imagine
him to have said any thing, which ourselves either know or think to
be false. While every man endeavours then to understand in the Holy
Scriptures, the same as the writer understood, what hurt is it, if a man
understand what Thou, the light of all true-speaking minds, dost show
him to be true, although he whom he reads, understood not this, seeing
he also understood a Truth, though not this truth?
For true it is, O Lord, that Thou madest heaven and earth; and it is
true too, that the Beginning is Thy Wisdom, in Which Thou createst all:
and true again, that this visible world hath for its greater part
the heaven and the earth, which briefly comprise all made and created
natures. And true too, that whatsoever is mutable, gives us to
understand a certain want of form, whereby it receiveth a form, or is
changed, or turned. It is true, that that is subject to no times, which
so cleaveth to the unchangeable Form, as though subject to change,
never to be changed. It is true, that that formlessness which is almost
nothing, cannot be subject to the alteration of times. It is true, that
that whereof a thing is made, may by a certain mode of speech, be called
by the name of the thing made of it; whence that formlessness, whereof
heaven and earth were made, might be called heaven and earth. It is
true, that of things having form, there is not any nearer to having
no form, than the earth and the deep. It is true, that not only every
created and formed thing, but whatsoever is capable of being created and
formed, Thou madest, of Whom are all things. It is true, that whatsoever
is formed out of that which had no form, was unformed before it was
formed.
Out of these truths, of which they doubt not whose inward eye Thou hast
enabled to see such things, and who unshakenly believe Thy servant Moses
to have spoken in the Spirit of truth;--of all these then, he taketh
one, who saith, In the Beginning God made the heaven and the earth; that
is, "in His Word coeternal with Himself, God made the intelligible and
the sensible, or the spiritual and the corporeal creature." He another,
that saith, In the Beginning God made heaven and earth; that is, "in
His Word coeternal with Himself, did God make the universal bulk of this
corporeal world, together with all those apparent and known creatures,
which it containeth." He another, that saith, In the Beginning God made
heaven and earth; that is, "in His Word coeternal with Himself, did
God make the formless matter of creatures spiritual and corporeal." He
another, that saith, In the Beginning God created heaven and earth; that
is, "in His Word coeternal with Himself, did God create the formless
matter of the creature corporeal, wherein heaven and earth lay as yet
confused, which, being now distinguished and formed, we at this day see
in the bulk of this world." He another, who saith, In the Beginning God
made heaven and earth; that is, "in the very beginning of creating and
working, did God make that formless matter, confusedly containing in
itself both heaven and earth; out of which, being formed, do they now
stand out, and are apparent, with all that is in them."
And with regard to the understanding of the words following, out of all
those truths, he chooses one to himself, who saith, But the earth was
invisible, and without form, and darkness was upon the deep; that is,
"that corporeal thing that God made, was as yet a formless matter of
corporeal things, without order, without light." Another he who says,
The earth was invisible and without form, and darkness was upon the
deep; that is, "this all, which is called heaven and earth, was still
a formless and darksome matter, of which the corporeal heaven and the
corporeal earth were to be made, with all things in them, which are
known to our corporeal senses." Another he who says, The earth was
invisible and without form, and darkness was upon the deep; that is,
"this all, which is called heaven and earth, was still a formless and
a darksome matter; out of which was to be made, both that intelligible
heaven, otherwhere called the Heaven of heavens, and the earth, that is,
the whole corporeal nature, under which name is comprised this corporeal
heaven also; in a word, out of which every visible and invisible
creature was to be created." Another he who says, The earth was
invisible and without form, and darkness was upon the deep, "the
Scripture did not call that formlessness by the name of heaven and
earth; but that formlessness, saith he, already was, which he called the
earth invisible without form, and darkness upon the deep; of which
he had before said, that God had made heaven and earth, namely, the
spiritual and corporeal creature." Another he who says, The earth was
invisible and without form, and darkness was upon the deep; that is,
"there already was a certain formless matter, of which the Scripture
said before, that God made heaven and earth; namely, the whole corporeal
bulk of the world, divided into two great parts, upper and lower, with
all the common and known creatures in them."
For should any attempt to dispute against these two last opinions, thus,
"If you will not allow, that this formlessness of matter seems to be
called by the name of heaven and earth; Ergo, there was something which
God had not made, out of which to make heaven and earth; for neither
hath Scripture told us, that God made this matter, unless we understand
it to be signified by the name of heaven and earth, or of earth alone,
when it is said, In the Beginning God made the heaven and earth; that so
in what follows, and the earth was invisible and without form (although
it pleased Him so to call the formless matter), we are to understand
no other matter, but that which God made, whereof is written above, God
made heaven and earth." The maintainers of either of those two latter
opinions will, upon hearing this, return for answer, "we do not deny
this formless matter to be indeed created by God, that God of Whom are
all things, very good; for as we affirm that to be a greater good, which
is created and formed, so we confess that to be a lesser good which is
made capable of creation and form, yet still good. We say however that
Scripture hath not set down, that God made this formlessness, as also it
hath not many others; as the Cherubim, and Seraphim, and those which
the Apostle distinctly speaks of, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities,
Powers. All which that God made, is most apparent. Or if in that which
is said, He made heaven and earth, all things be comprehended, what
shall we say of the waters, upon which the Spirit of God moved? For if
they be comprised in this word earth; how then can formless matter be
meant in that name of earth, when we see the waters so beautiful? Or
if it be so taken; why then is it written, that out of the same
formlessness, the firmament was made, and called heaven; and that the
waters were made, is not written? For the waters remain not formless and
invisible, seeing we behold them flowing in so comely a manner. But if
they then received that beauty, when God said, Let the waters under the
firmament be gathered together, that so the gathering together be itself
the forming of them; what will be said as to those waters above the
firmament? Seeing neither if formless would they have been worthy of so
honourable a seat, nor is it written, by what word they were formed. If
then Genesis is silent as to God's making of any thing, which yet
that God did make neither sound faith nor well-grounded understanding
doubteth, nor again will any sober teaching dare to affirm these
waters to be coeternal with God, on the ground that we find them to be
mentioned in the hook of Genesis, but when they were created, we do
not find; why (seeing truth teaches us) should we not understand that
formless matter (which this Scripture calls the earth invisible and
without form, and darksome deep) to have been created of God out of
nothing, and therefore not to be coeternal to Him; notwithstanding this
history hath omitted to show when it was created?"
These things then being heard and perceived, according to the weakness
of my capacity (which I confess unto Thee, O Lord, that knowest it), two
sorts of disagreements I see may arise, when a thing is in words related
by true reporters; one, concerning the truth of the things, the other,
concerning the meaning of the relater. For we enquire one way about
the making of the creature, what is true; another way, what Moses,
that excellent minister of Thy Faith, would have his reader and hearer
understand by those words. For the first sort, away with all those
who imagine themselves to know as a truth, what is false; and for this
other, away with all them too, which imagine Moses to have written
things that be false. But let me be united in Thee, O Lord, with those
and delight myself in Thee, with them that feed on Thy truth, in the
largeness of charity, and let us approach together unto the words of
Thy book, and seek in them for Thy meaning, through the meaning of Thy
servant, by whose pen Thou hast dispensed them.
But which of us shall, among those so many truths, which occur to
enquirers in those words, as they are differently understood, so
discover that one meaning, as to affirm, "this Moses thought," and "this
would he have understood in that history"; with the same confidence
as he would, "this is true," whether Moses thought this or that? For
behold, O my God, I Thy servant, who have in this book vowed a sacrifice
of confession unto Thee, and pray, that by Thy mercy I may pay my vows
unto Thee, can I, with the same confidence wherewith I affirm, that in
Thy incommutable world Thou createdst all things visible and invisible,
affirm also, that Moses meant no other than this, when he wrote, In the
Beginning God made heaven and earth? No. Because I see not in his mind,
that he thought of this when he wrote these things, as I do see it
in Thy truth to be certain. For he might have his thoughts upon God's
commencement of creating, when he said In the beginning; and by heaven
and earth, in this place he might intend no formed and perfected nature
whether spiritual or corporeal, but both of them inchoate and as yet
formless. For I perceive, that whichsoever of the two had been said, it
might have been truly said; but which of the two he thought of in these
words, I do not so perceive. Although, whether it were either of these,
or any sense beside (that I have not here mentioned), which this so
great man saw in his mind, when he uttered these words, I doubt not but
that he saw it truly, and expressed it aptly.
Let no man harass me then, by saying, Moses thought not as you say, but
as I say: for if he should ask me, "How know you that Moses thought that
which you infer out of his words?" I ought to take it in good part, and