The Confessions of St. Augustine
would answer perchance as I have above, or something more at large, if
he were unyielding. But when he saith, "Moses meant not what you say,
but what I say," yet denieth not that what each of us say, may both be
true, O my God, life of the poor, in Whose bosom is no contradiction,
pour down a softening dew into my heart, that I may patiently bear with
such as say this to me, not because they have a divine Spirit, and have
seen in the heart of Thy servant what they speak, but because they be
proud; not knowing Moses' opinion, but loving their own, not because it
is truth, but because it is theirs. Otherwise they would equally love
another true opinion, as I love what they say, when they say true: not
because it is theirs, but because it is true; and on that very ground
not theirs because it is true. But if they therefore love it, because
it is true, then is it both theirs, and mine; as being in common to all
lovers of truth. But whereas they contend that Moses did not mean what
I say, but what they say, this I like not, love not: for though it
were so, yet that their rashness belongs not to knowledge, but to
overboldness, and not insight but vanity was its parent. And therefore,
O Lord, are Thy judgements terrible; seeing Thy truth is neither mine,
nor his, nor another's; but belonging to us all, whom Thou callest
publicly to partake of it, warning us terribly, not to account
it private to ourselves, lest we be deprived of it. For whosoever
challenges that as proper to himself, which Thou propoundest to all to
enjoy, and would have that his own which belongs to all, is driven from
what is in common to his own; that is, from truth, to a lie. For he that
speaketh a lie, speaketh it of his own.
Hearken, O God, Thou best judge; Truth Itself, hearken to what I shall
say to this gainsayer, hearken, for before Thee do I speak, and before
my brethren, who employ Thy law lawfully, to the end of charity:
hearken and behold, if it please Thee, what I shall say to him. For this
brotherly and peaceful word do I return unto Him: "If we both see that
to be true that Thou sayest, and both see that to be true that I say,
where, I pray Thee, do we see it? Neither I in thee, nor thou in me; but
both in the unchangeable Truth itself, which is above our souls." Seeing
then we strive not about the very light of the Lord God, why strive
we about the thoughts of our neighbour which we cannot so see, as the
unchangeable Truth is seen: for that, if Moses himself had appeared to
us and said, "This I meant"; neither so should we see it, but should
believe it. Let us not then be puffed up for one against another, 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.
With a view to which two precepts of charity, unless we believe that
Moses meant, whatsoever in those books he did mean, we shall make God
a liar, imagining otherwise of our fellow servant's mind, than he hath
taught us. Behold now, how foolish it is, in such abundance of most
true meanings, as may be extracted out of those words, rashly to affirm,
which of them Moses principally meant; and with pernicious contentions
to offend charity itself, for whose sake he spake every thing, whose
words we go about to expound.
And yet I, O my God, Thou lifter up of my humility, and rest of my
labour, Who hearest my confessions, and forgivest my sins: seeing Thou
commandest me to love my neighbour as myself, I cannot believe that Thou
gavest a less gift unto Moses Thy faithful servant, than I would wish
or desire Thee to have given me, had I been born in the time he was, and
hadst Thou set me in that office, that by the service of my heart and
tongue those books might be dispensed, which for so long after were to
profit all nations, and through the whole world from such an eminence of
authority, were to surmount all sayings of false and proud teachings. I
should have desired verily, had I then been Moses (for we all come from
the same lump, and what is man, saving that Thou art mindful of him?),
I would then, had I been then what he was, and been enjoined by Thee to
write the book of Genesis, have desired such a power of expression and
such a style to be given me, that neither they who cannot yet understand
how God created, might reject the sayings, as beyond their capacity; and
they who had attained thereto, might find what true opinion soever they
had by thought arrived at, not passed over in those few words of
that Thy servant: and should another man by the light of truth have
discovered another, neither should that fail of being discoverable in
those same words.
For as a fountain within a narrow compass, is more plentiful, and
supplies a tide for more streams over larger spaces, than any one of
those streams, which, after a wide interval, is derived from the same
fountain; so the relation of that dispenser of Thine, which was to
benefit many who were to discourse thereon, does out of a narrow
scantling of language, overflow into streams of clearest truth, whence
every man may draw out for himself such truth as he can upon these
subjects, one, one truth, another, another, by larger circumlocutions of
discourse. For some, when they read, or hear these words, conceive that
God like a man or some mass endued with unbounded power, by some new
and sudden resolution, did, exterior to itself, as it were at a certain
distance, create heaven and earth, two great bodies above and below,
wherein all things were to be contained. And when they hear, God said,
Let it be made, and it was made; they conceive of words begun and ended,
sounding in time, and passing away; after whose departure, that came
into being, which was commanded so to do; and whatever of the like sort,
men's acquaintance with the material world would suggest. In whom, being
yet little ones and carnal, while their weakness is by this humble
kind of speech, carried on, as in a mother's bosom, their faith is
wholesomely built up, whereby they hold assured, that God made all
natures, which in admirable variety their eye beholdeth around. Which
words, if any despising, as too simple, with a proud weakness, shall
stretch himself beyond the guardian nest; he will, alas, fall miserably.
Have pity, O Lord God, lest they who go by the way trample on the
unfledged bird, and send Thine angel to replace it into the nest, that
it may live, till it can fly.
But others, unto whom these words are no longer a nest, but deep shady
fruit-bowers, see the fruits concealed therein, fly joyously around,
and with cheerful notes seek out, and pluck them. For reading or hearing
these words, they see that all times past and to come, are surpassed by
Thy eternal and stable abiding; and yet that there is no creature formed
in time, not of Thy making. Whose will, because it is the same that Thou
art, Thou madest all things, not by any change of will, nor by a will,
which before was not, and that these things were not out of Thyself, in
Thine own likeness, which is the form of all things; but out of nothing,
a formless unlikeness, which should be formed by Thy likeness (recurring
to Thy Unity, according to their appointed capacity, so far as is given
to each thing in his kind), and might all be made very good; whether
they abide around Thee, or being in gradation removed in time and place,
made or undergo the beautiful variations of the Universe. These things
they see, and rejoice, in the little degree they here may, in the light
of Thy truth.
Another bends his mind on that which is said, In the Beginning God made
heaven and earth; and beholdeth therein Wisdom, the Beginning because
It also speaketh unto us. Another likewise bends his mind on the same
words, and by Beginning understands the commencement of things created;
In the beginning He made, as if it were said, He at first made. And
among them that understand In the Beginning to mean, "In Thy Wisdom Thou
createdst heaven and earth," one believes the matter out of which the
heaven and earth were to be created, to be there called heaven and
earth; another, natures already formed and distinguished; another, one
formed nature, and that a spiritual, under the name Heaven, the other
formless, a corporeal matter, under the name Earth. They again who by
the names heaven and earth, understand matter as yet formless, out of
which heaven and earth were to be formed, neither do they understand it
in one way; but the one, that matter out of which both the intelligible
and the sensible creature were to be perfected; another, that only, out
of which this sensible corporeal mass was to be made, containing in
its vast bosom these visible and ordinary natures. Neither do they, who
believe the creatures already ordered and arranged, to be in this place
called heaven and earth, understand the same; but the one, both the
invisible and visible, the other, the visible only, in which we behold
this lightsome heaven, and darksome earth, with the things in them
contained.
But he that no otherwise understands In the Beginning He made, than if
it were said, At first He made, can only truly understand heaven and
earth of the matter of heaven and earth, that is, of the universal
intelligible and corporeal creation. For if he would understand thereby
the universe, as already formed, it may be rightly demanded of him, "If
God made this first, what made He afterwards?" and after the universe,
he will find nothing; whereupon must he against his will hear another
question; "How did God make this first, if nothing after?" But when
he says, God made matter first formless, then formed, there is no
absurdity, if he be but qualified to discern, what precedes by eternity,
what by time, what by choice, and what in original. By eternity, as
God is before all things; by time, as the flower before the fruit; by
choice, as the fruit before the flower; by original, as the sound before
the tune. Of these four, the first and last mentioned, are with extreme
difficulty understood, the two middle, easily. For a rare and too lofty
a vision is it, to behold Thy Eternity, O Lord, unchangeably making
things changeable; and thereby before them. And who, again, is of
so sharp-sighted understanding, as to be able without great pains to
discern, how the sound is therefore before the tune; because a tune is
a formed sound; and a thing not formed, may exist; whereas that which
existeth not, cannot be formed. Thus is the matter before the thing
made; not because it maketh it, seeing itself is rather made; nor is it
before by interval of time; for we do not first in time utter formless
sounds without singing, and subsequently adapt or fashion them into
the form of a chant, as wood or silver, whereof a chest or vessel is
fashioned. For such materials do by time also precede the forms of the
things made of them, but in singing it is not so; for when it is sung,
its sound is heard; for there is not first a formless sound, which is
afterwards formed into a chant. For each sound, so soon as made, passeth
away, nor canst thou find ought to recall and by art to compose. So
then the chant is concentrated in its sound, which sound of his is his
matter. And this indeed is formed, that it may be a tune; and therefore
(as I said) the matter of the sound is before the form of the tune; not
before, through any power it hath to make it a tune; for a sound is no
way the workmaster of the tune; but is something corporeal, subjected to
the soul which singeth, whereof to make 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, a tune being not only a sound, but
a beautiful sound. But it is first in original, because a tune receives