The Confessions of St. Augustin (part 6 of 7)

Notes

1. 1010

   Ps. cxxx. 1.

2. 1011

   Ps. lxxiv. 16.

3. 1012

   Ps. xxix. 9. In his comment on this place as given in the Old Version, "vox Domini perficientis cervos," he makes the forest with its thick darkness to symbolize the mysteries of Scripture, where the harts ruminating thereon represent the pious Christian meditating on those mysteries (see vi. sec. 3, note, above). In this same passage he speaks of those who are thus being perfected as overcoming the poisoned tongues. This is an allusion to the fabled power the stags had of enticing serpents from their holes by their breath, and then destroying them. Augustin is very fond of this kind of fable from natural history. In his Enarr. in Ps. cxxix. and cxli., we have similar allusions to the supposed habits of stags; and, ibid. ci., we have the well-known fable of the pelican in its charity reviving its young, and feeding them with its own blood. This use of fables was very common with the mediæval writers, and those familiar with the writings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries will recall many illustrations of it amongst the preachers of those days.

4. 1013

   Ps. xxvi. 7.

5. 1014

   Matt. vi. 33.

6. 1015

   Ps. cxix. 85.

7. 1016

   See p. 48, note 5, above.

8. 1017

   Ps. lxxx. 17.

9. 1018

   See note 9, p. 74, above.

10. 1019

    John i. 3.

11. 1020

    Rom. viii. 34.

12. 1021

    Col. ii. 3.

13. 1022

    Many mss., however, read ipsos, and not ipsum.

14. 1023

    John v. 4-6.

15. 1024

    Gen. i. 1.

16. 1025

    Augustin was not singular amongst the early Fathers in not knowing Hebrew, for of the Greeks only Origen, and of the Latins Jerome, knew anything of it. We find him confessing his ignorance both here and elsewhere (Enarr. in Ps. cxxxvi. 7, and De Doctr. Christ. ii. 22); and though he recommends a knowledge of Hebrew as well as Greek, to correct "the endless diversity of the Latin translators" (De Doctr. Christ. ii. 16); he speaks as strongly as does Grinfield, in his Apology for the Septuagint, in favour of the claims of that version to "biblical and canonical authority" (Eps. xxviii., lxxi., and lxxv.; De Civ. Dei, xviii. 42, 43; De Doctr. Christ. ii. 22). He discountenanced Jerome's new translation, probably from fear of giving offence, and, as we gather from Ep. lxxi. 5, not without cause. From the tumult he there describes as ensuing upon Jerome's version being read, the outcry would appear to have been as great as when, on the change of the old style of reckoning to the new, the ignorant mob clamoured to have back their eleven days!

17. 1026

    It was the doctrine of Aristotle that excellence of character is the proper object of love, and in proportion as we recognise such excellence in others are we attracted to become like them (see Sidgwick's Methods of Ethics, book iv. c. 5, sec. 4). If this be true of the creature, how much more should it be so of the Creator, who is the perfection of all that we can conceive of goodness and truth. Compare De Trin. viii. 3-6, De Vera Relig. 57, and an extract from Athanese Coquerel in Archbishop Thomson's Bampton Lectures, note 73.

18. 1027

    See x. sec 40, note 6, and sec. 53, above.

19. 1028

    That is, the artificer makes, God creates. The creation of matter is distinctively a doctrine of revelation. The ancient philosophers believed in the eternity of matter. As Lucretius puts it (i. 51): "Nullam rem e nihilo gigni divinitus unquam." See Burton, Bampton Lectures, lect. iii. and notes 18-21, and Mansel, Bampton Lectures, lect. iii. note 12. See also p. 76, note 8, above, for the Manichæan doctrine as to the hule; and The Unseen Universe, arts. 85, 86, 151, and 160, for the modern doctrine of "continuity." See also Kalisch, Commentary on Gen. i. 1.

20. 1029

    Ps. xxxiii. 9.

21. 1030

    Ibid. ver. 6.

22. 1031

    Matt. xvii. 5.

23. 1032

    John i. 1.

24. 1033

    John viii. 25, Old Ver. Though some would read, Qui et loquitur, making it correspond to the Vulgate, instead of Quia et loquitur, as above, the latter is doubtless the correct reading, since we find the text similarly quoted in Ev. Joh. Tract. xxxviii. 11, where he enlarges on "The Beginning," comparing principium with arche. It will assist to the understanding of this section to refer to the early part of the note on p. 107, above, where the Platonic view of the Logos, as endiathetos and prophorikos, or in the "bosom of the Father" and "made flesh," is given; which terminology, as Dr. Newman tells us (Arians, pt. i. c. 2, sec. 4), was accepted by the Church. Augustin, consistently with this idea, says (on John viii. 25, as above): "For if the Beginning, as it is in itself, had remained so with the Father as not to receive the form of a servant and speak as man with men, how could they have believed in Him, since their weak hearts could not have heard the word intelligently without some voice that would appeal to their senses? Therefore, said He, believe me to be the Beginning; for that you may believe, I not only am, but also speak to you." Newman, as quoted above, may be referred to for the significance of arche as applied to the Son, and ibid. sec. 3, also, on the "Word." For the difference between a mere "voice" and the "Word," compare Aug. Serm. ccxciii. sec. 3, and Origen, In Joann. ii. 36.

25. 1034

    John iii. 29.

26. 1035

    Ps. xxxi. 10.

27. 1036

    Ps. ciii. 3-5.

28. 1037

    Rom. viii. 24, 25.

29. 1038

    Ps. civ. 24.

30. 1039

    See note 12, p. 174, below.

31. 1040

    Ps. cii. 27.

32. 1041

    Ps. ii. 7, and Heb. v. 5.

33. 1042

    Ps. cxxxix. 6.

34. 1043

    Matt. vii. 11.

35. 1044

    Ps. lxxiii. 16.

36. 1045

    Ps. cxvi. 10.

37. 1046

    Ps. xxvii. 4.

38. 1047

    Ps. xxxix. 5.

39. 1048

    Compare Gillies (Analysis of Aristotle, c. 2, p. 138): "As our conception of space originates in that of body, and our conception of motion in that of space, so our conception of time originates in that of motion; and particularly in those regular and equable motions carried on in the heavens, the parts of which, from their perfect similarity to each other, are correct measures of the continuous and successive quantity called Time, with which they are conceived to co-exist. Time, therefore, may be defined the perceived number of successive movements; for, as number ascertains the greater or lesser quantity of things numbered, so time ascertains the greater or lesser quantity of motion performed." And with this accords Monboddo's definition of time (Ancient Metaphysics, vol. i. book 4, chap. i.), as "the measure of the duration of things that exist in succession by the motion of the heavenly bodies." See xii. sec. 40, and note, below.

40. 1049

    Gen. i. 14.

41. 1050

    Josh. x. 12-14.

42. 1051

    Ps. viii. 28.

43. 1052

    Ps. c. 3.

44. 1053

    With the argument in this and the previous sections, compare Dr. Reid's remarks in his Intellectual Powers, iii. 5: "We may measure duration by the succession of thoughts in the mind, as we measure length by inches or feet, but the notion or idea of duration must be antecedent to the mensuration of it, as the notion of length is antecedent to its being measured....Reason, from the contemplation of finite extended things, leads us necessarily to the belief of an immensity that contains them. In like manner, memory gives us the conception and belief of finite intervals of duration. From the contemplation of these, reason leads us necessarily to the belief of an eternity, which comprehends all things that have a beginning and an end." The student will with advantage examine a monograph on this subject by C. Fortlage, entitled, Aurelii Augustini doctrina de tempore ex libro xi. Confessionum depromta, Aristotelicæ, Kantianæ, aliarumque theoriarium recensione aucta, et congruis hodiernæ philosophiæ ideis amplificata (Heidelbergæ, 1836). He says that amongst all the philosophers none have so nearly approached truth as Augustin.

45. 1054

    Ps. lxiii. 3.

46. 1055

    Distentio. It will be observed that there is a play on the word throughout the section.

47. 1056

    Ps. lxiii. 8.

48. 1057

    1 Tim. ii. 5.

49. 1058

    Non distentus sed extentus. So in Serm. cclv. 6, we have: "Unum nos extendat, ne multa distendant, et abrumpant ab uno."

50. 1059

    Phil. iii. 13.

51. 1060

    Phil. iii. 14. Many wish to attain the prize who never earnestly pursue it. And it may be said here in view of the subject of this book, that there is no stranger delusion than that which possesses the idle and the worldly as to the influence of time in ameliorating their condition. They have "good intentions," and hope that time in the future may do for them what it has not in the past. But in truth, time merely affords an opportunity for energy and life to work. To quote that lucid and nervous thinker, Bishop Copleston (Remains, p. 123): "One of the commonest errors is to regard time as agent. But in reality time does nothing and is nothing. We use it as a compendious expression for all those causes which operate slowly and imperceptibly; but, unless some positive cause is in action, no change takes place in the lapse of one thousand years; e. g., a drop of water encased in a cavity of silex."

52. 1061

    Ps. xxvi. 7.

53. 1062

    Ps. xxvii. 4.

54. 1063

    Ps. xxxi. 10.

55. 1064

    He argues similarly in his De Civ. Dei, xi. 6: "That the world and time had but one beginning."

56. 1065

    Phil. iii. 13.

57. 1066

    Dean Mansel's argument, in his Bampton Lectures, as to our knowledge of the Infinite, is well worthy of consideration. He refers to Augustin's views on the subject of this book in note 13 to his third lecture, and in the text itself says: "The limited character of all existence which can be conceived as having a continuous duration, or as made up of successive moments, is so far manifest that it has been assumed almost as an axiom, by philosophical theologians, that in the existence of God there is no distinction between past, present, and future. In the changes of things,' say Augustin, there is a past and a future; in God there is a present, in which neither past nor future can be.' Eternity,' says Beethius, is the perfect possession of interminable life, and of all that life at once;' and Aquinas, accepting the definition, adds, Eternity has no succession, but exists all together.' But whether this assertion be literally true or not (and this we have no means of ascertaining), it is clear that such a mode of existence is altogether inconceivable by us, and that the words in which it is described represent not thought, but the refusal to think at all." See notes to xiii. 12, below.

58. 1067

    "With God, indeed, all things are arranged and fixed; and when He seemeth to act upon sudden motive, He doth nothing but what He foreknew that He should do from eternity" (Aug. in Ps. cvi. 35). With this passage may well be compared Dean Mansel's remarks (Bampton Lectures, lect. vi., and notes 23-25) on the doctrine, that the world is but a machine and is not under the continual government and direction of God. See also note 4, on p. 80 and note 2 on p. 136, above.

59. 1068

    See p. 166, note 2.

60. 1069

    Ps. cxlvi. 8.

61. 1070

    Rom. viii. 31.

62. 1071

    Matt. vii. 7, 8.

63. 1072

    That is, not the atmosphere which surrounds the earth, as when we say, "the birds of heaven" (Jer. iv. 25), "the dew of heaven" (Gen. xxvii. 28); nor that "firmament of heaven" (Gen. i. 17) in which the stars have their courses; nor both these together; but that "third heaven" to which Paul was "caught up" (2 Cor. xii. 1) in his rapture, and where God most manifests His glory, and the angels do Him homage.

64. 1073

    Ps. cxv. 16, after the LXX., Vulgate, and Syriac.

65. 1074

    Gen. i. 2, as rendered by the Old Ver. from the LXX.: aoratos kai akataskeuastos. Kalisch in his Commentary translates thv vvhv: "dreariness and emptiness."

66. 1075

    The reader should keep in mind in reading what follows the Manichæan doctrine as to the kingdom of light and darkness. See notes, pp. 68 and 103, above.

67. 1076

    Compare De Civ. Dei, xi. 9, 10.

68. 1077

    See iii. sec. 11, and p. 103, note, above.

69. 1078

    See ix. sec. 11, above.

70. 1079

    See p. 166, note, above.

71. 1080

    See p. 165, note 2, above.

72. 1081

    In the beginning of sec. 10, book xi. of his De Civ. Dei, he similarly argues that the world was, not like the Son, "begotten of the simple good," but "created." See also note 8, p. 76, above.

73. 1082

    "Because at the first creation, it had no form nor thing in it."—W. W.

74. 1083

    Ps. cxv. 16.

75. 1084

    Gen. i. 2.

76. 1085

    Gen. i. 6-8.

77. 1086

    Of Moses.

78. 1087

    See note 2, p. 76, above.

79. 1088

    As Gregory the Great has it, Revelation is a river broad and deep, "In quo et agnus ambulet, et elephas natet." And these deep things of God are to be learned only by patient searching. We must, says St. Chrysostom (De Prec. serm. ii.), dive down into the sea as those who would fetch up pearls from its depths. The very mysteriousness of Scripture is, doubtless, intended by God to stimulate us to search the Scriptures, and to strengthen our spiritual insight (Enar. in Ps. cxlvi. 6). See also, p. 48, note 5; p. 164, note 2, above; and the notes on pp. 370, 371, below.

80. 1089

    1 Tim. vi. 16.

81. 1090

    For Augustin's view of evil as a "privation of good," see p. 64, note 1, above, and with it compare vii. sec. 22, above; Con. Secundin. c. 12; and De Lib. Arb. ii. 53. Parker, in his Theism, Atheism, etc. p. 119, contends that God Himself must in some way be the author of evil, and a similar view is maintained by Schleiermacher, Christliche Glaube, sec. 80.

82. 1091

    See ii. sec. 13, and v. sec. 2, notes 4, 9, above.

83. 1092

    See iv. sec. 3, and note 1, above.

84. 1093

    See sec. 19, below.

85. 1094

    See xi. sec. 38, above, and sec. 18, below.

86. 1095

    See xiii. sec. 50, below.

87. 1096

    Eph. i. 20, etc.

88. 1097

    Ps. xlii. 2, 3, 10.

89. 1098

    Ps. xxvii. 4.

90. 1099

    Matt. vii. 7.

91. 1100

    Gen. i. 2.

92. 1101

    See end of sec. 40, below.

93. 1102

    1 Cor. xiii. 12.

94. 1103

    See p. 112, note 2, and p. 178, note 2, above. See also Trench, Hulsean Lectures (1845), lect. 6, "The Inexhaustibility of Scripture."

95. 1104

    Ps. cxxxix. 21.

96. 1105

    Ps. cxlix. 6. He refers to the Manichæans (see p. 71, note l). In his comment on this place, he interprets the "two-edged sword" to mean the Old and New Testament, called two-edged, he says, because it speaks of things temporal and eternal.

97. 1106

    See xi. sec. 41, above.

98. 1107

    In his De Vera Relig. c. 13, he says: "We must confess that the angels are in their nature mutable as God is Immutable. Yet by that will with which they love God more than themselves, they remain firm and staple in Him, and enjoy His majesty, being most willingly subject to Him alone."

99. 1108

    In his Con. Adv. Leg. et Proph. i. 2, he speaks of all who are holy, whether angels or men, as being God's dwelling-place.

100. 1109

     Ps. cxlviii. 6.

101. 1110

     Ecclus. i. 4.

102. 1111

     "Pet. Lombard. lib. sent. 2, dist. 2, affirms that by Wisdom, Ecclus. i. 4, the angels be understood, the whole spiritual intellectual nature; namely, this highest heaven, in which the angels were created, and it by them instantly filled."—W. W.

103. 1112

     On God as the Father of Lights, see p. 76, note 2. In addition to the references there given, compare in Ev. Joh. Tract. ii. sec. 7; xiv. secs. 1, 2; and xxxv. sec. 3. See also p. 373, note, below.

104. 1113

     2 Cor. v. 21.

105. 1114

     Gal. iv. 26.

106. 1115

     2 Cor. v. 1.

107. 1116

     Ps. cxlviii. 4.

108. 1117

     Against the Manichæans. See iv. sec. 26, and part 2 of note on p. 76, above.

109. 1118

     Ps. xxvi. 8.

110. 1119

     Ps. cxix. 176.

111. 1120

     Luke xv. 5.

112. 1121

     2 Cor. v. l.

113. 1122

     Ps. lxxiii. 28.

114. 1123

     Ps. xxviii. 1.

115. 1124

     Isa. xxvi. 20.

116. 1125

     Rom. viii. 26.

117. 1126

     Baxter has a noteworthy passage on our heavenly citizenship in his Saints' Rest: "As Moses, before he died, went up into Mount Nebo, to take a survey of the land of Canaan, so the Christian ascends the Mount of Contemplation, and by faith surveys his rest....As Daniel in his captivity daily opened his window towards Jerusalem, though far out of sight, when he went to God in his devotions, so may the believing soul, in this captivity of the flesh, look towards Jerusalem which is above' (Gal. iv. 26). And as Paul was to the Colossians (ii. 5) so may the believer be with the glorified spirits, though absent in the flesh,' yet with them in the spirit,' joying and beholding their heavenly order.' And as the lark sweetly sings while she soars on high, but is suddenly silenced when she falls to the earth, so is the frame of the soul most delightful and divine while it keeps in the views of God by contemplation. Alas, we make there too short a stay, fall down again, and lay by our music!" (Fawcett's Ed. p. 327).

118. 1127

     See ii. sec. 1; ix. sec. 10; x. sec. 40, note; ibid. sec. 65; and xi. sec. 39, above.

119. 1128

     See ix. sec. 24, above; and xiii. sec. 13, below.

120. 1129

     See p. 118, note 12, above.

121. 1130

     Gen. i. 1.

122. 1131

     See p. 165, note 4, above.

123. 1132

     See p. 164, note 2, above.

124. 1133

     2 Tim. ii. 14.

125. 1134

     1 Tim. i. 8.

126. 1135

     Ibid. ver. 5.

127. 1136

     Matt. xxii. 40. For he says in his Con. Faust. xvii. 6, remarking on John i. 17, a text which he often quotes in this connection: "The law itself by being fulfilled becomes grace and truth. Grace is the fulfilment of love." And so in ibid. xix. 27 we read: "From the words, I came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it,' we are not to understand that Christ by His precepts filled up what was wanting in the law; but what the literal command failed in doing from the pride and disobedience of men is accomplished by grace....So, the apostle says, faith worketh by love.'" So, again, we read in Serm. cxxv.: "Quia venit dare caritatem, et caritas perficit legem; merito dixit non veni legem solvere sed implere." And hence in his letter to Jerome (Ep. clxvii. 19), he speaks of the "royal law" as being "the law of liberty, which is the law of love." See p. 348, note 4, above.

128. 1137

     Ps. civ. 24. See p. 297 note 1, above.

129. 1138

     1 Cor. viii. 6.

130. 1139

     Augustin, in his letter to Jerome (Ep. clxvi. 4) on "The origin of the human soul," says: "The soul, whether it be termed material or immaterial, has a certain nature of its own, created from a substance superior to the elements of this world." And in his De Gen. ad Lit. vii. 10, he speaks of the soul being formed from a certain "spiritual matter," even as flesh was formed from the earth. It should be observed that at one time Augustin held to the theory that the souls of infants were created by God out of nothing at each fresh birth, and only rejected this view for that of its being generated by the parents with the body under the pressure of the Pelagian controversy. The first doctrine was generally held by the Schoolmen; and William of Conches maintained this belief on the authority of Augustin,—apparently being unaware of any modification in his opinion: "Cum Augustino," he says (Victor Cousin, Ouvrages ined. d'Abelard, p. 673), "credo et sentio quotidie novas animas nom ex traduce non ex aliqua substantia, sed ex nihilo, solo jussu creatoris creari." Those who held the first-named belief were called Creatiani; those who held the second, Truduciani. It may be noted as to the word "Traduciani," that Tertullian, in his De Anima, chaps. 24-27, etc., frequently uses the word tradux in this connection. Augustin, in his Retractations, ii. 45, refers to his letter to Jerome, and urges that if so obscure a matter is to be discussed at all, that solution only should be received: "Quæ contraria non sit apertissimis rebus quas de originati peccato fides catholica novit in parvulis, nisi regenerentur in Christo, sine dubitatione damnandis." On Tertullian's views, see Bishop Kays, p. 178, etc.

131. 1140

     See xi. sec. 7, and note, above; and xii. sec. 33, and note, below. See also the subtle reasoning of Dean Mansel (Bampton Lectures, lect. ii.), on the inconsequence of receiving the idea of the creation out of nothing on other than Christian principles. And compare Coleridge, The Friend, iii. 213.

132. 1141

     Isa. vi. 2, and xxxvii. 16.

133. 1142

     Col. i. 16.

134. 1143

     Gen. i. 9.

135. 1144

     See p. 165, note 4, above.

136. 1145

     See p. 176, note 5, above.

137. 1146

     Ps. xxii. 25.

138. 1147

     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. On "In the Beginning," see p. 166, note 2, above.

139. 1148

     See p. 48, note, and p. 164, note 2, above.

140. 1149

     John viii. 44.

141. 1150

     1 Tim. i. 8.

142. 1151

     As to all truth being God's, see vii. sec. 16, and note 3, above; and compare x. sec. 65, above.

143. 1152

     1 Cor. iv. 6.

144. 1153

     Mark xii. 30, 31.

145. 1154

     Ps. viii. 8.

146. 1155

     "Ex familiaritate carnis," literally, "from familiarity with the flesh."

147. 1156

     "Parvulis animalibus."

148. 1157

     In allusion, perhaps, to Prov. xxvii. 8: "As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place."

149. 1158

     See p. 166, note 2.

150. 1159

     John viii. 23.

151. 1160

     See a similar argument in his Con. adv. Leg. et Proph. i. 9; and sec. 29, and note, above.

152. 1161

     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."

153. 1162

     See p. 164, note 2, above.

154. 1163

     1 Tim. i. 8.

155. 1164

     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 the other. He asked what those symbols meant. She answered, My 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.'"

156. 1165

     See end of note 17, p. 197, below.

157. 1166

     Ps. cxliii. 10.

158. 1167

     Augustin, as we have seen (see notes, pp. 65 and 92), was frequently addicted to allegorical interpretation, but he, none the less, laid stress on the necessity of avoiding obscure and allegorical passages when it was necessary to convince the opponent of Christianity (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.

159. 1168

     See i. sec. 2, above.

160. 1169

     Similar views as to God's not having need of us, though He created us, and as to our service being for our and not His advantage, will be found in his De Gen. ad Lit. viii. 11; and Con. Adv. Leg. et Proph. i. 4.

161. 1170

     Gen. i. 2.

162. 1171

     In his De Gen. ad Lit. i. 5, he maintains that the spiritual creature may have a formless life, since it has its form—its wisdom and happiness—by being turned to the Word of God, the Immutable Light of Wisdom.

163. 1172

     Ps. lxxiii. 28.

164. 1173

     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.

165. 1174

     Eph. v. 8.

166. 1175

     Ps. xxxvi. 6, as in the Vulgate, which renders the Hebrew more correctly than the Authorized Version. This passage has been variously interpreted. Augustin makes "the mountains of God" to mean the saints, prophets, and apostles, while "the great deep" he interprets of the wicked and sinful. Compare in Ev. Joh. Tract. i. 2; and in Ps. xxxv. 7, sec. 10.

167. 1176

     Gen. i. 3.

168. 1177

     Compare the end of chap. 24 of book xi of the De Civ. Dei, where he says that the life and light and joy of the holy city which is above is in God.

169. 1178

     Gen. i. 2.

170. 1179

     Num. xi. 25.

171. 1180

     Ps. xxxvi. 9.

172. 1181

     See also xi. sec. 10, and note, above.

173. 1182

     Rom. v. 5.

174. 1183

     1 Cor. xii. 1, 31.

175. 1184

     Eph. iii. 14-19.

176. 1185

     "Neque enim loca sunt quibus mergimur et emergimus."

177. 1186

     Watts remarks here: "This sentence was generally in the Church service and communion. Nor is there scarce any one old liturgy but hath it, Sursum corda, Habemus ad Dominum." Palmer, speaking of the Lord's Supper, says, in his Origines Liturgicæ., iv. 14, that "Cyprian, in the third century, attested the use of the form, Lift up your hearts,' and its response, in the liturgy of Africa (Cyprian, De Orat. Dom. p. 152, Opera, ed. Fell). Augustin, at the beginning of the fifth century, speaks of these words as being used in all churches" (Aug. De Vera Relig. iii. ). We find from the same writer, ibid. v. 5, that in several churches this sentence was used in the office of baptism.

178. 1187

     "Sine substantia," the Old Ver. rendering of Ps. cxxiv. 5. The Vulgate gives "aquam intolerabilem." The Authorized Version, however, correctly renders the Hebrew by "proud waters," that is, swollen. Augustin, in in Ps. cxxiii. 5, sec. 9, explains the "aqua sine substantia," as the water of sins; "for," he says, "sins have not substance; they have weakness, not substance; want, not substance."

179. 1188

     We may note here that Augustin maintains the existence of the relationship between these two events. He says in his Enchiridion, c. xxix., that "the restored part of humanity will fill up the gap which the rebellion and fall of the devils had left in the company of the angels. For this is the promise to the saints, that at the resurrection they shall be equal to the angels of God (Luke xx. 36). And thus the Jerusalem which is above, which is the mother of us all, the City of God, shall not be spoiled of any of the number of her citizens, shall perhaps reign over even a more abundant population." He speaks to the same effect at the close of ch. 1 of his De Civ. Dei, xxii. This doctrine was enlarged upon by some of the writers of the seventeenth century.

180. 1189

     See his De Civ. Dei, xxii. 1, where he beautifully compares sin to blindness, in that it makes us miserable in depriving us of the sight of God. Also his De Cat. Rud. sec. 24, where he shows that the restlessness and changefulness of the world cannot give rest. Comp. p. 46, note 7, above.

181. 1190

     Ps. xviii. 28.

182. 1191

     Ps. civ. 2.

183. 1192

     Ps. cxxxix. 12.

184. 1193

     Ps. xxxi. 20. "In abscondito vultus tui," Old Ver. Augustin in his comment on this passage (Enarr. 4, sec. 8) gives us his interpretation. He points out that the refuge of a particular place (e.g. the bosom of Abraham) is not enough. We must have God with us here as our refuge, and then we will be hidden in His countenance hereafter; or in other words, if we receive Him into our heart now, He will hereafter receive us into His countenance—Ille post hoc seculum excipiet te vultu suo. For heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people, and we must be fitted to live with Him there by going to Him now, and this, to quote from his De Serm. Dom. in Mon. i. 27, "not with a slow movement of the body, but with the swift impulse of love."

185. 1194

     See p. 133, note 2, above.

186. 1195

     See De Trin. xv. 17-19.

187. 1196

     Ps. ix. 13.

188. 1197

     Luke ii. 14, Vulg.

189. 1198

     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."

190. 1199

     Ps. lxxxiv. 5.

191. 1200

     Ps. cxxii. 1.

192. 1201

     Eph. v. 8.

193. 1202

     Et qui non potest, which words, however, some mss. omit, reading, Qui potest intelligat; a te petat.

194. 1203

     John i. 9; see p. 76, note 2, and p. 181, note 2, above.

195. 1204

     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 contrary thereto; and, as Dr. Newman observes in his Grammar of 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 repose in its "propositions taken one by one, and that not in the case of intellectual and thoughtful minds only, but of all religious minds 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 de même des autres mystères, où les esprits modérés trouveront toujours une explication suffisante pour croire, et jamais autant qu'il en faut pour comprendre. Il nous suffit d'un certain ce que c'est (ti esti); mais le comment (pos) 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.

196. 1205

     While giving illustrations of the Trinity like the above, he would not have a man think "that he has discovered that which is above these, Unchangeable." (See also De Trin. xv. 5, end.) He is very fond of such illustrations. In his De Civ. Dei, xi. 26, 27, for example, 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 mind, knowledge, and love; ibid. x. 19, memory, understanding, and will; and ibid. xi. 16, memory, thought, and will. In his De Lib. Arb. ii. 7, again, we have the doctrine illustrated by the union of being, life, and knowledge in man. He also finds illustrations of the doctrine in other created things, as in their measure, weight, and number (De Trin. xi. 18), and their existence, figure, and order (De Vera Relig. xiii.). The nature of these illustrations would at first sight seem to involve him in the Sabellian heresy, which denied 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 Trin. vii., end of ch. 11, where the language is equally emphatic. See also Mansel, as above, lect. vi. and notes 11 and 12.

197. 1206

     Matt. xxviii. 19.

198. 1207

     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.

199. 1208

     Rom. vi. 17.

200. 1209

     Ps. xxxix. 11.

201. 1210

     Ps. xxxvi. 6.

202. 1211

     Gen. i. 3.

203. 1212

     See p. 47, note 10, above.

204. 1213

     Matt. iii. 2.

205. 1214

     "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."

206. 1215

     Ps. xlii. 6.

207. 1216

     That is, Christ. See p. 130, note 8, part 2, above; and compare the De Div. Quæst., lxxxiii. 6.

208. 1217

     Eph. v. 8.

209. 1218

     2 Cor. v. 7.

210. 1219

     Rom. viii. 24.

211. 1220

     The "deep" Augustin interprets (as do the majority of Patristic commentators), in Ps. xli. 8, sec. 13, to be the heart of man; and the "deep" that calls unto it, is the preacher who has his own "deep" of infirmity, even as Peter had.

212. 1221

     Ps. xlii. 7.

213. 1222

     1 Cor. iii. 1.

214. 1223

     Phil. iii. 13.

215. 1224

     2 Cor. v. 2, 4.

216. 1225

     Ps. xlii. 1, 2.

217. 1226

     2 Cor. v. 2.

218. 1227

     Rom. xii. 2.

219. 1228

     1 Cor. xiv. 20 (margin).

220. 1229

     Gal. iii. 1.

221. 1230

     Acts ii. 19.

222. 1231

     Eph. iv. 8.

223. 1232

     Mal. iii. 10.

224. 1233

     Ps. xlvi. 4.

225. 1234

     John iii. 29.

226. 1235

     Rom. viii. 23.

227. 1236

     John iii. 29.

228. 1237

     Ps. xlii. 7.

229. 1238

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

230. 1239

     Ibid. ver. 2.

231. 1240

     Ps. xlii. 3.

232. 1241

     Ibid. ver. 4.

233. 1242

     Ibid. ver. 5.

234. 1243

     Ps. cxix. 105.

235. 1244

     Job xiv. 13.

236. 1245

     Eph. ii. 3, and v. 8.

237. 1246

     Rom. viii. 10.

238. 1247

     Cant. ii. 17.

239. 1248

     Ps. v. 3.

240. 1249

     Ps. xxx. 12.

241. 1250

     Ps. xliii. 5.

242. 1251

     Rom. viii. 11.

243. 1252

     2 Cor. i. 22.

244. 1253

     Rom. viii. 24.

245. 1254

     Though of the light, we are not yet in the light; and though, in this grey dawn of the coming day, we have a foretaste of the vision that shall be, we cannot hope, as he says in Ps. v. 4, to "see Him as He is" until the darkness of sin be overpast.

246. 1255

     Eph. v. 8, and 1 Thess. v. 5.

247. 1256

     Ps. vii. 9.

248. 1257

     Gen. i. 5.

249. 1258

     1 Cor. iv. 7.

250. 1259

     Rom. ix. 21.

251. 1260

     Gen. i. 6.

252. 1261

     See sec. 33, below, and references there given.

253. 1262

     Isa. xxxiv. 4, and Rev. vi. 14.

254. 1263

     Ps. civ. 2; in the Vulg. being, "extendens cælum sicut pellem." The LXX. agrees with the Vulg. in translating kyryh, "as a curtain," by "as a skin."

255. 1264

     Gen. iii. 21. Skins he makes the emblems of mortality, as being taken from dead animals. See p. 112, note 8, above.

256. 1265

     That is, the firmament of Scripture was after man's sin stretched over him as a parchment scroll,—stretched over him for his enlightenment by the ministry of mortal men. This idea is enlarged on in Ps. viii. 4, sec. 7, etc., xviii. sec. 2, xxxii. 6, 7, and cxlvi. 8, sec. 15.

257. 1266

     We have the same idea in Ps. ciii. sec. 8: "Cum enim viverent nondum erat extenta pellis, nondum erat extentum cælum, ut tegeret orbem terrarum."

258. 1267

     Ps. viii. 3.

259. 1268

     Ps. xix. 7. See p. 62, note 6, above.

260. 1269

     Ps. viii. 2.

261. 1270

     He alludes to the Manichæans. See notes, pp. 67, 81, and 87.

262. 1271

     See part 2 of note 8 on p. 76, above.

263. 1272

     Ps. xix. 8.

264. 1273

     Matt. xviii. 10.

265. 1274

     "Legunt, eligunt, et diligunt."

266. 1275

     Isa. xxxiv. 4.

267. 1276

     Ps. xxxvi. 5.

268. 1277

     Matt. xxiv. 35.

269. 1278

     Isa. xxxiv. 4.

270. 1279

     Isa. xl. 6-8. The law of storms, and that which regulates the motions of the stars or the ebbing and flowing of the tides, may change at the "end of the world." But the moral law can know no change, for while the first is arbitrary, the second is absolute. On the difference between moral and natural law, see Candlish, Reason and Revelation, "Conscience and the Bible."

271. 1280

     1 Cor. xiii. 12.

272. 1281

     1 John iii. 2.

273. 1282

     Cant. ii. 9.

274. 1283

     Cant. i. 3.

275. 1284

     1 John iii. 2.

276. 1285

     See Dean Mansel on this place (Bampton Lectures, lect. v. note 18), who argues that revelation is clear and devoid of mystery when viewed as intended "for our practical guidance," and not as a matter of speculation. He says: "The utmost deficiency that can be charged against human faculties amounts only to this, that we cannot say that we know God as God knows Himself,—that the truth of which our finite minds are susceptible may, for aught we know, be but the passing shadow of some higher reality, which exists only in the Infinite Intelligence." He shows also that this deficiency pertains to the human faculties as such, and that, whether they set themselves to consider the things of nature or revelation. See also p. 193, note 8, above, and notes, pp. 197, 198, below.

277. 1286

     Ps. lxiii. 1.

278. 1287

     Ps. xxxvi. 9.

279. 1288

     Gen. i. 9. In his comment on Psalm lxiv. 6 (sec. 9), he interprets "the sea," allegorically, of the wicked world. Hence were the disciples called "fishers of men." If the fishers have taken us in the nets of faith, we are to rejoice, because the net will be dragged to the shore. On the providence of God, regulating the wickedness of men, see p. 79, note 4, above.

280. 1289

     Ps. cxliii. 6, and lxiii. 1.

281. 1290

     Ps. xcv. 5.

282. 1291

     Ps. civ. 9, and Job xxxviii. 11, 12.

283. 1292

     Gen. i. 11. As he interprets (see sec. 20, note, above) the sea as the world, so he tells us in Ps. lxvi. 6, sec. 8, that when the earth, full of thorns, thirsted for the waters of heaven, God in His mercy sent His apostles to preach the gospel, whereon the earth brought forth that fruit which fills the world; that is, the earth bringing forth fruit represents the Church.

284. 1293

     Ps. lxxxv. 11.

285. 1294

     Gen. i. 14.

286. 1295

     Isa. lviii. 7.

287. 1296

     Gen. i. 12.

288. 1297

     Isa. lviii. 8.

289. 1298

     Phil. ii. 15.

290. 1299

     2 Cor. v. 17.

291. 1300

     Rom. xiii. 11, 12.

292. 1301

     Rom. xiii. 11, 12.

293. 1302

     Ps. lxv. 11.

294. 1303

     Matt. ix. 38.

295. 1304

     Matt. xiii. 39.

296. 1305

     Prov. x. 6.

297. 1306

     Ps. cii. 27.

298. 1307

     Compare his De Trin. xii. 22-55, where, referring to 1 Cor. xii. 8, he explains that "knowledge" has to do with action, or that by which we use rightly things temporal; while wisdom has to do with the contemplation of things eternal. See also in Ps. cxxxv. sec. 8.

299. 1308

     1 Cor. xii. 8-11.

300. 1309

     1 Cor. xii. 7.

301. 1310

     1 Cor. xiii. 2. The Authorized Version and the Vulgate render more correctly, "mysteries." From Palmer (see p. 118, note 3, above), we learn that "the Fathers gave the name of sacrament or mystery to everything which conveyed one signification or property to unassisted reason, and another to faith;" while, at the same time, they counted Baptism and the Lord's Supper as the two great sacraments. The sacraments, then, used in this sense are "varied in their periods," and Augustin, in Ps. lxxiii. 2, speaks of distinguishing between the sacraments of the Old Testament and the sacraments of the New. "Sacramenta novi Testamenti" he says, "dant salutem, sacramenta veteris Testamenti promiserunt salvatorem." So also in Ps. xlvi. he says: "Our Lord God varying, indeed, the sacraments of the words, but commending unto us one faith, hath diffused through the sacred Scriptures manifoldly and variously the faith in which we live, and by which we live. For one and the same thing is said in many ways, that it may be varied in the manner of speaking in order to prevent aversion, but may be preserved as one with a view to concord."

302. 1311

     1 Cor. iii. 1.

303. 1312

     1 Cor. ii. 6.

304. 1313

     1 Cor. iii. 2, and Heb. v. 12. The allusion in our text is to what is called the Disciplina Arcani of the early Church. Clement of Alexandria, in his Stromata, enters at large into the matter of esoteric teaching, and traces its use amongst the Hebrews, Greeks, and Egyptians. Clement, like Chrysostom and other Fathers, supports this principle of interpretation on the authority of St. Paul in Heb. v. and vi., referred to by Augustin above. He says (as quoted by Bishop Kaye, Clement of Alexandria, ch. iv. p. 183): "Babes must be fed with milk, the perfect man with solid food; milk is catechetical instruction, the first nourishment of the soul; solid food, contemplation penetrating into all mysteries (he epoptike theoria), the blood and flesh of the Word, the comprehension of the Divine power and essence." Augustin, therefore, when he speaks of being "contented with the light of the moon and stars," alludes to the partial knowledge imparted to the catechumen during his probationary period before baptism. It was only as competentes, and ready for baptism, that the catechumens were taught the Lord's Prayer and the Creed. We have already adverted to this matter in note 4 on p. 89, and need not now do more than refer the reader to Dr. Newman's Arians. In ch. i. sec. 3 of that work, there are some most interesting pages on this subject, in its connection with the Catechetical School of Alexandria. See also p. 118, note 8, above; Palmer, Origines Liturgicæ, iv. sec. 7: and note 1, below.

305. 1314

     Those ready for strong meat were called "illuminated" (see p. 118, note 4, above), as their eyes were "enabled to look upon the Sun." We have frequent traces in Augustin's writings of the Neo-Platonic doctrine that the soul has a capacity to see God, even as the eye the sun. In Serm. lxxxviii. 6 he says: "Daretne tibi unde videres solem quem fecit, et non tibi daret unde videres eum qui te fecit, cum te ad imaginem suam fecerit?" And, referring to 1 John iii. 2, he tells us in Ep. xcii. 3, that not with the bodily eye shall we see God, but with the inner, which is to be renewed day by day: "We shall, therefore, see Him according to the measure in which we shall be like Him; because now the measure in which we do not see Him is according to the measure of our unlikeness to Him." Compare also Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, c. 4: "Plato, indeed, says, that the mind's eye is of such a nature, and has been given for this end, that we may see that very Being who is the cause of all when the mind is pure itself." Some interesting remarks on this subject, and on the three degrees of divine knowledge as held by the Neo-Platonists, will be found in John Smith's Select Discourses, pp. 2 and 165 (Cambridge 1860). On growth in grace, see note 4, p. 140, above.

306. 1315

     "He alludes to the sacrament of Baptism."—W. W.

307. 1316

     Isa. i. 16, 19.

308. 1317

     Gen. i. 11, 30.

309. 1318

     Isa. i. l8.

310. 1319

     Gen. i. 15.

311. 1320

     Matt. xix. 16.

312. 1321

     Ibid. ver. 17.

313. 1322

     1 Cor. v. 8.

314. 1323

     Matt. xix. 16-19.

315. 1324

     Ibid. ver. 20.

316. 1325

     Ibid. ver. 21.

317. 1326

     Matt. vi. 21.

318. 1327

     Matt. xix. 22.

319. 1328

     Matt. xiii. 7, 22.

320. 1329

     1 Pet. ii. 9.

321. 1330

     1 Cor. i. 27.

322. 1331

     Isa. lii. 7.

323. 1332

     Dan. xii. 3.

324. 1333

     Ps. xix.

325. 1334

     Acts ii. 3.

326. 1335

     1 John i. 1.

327. 1336

     That is, as having their light from Him who is their central Sun (see p. 76, note 2, above). For it is true of all Christians in relation to their Lord, as he says of John the Baptist (Serm. ccclxxxii. 7): "Johannes lumen illuminatum: Christus lumen illuminans." See also note 1, above.

328. 1337

     Matt. v. 14.

329. 1338

     Gen. i. 20.

330. 1339

     Jer. xv. 19.

331. 1340

     Ps. xix. 3, 4. The word "sound" in this verse (as given in the LXX. and Vulg.), is in the Hebrew qvm, which is rightly rendered in the Authorized Version a "line" or "rule." It may be noted, in connection with Augustin's interpretation, that the word "firmament" in the first verse of this psalm is the rqy of Gen. i. 7; translated in both places by the LXX. stereoma. The "heavens" and the "firmament" are constantly interpreted by the Fathers as referring to the apostles and their firmness in teaching the word: and this is supported by reference to St. Paul's quotation of the text in Rom. x. 18: "But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world."

332. 1341

     Gen. i. 4.

333. 1342

     See end of note 17, p. 197, above.

334. 1343

     "He alludes to Baptism in water, accompanied with the word of the gospel; of the institution whereof man's misery was the occasion."—W. W.

335. 1344

     See sec. 20, note, above.

336. 1345

     "He means that Baptism, which is the sacrament of initiation, was not so profitable without the Lord's Supper, which ancients called the sacrament of perfection or consummation."—W. W. Compare also sec. 24, note, and p. 140, note 3, above.

337. 1346

     See sec. 20, note, and sec. 21, note, above.

338. 1347

     Gen. i. 20.

339. 1348

     Gen. ii. 7.

340. 1349

     John iii. 5.

341. 1350

     John iv. 48.

342. 1351

     1 Cor. xiv. 22.

343. 1352

     "Fundasti super aquas," which is the Old Ver. of Ps. cxxxvi. 6. Augustin sometimes uses a version with "firmavit terram," which corresponds to the LXX., but the Authorized Version renders the Hebrew more accurately by "stretched out." In his comment on this place he applies this text to baptism as being the entrance into the Church, and in this he is followed by many mediæval writers.

344. 1353

     Ps. xxiii. 5. Many of the Fathers interpret this text of the Lord's Supper, as Augustin does above. The fish taken out of the deep, which is fed upon, means Christ, in accordance with the well-known acrostic of IChThUS. "If," he says in his De Civ. Dei, xviii. 23, "you join the initial letters of these five Greek words, Iesous Christos Theou Huios Soter, which mean, Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour,' they will make the word ichthus,—that is, fish,' in which word Christ is mystically understood, because He was able to live, that is, to exist without sin in the abyss of this mortality as in the depth of waters." So likewise we find Tertullian saying in his De Bapt. chap. I.: "Nos pisciculi, secundum IChThUN nostrum Jesum Christum in aqua nascimur; nec aliter quam in aqua permanendo salvi sumus." See Bishop Kaye's Tertullian, pp. 43, 44; and sec. 34, below.

345. 1354

     1 Tim. v. 6.

346. 1355

     Gen. iii. 8.

347. 1356

     Ps. lxix. 32.

348. 1357

     Rom. xii. 2.

349. 1358

     1 Tim. vi. 20. See p. 153, note 7, above.

350. 1359

     Jer. ii. 13. See p. 133, note 2, and p. 129, note 8, above.

351. 1360

     Rom. xii. 2.

352. 1361

     1 Cor. xi. 1.

353. 1362

     See p. 71, note 3, above.

354. 1363

     Gal. iv. 12.

355. 1364

     Ecclus. iii. 17etc.

356. 1365

     1 Cor. viii. 8.

357. 1366

     Matt. x. 16.

358. 1367

     Rom. i. 20.

359. 1368

     In his De Gen. con. Manich. i. 20, he interprets the dominion given to man over the beasts of his keeping in subjection the passions of the soul, so as to attain true happiness.

360. 1369

     As Origen has it: "The good man is he who truly exists." See p. 190, note 6, above; and compare the use made of the idea in Archbishop Thomson's Bampton Lectures, lect. i.

361. 1370

     Rom. xii. 2.

362. 1371

     Gen. i. 26.

363. 1372

     1 Cor. iv. 15.

364. 1373

     1 Thess. ii. 7.

365. 1374

     Rom. xii. 2.

366. 1375

     Jer. xxxi. 34.

367. 1376

     Gen. i. 27.

368. 1377

     Col. iii. 10.

369. 1378

     1 Cor. ii. 15.

370. 1379

     1 Cor. ii. 14.