Things of sense to be removed, to behold God. 125 15. 20. [XVII.] 23. And I wondered that I now loved Thee, and no phantasm for Thee. And yet did I not press on to enjoy my God; but was borne up to Thee by Thy beauty, and soon borne down from Thee by mine own weight, sinking with sorrow into these inferior things. This weight was carnal custom. Yet dwelt there with me a remembrance of Thee; nor did I any way doubt, that there was One to Whom I might cleave, but that I was not yet such as to cleave to Thee: for that the body which is corrupted, presseth Wisd.9, down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things. And most certain I was, that Thy invisible works from the creation of the Rom. 1, world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even Thy eternal power and Godhead. For examining, whence it was that I admired the beauty of bodies celestial or terrestrial; and what aided me in judging soundly on things mutable, and pronouncing, "This ought to be thus, this not;" examining, I say, whence it was that I so judged, seeing I did so judge, I had found the unchangeable and true Eternity of Truth, above my changeable mind. And thus by degrees, I passed from bodies to the soul, which through the bodily senses perceives; and thence to its inward' faculty, to which the bodily senses represent things external, whitherto reaches the faculties of beasts; and thence again to the reasoning faculty, to which what is received from the senses of the body, is referred to be judged. Which finding itself also to be in me a thing variable, raised itself up to its own understanding, and drew away my thoughts from the power of habit, withdrawing itself from those troops of contradictory phantasms; that so it might find what that light was, whereby it was bedewed, when, without all doubting, it cried out, Itself, whereby it is so enlightened, that B. VII. 126 Christ's humiliation exalts only the humble. CONF." That the unchangeable was to be preferred to the changeable;" whence also it knew That Unchangeable, which, unless it had in some way known, it had had no sure ground to prefer it to the changeable. And thus with the flash of one trembling glance it arrived at THAT WHICH Is. And then I Rom. 1, saw Thy invisible things understood by the things which are made. But I could not fix my gaze thereon; and my infirmity being struck back, I was thrown again on my wonted habits, carrying along with me only a loving memory thereof, and a longing for what I had, as it were, perceived the odour of, but was not yet able to feed on. 20. 5. Rom. 9, 5. John 14, 6. [XVIII.] 24. Then I sought a way of obtaining strength, sufficient to enjoy Thee; and found it not, until I embraced ITim. 2, that Mediator betwixt God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who is over all, God blessed for evermore, calling unto me, and saying, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and mingling that food which I was unable to receive, with our Ib. 1,14. flesh. For the Word was made flesh, that Thy wisdom, whereby Thou createdst all things, might provide milk for our infant state. For I did not hold to my Lord Jesus Christ, I humbled to the Humble; nor knew I yet whereto His infirmity would guide us. For Thy Word, the Eternal Truth, far above the higher parts of Thy Creation, raises up the subdued unto Itself: but in this lower world built for Itself a lowly habitation of our clay, whereby to abase from themselves such as would be subdued, and bring them over to Himself; allaying their swelling, and fomenting their love; to the end they might go on no further in self-confidence, but rather consent to become weak, seeing before their feet the Gen. 3, Divinity weak by taking our coats of skin'; and wearied, 21. b expressly in the presence of That Vision, b" He exalts those who follow hum- "A'skin' denotes mortality; wherefore our first parents, the authors of the sin of the human race,-having become mortal, were dismissed from paradise; but to denote their mortality, they were clothed with "coats of skins;"-but skins are not taken but from dead animals; therefore by the name of skins, that mortality was figured." Aug. Enarr. in Ps. 103. s. 1. §. 8. "Those, who ashamed of their nakedness, had made themselves aprons, He clothed with coats also, therefore of skin, that the death now attached to their corruptible bodies might be thereby figured." Op. Imp. c. Julian. iv. 37. Aug. perceives Christ to be very man, not Very God. 127 might cast themselves down upon It, and It rising, might lift them up. [XIX.] 25. But I thought otherwise; conceiving only of my Lord Christ, as of a man of excellent wisdom, whom no one could be equalled unto; especially, for that being wonderfully born of a Virgin, He seemed, in conformity therewith, through the Divine care for us, to have attained that great eminence of authority, for an ensample of despising things temporal for the obtaining of immortality. But what mystery there lay in," The Word was made flesh,” I could not even imagine. Only I had learnt out of what is delivered to us in writing of Him, that He did eat, and drink, sleep, walk, rejoice in spirit, was sorrowful, discoursed; that, flesh did not cleave by itself unto Thy Word, but with the human soul and mind. All know this, who know the unchangeableness of Thy Word, which I now knew, as far as I could, nor did I at all doubt thereof. For, now to move the limbs of the body by will, now not, now to be moved by some affection, now not, now to deliver wise sayings through human signs, now to keep silence, belong to soul and mind subject to variation. And should these things be falsely written of Him, all the rest also would risk the charge, nor would there remain in those books any saving faith for mankind. Since then they were written truly, I acknowledged a perfect man" to be in Christ; not the body of a man only, nor, with the body, a sensitive soul without a rational, but very man; whom, not only as being a form of Truth, but for a certain great excellency of human nature and a more perfect participation of wisdom, I judged to be preferred before others. But Alypius imagined the Catholics to believe God to be so clothed with flesh, that besides God and flesh, there was no soul at all in Christ, and did not think that a human mind was ascribed to Him. And because he was well persuaded, that the actions recorded of Him, could only be performed by a vital and a rational creature, he moved the more slowly towards the Christian Faith. But understanding afterwards, that this was the error of the Apollinarian' heretics, he joyed in and was conformed d" The Word, the rational soul, and the flesh all together is Christ." Aug. Serm. 253. c. 4. e As the Manichees thought. f "The faithful, I say, who believes and confesses in the Mediator, a real 128 Benefit of heresies to the Church-the Apollinarian. CONF. to the Catholic Faith. But somewhat later, I confess, did I B. VII. learn, how in that saying, The Word was made flesh, the Catholic Truth is distinguished from the falsehood of Pho tinus'. For the rejection of heretics makes the tenets of Thy 1 Cor. Church and sound doctrine to stand out more clearly. For 11, 19. there must also be heresies, that the approval may be made manifest among the weak. 20. [XX.] 26. But having then read those books of the Platonists, and thence been taught to search for incorporeal truth, Rom. 1, I saw Thy invisible things, understood by those things which are made; and though cast back, I perceived what that was, which through the darkness of my mind I was hindered from contemplating, being assured, "That Thou wert, and wert infinite, and yet not diffused in space, finite or infinite; and human, i. e. our, nature, although God the Word taking it in a singular manner, sublimated it into the Only Son of God, so that He who took it, and what He took, was One Person in the Trinity. For, after man was assumed, there became not a Quaternity, but remained the Trinity, that assumption making in an ineffable way, the truth of One Person in God and man. Since we do not say that Christ is only God, as do the Manichæan heretics, nor only man, as the Photinian heretics, nor in such wise man as not to have any thing, which certainly belongs to human nature, whether the soul, or in the soul itself, the rational mind, or the flesh not taken of the woman, but made of the Word converted and changed into flesh, which three false and vain statements made three several divisions of the Apollinarian heretics; but we say that Christ is true God, born of God the Father, without any beginning of time, and also true man, born of a human mother in the fulness of time; and that His humanity, whereby He is inferior to the Father, does not derogate from His Divinity, whereby He is equal to the Father." Aug. de dono Persev. §. ult. "There was formerly a heresy, its remnants perhaps still exist, of some called Apollinarians. Some of them said that that man, whom the Word took, when the Word was made flesh," had not the human, (i. e. rational) mind, but was only a soul without human intelligence, but that the very Word of God was in that man instead of a mind. They were cast out; the Catholic Faith rejected them, and they made a heresy. It was established in the Catholic Faith, that that man, whom the Wisdom of God took, had nothing less than other men, with regard to the integrity of man's nature, but as to the excellency of His Person, had more than other men. For other men may be said to be partakers of the Word of God, having the Word of God, but none of them can be called the Word of God, which He was called when it is said, The Word was made flesh." (Aug. in Ps. 39. Enarr. 2. §. 2.) "But when they reflected, that if their doctrine were true, they must confess, that the Only-Begotten Son of God, the Wisdom and Word of the Father, by Whom all things were made, is believed to have taken a sort of brute with the figure of a human body, they were dissatisfied with themselves, yet not so as to amend, and confess that the whole man was assumed by the Wisdom of God, without any diminution of nature; but still more boldly, denied to Him the soul itself, and every thing of any worth in man, and said that He only took human flesh." (De 83 Div. Quæst. qu. 80.) "These too the Catholic Church rejected, and expelled them from the sheep, and from the simple and true faith; and it was the more settled, that that Man, the Mediator, had every thing of men, save sin." (Aug. in Ps. 1. c.) "The Photinians ascribe to the Son of God a beginning from the virgin's womb, and will not believe that He was before." Aug. Ep. 147. c. 7. See also note e. Heathen truth a guide or a rival to the Gospel. 129 8, 1. that Thou truly art who art the same ever, in no part nor motion, varying; and that all other things are from Thee, on this most sure ground alone, that they are. Of these things I was assured, yet too unsure to enjoy Thee. I prated as one well skilled; but had I not sought Thy way in Christ our Saviour, I had proved to be, not skilled, but killed". For now I had begun to wish to seem wise, being filled with mine own punishment, yet I did not mourn, but rather scorn', puffed up 1 Cor. with knowledge. For where was that charity building upon the foundation of humility, which is Christ Jesus? or when Ib.3,11. should these books teach me it? Upon these, I believe, Thou therefore willedst that I should fall, before I studied Thy Scriptures, that it might be imprinted on my memory, how I was affected by them; and that afterwards when my spirits were tamed through Thy books, and my wounds touched by Thy healing fingers, I might discern and distinguish between presumption and confession; between those who saw whither they were to go, yet saw not the way*, and the way that leadeth not to behold only but to dwell in the beatific country. For had I first been formed in Thy Holy Scriptures, and hadst Thou, in the familiar use of them, grown sweet unto me, and had I then fallen upon those other volumes, they might perhaps have withdrawn me from the solid ground of piety, or, had I continued in that healthful frame which I had thence imbibed, I might have thought, that it might have been obtained by the study of those books alone. [XXI.] 27. Most eagerly then did I seize that venerable writing of Thy Spirit; and chiefly the Apostle Paul. Whereupon those difficulties vanished away, wherein he once seemed to me to contradict himself, and the text of his discourse not g" For to Be has chiefly reference to abiding; therefore that which is said in the highest and greatest sense to Be, is so called from its abiding in itself." Aug. de Mor. Manich. c. 6. See above c. xi. h Non peritus, sed periturus. i Non flebam sed inflabar. k"For thereby is He a Mediator, whereby He is man, thereby also He is the way. Since if between him, who goeth, and the place, whither he goes, there be the medium of a way, he has a hope of arriving; but if there be not, or K he know not how he is to go, what avails |