On the World
It now seems to follow, although all that was discussed in the preceding book concerned the world and its arrangement, that we should repeat a few things specifically about the world itself, that is, about its beginning and end, or the things arranged by divine providence between its beginning and end, or the things thought to have been done before the world or to be done after it. In this the first thing that clearly appears is that its whole condition, which is varied and diverse, consists not only of rational and diviner natures and of diverse bodies, but of living creatures without speech, that is, wild animals, beasts, cattle and birds, and all things that live in the waters; then of places, that is, of heaven or the heavens, and of earth or water; and also of the air, which is in the middle, or what they call ether, the fine substance of the upper air, and of all things that come out or are born from the earth. Since, then, there is so great a variety in the world, and so great a diversity among rational living beings themselves, on account of which all the rest of the variety and diversity must be thought to have come into existence, what other cause must be named for the world's coming into existence, especially if we look to that end, discussed in the preceding book, through which all things are to be restored to the state of their beginning? If this seems to have been said consistently, what other cause, as we have said, should we suppose for so great a diversity of this world, except the diversity and variety of the movements and falls of those who fell away from that unity and harmony of the beginning in which they were first created by God, and who, disturbed and drawn away from that state of goodness, and then driven by the different movements and desires of their minds, drew that one undivided good of their nature into various qualities of mind according to the diversity of their purpose? But God, by the inexpressible skill of his wisdom, transforming and repairing all things, in whatever way they come about, to some useful purpose and to the common advance of all, calls back these very creatures, which differed so much from one another in variety of minds, into a single agreement of work and purpose, so that, though with different movements of mind, they nevertheless complete the fullness and perfection of one world, and the very variety of minds tends to one end of perfection. For there is one power which binds and holds together all the diversity of the world and leads its various movements to one work, so that disagreements between minds do not break apart so immense a work as the world. And for this reason we think that God, the parent of all, for the salvation of all his creatures, through the inexpressible reasoning of his Word and Wisdom, so arranged each of these things that each spirit or soul, or whatever rational beings are to be called, should not be compelled by force, against the freedom of choice, to anything other than the movement of its own mind led it to (by which the faculty of free choice would seem to be taken from them, which would certainly change the quality of their very nature), and that the different movements of their purpose should be suitably and usefully fitted to the harmony of one world, while some need to be helped, others can help, and others again stir up contests and struggles for those who are making progress, in which their diligence might be more highly proven, and the station of the rank recovered after victory might be held more securely, having been established through the difficulties of those who struggled. Although, then, the world is ordered in different offices, the state of the whole world is not, however, to be understood as discordant and at variance with itself; but as our body, though one, is fitted together of many parts and held together by one soul, so I think the whole world too should be thought of as a kind of immense and enormous living being, held together as by one soul, the power and reason of God. This I think is indicated also by holy Scripture in what is said through the prophet: “Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord?” and again: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet”; and by what the Savior said when he said we should not swear by heaven, because it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet; and also by what Paul said when he spoke to the Athenians, saying, “In him we live and move and exist.” For how do we live and move and exist in God, unless he binds and holds together the whole world by his power? And how is heaven the throne of God and the earth the footstool of his feet, as the Savior himself declares, unless his power fills all things both in heaven and on earth, as the Lord also says: “Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord?” I do not think anyone will find it difficult, from what we have shown, to agree that God, the parent of all, fills and holds together the whole world with the fullness of his power. And now, since the course of the preceding discussion has shown that the different movements and various intentions of rational creatures gave this world the cause of its diversity, we must see whether perhaps an end like its beginning is fitting for this world too. For there is no doubt that its end must still be found in much diversity and variety; and this variety, found at the end of this world, will in turn provide the causes and circumstances of the diversities of another world to come after this one, so that the end of this world will be the beginning of the one to come. If the order of the discussion has found that these things are so, it now seems to follow, since the diversity of the world cannot exist without bodies, that we should discuss the nature of body. It appears from the facts themselves that bodily nature admits diverse and varied change, so that it can be transformed from all things into all things: as, for example, wood is turned into fire, fire into smoke, and smoke into air. Oil too, a liquid, is changed into fire. Do not the foods of human beings or animals show the same principle of change? For whatever we take as food is turned into the substance of our body. And how water is changed into earth or into air, and air again into fire, or fire into air, or air into water, although it would not be difficult to explain, yet in the present place it is enough merely to mention, since we wish to discuss the nature of bodily matter. By matter, then, we understand that which underlies bodies, that is, that from which bodies exist when qualities are put in and implanted. We say there are four qualities: hot, cold, dry, wet. These four qualities, implanted in ὕλη, that is, matter (for matter by its own account is found to be apart from these qualities we have mentioned), produce the different kinds of bodies. Yet this matter, although, as we said above, by its own account it is without qualities, is never found to exist apart from quality. This matter, then, which is so great and of such a kind that it can suffice for all the bodies of the world which God willed to exist, and which serves and obeys the Creator in all things for whatever forms and kinds he wishes, receiving in itself the qualities he wished to impose: I do not know how such and so great men have thought it uncreated, that is, not made by God himself, the Creator of all, and have said that its nature and power are a matter of chance. And I am amazed how these men blame those who deny either a craftsman God or the providence of this universe, and accuse them of impiety for thinking that so great a work as the world exists without a craftsman or provider, when they themselves incur a similar charge of impiety, saying that matter is uncreated and coeternal with the uncreated God. According to this reasoning, then, if we suppose, for example, that matter had not existed, then, as these men assert, saying that God could not make anything when nothing existed, he would undoubtedly have been idle, having no matter from which to work, matter which they think was present to him not by his own provision but by chance; and it seems to them that what was found by chance could have sufficed him for the mass of so great a work and for the might of his power, so as to receive the whole plan of his wisdom and be distinguished and formed into a world. This seems to me utterly absurd, and to belong to men who are entirely ignorant of the power and intelligence of uncreated nature. But so that we may see the reason of things more clearly, let it be granted for a moment that matter did not exist, and that God, when nothing existed before, made to exist the things he wished to exist. What should we think? That God would have made a better or greater matter, or one of another kind, than that which he produced by his power and wisdom, so that what had not been before might exist? Or an inferior and worse one? Or one similar and the same as that which these men call uncreated? I think it is very easily evident to anyone that neither a better nor an inferior one could have received the forms and kinds of the world unless it had been such as this is which received them. How then will it not seem impious to call that uncreated which, if it is believed to have been made by God, is undoubtedly found to be such as that which is called uncreated? And so that we may believe on the authority of the Scriptures too that these things are so, hear how this doctrine is confirmed in the books of the Maccabees, where the mother of the seven martyrs urges one of her sons to endure torments; for she says: “I beg you, my son, look at heaven and earth and at all that is in them, and seeing these things, know that God made all these things when they did not exist.” And in the book of the Shepherd, in the first commandment, it says: “First of all believe that there is one God, who created and arranged all things, and made them to be out of what was not.” Perhaps what is written in the Psalms also refers to this: “He spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created.” For in saying “He spoke, and they were made,” it seems to indicate the substance of the things that are; and in saying “He commanded, and they were created,” it seems to speak of the qualities by which the substance itself was formed.
On the Perpetuity of Bodily Nature
Here some are accustomed to ask whether, just as the Father generates the only-begotten Son and gives existence to the Holy Spirit, not as though they did not exist before, but because the Father is the origin and fountain of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and nothing earlier or later can be understood in them, so too a similar association or kinship can be understood between rational natures and bodily matter. To investigate this more fully and intently, they are accustomed to turn the beginning of their discussion to this point, inquiring whether this very bodily nature, which bears the lives and contains the movements of spiritual and rational minds, will endure forever equally with them, or whether, released, it will pass away and perish. So that this may be grasped more carefully, it seems we must first ask whether it is possible for rational natures to remain wholly incorporeal when they have come to the summit of holiness and blessedness, which seems to me very difficult and almost impossible, or whether they must always be joined to bodies. If, then, anyone could show a reason by which it would be possible for them to be entirely without bodies, it will seem to follow that bodily nature, created out of nothing over intervals of time, just as it was made when it did not exist, so would cease to exist when the use of its service had passed. But if this cannot in any way be affirmed, namely that any other nature besides the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit can live without a body, the necessity of logic and reason compels us to understand that rational natures were indeed created primarily, but that material substance is separated from them only in thought and understanding, and seems to have been made for them or after them, but that they have never lived nor live without it; for the life of the Trinity alone will rightly be thought to exist without a body. As we said above, then, this material substance of the world, having a nature which is transformed from all things into all things, when it is drawn down to lower beings is formed into a denser and more solid state of body, so as to distinguish these visible forms of the world in their variety; but when it serves the more perfect and the more blessed, it shines in the splendor of heavenly bodies and adorns either the angels of God or the sons of the resurrection with the garments of a spiritual body; and from all these the diverse and varied state of the one world will be completed. But if we wish to discuss these things more fully, we will have to search the divine Scriptures more attentively and diligently, with all fear and reverence of God, to see whether perhaps a secret and hidden sense about such things may be revealed in them, whether anything can be found in obscure and hidden sayings, the Holy Spirit showing it to those who are worthy, when more passages of testimony about this very matter have been gathered.
On the Beginning of the World, and Its Causes
It remains, after this, to inquire whether before this world which now exists there was another world; and if there was, whether it was such as this one which now exists, or somewhat different, or inferior; or whether there was no world at all, but something such as we understand will be after the end of all things, when the kingdom will be handed over to God the Father; which would nevertheless have been the end of another world, namely of that after which this world began; and whether the varied fall of intellectual natures moved God to this varied and diverse condition of the world. And this too I think must likewise be inquired: whether after this world there will be some healing and correction, harsher indeed and full of pain for those who were unwilling to obey the word of God, but through instruction and rational training by which they might advance to a richer understanding of the truth, like those who in the present life have devoted themselves to these studies and, made purer in mind, have already from here become capable of divine wisdom; and whether after this the end of all things will follow at once, or whether, for the correction and improvement of those who need such things, there will again be another world, either similar to this one which now exists, or better than it, or much worse; and how long that world after this one, whatever it will be, will last; and whether there will ever be a time when there is no world at all, or whether there was ever a time when there was no world at all; or whether there have been or will be several; or whether it may ever happen that one world turns out equal and similar to another in all respects and indistinguishable from it. So that it may appear more clearly whether bodily matter exists only at intervals, and, just as it did not exist before it was made, is dissolved again so as not to exist, let us first see whether it is possible for anyone to live without a body. For if anyone can live without a body, all things too can be without a body; for the preceding treatise has taught that all things tend to one end. But if all things can lack bodies, there will undoubtedly be no bodily substance, since there will be no use for it. And how should we understand what the Apostle said in those passages where he discusses the resurrection of the dead, when he says: “This perishable must put on freedom from decay, and this mortal must put on immortality. And when this perishable has put on freedom from decay, and this mortal has put on immortality, then will be fulfilled the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory; where, O death, is your victory? Your sting, O death, is swallowed up; the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” The Apostle seems to suggest some such understanding as this. For when he says “this perishable” and “this mortal,” with the gesture, as it were, of one touching and pointing, to what else does it apply but bodily matter? This matter of the body, then, which is now perishable, will put on freedom from decay when a perfected soul, instructed in the teachings of freedom from decay, has begun to use it. And do not be surprised if we call the perfected soul the clothing of the body, the soul which, on account of the Word of God and his wisdom, is now called freedom from decay; since Jesus Christ himself, who is the Lord and creator of the soul, is said to be the clothing of the saints, as the Apostle says: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” As Christ, then, is the clothing of the soul, so by a certain intelligible reasoning the soul too is said to be the clothing of the body. For it is its adornment, veiling and covering its mortal nature. Such, then, is the meaning of “This perishable must put on freedom from decay”: as if he said, this perishable nature of the body must receive the clothing of freedom from decay, a soul which has freedom from decay in itself, because it has put on Christ, who is the Wisdom and Word of God. And when this body, which we will at some time have in a more glorious state, has shared in life, then it will attain to what is immortal, so as to become imperishable as well. For whatever is mortal is by that very fact also perishable; but not everything perishable can be called mortal. We call a stone or wood perishable, but we will not therefore call it mortal. The body, however, since it shares in life, we consequently call mortal, because life can be and is separated from it; and in another sense we also call it perishable. With wonderful reasoning, then, the holy Apostle, looking first to the general cause of bodily matter (a matter which the soul always uses, set in whatever quality, now fleshly, later finer and purer, which is called spiritual), says, “This perishable must put on freedom from decay”; and secondly, looking to the special cause of the body, says, “This mortal must put on immortality.” And what else will freedom from decay and immortality be but the Wisdom and Word and righteousness of God, which form and clothe and adorn the soul? So it comes about that it is said that the perishable will put on freedom from decay, and the mortal immortality. For now, even if we make great progress, yet since we know only in part and prophesy in part, and see through a mirror in a riddle those very things which we seem to understand, this perishable has not yet put on freedom from decay, nor is the mortal surrounded by immortality; and since this training of ours in the body is undoubtedly drawn out at length, namely until our very bodies with which we are surrounded merit freedom from decay and immortality on account of the Word of God and his wisdom and perfect righteousness, therefore it is said: “This perishable must put on freedom from decay, and this mortal must put on immortality.” Those, however, who think that rational creatures can at some time lead their life outside bodies may raise some such points as these at this place. If it is true that “this perishable will put on freedom from decay, and this mortal will put on immortality,” and that “death is swallowed up at the end,” this declares that nothing other than material nature is to be destroyed, in which death could do something, while in those who are in the body the sharpness of the mind seems to be blunted by the nature of bodily matter. But if they are outside the body, then they will escape altogether the trouble of disturbance of this kind. But since they will not be able suddenly to escape all bodily clothing, they must be thought first to live in finer and purer bodies, which can no longer be overcome by death nor pricked by the sting of death; so that at last, as material nature gradually ceases, death may be swallowed up and even exterminated at the end, and all its sting entirely blunted by the divine grace, of which the soul has been made capable, and by which it has deserved to obtain freedom from decay and immortality. And then it will rightly be said by all: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin.” If, then, these things seem to follow, it remains that our condition is to be believed to be at some time incorporeal; and if this is accepted, and all are said to be subjected to Christ, this must also be granted to all to whom submission to Christ extends; since all who are subject to Christ will at the end also be subject to God the Father, to whom Christ is said to be about to hand over the kingdom; and so it seems that then the use of bodies too will cease. And if it ceases, it returns to nothing, as it also did not exist before. But let us see what confronts those who so assert. For it will seem necessary that, if bodily nature has been destroyed, it must be restored and created a second time; for it seems possible that rational natures, from whom the faculty of free choice is never taken away, may again be subject to some movements, the Lord himself allowing this, so that, if they always remained unchanging, they would not fail to know that it was by the grace of God and not by their own power that they were set in that final blessedness; and those movements will undoubtedly again be followed by variety and diversity of bodies, by which the world is always adorned; nor can a world ever consist except of variety and diversity, which can in no way be brought about apart from bodily matter. Now as for those who affirm that worlds sometimes come about that are not unlike one another and are equal in all respects, I do not know by what proofs they can assert this. For if a world is said to be similar in every respect, it will follow that Adam and Eve will again do the same things they did; there will again be the same flood, and the same Moses will again lead out of Egypt a people numbering about six hundred thousand; Judas too will twice betray the Lord; Paul will a second time guard the clothes of those who stoned Stephen; and everything that has been done in this life will be said to be done again. I do not think this can be established by any reasoning, if souls are moved by freedom of choice and undergo their progress or decline according to the power of their own will. For souls are not driven by some course revolving into the same circles after many ages, so as to do or desire this or that; but wherever the freedom of their own minds has aimed, there they direct the course of their deeds. What these people say is as if someone were to assert that if a bushel of grain is poured out on the ground, it could happen that the grains fall a second time in the same and completely indistinguishable way, so that each grain, poured out a second time, would lie next to the one beside which it was once thrown down the first time, and be scattered in the same order and with the same marks as when it was first poured out; which is certainly utterly impossible for the countless grains of a bushel, even if they were poured out unceasingly and continually for immeasurable ages. So it seems to me impossible that a world should be restored a second time with the same order and in the same ways of being born and dying and acting; but that different worlds can exist with no small changes, so that for certain clear causes the state of one world is better, for others worse, and for others in between. But what their number or measure is, I confess I do not know. If anyone could show it, I would gladly learn. Yet this world, which is itself also called an age, is said to be the end of many ages. The holy Apostle teaches that Christ did not suffer in the age that was before this one, nor even in the one before that; and I do not know whether I am able to count how many earlier ages there were in which he did not suffer. I will explain from which words of Paul I came to the occasion of this understanding. For he says: “But now once at the consummation of the ages he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” For he says that he became a sacrifice once, and was manifested at the consummation of the ages to put away sin. And that after this age, which is said to have come about for the consummation of other ages, there will be other ages to come, we have learned plainly from Paul himself, who says: “That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us.” He did not say “in the age to come,” nor “in two ages,” but “in the ages to come”; from this I think that many ages are indicated by what he says. But if there is something greater than the ages (so that ages are understood among created things, but in others, which exceed and surpass visible creatures, [something greater than ages is understood]), which will perhaps be in “the restoration of all things,” when all things reach their perfect end, that perhaps is to be understood as something more than an age, in which the consummation of all things will be. I am moved in this by the authority of holy Scripture, which says “for an age, and still further.” For when it says “and still further,” it undoubtedly wishes something more than an age to be understood. And see whether what the Savior says, “I wish that where I am these too may be with me; and as I and you are one, so they too may be one in us,” does not seem to indicate something more than an age and ages, perhaps even more than the ages of ages, namely when all things are no longer in an age, but God is in all. Having discussed, as far as we could, the account of the world, it seems not unfitting also to inquire what the name “world” itself means; for this name is often shown in the holy Scriptures to signify different things. What we call mundus in Latin is called κόσμος in Greek; and κόσμος means not only world but also ornament. Indeed in Isaiah, where a word of rebuke is directed to the chief daughters of Zion, it says: “Instead of an ornament of gold on your head you will have baldness because of your works”; there it called “ornament” by the same name as “world”, that is, κόσμος. The plan of the world is also said to be contained in the clothing of the high priest, as we find in the Wisdom of Solomon, when it says that “on the long robe was the whole world.” This globe of the earth with its inhabitants is also called our world, as when Scripture says: “The whole world lies in the evil one.” Clement, the disciple of the apostles, indeed mentions those whom the Greeks called ἀντίχθονες, and other parts of the globe of the earth which none of our people can reach and from which none of those who are there can cross to us; and these too he called worlds, when he says: “The ocean is impassable to human beings, and the worlds that are beyond it, which are governed by these same arrangements of God the ruler.” This universe too, which is contained by heaven and earth, is called the world, as Paul says: “For the form of this world will pass away.” Our Lord and Savior also indicates another world besides this visible one, which is truly difficult to describe and indicate; for he says, “I am not of this world.” He says “I am not of this world” as though he were from some other world. We have said beforehand that the explanation of this world is difficult for us, so that no one is given grounds to think we affirm certain images which the Greeks call ἰδέαι: for it is certainly foreign to us to speak of an incorporeal world existing only in the fantasy of the mind or the slipperiness of thoughts; and how they will be able to affirm that the Savior comes from there, or that the saints too will go there, I do not see. Yet there is no doubt that something more glorious and splendid than this present world is indicated by the Savior, toward which he calls and urges those who believe in him to strive. But whether that world which he wishes to be understood is separate from this one and far divided from it, whether in place or quality or glory, or whether it excels in glory and quality but is contained within the bounds of this world, which seems to me more likely, is still uncertain and, as I think, as yet unfamiliar to human thoughts and minds. Yet from what Clement seemed to indicate when he says, “The ocean is impassable to human beings, and the worlds that are beyond it,” naming the worlds beyond it in the plural, which he signifies are driven and ruled by the same providence of the most high God, he seems to scatter for us some seeds of an understanding of this kind: that the whole universe of things that have being and exist, heavenly and super-heavenly, earthly and of the underworld, may be called in general one perfect world, within which, or by which, the others, if there are any, are to be thought to be contained. For this reason some wished the globe of the moon, or of the sun, and of the others which they call planets, each to be called a world. And they wish the very globe which surpasses them, which they call ἀπλανής (fixed), to be properly called a world as well. Indeed they also call the book of the prophet Baruch to witness to this assertion, because in it seven worlds or heavens are more clearly indicated. Yet above that sphere which they call ἀπλανής they hold that there is another, which, just as with us the heaven contains all things that are under heaven, so, they say, by its immense magnitude and inexpressibly vast embrace binds together the spaces of all the spheres with a more magnificent circuit; so that all things are within it as this earth of ours is under heaven. This too is believed to be called in the holy Scriptures the good land and the land of the living, having its own heaven, the higher one, in which heaven the names of the saints are said by the Savior to be written or to have been written; by which heaven that land is held in and enclosed which the Savior in the Gospel promises to the humble and gentle. For they hold that this earth of ours, whose name at first was “dry land”, was named after that land, just as this firmament was called heaven after the name of that heaven. But we have treated opinions of this kind more fully in the place where we inquired what it means that in the beginning God made heaven and earth. For another heaven and another earth is indicated than that firmament which is said to have been made after two days, or the dry land which was later called earth. Indeed, what some say of this world, that it is perishable because it was made, and yet is not corrupted because the will of God, who made it and holds it together so that corruption may not rule it, is stronger and more powerful than corruption, could more rightly be held of that world which we called above the ἀπλανής sphere, since by the will of God it is in no way subject to corruption, because it has not received the causes of corruption. For that world belongs to the saints and to those who have been thoroughly purified, and not to the impious, as this one of ours does. We must see whether the Apostle had this in view when he said: “While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house of this dwelling is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” For when he says elsewhere, “For I will see the heavens, the works of your fingers,” and God said through the prophet of all visible things, “For my hand has made all these things,” he declares that this eternal house which he promises to the saints in the heavens is not made with hands, showing without doubt a difference of creation between the things that are seen and the things that are not seen. For “the things that are not seen” and “the things that are invisible” do not mean the same. The things that are invisible are not only not seen but do not even have a nature such that they can be seen; these the Greeks called ἀσώματα, that is, incorporeal. But those of which Paul said, “which are not seen,” have a nature such that they can be seen, but he explains that they are not yet seen by those to whom they are promised. These three opinions, then, about the end of all things and the supreme blessedness having been sketched as far as we were able to perceive, let each reader judge for himself more carefully and scrupulously whether any of them can be approved or chosen. For it has been said either that an incorporeal life is to be thought possible after all things have been subjected to Christ, and through Christ to God the Father, when God will be all and in all; or that, when all things have nonetheless been subjected to Christ, and through Christ to God, with whom they also become one spirit, insofar as rational natures are spirits, then bodily substance itself too, united to the best and purest spirits and changed into a state like the fine substance of the upper air according to the quality or merits of those who take it on, will shine, as the Apostle says, “And we will be changed”; or certainly that, when the form of the things that are seen passes away, all corruptibility being shaken off and purged, and this whole state of the world in which the spheres of the planets are said to be having been passed beyond and surmounted, the dwelling of the pious and blessed is placed above that sphere which is called ἀπλανής (fixed), as in a good land and a land of the living, which the humble and gentle will receive as an inheritance; to which belongs that heaven which with a more magnificent circuit surrounds and contains that very land, and which is truly and principally called heaven. In this heaven or land the end and perfection of all things can rest in a safe and most sure station: so that those who, after the correction and discipline which they have endured for their sins by way of purification, have fulfilled and paid everything, may deserve the dwelling of that land; while those who have been obedient to the word of God and have already from here shown themselves capable of his wisdom and obedient to it are said to deserve the kingdom of that heaven or heavens; and so what was said may be more worthily fulfilled: “Blessed are the humble, for they will possess the earth as an inheritance,” and “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will receive the kingdom of heaven as an inheritance”; and what he says in the Psalm: “He will exalt you, and you will receive the land as an inheritance.” For one is said to go down to this land, but to be exalted to that which is on high. In this way a kind of path seems to be opened for the progress of the saints from that land to those heavens, so that they seem not so much to remain in that land as to stay there, being about to pass on, when they have made progress in this too, to the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven.
The God of the Law and the Prophets, and the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Same God
That the God of the law and the prophets is one, and is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. These things having been briefly set out in order as far as we could, it follows, according to what we proposed at the beginning, that we should also refute those who think that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is another God besides him who gave Moses the answers of the law or sent the prophets, who is the God of the fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For we must first be made firm in this article of faith. We must consider, then, what is frequently said in the Gospels and added to each of the deeds of our Lord and Savior: “That what was spoken by this or that prophet might be fulfilled,” since it is plain that the prophets belong to the God who made the world. From this very sequence it is concluded that he who sent the prophets himself foretold what was to be foretold about Christ. And there is no doubt that it was not someone foreign to him, but his own Father, who foretold these things. And what else does the fact that examples from the Old Testament are frequently brought forward by the Savior or by his apostles indicate but that authority is given to the ancient writings by the Savior and his disciples? And also what the Savior says to his disciples when calling them to kindness, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect, who makes his sun rise on the good and the evil, and sends rain on the just and the unjust,” suggests a most evident understanding even to a person of slight intelligence: that he proposes to his disciples for imitation no other God than the maker of heaven and the giver of rain. And when he says that those who pray should say, “Our Father who is in heaven,” what else does it seem to show but that God is to be sought in the better parts of the world, that is, of his creation? And when, laying down excellent rules about oaths, he says that one should not swear by heaven, because it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet, does he not seem most plainly to agree with the prophetic words, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet”? And also when he cast out of the temple those who sold sheep and oxen and doves, and overturned the tables of the money-changers, saying, “Take these things away from here, and do not make my Father's house a house of trade,” he undoubtedly called his Father him to whose name Solomon had built the magnificent temple. And what he says, “Have you not read what was said by God to Moses: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; he is not the God of the dead but of the living?” teaches us most plainly that he called the God of the patriarchs, because they were holy and living, the God of the living, namely him who had said in the prophets, “I am God, and there is no God besides me.” For if the Savior, knowing that the God of Abraham is he who is written in the law, and that he is the same who says, “I am God, and there is no God besides me,” acknowledges as his Father that very one who does not know of another God above him, as the heretics think, he absurdly declares to be his Father one who does not know a higher God. But if he does not indeed fail to know, but deceives in saying that there is no other God besides him, it is much more absurd if he acknowledges his Father to be a liar. From all this the mind is led to this conclusion, that he knows no other Father than God, the founder and creator of all things. It would take long to gather passages of testimony from all the passages of the Gospels by which one and the same God of the law and the Gospels is taught. We will touch briefly, however, on the Acts of the Apostles also, where Stephen and the apostles direct their prayers to the God who made heaven and earth and who spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, calling him the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who led his people out of the land of Egypt. These statements undoubtedly direct our mind most evidently to faith in the Creator, and implant love for him in those who have learned these things about him piously and faithfully; as the Savior himself, when he was asked which was the greatest commandment of all in the law, answered, saying: “You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind. And the second is like it: You must love your neighbor as yourself.” And he added that on these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets. How, then, does he commend this commandment above all commandments to the one whom he was instructing and bringing into discipleship, a commandment by which love would undoubtedly be won for the God of his law, since these things had been proclaimed by the law in these very words? But let it be granted, against all these most evident proofs, that the Savior says of some other unidentified God, “You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart,” and the rest that was said. Then how, if the law and the prophets belong to the Creator, as they say, that is, to another God than the one he calls good, will what he added seem consistent, that the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments? For how will what is alien and foreign to God hang on God? And Paul, saying, “I thank my God, whom I serve in my spirit from my ancestors with a pure conscience,” shows clearly that he came not to some new God but to Christ. For what other ancestors of Paul must be understood but those of whom he himself says, “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I”? And does not the very opening of his letter to the Romans carefully show the same to those who know how to understand Paul's letters, namely which God Paul preaches? For he says: “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which he had promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures concerning his Son, who was made to him of the descendants of David according to the flesh, who was predestined Son of God in power according to the spirit of sanctification by the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,” and so on. And there is what he says: “You must not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. Is it for oxen that God cares? Or does he say it entirely for our sake? For it was written for our sake, because he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope of receiving the fruit.” In this he shows evidently that the God who gave the law says for our sake, that is, for the apostles' sake, “You must not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain,” since his care was not for oxen but for the apostles who preached the Gospel of Christ. Elsewhere too Paul himself, embracing the promise of the law, says: “Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth, the good land which the Lord your God will give you.” By this he undoubtedly declares that the law, the God of the law, and his promises are pleasing to him. But since the defenders of this heresy are sometimes accustomed to deceive ordinary people's hearts with misleading arguments, I think it not absurd also to set out what they are accustomed to bring forward in their assertions, and to refute their trickery and lies. They say, then: It is written, “No one has ever seen God”; but that God whom Moses preaches was seen both by Moses himself and before him by his fathers; whereas he who is proclaimed by the Savior has been seen by no one at all. Let us, then, ask them in our turn whether they say that this one whom they confess as God, and say is other than the creator God, is visible or invisible. And if they say that he is visible, besides being shown to contradict the statement of Scripture which says of the Savior that he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, they will also fall into the absurdity of saying that God is bodily. For nothing can be seen except through shape, size and color, which are the special properties of bodies. And if God is declared to be a body, then, since every body is from matter, God too will be found to be from matter; and if he is from matter, and matter is undoubtedly perishable, then according to them God will be perishable. Again we will ask them: Was matter made, or is it uncreated, that is, unmade? And if they say that it is unmade, that is, uncreated, we will ask them whether one part of matter is God and another part the world. But if they reply that matter was made, it will undoubtedly follow that they confess that he whom they call God was made, which neither their reasoning nor ours admits. But they will say: God is invisible. And what will you do? If you say that he is invisible by nature, he will not be visible to the Savior either. Instead, God the Father of Christ is said to be seen, since “He who sees the Son,” he says, “sees the Father also.” This certainly presses you hard, but by us it is more rightly understood not of seeing but of understanding. For he who has understood the Son will understand the Father also. In this way, then, Moses too must be thought to have seen God, not seeing him with fleshly eyes but understanding him with the sight of the heart and the perception of the mind, and this only in some part. For it is plain that he who gave the answers to Moses says, “You will not see my face, but my back parts.” These words are certainly to be understood with that mystery with which divine sayings ought to be understood, the old women's tales being rejected and despised which are invented by the ignorant about the front and back parts of God. Let no one think that we have held anything impious in saying that the Father is not visible even to the Savior: they should consider what distinction we use in dealing with the heretics. For we have said that it is one thing to see and be seen, and another to know and be known, or to recognize and be recognized. To see and to be seen belongs to bodies; and this will certainly not be fittingly applied to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in relation to one another. For the nature of the Trinity exceeds the mode of vision, while granting to those who are in a body, that is, to all the other creatures, the quality of seeing one another; but to incorporeal and principally intellectual nature nothing else belongs but to know and be known, as the Savior himself also declares, saying: “No one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” It is plain, then, that he did not say, “No one has seen the Father except the Son,” but “No one knows the Father except the Son.” But if, because of what is said in the Old Testament, that God is angry or repents, or where any other disturbance of human feeling is indicated, they think material is offered them to refute us, affirming that God is to be thought entirely beyond suffering and free of all such feelings, it must be shown to them that similar things are found also in the parables of the Gospel, when it says that he who planted a vineyard and leased it to tenants, who killed the servants sent to them and at last killed even the son sent to them, is said in his anger to have taken the vineyard from them, to have given the wicked tenants over to a wicked destruction, and to have handed the vineyard over to other tenants who would give him the fruit in its season. And also those citizens who, when the master of the house had set out to receive a kingdom for himself, sent envoys after him saying, “We do not want him to reign over us”: the master of the house, having obtained the kingdom, returned and in anger ordered them to be killed before him, and burned their city with fire. But we, whether in the Old Testament or in the New, when we read of the anger of God, do not take what is said according to the letter, but seek the spiritual understanding in such things, so as to think as it is worthy to understand of God. We showed, as far as we could, according to the smallness of our understanding, how this ought to be understood when we were explaining that little verse of the second Psalm in which it says: “Then he will speak to them in his anger, and in his fury he will trouble them.”
On Justice and Goodness
But since some are also troubled by this, that the leaders of this heresy seem to themselves to have made a certain division, by which they said that the just is one thing and the good another, and have applied this division even to the divine nature, affirming that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is a good God but not just, and that the God of the law and the prophets is just but not good, I think it necessary to reply to this question as briefly as I can. They think, then, that goodness is a disposition such that it ought to do good to all, even if the one to whom the benefit is given is unworthy and does not deserve to obtain good; but, as it seems to me, they have not used this definition rightly, thinking that good is not done to one on whom something harsh or painful is inflicted. Justice, on the other hand, they thought to be a disposition that gives each person what they deserve. But here again they do not interpret the sense of their own definition rightly. For they think that the just does evil to the evil and good to the good, that is, that according to their sense the just man does not seem to wish well to the evil but is driven against them with a kind of hatred. And they gather any places they find in the Scriptures of the Old Testament where the narrative relates, for example, the punishments of the flood and of those who are related to have perished in it, or how Sodom and Gomorrah are laid waste by a rain of fire and sulfur, or how all fall in the desert for their sins, so that none of those who had set out from Egypt is found to enter the land of promise except Joshua and Caleb. From the New Testament, on the other hand, they gather words of mercy and kindness by which the disciples are instructed by the Savior, and by which it seems to be declared that no one is good except the one God the Father; and on this basis they have dared to call the Father of the Savior Jesus Christ good, but say that the God of the world is another, whom they were pleased to call just but not also good. From them I think we must first demand whether, according to their definition, they can show the creator to be just in punishing according to what they deserve either those who perished at the time of the flood, or the Sodomites, or those who had set out from Egypt, when we sometimes see far more wicked and criminal outrages committed than those for which the people we mentioned were destroyed, and yet we do not see each sinner paying the penalty he deserves. Will they say that he who was once just has become good? Or will they rather think that he is just now, but bears human offenses patiently, whereas then he was not even just, when he destroyed innocent little children and infants at the breast together with the monstrous and impious giants? But they think so because they do not know how to hear anything beyond the letter; otherwise let them show how it is just according to the letter that the sins of parents be repaid into the bosom of their children to the third and fourth generation, and on their children's children after them. By us, however, such things are not understood according to the letter, but, as Ezekiel taught when he called it a parable, we seek what the parable itself signifies inwardly. They must also show how he is just and gives each what they deserve who punishes those of earthly nature and the devil, when they have committed nothing worthy of punishment. For they could not do anything good, if, according to these people, they were of an evil and lost nature. And as to their calling him a judge, he seems a judge not so much of deeds as of natures; since if an evil nature cannot do good, neither can a good one do evil. Then again, he whom they call good, if he is good to all, is undoubtedly good also to those who are to perish; and why does he not save them? If he does not wish to, he will no longer be good; if he wishes to and cannot, he will not be almighty. Let them rather hear in the Gospels of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ preparing fire for the devil and his angels. And how, by their way of thinking, will this work, so punitive and so grim, seem to belong to the good God? The Savior himself too, the Son of the good God, testifies in the Gospels and says that “if the signs and wonders had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” And when he had come very near to those very cities and had entered their territory, why, I ask, does he avoid entering those cities and granting them an abundance of signs and wonders, if it was certain that through these deeds they would repent in sackcloth and ashes? Since he does not do this, he undoubtedly leaves them to destruction, though the very word of the Gospel indicates that they were not of an evil and lost nature, since it shows that they could have repented. And also in a certain parable of the Gospel, the king, coming in to see those reclining at table who had been invited, saw a certain man not clothed in wedding garments, and said to him: “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?” Then he said to the servants: “Bind his hands and feet and throw him out into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Let them tell us who this king is who came in to see those reclining and, finding among them one in dirty garments, orders him to be bound by his servants and thrust into the outer darkness. Is he the one they call just? And how had he ordered both good and bad to be invited, and not commanded his servants to inquire into their merits? By this is certainly shown the disposition not of someone just, as these people say, who repays according to merit, but of a kindness that makes no distinction among all. But if this must be understood of the good God, that is, of Christ or the Father of Christ, what else do they object against the just judgment of God? Indeed, what charge do they bring against the God of the law that is comparable to this, that he should order one who had been invited by the servants he had sent to call good and bad to be bound hand and foot and thrown into the outer darkness for his rather dirty garments? These things which we have taken from the authority of the Scriptures ought to be enough for refuting what the heretics are accustomed to allege. It will not seem unfitting, however, if we deal with them briefly also from reason and its consequences. We ask them, then, whether they know what account is held among human beings of virtue and wickedness, and whether it seems consistent that we speak of virtues in God, or, as they think, in these two gods. Let them answer this too: whether goodness seems to them to be a virtue, which I think they will undoubtedly admit. What will they say of justice? Never, surely, as it seems to me, will they be so foolish as to deny that justice is a virtue. If, then, goodness is a virtue and justice is a virtue, justice is undoubtedly goodness. But if they say that justice is not good, it remains that it is either evil or morally neutral. To answer those who say that justice is evil I think absurd; for I will seem to be answering senseless words or people out of their minds. For how will that seem evil which can give good to the good, as even they themselves admit? But if they say it is morally neutral, it follows that, since justice is morally neutral, self-control and practical wisdom and all the other virtues are also held to be morally neutral. And what should we answer to Paul, who says: “If there is any virtue, if any praise, think about these things which you have learned and received and heard and seen in me”? Let them learn, then, by searching the divine Scriptures, what the individual virtues are, and not deceive by saying that the God who gives each what they deserve gives evil to the evil out of hatred of the wicked, and not because those who have sinned need to be healed by harsher medicines, and that for this reason he applies to them things which, with a view to their improvement, seem for the present to bring a sense of pain. They do not read what is written of the hope of those who perished in the flood, about which hope Peter himself says in his first letter: “For Christ died indeed in the flesh, but was made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to those spirits who were held in prison, who had once been unbelieving, when they awaited the patience of God in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water; and baptism, in a similar form, now saves you also.” As for Sodom and Gomorrah, let them tell us whether they believe that the prophetic words belong to the creator God, namely to him who is related to have rained a shower of fire and sulfur on them. What does the prophet Ezekiel say of them? “Sodom,” he says, “will be restored to its former state.” And in afflicting those who are worthy of punishment, does he not afflict them for their good? He also says to Chaldea: “You have coals of fire; sit on them; they will be a help to you.” And about those who fell in the desert, let them hear what is related in the seventy-seventh Psalm, which is entitled “of Asaph”; for it says: “When he killed them, then they sought him.” It does not say that when some were killed, others sought him, but that the death of those who were killed was such that, when put to death, they sought God. From all this it is established that the God of the law and of the Gospels is one and the same, just and good, and that he does good with justice and punishes with goodness; because neither good without just nor just without good can show the dignity of the divine nature. We will add this too, as their cunning compels us: if the just is something other than the good, since evil is the opposite of good and unjust the opposite of just, then undoubtedly the unjust will be something other than the evil; and just as among you the just man is not good, so neither will the unjust man be evil; and again, just as the good man is not just, so the evil man will not be unjust. But to whom does it not seem absurd that to the good God there should be an opposite, the evil one, while to the just God, whom they call inferior to the good, there should be no contrary? For there is not, as there is Satan who is called evil, another who is called unjust. What then? Let us set aside the position we are defending. For they will not be able to say that the evil one is not also unjust, and the unjust evil. And if in these opposites injustice is inseparably present in evil, or evil in injustice, undoubtedly the good also will be inseparable from the just, and the just from the good; so that, as we speak of one and the same wickedness of malice and injustice, so we may hold one and the same virtue of goodness and justice. But again they call us back to the Scriptures, bringing forward that most famous question of theirs. For they say: It is written that “a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree good fruit; for the tree is known by its fruit.” What then do they say? What kind of tree the law is, is declared by its fruits, that is, by the words of its commands. For if the law is found to be good, then undoubtedly he who gave it is believed to be a good God; but if it is just rather than good, the lawgiver God will also be thought just. The apostle Paul, speaking directly, says: “The law therefore is good, and the commandment holy and just and good.” From this it is plain that Paul had not learned the letters of these people who separate the just from the good, but had been instructed by that God and enlightened by the Spirit of that God who is at once holy and good and just; and speaking by his Spirit he said that the commandment of the law was holy and just and good. And to show more evidently that goodness is present in the commandment over and above justice and holiness, repeating the word, he put forward goodness alone in place of these three, saying: “Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means.” For knowing that goodness is the general category of the virtues, and justice or holiness particular kinds within that category, having named the general category and particular kinds together above, in repeating the word he turned it back to the general category alone. And in what follows: “Sin,” he says, “worked death in me through what is good.” In this he concludes by the general category what he had set out above by the particular kinds. In this way too must be understood the saying: “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of the evil produces evil.” For here too he took the general category in good and evil, showing undoubtedly that in the good man there is justice and self-control and practical wisdom and piety and everything that can be called or understood as good. Likewise also he spoke of the evil man, who would undoubtedly be unjust and impure and impious and all the things that disfigure the evil man in his parts. For just as without these forms of wickedness no one thinks anyone an evil man, nor can he be evil, so it is certain that without those virtues no one will be thought good. There remains to them also what they think was given them as a shield of their own, that the Lord said in the Gospel, “No one is good but one, God the Father,” saying that this is the proper name of the Father of Christ, who is nevertheless other than God the creator of all, to whom, the creator, he gave no title of goodness. Let us see, then, whether in the Old Testament the God of the prophets and the creator of the world and lawgiver is not called good. And what of what is said in the Psalms: “How good is the God of Israel to the upright in heart!” and: “Let Israel now say that he is good, that his mercy is forever”? And in the Lamentations of Jeremiah it is written: “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.” As, then, God is frequently called good in the Old Testament, so too the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is called just in the Gospels. Indeed, in the Gospel according to John our Lord himself, praying to the Father, says: “Just Father, and the world has not known you.” In case they say that because of his taking flesh he called the creator of the world Father and named him just, they are excluded by the words that immediately follow; for he says, “And the world has not known you.” For according to them the world is ignorant only of the good God, since it most truly recognizes its own maker, as the Lord himself says that the world loves what is its own. Plainly, then, he whom they think the good God is said in the Gospels to be just. At leisure it will be possible to gather more passages of testimony where in the New Testament the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is called just, and where in the Old Testament the creator of heaven and earth is called good, so that the heretics, convicted by more passages of testimony, may perhaps at some time be ashamed.
On the Incarnation of Christ
Now that these things have been gone through, it is time for us to return to the incarnation of our Lord and Savior, how or why he became man. With our very slight powers we have considered the divine nature more from the contemplation of his works than from our own understanding, and have looked at his visible creatures and contemplated the invisible ones by faith, since human weakness can neither see all things with the eyes nor grasp them by reason, because we human beings are the weakest and most fragile of all rational living beings, those which are held to be in heaven or above the heavens being more excellent. It remains that we seek the middle between all these creatures and God, that is, the mediator, whom the apostle Paul declares to be the firstborn of all creation. We see also what is related in the holy Scriptures about his majesty, and observe that he is called “the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation,” and that “in him were created all things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and in him; and he is before all, and all things hold together in him”; he is the head of all, having as his head God the Father alone; for it is written, “The head of Christ is God.” We perceive also that it is written, “No one knows the Father except the Son, nor does anyone know the Son except the Father” (for who can know what Wisdom is except the one who generated her? Or who knows clearly what the truth is except the Father of truth? Who indeed could investigate the whole nature of his Word, and of God himself, which is from God, except God alone, with whom the Word was?). We ought therefore to hold for certain that this Word, or Reason as it may be called, this Wisdom, this Truth, no one knows except the Father alone; of whom it is written, “I think that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written,” namely about the glory and majesty of the Son of God. For it is impossible to commit to writing the things that relate to the glory of the Savior. Having considered such great things about the nature of the Son of God, we are struck dumb with the highest wonder that this nature, supreme over all, emptying itself of its state of majesty, became man and lived among human beings, as the grace poured on his lips testifies, and as the heavenly Father bears witness to him, and as is confirmed by the signs and wonders and various mighty works done by him. Before this presence of his which he showed in the body, he sent the prophets as forerunners and messengers of his coming; and after his ascension into heaven he made the holy apostles, men untrained and uneducated, taken from among tax collectors or fishermen but filled with the power of his divinity, travel around the world, so that from every race and all peoples they might gather a people of the pious who believe in him. But of all the miracles and wonders concerning him, this one altogether surpasses the admiration of the human mind, and the weakness of mortal intelligence cannot find how to conceive or understand it: that this so great power of the divine majesty, the very Word of the Father and the very Wisdom of God, in which all things visible and invisible were created, is to be believed to have been within the limits of that man who appeared in Judea; and, more, that the Wisdom of God entered a woman's womb, and was born a little child, and uttered cries like crying children; then that he is related to have been troubled in the face of death, as he himself declares, saying, “My soul is sorrowful even to death”; and finally that he was brought to the death which is held most shameful among human beings, although he rose again on the third day. Since, then, we see in him some things so human that they seem in no way to differ from the common weakness of mortals, and some things so divine that they are fitting for no one other than that first and inexpressible divine nature, the narrowness of human understanding is at a loss, and, struck with amazement at such great wonder, does not know where to turn, what to hold, where to direct itself. If it thinks of God, it sees a mortal; if it thinks of a man, it sees him returning from the dead carrying what he captured, having conquered the empire of death. Therefore this must be contemplated with all fear and reverence, so that the truth of each nature may be shown in one and the same person, in such a way that nothing unworthy or unfitting is thought of in that divine and inexpressible substance, nor, on the other hand, are the things that were done thought to be illusions of false appearances. To bring these things to human ears and explain them in words far exceeds the powers of our merit, or of our ability and speech. I think indeed that it surpasses even the measure of the holy apostles; indeed, perhaps the explanation of this mystery is beyond the whole creation of the heavenly powers. Of this we will speak, not from any rashness but because the order of the place requires it, in very few words, presenting rather what our faith holds than what the assertion of human reason is accustomed to claim, and bringing forward our conjectures rather than any clear affirmations. The only-begotten of God, then, through whom, as the course of the discussion has taught above, all things visible and invisible were made, according to the statement of Scripture both made all things and loves what he made. For since he himself is the invisible image of the invisible God, he gave a share of himself invisibly to all rational creatures, so that each received a share of him in proportion to the love with which it had clung to him. But since, by the faculty of free choice, variety and diversity of minds had taken hold of each one, so that one was held by a more eager, another by a fainter and weaker love toward its author, that soul of which Jesus said, “No one takes my soul from me,” clinging to him from the beginning of creation and ever after inseparably and indissolubly, as to the Wisdom and Word of God and the truth and the true light, and receiving him wholly, and itself passing into his light and splendor, was made with him in a principal way one spirit, as the Apostle also promises to those who ought to imitate it, that “he who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit.” With this substance of the soul, then, mediating between God and the flesh (for it was not possible for the nature of God to be mingled with a body without a mediator), there is born, as we said, the God-man, that substance being the middle; for it was certainly not contrary to its nature to take on a body. Nor again was it contrary to the nature of that soul, as a rational substance, to receive God, into whom, as we said above, as into the Word and Wisdom and Truth, it had already wholly passed. For this reason, deservedly, because it was either wholly in the Son of God or received the Son of God wholly into itself, it too, together with the flesh it had taken, is called the Son of God and the power of God, Christ and the Wisdom of God; and again the Son of God, through whom all things were created, is named Jesus Christ and the Son of Man. For the Son of God too is said to have died, namely with respect to that nature which could certainly receive death; and he is called the Son of Man who is proclaimed as about to come in the glory of God the Father with the holy angels. For this reason, throughout all Scripture, the divine nature is called by human names, and the human nature is adorned with the marks of divine designation. For of this more than of any other can be said what is written: “The two will be in one flesh, and they are no longer two but one flesh.” For the Word of God is to be thought to be in one flesh with the soul more than a husband with his wife. And to whom is it more fitting to be one spirit with God than to this soul, which so joined itself to God by love that it may deservedly be said to be one spirit with him? That the perfection of love and the sincerity of a deserving affection made for it this inseparable unity with God, so that the taking up of his soul was not by chance or with favoritism, but was conferred on it by the merit of its virtues, hear the Prophet saying to it: “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.” By the merit of love, then, it is anointed with the oil of gladness; that is, the soul of Christ together with the Word of God becomes Christ. For to be anointed with the oil of gladness is understood as nothing other than to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And in saying “above your companions,” he indicates that the grace of the Spirit was not given to it as to the prophets, but that the substantial fullness of the very Word of God was in it, as the Apostle too said: “In whom dwells all the fullness of the divine being bodily.” For this reason, indeed, he not only said, “You have loved righteousness,” but added, “and hated wickedness.” For to hate wickedness is what Scripture says of him, that “he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth”; and what it says, “tempted in all things in the same way, without sin.” And the Lord himself also says, “Which of you convicts me of sin?” And again he says of himself, “Look, the prince of this world comes, and finds nothing in me.” All these things indicate that no sense of sin existed in him. And to indicate more clearly that no sense of wickedness ever entered him, the prophet says: “Before the child knew how to call father or mother, he turned away from wickedness.” But if this seems difficult to anyone, because we have shown above that there is a rational soul in Christ, while throughout all our discussions we have often shown that the nature of souls is capable of good and evil, the difficulty of this matter will be explained in this way. That the nature of that soul was the same as that of all souls cannot be doubted; otherwise it could not even be called a soul, if it was not truly a soul. But since the power of choosing good and evil is present to all, this soul which is Christ's so chose to love righteousness that, by the immensity of its love, it clung to it unchangeably and inseparably, so that firmness of purpose, immensity of affection and the inextinguishable warmth of love cut off every sense of turning or change, and what was placed in choice has now been turned into nature by the affection of long use. So it must be believed both that there was in Christ a human and rational soul, and that it had no sense or possibility of sin. For a fuller explanation of the matter, however, it does not seem absurd if we also use some comparison, although in a matter so demanding and so difficult there is not even an abundance of suitable examples. Yet, to speak without prejudging anything: the metal iron is capable of cold and of heat. If, then, some mass of iron is always placed in fire, receiving fire through all its pores and all its veins and becoming wholly fire, if neither the fire ever ceases from it nor it is separated from the fire, should we say that this, which by nature is indeed a mass of iron, placed in fire and burning unceasingly, can ever receive cold? Rather, what is truer, we say that it has become wholly fire, as we often see with our eyes happen in furnaces, since nothing else is seen in it but fire; and if anyone tries to touch and handle it, he will feel the force not of iron but of fire. In this way, then, that soul too which, like iron in fire, has been placed always in the Word, always in Wisdom, always in God, is God in all that it does, feels and understands; and therefore it cannot be called changeable or mutable, since, set unceasingly on fire by its union with the Word of God, it possessed unchangeableness. To all the saints, indeed, some warmth of the Word of God must be thought to have come; but in this soul the divine fire itself must be believed to have rested substantially, and from it some warmth has come to the others. Finally, in saying, “God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions,” he shows that this soul is anointed with the oil of gladness, that is, with the Word of God and Wisdom, in one way, and its companions, that is, the holy prophets and apostles, in another. For they are said to have run in the fragrance of his ointments; but this soul was the vessel of that ointment itself, from whose fragrance those who shared in it became worthy prophets and apostles. As, then, the substance of an ointment is one thing and its fragrance another, so Christ is one thing and his companions another. And as the vessel itself which contains the substance of the ointment can in no way receive any foul smell, while those who share in its fragrance may, if they move a little farther from its fragrance, receive a foul smell that affects them, so it was impossible for Christ, as the very vessel in which the substance of the ointment was, to receive a foul smell; but his companions will share in and be capable of the fragrance in proportion as they are near the vessel. I think, indeed, that the prophet Jeremiah too, understanding what the nature of the Wisdom of God in him was, and also what the nature was that he had taken for the salvation of the world, said: “The breath of our face, Christ the Lord, of whom we said that in his shadow we will live among the nations.” For just as the shadow of our body is inseparable from the body and takes on and performs the movements and gestures of the body without deviation, I think that he, wishing to show the work and movement of Christ's soul, which clung to him inseparably and did all things according to his movement and will, called this the shadow of Christ the Lord, in which shadow we were to live among the nations. For in the mystery of this assumption the nations live, who, imitating it, come to salvation through faith. And David too, saying, “Remember, Lord, my disgrace, with which they disgraced me in exchange for your Christ,” seems to me to show similar things. And what else does Paul mean when he says, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God”? In another place indeed he says, “Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me?” And now he says that Christ is hidden in God. Unless some such understanding of this is indicated as we said above is signified by the prophet through the shadow of Christ, perhaps this sense too exceeds the human mind. We see very many other passages in the divine Scriptures concerning the meaning of shadow, such as that in the Gospel according to Luke, when Gabriel says to Mary: “The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” And the Apostle says of the law that those who have fleshly circumcision serve a likeness and shadow of heavenly things. And elsewhere it is said: “Is not our life a shadow on the earth?” If, then, both the law which is on the earth is a shadow, and our whole life which is on the earth is a shadow, and we live in the shadow of Christ among the nations, we must see whether the truth of all these shadows will be known in that revelation when, no longer through a mirror and in a riddle but face to face, all the saints will deserve to see the glory of God and the causes and truth of things. Having already received the pledge of this truth through the Holy Spirit, the Apostle said: “Even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.” These things, for the present, have been able to occur to us as we discuss matters so difficult, namely the incarnation and the deity of Christ. If anyone can find something better and confirm what he says by clearer statements from the holy Scriptures, let that be accepted rather than this.
On the Holy Spirit
After those first discussions which we set out at the beginning about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as the matter required, it seemed that we ought to go back and show that the same God is the creator of the world and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, that the God of the law and the prophets and the Gospels is one and the same; and then also concerning Christ, that he who had been shown above to be the Word and Wisdom of God had to be shown in what follows to have become man, and how. It remains, then, that we also go back briefly, as far as we can, to the Holy Spirit. It is time now for us to discuss a little, as far as we can, about the Holy Spirit, whom our Lord and Savior named the Paraclete in the Gospel according to John. For just as it is the same God himself and the same Christ himself, so it is the same Holy Spirit who was in the prophets and in the apostles, that is, both in those who believed in God before the coming of Christ and in those who have taken refuge in God through Christ. That heretics have dared to say there are two Gods and two Christs we have heard; but that there are two Holy Spirits we have never known to be preached by anyone. For how will they be able to affirm this from the Scriptures, or what difference will they be able to give between Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit, if indeed any definition or description of the Holy Spirit can be found? For even if we grant to Marcion or Valentinus that they can introduce differences in the divine nature, and describe one nature of the good and another of the just, what will he devise and find in order to introduce a difference in the Holy Spirit? I think, then, that they can find nothing to indicate any difference whatever. We, however, think that every rational creature receives participation in him, as in the Wisdom of God and the Word of God, without any difference. Yet I see that the special coming of the Holy Spirit to human beings is declared after Christ's ascension into heaven rather than before his coming. For before, the gift of the Holy Spirit was granted only to the prophets and to a few, if anyone among the people happened to deserve it; but after the coming of the Savior it is written that what was said in the prophet Joel was fulfilled: “It will be in the last days, and I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh, and they will prophesy”; which is like that saying, “All nations will serve him.” Through the grace of the Holy Spirit, then, among very many other things this most magnificent thing is shown: that in what was written in the prophets or in the law of Moses, few then, namely the prophets themselves, and scarcely here and there one out of the whole people, could rise above the bodily understanding and understand something greater, that is, something spiritual, in the law or the prophets; but now there are countless multitudes of believers who, although not all can explain in order and clearly the sequence of the spiritual understanding, yet all are persuaded that neither circumcision is to be understood bodily, nor the rest of the Sabbath, nor the shedding of the blood of cattle, nor that it was about these things that God gave his answers to Moses; and this understanding is undoubtedly suggested to all by the power of the Holy Spirit. But just as there are many ways of understanding Christ, who, although he is wisdom, does not act or have the force of wisdom in all, but only in those who devote themselves to wisdom in him; and who, though he is called doctor, does not act as a doctor toward all, but only toward those who, perceiving the weakness of their sickness, take refuge in his mercy so as to obtain health; so I think it is also with the Holy Spirit, in whom is every kind of gift. For to some is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to others the word of knowledge, to others faith; and so in each of those who can receive him the Spirit himself becomes, or is understood as, that which is needed by the one who has deserved to share in him. Not noticing these divisions and differences, those who hear him named the Paraclete in the Gospel, and not considering from what work or act he is named Paraclete, have compared him to some unidentified vile spirits, and by this have tried to disturb the churches of Christ, so that they produced serious disagreements among fellow Christians. But the Gospel shows him to be of such power and majesty that it says the apostles could not yet grasp what the Savior wished to teach them until the Holy Spirit should come, who, pouring himself into their souls, could enlighten them about the account and faith of the Trinity. These people, however, through the ignorance of their understanding, since not only are they themselves unable to set out consistently what is right, but cannot even lend a hearing to what is said by us, thinking less than is fitting about his divinity, have given themselves over to errors and deceptions, depraved by a wandering spirit rather than instructed by the teachings of the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle said: “following the doctrine of spirits of demons, forbidding to marry,” to the destruction and ruin of many, and at inappropriate times to abstain from foods, so that by a show of stricter observance they might lead astray the souls of the innocent. We must know, then, that the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit, teaching greater things than can be uttered by the voice, and, so to speak, things that are inexpressible, “which it is not permitted for a person to speak,” that is, which cannot be indicated in human speech. We take it that “is not permitted” was said by the Apostle for “cannot,” as also where he says: “All things are permitted for me, but not all things are beneficial; all things are permitted for me, but not all things build up.” For the things in our power, because we can have them, he says are permitted for us. The Holy Spirit is called the Paraclete from comfort; for paraclesis in Latin is called consolatio. For if anyone has deserved to share in the Holy Spirit, when he has come to know the inexpressible mysteries, he undoubtedly receives comfort and gladness of heart. For when he has come to know, by the Spirit's showing, the reasons of all things that happen, why or how they happen, his soul can in no way be disturbed or receive any sense of sorrow; nor is he afraid in anything, when, clinging to the Word of God and his Wisdom, he calls Jesus Lord in the Holy Spirit. But since we have mentioned the Paraclete and have set out as far as we could how he ought to be thought of, and since our Savior too is called Paraclete in the letter of John, when it says, “If any of us sins, we have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the means of atonement for our sins,” let us consider whether this name Paraclete perhaps means one thing of the Savior and another of the Holy Spirit. For of the Savior, Paraclete seems to be said for intercessor; for Paraclete in Greek means both, intercessor and comforter. Because of the words that follow, then, “And he is the means of atonement for our sins,” the name Paraclete seems in the Savior's case to be understood rather as intercessor; for he is said to intercede with the Father for our sins. In the case of the Holy Spirit, Paraclete ought to be understood as comforter, because he grants comfort to the souls to which he openly reveals the sense of spiritual knowledge.
On the Soul (Anima)
After this, the order now requires us to inquire also about the soul in general, beginning from the lower and ascending to the higher. That there are souls in each living thing, even in those that live in the waters, I think no one doubts. For the common opinion of all holds this, and the confirmation of the authority of holy Scripture is added, when it is said, “God made great sea monsters and every soul of moving living creatures which the waters produced according to their kind.” It is confirmed also from the common understanding of reason by those who define the soul in fixed words. For the soul is defined this way: that it is a substance φανταστική and ὁρμητική, which in Latin, though it cannot be translated as precisely, may be called capable of perception and of movement. This can certainly be said of all living things, including those that live in the waters; and in birds too this same definition of soul is shown fittingly to apply. Scripture has also added the authority of another statement, when it says: “You must not eat blood, because the soul of all flesh is its blood; and you must not eat the soul with the flesh”; in which it most evidently indicates that the blood of all living things is their soul. Now if anyone asks how it said that the soul of all flesh is its blood, with regard to bees, wasps and ants, and, among those in the waters, oysters and snails and whatever others lack blood and yet are most plainly shown to be living things, we must reply that the force which the vigor of red blood has in other living things is held in these by the fluid that is in them, though it be of another color; for it makes no difference what the color is, provided the substance is life-giving. That beasts of burden and cattle are living beings there is no doubt even in common opinion. Yet the statement of divine Scripture is clear when God says: “Let the earth produce the living soul according to its kind, four-footed animals and crawling creatures and beasts of the earth according to their kind.” And as regards man, although no one doubts it nor could anyone inquire, yet divine Scripture indicates that “God breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” It remains to inquire about the angelic order, whether they too have souls or are souls, and about the other divine and heavenly powers, and also about the opposing powers. We have found no authority anywhere in divine Scripture that either the angels, or any divine spirits who are ministers of God, are said either to have souls or to be souls; yet that they are living beings is held by very many. Of God, however, we find it written this way: “And I will set my soul against that soul which has eaten blood, and I will root it out from its people”; and again elsewhere: “Your new moons and sabbaths and the great day I do not accept. Your fasts and holidays and festive days my soul hates.” And in the twenty-first Psalm it is said thus of Christ (for it is certain that this Psalm is ascribed to his person, as the Gospel testifies): “But you, Lord, do not put your help far off; look to my defense; rescue my soul, O God, from the sword, and my only one from the hand of the dog.” There are also many other passages of testimony about the soul of Christ when he was in the flesh. But as for the soul of Christ, the account of the incarnation, coming to our aid, removes every question. For as he truly had flesh, so he truly had a soul. But how what is called the soul of God in the Scriptures ought to be understood is difficult both to conceive and to express; for we confess once for all that nature to be simple and without anything additional mixed into it. Yet, however it is to be understood, the soul of God meanwhile seems to be named; about Christ, however, there is no doubt. And therefore it does not seem absurd to me to say or think some such thing of the holy angels and the other heavenly powers too, since that definition of soul seems to apply to them also. For who could reasonably deny that they are capable of perception and of movement? And if this seems a correct definition, that a substance rationally capable of perception and movement is called soul, this same definition seems to belong to the angels too. For what else is in them than rational perception and movement? And things which share one account of definition undoubtedly have the same substance. Paul indeed indicates that there is a certain person who lives by the soul, who, he says, cannot receive the things that are of the Spirit of God; rather, the teaching of the Holy Spirit seems foolish to him, and he cannot understand what is spiritually discerned. And in another place he says that a body that lives by the soul is sown and a spiritual body rises, showing that in the resurrection of the righteous there will be nothing that lives by the soul in those who have deserved the life of the blessed. And therefore we inquire whether perhaps there is some substance which, insofar as it is soul, is imperfect. But whether it is imperfect because it fell from perfection, or was made such by God, we will investigate when each matter begins to be discussed in order. For if the person who lives by the soul does not receive the things that are of the Spirit of God, and because he lives by the soul cannot receive the understanding of a better, that is, divine, nature, it is perhaps for this reason that Paul, wishing to teach us more evidently what it is by which we can understand the things of the Spirit, that is, spiritual things, joins and associates the mind rather than the soul with the Holy Spirit. For this I think he shows when he says: “I will pray with the spirit, I will pray with the mind also; I will sing psalms with the spirit, I will sing psalms with the mind also.” He does not say “I will pray with the soul,” but with the spirit and the mind; and he does not say “I will sing psalms with the soul,” but “I will sing psalms with the spirit and the mind.” But perhaps it is asked: if it is the mind that prays and sings psalms with the spirit, and it is the same that receives perfection and salvation, how does Peter say, “Receiving the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls”? If the soul neither prays nor sings psalms with the spirit, how will it hope for salvation? Or when it has come to blessedness, will it no longer be called soul? But let us see whether perhaps it can be answered in this way: that just as the Savior came to save what was lost, and when it is saved, what was previously called lost is no longer lost, so perhaps this too which is being saved is called soul, but when it has been saved it will be named by the word for its more perfect part. And it will seem to some that this too can be added: just as what is lost undoubtedly existed before it was lost, when it was something other than lost, as it will certainly also be when it is no longer lost, so too the soul which is said to have perished will appear to have been something at one time, when it had not yet perished and for this reason came to be called soul; and, freed again from ruin, it can once more be that which it was before it perished and was called soul. And also from the very meaning of the name soul which the Greek indicates, it has seemed to some who investigate more closely that no small understanding can be suggested. For the divine word has said that God is fire, when it says, “Our God is a consuming fire.” And of the substance of the angels it says this: “Who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a burning fire”; and elsewhere, “The angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire in the bush.” Moreover, we have received a commandment to be “burning in spirit,” by which the Word of God is undoubtedly shown to be fiery and hot. And the prophet Jeremiah hears from him who gave him answers: “Look, I have put my words in your mouth as fire.” As, then, God is fire, and the angels a flame of fire, and all the saints are burning in spirit, so on the contrary those who have fallen away from the love of God must undoubtedly be said to have grown cold in their love for him and to have become cold. For the Lord also says that because wickedness is multiplied, the love of many will grow cold. And whatever things in the holy Scriptures are compared to the adverse power you always find cold; and the devil is spoken of, and what is found colder than he? In the sea too the dragon is said to reign. For the prophet indicates that the serpent and dragon, which is certainly referred to one of the evil spirits, is also in the sea. And elsewhere the prophet says: “I will bring my holy sword upon the dragon, the fleeing serpent, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent, and it will kill him.” And again he says: “Even if they depart from my eyes and go down into the depth of the sea, there I will command the dragon and it will bite them.” And in Job too he is said to be king of all that are in the waters. The prophet announces that evils will be kindled from the north upon all who dwell on the earth. And the north wind is described in the holy Scriptures as cold, as it is written in Wisdom: “The cold north wind.” This too must undoubtedly be understood of the devil. If, then, things that are holy are called fire and light and described as burning hot, while those that are contrary are called cold, and the love of many is said to grow cold, we must inquire whether perhaps the name soul, which in Greek is ψυχή, was so named from growing cold from a more divine and better state, and was transferred from the fact that it seems to have grown cold from that natural and divine warmth, and is therefore placed in the state and bears the name in which it now is. Finally, see whether you can easily find the soul spoken of properly in praise in the holy Scriptures; but in blame it frequently occurs, as there: “An evil soul destroys him who possesses it”; and “The soul that sins, it will die.” For after it has been said, “All souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so the soul of the son is mine,” it certainly seemed to follow that he should say, “The soul that does righteousness, it will be saved,” and “The soul that sins, it will die.” But now we see that what is blameworthy he joined to the soul, while what was worthy of praise he passed over in silence. We must see, then, whether perhaps, as we said is declared by the name itself, it was called ψυχή, that is, soul, from having grown cold from the heat of the righteous and from participation in the divine fire, and yet it has not lost the capacity to restore itself to that state of heat in which it was at the beginning. For this reason the Prophet too seems to show something of the kind when he says: “Return, my soul, to your rest.” From all this that seems to be shown: that the mind, falling from its state and dignity, became or was named soul; and if it is restored and corrected, it returns to being mind. If this is so, it seems to me that this very decline and descent of the mind is not to be thought equal in all, but that it is turned into soul more or less, and that some minds preserve something even of their former vigor, others either nothing or some small amount. For this reason some are found from their earliest age to be of keener intelligence, others slower, and some are born very dull and wholly unteachable. However, what we have said, that mind is turned into soul, or anything else that seems to point this way, let the reader examine and handle more carefully for himself; but let these things not be thought to have been put forward by us as dogmas, but discussed in the manner of treatment and inquiry. Let the reader also add this to the treatment: with regard to the soul of the Savior it is observed from what is written in the Gospel that some things are ascribed to him under the name of soul, and others assigned under the name of spirit. For when he wishes to indicate some suffering or disturbance of his, he indicates it under the name of soul, as when he says, “Now my soul is troubled,” and “My soul is sorrowful even to death,” and “No one takes my soul from me, but I lay it down of myself.” But into the hands of the Father he entrusts not his soul but his spirit; and when he says that the flesh is weak, he does not say that the soul is willing, but the spirit. For this reason the soul seems to be a kind of middle between the weak flesh and the willing spirit. But perhaps someone may confront us with one of those points of which we ourselves gave warning in our propositions, and say: How then is the soul of God spoken of? We will answer this way: just as with all things that are said of God in bodily terms, such as fingers, hands, arms, eyes, feet or mouth, we say that these are not human body parts but that certain powers of his are indicated by these names of body parts, so too it must be thought that something else is indicated by this term, the soul of God. And if it is right for us to dare to say something more in such a matter, perhaps the soul of God can be understood as his only-begotten Son. For just as the soul, implanted throughout the whole body, moves all things and stirs all that it works, so too the only-begotten Son of God, who is his Word and Wisdom, reaches and extends to every power of God, being implanted in it. And perhaps as an indication of this mystery God is either called or described in the Scriptures as a body. We must consider, indeed, whether the only-begotten of God may perhaps be understood as the soul of God for this reason too, that he himself came into this place of suffering, and went down into the valley of weeping and into the place of our humiliation; as he says in the Psalm: “For you have humbled us in the place of suffering.” Finally, I know that some, explaining what the Savior said in the Gospel, “My soul is sorrowful even to death,” have interpreted it of the apostles, whom he called his soul as being better than the rest of the body. For since the multitude of believers is called his body, they said that the apostles, as better than the rest of the body, ought to be understood as his soul. These things about the rational soul we have put forward, as far as we could, to be discussed by readers rather than as established and defined. Concerning the souls of cattle and other animals without speech, let what we said above in general be enough.
On the World and the Movements of Rational Creatures, Whether Good or Bad; And on the Causes of Them
But now let us return to the order of the proposed discussion, and look at the beginning of creation, whatever beginning of God's creating the mind has been able to perceive. In that beginning, then, we must think that God made as great a number of rational or intellectual creatures (or whatever those are to be called which we called minds above) as he foresaw would be sufficient. For it is certain that he made them according to some number fixed beforehand with himself; for we must not think, as some wish, that creatures have no limit, because where there is no limit there can be no comprehension nor any defining boundary. And if this were so, the things that were made could certainly not be held together or administered by God. For by nature whatever is infinite will also be incomprehensible. Moreover, as Scripture says, “God founded all things in number and measure”; and therefore number will rightly be applied to rational creatures or minds, that they may be as many as can be administered, ruled and held together by the providence of God; and measure will consequently be applied to bodily matter, which we must believe was created by God as great as he knew would be sufficient for the adornment of the world. These, then, are what we must think were created by God in the beginning, that is, before all things. This we think is indicated also in that beginning which Moses introduced rather obscurely, when he says: “In the beginning God made heaven and earth.” For it is certain that this is said not of the firmament nor of the dry land, but of that heaven and earth from which this heaven and earth that we see later borrowed their names. But since these rational natures, which we said above were made in the beginning, were made when they did not exist before, by this very fact, that they were not and began to be, they necessarily existed as changeable and mutable; since whatever power was in their substance was not in it by nature but was produced by the kindness of the Creator. What they are, therefore, is not their own nor everlasting, but given by God. For it did not always exist; and everything that has been given can also be taken away and depart. And the cause of departure will lie in this, if the movement of minds is not directed rightly and commendably. For the Creator granted to the minds he made voluntary and free movements, so that the good might become their own, being preserved by their own will; but laziness and weariness of effort in preserving the good, and aversion and neglect of better things, gave the beginning of departure from the good. And to depart from the good is nothing other than to come to be in evil. For it is certain that evil is the lack of good. For this reason it happened that in whatever measure one fell away from the good, to that measure he came into wickedness. In this each mind, according to its own movements, neglecting the good more or less, was drawn into the opposite of good, which is undoubtedly evil. From this the Creator of all seems to have received certain seeds and causes of variety and diversity, so that according to the diversity of minds, that is, of rational creatures (a diversity which they must be thought to have conceived from the cause we mentioned above), he created a varied and diverse world. And what we mean by varied and diverse is this which we now wish to indicate. By world we now mean everything that is above the heavens or in the heavens, or on the earth, or in what are called the lower regions, or whatever places there are anywhere at all, and those who are said to live in them. All this, then, is called the world. In this world some are said to be super-heavenly, that is, placed in more blessed dwellings and clothed with more heavenly and splendid bodies; and among these themselves many differences are shown, as for example the Apostle also says that “one is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, another the glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.” Some are called earthly, and among them, that is, among human beings, there is no small difference; for some of them are barbarians, others Greeks, and of the barbarians some are savage and fierce, others milder. And some use most approved laws, others baser or harsher ones, and others again live by inhuman and savage customs rather than laws. And some from the very beginning of their birth are humbled and subjected and brought up as slaves, placed under masters or princes or tyrants, while others are brought up more freely and reasonably; some with healthy bodies, some sick from earliest age; some deprived of sight, others of hearing and speech; some born so, others robbed of such senses soon after birth, or suffering something of the kind when already grown. And what is the use of my unfolding and listing all the disasters of human miseries, from which some are free and in which others are entangled, since each one can consider and weigh each of them for himself? There are also certain invisible powers, to whom the things on the earth have been entrusted to be administered; and no small difference must be believed to exist among them too, as is found among human beings. The apostle Paul indeed indicates that there are certain beings below the earth, and in them likewise the cause of variety must undoubtedly be sought. As for animals without speech and birds and those that live in the waters, it seems unnecessary to inquire, since it is certain that these are to be taken as consequences rather than primary things. All things that were made are said to have been made through Christ and in Christ, as the apostle Paul most clearly indicates when he says, “For in him and through him all things were created, whether in heaven or on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or principalities or dominions; all things were created through him and in him”; and John in the Gospel likewise shows the same, saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; this was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made”; and it is written in the Psalm, “In wisdom you have made all things.” Since, then, Christ, as he is the Word and Wisdom, is also righteousness, it will undoubtedly follow that what was made in the Word and Wisdom is also said to have been made in the righteousness which is Christ; so that in the things that were made nothing unjust, nothing accidental appears, but all things are shown to be such as the rule of equity and justice requires. How, then, this so great variety of things and so great diversity can be understood as most just and most equitable, I am certain cannot be explained by human ability or speech, unless, bowed down in earnest prayer, we pray to the Word and Wisdom and Righteousness himself, who is the only-begotten Son of God, that by his grace he may pour himself into our minds and choose to illuminate what is obscure, open what is closed and disclose what is secret; if only we are found to ask or seek or knock so worthily that, asking, we may deserve to receive, seeking, to find, and knocking, to have it opened to us. Relying, then, not on our own ability but on the help of the Wisdom which made all things, and of his righteousness which we believe to be present in all creatures, we will try meanwhile, even if we cannot assert, yet trusting in his mercy, to inquire and search out how this so great variety and diversity of the world appears consistent with all justice and reason. I mean, of course, a general reason; for to seek a special reason for each individual is the mark of an ignorant man, and to wish to give one is the mark of a madman. When we say that this world, set in the variety we have described above, was made by God, whom we call good and just and most equitable, very many are accustomed to object, especially those who, coming from the school of Marcion and Valentinus and Basilides, have heard that there are different natures of souls: how does it accord with the justice of the God who made the world that he should give to some a dwelling in the heavens, and not only provide them a better dwelling but also grant them some higher and more distinguished rank; grant principality to some, powers to others, give dominions to others, provide others with the most ample seats of the heavenly tribunals; that some should shine more brightly and glitter with starry brilliance; that some should have the glory of the sun, others the glory of the moon, others the glory of the stars, and star differ from star in glory? And, to put it all together briefly, if God the creator lacks neither the will for supreme and good work nor the power to accomplish it, what cause could there be that, creating rational natures, that is, beings of whose existence he himself was the cause, he should make some higher and produce others in the second or third and many lower and worse ranks? Then they also object about those on earth, that a happier lot of birth has fallen to some: for example, that one is begotten of Abraham and born of the promise; another, too, of Isaac and Rebekah, who while still in the womb displaces his brother and is said to be loved by God before he is born. Or, in general, that one is born among the Hebrews, among whom he finds instruction in the divine law; another among the Greeks, themselves wise and men of no small learning; and another among the Ethiopians, whose custom is to eat human flesh; or among the Scythians, among whom people kill their parents as if by law; or among the Taurians, where strangers are sacrificed. They say to us, then: If this so great diversity of things, and the condition of birth so varied and so diverse, in which the faculty of free choice certainly has no place (for no one chooses for himself where or among whom or in what condition he is born), if, they say, this is not caused by a diversity of the nature of souls, that is, that a soul of evil nature is destined for an evil nation and good ones for good nations, what else remains but that these things must be thought to happen by chance and accident? And if this is accepted, it will no longer be believed that the world was made by God or is ruled by his providence, and consequently neither will the judgment of God on each one's deeds seem to be awaited. What the truth of things in this matter is, clearly, it belongs to him alone to know who searches all things, even the depths of God. We, however, as human beings (so that our silence does not encourage the arrogance of the heretics), will answer what they have alleged in this way, with what can occur to us according to our powers. That God the creator of all is good and just and almighty we have often shown by such assertions from the divine Scriptures as we could. When in the beginning he created what he wished to create, that is, rational natures, he had no other cause for creating than himself, that is, his goodness. Since, then, he himself was the cause of the things that were to be created, and in him there was neither any variety nor change nor inability, he created all whom he created equal and alike, since there was in him no cause of variety and diversity. But since these rational creatures themselves, as we have often shown and will show again in its place, were endowed with the faculty of choice, each one's freedom of will either led them to progress by the imitation of God or drew them to decline through negligence. And this, as we have already said before, was the cause of the diversity among rational creatures, deriving its origin not from the will or judgment of the Creator but from the choice of their own freedom. And God, to whom it then seemed just to administer his creation according to merit, drew the diversities of minds into the harmony of one world, so that with these different vessels, that is, souls or minds, he might adorn, as it were, one house, in which there should be not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earthenware, some for honor and some for dishonor. And these, as I think, are the causes of its diversity which this world received, while divine providence administers each one according to the variety of his movements, or of his mind and purpose. By this reasoning the Creator will not seem unjust, since he distributes each one according to merit on the basis of preceding causes; nor will the happiness or unhappiness of each one's birth, or whatever condition comes to him, be thought accidental; nor will there be believed to be different creators or different natures of souls. Nor indeed does holy Scripture seem to me to have been wholly silent about the reason of this secret; as when the apostle Paul, discussing Jacob and Esau, says: “For when they had not yet been born, nor had done anything good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not from works but from him who calls, it was said that the elder will serve the younger; as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” And after this he answers himself and says, “What then will we say? Is there injustice with God?” And to give us occasion to inquire into these things and search out how they do not happen without reason, he answers himself and says, “By no means.” For the same question, it seems to me, which is proposed about Jacob and Esau can be raised also about all heavenly and earthly creatures and those below the earth. And similarly it seems to me that, just as he says there, “For when they had not yet been born, nor had done anything good or evil,” so it can also be said of all the others: “For when they had not yet been created, nor had done anything good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand,” some were made heavenly (as some think), others earthly, and others below the earth, “not from works” (as they think) “but from him who calls.” What then will we say, if these things are so? Is there then injustice with God? By no means. Therefore, just as in the case of Esau and Jacob, when the Scriptures are searched more carefully, it is found that there is no “injustice with God” in its being said, “before they were born or had done anything” (in this life, that is), that “the elder will serve the younger”; and just as it is found not to be injustice that Jacob “displaced his brother in the womb,” if we perceive that he was worthily “loved by God” because of the merits, that is, of a preceding life, so that he deserved to be preferred even to his brother: so too with the heavenly creatures, if we notice that this diversity is not the beginning of creation, but that from preceding causes a different office of service is prepared for each by the Creator according to the worth of merit, namely because each one, insofar as it was created by God a mind or rational spirit, has prepared for itself more or less merit according to the movements of its mind and the inclinations of its soul, and has become either lovable to God or even hateful; while nevertheless some of those who are of better merits are appointed, for the adornment of the state of the world, to suffer with the rest and to give service to those below them, so that by this they themselves too may become sharers in the patience of the Creator; according to what the Apostle himself says: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.” Observing, then, this statement which the Apostle made in setting out the birth of Esau and Jacob, “Is there injustice with God? By no means,” I think it right that this same statement be kept in all creatures; since, as we said above, the justice of the Creator ought to appear in all. And this, as it seems to me, will be shown more clearly only if each one, whether heavenly or earthly or of those below the earth, is said to have the causes of its diversity in itself, preceding its bodily birth. For all things were created by the Word of God and his Wisdom, and set in order through his justice. And by the grace of his mercy he provides for all, and all by whatever remedies they can be healed he urges and invites to salvation. Just as, then, there is no doubt that at the day of judgment the good will be separated from the bad and the just from the unjust, and each one according to merit will be assigned by the judgment of God to those places of which they are worthy, as we will show, God willing, in what follows, so I think something of the kind has also happened before. For God must be believed always to do and arrange all things by judgment. That too which the Apostle teaches, saying that “in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earthenware, and some for honor, some for dishonor,” and what he adds, saying that “if anyone cleanses himself, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful to the Lord, for every good work,” undoubtedly shows that whoever has cleansed himself while placed in this life will be prepared for every good work in the future; but whoever has not cleansed himself will be, according to the amount of his impurity, a vessel for dishonor, that is, unworthy. So, then, it is possible to understand that there were rational vessels before also, either cleansed or less cleansed, that is, which had either cleansed themselves or not; and from this each vessel, according to the measure of its purity or impurity, received a place or region or condition of birth or of fulfilling something in this world. All of this God, providing and discerning down to the least by the power of his wisdom, arranges by the governance of his judgment with the most equitable repayment, so that each one should be helped or cared for according to merit. In this every principle of equity is shown, while the inequality of things preserves the equity of repayment for merits. The reasons of these merits for each individual, according to truth and clearly, he alone knows, together with his only-begotten Word and Wisdom and the Holy Spirit.
On the Resurrection, and the Judgment, the Fire of Hell, and Punishments
On the resurrection and the judgment, on the fire of hell and punishments. But since our discussion has reminded us of the judgment to come and of the repayment and punishments of sinners, according to what the holy Scriptures threaten and the church's preaching contains, namely that at the time of judgment eternal fire and outer darkness and a prison and a furnace and other things like these are prepared for sinners, let us see what we ought to think about these too. But so that we may come to these in proper order, it seems to me that we must first speak about the resurrection, so that we may know what it is that will come either to punishment or to rest or to blessedness. On this we have discussed more fully in other books which we wrote on the resurrection, and have shown what we thought about it. But now too, because of the sequence of the treatise, it does not seem absurd to repeat a few things from there, especially because some are offended at the church's faith, as though we believed foolishly and altogether senselessly about the resurrection; especially the heretics, to whom I think we should reply in this way. If they too confess that there is a resurrection of the dead, let them answer us: what is it that died? Was it not the body? It is of the body, then, that the resurrection will take place. Then let them say whether they think we will use bodies or not. I think that, since the apostle Paul says that a body that lives by the soul is sown and a spiritual body will rise, they cannot deny that a body rises, or that we use bodies in the resurrection. What then? If it is certain that we will use bodies, and the bodies that fell are preached as rising (for nothing is properly said to rise except what fell before), no one doubts that they rise for this reason, that we may be clothed with them again after the resurrection. The one thing, then, hangs on the other. For if bodies rise, undoubtedly they rise to clothe us; and if it is necessary for us to be in bodies, as it certainly is necessary, we must be in no other bodies than our own. And if it is true that they rise, and rise spiritual, there is no doubt that they are said to rise from the dead with corruption cast off and mortality laid aside; otherwise it will seem pointless and unnecessary for anyone to rise from the dead only to die again. This can be understood more evidently at last if one considers carefully what is the quality of the body that lives by the soul which, sown in the earth, restores the quality of a spiritual body. For out of the body that lives by the soul the very power and grace of the resurrection produces a spiritual body, when it changes it from dishonor to glory. Since, then, the heretics seem to themselves most learned and most wise, we will ask them whether every body has some schema, that is, is shaped by some form. And if they say there is a body which is not shaped by some form, they will appear the most ignorant and foolish of all; for no one will deny this unless he is wholly a stranger to all learning. But if, as is consistent, they say that every body is shaped by some definite form, we will demand of them whether they can show and describe to us the form of a spiritual body; which they will certainly be in no way able to do. We will also inquire of them about the differences among those who rise. How will they show that this saying is true, that “one is the flesh of birds, another of fish; and there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one and that of the earthly another; one is the glory of the sun, another of the moon, another of the stars; star differs from star in glory; so also is the resurrection of the dead”? According to this sequence, then, let them show us the differences of glory among those who rise, corresponding to the heavenly bodies; and if they attempt in any way to devise some account according to the differences of the heavenly bodies, we will ask them to assign differences of the resurrection also according to the comparison with earthly bodies. We, however, understand it this way: that the Apostle, wishing to describe how great the difference would be among those who will rise in glory, that is, the saints, took the comparison of the heavenly bodies, saying, “One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, another the glory of the stars.” And again, wishing to teach the differences among those who come to the resurrection not purified in this life, that is, sinners, he takes an example from earthly things, saying, “One is the body of birds, another of fish.” For fittingly are heavenly things compared to the saints, earthly to sinners. Let these things be said against those who deny the resurrection of the dead, that is, the resurrection of bodies. Now we turn our discussion to some of our own people who, whether from smallness of understanding or poverty of explanation, introduce a very low and degraded idea of the resurrection of the body. We ask them how they understand that the body that lives by the soul is to be changed by the grace of the resurrection and will be spiritual; how they think that what is sown in weakness will rise in power; how what is sown in dishonor rises in glory; and how what is sown in decay is changed into freedom from decay. If they believe the Apostle that the body, rising in glory and in power and in freedom from decay, has now become spiritual, it seems absurd and contrary to the Apostle's meaning to say that it is again entangled in the passions of flesh and blood, since the Apostle clearly says: “Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God, nor will decay possess freedom from decay.” And how do they take what the Apostle says, “But we will all be changed”? This change is certainly to be expected according to the order which we have described above, in which we must undoubtedly hope for something worthy of divine grace. We believe that this will come about in the order in which the Apostle describes a bare grain of wheat or of some other kind sown in the earth, to which “God gives a body as he willed,” when the grain of wheat itself has first died. So our bodies too must be thought to fall into the earth like a grain; and the principle implanted in them, which contains the bodily substance, although the bodies have died and been corrupted and scattered, yet by the word of God that very principle, which is always preserved in the substance of the body, raises them from the earth and restores and repairs them, just as the power that is in the grain of wheat, after its decay and death, repairs and restores the grain into the body of a stalk and ear. And so, for those who will deserve to obtain the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, that principle of repairing the body which we mentioned above, by God's command, repairs out of the earthly body that lives by the soul a spiritual body which can live in the heavens; while to those who are of lower merit, or more degraded, or even the lowest and most thrust down, glory and dignity of body is given according to the dignity of each one's life and soul; in such a way, however, that even for those who are to be destined for eternal fire or punishments, through the very change of the resurrection, the body which rises is so imperishable that it cannot be corrupted and dissolved even by punishments. If, then, such is the quality of the body that will rise from the dead, let us now see what the threat of eternal fire means. For we find in the prophet Isaiah that the fire by which each is punished is indicated to be his own; for he says: “Walk in the light of your fire and in the flame which you have kindled.” By these words it seems to be indicated that each sinner kindles for himself the flame of his own fire, and is not plunged into some fire which had already been kindled by another or existed before him. The material and food of this fire are our sins, which the apostle Paul calls wood and hay and straw. And I think that, just as in the body an abundance of food and a unsuitable quality and quantity of nourishment generate fevers, and fevers of different kinds or durations according to the measure in which the accumulated overindulgence has supplied the material and fuel of the fevers (and this quality of material, gathered from different overindulgence, becomes the cause of a sharper or a more prolonged disease), so the soul, when it has gathered within itself a multitude of evil works and an abundance of sins, at the proper time all that gathering of evils boils up to punishment and is set aflame to penalties; when the mind itself, or conscience, receiving by divine power all things into memory, of which it had impressed certain signs and forms on itself when it sinned, will see set out before its eyes a kind of history of its crimes, of each of the things it had done foully and shamefully or even committed impiously; then the conscience itself is driven and pricked by its own goads, and becomes its own accuser and witness. This I think the apostle Paul also felt when he says: “Their thoughts among themselves accusing or even excusing them, on the day when God will judge the secrets of human beings, according to my Gospel, through Jesus Christ.” From this it is understood that around the very substance of the soul certain torments are generated from the harmful conditions of the sins themselves. And so that this matter does not seem too difficult for you to understand, it can be considered from those disorders of emotion which commonly affect souls: that is, when the soul is burned by the flames of love, or wasted by the fires of jealousy or envy, or when it is driven by anger, or consumed by the immensity of madness or sorrow; how some, finding the excesses of these evils intolerable, have held it more tolerable to undergo death than to endure such torments. You will ask, indeed, whether for those who have been entangled in these evils of vice which we mentioned above, and could obtain no improvement for themselves while still placed in this life, and so departed from this world, it is enough for punishment that they are tormented by those very harmful emotions remaining in them, of anger, of fury, of madness or of grief, whose deadly poison has been softened by no remedy for improvement in this life; or whether, these emotions being changed, they will be tormented by the goads of a general punishment. I think, indeed, that another kind of punishment can also be understood: just as we feel that when the parts of the body are loosened and torn from their joints they produce the torment of immense pain, so when the soul is found outside the order and structure, or that harmony in which it was created by God for acting well and feeling usefully, and does not accord with itself in the structure of rational movements, it must be thought to bear the punishment and torment of its own internal conflict, and to feel the penalty of its own inconstancy and disorder. And when this dissolution and tearing apart of the soul has been tested by the application of fire, it is undoubtedly made firm into a more solid structure and restoration of itself. There are also many other things hidden from us, known to him alone who is the doctor of our souls. For if, for the health of the body, because of the faults we have gathered through food and drink, we sometimes need the treatment of a harsher and more biting medicine, and sometimes, if the quality of the fault demands it, we need the severity of the surgical knife and the harshness of cutting; and if the measure of the disease has gone beyond even these, at last fire burns out the fault that has taken hold; how much more must it be understood that this doctor of ours, God, wishing to wash away the faults of our souls which they had gathered from the diversity of sins and crimes, uses punitive remedies of this kind, and even applies the punishment of fire to those who have lost the health of the soul? Images of this are also given in the holy Scriptures. Indeed in Deuteronomy the divine word threatens sinners that they will be punished with fevers and chills and jaundice, and are to be tormented with failing of the eyes and mental derangement and paralysis and blindness and weakness of the kidneys. If anyone, then, at leisure gathers from all Scripture all the mentions of diseases that are recorded in threats to sinners under the names of bodily illnesses, he will find that either the faults or the punishments of souls are indicated by them figuratively. And that we may understand that God acts toward those who have lapsed and fallen into sins in the same way as doctors apply aids to the sick in order to restore health by their treatment, this too is an indication: that through the prophet Jeremiah the cup of God's fury is commanded to be given to all nations to drink, that they may drink and be mad and vomit; in which he threatens, saying that if anyone will not drink, he will not be cleansed. From this it is certainly understood that the fury of God's vengeance serves for the purification of souls. And that even the punishment which is said to be inflicted through fire is understood to be applied as a help, Isaiah teaches, who says of Israel: “The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons or daughters of Zion, and purge the blood from their midst by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning.” And of the Chaldeans he says: “You have coals of fire; sit on them; they will be a help to you.” And in other places he says: “The Lord will sanctify in burning fire.” And in the prophet Malachi he says: “The Lord, sitting, will smelt his people like gold and silver; he will smelt and purify and pour out the purified sons of Judah.” And that too which is said in the Gospel about the stewards who are not good, who are said to be cut in two and their portion placed with the unbelievers, as though that part which is not their own were to be sent elsewhere, undoubtedly indicates some kind of punishment of those in whom, as it seems to me, the spirit is indicated as to be separated from the soul. If this spirit is to be understood as of divine nature, that is, the Holy Spirit, we will take this as said of the gift of the Holy Spirit: that when, whether through baptism or through the grace of the Spirit, the word of wisdom or the word of knowledge or any other gift has been given to someone, and it has not been rightly administered (that is, has either been buried “in the earth” or tied up “in a napkin”), the gift of the Spirit will surely be taken away from the soul, and the remaining “part,” that is, the substance of the soul, “will be placed with the unbelievers,” divided and separated from that Spirit with whom, “by joining itself to the Lord,” it ought to have been “one spirit.” But if this is to be understood not of the Spirit of God but of the nature of the soul itself, its better part will be said to be that which was made “in the image and likeness” of God, and the other “part” that which was later, through the fall of free choice, taken on against the nature of its first condition of purity; and this part, as being friendly and dear to bodily matter, is condemned with the lot of the unbelievers. This division can also be understood in a third sense: since an angel is said to be present to each of the faithful, even the least in the Church, who is also declared by the Savior always to see the face of God the Father, and this angel was certainly one with him over whom he was set, if that person becomes unworthy through disobedience, the angel of God may be said to be taken away from him, and then his portion, that is, the portion of human nature torn away from God's portion, is counted with the unbelievers, since he did not faithfully keep the admonitions of the angel appointed to him by God. And the outer darkness, as I think, is to be understood not so much as some dark air without any light, but of those who, plunged in the darkness of deep ignorance, have been placed outside all light of reason and understanding. We must also see whether perhaps this expression signifies this too: that just as the saints will receive from the resurrection, bright and glorious, the bodies in which they lived in holiness and purity in the dwellings of this life, so too all the impious, who in this life loved the darkness of errors and the night of ignorance, will be clothed after the resurrection with dark and black bodies, so that the very darkness of ignorance which in this world had besieged their inner minds may in the future appear through the outer clothing of the body. The prison too is to be understood likewise. But let these things be enough for the present place, which have been said meanwhile, in as few words as possible, so that the order of discussion might be kept.
On Counter Promises
Let us now see briefly what is to be thought also about the promises. It is certain that no living being can be wholly idle and motionless, but it longs in every way to be moved and to act and always to will something; and that this nature is present in all living beings I think is plain. Much more, then, must a rational living being, that is, the human nature, always be moving or doing something. And if he is forgetful of himself and does not know what is fitting for him, his whole effort is moved about bodily uses, and in all his movements he is occupied with his pleasures and the bodily desires; but if he is such as to be eager to care or provide for something for the common good, he exercises himself either in advising the state, or obeying public officials, or whatever else certainly seems to be of common benefit. But if someone is such as to understand something better than these things that seem bodily, and to give his effort to wisdom and knowledge, he will undoubtedly turn all his industry to studies of this kind, so that, having investigated the truth, he may come to know the causes and reason of things. Just as, then, in this life one judges bodily pleasure the highest good, another advising for the common good, another giving effort to studies and understanding, so let us inquire whether in that life which is true, which is said to be hidden with Christ in God, that is, in that eternal life, there will be some such order or state of living for us. Some, then, refusing in a way the effort of understanding, and following a certain surface of the letter of the law, and indulging rather their own delight and desire, disciples of the letter alone, think that the promises to come are to be expected in bodily pleasure and luxury; and therefore they especially desire to have again after the resurrection such flesh as never lacks the ability to eat and drink and do all that belongs to flesh and blood, not following the apostle Paul's statement about the resurrection of a spiritual body. To these things they consequently add marriage contracts and the having of children even after the resurrection, imagining for themselves an earthly city of Jerusalem to be rebuilt, with precious stones laid in its foundations, its walls raised of jasper stone and its battlements of crystal; and that it will have an enclosing wall of choice and varied stones, that is, jasper and sapphire and chalcedony and emerald and sardius and onyx and chrysolite and chrysoprase and jacinth and amethyst. Moreover, they think that foreigners will be given them as servants of their pleasures, whom they will have as farm workers or builders of walls, by whom their ruined and fallen city may be rebuilt; and they think that they will receive the wealth of the nations to eat and will rule over their riches, so that even the camels of Midian and Kedar will come and bring them gold and incense and precious stones. And they try to confirm these things by prophetic authority, from what is written about the promises to Jerusalem, where it is also said that those who serve the Lord will eat and drink, but sinners will hunger and thirst, and that the righteous will rejoice, but sorrow will possess the impious. From the New Testament too they bring forward the Savior's saying in which he promises his disciples the gladness of wine, saying, “For I will not drink of this from now on until I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.” They add also that the Savior calls blessed those who now hunger and thirst, promising them that they will be filled; and they bring forward many other examples from the Scriptures, whose force they do not perceive must be understood figuratively. Then, according to the form that exists in this life, and according to the arrangements of this world's dignities or orders or eminences of powers, they think they will be kings and princes, as these earthly ones are, because, namely, of what is said in the Gospel: “You will have authority over five cities.” And, to put it briefly, they wish all that is expected from the promises to be in every way like the conduct of this life, that is, that what is should be again. So think those who believe in Christ indeed, but, understanding the divine Scriptures in a kind of Jewish sense, have presumed nothing from them worthy of the divine promises. But those who receive the contemplation of the Scriptures according to the sense of the apostles hope that the saints will indeed eat, but the bread of life, which nourishes the soul with the food of truth and wisdom, and enlightens the mind, and gives it to drink from the cups of divine wisdom, as divine Scripture says: “Wisdom has prepared her table, slaughtered her sacrificial animals, mixed her wine in the bowl, and cries with a loud voice: Turn aside to me; eat the bread which I have prepared for you, and drink the wine which I have mixed for you.” Nourished by these foods of wisdom, the mind is restored to wholeness and perfection, as humanity was made in the beginning, to the image and likeness of God; so that even if someone has departed from this life less instructed, but has brought commendable works, he can be instructed in that Jerusalem, the city of the saints, that is, taught and formed and made a living stone, a precious and chosen stone, because he has endured bravely and steadfastly the contests of life and the struggles of piety; and there he will know more truly and clearly what has already been said beforehand here, that a person does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And the princes and rulers are to be understood as those who rule those below them, and instruct and teach them and train them for divine things. But if these things seem to stir too little desire in the minds of those who hope for them, let us go back a little and inquire, since the desire for the thing itself is natural and implanted in the soul, so that we may at last describe, by the sequence of contemplation, as it were the very forms of the bread of life and the quality of its wine and the property of the principalities. Just as, then, in the arts which are carried out by hand, the reason of what is made, or how, or for what uses, resides in the mind, while the effecting of the work is unfolded by the service of the hands, so in the works of God which were made by him we must hold that the reason and understanding of the things we see made by him remain hidden. And just as, when our eye sees things made by a craftsman, if it sees something especially skillfully made, the mind at once burns to inquire how, or in what way, or for what uses it was made, much more, and beyond all comparison, does the mind burn with inexpressible desire to know the reason of the things we perceive to be made by God. This desire, this love, we believe was undoubtedly implanted in us by God; and just as the eye naturally seeks light and sight, and our body by nature desires food and drink, so our mind bears a proper and natural desire to know the truth of God and to learn the causes of things. And we have received this desire from God not so that it should never be, nor could ever be, fulfilled; otherwise the love of truth would seem to have been implanted in our mind by God the Creator in vain, if it is never made master of its desire. For this reason, even in this life, those who with the greatest effort have given themselves to pious and religious studies, although they grasp only small things out of the many and immense treasures of divine knowledge, yet by the very fact that they occupy their souls and minds with these things and press forward in this desire, they receive great benefit, from the very fact that they turn their souls to the enthusiasm and love of seeking the truth, and make them better prepared for the capacity of future instruction (just as when someone wishes to paint a picture, if a sketch by a fine stylus first marks out the lines of the future form and prepares marks capable of receiving the features to be laid on, undoubtedly the preliminary form laid down by the sketch is found better prepared for receiving those true colors), provided only that this sketch and outline is written on the tablets of our heart by the stylus of our Lord Jesus Christ. And perhaps for this reason it is said that “to everyone who has it will be given and added.” From this it is established that to those who have in this life a kind of outline of truth and knowledge, the beauty of the perfect image will also be added in the future. Such, I think, was the desire indicated by him who said, “I am hard pressed between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for it is far better”; knowing that when he had returned to Christ he would know more clearly the reasons of all things that are done on earth: about humanity, or the human soul, or the mind, or whatever those things are of which a human being consists: what the ruling spirit is, what the spirit that works, what too is the vital spirit, and what is the grace of the Holy Spirit that is given to the faithful. Then too he will understand what Israel is perceived to be, or what the diversity of the nations, what the twelve tribes of Israel mean, and what the individual peoples in each tribe. Then he will understand also the reason concerning the priests and Levites and the different priestly orders, and whose figure was in Moses, and also what the truth is with God of the jubilees and the weeks of years; he will see also the reasons of the feast days and holidays, and he will see the causes of all the sacrifices and purifications; he will notice too what is the reason of the cleansing of leprosy, and what are the different leprosies, and what is the purification of those who suffer a discharge of semen; and he will know also what and how great and of what kind are the good powers, and also the opposing ones, and what is the affection of the former toward human beings, and the contentious rivalry of the latter. He will see also what is the reason of souls, and what the diversity of living things, whether of those that live in the waters, or of birds, or of beasts; and why each category is divided into so many kinds; what is the Creator's foresight, or what sense of his wisdom is hidden in each of these. He will learn for what reason certain powers are associated with some roots or herbs, and on the contrary are driven off by other herbs or roots; what is the account of the apostate angels, and what is the cause that with those who do not despise them with full faith they can ingratiate themselves in some things, or become the cause of error and deception. He will also learn the judgment of divine providence about each of the things that happen to human beings: that they do not happen by chance or accident, but by a reason so carefully weighed and so lofty that not even the number of the hairs, not only of the saints but perhaps of all human beings, escapes it; a providence whose reason extends even to the two sparrows sold for a penny, whether the sparrows are understood spiritually or according to the letter. For here it is still being sought meanwhile, but there it will then be plainly seen. From all this it must be thought that no little time passes meanwhile until the reason of only those things that are on the earth is shown, after their departure from life, to the worthy and well-deserving, so that through the knowledge of all these things and the grace of full knowledge they may enjoy inexpressible gladness. Then, if this air which is between heaven and earth is not empty of living beings, and of rational living beings, as the Apostle also said, “in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience”; and again he says, “We will be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord,” we must think, then, that the saints remain there until they come to know the reason for the arrangement of the things done in the air in both ways. By “both ways” I mean this: for example, when we were on earth, we saw animals or trees and observed their differences, and also very great diversity among human beings; but seeing these things we did not understand their reason, but this alone was suggested to us by the very diversity we saw, that we should inquire and search out by what reason all these things were created different or are administered in different ways; and if we have conceived on earth a enthusiasm or love for knowledge of this kind, the knowledge and understanding of it will be given us after our departure, if only things go as we wish. When, then, we have fully comprehended its reason, then we will comprehend in both ways what we saw on earth. Something of the same kind must also be said about the seat in the air. For I think that all the saints departing from this life will remain in some place situated on the earth, which divine Scripture calls paradise, as in a kind of place of instruction and, so to speak, a lecture hall or school of souls, in which they may be taught about all the things they had seen on earth, and may also receive certain indications of what follows and is to come; just as, placed in this life too, they had conceived certain indications of things to come, though through a mirror and in enigmas, yet in some part, which are revealed more clearly and brightly to the saints in their own places and times. If anyone indeed is pure in heart and purer in mind and more practiced in perception, advancing more swiftly he will quickly ascend to the place of the air and come to the kingdoms of the heavens through the dwelling places, so to speak, of the individual places, which the Greeks called spheres, that is, globes, but divine Scripture calls heavens. In each of these he will first see what is done there, and secondly will also know the reason why it is done; and so he will pass through each in order, following him who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, who says, “I wish that where I am, these too may be with me.” He indicates these diversities of places also when he says, “In my Father's house there are many dwelling places.” He himself, however, is everywhere and passes through all things. Nor are we any longer to understand him in that smallness in which he became for our sake, that is, not in that restriction which he had in our body when he was placed on earth among human beings, so as to be thought enclosed as it were in some one place. When, then, for example, the saints have come to the heavenly places, then they will see through the reason of the stars one by one, and will comprehend whether they are living beings or whatever else they are. And they will understand other reasons of the works of God, which he himself will reveal to them. For already, as to sons, he will show them the causes of things and the power of his creation, teaching them why that star is placed in that place of the sky, and why it is separated from another by so great an intervening space; for example, what would have followed if it had been nearer, and what would happen if it were farther off; or, if that star had been greater than this one, how the universe would not remain the same but all things would be changed into some other form. And so, when they have gone through everything contained in the reckoning of the stars and in those courses that are in heaven, they will come also to the things that are not seen, or to those whose names alone we have now heard, and to the invisible things, which the apostle Paul taught exist, but what they are or what difference they have we cannot even guess by any understanding. And so the rational nature, growing through each stage, not as it grew in this life in flesh or body and soul, but increased in mind and perception, is led on as a mind already perfect to perfect knowledge, no longer hindered at all by these fleshly senses, but increased by intellectual growth, always looking purely and, so to speak, face to face at the causes of things, it attains perfection: first that by which it ascends to it, and secondly that by which it remains in it, having as the food on which it feeds the contemplations and understandings of things and the reasons of causes. For just as in this bodily life of ours we first grow bodily into what we are, the sufficiency of food in our early years supplying growth, but after our height has been completed to its measure we use food no longer in order to grow but in order to live and be preserved in life by nourishment, so I think the mind too, even when it has come to perfection, still feeds on and uses its own fitting food, in such measure that nothing ought to be lacking and nothing in excess. In all things, moreover, this food is to be understood as the contemplation and understanding of God, having measures proper and fitting to this nature which was made and created; and these measures it is fitting for each of those who are beginning “to see God,” that is, to understand through “purity of heart,” to observe.
Intertextual Commentary on On the First Principles, Book 2
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