Christian.net

(Augustine, Christian Doctrine. part 2)

intelligent life, such as that of men. And, perceiving that even this is
subject to change, they are compelled to place above it, again, that
unchangeable life, which is not at one time foolish, at another time
wise, but on the contrary is wisdom itself. For a wise intelligence, that
is, one that has attained to wisdom, was, previous to its attaining
wisdom, unwise. But wisdom itself never was unwise, and never can become
so. And if men never caught sight of this wisdom, they could never with
entire confidence prefer a life which is unchangeably wise to one that is
subject to change. This will be evident, if we consider that the very

rule of truth by which they affirm the unchangeable life to be the more
excellent, is itself unchangeable: and they cannot find such a rule,
except by going beyond their own nature; for they find nothing in
themselves that is not subject to change.

Chap. 9.--All acknowledge the superiority of unchangeable: wisdom to that
which is variable

  9. Now, no one is so egregiously silly as to ask, "How do you know that
a life of unchangeable wisdom is preferable to one of change?" For that
very truth about which he asks, how I know it? is unchangeably fixed in
the minds of all men, and presented to their common contemplation. And
the man who does not see it is like a blind man in the sun, whom it
profits nothing that the splendour of its light, so clear and so near, is
poured into his very eyeballs. The man, on the other hand, who sees, but
shrinks from this truth, is weak in his mental vision from dwelling long
among the shadows of the flesh. And thus men are driven back from their
native land by the contrary blasts of evil habits, and pursue lower and
less valuable objects in preference to that which they own to be more
excellent and more worthy.

Chap. 10.--To see God, the soul must be purified

  10. Wherefore, since it is our duty fully to enjoy the truth which
lives unchangeably, and truth for the things which He has made, the soul
must be purified that it may have power to perceive that light, and to
rest in it when it is perceived. And let us look upon this purification
as a kind of journey or voyage to our native land. For it is not by
change of place that we can come nearer to Him who is in every place, but
by the cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits.

Chap. 11.--Wisdom becoming incarnate, a pattern to us of purification

  11. But of this we should have been wholly incapable, had not Wisdom
condescended to adapt Himself to our weakness, and to show us a pattern
of holy life in the form of our own humanity. Yet, since we when we come
to Him do wisely, He when He came to us was considered by proud men to
have done very foolishly. And since we when we come to Him become strong,
He when He came to us was looked upon as weak. But "the foolishness of
God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." And
thus, though Wisdom was Himself our home, He made Himself also the way by
which we should reach our home.

Chap. 12.--In what sense the Wisdom of God came to us


  And though He is everywhere present to the inner eye when it is sound
and clear, He condescended to make Himself manifest to the outward eye of
those whose inward sight is weak and dim. "For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."
  12. Not then in the sense of traversing space, but because He appeared
to mortal men in the form of mortal flesh, He is said to have come to us.
For He came to a place where He had always been, seeing that "He was in
the world, and the world was made by Him." But, because men, who in their
eagerness to enjoy the creature instead of the Creator had grown into the
likeness of this world, and are therefore most appropriately named "the
world," did not recognize Him, therefore the evangelist says, "and the
world knew Him not." Thus, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. Why then did He come, seeing that He was already here, except
that it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them
that believe?

Chap. 13.--The Word was made flesh

  In what way did He come but this, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us"? Just as when we speak, in order that what we leave in our
minds may enter through the ear into the mind of the hearer, the word
which we have in our hearts becomes an outward sound and is called
speech; and yet our thought does not lose itself in the sound, but
remains complete in itself, and takes the form of speech without being
modified in its own nature by the change: so the Divine Word, though
suffering no change of nature, yet became flesh, that He might dwell
among us.

Chap. 14.--how the wisdom of God healed man

  13. Moreover, as the use of remedies is the way to health, so this
remedy took up sinners to heal and restore them. And just as surgeons,
when they bind up wounds, do it not in a slovenly way, but carefully,
that there may be a certain degree of neatness in the binding, in
addition to its mere usefulness, so our medicine, Wisdom, was by His
assumption of humanity adapted to our wounds, curing some of them by
their opposites, some of them by their likes. And just as he who
ministers to a bodily hurt in some cases applies contraries, as cold to
hot, moist to dry, etc., and in other cases applies likes, as a round
cloth to a round wound, or an oblong cloth to an oblong wound, and does
not fit the same bandage to all limbs, but puts like to like; in the same
way the Wisdom of God in healing man has applied Himself to his cure,
being Himself healer and medicine both in one. Seeing, then, that man
fell through pride, He restored him through humility. We were ensnared by
the wisdom of the serpent: we are set free by the foolishness of God.
Moreover, just as the former was called wisdom, but was in reality the

folly of those who despised God, so the latter is called foolishness, but
is true wisdom in those who overcome the devil. We used our immortality
so badly as to incur the penalty of death: Christ used His mortality so
well as to restore us to life. The disease was brought in through a
woman's corrupted soul: the remedy came through a woman's virgin body. To
the same class of opposite remedies it belongs, that our vices are cured
by the example of His virtues. On the other hand, the following are, as
it were, bandages made in the same shape as the limbs and wounds to which
they are applied: He was born of a woman to deliver us who fell through a
woman: He came as a man to save us who are men, as a mortal to save us
who are mortals, by death to save us who were dead. And those who can
follow out the matter more fully, who are not hurried on by the necessity
of carrying out a set undertaking, will find many other points of
instruction in considering the remedies, whether opposites or likes,
employed in the medicine of Christianity.

Chap. 15.--Faith is buttressed by the resurrection and ascension of
Christ, and is stimulated by His coming to judgment

  14. The belief of the resurrection of our Lord from the dead, and of
His ascension into heaven, has strengthened our faith by adding a great
buttress of hope. For it clearly shows how freely He laid down His life
for us when He had it in His power thus to take it up again. With what
assurance, then, is the hope of believers animated, when they reflect how
great He was who suffered so great things for them while they were still
in unbelief! And when men look for Him to come from heaven as the judge
of quick and dead, it strikes great terror into the careless, so that
they retake themselves to diligent preparation, and learn by holy living
to long for His approach, instead of quaking at it on account of their
evil deeds. And what tongue can tell, or what imagination can conceive,
the reward He will bestow at the last, when we consider that for our
comfort in this earthly journey He has given us so freely of His Spirit,
that in the adversities of this life we may retain our confidence in, and
love for, Him whom as yet we see not; and that He has also given to each
gifts suitable for the building up of His Church, that we may do what He
points out as right to be done, not only without a murmur, but even with
delight?

Chap. 16.--Christ purges His church by medicinal afflictions

  15. For the Church is His body, as the apostle's teaching shows us;and
it is even called His spouse. His body, then, which has many members, and
all performing different functions, He holds together in the bond of
unity and love, which is its true health. Moreover He exercises it in the
present time, and purges it with many wholesome afflictions, that when He

has transplanted it from this world to the eternal world, He may take it
to Himself as His bride, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.

Chap. 17.--Christ, by forgiving our sins, opened the way to our home

16. Further, when we are on the way, and that not a way that lies through
space, but through a change of affections, and one which the guilt of our
past sins like a hedge of thorns barred against us, what could He, who
was willing to lay Himself down as the way by which we should return, do
that would be still gracious and more merciful, except to forgive us all
our sins, and by being crucified for us to remove the stern decrees that
barred the door against our return?

Chap. 18.--The keys given to the Church

  17. He has given, therefore, the keys to His Church, that whatsoever it
should bind on earth might be bound in heaven, and whatsoever it should
loose on earth might be loosed in heaven; that is to say, that whosoever
in the Church should not believe that his sins are remitted, they should
not be remitted to him; but that whosoever should believe, and should
repent, and turn from his sins, should be saved by the same faith and
repentance on the ground of which he is received into the bosom of the
Church. For he who does not believe that his sins can be pardoned, falls
into despair, and becomes worse, as if no greater good remained for him
than to be evil, when he has ceased to have faith in the results of his
own repentance.

Chap. 19.--Bodily and spiritual death and resurrection

  18. Furthermore, as there is a kind of death of the soul, which
consists in the putting away of former habits and former ways of life,
and which comes through repentance, so also the death of the body
consists in the dissolution of the former principle of life. And just as
the soul, after it has put away and destroyed by repentance its former
habits, is created anew after a better pattern, so we must hope and
believe that the body, after that death which we all owe as a debt
contracted through sin, shall at the resurrection be changed into a
better form;--not that flesh and blood shall inherit the kingdom of God
(for that is impossible), but that this corruptible shall put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. And thus the
body, being the source of no uneasiness because it can feel no want,
shall be animated by a spirit perfectly pure and happy, and shall enjoy
unbroken peace.

Chap. 20.--The resurrection to damnation

  19. Now he whose soul does not die to this world and begin here to be
conformed to the truth, falls when the body dies into a more terrible

death, and shall revive, not to change his earthly for a heavenly
habitation, but to endure the penalty of his sin.

Chap. 21.--Neither body nor soul extinguished at death

  And so faith clings to the assurance, and we must believe that it is so
in fact, that neither the human soul nor the human body suffers complete
extinction, but that the wicked rise again to endure inconceivable
punishment, and the good to receive eternal life.

Chap. 22.--God alone to be enjoyed

  20. Among all these things, then, those only are the true objects of
enjoyment which we have spoken of as eternal and unchangeable. The rest
are for use, that we may be able to arrive at the full enjoyment of the
former. We, however, who enjoy and use other things are things ourselves.
For a great thing truly is man, made after the image and similitude of
God, not as respects the mortal body in which he is clothed, but as
respects the rational soul by which he is exalted in honour above the
beasts. And so it becomes an important question, whether men ought to
enjoy, or to use, themselves, or to do both. For we are commanded to love
one another: but it is a question whether man is to be loved by man for
his own sake, or for the sake of something else. If it is for his own
sake, we enjoy him; if it is for the sake of something else, we use him.
It seems to me, then, that he is to be loved for the sake of something
else. For if a thing is to be loved for its own sake, then in the
enjoyment of it consists a happy life, the hope of which at least, if not
yet the reality, is our comfort in the present time. But a curse is
pronounced on him who places his hope in man.
  21. Neither ought any one to have joy in himself, if you look at the
matter clearly, because no one ought to love even himself for his own
sake, but for the sake of Him who is the true object of enjoyment. For a
man is never in so good a state as when his whole life is a journey
towards the unchangeable life, and his affections are entirely fixed upon
that. If, however, he loves himself for his own sake, he does not look at
himself in relation to God, but turns his mind in upon himself, and so is
not occupied with anything that is unchangeable. And thus he does not
enjoy himself at his best, because he is better when his mind is fully
fixed upon, and his affections wrapped up in, the unchangeable good, than
when he turns from that to enjoy even himself. Wherefore if you ought not
to love even yourself for your own sake, but for His in whom your love
finds its most worthy object, no other man has a right to be angry if you
love him too for God's sake. For this is the law of love that has been
laid down by Divine authority: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself;" but, "Thou shalt love God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind:" so that you are to concentrate all your
thoughts, your whole life, and your whole intelligence upon Him from whom

you derive all that you bring. For when He says, "With all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," He means that no part of our
life is to be unoccupied, and to afford room, as it were, for the wish to
enjoy some other object, but that whatever else may suggest itself to us
as an object worthy of love is to be borne into the same channel in which
the whole current of our affections flows. Whoever, then, loves his
neighbour aright, ought to urge upon him that he too should love God with
his whole heart, and soul, and mind. For in this way, loving his
neighbour as himself, a man turns the whole current of his love both for
himself and his neighbour into the channel of the love of God, which
suffers no stream to be drawn off from itself by whose diversion its own
volume would be diminished.

Chap. 23.--Man needs no injunction to love himself and his own body

  22. Those things which are objects of use are not all, however, to be
loved, but those only which are either united with us in a common
relation to God, such as a man or an angel, or are so related to us as to
need the goodness of God through our instrumentality, such as the body.
For assuredly the martyrs did not love the wickedness of their
persecutors, although they used it to attain the favour of God. As, then,
there are four kinds of things that are to be loved,--first, that which
is above us; second, ourselves; third, that which is on a level with us;
fourth, that which is beneath us,--no precepts need be given about the
second and fourth of these. For, however far a man may fall away from the
truth, he still continues to love himself, and to love his own body. The
soul which flies away from the unchangeable Light, the Ruler of all
things, does so that it may rule over itself and over its own body; and
so it cannot but love both itself and its own body.
  23. Forever, it thinks it has attained something very great if it is
able to lord it over its companions, that is, other men. For it is
inherent in the sinful soul to desire above all things, and to claim as
due to itself, that which is properly due to God only. Now such love of
itself is more correctly called hate. For it is not just that it should
desire what is beneath it to be obedient to it while itself will not obey
its own superior; and most justly has it been said, "He who loveth
iniquity hateth his own soul." And accordingly the soul becomes weak, and
endures much suffering about the mortal body. For, of course, it must
love the body, and be grieved at its corruption; and the immortality and
incorruptibility of the body spring out of the health of the soul. Now
the health of the soul is to cling steadfastly to the better part, that
is, to the unchangeable God. But when it aspires to lord it even over
those who are by nature its equals,--that is, its fellow-men,--this is a
reach of arrogance utterly intolerable.


Chap. 24.--No man hates his own flesh, not even those who abuse it

  24. No man, then, hates himself. On this point, indeed, no question was
ever raised by any sect. But neither does any man hate his own body. For
the apostle says truly, "No man ever yet hated his own flesh." And when
some people say that they would rather be without a body altogether, they
entirely deceive themselves. For it is not their body, but its
corruptions and its heaviness, that they hate. And so it is not no body,
but an uncorrupted and very light body, that they want. But they think a
body of that kind would be no body at all, because they think such a
thing as that must be a spirit. And as to the fact that they seem in some
sort to scourge their bodies by abstinence and toil, those who do this in
the right spirit do it not that they may get rid of their body, but that
they may have it in subjection and ready for every needful work. For they
strive by a kind of toilsome exercise of the body itself to root out
those lusts that are hurtful to the body, that is, those habits and
affections of the soul that lead to the enjoyment of unworthy objects.
They are not destroying themselves; they are taking care of their health.
  25. Those, on the other hand, who do this in a perverse spirit, make
war upon their own body as if it were a natural enemy. And in this matter
they are led astray by a mistaken interpretation of what they read: "The
flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and
these are contrary the one to the other." For this is said of the carnal
habit yet unsubdued, against which the spirit lusteth, not to destroy the
body, but to eradicate the lust of the body--i.e., its evil habit--and
thus to make it subject to the spirit, which is what the order of nature
demands. For as, after the resurrection, the body, having become wholly
subject to the spirit, will live in perfect peace to all eternity; even
in this life we must make it an object to have the carnal habit changed
for the better, so that its inordinate affections may not war against the
soul. And until this shall take place, "the flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh;" the spirit struggling, not in
hatred, but for the mastery, because it desires that what it loves should
be subject to the higher principle; and the fleshy struggling, not in
hatred, but because of the bondage of habit which it has derived from its
parent stock, and which has grown in upon it by a law of nature till it
has become inveterate. The spirit, then, in subduing the flesh, is
working as it were to destroy the ill founded peace of an evil habit, and
to bring about the real peace which springs out of a good habit.
Nevertheless, not even those who, led astray by false notions, hate their
bodies would be prepared to sacrifice one eye, even supposing they could
do so without suffering any pain, and that they had as much sight left in
one as they formerly had in two, unless some object was to be attained

which would overbalance the loss. This and other indications of the same
kind are sufficient to show those who candidly seek the truth how
well-founded is the statement of the apostle when he says, "No man ever
yet hated his own flesh." He adds too, "but nourisheth and cherisheth it,
even as the Lord the Church".

Chap. 25.--A man may love something more than his body, but does not
therefore hate his body

  26. Man, therefore, ought to be taught the due measure of loving, that
is, in what measure he may love himself so as to be of service to
himself. For that he does love himself, and does desire to do good to
himself, nobody but a fool would doubt. He is to be taught, too, in what
measure to love his body, so as to care for it wisely and within due
limits. For it is equally manifest that he loves his body also, and
desires to keep it safe and sound. And yet a man may have something that
he loves better than the safety and soundness of his body. For many have
been found voluntarily to suffer both pains and amputations of some of
their limbs that they might obtain other objects which they valued more
highly. But no one is to be told not to desire the safety and health of
his body because there is something he desires more. For the miser,
though he loves money, buys bread for himself,--that is, he gives away
money that he is very fond of and desires to heap up,--but it is because
he values more highly the bodily health which the bread sustains. It is
superfluous to argue longer on a point so very plain, but this is just
what the error of wicked men often compels us to do.

Chap. 26.--The command to love God and our neighbour includes a command
to love ourselves

  27. Seeing, then, that there is no need of a command that every man
should love himself and his own body,--seeing, that is, that we love
ourselves, and what is beneath us but connected with us, through a law of
nature which has never been violated, and which is common to us with the
beasts (for even the beasts love themselves and their own bodies),--it
only remained necessary to lay injunctions upon us in regard to God above
us, and our neighbour beside us. "Thou shalt love," He says, "the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;
and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets." Thus the end of the commandment is
love, and that twofold, the love of God and the love of our neighbour.
Now, if you take yourself in your entirety,--that is, soul and body
together,--and your neighbour in his entirety, soul and body together
(for man is made up of soul and body), you will find that none of the
classes of things that are to be loved is overlooked in these two
commandments. For though, when the love of God comes first, and the

measure of our love for Him is prescribed in such terms that it is
evident all other things are to find their centre in Him, nothing seems
to be said about our love for ourselves; yet when it is said, "Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself," it at once becomes evident that our love
for ourselves has not been overlooked.

Chap. 27.--The order of love

  28. Now he is a man of just and holy life who forms an unprejudiced
estimate of things, and keeps his affections also under strict control,
so that he neither loves what he ought not to love, nor fails to love
what he ought to love, nor loves that more which ought to be loved less,
nor loves that equally which ought to be loved either less or more, nor
loves that less or more which ought to be loved equally. No sinner is to
be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved as a man for God's
sake; but God is to be loved for His own sake. And if God is to be loved
more than any man, each man ought to love God more than himself. Likewise
we ought to love another man better than our own body, because all things
are to be loved in reference to God, and another man can have fellowship
with us in the enjoyment of God, whereas our body cannot; for the body
only lives through the soul, and it is by the soul that we enjoy God.

Chap. 28.--how we are to decide whom to aid

  29. Further, all men are to be loved equally. But since you cannot do
good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents
of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection
with you. For, suppose that you had a great deal of some commodity, and
felt bound to give it away to somebody who had none, and that it could
not be given to more than one person; if two persons presented
themselves, neither of whom had either from need or relationship a
greater claim upon you than the other, you could do nothing fairer than
choose by lot to which you would give what could not be given to both.
Just so among men: since you cannot consult for the good of them all, you
must take the matter as decided for you by a sort of lot, according as
each man happens for the time being to be more closely connected with
you. 

Chap. 29.--We are to desire and endeavour that all men may love God

  30. Now of all who can with us enjoy God, we love partly those to whom
we render services, partly those who render services to us, partly those
who both help us in our need and in turn are helped by us, partly those
upon whom we confer no advantage and from whom we look for none. We ought
to desire, however, that they should all join with us in loving God, and
all the assistance that we either give them or accept from them should
tend to that one end. For in the theatres, dens of iniquity though they
be, if a man is fond of a particular actor, and enjoys his art as a great
or even as the very greatest good, he is fond of all who join with him in
admiration of his favourite, not for their own sakes, but for the sake of
him whom they admire in common; and the more fervent he is in his
admiration, the more he works in every way he can to secure new admirers

for him, and the more anxious he becomes to show him to others; and if he
find any one comparatively indifferent, he does all he can to excite his
interest by urging his favorite's merits: if, however, he meet with any
one who opposes him, he is exceedingly displeased by such a man's
contempt of his favourite, and strives in every way he can to remove it.
Now, if this be so, what does it become us to do who live in the
fellowship of the love of God, the enjoyment of whom is true happiness of
life, to whom all who love Him owe both their own existence and the love
they bear Him, concerning whom we have no fear that any one who comes to
know Him will be disappointed in Him, and who desires our love, not for
any gain to Himself, but that those who love Him may obtain an eternal
reward, even Himself whom they love? And hence it is that we love even
our enemies. For we do not fear them, seeing they cannot take away from
us what we love; but we pity them rather, because the more they hate us
the more are they separated from Him whom we love. For if they would turn
to Him, they must of necessity love Him as the supreme good, and love us
too as partakers with them in so great a blessing.

Chap. 30.--Whether angels are to be reckoned our neighbours

  31. There arises further in this connection a question about angels.
For they are happy in the enjoyment of Him whom we long to enjoy; and the
more we enjoy Him in this life as through a glass darkly, the more easy
do we find it to bear our pilgrimage, and the more eagerly do we long for
its termination. But it is not irrational to ask whether in those two
commandments is included the love of angels also. For that He who
commanded us to love our neighbour made no exception, as far as men are
concerned, is shown both by our Lord Himself in the Gospel, and by the
Apostle Paul. For when the man to whom our Lord delivered those two
commandments, and to whom He said that on these hang all the law and the
prophets, asked Him, "And who is my neighbour?" He told him of a certain
man who, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves, and
was severely wounded by them, and left naked and half dead. And He showed
him that nobody was neighbour to this man except him who took pity upon
him and came forward to relieve and care for him. And the man who had
asked the question admitted the truth of this when he was himself
interrogated in turn. To whom our Lord says, "Go and do thou likewise;"
teaching us that he is our neighbour whom it is our duty to help in his
need, or whom it would be our duty to help if he were in need. Whence it
follows, that he whose duty it would be in turn to help us is our
neighbour. For the name "neighbour" is a relative one, and no one can be
neighbour except to a neighbour. And, again, who does not see that no
exception is made of any one as a person to whom the offices of mercy may

be denied when our Lord extends the rule even to our enemies? "Love your
enemies, do good to them that hate you."
  32. And so also the Apostle Paul teaches when he says: "For this, Thou
shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal,
Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be
any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his
neighbour." Whoever then supposes that the apostle did not embrace every
man in this precept, is compelled to admit, what is at once most absurd
and most pernicious, that the apostle thought it no sin, if a man were
not a Christian or were an enemy, to commit adultery with his wife, or to
kill him, or to covet his goods. And as nobody but a fool would say this,
it is clear that every man is to be considered our neighbour, because we
are to work no ill to any man.
  33. But now, if every one to whom we ought to show, or who ought to
show to us, the of offices of mercy is by right called a neighbour, it is
manifest that the command to love our neighbour embraces the holy angels
also, seeing that so great offices of mercy have been performed by them
on our behalf, as may easily be shown by turning the attention to many
passages of Holy Scripture. And on this ground even God Himself, our
Lord, desired to be called our neighbour. For our Lord Jesus Christ
points to Himself under the figure of the man who brought aid to him who
was lying half dead on the road, wounded and abandoned by the robbers.
And the Psalmist says in his prayer, "I behaved myself as though he had
been my friend or brother." But as the Divine nature is of higher
excellence than, and far removed above, our nature, the command to love
God is distinct from that to love our neighbour. For He shows us pity on
account of His own goodness, but we show pity to one another on account
of His;--that is, He pities us that we may fully enjoy Himself; we pity
one another that we may fully enjoy Him.

Chap. 31.--God uses rather than enjoys us

  34. And on this ground, when we say that we enjoy only that which we
love for its own sake, and that nothing is a true object of enjoyment
except that which makes us happy, and that all other things are for use,
there seems still to be something that requires explanation. For God
loves us, and Holy Scripture frequently sets before us the love He has
towards us. In what way then does He love us? As objects of use or as
objects of enjoyment? If He enjoys us, He must be in need of good from
us, and no sane man will say that; for all the good we enjoy is either
Himself, or what comes from Himself. And no one can be ignorant or in
doubt as to the fact that the light stands in no need of the glitter of
the things it has itself lit up. The Psalmist says most plainly, "I said
to the LORD, Thou art my God, for Thou neediest not my goodness." He does
not enjoy us then, but makes use of us. For if He neither enjoys nor uses
us, I am at a loss to discover in what way He can love us.


Chap. 32.--in what way God uses man

  35. But neither does He use after our fashion of using. For when we use
objects, we do so with a view to the full enjoyment of the goodness of
God. God, however, in His use of us, has reference to His own goodness.
For it is because He is good we exist; and so far as we truly exist we
are good. And, further, because He is also just, we cannot with impunity
be evil; and so far as we are evil, so far is our existence less
complete. Now He is the first and supreme existence, who is altogether
unchangeable, and who could say in the fullest sense of the words, "I AM

(continued in part 3...)


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