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• Preface.
• Prolegomena. St. Augustin’s Life and Work.
• Chapter I.—: Literature.
• Chapter II.—: A Sketch of the Life of St. Augustin.
• Chapter III.—: Estimate of St. Augustin.
• Chapter IV.—: The Writings of St. Augustin.
• Chapter V.—: The Influence of St. Augustin Upon Posterity, and His Relation to Catholicism and Protestantism.
• Chief Events In the Life of St. Augustin, (as Given, Nearly, In the Benedictine Edition).
• The Confessions of St. Augustin.
• Translator’s Preface.
• The Opinion of St. Augustin Concerning His Confessions, As Embodied In His Retractations, II. 6
• The Thirteen Books of the Confessions of St. Aur. Augustin, Bishop of Hippo.
• Book I.: Commencing With the Invocation of God, Augustin Relates In Detail the Beginning of His Life, His Infancy and Boyhood, Up to His Fifteenth Year; At Which Age He Acknowledges That He Was More Inclined to All Youthful Pleasures and Vices Than to the
• Chap. I.—: He Proclaims the Greatness of God, Whom He Desires to Seek and Invoke, Being Awakened By Him.
• Chap. II.—: That the God Whom We Invoke Is In Us, and We In Him.
• Chap. III.—: Everywhere God Wholly Filleth All Things, But Neither Heaven Nor Earth Containeth Him.
• Chap. IV.—: The Majesty of God Is Supreme, and His Virtues Inexplicable.
• Chap. V.—: He Seeks Rest In God, and Pardon of His Sins.
• Chap. VI.—: He Describes His Infancy, and Lauds the Protection and Eternal Providence of God.
• Chap. VII.—: He Shows By Example That Even Infancy Is Prone to Sin.
• Chap. VIII.—: That When a Boy He Learned to Speak, Not By Any Set Method, But From the Acts and Words of His Parents.
• Chap. IX.—: Concerning the Hatred of Learning, the Love of Play, and the Fear of Being Whipped Noticeable In Boys: and of the Folly of Our Elders and Masters.
• Chap. X.—: Through a Love of Ball-playing and Shows, He Neglects His Studies and the Injunctions of His Parents.
• Chap. XI.—: Seized By Disease, His Mother Being Troubled, He Earnestly Demands Baptism, Which On Recovery Is Postponed—his Father Not As Yet Believing In Christ.
• Chap. XII.—: Being Compelled, He Gave His Attention to Learning; But Fully Acknowledges That This Was the Work of God.
• Chap. XIII.—: He Delighted In Latin Studies and the Empty Fables of the Poets, But Hated the Elements of Literature and the Greek Language.
• Chap. XIV.—: Why He Despised Greek Literature, and Easily Learned Latin.
• Chap. XV.—: He Entreats God, That Whatever Useful Things He Learned As a Boy May Be Dedicated to Him.
• Chap. XVI.—: He Disaproves of the Mode of Educating Youth, and He Points Out Why Wickedness Is Attributed to the Gods By the Poets.
• Chap. XVII.—: He Continues On the Unhappy Method of Training Youth In Literary Subjects.
• Chap. XVIII.—: Men Desire to Observe the Rules of Learning, But Neglect the Eternal Rules of Everlasting Safety.
• Book II.: He Advances to Puberty, and Indeed to the Early Part of the Sixteenth Year of His Age, In Which, Having Abandoned His Studies, He Indulged In Lustful Pleasures, And, With His Companions, Committed Theft.
• Chap. I.—: He Deplores the Wickedness of His Youth.
• Chap. II.—: Stricken With Exceeding Grief, He Remembers the Dissolute Passions In Which, In His Sixteenth Year, He Used to Indulge.
• Chap. III.—: Concerning His Father, a Freeman of Thagaste, the Assister of His Son’s Studies, and On the Admonitions of His Mother On the Preservation of Chastity.
• Chap. IV.—: He Commits Theft With His Companions, Not Urged On By Poverty, But From a Certain Distaste of Well-doing.
• Chap. V.—: Concerning the Motives to Sin, Which Are Not In the Love of Evil, But In the Desire of Obtaining the Property of Others.
• Chap. VI.—: Why He Delighted In That Theft, When All Things Which Under the Appearance of Good Invite to Vice Are True and Perfect In God Alone.
• Chap. VII.—: He Gives Thanks to God For the Remission of His Sins, and Reminds Every One That the Supreme God May Have Preserved Us From Greater Sins.
• Chap. VIII.—: In His Theft He Loved the Company of His Fellow-sinners.
• Chap. IX.—: It Was a Pleasure to Him Also to Laugh When Seriously Deceiving Others.
• Chap. X.—: With God There Is True Rest and Life Unchanging.
• Book III.: Of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Years of His Age, Passed At Carthage, When, Having Completed His Course of Studies, He Is Caught In the Snares of a Licentious Passion, and Falls Into the Errors of the ManichÆans.
• Chap. I.—: Deluded By an Insane Love, He, Though Foul and Dishonourable, Desires to Be Thought Elegant and Urbane.
• Chap. II.—: In Public Spectacles He Is Moved By an Empty Compassion. He Is Attacked By a Troublesome Spiritual Disease.
• Chap. III.—: Not Even When At Church Does He Suppress His Desires. In the School of Rhetoric He Abhors the Acts of the Subverters.
• Chap. IV.—: In the Nineteenth Year of His Age (his Father Having Died Two Years Before) He Is Led By the “hortensius” of Cicero to “philosophy,” to God, and a Better Mode of Thinking.
• Chap. V.—: He Rejects the Sacred Scriptures As Too Simple, and As Not to Be Compared With the Dignity of Tully.
• Chap. VI.—: Deceived By His Own Fault, He Falls Into the Errors of the ManichÆans, Who Gloried In the True Knowledge of God and In a Thorough Examination of Things.
• Chap. VII.—: He Attacks the Doctrine of the ManichÆans Concerning Evil, God, and the Righteousness of the Patriarchs.
• Chap. VIII.—: He Argues Against the Same As to the Reason of Offences.
• Chap. IX.—: That the Judgment of God and Men, As to Human Acts of Violence, Is Different.
• Chap. X.—: He Reproves the Triflings of the ManichÆans As to the Fruits of the Earth.
• Chap. XI.—: He Refers to the Tears, and the Memorable Dream Concerning Her Son, Granted By God to His Mother.
• Chap. XII.—: The Excellent Answer of the Bishop When Referred to By His Mother As to the Conversion of Her Son.
• Book IV.: Then Follows a Period of Nine Years From the Nineteenth Year of His Age, During Which Having Lost a Friend, He Followed the ManichÆans—and Wrote Books On the Fair and Fit, and Published a Work On the Liberal Arts, and the Categories of Aristotle
• Chap. I.—: Concerning That Most Unhappy Time In Which He, Being Deceived, Deceived Others; and Concerning the Mockers of His Confession.
• Chap. II.—: He Teaches Rhetoric, the Only Thing He Loved, and Scorns the Soothsayer, Who Promised Him Victory.
• Chap. III.—: Not Even the Most Experienced Men Could Persuade Him of the Vanity of Astrology, to Which He Was Devoted.
• Chap. IV.—: Sorely Distressed By Weeping At the Death of His Friend, He Provides Consolation For Himself.
• Chap. V.—: Why Weeping Is Pleasant to the Wretched.
• Chap. VI.—: His Friend Being Snatched Away By Death, He Imagines That He Remains Only As Half.
• Chap. VII.—: Troubled By Restlessness and Grief, He Leaves His Country a Second Time For Carthage.
• Chap. VIII.—: That His Grief Ceased By Time, and the Consolation of Friends.
• Chap. IX.—: That the Love of a Human Being, However Constant In Loving and Returning Love, Perishes; While He Who Loves God Never Loses a Friend.
• Chap. X.—: That All Things Exist That They May Perish, and That We Are Not Safe Unless God Watches Over Us.
• Chap. XI.—: That Portions of the World Are Not to Be Loved; But That God, Their Author, Is Immutable, and His Word Eternal.
• Chap. XII.—: Love Is Not Condemned, But Love In God, In Whom There Is Rest Through Jesus Christ, Is to Be Preferred.
• Chap. XIII.—: Love Originates From Grace and Beauty Enticing Us.
• Chap. XIV.—: Concerning the Books Which He Wrote “on the Fair and Fit,” Dedicated to Hierius.
• Chap. XV.—: While Writing, Being Blinded By Corporeal Images, He Failed to Recognise the Spiritual Nature of God.
• Chap. XVI.—: He Very Easily Understood the Liberal Arts and the Categories of Aristotle, But Without True Fruit.
• Book V.: He Describes the Twenty-ninth Year of His Age, In Which, Having Discovered the Fallacies of the ManichÆans, He Professed Rhetoric At Rome and Milan. Having Heard Ambrose, He Begins to Come to Himself.
• Chap. I.—: That It Becomes the Soul to Praise God, and to Confess Unto Him.
• Chap. II.—: On the Vanity of Those Who Wished to Escape the Omnipotent God.
• Chap. III.—: Having Heard Faustus, the Most Learned Bishop of the ManichÆans, He Discerns That God, the Author Both of Things Animate and Inanimate, Chiefly Has Care For the Humble.
• Chap. IV.—: That the Knowledge of Terrestrial and Celestial Things Does Not Give Happiness, But the Knowledge of God Only.
• Chap. V.—: Of ManichÆus Pertinaciously Teaching False Doctrines, and Proudly Arrogating to Himself the Holy Spirit.
• Chap. VI.—: Faustus Was Indeed an Elegant Speaker, But Knew Nothing of the Liberal Sciences.
• Chap. VII.—: Clearly Seeing the Fallacies of the ManichÆans, He Retires From Them, Being Remarkably Aided By God.
• Chap. VIII.—: He Sets Out For Rome, His Mother In Vain Lamenting It.
• Chap. IX.—: Being Attacked By Fever, He Is In Great Danger.
• Chap. X.—: When He Had Left the ManichÆans, He Retained His Depraved Opinions Concerning Sin and the Origin of the Saviour.
• Chap. XI.—: Helpidius Disputed Well Against the ManichÆans As to the Authenticity of the New Testament.
• Chap. XII.—: Professing Rhetoric At Rome, He Discovers the Fraud of His Scholars.
• Chap. XIII.—: He Is Sent to Milan, That He, About to Teach Rhetoric, May Be Known By Ambrose.
• Chap. XIV.—: Having Heard the Bishop, He Perceives the Force of the Catholic Faith, Yet Doubts, After the Manner of the Modern Academics.
• Book VI.: Attaining His Thirtieth Year, He, Under the Admonition of the Discourses of Ambrose, Discovered More and More the Truth of the Catholic Doctrine, and Deliberates As to the Better Regulation of His Life.
• Chap. I.—: His Mother Having Followed Him to Milan, Declares That She Will Not Die Before Her Son Shall Have Embraced the Catholic Faith.
• Chap. II.—: She, On the Prohibition of Ambrose, Abstains From Honouring the Memory of the Martyrs.
• Chap. III.—: As Ambrose Was Occupied With Business and Study, Augustin Could Seldom Consult Him Concerning the Holy Scriptures.
• Chap. IV.—: He Recognises the Falsity of His Own Opinions, and Commits to Memory the Saying of Ambrose.
• Chap. V.—: Faith Is the Basis of Human Life; Man Cannot Discover That Truth Which Holy Scripture Has Disclosed.
• Chap. VI.—: On the Source and Cause of True Joy,—the Example of the Joyous Beggar Being Adduced.
• Chap. VII.—: He Leads to Reformation His Friend Alypius, Seized With Madness For the Circensian Games.
• Chap. VIII.—: The Same When At Rome, Being Led By Others Into the Amphitheatre, Is Delighted With the Gladiatorial Games.
• Chap. IX.—: Innocent Alypius, Being Apprehended As a Thief, Is Set At Liberty By the Cleverness of an Architect.
• Chap. X.—: The Wonderful Integrity of Alypius In Judgment. the Lasting Friendship of Nebridius With Augustin.
• Chap. XI.—: Being Troubled By His Grievous Errors, He Meditates Entering On a New Life.
• Chap. XII.—: Discussion With Alypius Concerning a Life of Celibacy.
• Chap. XIII.—: Being Urged By His Mother to Take a Wife, He Sought a Maiden That Was Pleasing Unto Him.
• Chap. XIV.—: The Design of Establishing a Common Household With His Friends Is Speedily Hindered.
• Chap. XV.—: He Dismisses One Mistress, and Chooses Another.
• Chap. XVI.—: The Fear of Death and Judgment Called Him, Believing In the Immortality of the Soul, Back From His Wickedness, Him Who Aforetime Believed In the Opinions of Epicurus.
• Book VII.: He Recalls the Beginning of His Youth, I. E. the Thirty-first Year of His Age, In Which Very Grave Errors As to the Nature of God and the Origin of Evil Being Distinguished, and the Sacred Books More Accurately Known, He At Length Arrives At
• Chap. I.—: He Regarded Not God Indeed Under the Form of a Human Body, But As a Corporeal Substance Diffused Through Space.
• Chap. II.—: The Disputation of Nebridius Against the ManichÆans, On the Question “whether God Be Corruptible Or Incorruptible.”
• Chap. III.—: That the Cause of Evil Is the Free Judgment of the Will.
• Chap. IV.—: That God Is Not Corruptible, Who, If He Were, Would Not Be God At All.
• Chap. V.—: Questions Concerning the Origin of Evil In Regard to God, Who, Since He Is the Chief Good, Cannot Be the Cause of Evil.
• Chap. VI.—: He Refutes the Divinations of the Astrologers, Deduced From the Constellations.
• Chap. VII.—: He Is Severely Exercised As to the Origin of Evil.
• Chap. VIII.—: By God’s Assistance He By Degrees Arrives At the Truth.
• Chap. IX.—: He Compares the Doctrine of the Platonists Concerning the Λόγος With the Much More Excellent Doctrine of Christianity.
• Chap. X.—: Divine Things Are the More Clearly Manifested to Him Who Withdraws Into the Recesses of His Heart.
• Chap. XI.—: That Creatures Are Mutable and God Alone Immutable.
• Chap. XII.—: Whatever Things the Good God Has Created Are Very Good.
• Chap. XIII.—: It Is Meet to Praise the Creator For the Good Things Which Are Made In Heaven and Earth.
• Chap. XIV.—: Being Displeased With Some Part of God’s Creation, He Conceives of Two Original Substances.
• Chap. XV.—: Whatever Is, Owes Its Being to God.
• Chap. XVI.—: Evil Arises Not From a Substance, But From the Perversion of the Will.
• Chap. XVII.—: Above His Changeable Mind, He Discovers the Unchangeable Author of Truth.
• Chap. XVIII.—: Jesus Christ, the Mediator, Is the Only Way of Safety.
• Chap. XIX.—: He Does Not Yet Fully Understand the Saying of John, That “the Word Was Made Flesh.”
• Chap. XX.—: He Rejoices That He Proceeded From Plato to the Holy Scriptures, and Not the Reverse.
• Chap. XXI.—: What He Found In the Sacred Books Which Are Not to Be Found In Plato.
• Book VIII.: He Finally Describes the Thirty-second Year of His Age, the Most Memorable of His Whole Life, In Which, Being Instructed By Simplicianus Concerning the Conversion of Others, and the Manner of Acting, He Is, After a Severe Struggle, Renewed In
• Chap. I.—: He, Now Given to Divine Things, and Yet Entangled By the Lusts of Love, Consults Simplicianus In Reference to the Renewing of His Mind.
• Chap. II.—: The Pious Old Man Rejoices That He Read Plato and the Scriptures, and Tells Him of the Rhetorician Victorinus Having Been Converted to the Faith Through the Reading of the Sacred Books.
• Chap. III.—: That God and the Angels Rejoice More On the Return of One Sinner Than of Many Just Persons.
• Chap. IV.—: He Shows By the Example of Victorinus That There Is More Joy In the Conversion of Nobles.
• Chap. V.—: Of the Causes Which Alienate Us From God.
• Chap. VI.—: Pontitianus’ Account of Antony, the Founder of Monachism, and of Some Who Imitated Him.
• Chap. VII.—: He Deplores His Wretchedness, That Having Been Born Thirty-two Years, He Had Not Yet Found Out the Truth.
• Chap. VIII.—: The Conversation With Alypius Being Ended, He Retires to the Garden, Whither His Friend Follows Him.
• Chap. IX.—: That the Mind Commandeth the Mind, But It Willeth Not Entirely.
• Chap. X.—: He Refutes the Opinion of the ManichÆans As to Two Kinds of Minds,—one Good and the Other Evil.
• Chap. XI.—: In What Manner the Spirit Struggled With the Flesh, That It Might Be Freed From the Bondage of Vanity.
• Chap. XII.—: Having Prayed to God, He Pours Forth a Shower of Tears, And, Admonished By a Voice, He Opens the Book and Reads the Words In Rom. XIII. 13; By Which, Being Changed In His Whole Soul, He Discloses the Divine Favour to His Friend and His Mother
• Book IX.: He Speaks of His Design of Forsaking the Profession of Rhetoric; of the Death of His Friends, Nebridius and Verecundus; of Having Received Baptism In the Thirty-third Year of His Age; and of the Virtues and Death of His Mother, Monica.
• Chap. I.—: He Praises God, the Author of Safety, and Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, Acknowledging His Own Wickedness.
• Chap. II.—: As His Lungs Were Affected, He Meditates Withdrawing Himself From Public Favour.
• Chap. III.—: He Retires to the Villa of His Friend Verecundus, Who Was Not Yet a Christian, and Refers to His Conversion and Death, As Well As That of Nebridius.
• Chap. IV.—: In the Country He Gives His Attention to Literature, and Explains the Fourth Psalm In Connection With the Happy Conversion of Alypius. He Is Troubled With Toothache.
• Chap. V.—: At the Recommendation of Ambrose, He Reads the Prophecies of Isaiah, But Does Not Understand Them.
• Chap. VI.—: He Is Baptized At Milan With Alypius and His Son Adeodatus. the Book “de Magistro.”
• Chap. VII.—: Of the Church Hymns Instituted At Milan; of the Ambrosian Persecution Raised By Justina; and of the Discovery of the Bodies of Two Martyrs.
• Chap. VIII.—: Of the Conversion of Evodius, and the Death of His Mother When Returning With Him to Africa; and Whose Education He Tenderly Relates.
• Chap. IX.—: He Describes the Praiseworthy Habits of His Mother; Her Kindness Towards Her Husband and Her Sons.
• Chap. X.—: A Conversation He Had With His Mother Concerning the Kingdom of Heaven.
• Chap. XI.—: His Mother, Attacked By Fever, Dies At Ostia.
• Chap. XII.—: How He Mourned His Dead Mother.
• Chap. XIII.—: He Entreats God For Her Sins, and Admonishes His Readers to Remember Her Piously.
• Book X.: Having Manifested What He Was and What He Is, He Shows the Great Fruit of His Confession; and Being About to Examine By What Method God and the Happy Life May Be Found, He Enlarges On the Nature and Power of Memory. Then He Examines His Own Acts,
• Chap. I.—: In God Alone Is the Hope and Joy of Man.
• Chap. II.—: That All Things Are Manifest to God. That Confession Unto Him Is Not Made By the Words of the Flesh, But of the Soul, and the Cry of Reflection.
• Chap. III.—: He Who Confesseth Rightly Unto God Best Knoweth Himself.
• Chap. IV.—: That In His Confessions He May Do Good, He Considers Others.
• Chap. V.—: That Man Knoweth Not Himself Wholly.
• Chap. VI.—: The Love of God, In His Nature Superior to All Creatures, Is Acquired By the Knowledge of the Senses and the Exercise of Reason.
• Chap. VII.—: That God Is to Be Found Neither From the Powers of the Body Nor of the Soul.
• Chap. VIII.—: Of the Nature and the Amazing Power of Memory.
• Chap. IX.—: Not Only Things, But Also Literature and Images, Are Taken From the Memory, and Are Brought Forth By the Act of Remembering.
• Chap. X.—: Literature Is Not Introduced to the Memory Through the Senses, But Is Brought Forth From Its More Secret Places.
• Chap. XI.—: What It Is to Learn and to Think.
• Chap. XII.—: On the Recollection of Things Mathematical.
• Chap. XIII.—: Memory Retains All Things.
• Chap. XIV.—: Concerning the Manner In Which Joy and Sadness May Be Brought Back to the Mind and Memory.
• Chap. XV.—: In Memory There Are Also Images of Things Which Are Absent.
• Chap. XVI.—: The Privation of Memory Is Forgetfulness.
• Chap. XVII.—: God Cannot Be Attained Unto By the Power of Memory, Which Beasts and Birds Possess.
• Chap. XVIII.—: A Thing When Lost Could Not Be Found Unless It Were Retained In the Memory.
• Chap. XIX.—: What It Is to Remember.
• Chap. XX.—: We Should Not Seek For God and the Happy Life Unless We Had Known It.
• Chap. XXI.—: How a Happy Life May Be Retained In the Memory.
• Chap. XXII.—: A Happy Life Is to Rejoice In God, and For God.
• Chap. XXIII.—: All Wish to Rejoice In the Truth.
• Chap. XXIV.—: He Who Finds Truth, Finds God.
• Chap. XXV.—: He Is Glad That God Dwells In His Memory.
• Chap. XXVI.—: God Everywhere Answers Those Who Take Counsel of Him.
• Chap. XXVII.—: He Grieves That He Was So Long Without God.
• Chap. XXVIII.—: On the Misery of Human Life.
• Chap. XXIX.—: All Hope Is In the Mercy of God.
• Chap. XXX.—: Of the Perverse Images of Dreams, Which He Wishes to Have Taken Away.
• Chap. XXXI.—: About to Speak of the Temptations of the Lust of the Flesh, He First Complains of the Lust of Eating and Drinking.
• Chap. XXXII.—: Of the Charms of Perfumes Which Are More Easily Overcome.
• Chap. XXXIII.—: He Overcame the Pleasures of the Ear, Although In the Church He Frequently Delighted In the Song, Not In the Thing Sung.
• Chap. XXXIV.—: Of the Very Dangerous Allurements of the Eyes; On Account of Beauty of Form, God, the Creator, Is to Be Praised.
• Chap. XXXV.—: Another Kind of Temptation Is Curiosity, Which Is Stimulated By the Lust of the Eyes.
• Chap. XXXVI.—: A Third Kind Is “pride,” Which Is Pleasing to Man, Not to God.
• Chap. XXXVII.—: He Is Forcibly Goaded On By the Love of Praise.
• Chap. XXXVIII.—: Vain-glory Is the Highest Danger.
• Chap. XXXIX.—: Of the Vice of Those Who, While Pleasing Themselves, Displease God.
• Chap. XI.—: The Only Safe Resting-place For the Soul Is to Be Found In God.
• Chap. Xli.—: Having Conquered His Triple Desire, He Arrives At Salvation.
• Chap. Xlii.—: In What Manner Many Sought the Mediator.
• Chap. Xliii.—: That Jesus Christ, At the Same Time God and Man, Is the True and Most Efficacious Mediator.
• Book XI.: The Design of His Confessions Being Declared, He Seeks From God the Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and Begins to Expound the Words of Genesis I. 1, Concerning the Creation of the World. the Questions of Rash Disputers Being Refuted, “what Did
• Chap. I.—: By Confession He Desires to Stimulate Towards God His Own Love and That of His Readers.
• Chap. Ii—: He Begs of God That Through the Holy Scriptures He May Be Led to Truth.
• Chap. III.—: He Begins From the Creation of the World—not Understanding the Hebrew Text.
• Chap. IV.—: Heaven and Earth Cry Out That They Have Been Created By God.
• Chap. V.—: God Created the World Not From Any Certain Matter, But In His Own Word.
• Chap. VI.—: He Did Not, However, Create It By a Sounding and Passing Word.
• Chap. VII.—: By His Co-eternal Word He Speaks, and All Things Are Done.
• Chap. VIII.—: That Word Itself Is the Beginning of All Things, In the Which We Are Instructed As to Evangelical Truth.
• Chap. IX.—: Wisdom and the Beginning.
• Chap. X.—: The Rashness of Those Who Inquire What God Did Before He Created Heaven and Earth.
• Chap. XI.—: They Who Ask This Have Not As Yet Known the Eternity of God, Which Is Exempt From the Relation of Time.
• Chap. XII.—: What God Did Before the Creation of the World.
• Chap. XIII.—: Before the Times Created By God, Times Were Not.
• Chap. XIV.—: Neither Time Past Nor Future, But the Present Only, Really Is.
• Chap. XV.—: There Is Only a Moment of Present Time.
• Chap. XVI.—: Time Can Only Be Perceived Or Measured While It Is Passing.
• Chap. XVII.—: Nevertheless There Is Time Past and Future.
• Chap. XVIII.—: Past and Future Times Cannot Be Thought of But As Present.
• Chap. XIX.—: We Are Ignorant In What Manner God Teaches Future Things.
• Chap. XX.—: In What Manner Time May Properly Be Designated.
• Chap. XXI.—: How Time May Be Measured.
• Chap. XXII.—: He Prays God That He Would Explain This Most Entangled Enigma.
• Chap. XXIII.—: That Time Is a Certain Extension.
• Chap. XXIV.—: That Time Is Not a Motion of a Body Which We Measure By Time.
• Chap. XXV.—: He Calls On God to Enlighten His Mind.
• Chap. XXVI.—: We Measure Longer Events By Shorter In Time.
• Chap. XXVII.—: Times Are Measured In Proportion As They Pass By.
• Chap. XXVIII.—: Time In the Human Mind, Which Expects, Considers, and Remembers.
• Chap. XXIX.—: That Human Life Is a Distraction, But That Through the Mercy Or God He Was Intent On the Prize of His Heavenly Calling.
• Chap. XXX.—: Again He Refutes the Empty Question, “what Did God Before the Creation of the World?”
• Chap. XXXI.—: How the Knowledge of God Differs From That of Man.
• Book XII.: He Continues His Explanation of the First Chapter of Genesis According to the Septuagint, and By Its Assistance He Argues, Especially, Concerning the Double Heaven, and the Formless Matter Out of Which the Whole World May Have Been Created; Aft
• Chap. I.—: The Discovery of Truth Is Difficult, But God Has Promised That He Who Seeks Shall Find.
• Chap. II.—: Of the Double Heaven,—the Visible, and the Heaven of Heavens.
• Chap. III.—: Of the Darkness Upon the Deep, and of the Invisible and Formless Earth.
• Chap. IV.—: From the Formlessness of Matter, the Beautiful World Has Arisen.
• Chap. V.—: What May Have Been the Form of Matter.
• Chap. VI.—: He Confesses That At One Time He Himself Thought Erroneously of Matter.
• Chap. VII.—: Out of Nothing God Made Heaven and Earth.
• Chap. VIII.—: Heaven and Earth Were Made “in the Beginning;” Afterwards the World, During Six Days, From Shapeless Matter.
• Chap. IX.—: That the Heaven of Heavens Was an Intellectual Creature, But That the Earth Was Invisible and Formless Before the Days That It Was Made.
• Chap. X.—: He Begs of God That He May Live In the True Light, and May Be Instructed As to the Mysteries of the Sacred Books.
• Chap. XI.—: What May Be Discovered to Him By God.
• Chap. XII.—: From the Formless Earth God Created Another Heaven and a Visible and Formed Earth.
• Chap. XIII.—: Of the Intellectual Heaven and Formless Earth, Out of Which, On Another Day, the Firmament Was Formed.
• Chap. XIV.—: Of the Depth of the Sacred Scripture, and Its Enemies.
• Chap. XV.—: He Argues Against Adversaries Concerning the Heaven of Heavens.
• Chap. XVI.—: He Wishes to Have No Intercourse With Those Who Deny Divine Truth.
• Chap. XVII.—: He Mentions Five Explanations of the Words of Genesis 1. I.
• Chap. XVIII.—: What Error Is Harmless In Sacred Scripture.
• Chap. XIX.—: He Enumerates the Things Concerning Which All Agree.
• Chap. Xx—: of the Words, “in the Beginning,” Variously Understood.
• Chap. XXI.—: Of the Explanation of the Words, “the Earth Was Invisible.”
• Chap. XXII.—: He Discusses Whether Matter Was From Eternity, Or Was Made By God. 1
• Chap. XXIII.—: Two Kinds of Disagreements In the Books to Be Explained.
• Chap. XXIV.—: Out of the Many True Things, It Is Not Asserted Confidently That Moses Understood This Or That.
• Chap. XXV.—: It Behoves Interpreters, When Disagreeing Concerning Obscure Places, to Regard God the Author of Truth, and the Rule of Charity.
• Chap. XXVI.—: What He Might Have Asked of God Had He Been Enjoined to Write the Book of Genesis.
• Chap. XXVII.—: The Style of Speaking In the Book of Genesis Is Simple and Clear.
• Chap. XXVIII.—: The Words, “in the Beginning,” And, “the Heaven and the Earth,” Are Differently Understood.
• Chap. XXIX.—: Concerning the Opinion of Those Who Explain It “at First He Made.”
• Chap. XXX.—: In the Great Diversity of Opinions, It Becomes All to Unite Charity and Divine Truth.
• Chap. XXXI.—: Moses Is Supposed to Have Perceived Whatever of Truth Can Be Discovered In His Words.
• Chap. XXXII.—: First, the Sense of the Writer Is to Be Discovered, Then That Is to Be Brought Out Which Divine Truth Intended.
• Book XIII.: Of the Goodness of God Explained In the Creation of Things, and of the Trinity As Found In the First Words of Genesis. the Story Concerning the Origin of the World (gen. I.) Is Allegorically Explained, and He Applies It to Those Things Which G
• Chap. I.—: He Calls Upon God, and Proposes to Himself to Worship Him.
• Chap. II.—: All Creatures Subsist From the Plenitude of Divine Goodness.
• Chap. III.—: Genesis I. 3,—of “light,”—he Understands As It Is Seen In the Spiritual Creature.
• Chap. IV.—: All Things Have Been Created By the Grace of God, and Are Not of Him As Standing In Need of Created Things.
• Chap. V.—: He Recognises the Trinity In the First Two Verses of Genesis.
• Chap. VI.—: Why the Holy Ghost Should Have Been Mentioned After the Mention of Heaven and Earth.
• Chap. VII.—: That the Holy Spirit Brings Us to God.
• Chap. VIII.—: That Nothing Whatever, Short of God, Can Yield to the Rational Creature a Happy Rest.
• Chap. IX.—: Why the Holy Spirit Was Only “borne Over” the Waters.
• Chap. X.—: That Nothing Arose Save By the Gift of God.
• Chap. XI.—: That the Symbols of the Trinity In Man, to Be, to Know, and to Will, Are Never Thoroughly Examined.
• Chap. XII.—: Allegorical Explanation of Genesis, Chap. I., Concerning the Origin of the Church and Its Worship.
• Chap. XIII.—: That the Renewal of Man Is Not Completed In This World.
• Chap. XIV.—: That Out of the Children of the Night and of the Darkness, Children of the Light and of the Day Are Made.
• Chap. XV.—: Allegorical Explanation of the Firmament and Upper Works, Ver. 6.
• Chap. XVI.—: That No One But the Unchangeable Light Knows Himself.
• Chap. XVII.—: Allegorical Explanation of the Sea and the Fruit-bearing Earth—verses 9 and 11.
• Chap. XVIII.—: Of the Lights and Stars of Heaven—of Day and Night, Ver. 14.
• Chap. XIX.—: All Men Should Become Lights In the Firmament of Heaven.
• Chap. XX.—: Concerning Reptiles and Flying Creatures (ver. 20),—the Sacrament of Baptism Being Regarded.
• Chap. XXI.—: Concerning the Living Soul, Birds, and Fishes (ver. 24),—the Sacrament of the Fucharist Being Regarded.
• Chap. XXII.—: He Explains the Divine Image (ver. 26) of the Renewal of the Mind.
• Chap. XXIII.—: That to Have Power Over All Things (ver. 26) Is to Judge Spiritually of All.
• Chap. XXIV.—: Why God Has Blessed Men, Fishes, Flying Creatures, and Not Herbs and the Other Animais (ver. 28).
• Chap. XXV.—: He Explains the Fruits of the Earth (ver. 29) of Works of Mercy.
• Chap. XXVI.—: In the Confessing of Benefits, Computation Is Made Not As to the “gift,” But As to the “fruit,”—that Is, the Good and Right Will of the Giver.
• Chap. XXVII.—: Many Are Ignorant As to This, and Ask For Miracles, Which Are Signified Under the Names of “fishes” and “whales.”
• Chap. XXVIII.—: The Proceeds to the Last Verse, “all Things Are Very Good,”—that Is, the Work Being Altogether Good.
• Chap. XXIX.—: Although It Is Said Eight Times That “god Saw That It Was Good,” Yet Time Has No Relation to God and His Word.
• Chap. XXX.—: He Refutes the Opinions of the ManichÆans and the Gnostics Concerning the Origin of the World.
• Chap. XXXI.—: We Do Not See “that It Was Good” But Through the Spirit of God, Which Is In Us.
• Chap. XXXII.—: Of the Particular Works of God, More Especially of Man.
• Chap. XXXIII.—: The World Was Created By God Out of Nothing.
• Chap. XXXIV.—: He Briefly Repeats the Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis (ch. I.), And Confesses That We See It By the Divine Spirit.
• Chap. XXXV.—: He Prays God For That Peace of Rest Which Hath No Evening.
• Chap. XXXVI.—: The Seventh Day, Without Evening and Setting, the Image of Eternal Life and Rest In God.
• Chap. XXXVII.—: Of Rest In God, Who Ever Worketh, and Yet Is Ever At Rest.
• Chap. XXXVIII.—: Of the Difference Between the Knowledge of God and of Men, and of the Repose Which Is to Be Sought From God Only.
• Letters of St. Augustin.
• Preface.
• Prefatory Note.
• First Division.
• Letter I. ( 386.)
• Letter II. ( 386.)
• Letter III. ( 387.)
• Letter IV. ( 387.)
• Letter V. ( 388.)
• Letter VI. ( 389.)
• Letter VII. ( 389.)
• Letter VIII. ( 389.)
• Letter IX. ( 389.)
• Letter X. ( 389.)
• Letter XI. ( 389.)
• Letter XII. ( 389.)
• Letter XIII. ( 389.)
• Letter XIV. ( 389.)
• Letter XV. ( 390.)
• Letter XVI. ( 390.)
• Letter XVII. ( 390.)
• Letter XVIII. ( 390.)
• Letter XIX. ( 390.)
• Letter XX. ( 390.)
• Letter XXI. ( 391.)
• Letter XXII. ( 392.)
• Letter XXIII. ( 392.)
• Letter XXIV.
• Letter XXV. ( 394.)
• Letter XXVI. ( 395.)
• Letter XXVII. ( 395.)
• Letter XXVIII. ( 394 Or 395.)
• Letter XXIX. ( 395.)
• Letter XXX. ( 396.)
• Second Division. Letters Which Were Written By Augustin After His Becoming Bishop of Hippo, and Before the Conference Held With the Donatists At Carthage, and the Discovery of the Heresy of Pelagius In Africa ( 396-410).
• Letter XXXI. ( 396.)
• Letter XXXII.
• Letter XXXIII. ( 396.)
• Letter XXXIV. ( 396.)
• Letter XXXV. ( 396.)
• Letter XXXVI. ( 396.)
• Letter XXXVII. ( 397.)
• Letter XXXVIII. ( 397.)
• Letter XXXIX. ( 397.)
• Letter Xl. ( 397.)
• Letter Xli. ( 397.)
• Letter Xlii. ( 397.)
• Letter Xliii. ( 397.)
• Letter Xliv. ( 398.)
• Letter Xlv.
• Letter Xlvi. ( 398.)
• Letter Xlvii. ( 398.)
• Letter Xlviii. ( 398.)
• Letter Xlix.
• Letter L. 13 ( 399.)
• Letter Li. ( 399 Or 400.)
• Letter Lii.
• Letter Liii. ( 400.)
• Letter Liv.
• Letter Lv.
• Letters Lvi. and Lvii.
• Letter Lviii. ( 401.)
• Letter Lix. ( 401.)
• Letter Lx. ( 401.)
• Letter Lxi. ( 401.)
• Letter Lxii. ( 401.)
• Letter Lxiii. ( 401.)
• Letter Lxiv. ( 401.)
• Letter Lxv. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxvi. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxvii. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxviii. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxix. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxx. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxxi. ( 403.)
• Letter Lxxii. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxiii. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxiv. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxv. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxvi. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxxvii. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxviii. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxix. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxx. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxxi. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxii. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxiii. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxiv. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxv. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxvi. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxvii. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxviii. ( 406.)
• Letter Lxxxix. ( 406.)
• Letter XC. ( 408.)
• Letter XCI. ( 408.)
• Letter XCII. ( 408.)
• Letter XCIII. ( 408.)
• Letter XCIV. ( 408.)
• Letter XCV. ( 408.)
• Letter XCVI. ( 408.)
• Letter XCVII. ( 408.)
• Letter XCVIII. ( 408.)
• Letter XCIX. ( 408 Or Beginning of 409.)
• Letter C. ( 409.)
• Letter CI. ( 409.)
• Letter CII. ( 409.)
• Letter CIII. ( 409.)
• Letter CIV. ( 409.)
• Letter CXI. ( November, 409.)
• Letter CXV. ( 410.)
• Letter CXVI.
• Letter CXVII. ( 410.)
• Letter CXVIII. ( 410.)
• Letter CXXII. ( 410.)
• Letter CXXIII. ( 410.)
• Third Division. Letters Which Were Written By Augustin After the Time of the Conference With the Donatists and the Rise of the Pelagian Heresy In Africa; I.E., During the Last Twenty Years of His Life ( 411-430).
• Letter CXXIV. ( 411.)
• Letter CXXV. ( 411.)
• Letter CXXVI. ( 411.)
• Letter CXXX. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXI. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXII. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXIII. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXV. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXVI. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXVII. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXVIII. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXIX. ( 412.)
• Letter Cxliii. ( 412.)
• Letter Cxliv. ( 412.)
• Letter Cxlv. ( 412 Or 413.)
• Letter Cxlvi. ( 413.)
• Letter Cxlviii. ( 413.)
• Letter Cl. ( 413.)
• Letter Cli. ( 413 Or 414.)
• Letter Clviii. ( 414.)
• Letter Clix. ( 415.)
• Letter Clxiii. ( 414.)
• Letter Clxiv. ( 414.)
• Letter Clxv. ( 410. 1 )
• Letter Clxvi. ( 415.)
• Letter Clxvii. ( 415.)
• Letter Clxix. ( 415.)
• Letter Clxxii. ( 416.)
• Letter Clxxiii. ( 416.)
• Letter Clxxx. ( 416.)
• Letter Clxxxviii. ( 416.)
• Letter Clxxxix. ( 418.)
• Letter CXCI. ( 418.)
• Letter CXCII. ( 418.)
• Letter CXCV. ( 418.)
• Letter CCI. ( 419.)
• Letter CCII. ( 419.)
• Letter CCIII. ( 420.)
• Letter CCVIII. ( 423.)
• Letter CCIX. ( 423.)
• Letter CCX. ( 423.)
• Letter CCXI. ( 423.)
• Letter CCXII. ( 423.)
• Letter CCXIII. ( September 26th, 426.)
• Letter CCXVIII. ( 426.)
• Letter CCXIX. ( 426.)
• Letter CCXX. ( 427.)
• Letter CCXXVII. ( 428 Or 429.)
• Letter CCXXVIII. ( 428 Or 429.)
• Letter CCXXIX. ( 429.)
• Letter CCXXXI. ( 429.)
• Fourth Division. [hitherto the Order Followed In the Arrangement of the Letters Has Been the Chronological. It Being Impossible to Ascertain Definitely the Date of Composition of Thirty-nine of the Letters, These Have Been Placed By the Benedictine Edi
• Letter CCXXXII.
• Letter CCXXXVII.
• Letter Ccxlv.
• Letter Ccxlvi.
• Letter Ccl.
• Letter Ccliv.
• Letter Cclxiii.
• Letter Cclxix.
• First Series.
• Contributors. Philip Schaff, D. D., Editor-in-chief.
• Names of Translators and Editors.
• Works.

LETTER CXLVIII.

( 413.)

a letter of instructions (commonitorium) to the holy brother fortunatianus.2

Chap. i.—

1. I write this to remind you of the request which I made when I was with you, that you would do me the kindness of visiting our brother, whom we mentioned in conversation, in order to ask him to forgive me, if he has construed as a harsh and unfriendly attack upon himself any statement made by me in a recent letter (which I do not regret having written), affirming that the eyes of this body cannot see God, and never shall see Him. I added immediately the reason why I made this statement, namely, to prevent men from believing that God Himself is corporeal and visible, as occupying a place determined by size and by distance from us (for the eye of this body can see nothing except under these conditions), and to prevent men from understanding the expression “face to face”3 as if God were limited within the members of a body. Therefore I do not regret having made this statement, as a protest against our forming such unworthy and profane ideas concerning God as to think that He is not everywhere in His totality, but susceptible of division, and distributed through localities in space; for such are the only objects cognizable through these eyes of ours.

2. But if, while holding no such opinion as this concerning God, but believing Him to be a Spirit, unchangeable, incorporeal, present in His whole Being everywhere, any one thinks that the change on this body of ours (when from being a natural body it shall become a spiritual body) will be so great that in such a body it will be possible for us to see a spiritual substance not susceptible of division according to local distance or dimension, or even confined within the limits of bodily members, but everywhere present in its totality, I wish him to instruct me in this matter, if what he has discovered is true; but if in this opinion he is mistaken, it is far less objectionable to ascribe to the body something that does not belong to it, than to take away from God that which belongs to Him. And even if that opinion be correct, it will not contradict my words in that letter; for I said that the eyes of this body shall not see God, meaning that the eyes of this body of ours can see nothing but bodies which are separated from them by some interval of space, for if there be no interval, even bodies themselves cannot through the eyes be seen by us.

3. Moreover, if our bodies shall be changed into something so different from what they now are as to have eyes by means of which a substance shall be seen which is not diffused through space or confined within limits, having one part in one place, another in another, a smaller in a less space, a greater in a larger, but in its totality spiritually present everywhere,—these bodies shall be something very different from what they are at present, and shall no longer be themselves, and shall be not only freed from mortality, and corruption, and weight, but somehow or other shall be changed into the quality of the mind itself, if they shall be able to see in a manner which shall be then granted to the mind, but which is meanwhile not granted even to the mind itself. For if, when a man’s habits are changed, we say he is not the man he was,—if, when our age is changed, we say that the body is not what it was, how much more may we say that the body shall not be the same when it shall have undergone so great a change as not only to have immortal life, but also to have power to see Him who is invisible? Wherefore, if they shall thus see God, it is not with the eyes of this body that He shall be seen, because in this also it shall not be the same body, since it has been changed to so great an extent in capacity and power; and this opinion is, therefore, not contrary to the words of my letter. If, however, the body shall be changed only to this extent, that whereas now it is mortal, then it shall be immortal, and whereas now it weighs down the soul, then, devoid of weight, it shall be most ready for every motion, but unchanged in the faculty of seeing objects which are discerned by their dimensions and distances, it will still be utterly impossible for it to see a substance that is incorporeal and is in its totality present everywhere. Whether, therefore, the former or the latter supposition be correct, in both cases it remains true that the eyes of this body shall not see God; or if they are to see Him, they shall not be the eyes of this body, since after so great a change they shall be the eyes of a body very different from this.

4. But if this brother is able to propound anything better on this subject, I am ready to learn either from himself or from his instructor. If I were saying this ironically, I would also say that I am prepared to learn concerning God that He has a body having members, and is divisible in different localities in space; which I do not say, because I am not speaking ironically, and I am perfectly certain that God is not in any respect of such a nature; and I wrote that letter to prevent men from believing Him to be such. In that letter, being carried away by my zeal to warn against error, and writing more freely because I did not name the person whose views I assailed, I was too vehement and not sufficiently guarded, and did not consider as I ought to have done the respect which was due by one brother and bishop to the office of another: this I do not defend, but blame; this I condemn rather than excuse, and beg that it may be forgiven. I entreat him to remember our old friendship, and forget my recent offence. Let him do that which he is displeased with me for not having done; let him exhibit in granting pardon the gentleness which I have failed to show in writing that letter. I thus ask, through your kindly mediation, what I had resolved to ask of him in person if I had had an opportunity. I indeed made an effort to obtain an interview with him (a venerable man, worthy of being honoured by us all, writing to request it in my name), but he declined to come, suspecting, I suppose, that, as very often happens among men, some plot was prepared against him. Of my absolute innocence of such guile, I beg you to do your utmost to assure him, which by seeing him personally you can more easily do. State to him with what deep and genuine grief I conversed with you about my having hurt his feelings. Let him know how far I am from slighting him, how much in him I fear God, and am mindful of our Head in whose body we are brethren. My reason for thinking it better not to go to the place in which he resides was, that we might not make ourselves a laughing-stock to those without the pale of the Church, thereby bringing grief to our friends and shame to ourselves. All this may be satisfactorily arranged through the good offices of your Holiness and Charity; nay, rather, the satisfactory issue is in the hands of Him who, by the faith which is His gift, dwells in your heart, whom I am confident that our brother does not refuse to honour in you, since he knows Christ experimentally as dwelling in himself.

5. I, at all events, do not know what I could do better in this case than ask pardon from the brother who has complained that he was wounded by the harshness of my letter. He will, I hope, do what he knows to be enjoined on him by Him who, speaking through the apostle, says: “Forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as God in Christ has forgiven you;”1 “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.”2 Walking in this love, let us inquire with oneness of heart, and, if possible, with yet greater diligence than hitherto, into the nature of the spiritual body which we shall have after our resurrection. “And if in anything we be diversely minded, God shall reveal even this unto us,”3 if we abide in Him. Now he who dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, for “God is love,”4 —whether as the fountain of love in its ineffable essence, or as the fountain whence He freely gives it to us by His Spirit. If, then, it can be shown that love can at any time become visible to our bodily eyes, then we grant that possibly God shall be so too; but if love never can become visible, much less can He who is Himself its Fountain or whatever other figurative name more excellent or more appropriate can be employed in speaking of One so great.

Chap. ii.—

6. Some men of great gifts, and very learned in the Holy Scriptures, who have, when an opportunity presented itself, done much by their writings to benefit the Church and promote the instruction of believers, have said that the invisible God is seen in an invisible manner, that is, by that nature which in us also is invisible, namely, a pure mind or heart. The holy Ambrose, when speaking of Christ as the Word, says: “Jesus is seen not by the bodily, but by the spiritual eyes;” and shortly after he adds: “The Jews saw Him not, for their foolish heart was blinded,”5 showing in this way how Christ is seen. Also, when he was speaking of the Holy Spirit, he introduced the words of the Lord, saying: “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him;”1 and adds: “With good reason, therefore, did He show Himself in the body, since in the substance of His Godhead He is not seen. We have seen the Spirit, but in a bodily form: let us see the Father also; but since we cannot see Him, let us hear Him.” A little after he says: “Let us hear the Father, then, for the Father is invisible; but the Son also is invisible as regards His Godhead, for ‘no man hath seen God at any time;’2 and since the Son is God, He is certainly not seen in that in which He is God.”3

7. The holy Jerome also says: “The eye of man cannot see God as He is in His own nature; and this is true not of man only; neither angels, nor thrones, nor powers, nor principalities, nor any name which is named can see God, for no creature can see its Creator.” By these words this very learned man sufficiently shows what his opinion was on this subject in regard not only to the present life, but also to that which is to come. For however much the eyes of our body may be changed for the better, they shall only be made equal to the eyes of the angels. Here, however, Jerome has affirmed that the nature of the Creator is invisible even to the angels, and to every creature without exception in heaven. If, however, a question arise on this point, and a doubt is expressed whether we shall not be superior to the angels, the mind of the Lord Himself is plain from the words which He uses in speaking of those who shall rise again to the kingdom: “They shall be equal unto the angels.”4 Whence the same holy Jerome thus expresses himself in another passage: “Man, therefore, cannot see the face of God, but the angels of the least in the Church do always behold the face of God.5 And now we see as in a mirror darkly, in a riddle, but then face to face;6 when from being men we shall advance to the rank of angels, and shall be able to say with the apostle, ‘We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord;’7 although no creature can see the face of God, according to the essential properties of His nature, and He is, in these cases, seen by the mind, since He is believed to be invisible.”8

8. In these words of this man of God there are many things deserving our consideration: first, that in accordance with the very clear declaration of the Lord, he also is of opinion that we shall then see the face of God when we shall have advanced to the rank of angels, that is, shall be made equal to the angels, which doubtless shall be at the resurrection of the dead. Next, he has sufficiently explained by the testimony of the apostle, that the face is to be understood not of the outward but of the inward man, when it is said we shall “see face to face;” for the apostle was speaking of the face of the heart when he used the words quoted in this connection by Jerome: “We, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image.”9 If any one doubt this, let him examine the passage again, and notice of what the apostle was speaking, namely, of the veil, which remains on the heart of every one in reading the Old Testament, until he pass over to Christ, that the veil may be removed. For he there says: “We also, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,”—which face had not been unveiled in the Jews, of whom he says, “the veil is upon their heart,”—in order to show that the face unveiled in us when the veil is taken away is the face of the heart. In fine, lest any one, looking on these things with too little care and therefore failing to discern their meaning, should believe that God now is or shall hereafter be visible either to angels or to men, when they shall have been made equal to the angels, he has most plainly expressed his opinion by affirming that “no creature can see the face of God according to the essential properties of His nature,” and that “He is, in these cases, seen by the mind, since He is believed to be invisible.” From these statements he sufficiently showed that when God has been seen by men through the eyes of the body as if He had a body, He has not been seen as to the essential properties of his nature, in which He is seen by the mind, since He is believed to be invisible—invisible, that is to say, to the bodily perception even of celestial beings, as Jerome had said above, of angels, and powers, and principalities. How much more, then, is He invisible to terrestrial beings!

9. Wherefore, in another place, Jerome says in still plainer terms, it is true not only of the divinity of the Father but equally of that of the Son and of that of the Holy Spirit, forming one nature in the Trinity, that it cannot be seen by the eyes of the flesh, but by the eyes of the mind, of which the Saviour Himself says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”10 What could be more clear than this statement? For if he had merely said that it is impossible for the divinity of the Father, or of the Son, or of the Holy Spirit, to be seen by the eyes of the flesh, and had not added the words, “but only by the eyes of the mind,” it might perhaps have been said, that when the body shall have become spiritual it can no longer be called “flesh;” but by adding the words, “but only by the eyes of the mind,” he has excluded the vision of God from every sort of body. Lest, however, any one should suppose that he was speaking only of the present state of being, observe that he has subjoined also a testimony of the Lord, quoted with the design of defining the eyes of the mind of which he had spoken; in which testimony a promise is given not of present, but of future vision: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

10. The very blessed Athanasius, also, Bishop of Alexandria, when contending against the Arians, who affirm that the Father alone is invisible, but suppose the Son and the Holy Spirit to be visible, asserted the equal invisibility of all the Persons of the Trinity, proving it by testimonies from Holy Scripture, and arguing with all his wonted care in controversy, labouring earnestly to convince his opponents that God has never been seen, except through His assuming the form of a creature; and that in His essential Deity God is invisible, that is, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are invisible, except in so far as the Divine Persons can be known by the mind and the spirit. Gregory, also, a holy Eastern bishop, very plainly says that God, by nature invisible, had, on those occasions on which He was seen by the fathers (as by Moses, with whom He talked face to face), made it possible for Himself to be seen by assuming the form of something material and discernible.1 Our Ambrose says the same: “That the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, when visible, are seen under forms assumed by choice, not prescribed by the nature of Deity;”2 thus clearing the truth of the saying, “No man hath seen God at any time,”3 which is the word of the Lord Christ Himself, and of that other saying, “Whom no man hath seen, nor can see,”4 which is the word of the apostle, yea, rather, of Christ by His apostle; as well as vindicating the consistency of those passages of Scripture in which God is related to have been seen, because He is both invisible in the essential nature of His Deity, and able to become visible when He pleases, by assuming such created form as shall seem good to Him.

Chap. iii.

11. Moreover, if invisibility is a property of the divine nature, as incorruptibility is, that nature shall assuredly not undergo such a change in the future world as to cease to be invisible and become visible; because it shall never be possible for it to cease to be incorruptible and become corruptible, for it is in both attributes alike immutable. The apostle assuredly declared the excellence of the divine nature when he placed these two together, saying, “Now, unto the King of ages, invisible, incorruptible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever.”5 Wherefore I dare not make such a distinction as to say incorruptible, indeed, for ever and ever, but invisible—not for ever and ever, but only in this world. At the same time, since the testimonies which we are next to quote cannot be false,—“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,”6 and, “We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is,”7 —we cannot deny that the sons of God shall see God; but they shall see Him as invisible things are seen, in the manner in which He who appeared in the flesh, visible to men, promised that He would manifest Himself to men, when, speaking in the presence of the disciples and seen by their eyes, He said: “I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” In what other manner are invisible things seen than by the eyes of the mind, concerning which, as the instruments of our vision of God, I have shortly before quoted the opinion of Jerome?

12. Hence, also, the statement of the Bishop of Milan, whom I have quoted before, who says that even in the resurrection it is not easy for any but those who have a pure heart to see God, and therefore it is written, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” “How many,” he says, “had He already enumerated as blessed, and yet to them He had not promised the power of seeing God;” and he adds this inference, “If, therefore, the pure in heart shall see God, it is obvious that others shall not see Him;” and to prevent our understanding him to refer to those others of whom the Lord had said, “Blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek,” he immediately subjoined, “For those that are unworthy shall not see God,” intending it to be understood that the unworthy are those who, although they shall rise again, shall not be able to see God, since they shall rise to condemnation, because they refused to purify their hearts through that true faith which “worketh by love.”8 For this reason he goes on to say, “Whosoever has been unwilling to see God cannot see Him.” Then, since it occurred to him that, in a sense, even all wicked men have a desire to see God, he immediately explains that he used the words, “Whosoever has been unwilling to see God,” because the fact that the wicked do not desire to purify the heart, by which alone God can be seen, shows that they do not desire to see God, and follows up this statement with the words: “God is not seen in space, but in the pure heart; nor is He sought out by the eyes of the body; nor is He defined in form by our faculty of sight; nor grasped by the touch; His voice does not fall on the ear; nor are His goings perceived by the senses.”1 By these words the blessed Ambrose desired to teach the preparation which men ought to make if they wish to see God, viz. to purify the heart by the faith which worketh by love, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, from whom we have received the earnest by which we are taught to desire that vision.2

Chap. iv.—

13. For as to the members of God which the Scripture frequently mentions, lest any one should suppose that we resemble God as to the form and figure of the body, the same Scripture speaks of God as having also wings, which we certainly have not. As then, when we hear of the “wings” of God, we understand the divine protection, so by the “hands” of God we ought to understand His working,—by His “feet,” His presence,—by His “eyes,” His power of seeing and knowing all things,—by His face, that whereby He reveals Himself to our knowledge; and I believe that any other such expression used in Scripture is to be spiritually understood. In this opinion I am not singular, nor am I the first who has stated it. It is the opinion of all who by any spiritual interpretation of such language in Scripture resist those who are called Anthropomorphites. Not to occupy too much time by quoting largely from the writings of these men, I introduce here one extract from the pious Jerome, in order that our brother may know that, if anything moves him to maintain an opposite opinion, he is bound to carry on the debate with those who preceded me not less than with myself.

14. In the exposition which that most learned student of Scripture has given of the psalm in which occur the words, “Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? or He that formed the eye, doth He not behold?”3 he says, among other things: “This passage furnishes a strong argument against those who are Anthropomorphites, and say that God has members such as we have. For example, God is said by them to have eyes, because ‘the eyes of the Lord behold all things:’ in the same literal manner they take the statements that the hand of the Lord doeth all things, and that Adam ‘heard the sound of the feet of the Lord walking in the garden,’ and thus they ascribe the infirmities of men to the majesty of God. But I affirm that God is all eye, all hand, all foot: all eye, because He sees all things; all hand, because He worketh all things; all foot, because He is everywhere present. See, therefore, what the Psalmist saith: ‘He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, doth He not behold?’ He doth not say: ‘He that planted the ear, has He not an ear? and He that formed the eye, has He not an eye?’ But what does he say? ‘He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, doth He not behold?’ The Psalmist has ascribed to God the powers of seeing and hearing, but has not assigned members to Him.”4

15. I have thought it my duty to quote all these passages from the writings of both Latin and Greek authors who, being in the Catholic Church before our time, have written commentaries on the divine oracles, in order that our brother, if he hold any different opinion from theirs, may know that it becomes him, laying aside all bitterness of controversy, and preserving or reviving fully the gentleness of brotherly love, to investigate with diligent and calm consideration either what he must learn from others, or what others must learn from him. For the reasonings of any men whatsoever, even though they be Catholics, and of high reputation, are not to be treated by us in the same way as the canonical Scriptures are treated. We are at liberty, without doing any violence to the respect which these men deserve, to condemn and reject anything in their writings, if perchance we shall find that they have entertained opinions differing from that which others or we ourselves have, by the divine help, discovered to be the truth. I deal thus with the writings of others, and I wish my intelligent readers to deal thus with mine. In fine, I do by the help of the Lord most stedfastly believe, and, in so far as He enables me, I understand what is taught in all the statements which I have now quoted from the works of the holy and learned Ambrose, Jerome, Athanasius, Gregory, and in any other similar statements in other writers which I have read, but have for the sake of brevity forborne from quoting, namely, that God is not a body, that He has not the members of the human frame, that He is not divisible through space, and that He is unchangeably invisible, and appeared not in His essential nature and substance, but in such visible form as He pleased to those to whom he appeared on the occasions on which Scripture records that He was seen by holy persons with the eyes of the body.

Chap. v.—

16. As to the spiritual body which we shall have in the resurrection, how great a change for the better it is to undergo,—whether it shall become pure spirit, so that the whole man shall then be a spirit, or shall (as I rather think, but do not yet confidently maintain) become a spiritual body in such a way as to be called spiritual because of a certain ineffable facility in its movements, but at the same time to retain its material substance, which cannot live and feel by itself, but only through the spirit which uses it (for in our present state, in like manner, although the body is spoken of as animated [animal], the nature of the animating principle is different from that of the body),—and whether, if the properties of the body then immortal and incorruptible shall remain unchanged, it shall then in some degree aid the spirit to see visible, i.e. material things, as at present we are unable to see anything of that kind except through the eyes of the body, or our spirit shall then be able, even in its higher state, to know material things without the instrumentality of the body (for God Himself does not know these things through bodily senses),—on these and on many other things which may perplex us in the discussion of this subject, I confess that I have not yet read anywhere anything which I would esteem sufficiently established to deserve to be either learned or taught by men.

17. And for this reason, if our brother will bear patiently any degree whatever of hesitation on my part, let us in the meantime, because of that which is written, “We shall see Him as He is,” prepare, so far as with the help of God Himself we are enabled, hearts purified for that vision. Let us at the same time inquire more calmly and carefully concerning the spiritual body, for it may be that God, if He know this to be useful to us, may condescend to show us some definite and clear view on the subject, in accordance with His written word. For if a more careful investigation shall result in the discovery that the change on the body shall be so great that it shall be able to see things that are invisible, such power imparted to the body will not, I think, deprive the mind of the power of seeing, and thus give the outward man a vision of God which is denied to the inward man; as if, in contradiction of the plain words of Scripture, “that God may be all and in all,”1 God were only beside the man—without him, and not in the man, in his inner being; or as if He, who is everywhere present in his entirety, unlimited in space, is so within man that He can be seen outside only by the outward man, but cannot be seen inside by the inward man. If such opinions are palpably absurd,—for, on the contrary, the saints shall be full of God; they shall not, remaining empty within, be surrounded outside by Him; nor shall they, through being blind within, fail to see Him of whom they are full, and, having eyes only for that which is outside of themselves, behold Him by whom they shall be surrounded,—if, I say, these things are absurd, it remains for us to rest meanwhile certainly assured as to the vision of God by the inward man. But if, by some wondrous change, the body shall be endowed with this power, another new faculty shall be added; the faculty formerly possessed shall not be taken away.

18. It is better, then, that we affirm that concerning which we have no doubt,—that God shall be seen by the inward man, which alone is able, in our present state, to see that love in commendation of which the apostle says, “God is love;”2 the inward man, which alone is able to see “peace and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”3 For no fleshly eye now sees love, peace, and holiness, and such things; yet all of them are seen, so far as they can be seen, by the eye of the mind, and the purer it is the more clearly it sees; so that we may, without hesitation, believe that we shall see God, whether we succeed or fail in our investigations as to the nature of our future body—although, at the same time, we hold it to be certain that the body shall rise again, immortal and incorruptible, because on this we have the plainest and strongest testimony of Holy Scripture. If, however, our brother affirm now that he has arrived at certain knowledge as to that spiritual body, in regard to which I am only inquiring, he will have just cause to be displeased with me if I shall refuse to listen calmly to his instructions, provided only that he also listen calmly to my questions. Now, however, I entreat you, for Christ’s sake, to obtain his forgiveness for me for that harshness in my letter, by which, as I have learned, he was, not without cause, offended; and may you, by God’s help, cheer my spirit by your answer.

[2 ]Fortunatianus, Bishop of Sicqua, was one of the seven bishops selected to represent the Catholics in the Conference of Carthage with the Donatists in 411. He was probably a neighbour of the bishop who had regarded himself as aggrieved by the arguments with which Augustin confuted some extravagant speculations of his.

[3 ]1 Cor. xiii. 12.

[1 ]Col. iii. 13.

[2 ]Eph. v. 1, 2.

[3 ]Phil. iii. 15, 16.

[4 ]1 John iv. 16.

[5 ]Ambrosius, Lib. i. in Luc. c. i.

[1 ]John xiv. 16, 17.

[2 ]1 John iv. 12.

[3 ]Ambrosius, Lib. ii. in Luc. c. iii. v. 22.

[4 ]Luke xx. 36.

[5 ]Matt. xviii. 10.

[6 ]1 Cor. xiii. 12.

[7 ]2 Cor. iii. 18.

[8 ]Hieron. lib. i. in Isai, i.

[9 ]2 Cor. iii. 18.

[10 ]Hieron. lib. iii. in Isa, i.

[1 ]See the 49th of the discourses published under the name of Gregory of Nazianzum. M. Dupin has shown that the discourse in question must have been the work of some Latin author.

[2 ]Ambrose on Luke, c. i. 11.

[3 ]John i. 18.

[4 ]1 Tim. vi. 16.

[5 ]1 Tim. i. 17.

[6 ]Matt. v. 8.

[7 ]1 John iii. 2.

[8 ]Gal. v. 6.

[1 ]Ambrose on Luke, i. 11.

[2 ]2 Cor. v. 4-8.

[3 ]Ps. xciv. 8, 9.

[4 ]Jerome, in loc.

[1 ]1 Cor. xv. 28.

[2 ]1 John iv. 8.

[3 ]Heb. xii. 14.