Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 3 part 31/87

assuredly their authority would be preferred, not by the sense of the body, but by the reason of the mind. But since God has so acted, for the commending of the eloquence of His truth, that through those immortal messengers, who proclaim not their own haughtiness but His majesty, He has wrought greater, more certain, more illustrious miracles — lest those who demand sacrifices for themselves should the more easily persuade the weak and pious of a false religion, by showing to their senses certain astounding things — who, pray, would take such pleasure in being so foolish as not to choose the true things to follow, where he also finds the greater things to admire?

For those miracles of the gods of the nations which history commends — I do not mean those which, at intervals of times, by hidden causes of the world itself, yet constituted and ordained under divine providence, occur as monstrous things; such as the unusual births of animals, and the unwonted aspect of things in heaven and on earth, whether only terrifying or even harmful, which their most deceitful cunning alleges to be averted and mitigated by demonic rites; but I mean those which appear evidently enough to be done by their force and power, as is the fact that the images of the Penates gods, which Aeneas brought away as he fled from Troy, are recorded to have migrated from place to place; that Tarquinius cut a whetstone with a razor:

that the Epidaurian serpent clung as a companion to Aesculapius sailing to Rome; that the ship which bore the image of the Phrygian Mother, rendered immovable by such great efforts of men and oxen, one little woman, having bound it with her girdle, moved and drew it as a testimony of her chastity; that a Vestal virgin, concerning whose corruption a charge was being raised, took away the controversy by carrying water in a sieve from the Tiber without its flowing through — these, then, and things of this sort, are by no means to be compared in virtue and magnitude with those which we read to have been done among the people of God; how much less those which, even by the laws of those very peoples who worshipped such gods, were judged to be forbidden and to be punished, namely the magical or theurgic arts!

the most part of which deceive the senses of mortals merely in appearance by imaginary mockery — such as 'to draw down the moon,' (until, as Lucanus says, drawing nearer, it foams down upon the herbs set beneath it); whereas certain others, even though they seem in operation to be on a par with some deeds of the pious, the very end by which they are distinguished shows these of ours to excel incomparably. For in the former case, the more these things are demanded, the less are the demanders to be worshipped with sacrifices; but in the latter case, the one God is commended, who shows, both by the testimony of His Scriptures and by the later removal of those same sacrifices, that He needs none of such things. If therefore angels demand sacrifice for themselves, those are to be preferred to them who demand it not for themselves, but for God the Creator of all, whom they serve.

For hence they show with what sincere love they love us, when through sacrifice they wish to subject us, not to themselves, but to Him by whose contemplation they themselves also are blessed, and they wish us to attain unto Him from whom they themselves have not departed. But if angels, who wish sacrifices to be made not to one but to many, wish them made not to themselves but to those gods of whom they are the angels: even so are to be preferred to them those who are angels of the one God of gods, to whom they so command sacrifice to be made as to forbid it to any other, while none of them forbids it to Him to whom these alone command sacrifice to be made. But further, if — as their proud deceit rather indicates — they are angels neither good nor of good gods,

but evil demons, who wish not the one and supreme God, but themselves, to be worshipped with sacrifices: what greater protection is to be chosen against them than that of the one God, whom the good angels serve, who command us to serve with sacrifice not themselves, but Him, whose sacrifice we ourselves ought to be? CHAPTER XVII. Concerning the ark of the covenant and the miracles of signs which were divinely wrought for the commending of the authority of the law and of the promise. Accordingly, the law of God, which was given in the proclamations of the angels, in which the one God of gods was commanded to be worshipped with the religion of sacred rites, while all others whatsoever were forbidden, was placed in the ark, which was called the ark of the testimony.

By which name it is sufficiently signified that the God who was worshipped through all those things is not wont to be enclosed or contained in a place — since His responses and certain signs were given to human senses from the place of that ark — but that the testimonies of His will were borne hence; for the law itself also was inscribed on tablets of stone and placed, as I have said, in the ark, which, in the time of their pilgrimage in the wilderness, the priests bore with due veneration along with the tabernacle, which was likewise called the tabernacle of the testimony; and there was a sign, in that by day a cloud appeared, which shone like fire by night; and when this cloud moved, the camp was moved, and where it stood, the camp was pitched.

But there were rendered to that law testimonies of great miracle, besides those which I have mentioned, and besides the voices which were uttered from the place of that ark. For when, as they entered the land of promise, that same ark passed over, the river Jordan, halting from the upper part and running down from the lower, afforded both to it and to the people a dry place for crossing. Then, when that same ark had been carried around seven times, the walls of the city which first met them as hostile, worshipping after the manner of the nations many gods, suddenly fell, assailed by no hand, struck by no battering-ram. After these things, also, when they were already in the land of promise and that same ark had, because of their sins, been captured by the enemies:

those who had captured it placed it honourably in the temple of their god, whom they worshipped above the rest, and departing, shut the doors; and when they opened them on the next day, they found the image to which they made supplication fallen down and shamefully broken. Then they themselves, driven by portents and the more shamefully punished, restored the ark of the divine testimony to the people from whom they had captured it. But what manner of restoration was it! They placed it upon a wagon, and yoked to it heifers from whom they had drawn away their suckling calves, and let them go where they would, desiring even thereby to test the divine power. But those heifers, without man as leader and driver, persistently treading the way to the Hebrews, nor recalled by the lowings of their hungry offspring, bore back a great mystery to its worshippers.

These things and such-like are small to God, but great for the salutary terrifying and instructing of mortals. For if the philosophers, and especially the Platonists, are praised as having been wiser than the rest, as I mentioned a little before, in that they taught that the divine providence administers even these lowest and earthly things, by the testimony of the numerous beauties which are produced not only in the bodies of animals but even in herbs and in grass: how much more evidently do those things attest divinity which are done at the hour of His proclamation, where that religion is commended which forbids sacrifice to be made to all the heavenly, earthly, and infernal beings, commanding it to the one God alone, who alone, loving and beloved, makes men blessed, and who, prefixing

the appointed times for those sacrifices, and foretelling that they were to be changed for the better through a better Priest, testifies that He does not seek these things for Himself, but signifies through them other and more excellent things — not that He Himself may be exalted by these honours, but that we, kindled by the fire of His love, may be roused to worship Him and cleave to Him, which is a good for us, not for Him. CHAPTER XVIII. Against those who, concerning the miracles by which the people of God was instructed, deny that credit is to be given to the ecclesiastical books. But will anyone say that these miracles are false and were not done, but mendaciously written? Whoever says this, if he denies that any letters at all are to be believed concerning such matters, can also say that no gods care for mortal things.

For they persuaded that they were to be worshipped in no other way than by the effects of marvellous works, of which the history of the nations also is witness, whose gods were able to show themselves marvellous rather than to show themselves useful. Whence in this our work, of which we now have this tenth book in hand, we have not undertaken to refute those who deny that there is any divine power at all, or contend that it does not care for human things, but those who prefer their own gods to our God, the Founder of the holy and most glorious City — not knowing that He Himself is also the invisible and immutable Founder of this visible and mutable world, and the most truthful Bestower of the blessed life, not from those things which He founded, but from Himself. For His most truthful prophet says:

'But for me it is good to cleave to God.' For among the philosophers the question is raised concerning the end of good, toward whose attainment all duties are to be referred. And this man did not say, 'But for me it is good to abound in riches,' or 'to be distinguished by purple and to excel by scepter or diadem,' nor, as some even of the philosophers were not ashamed to say, 'For me the pleasure of the body is good'; nor, as those who seemed somewhat better appeared to say, 'For me the virtue of my soul is good'; but he said, 'But for me it is good to cleave to God.' This he had been taught by Him to whom alone sacrifice is to be offered, as His holy angels admonished him by the very testimony of their miracles.

Whence he himself had become a sacrifice to Him, by whose intelligible fire he was seized and burned, and was borne by holy desire into His ineffable and incorporeal embrace. Furthermore, if the worshippers of many gods (whatever they suppose their gods to be) believe that miracles were wrought by them, whether from the histories of civil affairs or from books of magic or, as they more honorably reckon, from books of theurgy: what reason is there why they should be unwilling to believe that these things were done according to those Scriptures, to which so much the greater faith is owed as He is great above all, to whom alone they command that sacrifice be offered? CHAPTER 19. What is the reason for the visible sacrifice, which true religion teaches is to be offered to the one true and invisible God.

But those who think that these visible sacrifices are fitting for other gods, while to Him as invisible are fitting invisible things, to the greater greater things, to the better better things—such as are the offices of a pure mind and a good will—truly they do not know that these things are signs of those realities, just as spoken words are signs of things. Wherefore, just as when praying and praising we direct to Him significant utterances, while we offer in our heart the very realities which we signify: so when sacrificing let us know that a visible sacrifice is to be offered to no other than to Him whose invisible sacrifice we ourselves ought to be in our hearts.

Then the angels favor us and rejoice with us, and to this very end help us according to their powers—the angels and the higher virtues, themselves more powerful by their very goodness and piety. But if we should wish to render these things to them, they do not gladly accept them; and when they are sent to men in such a way that their presence is perceived, they most plainly forbid it. There are examples in the holy Scriptures. Certain men supposed that the honor due to God ought to be offered to angels by adoring or sacrificing, and they were prohibited by the angels' admonition and bidden to render this to Him to whom alone they knew it was lawful. The holy men of God also imitated the holy angels.

For Paul and Barnabas in Lycaonia, when a certain miracle of healing had been wrought, were thought to be gods, and the Lycaonians wished to sacrifice victims to them; but they, removing this from themselves with humble piety, announced to them the God in whom they should believe. Nor do those deceitful spirits proudly demand this for themselves for any other reason than because they know it is owed to the true God. For not in very truth, as Porphyry and some suppose, do they rejoice in the odors of corpses, but in divine honors. Indeed they have an abundant supply of odors from every side, and if they wished for more, they could provide them for themselves.

Therefore those spirits who arrogate divinity to themselves are delighted not by the smoke of any body, but by the soul of the suppliant, over whom, when deceived and subjected, they may rule, blocking the way to the true God, lest a man should be His sacrifice while he sacrifices to any other than Him. CHAPTER 20. Of the highest and true sacrifice, which He Himself, the Mediator of God and men, became. Hence that true Mediator, inasmuch as by taking the form of a servant He was made the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, although in the form of God He receives sacrifice together with the Father, with whom He is also one God, yet in the form of a servant He chose rather to be a sacrifice than to receive one, lest by this occasion anyone should suppose that sacrifice ought to be offered to any creature.

Through this He is also priest, Himself the one offering, Himself also the oblation. Of which thing He willed that the daily sacrament should be the Church's sacrifice, which, since she is the body of this Head, learns to offer herself through Him. Of this true sacrifice the ancient sacrifices of the saints were the manifold and varied signs, since this one thing was prefigured through many, just as one reality is uttered by many words, that it might be commended much without weariness. To this highest and true sacrifice all false sacrifices have yielded. CHAPTER 21. Of the measure of power given to the demons for glorifying the saints through the endurance of sufferings, who overcame the aerial spirits not by appeasing them, but by abiding in God.

But within moderated and predetermined times, the power even permitted to the demons—so that, by stirring up the men whom they possess, they may tyrannically exercise enmities against the City of God, and may not only receive sacrifices for themselves from those who offer them and demand them from those who are willing, but may even violently extort them from the unwilling by persecution—this power is not only not pernicious, but is even found useful to the Church, that the number of martyrs may be filled up; whom the City of God holds as so much the more illustrious and honored citizens, as they more bravely contend, even unto blood, against the sin of impiety. These, if the ecclesiastical custom of speaking allowed it, we would much more elegantly call our heroes.

For this name is said to be derived from Juno, because in Greek Juno is called Hēra; and therefore some son of hers, according to the fables of the Greeks, was named Heros—the fable signifying this, as it were, mystically: that the air is assigned to Juno, where they hold that the heroes dwell together with the demons, by which name they call the souls of the deceased who are of some merit.

But on the contrary our martyrs would be called heroes—if, as I said, the usage of ecclesiastical speech admitted it—not because they had any fellowship with the demons in the air, but because they conquered those very demons, that is, the aerial powers, and in them Juno herself, whatever she is thought to signify; for Juno is not altogether unfittingly introduced by the poets as hostile to virtues and envious of the brave men who seek heaven. But again Virgil unhappily succumbs to her and yields, so that, when in his work she says: 'I am conquered by Aeneas,' Helenus admonishes Aeneas himself as if by religious counsel and says: 'Sing willingly the rites made known to Juno, and overcome the powerful mistress with suppliant gifts.'

From which opinion Porphyry—although not from his own judgment, but from that of others—says that a good god or genius does not come into a man unless the evil one has first been appeased; as though the evil deities are stronger among them than the good, since indeed the evil ones hinder the helps of the good, unless, being appeased, they yield place to them, and when the evil ones are unwilling, the good cannot profit; yet the evil ones can harm, while the good are not strong enough to resist them. This is not the way of the true and truly holy religion; not thus do our martyrs conquer Juno, that is, the aerial powers that envy the virtues of the pious. Not at all—if it could be said in customary fashion—do our heroes overcome Hēra by suppliant gifts, but by divine virtues.

For Scipio was more fittingly surnamed Africanus, because he conquered Africa by virtue, than if he had appeased his enemies with gifts that they might spare him. CHAPTER 22. Whence the saints have power against the demons, and whence comes the true purgation of the heart. By true piety the men of God cast out the aerial power that is hostile and contrary to piety, by exorcizing, not by appeasing; and they overcome all the temptations of its adversity by praying, not to it, but to their God against it. For it conquers or subjugates no one except by fellowship in sin.

Therefore it is conquered in His name who assumed manhood and acted without sin, so that in Him as both priest and sacrifice there might be remission of sins—that is, through the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, through whom, the purgation of sins having been accomplished, we are reconciled to God. For men are separated from God by nothing but sins, the purgation of which in this life is wrought not by our virtue, but by the divine compassion, through His indulgence, not through our power; for even that virtue, however little, which is called ours, has been granted to us by His goodness. We would attribute much to ourselves in this flesh, did we not live under pardon until its laying down.

Therefore grace has been bestowed on us through the Mediator, so that, being defiled by the flesh of sin, we might be cleansed by the likeness of sinful flesh. By this grace of God, in which He has shown His great mercy toward us, we are both governed in this life by faith, and after this life shall be led to the fullest perfection by the very vision of the unchangeable Truth. CHAPTER 23. Of the principles in which the Platonists profess that the purgation of the soul consists. Porphyry also says that it was answered by divine oracles that we are not purified by rites of the moon and of the sun, so that from this it might be shown that a man can be purified by the rites of no gods. For if the rites of the moon and the sun do not purify, whose rites purify, since they hold these to be chief among the celestial gods?

Finally, he says it was expressed by the same oracle that 'principles' can purify—lest perhaps, when it had been said that the rites of the sun and moon do not purify, the rites of some other god from the crowd should be believed to avail for purifying. But what he means by 'principles,' as a Platonist, we know. For he speaks of God the Father and God the Son, whom in Greek he calls 'the paternal intellect' or 'the paternal mind'; but concerning the Holy Spirit he says either nothing or nothing openly; though what other he calls the middle one of these, I do not understand. For if, like Plotinus, where he discusses the three principal substances, he too wished the nature of the soul to be understood as the third, he would certainly not call it the middle one of these, that is, the middle of the Father and the Son.

For Plotinus subordinates the nature of the soul to the paternal intellect; but this man, when he says 'middle,' does not subordinate, but interposes. And doubtless he said this as he could or as he wished—what we call the Holy Spirit, neither of the Father only nor of the Son only, but the Spirit of both. For the philosophers speak with unrestrained words, nor in matters most difficult to understand do they fear to give offense to religious ears. But for us it is right to speak according to a fixed rule, lest by license of words there be begotten an impious opinion even concerning the things which are signified by them. CHAPTER 24. Of the one and true Principle, which alone purifies and renews human nature.

We therefore, when we speak of God, do not in this way say two or three principles, just as it is not lawful for us to say two or three gods—although, when speaking of each one, whether of the Father or of the Son or of the Holy Spirit, we confess that each singly is God, yet we do not say, as the Sabellian heretics do, that the same is the Father who is also the Son, and the same the Holy Spirit who is both the Father and the Son; but that the Father is the Father of the Son, and the Son the Son of the Father, and the Holy Spirit of the Father and of the Son is neither the Father nor the Son. Truly therefore it was said that a man is not purified except by a Principle, although among them principles are spoken of in the plural.

But Porphyry, being subjected to the envious powers—of which he was both ashamed and yet feared to refute them freely—was unwilling to understand that the Lord Christ is the Principle by whose incarnation we are purified. For he despised Him in that very flesh which He assumed for the sake of the sacrifice of our purgation, not understanding, by that pride of his, the great sacrament which the true and kindly Mediator cast down by His humility, showing Himself in that mortality to mortals, which the malignant and deceitful mediators, by not having it, more proudly exalted themselves, and promised to wretched men, as it were as immortals to mortals, a deceptive help.

The good and true Mediator therefore showed that sin is evil, not the substance or nature of flesh, which together with the soul of man could both be assumed without sin, and be possessed, and be laid down by death, and be changed for the better by resurrection; nor that death itself, although it was the penalty of sin—which yet He Himself paid for us without sin—is to be avoided by sinning, but rather, if the means be given, to be endured for the sake of righteousness. For He was able to loose sins by dying for this reason, that He both died, and not for sin. This Mediator that Platonist did not recognize to be the Principle; for he would have recognized Him as the purifying One. For neither flesh is the Principle, nor the human soul, but the Word through whom all things were made.

Therefore flesh does not cleanse by itself, but through the Word by which it was assumed, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. For when He spoke mystically of His flesh being eaten, and those who did not understand withdrew offended, saying, 'This is a hard saying; who can hear it?'—He answered the rest who remained: 'It is the Spirit that gives life, but the flesh profits nothing.' The Principle therefore, having assumed soul and flesh, cleanses both the soul and the flesh of those who believe. Hence, when the Jews asked who He was, He answered that He was the Principle. Which indeed we, being carnal, weak, liable to sins, and wrapped in the darkness of ignorance, could in no way perceive, unless we were cleansed and healed by Him through that which we were and were not.

For we were men, but we were not righteous; whereas in His incarnation there was a human nature, but it was righteous, not sinful. This is the mediation by which a hand was stretched out to the fallen and the prostrate; this is the seed ordained through angels, in whose edicts also the Law was given, by which the one God was commanded to be worshipped and this Mediator who was to come was promised. CHAPTER 25. That all the saints, both under the time of the Law and under the earlier ages, were justified in the sacrament and faith of Christ.

By faith in this sacrament even the righteous of old were able to be cleansed by living piously, not only before the Law was given to the Hebrew people (for neither did God as preacher nor the angels fail them), but also in the very times of the Law, although it seemed to hold carnal promises in figures of spiritual things, on account of which it is called the Old Testament. For there were prophets then also, through whom, as through angels, the same promise was preached; and of their number was he whose so great and divine sentence concerning the end of human good I cited a little before: 'But for me it is good to cleave to God.' In which psalm the distinction of the two testaments, which are called Old and New, is sufficiently declared.

For on account of the carnal and earthly promises, when he saw them abound to the ungodly, he says that his feet were almost moved and his steps well-nigh poured out into a fall, as though he had served God in vain, since he saw the despisers of God flourish with that felicity which he expected from Him; and that he had labored in the inquiry of this matter, wishing to grasp why it was so, until he should enter into the sanctuary of God and understand concerning the last end of those who seemed happy, while he himself was erring. Then he understood that they had been cast down in that very thing in which they exalted themselves, as he says, and had failed and perished on account of their iniquities;

and that the whole height of their temporal felicity was made to them as the dream of one awaking, who suddenly finds himself bereft of the deceptive joys he was dreaming. And since in this earth or in the earthly city they seemed great to themselves, he says: 'Lord, in Thy city Thou wilt bring their image to nothing.' Yet that it was profitable for him to seek even earthly things from none but the one true God, in whose power are all things, he sufficiently shows where he says: 'I am become as a beast before Thee, and I am always with Thee.'

'As a beast,' he said, that is, 'not understanding.' 'For I ought to have desired from Thee those things which cannot be common to me with the ungodly; and seeing that they abounded in these, I thought that I had served Thee in vain, since those also possessed these things who had been unwilling to serve Thee. Yet I am always with Thee, who even in the desire of such things did not seek other gods.' And through this it follows: 'Thou hast held my right hand, and in Thy will Thou hast led me, and with glory Thou hast taken me up'; as though all those things pertain to the left hand, on seeing which abound among the ungodly he was almost overthrown. 'For what have I in heaven, and what have I desired upon earth besides Thee?'

He reproved himself and justly was displeased with himself, because, when he had so great a good in heaven (which he afterward understood), he sought from his God upon earth a transitory thing, a fragile and in a manner muddy felicity. 'My heart and my flesh have failed,' he says, 'O God of my heart'—by that failing, surely a good one, from lower things to higher; whence in another psalm it is said: 'My soul desires and faints for the courts of the Lord'; likewise in another: 'My soul has fainted for Thy salvation.' Yet, when he had spoken of both, that is, of the heart and the flesh failing, he did not add: 'God of my heart and of my flesh,' but 'God of my heart.' For through the heart the flesh is cleansed. Whence the Lord says: 'Cleanse the things that are within, and the things that are without shall be clean.'

Then he calls God Himself his portion, not something from Him, but Himself. 'God,' he says, 'of my heart, and my portion is God for ever'; because, among the many things which are chosen by men, He Himself pleased him as the one to be chosen. 'For behold,' he says, 'those who put themselves far from Thee shall perish; Thou hast destroyed everyone who fornicates away from Thee'—that is, who wishes to be the harlot of many gods. Whence follows that, on account of which the other things from the same psalm also seemed worth saying: 'But for me it is good to cleave to God,' not to go far off, not to fornicate after many. But to cleave to God will then be perfect, when the whole that is to be set free shall have been set free. But now is done that which follows: 'To set my hope in God.' For hope that is seen is not hope;