Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 5 part 89/118

'No man hath ascended into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.' Although in respect of that whereby he was the Son of God he was in heaven, yet in respect of that whereby he was the Son of man he was still on earth and had not yet ascended into heaven. Likewise, since in respect of that whereby he is the Son of God he is the Lord of glory, while in respect of that whereby he is the Son of man he was crucified, the Apostle nonetheless says: 'For had they known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.' And thus both the Son of man according to his Godhead was in heaven, and the Son of God according to his manhood was being crucified on earth. Therefore, just as it could rightly be said that the Lord of glory was crucified, though that suffering pertained to the flesh alone, so too it could rightly be said:

'Today shalt thou be with me in paradise,' since according to his human lowliness he was on that day to be, by the flesh in the tomb and by the soul in that underworld, whereas according to his divine unchangeableness he had never departed from paradise, because he is everywhere always present. Therefore do not doubt that the man Christ Jesus is now there, whence he shall come; and remember well and hold faithfully the Christian confession, that he rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and from no other place than thence shall come to judge the living and the dead. And so he shall come, as that angelic voice testifies, in the same manner as he was seen to go into heaven, that is, in the same form and substance of flesh, to which he indeed gave immortality but did not take away its nature.

According to this form he must not be thought to be diffused everywhere. For we must beware lest, in asserting the divinity of the man, we take away the reality of his body. Yet it does not follow that what is in God is everywhere as God is. For even concerning ourselves the most truthful Scripture says that 'in him we live and move and have our being,' and yet we are not everywhere as he is; but that man is in God in one way, since indeed that God is also in man in another way, by a certain proper and singular manner. For God and man are one person, and both are the one Christ Jesus, everywhere in respect of that whereby he is God, but in heaven in respect of that whereby he is man. And yet, even in the very statement that God is diffused everywhere,

we must resist the carnal imagination and call the mind away from the senses of the body, lest we suppose that God is diffused through all things as by some vast spatial magnitude, as this earth or water or air or light is spread out — for every magnitude of this kind is less in its part than in the whole — but rather as great wisdom is even in a man whose body is small. And if there be two wise men, of whom one is larger in body but neither is wiser, that wisdom is not greater in the larger nor less in the smaller, nor less in one than in two, but as great in this one as in that, and as great in each as in both. For neither —

if they are altogether equally wise, do the two together have more wisdom than each singly, just as, if they are equally immortal, the two do not live more than each singly. In short, the very immortality of the body, which went before in the flesh of Christ and is promised to us as future in the end, although it is a great thing, is assuredly not great by bulk, but, though it is possessed corporeally, it is possessed by a certain incorporeal excellence. For since the immortal body itself is less in a part than in the whole, its immortality is as full in the part as in the whole; and since some members are larger than others, yet no members are more immortal than others — just as now, when we are sound in every part, according to the measure of the present health in the body.

We do not, because the whole hand is larger than a finger, therefore say that the health of the whole hand is greater than that of the finger. But in those unequal parts the health itself is equal, when the smaller are so compared with the larger that what cannot be as large as another can nonetheless be as sound. Yet there would be greater health in the larger members if the larger were sounder; but since this is not so, but the larger and smaller are equally sound, the quantity in the bulk of the members is indeed unequal, yet the health in these unequal things is equal. Since therefore the body is a certain substance, its quantity lies in the magnitude of its bulk; but its health is not its quantity but its quality.

Therefore the quantity of the body could not attain what the quality could. For that quantity, being in parts set apart which cannot be together — since each occupies its own spaces of place, the smaller the smaller and the larger the larger — could not be whole, or as great, in each several part; but the quantity is ampler in the ampler parts, briefer in the briefer, and in no part as great as through the whole. But the quality of the body, which is called health, when the body is wholly sound, is as great in the larger as in the smaller parts. For those parts that are less large are not therefore less sound, nor are the ampler therefore sounder.

Far be it, then, that what the quality of a created body can do, the very substance of the Creator cannot do in itself. God, then, is diffused through all things. For he himself says through the prophet: 'I fill heaven and earth'; and what I set down a little before concerning his wisdom: 'It reacheth mightily from end to end, and ordereth all things sweetly'; and again it is written: 'The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world'; and to him it is said in a certain psalm: 'Whither shall I go from thy spirit? and whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I descend into hell, thou art present.'

But God is so diffused through all things that he is not the quality of the world but the substance that creates the world, ruling it without toil and holding it together without burden — yet not spread out through the spaces of place as though by bulk, so that he should be half in half the body of the world and half in the other half, and thus wholly through the whole; but he is wholly in heaven alone, and wholly on earth alone, and wholly in both heaven and earth, contained by no place but wholly everywhere in himself. So the Father, so the Son, so the Holy Spirit, so the Trinity, one God. For they did not divide the world among themselves into three parts, that each singly should fill his own, as though the Son or the Holy Spirit would have no place to be in the world if the Father had occupied the whole.

The true, incorporeal, and unchangeable divinity is not so constituted. For they are not bodies, whose magnitude would be ampler in three than in single, nor do they occupy places by their bulks, so that they could not be together in separated spaces. For if the soul, set in the body, finds not only no straitness but even a certain breadth — not of bodily places but of spiritual joys — when that comes to pass which the Apostle says: 'Know ye not, that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, whom ye have from God?' And it cannot be said, save most foolishly, that the Holy Spirit has no room in our body because our soul has filled the whole of it.

How much more foolishly is it said that the Trinity is anywhere hindered by any straits, so that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit cannot be everywhere together! But this is far more marvelous, that although God is everywhere whole, yet he does not dwell in all. For it cannot be said to all what the Apostle says, either what I have already quoted, or also this: 'Know ye not, that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?' Whence, on the contrary, he says of certain persons: 'But whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.' Who, moreover, would dare to suppose —

except one wholly ignorant of the inseparability of the Trinity — that the Father or the Son could dwell in someone in whom the Holy Spirit does not dwell, or the Holy Spirit in someone in whom the Father and the Son do not also dwell? Whence it must be confessed that God is everywhere by the presence of his divinity, but not everywhere by the grace of his indwelling. For it is on account of this indwelling, wherein without doubt the grace of his love is acknowledged, that we do not say: 'Our Father, who art everywhere' — though this also be true — but: 'Our Father, who art in heaven,' that in prayer we may rather call to mind his temple, which we ourselves also ought to be, and, insofar as we are, so far do we belong to his fellowship and to the family of adoption.

For if the people of God, not yet made equal to his angels, still in this pilgrimage is called his temple, how much more is his temple in the heavens, where there is the people of angels, to whom we are to be joined and made equal, when, our pilgrimage ended, we shall have received what is promised! Since therefore he who is everywhere does not dwell in all, and even in those in whom he dwells he does not dwell equally — for whence comes that which Elisha asked, that the Spirit of God who was in Elijah should be doubled in him? And whence are some saints holier than others among all the saints, save by more abundantly having God as their indweller? In what manner, then, is it true, as we said above, that God is everywhere whole, when in some he is more and in others less?

But we must not carelessly consider what we said, that he is everywhere whole in himself — not therefore in those things which grasp him, some more, some less. For he is said to be everywhere because he is absent from no part of things; and to be whole because he does not offer his part present to one part of things and another part to another, equal parts to equal, but a lesser part to the lesser and a greater to the greater; rather he is wholly present, and equally so, not only to the whole of creation but also to any part of it. And those are said to be far from him who by sinning have become most unlike him, and those to draw near to him who by living devoutly receive his likeness — just as the eyes are rightly said to be the farther from this light the blinder they are;

for what is so far from light as blindness, even if the light be at hand and pour itself upon the extinguished eyes? But eyes are rightly held to draw near to the light which, by the coming of health, make progress in receiving sight. Further, what we thought could be too little distinctly understood, when we said that God is everywhere whole unless we added 'in himself,' must for that reason be more diligently expounded. For how is he everywhere, if in himself? Everywhere, namely, because he is nowhere absent; but in himself, because he is not contained by those things to which he is present, as though he could not be without them. For take away the spaces of place from bodies, and they will be nowhere; and because they will be nowhere, they will not be at all.

Take away the bodies themselves from the qualities of bodies, and there will be no place for them to be, and therefore they must necessarily not be. For when a body is equally sound throughout its whole bulk, or equally white, the health or whiteness is not greater in any one part than in another, nor greater in the whole than in the part, because the whole is not more sound or white than the part. But if it be unequally sound or unequally white, it can happen that in a smaller part there is greater health or whiteness, when the smaller members are sounder or whiter than the larger — so far is it that what is said to be great or small in qualities consists not in bulk.

But nevertheless, if the very bulk of the body, however great or however small it be, be entirely taken away, there will be no place for its qualities to be, although they are not to be measured by bulk. But God is not therefore lesser if he is grasped less by that to which he is present. For he is whole in himself, nor is he in those things in which he is in such a way that he needs them, as though he could not be except in them. But just as he is not absent even from that in which he does not dwell, and is wholly present, although that thing does not have him, so also to that in which he dwells he is wholly present, although it does not grasp him wholly.

For he does not, in order to dwell, divide himself among the hearts or bodies of men, assigning one part of himself to this one and another to that, as this light does through the entrances and windows of houses; but rather, if any deaf man does not grasp a sound at all, since it is a corporeal and transitory thing, and one somewhat deaf does not grasp the whole, and among those who hear, though they be equally near it, one grasps more than another the more acute his hearing, and the less the duller — though it does not sound now more, now less variously, but is equally present to all in the place in which they are — how much more excellently is God, of an incorporeal nature and unchangeably living, who cannot, like a sound, be stretched and divided through the delays of time, nor needs a space of air as his own place where he may be present to those present, but abiding wholly in himself in eternal stability can be present to all things and wholly to each, although those in whom he dwells have him according to the diversity of their capacity, some more, some less — those whom he himself, by the grace of his goodness, builds up for himself as a most beloved temple!

And indeed the diversities of gifts are spoken of as through the parts and members of one body, wherein all together are one temple and each singly are single temples, because God is not greater in all than in single, and it often comes to pass that many grasp him less and one more. But when the Apostle had said: 'Now there are diversities of gifts,' he immediately added: 'but the same Spirit'; and again, when he had recounted the very diversities of gifts, 'but all these,' he says, 'worketh one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will'; dividing, therefore, not himself divided, because he himself is one and the selfsame.

But those divisions are spoken of as of the members in a body, because the ears do not have the same value as the eyes, and likewise the other members are harmoniously distributed to diverse offices. Yet these members, when we are sound, rejoice together in a common and equal health, one and not diverse, nor greater here and less there, but, though they be themselves unequal, they rejoice together in a common and like soundness. The head of this body is Christ; the unity of this body is commended by our sacrifice, which the Apostle briefly signified when he said: 'We being many are one bread, one body.' Through our head we are reconciled to God, because in him the divinity of the Only-begotten was made a partaker of our mortality, that we too might be partakers of his immortality.

This sacrament is far from the hearts of the proud wise, and therefore not of Christians, and thereby not truly wise — I speak even of those wise men who knew God, because, knowing God, as the Apostle says, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful. But you know in what sacrifice it is said: 'Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.' From the humility of that sacrifice the pride and buskin of those men stands far off. And therefore it is a most marvelous thing, in what manner God is the indweller of some who do not yet know God, and is not of some who do know him.

For neither do those belong to the temple of God who, knowing God, glorified him not as God nor were thankful; and there belong to the temple of God the little ones sanctified by the sacrament of Christ, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, who certainly on account of their age cannot yet know God. Whence, whom those men could know yet not have, these could have before they could know. But most blessed are they for whom to have God is the same as to know him; for that very knowledge is most full, most true, most happy. Here now it is fitting also to treat that question which you added after the subscription of your letter:

'If little ones as yet know not God, how could John, even before he was born, leap for joy at the coming and presence of the Lord's mother in his own mother's womb?' For when you had mentioned that you had read my book on the baptism of little ones, you added and said: 'I wish to know what you think concerning pregnant women, since the mother of John the Baptist answered with the faith of belief on behalf of the child.' These are certainly the words of Elizabeth, the mother of John: 'Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.'

But that she might say this, as the Evangelist stated beforehand, she was filled with the Holy Spirit, by whose revelation she doubtless knew what that leaping of the infant signified — namely, that the mother of him had come, of whom he himself was to be the forerunner and pointer-out. This signification of so great a matter could therefore be for the elders to know, not known by the infant. For neither, when this was narrated before in the Gospel, was it said: 'The infant believed in her womb,' but 'leaped'; nor did she herself say: 'The infant leaped in faith in my womb,' but 'leaped for joy.'

Now we see leaping not only of little ones but even of cattle, which surely does not come from any faith or religion or any rational knowledge whatever; but this plainly stood forth as unusual and new, because it was in the womb and at the coming of her who was to bear the Savior of men. Therefore it is a wonder, therefore to be reckoned among great signs, therefore this leaping and, as it were, a return-greeting rendered to the Lord's mother came to pass — as miracles are wont to happen — divinely in the infant, not humanly by the infant.

Yet even if in that child the use of reason and will was so far hastened that within his mother's inward parts he could already recognize, believe, and consent — which in other little ones the maturity of age is awaited that they may be able to do — even this is to be reckoned among the miracles of divine power, not to be drawn to the examples of human nature. For when God willed, even the dumb beast spoke rationally, nor were men therefore admonished to await asinine counsels in their deliberations. Wherefore neither do I despise what was done in John, nor do I fix from it a rule of what is to be thought concerning little ones; rather I proclaim it as marvelous in him precisely because I do not find it in others.

Something similar indeed has that struggle of the twins in Rebecca's womb; but this too was so far a portent that on account of it the woman sought and heard a divine oracle, that by those two little infants two peoples had been figured. But if we should wish to show by words that little ones do not know divine things, who as yet do not even know human things, I fear lest we should seem to do injury to our very senses, when by speaking we persuade of that wherein the evidence of the truth most easily surpasses all the powers and office of speech.

Do we not see that even when they have begun to utter some signs of articulate speech and to pass from infancy to the beginning of speaking, they still perceive and say such things that, if they remained in them and as the years advanced persisted in being such, no one, however foolish, would doubt them to be exceedingly foolish? Unless perhaps it remains that in the wailing of infancy, or in the very silence still of the womb, we should believe the little ones to have been wise, and afterward, once they began to speak with us, to have come by growing to this ignorance which we laugh at — which you see how absurd it is to suppose, since the boys' sense, breaking forth into words of whatever kind, which are certainly, compared with that in which they are born,

is well-nigh nothing, yet compared with that in which they are born can be called intelligence. And whence, in that very safeguard of so great a salvation, when Christian grace comes to their aid, is it that they resist with such voices as they can and with movements, yet it is not imputed to them, and all their resistance is counted as nothing, until the sacraments are performed in them by which that which was drawn from the original condemnation is expiated — save because they so far know not what they do that they are not even judged to do it?

Moreover, if they already used the discretion of reason and will, by which assent ought to be applied to that sanctification, what Christian would be ignorant how great an evil it would be to resist so great a grace, and how not only would what was done profit nothing, but even from that guilt would accrue? We say, therefore, that in baptized little ones, although they know it not, the Holy Spirit dwells. For they know him not, though he is in them, just as they know not even their own mind, whose reason — which they cannot yet use — is in them like a certain spark laid to sleep, to be roused by the advance of age. Nor ought this to seem strange in little ones, since the Apostle says even to certain grown persons: 'Know ye not, that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?'

Of whom he had said a little before: 'But the natural man perceiveth not the things which are of the Spirit of God,' whom he also calls little ones, not by the age of the flesh but of the mind. They therefore did not perceive by knowledge the Holy Spirit who dwelt in them, and, though the Holy Spirit dwelt in them, they were still natural and not yet spiritual, because they could not yet perceive by knowledge their own indweller. But he is said to dwell even in such because he works secretly in them, that they may be his temple, and this he perfects in those who make progress and by making progress persevere. 'For by hope we are saved,' as the Apostle says, since in another place he says: 'He saved us by the washing of regeneration.' When, therefore, he here says:

'He saved us,' as though salvation itself were already given, in what manner it is to be understood he explains there where he says: 'For by hope we are saved. But hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.' Many things therefore are said in the divine Scriptures as though they were done, when they are to be understood as being still in hope. Whence also is that which the Lord says to the disciples: 'All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you,' which was so far said according to the hope of things future that he afterward says to them: 'I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.'

Therefore, in those mortals in whom he still dwells, he carries out the very building of his dwelling, which he perfects not in this life but in another after this, when death shall be swallowed up in victory, and it shall be said to it: 'O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?' And what is the sting of death but sin? On account of which now also, though reborn of water and the Spirit, and though all sins — whether of origin from Adam, in whom all have sinned, or of our deeds, words, and thoughts — have been blotted out in the cleansing of that washing, yet, because we have remained in this human life, which is a temptation upon the earth, we rightly say: 'Forgive us our debts.' And the whole Church says this prayer.

Her the Savior cleanses by the washing of water in the word, that he may present her to himself glorious, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing — then indeed, when she shall be perfected in reality, whereas now, by making progress, she walks in hope. For how is she now without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, when either in all the people belonging to her who now use the reason of the mind and the discretion of the will and bear the burden of mortal flesh, or at least — what even the contentious must needs confess — in many of her members she truly says: 'Forgive us our debts'?

Since therefore, as the progressing ones in whom he dwells, being mortal, are renewed from day to day, he more and more justifies them, hears them praying, cleanses them confessing, that he may present to himself a temple unspotted forever, he is rightly said not to dwell in those who, knowing God, glorified him not as God nor were thankful. For by worshiping and serving the creature rather than the Creator, they were unwilling to be the temple of the one true God, and thus, while they wished to have him along with many, they more easily brought it about that they had him not, than that they should mingle him with many false gods.

And he is rightly said to dwell in those whom, called according to his purpose, he has received to be justified and glorified, even before they are able to know his incorporeal nature, which is everywhere whole, as far as it can be known in part, and through a glass, and in an enigma, by man in this life, when he has made the greatest progress. For there are many such in whom he dwells, to whom the Apostle says: 'I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able, neither yet now are ye able.' To these indeed he also says: 'Know ye not, that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?'

Such persons, even if, before they attain to the spiritual age of the mind — where they are nourished not with milk but with solid food — the last day of this life should find them, their indweller will perfect in them whatever of understanding they here had too little of, since they have not withdrawn from the unity of the body of Christ, who has been made the way for us, nor from the fellowship of the temple of God. Whence, that they may not withdraw, they perseveringly hold in the Church the rule of faith common to small and great, and in that to which they have attained, in that they walk, and, until God reveals it to them if they be otherwise minded in anything, they do not dogmatize their carnal thoughts, because they do not harden them with contentious defenses: by abiding.

but in a certain manner by walking, that is, by making progress, they toil, obtaining clearness of understanding through the piety of faith. Since these things are so, those two things which are done in one man — to be born and to be reborn — pertain to two men, the one to that first Adam, the other to the second, who is called Christ. 'But not first,' says the Apostle, 'that which is spiritual, but that which is natural; afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven, heavenly. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, let us also bear the image of him who is from heaven.' Likewise he says: 'By one man came death, and by one man the resurrection of the dead;'