Etymologies & Works 21

I. That God is supreme and unchangeable. 1.1. The supreme good is God, because He is unchangeable and cannot at all be corrupted. But the creature is good, yet not supreme, because it is changeable, so that, although it is indeed good, it nevertheless cannot be also supreme. 1.2. What is God's immortality, if not His unchangeableness? For both angels and souls are immortal, but they are not unchangeable. And therefore God alone is called immortal, because He alone is unchangeable. For the soul dies when, God forsaking it, it is changed from good to evil. So too the angel, when, God forsaking it, it fell. 1.3. That which has matter from which it exists is changeable, because it passes from the formless to form.

But that which has no matter is unchangeable, as God assuredly is. These qualities are in God well and substantially, that is, incorruption, immortality, unchangeableness. Hence deservedly He is set before every creature. 1.4. It is the work, not the counsel, that is changed with God, nor is He varied because through various times He has enjoined diverse things; but remaining the same, unchangeable and eternal, what was fitting for each time abode from that very eternity in the deliberation of His counsel. 1.5. God is not, according to our usage, to be thought one thing, and His beauty another, and His greatness itself yet another, just as a man is one thing, and beauty another, because, beauty ceasing, the man remains.

And on this account, whoever thus understands God, believes Him to be corporeal, whereas the beauty and greatness of God is God Himself. 1.6a. Therefore God is called simple, either by not losing what He has, or because He Himself is not one thing and what is in Him another. 1.6b. Those things which are in God in an ordered way—such as simplicity, which is sometimes said in place of foolishness, though it is not so—are spoken of or compared disorderly with vices. But in God there is supreme simplicity. According to this rule the rest also are to be judged. II. That God is immeasurable and almighty. 2.1a. God does not fill heaven and earth in such a way that they should contain Him, but rather that they themselves should be contained by Him. Nor does God fill all things piecemeal, but although He is one and the same, yet He is everywhere whole. 2.1b.

God is not to be thought to be in all things in such a way that each single thing receives Him according to the greatness of its own portion, that is, the greatest receiving more and the least receiving less; whereas He is rather Himself whole in all things, or all things in Him. 2.2. The omnipotence of the divine majesty encloses all things by the immeasurableness of its power, nor will anyone be able to find an entrance for escaping His power, because He binds all things round about on every side. For all things are confined within the omnipotence of the divine judgment, whether those which are to be contained so that they may be saved, or those which are to be cut off so that they may perish. In no way, then, can anyone flee from God. For he who does not have Him appeased will by no means escape Him angered. 2.3.

The immeasurableness of the divine greatness is such that we may understand Him to be within all things but not enclosed, outside all things but not excluded; and therefore interior, that He may contain all things, therefore exterior, that by the immeasurableness of His uncircumscribed greatness He may enclose all things. Through that, then, whereby He is exterior, He is shown to be the Creator; but through that whereby He is interior, He is demonstrated to govern all things. And lest the things which have been created should be without God, God is within all things; but lest they should be outside God, God is exterior, so that all things may be enclosed by Him. 2.4. Of the completion of some deed 'perfection' is spoken. But how is God, who was not made, 'perfect' (made-through)?

But human poverty takes this word from our usage, as it does the rest of our words, so that what is ineffable may in some fashion be spoken, since human speech says nothing worthily concerning God. 2.5. Although God is not local, yet He walks locally in His saints, when He is preached by them from place to place. For God, who is moved neither by place nor by time, is nevertheless moved both in time and in place in His servants, as often as He is preached locally by them. 2.6. Although concerning God nothing may be worthily said according to position, nor according to quality, nor according to state or motion, yet there is in Him in a certain manner a breadth of charity, by which He both gathers us from error and holds us in the truth.

There is in Him also length, by which He long-sufferingly bears with the evil, until, once amended, He restores them to the fatherland to come. There is in Him also height, through which He surpasses every understanding by the immeasurableness of His knowledge. There is in Him also depth, by which, disposing according to equity those to be condemned below, He foreordains them. III. That God is invisible. 3.1a. Although Scripture, speaking of God, very often says 'Behold, God,' it does not show Him as though visible, but signifies that He is present everywhere, through that which it says, 'Behold, the Lord'; or because no sense, not even the angelic, can attain to the greatness of His divinity. 3.1b.

Although after the resurrection human nature advances even to equality with the angels, and rises up untiring to the contemplation of God, yet it is not able fully to see His essence, which not even the angelic perfection itself wholly attains to knowing, according to the Apostle who says: 'The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding'—so that you may understand also that of the angels. For the Trinity alone is fully known to Itself, and the humanity assumed by Christ, which is the third Person in the Trinity. 3.2a. Intelligibly, in a certain wondrous manner, the essence of God can be known, while He is believed to be. But His work, which assuredly cannot be equaled to Him, and His judgments are known by no one at all. 3.2b. The secret judgments of God cannot be penetrated by sense, whether angelic or human.

And therefore, because they are hidden yet just, it is fitting equally to venerate and to fear them, not to discuss or to inquire into them, according to the Apostle who says: 'For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?' IV. That the Creator may be recognized from the beauty of the creature. 4.1. Often the corporeal greatness of created things is compared to the incorporeal greatness of the Creator, so that great things may be considered from small, and invisible things estimated from visible, and the Maker of works recognized from the beauty of the things made—yet not by a like equality, but from a certain subordinate and created appearance of good. 4.2a.

Just as art reflects praise back upon the artist, so the Creator of things is praised through His creature, and how much more excellent He is, is shown from the very fashioning of the work. 4.2b. From the beauty of the circumscribed creature God causes His own beauty, which cannot be circumscribed, to be understood, so that by those very traces by which he was turned away man may return to God; so that, because through love of the beauty of the creature he withdrew himself from the form of the Creator, he may again through the loveliness of the creature return to the beauty of the Creator. 4.3.

By certain degrees of understanding man advances through the creature to the knowledge of God the Creator: that is, rising from insensible things to sensible things, rising from sensible things to rational things, and rising from rational things to the Creator. Intelligible things praise God of themselves; irrational and insensible things praise Him not of themselves but through us, when, considering them, we praise God. Yet they too are said to praise, because the cause of them brings forth that same praise. The ancients said that nothing is so dull that it does not have some perception directed toward God. Hence it is that a spark is struck from the hard flint. And though the fire is in the stone, surely perception is there felt where life does not feel itself. That certain likenesses are applied to God from our own usage.

According to our usage God is said to be jealous or to grieve. For of such motions there is no disturbance in God, in whom there is the highest tranquillity. The judgment of the mind must not be so hastily precipitated that we should believe a disturbance of fury or of change can befall God; rather, Holy Scripture has named 'wrath' that very equity of justice by which He punishes the guilty, since what is equity in the one who judges is fury and indignation in the one who suffers it. So too, then, we must understand the other passions which Scripture draws from human affection and applies to God: that He is to be believed unchangeable in Himself, and yet, according to the effects of causes, that He may the more easily be understood, He is named after the manner of our speech and by a kind of mutability.

So mercifully does God provide for human weakness that, since we cannot know Him as He is, He makes Himself known to us after the manner of our speech. Hence He is written to have the quality of our members, and He willed unworthy things concerning the passions to be said of Himself, that He might draw us to His own things through our own, and that while He condescends to us we might rise up to Him. In many ways God, to signify Himself to men, draws likenesses to Himself from lower things. Yet He is truly established, according to His own substance, to be invisible and incorporeal.

Very often likenesses of qualities are taken from bodies and applied to God, which nevertheless are not in God, since in His own nature He is incorporeal and uncircumscribed; but according to the effects of causes the likenesses of things are written of Him: so that, because He sees all things, He is called an eye; and because He hears all things, He is called an ear; but because He turns away, He is said to walk; because He waits, He is said to stand. So too in other things like these, a likeness is drawn to God from human minds: as being forgetful and remembering. Hence the prophet says: 'The Lord of hosts has sworn by His own soul' — not that God has a soul, but He tells this according to our affection. And elsewhere, by a similar figure, He is understood as both a worm and a beetle.

Nor is it any wonder if He is figured by lowly signs, who is known to have descended even to the reproaches of our passions and of the flesh. For Christ is written as a lamb — not by nature but for innocence; and a lion — for strength, not by nature; and a serpent — for death and wisdom, not by nature. For in the prophet the likeness of a wagon carrying hay is applied to God. And Christ is all these things by figure, because none of them belongs to the propriety of His substance. Not according to essence but according to likeness are these images applied to God, nor for the propriety of substance but for the effects of causes.

Hence it is believed that God never appeared visibly to men except through an assumed likeness of created things. Certain foolish men are deceived when they read that man was made to the image of God, thinking that God is corporeal, whereas it is not the flesh, which is body, but the soul, which is spirit, that bears the image of God. Therefore there is no bodily form in God, who made man to His own image, since He created the mind, not the flesh, to His likeness. Consider, then, what sort of body Truth has; and when you cannot find one, this is God. The face of God in the Holy Scriptures is understood not as flesh but as divine knowledge, for this reason: that by the face beheld each person is recognized. For this is said to God in prayer:

'Show us Thy face' — as if it were said: give us the knowledge of Thee. The mouth of God is His only-begotten Son. For just as, for the words which are made by the tongue, we often say 'this or that tongue,' so also for the Word of God 'mouth' is put, because it is the custom that words be formed by the mouth. And if you wish to demonstrate by that manner of speech in which he who effects is named by that which is effected, you rightly put 'mouth' for the Word, just as 'tongue' for words, just as 'hand' for letters. The footprints of God are that by which God is now recognized through a mirror.

But the Almighty is found in perfection when in the future He shall be presented face to face to each of the elect, that they may contemplate that very form whose footprints they now strive to grasp — that is, Him whom they are said to see through a mirror. So too the rest. That no succession of times is ascribed to God. Divine eternity precedes all times, nor is anything past, present, or future believed to be in God, but all things are said to be present in Him, because by His eternity He embraces all things. Otherwise God must be believed changeable, if successions of times are ascribed to Him. If there were always some times together with God, it would not be time but eternity, nor would the times change, but they would stand still.

Present, past, and future are ours to have, not the Lord's: for example, for the present we say 'I hold the book,' for the past 'I held,' for the future 'I shall hold.' But God holds the whole; and for 'He held' and 'He shall hold' it is said 'He holds.' Nor is there any departure or accession of times even for the angels themselves. For there are two things among creatures over which the vicissitude of times has no power: namely the angels, because they cleave to the unchangeable Creator; and that formless matter, before all these things which now roll on in time were formed out of it — over this too time had no power. Time, therefore, pertains not to those creatures which are above the heavens, but to those which are beneath the heaven:

for times do not accede to the angels nor succeed one another for them, but to us who dwell beneath the heaven in this weak world. Concerning times. There were no times before the beginning of the world, because, since time itself is a creature, it must nevertheless be believed to have been made in the beginning of the world. It is therefore called 'the beginning,' because from it the origin of all things took its start. Times have no bodily extension, because they retreat almost before they come. And therefore there is no fixed state of times in things, because by the swift motion of the creature they are changed.

A hundred years is not one time, nor is one year one time, nor is one month one time, nor a day, nor an hour, since, while all these come and go by their particles, how can that be called one which does not exist all at once? Whether there be a past or future time as there is a present, and if there be, one ought to know where it is. But observe that all things — future, past, and present — are rather to be sought in the mind. These three, past, present, and future, are found only in the mind: the past by remembering, the present by beholding, the future by expecting. We hope, therefore, for things coming, we behold things present, we recollect things passing. These are not so in God, to whom all things are present at once. Concerning the world.

The world consists of things visible, yet unsearchable. But man, composed from the whole of things, was created as it were another world in miniature. The plan of the world is to be considered from a single man. For just as through the dimensions of ages man inclines toward his end, so also the world, by that which is stretched out in time, declines; for whence man and the world seem to grow, thence each of them is diminished. In vain is it said that after so many ages past a new thought arose in God, who had been at leisure, of making the world — since the construction of this world remained in His eternal counsel, and there was no time before the beginning, but eternity. Time indeed began from the substituting of the creature; the creature did not begin from time.

Certain men say: 'What was God doing before He made heaven? Why did a new will arise in God to found the world?' But no new will arose in God, because, although the world did not exist in fact, yet in His eternal reason and counsel it always existed. Some say that God suddenly willed to make the world, which He had not made before, thinking that the will of God is changed — as one who at one time willed what at another time he willed not. To whom it must be answered: 'The will of God is God, because His will is not one thing and He another; but to will is for Him the very thing that He Himself is, and what He Himself is, is surely eternal and unchangeable.' This, then, is His will.

The matter from which the world was formed preceded the things made from it in origin, not in time, as sound precedes song. For sound is prior to song, because the sweetness of the melody belongs to the sound of the voice, not the sound to the sweetness. And by this both exist together, but that to which the song belongs is prior — that is, the sound. The matter from which heaven and earth were formed is called 'formless' because there had not yet been formed from it the things which remained to be formed. But this matter itself had been made from nothing. It is one thing for something to be able to come to be, another for it to be necessary that it come to be. It is necessary that come to be which God has implanted in natures; but it is able to come to be that which the Creator reserved to make, whenever He should will, outside the appointed course of natures.

Darkness is not therefore to be believed to have substance because the Lord says through the prophet: 'I, the Lord, forming light and creating darkness.' But because the angelic nature which did not transgress is called light, while that which transgressed is named by the name of darkness. Hence also in the beginning light is divided from darkness. But because God created both these and those, therefore He is 'forming light and creating darkness'; yet the good angels He not only creates but also forms; the evil ones He only creates, does not form. This is also to be understood of good and evil men.

After the creature of heaven and earth has been enumerated, the Holy Spirit is then named in Genesis, so that, because it was fitting to say that He was borne above, those things should first be named above which the Holy Spirit their Creator was said to be borne. This the Apostle also indicates when he shows the surpassing way of charity. Therefore the Holy Spirit is said to be borne above the waters because He is the gift of God, in whom, abiding, we find rest, and by protecting us He is borne above us. Each nature strives by its own weight. But fire and oil rightly always seek the higher places, because by their figure the Holy Spirit is proved to be borne above the whole creation. The first day made were the angels.

For the sake of intimating their unity, it was called not 'the first day' but 'day one.' And therefore it is always repeated in the carrying out of the creation. This day — that is, the nature of the angels — when it contemplated the creature itself, in a certain manner grew toward evening. But not remaining in the contemplation of that creature, and referring its praise to God and beholding it better in the divine reason, it straightway became morning. But if it had remained, neglecting the Creator, in the beholding of the creature, then it would have become not evening but surely night. When the creature knows itself better in God than in itself, that very self-knowledge, which is greater in God, is called day and light.

But its knowledge of itself in itself, in comparison with that knowledge which is in God — because it is far inferior — is named evening. And therefore after evening it became morning, because, when the creature recognized that its knowledge in itself could not satisfy it, that it might be able to know itself more fully, it referred itself to God, in whom, by knowing, it might better become day. God did not say 'let heaven be made in the beginning' as we transitorily say 'let something be made.' For that was said eternally in the one Word. If it had been said transitorily by God, 'let it be made,' there would surely have been some creature from which such an utterance might already be produced.

But because, before He said 'let it be made,' no creature existed, that very 'let it be made' which was spoken was uttered in the eternity of the Word, not in the sound of a voice. The creature was not seen by God seven times and praised seven times — the creature which, before it was made, was perfectly seen by Him; but while we, seeing each single thing, praise it, as though He Himself saw and praised through us, as in that saying: 'It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father.' Accordingly, just as He speaks through us, so He sees and praises through us; but through Himself He sees perpetually and eternally, whereas through us He sees temporally.

Note that the creation as a whole is called 'very good,' but singly only 'good'; because even the members of the body, though they are singly good, yet make a greater good when all the several members together make up a very good body. The comeliness of all the elements consists in the beautiful and the fitting. But that is beautiful which is beautiful through itself, as man consisting of soul and all his members. That is fitting, however, like clothing and food. And therefore man is called beautiful in himself, because man is not necessary to clothing and food, but these to man. But those things are fitting, because they are not beautiful for themselves, as man is, nor for themselves, but for another — that is, adapted to man, not necessary for themselves.

This is also to be said of the other natures of the elements. All things that are and have been made are exceedingly wondrous, but by familiarity they have grown cheap. And therefore search the divine works in such a way that you may always ponder them as immense. God made all things very good. Nothing therefore is by nature evil, since even those things which seem to be penal in creatures, if they are well used, are good and prosperous; if ill used, they harm. So then the creature is to be weighed by our non-good usage, not by its own nature, which is very good. Whence comes evil. Evil was not created by the devil but invented, and therefore evil is nothing, because without God nothing was made. But God did not make evil.

Not that somewhere or at some time there was an evil from which the devil might be made evil, but because it is a defect: while he was a good angel, by pride he was made evil, and therefore evil is rightly said to have been invented by him. There is no nature of evil, because every nature is either unchangeable, as God is, or changeable, as the creature is. But evil is therefore no nature, because by acceding to a good nature it makes it vicious. And when it departs, the nature remains, and the evil which was in it is nowhere. From the fact that a defect harms a nature, it is recognized that a defect is not a nature, because nothing which is natural harms.

When a good nature is condemned on account of an evil will, that very evil will is a witness to the good nature, which it so far testifies to be good that God does not leave it unavenged for its evil. It is believed by heretics that the mind was created by God, the vices by the devil. Hence by them also two natures, good and evil, are supposed. But vices are not natures, and though they be truly from the devil, yet they were not created. For what cause did God permit the state of evil to arise, except that from contrary evils the comeliness of good natures might stand out? This mode is found even in words. This mode is called antithesis, which in Latin is named 'the opposed' or 'the contraposed,' and a beautiful speech is made when contraries are presently set forth alongside things favorable.

So evil is intermingled in things, that the good of nature might, by comparison, excel evil. God made all things very good. Nothing therefore is by nature evil, since even those very things which seem to be penal in creatures, if they are well used, are good and prosperous; if ill used, they harm. So then the creature is to be weighed by our non-good usage, not by its own nature, which is very good. If you shave off a man's eyebrow, you take away a small thing, but you bring foulness upon the whole body. So too in the whole of creation: if you call the least little worm evil by nature, you do injury to the whole creation. All evils have been transferred, as a penalty, through the sin of the first man upon the whole human race.

Accordingly, whatever things seem to be evils rage against us partly by origin, partly by fault. The perverse call many things in creatures evil, as fire because it burns, iron because it kills, a wild beast because it bites. But man, not attending to their benefits, accuses in them what ought rather to be imputed to himself. For each man's sin these things were made harmful, which had been subject to him in every part before sin. By our own fault, not by their nature, those things are evils to us which harm us. For light, though it be good, is harmful to weak eyes; and then it is the defect of the eyes, not of the light. So too the rest.

When man is scourged by the goads of creatures and the adversities of the elements, this exacts the penalty of sin: that man, being proud toward God, should suffer as adverse those things which are beneath himself. Hence also in Wisdom it is read on God's behalf: 'The world fought with Him against the senseless.' Rightly, therefore, it was brought about, for sins, that things naturally prosperous should be changed for man into adversities. Hence Solomon: 'The creature blazes into torment against the unjust, and is gentler to do good to those who trust in God.' The flesh will not be subject to the soul, nor the vices to reason, if the mind is not subject to its Maker. But then are all things rightly made subject to us which are beneath us, if we are made subject to Him by whom those things were made subject to us.

For even those things which seem subject to him who is not subject to God — he rather is made subject to them, who subjugates his own will to the love of those things which he supposes to be subject to himself. Concerning the angels. The name 'angel' is of office, not of nature; for according to nature they are called spirits. For when they are sent from the heavens to announce things to men, from that very announcing they are named 'angels.' By nature they are spirits, but they are called angels when they are sent. The nature of the angels is changeable, because changeability is in them by nature; but eternal charity makes them incorrupt. It is by grace, not by nature, that the angels are unchangeable. For if they were by nature unchangeable, the devil surely would not have fallen.

The contemplation of the Creator therefore comes to the aid of the changeableness of nature in them. And thence the apostate angel was deprived of it, since he willed to guard his strength not from God but from himself. Before all creation the angels were made, when it was said: 'Let there be light.' For of them Scripture says: 'Wisdom was created before all things.' They are called 'light' by participating in the eternal light; and they are called 'wisdom' as begotten by cleaving to Wisdom. And though they are by nature changeable, yet the divine contemplation does not allow them to be changed. Before all creation of the world the angels were created, and before all creation of the angels the devil was founded, as it is written: 'He is the beginning of the ways of God.'

Hence also, by comparison with the angels, he was called archangel. For he was created first by pre-eminence of order, not by quantity of time. That the devil held the primacy among the angels, from which confidence he fell, so that he slipped without recovery. The excellence of his pre-eminence the prophet announces in these words: 'The cedars were not higher than he in the paradise of God, the fir trees did not equal his height, no tree of paradise was likened to him, for God made him more comely.' The condition of the angel differs from the condition of man: for man was founded to the likeness of God; but the archangel who fell was called the seal of God's likeness, the Lord testifying through Ezekiel:

'Thou, the seal of likeness, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty, wast in the delights of the paradise of God.' For the more subtle his nature was, the more fully was he expressed to the likeness of the divine truth. That the devil fell from heaven before man was founded. For as soon as he was made, he broke out into pride and was cast down from heaven. For according to the testimony of Truth, he was a liar from the beginning and stood not in the truth, because, as soon as he was made, he fell. He was indeed founded in truth, but by not standing he straightway lapsed from truth. By one fall of pride, when they exalted themselves against God by swelling, both man and the devil fell. But man, turning to repentance, acknowledges that he is inferior to God.

The devil, however, not content only with this, that thinking himself equal to God he fell, moreover even says himself superior to God, according to the Apostle's words, who says of Antichrist: 'Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or is worshipped.' The devil therefore no longer seeks pardon, because he is not pricked to repentance. But his members often make entreaty through hypocrisy, which nevertheless, because of an evil conscience, they do not deserve to obtain. Let human misery learn that God is the more quickly moved to grant pardon when He has compassion on weak man, because man himself drew from the lower part the infirmity of sinning — that is, from the flesh, in which the enclosed soul is held.

The apostate angels therefore have no pardon, because they were burdened by no infirmity of carnal frailty so as to sin. But men, after sin, therefore return to pardon, because from the clayey matter they drew the weight of infirmity. And therefore, on account of the weak condition of the flesh, a return to salvation lies open to man, as the psalm also says: 'He Himself knows our frame. Remember, O Lord, that we are dust.' And again: 'Remember,' he says, 'what my substance is.' After the apostate angels fell, the rest were made firm by the perseverance of eternal blessedness. Hence also, after the creation of heaven, in the beginning it is repeated:

'Let there be a firmament,' and the firmament was called heaven — showing indeed that after the ruin of the angels, those who remained merited the firmness of eternal perseverance and of the blessedness which before they had received in lesser measure. After the casting down of the devil, there was conferred upon the holy angels the perseverance of holiness and the blessedness which they had received in lesser measure. Whence it must be recognized that the iniquity of the evil serves the humility of the holy, because whence the evil fall, thence the good advance. The number of the good angels, which was diminished after the ruin of the evil angels, will be filled up from the number of elect men. Which number is known to God alone.

Among the angels there is a distinction of powers, and according to the dignity of degrees ministries have been distributed to them, and some are set before others both in the summit of power and in the knowledge of virtue. Therefore some minister at the commands of others, and obey their orders. Hence also to the prophet Zechariah an angel sends an angel, and commands whatever he ought to announce. That there are nine distinctions or orders of angels the Holy Scriptures testify: that is, angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, virtues, principalities, powers, cherubim, and seraphim. The number of these orders the prophet Ezekiel also describes under just as many names of stones, when he spoke of the primacy of the apostate angel:

'Every precious stone,' he says, 'was thy covering: the sardius and the topaz and the jasper, the chrysolite and the onyx and the beryl, the sapphire, the carbuncle and the emerald.' By which number of stones the orders themselves of the angels were designated, which the apostate angel, before his fall, had fixed as it were upon the garment of his adornment. From whom, at his separation, when he beheld himself brighter than all, he straightway swelled and lifted up his heart to pride. The angels always rejoice in God, not in themselves. But the devil is evil from this: that he sought not the things which are God's but those which are his own. And there is no greater iniquity than for anyone to wish to glory not in God but in himself.

The angels know all things by the Word of God before they come to be in fact, and the things which are yet future among men the angels, God revealing it, already know. The transgressing angels, even with holiness lost, nevertheless did not lose the lively perception of the angelic creature. For they are strong in the keenness of foreknowledge in a threefold manner: that is, by the subtlety of nature, by the experience of times, and by the revelation of the superior powers. As often as God is angry with this world by any scourge, the apostate angels are sent to the ministry of vengeance. Yet they are restrained by divine power lest they harm as much as they desire. But the good angels are appointed to the ministry of human salvation, that they may administer the cares of the world and govern all things at God's command, the Apostle testifying:

'Are they not all,' he says, 'ministering spirits, sent for ministry on account of those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?' The angels take the bodies in which they appear to men from the upper air, and they induce a solid appearance from the celestial element, through which they may be more manifestly shown to human sight. Individual nations are believed to have angels set over them, which is shown by the testimony of the angel speaking to Daniel: 'I,' he says, 'came to announce to thee, but the prince of the kingdom of the Persians withstood me.' And after other things: 'There is none who helps me except Michael your prince.' Likewise all men are proved to have angels, the Lord speaking in the Gospel:

'Amen I say to you that their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.' Hence also Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles, when he knocked at the door, the apostles within said: 'It is not Peter, but it is his angel.' If the angels behold and see God, why does the Apostle Peter say: 'Upon whom the angels of God desire to look'? Likewise, if they do not behold Him nor see Him, how is it that, according to the Lord's sentence, their angels always see the face of the Father who is in heaven? But both are well: for we truly believe that the angels both see God and desire to see Him; and they both have and hasten to have; and they both love and strive to love.

For if they so desire to see that they do not enjoy the effect of their desire, this desire involves necessity. This necessity is penal, and from the blessed angels all penalty is far removed, because penalty and blessedness never come together at once. Again, if we say that they are sated by the vision of God, satiety is wont to have loathing, and we know that they cannot loathe the vision of God which they also desire. What then is there, except that in a wondrous manner we believe both at once — that they both desire and are sated? But they desire without toil, and are sated without loathing. For lest there be necessity in the desire, in desiring they are sated; and again, lest there be loathing in the satiety, being sated they desire.

The angels therefore see the face of the Father through satiety, but because this satiety knows no loathing, the angels desire ever to gaze upon Him. Wherever in the Holy Scriptures an angel is put for God, it is understood to be not the Father, not the Holy Spirit, but the Son alone, on account of the dispensation of the incarnation. Before the coming of the Lord's incarnation there was discord between angels and men. But Christ, coming, made peace in Himself for angels and men. For when He was born the angels cried out: 'On earth peace to men of good will.' Through the incarnation of Christ, therefore, not only was man reconciled to God, but also peace was reformed between men and angels.

That there was discord between men and angels before the coming of Christ is recognized above all by this: that in the Old Testament the angels, when greeted by men, scorned to be greeted by them. Yet in the New Testament, when this was done by John, the angel not only reverently receives it, but even forbids him to do it. For this reason man is scorned in the Old Testament and is not greeted in return by the angel, because man had not yet passed over into God. But man is received by God and is reverently greeted by the angel; for we read that the angel Gabriel greeted Mary, and to John, who was greeting the angel, it is said by that same angel: 'See that you do not do it, for I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren.'

By this it is recognized that through the Lord's incarnation peace was restored to men and to angels. XI. On Man. All things beneath heaven were made for the sake of man, but man for his own sake. Hence too all things are referred, by way of figure, to his likeness. All natural things are common to man together with all the things that exist, and in man all things are contained, and in him the nature of all things subsists. Man is a certain great portion of the whole of creation, and he is by so much more excellent than the rest as he is nearer to the divine image. How far man surpasses the rest of creatures in the dignity of his worth is learned from the very reverence shown at his creation, since of all things God said: 'Let it be made,' and they were made;

but He willed to create man by a certain deliberation of eternal counsel, saying: 'Let us make man to our image and likeness.' For since we were by nature created good, we have in a certain manner, by the desert of our fault, been made contrary to nature. Just as God foreknew that man would sin, so also He foreknew in what manner He would restore him by His grace, who by his own choice was able to perish. In their origin Adam and Eve were created together. But specially, afterward, the woman was formed from the man's side. Both, therefore, were created together in the order of reason, though not together in a single point of time. Man was made to the image of God, but woman was formed to the image of man, whence also by the law of nature she is made subject to him.

Likewise, man was made for his own sake, but woman was created for man's assistance. Man was then handed over to the devil on account of sin, when he heard: 'You are earth, and into the earth you shall go.' For then it was said to the devil: 'You shall eat earth.' Whence also the prophet says: 'To the serpent, dust is his bread.' For the serpent is the devil, and the dust the ungodly; and these are the food of the devil. Because by a depraved will we sink down to the depths, rightly it is with labor that we rise up to act well; which would not be so had not delight persuaded the first men to their crime, for whom, to live well, merely to will would have sufficed, and without difficulty action would at once have obeyed.

That there is division and strife in man's soul is the penalty of sin, propagated from the first man into all his children, so that he who was unwilling to be united with God should be divided within himself, and he who was unwilling to be subject to the commanding Lord should become to himself a rebel and adversary. Whence he will not be able to subdue himself unless he has first been made subject to God, and he will serve himself unwillingly who was unwilling to serve God willingly. How variously, through diverse things, has the human race flowed away, while it withdrew itself from the one stable and ever-abiding solidity of the divine nature!

For while man eagerly seeks the work he desires, as though to fix there at last the rest of his mind, when it does not suffice him, with changed intention he passes on to other and yet other actions; and while through diverse things he seeks solid rest and does not find it, he lives wretched in toil and inconstancy, and remains empty of rest. Although this same mutability was not created together with man, but accrued to him by the desert of the first transgression, yet it has now become natural, since in origin, from the first man, just as death also, it passed into all men. XII. On the Soul and the Other Senses. The life of the body is the soul, the life of the soul is God. And just as the body is dead without the soul, so the soul is dead without God.

The soul of man is not the man, but the body, which was made from the earth—that alone is man. Yet by dwelling within the body, the soul, from that very participation in the flesh, received the name of man, just as the Apostle also speaks of the inner man. It is the soul, not the flesh, that was created to the image of God. Wrongly, therefore, is it believed by some that the soul of man is corporeal, which was made to the image of God for this end: that, if it could not be immutable like God, it might yet exist incorporeal like God. As the angels, so also the souls: for they have a beginning, but no end; for some things among things are temporal, some perpetual, some indeed sempiternal. Temporal are those in which there is a rising and a setting; perpetual, those which have a rising but no term;

sempiternal are those which have neither beginning nor end. The soul is not part of the divine substance or nature, nor does it exist before it is joined to the body, but it is created at the time when the body also is created, to which it is seen to be joined. The opinions of the philosophers say that the soul exists before it is born in the body. But this is proven true by no evidence. For whether we existed before we ourselves do not know, nor let any man say we possess such knowledge. It is not, therefore, to be inquired into, which by inquiry is only the more to be laughed at. The Gentiles and heretics attempt to dispute about the soul, but how can they rightly perceive anything about it, who have not known its Author, to whose image it was made? And therefore they have said many things worthy of error.

The soul is mutable not with respect to place, but with respect to time, in its affections. But the body is mutable both in place and in time, since it is both changed in time and altered in place. What the change of places is to the body, that the mutability of thoughts is to the soul. This variety of evil motion clung to the mind then, when, withdrawing from the contemplation of eternal things, the first man was unwilling to stand in Him from whom he wickedly withdrew, and by a just condemnation, inconstant, he flowed away through the variety of the snatching of things. The soul possesses much splendor from its own nature, but it is darkened by the admixture of the flesh in which it is held enclosed. For on its part it is turned toward the weakness of sinning, as Solomon teaches:

'The corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the mind that muses on many things.' XIII. On the Senses of the Flesh. It is not by the strength nor by the sense of the body, but by the reason of the mind, that we excel the other animals. For using bodily things the sense of the flesh suffices, but not for grasping spiritual things. But men enticed by the use of bodily things think nothing exists otherwise than as they conceive it by the sense of the flesh. Just as the bodily senses surpass one another by diversity of location, so also they surpass one another by the power of sensing. For smell is more excellent than taste, both by the position of its place and by the distance of its sensing; so the ears than smell: for we hear farther than we smell; so the eyes than the ears:

for we see farther than we hear. But the mind is borne above all these senses, both in place and in worth. For, set in the citadel of the head, what these do not corporeally attain, it beholds intellectually. The sense of the eyes surpasses the other senses still more, since even of things which pertain to the other senses we say 'see': as when we say 'see how it sounds,' 'see how it tastes,' and so with the rest. Just as the eye, so also the mind sees the other things, but does not behold itself. For it foresees the origins, kinds, and magnitudes of other things, but concerning itself it is stained with such ignorance of the truth that in all these matters it contemplates nothing with less certainty than itself.

O man, you who marvel at the height of the stars and the depth of the sea, enter into the abyss of your own mind and marvel, if you can. Musing on many things without the sense of the flesh and without living images, we behold them by the mind alone, and we hold them by memory, the mind forming them for itself. Many things also we understand by the sense which we cannot express with the tongue. Infants are harmless in deed, but not harmless in thought, since the motion which they bear in mind they cannot yet carry out in deed. And by this, in them the age is feeble, not the mind. For the frailty of the body does not yet obey them at the beck of their will, nor can they harm by deed so much as they are moved by thought. From its cause thought (cogitatio) received its name.

For from compelling (cogendo) the mind to recall what has been committed to memory, it is called thought (cogitatio). Memory is the treasury of all things: for it is the guardian of things discovered and of things thought. Concerning it, it is difficult for anyone to dispute clearly, because its intricacy is vast, and the mind itself is memory. An image, removed from the senses of the body, leaves in the memory a likeness of its own kind. But a likeness we recall not by images, as we do other things, but as we recall joy without an image. When we remember forgetfulness, it is not present through itself, for if it were present through itself, we would surely forget. Memory is common to man and to animals.

But no understanding is present in an irrational animal, except only in man endowed with reason. For in the rest, in that very quality of their perception, there is the sense of the flesh, not the intelligence of the mind. XIV. On Christ. The perfect nativity of the Son of God neither began to be nor ceased—lest it be past if it ceased, and lest it be imperfect if it is still coming to be; but let it be eternal, and let it be perfect, so that in that nativity both eternity and perfection may be held. From the womb of the Virgin, Christ is said to be less than the Father; He is so called according to the human assumption, not according to the divinity. Christ in the form of a servant is a servant, and in the form of a servant is not a servant. For in the form of a servant He is the servant of the Lord, in the form of a servant the Lord of men.

Christ in the form of a servant, on account of the excellence of His conception, is Lord of men, because, although He assumed flesh, yet not from the lustful contagion of the flesh. The Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, is by no means one in humanity and another in deity, but in both natures He is one and the same. Nor was He conceived a mere man, nor brought forth a mere man; nor did He afterward receive the merit of being God, but God the Word, the immutable essence which is coeternal to Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit remaining, assumed flesh for human salvation, in which He, the impassible, could suffer and, the immortal, die, and, eternal before the ages, could be shown as temporal.

The Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, although it is one thing that He is from the Father and another that He is from the Virgin, yet He is not one who is from the Father and another who is from the Virgin, but He Himself is eternal from the Father, He Himself temporal from the mother. He Himself who made, He Himself who was made; He Himself from the Father without a mother, He Himself from the mother without a Father; He Himself the temple of the Founder, He Himself the Founder of the temple; He Himself the author of the work, He Himself the work of the author. Remaining one out of both and in both natures, neither confused by the coupling of the natures, nor doubled by the distinction of the natures. Therefore God came in man, because through Himself He could not be known by men. But whence He took counsel for us, thence He bore contempt, because the weakness which He took up for our sake, proud man despised.

For this reason He chose the weak and foolish things of the world, that He might confound the stronger and wiser things by which He was not known. Just as a weak infant cannot take strong food unless first, brought forth by the mother, it is turned into the juice of milk, so that what it could not use as food it may drink by sucking in the milk through the flesh, so also we, while we were too weak to behold the eternity of the Word, that Word itself was made flesh, so that, nourished through the flesh and made stronger, we might be sated by contemplating solid food—that is, the true God, sempiternal with the Father—as the angels are. The first gifts of God are those by which He shows us that we are guilty to ourselves, we who, while we lay under the guilt of fault, believed ourselves to be righteous.

He came, laid open the wound, composed Himself, and from His own death fitted a medicine for us, that He might be not only the one who shows the wound, but the one who heals it. First Christ came to Jerusalem, as He Himself also says: 'I was not sent except to the sheep that were lost of the house of Israel.' For He came first to the people of Israel, but that they would not believe, the prophet did not keep silent, saying: 'First to Zion He says, "Behold, here I am," and to Jerusalem I will give an evangelist; and I looked, and there was no one, nor among these any who took counsel, and being questioned would answer a word.' But because He passed over to the Gentiles, there follows: 'Behold my servant, I will uphold him, my chosen one; my soul has been well pleased in him.

I have put my Spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.' Although the devil did not know the order of our liberation, yet he knew that Christ had come for the salvation of men; but that He would redeem us by His own death, this he did not know; whence too he slew Him. For if he had known that Christ would redeem the human race through death, he certainly would not have destroyed Him. That the devil knew Christ had come for the salvation of the human race is taught by the testimony of the Gospel; for when he saw Him, recognizing Him he was terrified, saying: 'What is there between us and you, Son of God? Have you come before the time to destroy us?'

Christ, just as He did not commit sin which is worthy of punishment, so He took upon Himself the penalty of our sin, that by His undue penalty He might wash away our due fault, that by this the devil might lose those whom he held as guilty, since he slew one who had committed no sin; and therefore he lost those whom he justly held, because he unjustly slew our Redeemer. The devil was mocked by the Lord's death as a bird is. For Christ, having shown the mortality of His flesh which the devil desired to destroy, hid His divinity, so that with a prudent snare He might entrap him, as a bird, in the noose. For if the harmless Christ had not been slain, man, made over to the devil through his transgression, would not have been set free.

The devil, while in Christ he assailed the flesh of humanity which lay open, was as it were caught by the hook of His divinity which lay hidden. For in Christ the divinity is the hook; the bait, moreover, is the flesh; the line, the genealogy that is recited from the Gospel. And He who holds this line is God the Father, of whom the Apostle says: 'The head of Christ is God.' And Luke, weaving the line of Christ's generation from the lowest to the highest, begins from Joseph and completes it in God, when he says: 'Who was of Heli'; and finishing the line of the lineage he says: 'Who was of God.' For this reason the Lord descended into hell, that He might open a way of returning to heaven for those who were not held by Him in punishment, according to the testimony of the prophet Isaiah who says:

'You have made the depth of the sea a way, that the delivered might pass over.' For Christ made a way in the depth of the sea when, descending into hell, He showed the saints the road of returning to heaven. The saints, from the time of Christ's resurrection, as soon as they go out of the body, straightway ascend to the heavenly habitation, which was not granted to the ancient fathers. For before the coming of the Savior, although without the pain of torment, yet not in heaven, but in hell, the souls of the saints were held. For the loosing of these the Lord descended into hell. Christ, ascending into heaven, departed indeed in the flesh, but is present in majesty, according to that which He says: 'Behold, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age.'

Christ sits at the right hand of the Father—not that the Father has a corporeal right hand, but the right hand of the Father is blessedness, just as the left is misery. XV. On the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Creator, just as the Father and the Word, the prophet bearing witness: 'The Spirit of the Lord made me, and the breath of the Almighty gave me life.' The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, and therefore the Father and the Son are one, because the Father has nothing which the Son does not have. For one thing consubstantial to two could not proceed at once from them and be present together in them, unless those from whom it proceeds were one.

The Church received the Holy Spirit as a pledge, that through Him believers might become one in one body—the Spirit through whom the Father and the Son are essentially one, the Savior Himself saying to the Father: 'That they may be one, as we also are one.' Christ testifies that He was sent not only by the Father but also by the Holy Spirit, the prophet saying: 'Draw near to me, and hear: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret. From the time before it came to be, I was there, and now the Lord has sent me, and his Spirit.' The Holy Spirit is called the Paraclete, in that He is the Comforter, for in Latin paraclesis means consolation. And truly, while He distributes the gifts of the sacraments, He furnishes consolation to the soul.

I believe indeed that he feels great gladness who says anything by the revelation of the Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit is distributed among the members of the Church one by one, and to individuals individual gifts are bestowed. But Christ had all the fullness of graces, of whom it is thus read: 'Full of grace and truth.' In Christ, therefore, is all the fullness of graces, for to the individual elect individual gifts are given. In the Holy Spirit consists all the grace of gifts. For He, as He wills, bestows the grace of gifts; to some giving the word of wisdom, to others of knowledge, to others faith; and thus to each, by the power of the Holy Spirit, a portion of the graces is given, and in all the same one Spirit is held.

For He also teaches things ineffable, which human speech cannot utter. Before the coming of the Lord, only the prophets and a few righteous ones out of the whole people merited the gift of the Holy Spirit. But after the coming of the Lord, the Holy Spirit was distributed to all believers, according to that which the Lord speaks through the prophet, saying: 'And it shall be in the last days, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.' For now to all nations the grace of the Holy Spirit has been given, and not among a few as in the people of Israel, but in the whole multitude of believers the grace of the Holy Spirit abides. Sometimes the gifts of the Holy Spirit are conferred upon the unworthy and reprobate, as prophecy was given to Saul and to Balaam.

Whence also many at the end will say to the Lord: 'We have done mighty works in your name.' To whom the Lord will say: 'I know not whence you are.' Not only the holy prophets of the Jewish people awaited the coming of Christ by prophesying, but there were also among the nations very many holy men possessing the gift of prophecy, to whom Christ was revealed through the Holy Spirit and by whom His coming was awaited, such as Job, such as Balaam, who assuredly foretold the coming of Christ. The conversion of the Gentiles was hidden from the old people, but nonetheless it was in the counsel of God that it should come to pass. And then the coming of Christ was secretly foretold by the holy prophets through the Holy Spirit, as the prophet says: 'When the years shall have drawn near, you shall be known;

when the time shall have come, you shall be shown.' Now indeed it is openly revealed which then lay hidden to the carnal, but was known to the spiritual; yet it was not yet manifestly declared, because the time of its showing had not come. XVI. On the Church and Heresies. Twofold is the beauty of the Church: one which she attains here by living well, the other by which she shall there be glorified out of recompense. On account of Christ, twofold tribulations exist for the Church: that is, either those which she endured from the pagans in the martyrs, or those which she suffers from heretics in diverse contendings. But she overcomes both through the grace of God, partly by enduring, partly by resisting.

The holy Catholic Church, just as she patiently tolerates within herself those who live evilly, so she repels from herself those who believe evilly. The holy Church, against the obstinacy of the Gentiles and heretics, most earnestly pursues wisdom and patience; but wisdom is exercised when she is tempted with words, patience is exercised when she is tempted with swords. [For now she is attacked with persecutions, now she is harassed with false assertions.] The Church has been enlarged by the doctrines occasioned by heretical depravity, for before she flourished by a simple faith alone. By the occasion of heretics, therefore, teachers were multiplied in the faith, and through the keenness of heresies the masters of the Church increased. For then the assertion of truth is more clearly manifested, when any dissension has come to light.

The holy Church is therefore called Catholic, in that she is universally diffused throughout the whole world. For the churches of heretics are confined within parts of the world; but this one, spread abroad, is diffused throughout the whole earth, the Apostle Paul bearing witness: 'I give thanks,' he says, 'to God for all, because your faith is announced in the whole world.' Heresies are found to dwell either in some corner of the world or in one nation. But the Catholic Church, as she is extended through the whole world, so also she is constructed of the fellowship of all nations. What are heresies, but those who, having forsaken the Church of God, chose private fellowships? Of whom the Lord says: 'My people has done two evils:

they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug out for themselves broken cisterns which cannot hold water.' The cause of heresy, for what reason it exists, is namely for the exercise of faith. But the force through which it exists is the obscurity of the divine Scriptures, in which the heretics, groping in darkness, understand something other than the matter really is; nor can they exist, because that very thing which heresies are, they already are not. For by perceiving evilly, they do not acquire being; for they tend toward nothing. The heretics learn their lies with enormous zeal, and with vehement labor they strive that they may not come to the unity of the Church. Of whom it is fittingly said through the prophet: 'They have taught their tongue to speak a lie, and they have labored to act wickedly.'