obseruance perseuered so long in patience and meekenes that shee of her owne accord discouered vnto her sonne the tales that the maid-seruants had carried be tweene them whereby the peace of the house had been disturbed betwixt her and her daughter-in-law requiring him to giue them correction for it When he therefore both out of obedience to his mother and out of a Core to the well-ordering of his family and to prouide withall for the concord of his people had with stripes corrected the seruants thus bewrayed according to the pleasure of her that had reueal'd it her selfe also added this promise that cuery one should looke for the like reward at her hands whosoeuer to picke a thank by it should speake any ill of her daughter-in-law which none being so hardy afterwards as to doe they liued euer after with a most memorable sweetnesse of mutuall courtesies This great gift thou bestowedst also O God my mercie vpon that good hand maid of thine out of whose wombe thou broughtest mee namely that she euer did where shee wasable carry herselfe so peace fully betweene any parties that were at difference and discorded as that after shee had on both sides heard many a bitter word such as swelling and indigested choler vses to breake forth into whenas vnto a present friend the ill-brookt heart-burning at an enemy is with many a byting tittle-tattle breathed vp againe shee neuer for all that would discouer more of the one party vnto the other then what might further their reconcilement 4. This vertue might seeme a small one vnto mee if to my griefe I had not had experience of innumerable companies I know not by what horrible infection or sinne spreading farre and neere who vsed not onely to discouer the speeches of enemies angred on both sides to one another but to adde withall some things that were neuer spoken whereas on the contrary it ought to bee esteemed a meane vertue in a man to forbeare meerely to procure or increase ill will amongst people by ill speaking vnlesse hee studie withall how to quench it by making the best of euery thing And such a one was shee thy selfe being her most intimate Master teaching her in the schoole of her brest Finally her owne husband now towards the latter end of his life did shee gaine vnto Thee hauing now no more cause to complayne of those things in him when hee was once baptized which she had formerly borne withall before hee was conuerted 5. Yea shee was also the seruant of thy seruants and whosoeuer of them knew her did both commend much in her and honored and loued Thee for that they might well perceiue thy selfe to bee within the heart of her holy conuersation the fruites of it being witnesses For shee had beene The wife of one man shee had repayed the duty shee ought vnto her parents shee had gouerned her house very religiously for good workes she had a good report shee had brought vp her childen so often trauailing in birth of them againe as shee saw them swaruing from thee Lastly of all of vs thy seruants O Lord whom for this fauour receiued thou sufferest thus to speake vs who before her sleeping in thee liued in society together hauing first receiued the grace of thy baptisme did shee so take the care of as if she had beene the mother to vs all being withall so seruiceable as if she had beene the daughter to vs all CHAP. 10. Of a confernce had with his mother about the Kingdome of Heauen 1. THe day now approaching that shee was to depart this life which day thou well knewest though we were not aware of it fell out thy selfe as I beleeue by thine owne secret wayes so casting it that shee and I should stand all alone together leaning in a certaine window which lookt into the garden of the house where wee now lay at Ostia where being sequestred from company after the weary somenesse of a long iourney wee were prouiding our selues for a sea-voyage into our owne country There conferred wee hand to hand very sweetely and forgetting those things which are behinds wee reached forth vnto those things which are before wee did betwixt our selues seeke at that Present Truth which thou art in what manner the eternall life of the Saints was to bee which eye hath not seene nor eare heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man But yet wee gaped with the mouth of our heart after those vpper streames of that Fountaine which is before thee that being besprinckled with it according to our capacity wee might in some sort meditate vpon so high a mystery 2. And when our discourse was once come vnto that poynt that the highest pleasure of the carnall sences and that in the brightest beame of corporall lightsomenesse was in respect of the sweetenesse of that life not onely not worthy of comparison but not so much as of mention wee chering vp our selues with a more burning affection towards that did by degrees course ouer all these corporeals that is to say the heauen it selfe from whence both Sunne and Moone and starres doe shine vpon this earth yea wee soared higher yet by inward musing and discourse vpon Thee and by admyring of thy workes And last of all wee came to our owne soules which wee presently went beyond that wee might aduance as high as that Region of neuer-wasting plenty where Thou feedest Israel for euer with the foode of Trueth and where life is that Wisedome by which all these things are made and which haue beene and which are to come And this Wisedome is not made but it is at this present as it hath euer beene and so shall it euer bee seeing that the Termes to haue beene and to be hereafter are not at all in it but to Be now for that it is eternall For to haue beene and to be is not eternall And while we were thus discoursing and streyning our selues after it we arriued to a little touch of it with the whole stroake of our heart and we sighed and euen there wee left behinde vs the first fruits of our spirits enchayned vnto it returning from these thoughts to vocall expressions of our mouth where words are both begun and finished And what can bee like vnto thy Word our Lord who remaines in himselfe for euer without becomming aged and yet renewing all things 3. Wee said therefore If to any man the tumults of the flesh bee silenced let these fancies of the earth and waters and ayre be silenced also yea let the Poles of heauen be silent also let his owne soule likewise keepe silence yea let it surmount it selfe not so much as thinking vpon it selfe Let all dreames and imaginary reuelations be silenced euery tongue and euery signe and whatsoeuer is made by passing from one degree vnto another if vnto any man it can bee altogether silent and that because if any man can hearken vnto them all these will say vnto him We
call whereby thou saydest Let there be light and there was light Whereas in vs there is distance of time betweene our hauing beene darknesse and our making light but of that creature it is onely sayd what it would haue beene if it had not beene enlightened And this is spoken in that manner as if it had beene vnsetled and darkesome before that so the reason might now appeare for which it was made to bee otherwise that is to say that it being conuerted vnto the light that neuer faileth might it selfe bee made light Let him vnderstand this that is able and let him that is not aske it of God Why should he trouble mee with it as if I could enlighten any man that commeth into this world CHAP. 11. Of some Impressions or resemblances of the blessed Trinity that be in man 1. VVHich of vs does sufficiently comprehend the knowledge of the almighty Trinity and yet which of vs but talkes of it if at least it be that A rare soule it is which whilest it speakes of it knowes what it speakes of For men contend and striue about it and no man sees the vision of it in peace I could wish that men would consider vpon these three that are in themselues Which three be farre another thing indeede then the Trinity is but I doe but now tell them where they may exercise their meditations and examine and finde how farre they are from it Now the three that I spake of are To Be to Know and to Will For I both Am and Know and Will I Am Knowing and Willing and I Know my selfe to Be and to Will and I would both Be and Know. Betwixt these three let him discerne that can how vnseparable a life there is yea one life one mind and one essence yea finally how vnseparable a distinction there is and yet there is a distinction Surely a man hath it before him let him looke into himselfe and see and then tell mee 2. But when once hee comes to finde any thing in these three yet let him not for all this beleeue himselfe to haue found that vnchangeable which is farre aboue all these and which IS vnchangeably and Knowes vnchangeably and Willes vnchangeably But whether or no where these three bee there is also a Trinity or whether all three bee in each seuerall one or all three in euery of them or whether both wayes at once in admirable manner simply and yet manifoldly in its infinite selfe the and vnto it selfe by which end it is and is knowne vnto it selfe and that being vnchangebly euer the same by the abundant greatnesse of its Vnity it bee all-sufficient for it selfe what man can readily conceiue who is able in any termes to expresse it ◠who shall dare in any measure rashly to deliuer his opinion vpon it CHAP. 12. The water in Baptisme is effectuall by the Holy Spirit 1. PRoceede in with thy Confession of the Lord thy God O my faith O holy holy holy Lord my God in thy name haue we beene baptized O Father Sonne and Holy Ghost because that euen among vs also in Christ his Sonne did God make an heauen and earth namely the spirituall and carnall people of his Church Yea and our earth before it receiued the forme of doctrine was inuisible and vnformed and wee were couered ouer with the darknesse of ignorance For thou hast chastised man for his iniquity and thy Iudgements were like the great deepe vnto him 2 But because thy Spirit moued vpon the waters thy mercy forsooke not our misery for thou saydst Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heauen is at hand Repent Let there be light And because our soule was troubled within vs wee haue remembred thee O Lord concerning the land of Iordan and that hill which being equall vnto thy selfe was made little for our sakes and vpon our being displeased at our owne darkenesse wee turned vnto thee and were made light So that behold we hauing sometimes beene darknesse are now light in the Lord. CHAP. 13. His deuout longing after God 1. BVT yet we walke by faith still not by sight for we are saued by hope but hope that is soene is not hope And yet doeth one deepe call vnto another in the voyce of thy water-spoutes and so doeth hee that sayth I could not speake vnto you as vnto spirituall but as vnto carnall euen He who thought not himselfe to haue apprehended as yet and who forgot those things which are behynd and reacht foorth to those things which are before yea he groaned earnestly and his soule thirsted after God as the Hart after the water-brooks saying When shall I come desiring to be cloathed vpon with his house which is from heauen he calleth also vpon this lower deepe saying Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind And Be not children in vnderstanding but in malice be ye children that in vnderstanding ye may be perfect and O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you 2. But now speakes hee no longer in his own voice but in thine who sentest thy Spirit from aboue by his mediation who ascended vp on high and set open the flood-gates of his gifts that the force of his streames might make glad the City of God Him doeth this friend of the bridegroome sigh after though hauing the first fruites of the Spirit in himselfe alreadie yet groaneth he within himselfe as yet wayting for the adoption to wit the redemption of his body to him he sighes as being a mēber of his Bride towards him he burnes with zeale as being a friend of the Bridegroome towards him hee burneth not towards himselfe because that in the voyce of thy water-spowtes and not in his owne voyce doth hee call to that other deepe for whose sake hee is both iealous and fearefull lest that as the serpent beguiled Eue through his subtiltie so their minds should be corrupted from the simplicitie that is in our Bridegrome thy onely Sonne Oh what a light of beauty will that be when we shall see that Bridegrome as Hee is when all teares shall be wiped from our eyes which haue beene my meat day and night whilest they daily say vnto me Where is now thy God CHAP. 14. Our misery is comforted by faith and Hope 1. ANd so say I too Where art thou O my God see where art thou In thee take I comfort a little while whenas I powre out my soule by my selfe in the voyce of ioy and prayse which is the sound of him that keepes holyday And yet againe is it besadned euen because it relapseth againe and becomes a darkesome deepe or perceiues it selfe rather euen still to bee one Vnto it thus speakes my faith which thou hast kindled to enlighten my feete in this my night Why art thou so sad O my soule and why art thou so
him put away the bitternesse of malice and wickednesse let him not kil nor commit adultery nor steale nor beare false witnesse that the dry land may appeare and bring forth the honouring of Father and mother and the loue of our neyghbour All these sayth hee haue I kept 2. Whence then commeth such stoare of thornes if so bee the earth bee fruitefull Goe stubbe vp those thicke bushes of couetousnesse sell that thou hast and fill thy selfe with standing corne by giuing to the poore and follow the Lord if thou wilt be perfect that is associated to them among whom he speaketh wisedome he that well knoweth what to distribute to the day and what vnto the night that thou also mayst know it and that for thee there may bee lights made in the Firmament of heauen which neuer will bee vnlesse thy heart be there nor will that euer bee vnlesse there thy treasure bee also like as thou hearest of our good master But that barren earth was sorry at that saying and the thornes choaked the word in him 2. But you O chosen generation you weake things of the world who haue forsaken all that ye may follow the Lord goe yee now after him and confound the strong go after him O yee beautifull feete and shine yee in the Firmament that the heauens may declare his glory you that are mid-way betweene the light and the perfect ones though not so perfect yet as the Angels and the darkenesse of the little ones though not vtterly despised Shine yee ouer all the earth and let one day enlightened by the Sunne vtter vnto another day a speech of Wisedome and one night enlightened by the Moone shew vnto another night a word of knowledge The Moone and Starres shine in the night yet doeth not the night obscure them seeing they giue that light vnto it which it is capeable of For behold as if God had giuen the word Let there lights in the Firmament of heauen there came suddenly a sound from heauen as it had been the rusking of a mighty winde and there appeared clouen tongues like as it had beene of fire and it sate vpon each of them and there were made lights in the Firmament of heauen which had the word of life in them Ely euery where about O you holy flies O you beauteous fires for you are the light of the world nor are you put vnder a bushell he whom you claue vnto is exalted himselfe and hath exalted you Ranne you abroad and make your selues knowne vnto all nations CHAP. 20. He allegorizes vpon the creation of spirituall things 1. LEt the Sea also conceiue and bring forth your works ◠and let the waters bring foorth the mouing creature that hath life For you by separating the good from the bad are made the mouth of God by whom he sayd Let the waters bring forth not a liuing soule which the earth brings forth but the mouing creatures hauing life in it and the winged fowles that fly ouer the earth For thy Sacrament O God by the ministerie of thy holy ones haue moued in the middest of the waues of temptation of this present world for the trayning vp of the Gentiles vnto thy name in thy baptisme In the doing wherof many a great wonder was wrought resembling the huge Whales and the voyces of thy Messengers flying aboue the Earth in the open Firmament of thy Bible that being set ouer them as their authority vnder which they were to fly whithersoeuer they went For there is no speech nor language where their voyce is not heard Seeing their sound is gone thorow all the Earth and their words to the end of the world because thou O Lord hast enlarged them by thy blessing 2. Say I not true or doe I mingle and confound and not sufficiently distinguish betweene the knowledge of these lightsome creatures that are in the Firmament of heauen and these corporeall workes in the wauy Sea and those things that are vnder the Firmament of heauen For of those things whereof the vnderstanding is solid and bounded within themselues without any increases of their generations like the lights of Wisedome and Knowledge as it were yet euen of them the operations bee corporeall many and diuers and one thing growing out of another they are multiplyed by thy blessing O God who hast refreshed our soone cloyed mortall sences that so the thing which is but one in the vnderstanding of our mind may by the motions of our bodies bee many seuerall wayes set out and discoursed vpon These Sacraments haue the Waters brought forth yea indeede the necessities of the people estranged from the eternity of thy trueth haue brought them foorth in thy Word that is in thy Gospell Because indeede the Waters cast them foorth the bitternesse whereof was the very cause why these Sacraments went along accompanied with thy Word 3. Now are all things faire that thou hast made but loe thy selfe is infinitely fairer that madest these all from whom had not Adam falne this brackishnesse of the Sea had neuer flowed out of his Ioines namely this mankind so profoundly and so tempestuously swelling and so restlesly tumbling vp and downe And then had there beene no necessitie of thy ministers to worke in many waters after a corporeall and sensible maner such mysterious doings and sayings For in this sense haue those mouing flying creatures at this present fallen into my meditation in which people being trayned vp admitted into though they had receiued corporeal Sacraments should not for all this bee able to profit by them vnlesse their soule were also quickned vp vnto a higher pitch and vnlesse after the word of admission it looked forwards to Perfection CHAP. 21. He allegorizes vpon the Creation of Birds and fishes alluding by them vnto such as haue receiued the Lords supper are better taught and mortified which are perfecter Christians then the meerly baptized 1. ANd hereby by vertue of thy Word not the deepnesse of the Sea but the earth it selfe once separated from the bitternesse of the waters brings forth not the creeping and flying creatures of seules hauing life in them but the liuing soule it selfe which hath now no more neede of Baptisme as the heathen yet haue and as it selfe also had when it was couered heretofore with the waters For there is entrance into the kingdome of heauen no other way since the time that thou hast instituted this Sacrament for mē to enter by nor does the liuing soule any more seeke after miracles to worke Beliefe nor is it so with it any longer That vnlesse it sees signes and wonders it will not beleeue now that the faithfull Earth is separated from the waters that were bitter with infidelity and that tongues are for a signe not to them that beleeue but to them that beleeue not The Earth therefore which thou hast founded vpon the waters hath no more neede
our soules and that therefore it was perhaps that I feared to dye lest so he might wholy dye whom I extremely loued this seemeth rather alight kinde of Declamation then a serious Confession Though yet howsoeuer that impertinency besomewhat moderated by the addition of this word perhaps which then I vsed And that also which I sayd in the thirteenth book The firâ—â—ament was made betweene those superiour spirituall waters and these inferiour corporeall waters was not consider attuely enough expressed But the truth heereof is extremely hard to be discouered This worke beginneth thus Great art thou O Lord and highly worthy to be praysed SAINT AVGVSTINES Confessions THE FIRST BOOKE CHAP. 1. 〈◊〉 admires Gods Majesty and is inflamed with a deepe desire of praising him GREAT art Thou O Lord and greatly to be praised great is thy power â—â— and thy wisedome is infinite And man who being a part of what thou hast created is desirous to praise thee this man bearing about his owne mortality with him carrying about him a testimony of his owne sinne even this testimony That God resisteth the proud yet this Man this part of what thou hasâ— created is desirous to praise thee thou so sweetly provokest him that he even delighteth to praiâ— thee For thou hast created uâ— for thy selfe and our heart can not be quieted till it may find repose in thee Grant me Lord to know and understand what ought first to doe whether caâ— upon thee or praise thee anâ— which ought to be first to know thee or to call upon thee 2. But who can rightly cal up thee that is yet ignorant of thee for such an one may in stead â— thee call upon another Or aâ— thou rather first called upon that thou mayest so come to bâ— knowne but how then shall they call on him in whom they have not beleeved and how â—hall they beleeve without a Preacher And againe They â—hall praise the Lord that seeke â—fter him For They that â—eeke shall finde and finding â—hey shall praise him Thee will seeke O Lord calling upon â—ee and I will call upon thee â—eleeving in thee for thou hast â—eene declared unto us My faith O Lord cals upon thee which â—ou hast given me which thou â—st inspired into me even by the â—â—â—anity of thy Sonne and by â—e ministery of thy Preacher CHAP. 2. Man hath his being from God â—and that God is in Man and Man in God ANd how shall I call upon my God my Lord and God because that when invoke him I call him into mâ— selfe and what place is there â—â— me fit for my God to come in to mee by whither God maâ— come into me even that Goâ— which made Heaven and Earth Is it so my Lord God is the any thing in me capable of theâ— Nay can both Heaven and eaâ— which thou hast made and which thou hast made me any wise containe thee 2. Or else because whatsoeâ—â—â— Is could not subsist withaâ—â— thee must it follow thereup that what soever hath being indued with a capability of thâ— since therefore I also am sonâ— what how doe I intreat theâ— come into me who could not unlesse thou wert first in â—â— For I am not now in Hell â— yet thou art there For if I â— downe into Hell thou art tâ— also I should therefore not O God yea I should have being at all unlesse thou wert in â—e or rather I could not one unlesse I had my being in 〈◊〉 â—f whom and through whom and to whom are all things Eâ—en so it is Lord even so Wherfore then doo I invoke thee â—eeing I am already in thee or whence canst thou come into â—e For whither shall I goe â—eyond heaven and earth that 〈◊〉 thence my God may come â—â— to me who hath said The heaâ—en and earth doe I fill CHAP. 3. â—od is wholly every where and is 〈◊〉 by parts contained by the Creature DOe therefore the Heaven and earth containe thee â—eing thou fillest them or doest â—ou fill them and there yet reâ—aines an overplus of thee beâ—ause they are not able to comprehend thee If so into what doest thou powre whatsoever remaineth of thee after heaven and earth are filled Hast thou need to be contained by something thou who containest all things seeing that what thou fillest by containing them thou fillest for those vessels which are full oâ— thee adde no stability to thee for were they broken thou aâ— not shed out and when thou aâ— shed out upon us thou art no spilt but thou raisest us up no art thou scattered but thou gatherest up us but thou who filâ— lest all with thy whole sell doest thou fill them all 2. Or because all things cannot containe all of thee doe the receive a part of thee and doe aâ— at once receive the same part oâ— thee or severall capacities severall parts and greater things greater parts and lesse lesser Is therfore one part of thee greater or another lesser or art thoâ— All every where and nothing containes thee wholly CHAP. 4. An admirable description of Gods Attributes 1. WHat art thou therefore O my GOD What but the Lord God For who is God but the Lord or who hath any strength besides our God Oh thou supreme most excellent most mighty most omnipotent most mercifull and most just most secret and most present most beautifull and most strong constant and incomprehensible immutable yet changing all things never new and never old renuing all things insensibly bringing proud men into decay ever active and ever quiet gathering together yet never wanting upholding filling and protecting creating nourishing and perfecting all things still seeking although thou standest in need â— nothing 2. Thoulovest yet art no transported art jealous but without feare thou doest repent but not grieve art angry but coole still Thy works thoâ— changest but not thy counsaile takest what thou findest never losest ought Thou art never needy yet glad of gaine never covetous yet exactest advantage Thou hast superabundance oâ— all things yet art still owing and who hath any thing which is noâ— thine Thou payest debts yeâ— owest nothing forgivest debts yet losest nothing And whaâ— shall we say my God my life my holy delight or what caâ— any man say when he speakes of â—â—e And woe to them that take nothing in thy praise seeing those that speake most are â—â— dumbe in it CHAP. 5. He prayes for forgivenesse of sinnes and the love of God VVHo shall so mediate for mee that I may repose in thee Who shall â—â—cure thee to enter into my â—â—rt and so to inebriate it that â—â—ay forget my own evils and â—â—brace thee my onely good â—hat art thou to me let mee â—de grace to speake to thee VVhat am I to Thee that â—ou shouldest command mee â—oue thee and be angry with â—â— yea and threaten mee with 〈◊〉 mischiefes unlesse I do love â—e Is it to be thought a small â—sery
the earth all that is in them behold they bid me on euery side that I should loue thee nor cease they to say so vnto all to make them inexcuseable But more profoundly wilt thou haue mercy on whom thou wilt haue mercy and wilt haue compassion vpon whom thou wilt haue compassion for else doe the heauen and the earth speake forth thy prayses vnto the deafe What now do I loue whenas I loue thee not the beauty of any corporall thing not the order of times not the brightnesse of the light which to behold is so gladsome to our eyes not the pleasant melodies of songs of all kinds not the fragrant smell of flowers and oyntments and spices not Manna and honey nor any fayre limbs that are so acceptable to fleshly embracements 2. I loue none of these things whenas I loue my God and yet I loue a certaine kinde of light and a kind of voyce and a kinde of fragrancy and a kinde of meat and a kind of embracement Whenas I loue my God who is both the light and the voyce and the sweet smell and the meate and the embracement of my inner man where that light shineth vnto my soule which no place can receiue that voyce soundeth which time depriues me not of and that fragrancy smelleth which no wind scatters that meate tasteth which eating deuoures not and that embracement clingeth to mee which satiety diuorceth not This is it which I loue when as I loue my God And what is this I askt the Earth and that answered me I am not it and whatsoeuer are in it made the same confession I asked the Sea and the deepes and the creeping things and they answered me We are not thy God seeke aboue vs. I asked the fleeting winds and the whole Ayre with his inhabitants answered me That Anaximenes was deceiued I am not thy God I asked the heauens the Sunne and Moone and Starres Nor say they are wee the God whom thou seekest 3. And I replyed vnto all these which stand so round about these dores of my flesh You haue answered me concerning my God that you are not he And they cryed out with aloud voyce He made vs. My questioning with them is my intention their answer is their figure and species And I turned my selfe vnto my selfe and sayd Who art thou And I answered A man for behold here is a soule and a body in me one without and the other within By which of these two am I to seeke my God whom my body had inquired after from earth to heauen euen so farre as I was able to send these beames of mine eyes in ambassage But the better part is the inner part vnto which all these my bodily messengers gaue vp their intelligence as being the President and Iudge of all the seuerall answers of heauen and earth and of all things that are therein who all sayd Wee are not God but He made vs. These things did my inner man knâ—w by the intelligence giuen him by the outer man And I the inner man knew all this I the soule by meanes of the Sences of the body 4. I asked the whole frame of the world concerning my God and that answered mee I am not He but Hee made me Doth not this corporeall figure guidently appeare to all those that haue their perfect sences why then speakes it not the same things vnto all The creatures both small and great doe see this corporeall figure well enough but they are not able to aske any questions of it because Iudge Reason is not President ouer their Sences which are to giue vp intelligence vnto him But Men are well able to aske that so they may clearely see the inuisible things of God which are vnderstood by the things that are made But by inordinate loue of them they make themselues subiects vnto them and slaues are not fit to be Iudges Nor will the creatures answere to such as aske of them vnlesse the askers be able to iudge nor so much as alter their voyce that is their out-ward appearance if so bee one man onely lookes vpon it and another seeing it withall enquires of it so as it may appeare one way to this man and another way to that man but it appearing the same way vnto both is dumbe to this man but makes answere vnto that Yea verily it speakes vnto all but they onely vnderstand it who compare that voyce receiued from without by the Sences with the Truth which is within For Truth sayes vnto me Neyther heauen nor earth nor any other body is thy God This their very Nature sayes vnto him that lookes vpon them There is lesse bulke in the part of a thing then in the whole Now vnto thee I speake O my soule Thou art my better part for thou quickenest this bulke of my body by giuing life vnto it which no body can giue vnto a body but thy God is the life of thy life vnto thee CHAP. 7. God is not to bee found by any ability in our bodies 1. VVHat is it therefore which I loue when as I loue my God who is Hee that is aboue the top of my Soule By this very soule will I ascend vp vnto him I will so are beyond that faculty of mine by which I am vnited vnto my body and by which I fill the whole frame of it with life I cannot by that faculty finde my God for so the Horse Mule that haue no vnderstanding might as well finde him seeing they haue the same faculty by which their bodies liue also 2. But another faculty there is not that onely by which I giue life but that too by which I giue sence vnto my flesh which the Lord hath framed for me when namely he commands the eye that it should not heare and the care that it should not see but orders that for mee to see by and this for mee to heare withall and assignes what is proper to the other Sences seuerally in their owne seates and offices which being diuers through euery sence yet I the soule being but one doe actuate and gouerne I will I say mount beyond this faculty of mine for euen the Horse and Mule haue this seeing they also are sensible in their bodies CHAP. 8. The force of the Memory 1. I Will soare therefore beyond this faculty of my nature still rysing by degrees vnto Him who hath made both mee and that nature And I come into these fields and spacious palaces of my Memory where the treasures of innumerable formes brought into it from these things that haue beene perceiued by the sences be hoarded vp There is layd vp whatsoeuer besides wee thinke eyther by way of enlarging or diminishing or any other wayes varying of those things which the sence hath come at yea and if there bee any thing recommended to it and there layd vp which forgetfulnesse hath not swallowed vp and buried To this treasury when
of the voyce as that it was neerer to pronouncing then to singing 3. Notwithstanding so often as I call to mind the teares I shed at the hearing of thy Church-songs in the beginning of my recouered fayth yea and at this very time whenas I am moued not with the singing but with the thing sung when namely they are set off with a cleare voyce and skilfully gouerned I then acknowledge the great good vse of this institution Thus floate I betweene perill of pleasure and an approoued profitable custome enclined the more though herein I pronounce no irreuocable opinion to allow of the old vsage of singing in the Church that so by the delight taken in at the eares the weaker mindes may be rowzed vp into some feeling of deuotion And yet againe so oft as it befalls me to be more mou'd with the voyce then with the ditty I confesse my selfe to haue grieuously offended at which time I wish rather not to haue heard the musicke See now in what a perplexity I am weepe with me and weepe for mee O all you who inwardly feele any thoughts whence good actions doe proceede As for you that feele none such these things moue not you But thou O Lord my God looke vpon mee hearken and behold and pitty and heale me thou in whose eyes I am now become a torture to my selfe and that 's the perplexity I languish vpon CHAP. 34. The euticements comming in by the eyes 1. THere remaines the pleasures of these eyes of my flesh concerning which I am now to make this Confession vnto thee which let the cares of thy temple those brotherly and deuour eares well hearken vnto that with it wee may conclude our discourse concerning the temptations of the lusts of the flesh which as yet sollicite mee groaning earnestly and desiring to be cloathed vpon with my house from heauen Mine eyes take delight in fayre formes and varieties of them in beautifull and pleasant colours Suffer not these to hold possession in my soule let my God rather be Lord of it who made all these very good they bee indeede yet is Hee my good and not they Verily these entice mee broade waking euery day nor finde I any rest from these sights as I haue had often when silence was kept after sweete voyces For this Queene of Colours the light shedding it selfe into all whateuer wee behold so oft as I enioy the day light glyding by myne eye in its varyed formes doth most sweetely inueigle mee wholy busiec about another matter and taking no notice of it For it so forcibly insinuates it selfe that if at any time it suddenly bee withdrawne it is with much longing lookt after againe and if missing too long it besaddeth the minde O thou light which Tobias beheld when with his eyes cloazd vp hee directed his sonne the way to life himselfe going before with the feete of charity neuer misleading him Or that light which Isaac beheld when as his fleshly eyes being dimme so that hee could not see hee blessed his sonnes not able to discerne which was which though in blessing of them he deserued to haue discern'd them Or that light which Iacob beheld when taken blinde in his old age he with an illuminated heart in the persons of his owne sonnes gaue light vnto the fortunes of the seuerall families of people foresignified to be deryued from them and as when hee layd his hands vpon his grandchildren by Ioseph mystically layd a-crosse not as their father by his outward eye corrected them but as himselfe by a beame of light from within wittingly discerned them This is the light indeed yea the onely light nor is there any other aye and all those are one who see and loue that light As for this corporeall light which I now spake of it be-sawces this present life for her blinde louers with a tempting and a dangerous sweetnesse whereas those that know how to prayse thee for that light doe spend it O God all-Creator in singing thy hymnes and are not taken vp from it in their sleepe Thus desire I to be employed 3 These seducements of the eyes do I manfully resist lest my feete wherewith I am to enter vpon my way should be ensnared yea and I lift vp mine inuisible eyes vnto thee that thou wouldst be pleased to plucke my feete out of that snare yea thou doest euer and anon plucke them out for they are ensnared Thou ceasest not to plucke them out though I entangle my selfe at euery snare that is layd because thou that keepest Israel shalt neyther slumber nor sleepe Oh how innumerable toyes made by diuers Arts and manufactures both in our apparell shooes vessels and such like workes in pictures also and diuers feigned images yea and these farre exceeding all necessary and moderate vse and all pious significations haue men added to tempt their owne eyes withall outwardly following after what themselues make inwardly forsaking him by wom themselues were made yea defacing that Image in which themselues were once made 4. For mine owne part O my God and my beauty I euen therefore dedicate an hymne vnto thee and doe sacrifice prayse vnto my Sanctifier because of those beautifull patternes which through mens soules are conueighed into their cunning hands which all descend from that beauty which is aboue our soules which my soule day and night sighed after But as for these framers followers of those outward beauties they from thence deriue the manner of liking them but fetch not from thence the measure of vsing them And yet there it is though they perceiue it not that they might not goe too farre to seeke it but might preserue their strength onely for thee and not weare it out vpon tyring delicates But for my owne part who both discourse vpon and well discerne these things I verily bend my steps towards these outward Beauties but thou pluckest mee backe O Lord thou pluckest me backe because thy mercy is before mine eyes For I am miserably taken and thou as mercifully pluckest mee backe and that sometimes when I perceiued thee not because I haâ—â— too earnestly settled my thoughts vpon them and otherwhiles grieued to part with them because my affections had already cleaued to them CHAP. 35. Of our Curiosity in knowing 1. VPon this another forme of temptation assayles mee and that many wayes more dangerous For besides that concupiscence of the flesh which lurketh in the delight of all our Sences and pleasures which those that are slanes vnto bee mad in loue with those namely that withdraw themselues farre from thee there is conueighed into the soule by the same Sences of the body a certaine vayne and curious itch not of delight-taking in the flesh but of making experiments by helpe of the flesh which is masked vnder the title of Knowledge and Learning Which because it is seated in the naturall Appetite of Knowing and that for the attaining of knowledge the eyes bee
there can in like manner any thing chance vnto thee that art vnchangeably Eternall that is the Eternall Creator of Soules Like as therefore thou in the beginning knewest the heauen and the earth without any variety of thy knowledge euen so didst thou in the beginning create heauen and earth without any distinction of thy action Let him that vnderstandeth it confesse vnto thee and let him that vnderstandeth it not confesse vnto thee also Oh how high art thou and yet the humble in heart are the house that thou dwellest in For thou vayself vvthose that are bowed down and neuer can they fall whose strength thou art Saint Augustines Confessions The twelfth Booke CHAP. 1. T is very difficult to finde out the truth MY heart O Lord toucht with the words of holy Scripture is busily imployed in this pouerty of my life And euen therefore in our discourse oftentimes appeares there a most plentifull pouerty of humane vnderstanding because that our enquiring spends vs more words then our finding out does and wee are longer about demanding then about obtayning and our hand that knocks hath more worke to doe then our other hand that receiues A promise haue wee layd holde of who shall defeate vs of it If God bee on our side who can bee against vs Aske and yee shall haue seeke and you shall finde knocke and it shall bee opened vnto you For euery one that askes receiues and he that seekes finds and to him that knocketh shall it be opened These be thine owne promises and who needes feare to bee deceiued whenas the Truth promiseth CHAP. 2. That the heauen we see is but earth in respect of the heauen of heauens which wee see not 1. VNto thy Highnesse the lowlynesse of my tongue now confesseth because thou hast made heauen and earth this heauen I meane which I see and this earth that I treade vpon whence is this earth that I beare about me Thou madest it But where is that Heauen of Heauens made for the Lord which wee heare of in the words of the Psalmist The heauen euen the heauens are the Lords but the earth hath he giuen to the children of men Where is that Heauen which we see not that in comparison whereof all this heauen which wee see is but meere earth For this heauen is wholy corporeall For all this which is wholy corporeall is not euery where beautifull alike in these lower parts the bottome wherof is this earth of ours but in comparison of that Heauen of heauens euen the heauen to this our earth is but earth yea both these great bodies may not absurdly bee called earth in comparison of that I know not what manner of heauen which is the Lords and not giuen to the Sonnes of men CHAP. 3. Of the darknesse vpon the face of the Deepe 1. AND now was this Earth without shape and voyde and there was I know not what profoundnesse of the Deepe vpon which there was no light because as yet it had no shape Therefore didst thou command it to bee written that darknesse was vpon the face of the deepe which what other thing was it then the Absence of light For if there had been light where should â—â— haue beene bestowed but in being ouer all by shewing it selfe and enlightening others Where therefore as light was not yet what was it that darkenesse was present but that light was absent Darknesse therefore was ouer all hitherto because light was absent like as where there is no found there is silence And what is it to haue silence there but to haue no sound there Hast not thou O Lord taught these things vnto the soule which thus confesses vnto thee Hast not thou taught mee Lord that before thou createdst diuersifyedst this vnshapen matter there was nothing neyther colour nor figure nor body nor Spirit and yet was there not altogether an absolute nothing for there was a certaine vnshapednes without any forme in it CHAP. 4. Of the Chaos and what Moses called it 1. ANd how should that be called and by what sence could it bee insinuated to people of slow apprehensions but by some ordinary word And what among all the parts of the world can be found to come neerer to an absolute vnshapednesse then the Earth and the deepe For surely they bee lesse beautifull in respect of their low situation then those other higher parts are which are all transparent and shining Wherefore then may I not conceiue the vnshapelynesse of the first matter which thou createdst without form of which thou wert to make this goodly world to bee significantly intimated vnto men by the name of Earth without shape and voyd CHAP. 5. That this Chaos is hard to conceiue 1. VVHen herein the thoughts of man are seeking for somewhat which the Sence may fasten vpon and returnes answere to it selfe It is no intelligible forme as life is or as Iustice is because it is the matter of bodies Nor is it any thing sensible for that in this earth inuisible as yet and without forme there was nothing to bee perceiued Whilest mans thoughts thus discourse vnto himselfe let him endeauour eyther to know it by being ignorant of it or to bee ignorant by knowing it CHAP. 6. What himselfe sometimes thought of it 1. FOr mine owne part O Lord if I may confesse all vnto thee both by tongue and pen what-euer thy selfe hast taught me of that matter the name whereof hauing heard before but not vnderstanding because they told me of it who themselues vnderstood it not I conceiued of it as hauing innumerable formes and diuerse and therefore indeede did I not at all conceiue it in my minde I tossed vp and downe certaine vgly and hideous formes all out of order but yet formes they were notwithstanding and this I cald without forme Not that it wanted all for me but because it had such a mis-shapen one insomuch as if any vnexpected thought or absurdity presented it selfe vnto mee my sence would straight wayes turne from it and the fraylenesse of my humane discourse would bee distracted And as for that which my conceite ranne vpon it was me thought without forme not for that it was depriued of all forme but it comparison of more beautifull formes but true reason did perswade me that I must vtterly vncase it of all remnants of formes whatsoeuer if so bee I meant to conceiue a matter absolute without forme but I could not For sooner would I haue imagined that not to bee at all which should be depriued of all forme then once conceiue there was likely to bee any thing betwixt forme and nothing a matter neyther formed nor nothing without forme almost nothing 2. My minde gaue ouer thereupon to question any more about it with my spirit which was wholy taken vp already with the images of formed bodies which I changed and varied as mee listed and I bent my enquiry vpon the bodies themselues and more deeply lookt into
Readers verily striue both to finde out and to vnderstand the authors meaning whom wee reade and seeing wee beleeue him to speake truely wee dare not once imagine him to haue let fall any thing which our selues eyther know or thinke to be false Whilest euery man endeauours therefore to collect the same sence from the holy Scriptures that the Penman himselfe intended what hurt is it if a man so iudges of it euen as thou O' the light of all true-speaking minds dost shew him to bee true although the Author whom hee reades perceiued not so much seeing he also collecteth a Truth out of it though this particular trueth he perchance obserueth not CHAP. 19. Of some particular apparent truthes 1. FOr true it is O Lord That thou madest Heauen and Earth and it is true too that that Beginning is thy Wisedome in which thou createdst all and true againe that this visible world hath for his greater parts the Heauen and the Earth which in a briefe expression comprehend all made and created natures And true too That whatsoeuer is mutable giues vs to vnderstand that there is a want of forme in it by meanes whereof it is apt to receiue a forme or is changed or turned by reason of it It is true that that is subiect to no times which cleaueth so close vnto that vnchangeable forme as that though the nature of it bee mutable yet is it selfe neuer changed T is true that that vnshapednesse which is almost nothing cannot be subiect to the alteration of times T is true that that whereof a thing is made may by a figuratiue kinde of speaking bee called by the name of the thing made of it whence might heauen and earth bee sayd to bee that vnshap't Chaos whereof heauen and earth were made T is true that of things hauing forme there is not any neerer to hauing no forme then the earth and the deepe T is true that not onely euery created and formed thing but whatsoeuer is apt to bee created and formed is of thy making of whom are all things T is true that whatsoeuer is formed out of that which had no forme was vnformed before it was formed CHAP. 20. He interprets Gen. 1. 1. otherwise 1. OVt of these truths of which they little doubt whose internall eye thou hast enabled to see them and who irremoueably beleeue thy seruant Moses to haue spoken in the Spirit of truth Out of all these therefore I say hee collecteth another sence vnto himselfe who sayth In the beginning God made the heauen and the earth that is to say in his Word coeternall vnto himselfe God made the intelligible and the sensible or the spirituall and the corporeall creature And he another that saith In the beginning God made Heauen and Earth that is in his Word coeternall vnto himselfe did God make the vniuersall bulke of this corporeall world together with all those apparantly knowne creatures which it contayneth 2. And hee another that sayth In the beginning God made Heauen and Earth that is In his word coeternall vnto himselfe did God make the formelesse matter both of the creature spirituall and corporeall And he another that sayth In the beginning God created Heauen and Earth that is In his Word coeternall vnto himselfe did God create the formeles matter of the creature corporeal wherein heauen and earth lay as yet confused which being now distinguished and formed we at this day see in the bulke of this world And he another who sayth In the beginning God made heauen and earth that is In the very beginning of creating and of working did God make that formelesse matter confusedly contayning in it selfe both heauen and earth out of which what were afterwards formed doe at this day eminently appeare with all that is in them CHAP. 21. These words The Earth was voyd c. diuersly vnderstood 1. ANd forasmuch as concerns the vnderstanding of the words following out of all which truths that Interpreter chuses one to himselfe who sayth But the Earth was inuisible and vnfashioned and darknesse was vpon the deepe that is That incorporeall thing that God made was as yet a formelesse matter of corporeall things without order without light Another sayes thus The Earth was inuisible and vnfashioned and darknesse was vpon the deepe that is This All now called heauen and earth was a shapelesse and darksome matter hitherto of which the corporeall heauen and the corporeall earth were to bee made with all things in them now knowne vnto our corporeall sences Another sayes thus The Earth was inuisible and shapeless and darknes was vpon the deepe that is This All now called heauen and earth was but a formelesse and a darkesome matter hitherto out of which was to be made both that intelligible heauen which is other where called The Heauen of heavens and the Earth that 〈◊〉 say the whole corporeall 〈…〉 which 〈…〉 vnderstood this corporeall heauen also that â—â—â—ely out of which euery visible and inuisible creature 〈…〉 be created â— mother sayes thus The â—â—rth was inuisible and shapelesse and darknes was vpon the deepe that is The Scripture did not call that vnshapelynesse by the name of Heauen and Earth for that vnshapelynes sayth hee was already in being and that was it hee called the Earth inuisible without and shape and darkenesse vpon the deepe of which hee had sayd before that God had made heauen and earth namely the spirituall and corporeall creature Another sayes The Earth was inuisible and without shape and darknes was vpon the Deepe that is the matter was now a certayne vnshapelynesse of which the Scripture sayd before that God made heauen and earth namely the whole corporeall bulke of the world deuided into two great parts vpper and lower with all the common known creatures in them CHAP. 22. That the waters are also contayned vnder the names of Heauen and Earth 1. BVt if any man shall attempt to dispute against these two last opinions with this argument If you will not allow that this vnshapelynesse of matter seemd to be called by the name of heauen and earth Ergo there was something which God neuer made out of which he was to make heauen and earth Nor indeed hath the Scripture told vs that God made this heauen and earth but meerely to haue vs vnderstand that matter to be signified eyther by the name of heauen and earth together or of the earth alone whenas it sayd In the beginning God made the heauen and earth that so by that which followes And the Earth was inuisible and without forme although it pleased Him to call the formlesse matter by those termes yet may wee vnderstand no other matter but that which God made in that Text where t is written God made Heauen and Earth 2. The mayntayners of those two latter opinions eyther this or that will vpon the first hearing returne this answere Wee doe not deny this formelesse matter to be indeede created by God
disquieted within me Trust in the Lord his word is a lanthorne vnto thy feete trust and abide on him vntill the night the mother of the wicked vntill the wrath of the Lord bee ouerpast the children of which wrath our selues who were sometimes darknesse haue beene the reliques of which darkenesse wee still beare about vs in our body dead because of sinne vntill the day breake and the shadowes flee away 2. Hope thou in the Lord in the morning I shall stand in thy presence and contemplate thee yea I shall for euer confesse vnto thee In the morning I shall stand in thy presence and shall see the health of my countenance euen my God who also shall quicken our mortall bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in vs who in mercie sometimes moued vpon our inner darkesome and floating deepe from whome in this our pilgrimage wee haue receiued such a pledge as that euen now wee are light euen alreadie in this life whilest wee are saued by hope made the Children of light and the Children of the day not the Children of the night nor of the darknes which yet somtimes we haue beene Betwixt which Children of darknesse and vs in this vncertainety of humane knowledge thou onely canst deuide thou who prouest the hearts and callest the light day and the darkenesse night For who can discerne vs but thou And what haue we that wee haue not receiued of thee Out of the same lump are some made for vessels of honour and others for dishonour CHAP. 15. By the word Firmament is the Scripture meant 1 BVt who except thou O our God made that Firmament of the Authority of thy diuine Scripture to bee ouer vs as t is said The heauen shall be folded vp like a booke and is euen now stretcht ouer vs like a skin For thy holy Scripture is of more eminent authority since those mortals departed this life by whom thou dispensest it vnto vs. And thou knowest O Lord thou knowest how thou with skins didst once apparell men so soone as they by sin were become mortall Wherevpon hast thou like a skinne stretched out the Firmament of thy booke that is to say those words of thine so well agreeing together which by the ministry of mortall men thou spreadest ouer vs. For by the death of those men is that solid strength of authority appearing in the bookes set by them more eminently stretched ouer all that bee now vnder it which strength whil'st they liued on earth was not then so eminently stretched out ouer vs. Thou hadst not as yet spredde abroad that heauen like a skin thou hadst as yet euery where noysed abroad the report of their deaths 2 Let vs looke O Lord vpon the heauens the worke of thy fingers cleare our eyes of that mist with which thou hast ouer cast them there is that testimony of thine which giueth wisdome vnto the little ones perfect O my God thine owne prayse cut of the mouth of babes and sucklings Nor haue wee knowne any other bookes which so destroy pride which so beate downe the aduersary and him that stands vpon his own guard that standeth out vpon termes of reconciliation with thee in defence of his owne sinnes I know not Lord I knowe not of any other such chaste words that are so powerfull in perswading me to Confession and in making thy yoake easie vnto my neck and in inuiting mee to serue thee for very loues sake Graunt mee to vnderstand them good Father grant me thus much that am placed vnder them because that for them who are placed vnder them thou hast settled them so surely 3. Other Waters also there bee aboue this firmamenent immortall they bee as I beleeue and separated from all earthly corruption Let those supercelestiall people thine Angels prayse thee yea let them prayse thy name they who haue no neede to receiue this Firmament or by reading to attaine the knowledge of thy Word For they alwayes behold thy face and there doe they reade without any syllables measurable by times what the meaning is of thy eternall will They reade they chuse they loue They are euer reading yet that neuer passes ouer which they reade because by choosing and by louing doe they reade the vnchangeablenesse of thy counsayle Their booke is neuer closed nor shall it bee euer clasped seeing thy selfe is that volume vnto them yea thou art so eternally For thou hast ordayned them to bee aboue this Firmament which thou hast settled ouer the infirmenesse of the lower people where-out they might receiue and take notice of thy mercy which sets thee forth after a temporall manner euen thee that madest times For thy mercy O Lord is in the Heauens and thy truth reacheth vnto the clouds The clouds pass away but the heauen abides the Preachers of thy Word passe out of this life into another but thy Scripture is spred abroad ouer the people euen vnto the end of the world 4. Yea both heauen and earth shall passe but thy words shall not passe away because the parchment shall bee folded vp and the grasse ouer which it was spred out shall with the goodlynesse of it also passe away but thy Word remaineth for euer Which word now appeareth vnto vs vnder the darkenesse of the cloudes and vnder the glasse of the heauens and not as in it selfe it is because that euen we though the well-beloued of thy Sonne yet is it not hitherto manifest what we shall be He standeth looking thorow the lattis of our flesh and he spake vs faire yea hee set vs on fire and wee ranne after the sent of his odors But when he shall appeare then shall we be like him for we shall see him as he is Graunt vs Lord to see him that is our owne though the time bee not yet come CHAP. 16. God is vnchangeable 1. FOr fully as in thy selfe thou art thou onely knowest thou who ART vnchangeably and know est vnchangeably and willest vnchangeably And thy essence both knoweth and willeth vnchangeably And thy knowledge Is wills vnchangeably and thy will Is knows vnchangeably Nor seemes it right in thine eyes that in the same manner as an vnchangeable light knoweth it selfe so it should be known of a thing changeable that receiues light from another My soule is therefore like a land where no water is because that as it cannot of it selfe enlighten it selfe so can it not of it selfe satisfie it selfe For so is the fountaine of life with thee like as in thy light we shall see light CHAP. 17. What is meant by dry land and by the Sea 1. VVHo gathered bitter spirited people together into one society Because that all of them propound to themselues the same end of a temporall and earthly felicity for attayning whereof they doe whateuer they do though in the doing they wauer vp and downe with innumerable variety
of cares Who Lord but thy selfe who once commandedst That the waters should be gathered together into one place and that the dry land should appeare which thirsteth after thee For the Sea is thine and thou hast made it and thy hands prepared the dry land Nor is the bitter spiritednesse of mens wills but the gathering together of the waters called Sea yet doest thou also restraine the wicked desires of mens soules and settest them their bounds how far the waters may be suffered to passe that their waues may breake one against another and in this manner makest thou it a Sea by th' order of thy dominion which goes ouer all things 2. But as for the soules that thirst after thee and that appeare before thee being by other bounds deuided from the society of the Sea them dost thou so water by a sweet spring that the Earth may bring forth fruite and thou O Lord so coÌ„manding our soule may bud forth her workes of mercy according to their kind when we loue our neighbour in the reliefe of his bodily necessities hauing seede in it selfe according to its likenesse Whenas out of the consideration of our owne infirmity wee so farre compassionate them as that we are ready to releeue the needy helping them euen as wee would desire to be helped out owne selues if wee in like manner were in any necessity And that not in things easie to vâ— aloue as in the greene hearâ— which hath seede in it but also in affording them the protection of our assistance wâ—â— our best strength like the tree that brings forth fruit that is to say some right good turne for the rescuing him that suffers wrong out of the clutches of him that is too strong for him and by affording him the shelter of our protection by the powerfull arme of iust iudgement CHAP. 18. He continues his Allegory in alluding to the workes of the Creation 1. SO Lord euen so I beseech thee Let it spring out as already thou makest it doe as already thou giuest cheerfulnesse and ability Let Truth spring out of the Earth and righteousnesse looke doâ—n from Heauen and let there be lights in the Firmament Let vs breake our bread vnto the hungry and let vs bring the poore that is cast out into our owne house Let vs cloath the naked neuer despise those of our own flesh Which fruits being once sprung out of the earth see that it is good and let our temporary light break forth and wee our selues from this inferiour fruitfulnesse of Action arriuing to that superior word of life in the delightfulnesse of Contemplation may appeare at length like the lights in the world fast settled to the Firmament of thy Scriptures For there by discourse thou so clearest things vnto vs as that we be enabled to deuide betweene Intelligible sensible creatures as betwixt the day and the night or betweene soules giuen eyther to Intellectuall or vnto sensible creatures insomuch as not onely thou thy selfe in the secret of thine owne Iudgement like as before euer the Firmament was made thou deuidest betweene the light and the darkenesse but thy spirituall children also set and rancked in the same Firmament thy grace now clearely shining throughout their Orbe may now giue then light vnto the earth and deuide betwixt the day and the night and bee for signes of times seasons namely that old things are passed with theÌ„ lo all things are become new and that our saluation is now neerer then when we first beleeued and that the night is passed and the day is at hand and that thou wilt crown the yeere with thy blessing send labourers into thy haruest in the sowing whereof others haue taken paines before sowing the seed also for another harwest which shal be in the end of the world 2. Thus giuest thou life to him that seeketh 〈◊〉 and thou blessest the yeeres of the 〈…〉 But thou art the same and in thy yeeres which fayle not thou preparest a beginning for the yeeres that are a passing For thou in thy eternall counsayle doest in their proper seasons bestow thy heauenly blessings vpon the earth for to one there is giuen by thy Spirit the word of wisdome resembling the greater light for them who are delighted with the brightnesse of perspicuous trueth rising as it were in the beginning of the day To another is giuen the word of knowledge by the same Spirit resembling the lesser light To another faith to another the gift of healing to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of Spirites to another diuers kinds of tongues and all these resemble the lesser starres All these worketh the same Spirit deuiding what is fit for euery man euen as it will and causing the starres to appeare in their brightnesse vnto ech mans edification 3. But as for the word of knowledge wherein are all the Sacraments contayned which are varied in their seasons like the Moone together with those other notions of gifts which are afterwards reckned vp like the startes they so much come short of the brightnesse of wisdome in as much as their rising is in the beginning of the night But yet are these necessary vnto such as that wisest seruant of thine could not speake vnto as vnto spirituall but as vnto carnall men euen hee who also speaketh wisdome among those that are perfect As for the naturall man like him who is a babe in Christ and a sucker of milke till such time as he growes bigge enough for strong meate and can looke steadily against the Sunne let him not vtterly forsake his night but rest himselfe contented with what light the Moone the Starres affoord him These discourses holdest thou with vs O our most wise God in thy Bible that Firmament of thine that we may learne by it how to discerne of all these things in an admirable contemplation though still but in Signes and in times and in daies and in yeeres CHAP. 19. Our hearts are to be purged from vice that they may be capable of vertue He still continues his Allegory of the creation 1. BVt wash you first make you cleane put away the euill of your doings out of your own hearts and from before mine eyes that the dry land may appeare Learne to doe good iudge the fatherlesse pleade for the widdow that the earth may bring foorth the greene herb for meate and the tree bearing fruite and then come let vs reason together saith the Lord that there may bee light in the Firmament of the heauen let them shine vpon the earth That rich young man demanded of our good master what he should do to attaine eternal life Let our good master tell him whom he thought to bee no more then a man who is good because hee is God let him tell him That if he would enter into life hee must keepe the commandemeÌ„ts let
ouer the fowles of the ayre and ouer all cattell and wilde beasts and ouer all the earth and ouer euery creeping thing that creepeth vpon the earth For this he exerciseth by the vnderstanding of his mind by the which he perceiueth the things of the Spirit of God whereas otherwise Man being in honor had no vnderstanding and is compared vnto the vnreasonable beasts and is become like vnto them In thy Church therefore O our God according to thy grace which thou hast bestowed vpon it for we are thy workmanship created vnto good workes are there not those onely who gouerne spiritually but they also which spiritually obey those that are ouer them for male and female hast thou made man euen this way too in the account of thy grace spirituall in which according to Sexe of body there is neyther male nor female because neyther Iew nor Grecian neyther bond nor free 2. Spirituall persons therefore whether such as gouerne or such as obey doe iudge spiritually not vpon those spirituall thoughts which shine in the Firmament for they ought not to passe their iudgement vpon so supreme authority for they may not censure thy Bible notwithstanding somthing in it shines not out clearely enough for we submit our vnderstanding vnto that hold for certain that euen that which is shut frō our eyes to be most rightly and truly spoken For so a man though he be Spirituall renewed vnto the knowledge of God after his Image that created him yet may hee no presume to be a Iudge of the law but a doer onely Neyther taketh hee vpon him to iudge of that distinction of Spirituall and carnall men not of those namely which are knowne vnto thine eyes O our God and haue not as yet discouered themselues vnto vs by any of their workes that by their fruits we might be able to know them but thou Lord doest euen now know them and hast already distinguisht them yea and called them in secret or euer the Firmament was created 3. Nor yet as he is spirituall doeth hee passe his censure vpon the vnquier people of this present world For what hath Ignorant hee to doe to iudge those that are without which of them is likely to come hereafter into the sweetnesse of thy grace and which likely to continue in the perpetuall bitternesse of vnbeliefe Man therefore whom thou hast made after thine own image hath not receiued dominion ouer the light of Heauen nor ouer the secrets of heauen it selfe nor ouer the day the night which thou calledst before the foundation of the world nor yet ouer the gathering together of the waters which is the Sea but he hath receiued dominion ouer the Fishes of the Sea and the Fowles of the ayre and ouer all Cattell and ouer all the Earth and ouer all creeping things which creepe vpon the Earth For hee iudgeth and approueth that which is right and he disalloweth what he findeth amisse be it eyther in the solemnity of that Sacrament by which such are admitted into the Church as thy mercy searches out among many waters Or in that other in which that Fish is receiued which once taken out of the Deepe the deuout earth now feedeth vpon or else in such expressions and sounds of words as are subiect to the authority of thy Bible like the Fowles as it were flying vnder the Firmament namely by interpreting expounding discoursing disputing consecrating or praying vnto thee with the mouth with expressions breaking forth and a lowd sounding that the people may answere Amen 4. For the vocall pronouncing of all which words the occasion growes from the darksome Deepe of this present world and from the blindnesse of flesh blood seeing that by bare conceiuing in the minde they cannot be perceiued so that necessary it is to speake loud vnto our eares This notwithstanding the flying Fowles be multiplyed vpon the earth yet they deriue their beginning from the Waters The Spirituall man iudgeth also by allowing of what is right and by disallowing what hee finds amisse in the workes and manners of the faythfull yea in their almes too which resemble the Earth bringing forth fruit and of the whole liuing Soule that hath tamed her owne affections by chastity by fasting and by holy meditations and of all those things too which are subiect to the sences of the body Vpon all these is hee now sayd to iudge and ouer all these hath hee absolute power of correction CHAP. 24. He allegorizes vpon Increase and multiply 1. BVt what is this now and what kinde of mystery Behold thou blessest mankind O Lord that they may increase and multiply and replenish the Earth doest thou not giue vs a priuie hint to learn somthing by why didst thou not aswell blesse the light which thou calledst day or the Firmament of heauen or the lights or the starres or the Earth or the Sea I might say O God that created vs after thine own Image I might say that it had beene thy good pleasure to haue bestowd this blessing peculiarly vpon man hadst thou not in likemaner blessed the Fishes and the Whales that they also should increase and multiplie and replenish the waters of the Sea and that the Fowles should be multiplyed vpon the Earth I might say likewise that this blessing pertayned properly vnto those creatures as are bred of their own kinde had I found it giuen to the Fruit-trees and Plants and Beasts of the earth But neyther vnto the Herbs nor the Trees nor the Beasts or Serpeuts is it sayd Increase and multiply notwithstanding that all these as well as the Fishes Fowles or Men do by generation both increase and continue their kinde 2. What then shall I say to it O thou Truth my light Shall I say that it was idly that it was vaynly sayd Not so O Father of piety farre be it from a Minister of thine owne Word to say so And notwithstanding I fully vnderstand not what that Phrase meaneth yet may others that are better that is more vnderstanding then my selfe make better vse of it according as thou O my God hast inabled euery man to vnderstand but let this cōfession of mine bee pleasing in thine eyes for that I confesse vnto thee O Lord how that I firmly beleeue thou speakest not that word in vaine nor will I conceale that which the occasion of reading this place hath put into my minde 3. For most true it is nor doe I see what should hinder mee from thus vnderstanding the figuratiue phrases of thy Bible For I know a thing to be manifoldly signified by corporeall expressions which the mind vnderstands all one way and another thing againe vnderstood many waies in the minde which is signified but one way by corporeall expression See for example the single loue of God our neyghbour in what a variety of mysteries and innumerable languages in each seuerall language in how innumerable phrases
Take vp and reade Take vp and reade ST. AVGVSTINES translatedand With some marginall notes illustrated By WIlliam Watts Rector of St. Albanes Woodstreete Saint Augustines Confessions translated AND With some marginall notes illustrated WHEREIN Diuers Antiquities are explayned And the marginall notes of a former Popish Translation answered BY William Watts Rector of St. Albanes Woodstreete LONDON Printed by IOHN NORTON for IOHN PARTRIDGE and are to be sold at the signe of the Sunne in Pauls Church-yard 1631. TO THE NOble and Religious Lady the Lady Elizabeth Hare Wife to the Honourable Sir Iohn Hare of Srow in Norff. and daughter to the Right Honourable Thomas Lord Couentry Lord Keeper of the great Seale c. Madam HOW great aduantage a natiue disposition to goodnesse is we confesse all all know how much the goodnesse of the Stock conferres towards the sweetnesse of the Fruite And yet haue our Gardeners obserued another aduancement of Nature namely how wonderfully the goodnesse of the Stock is improued by the vertue of the Cyon and that t is the Graft and not the Plant alone which renders the fruit more pleasant Besides that naturall preeminence therefore which your Ladyship hath to be honorably descended you are as the world acknowledges vertuously descended also your Stock is good and you are which the world knowes not high borne too your Cyon is better borne from aboue not onely once but againe and I fully perswade my selfe that I haue long since seene many vnsayned assurances of it I must not tempt your Ladyship with your own prayses your neighbours can speake foorth them and did I not know you to be most discreetly humble I might not haue sayd so much Let me now be bold good Madame to adde one Counsell after many Commendations it shall be but such a one as I know you most apt to take giue mee leaue to put you in mind that al this though the chiefe yet is it not the onely Engagement your Ladyship stands obliged to Almighty God in but that you owe him aboue most women a daily thankefulnesse both for his domesticke and worldly blessings God hath endowed your Ladyship with a most plentifull fortune And aboue that with a well-chosen and a towardly Gentleman one of the early hopes and prayses of his Country a yoake-fellow equall to your Selfe in blood in youth in personage And to increase all these blessings hath God increast you both with a sweete numerous Issue euen so numerous that your Oliue branches are already round about your table So that blessed be God neyther of you both are likely to want Heyres nor they Inheritances Thus hath God blest you as he did Ioseph with blessings of the Heauen aboue and blessings of the Deepe beneath blessings of the brests and of the womb And what could God haue done more to his Vine And what remaines for your Ladyship to doe but to cultiuate to pâ—une and to water both Stock and Cyon with a religious industry I know your Ladyship to be addicted as well to the Closet as to the Church to priuate Reading as to publike Hearing and I haue heretofare serued your Ladyship in both In thankfulnesse therfore for your salt which I haue eateÌ„ â—here make present of a most fit instrument for your Spirituall culture St. Austens own Pruning knife by which Hee cut off his sinnes by Repentance an exercise for your Closet deuotion the deuout st piece of all St. Austen and the vsefullest by which Confession is made vnto Saluation I direct not this to your Name by any chance but vpon deliborate choyce for I presume to be so priuy to the way of your Religion as to know that euen this Subiect of Priuate Confessions will much please you It will I hope do your soule good Let it therefore I beseech you Madam partake againe of your Goodnesse Countenance it I intreate your Ladyship with your Nime and defend it with the priuiledge of a Ladies Honour which no man I hope will be so vnmannerly as to vivlate God blesse your Honored Husband and Selfe and Children and Kinred and Family with Grace in this Life and with Glory in the next Thus prayes he affectionately who still remaines Madame Your good Ladyships obliged to honour and serue you VVilliam VVatts To the deuout Reader FOr such a one I hope this booke will make thee I am forced for want of paper to turne an Epistle into an excuse If thou here missest the Preface know that the swelling of the volum shut it out This Translation I began for the exercise of my Letâ—ten Deuotions but I quickly found it to exercise more then my Deuotion it exercised my skill all I had it exercised my Patience it exercised my Friends too for t is incomparably the hardest taske that euer I yet vndertooke the Presse wrought as fast as I wrote and I could not recall what was past Some things therefore may be ouerslipt but neither many I hope nor materiall to Religion nor so many by many as those of the former Translation which misled me as much as helpt me especially the two first books when I too much trusted him Who was the Author of it I assuredly know not some name Parsons others name a knight That I somtimes touch him too tartly was my aâ—ale against him not onely for being so Arrantly Partially Popish but for being so spitefull to the Holy Scriptures which he neuer honors with quoting in his margent euery where debases by aduancing the Romish Church aboue them If finding himselfe aggrieued hee shall in Print discouer himselfe against me I hope this of mine will one day come to a second Impression Now in the meane time I humbly desire the Deuout Reader to bee a Courteous Censurer I promise to send any man as many Thanks as he shall fairely send me word of Faults escaped in my booke God blesse the Readers and send them all to make confession vnto Saluation So prayes your Chaplayne the Translater W. W. St. Augustines owne testimony of this Booke taken out of his Retractations THe thirteene bookes of my Confessions both of my sinnes and good deedes do prayse God who is both iust and good and doe excite both the affection and vnderstanding of man towards him In the meane time for as much as concerneth me they wrought this effect when I wrote them and so they yet do when now I read them What others find thereby let themselues obserue but this I know That they haue much pleased and do much please many of my brethren From the first thâ—â—â—â— the whole tenth Booke they are written of my selfe in the three Books following of the holy Scripture from that place where it is sayd In the beginning God made heauen earth till he speaks of the Rest of the Sabbath In the fourth book when I confessed the misery of my mind vpon occasion of my friends 〈◊〉 sayes I hat my soule was as it were made one of both
soule wilt thou be still following thine owne flesh Let that rather turne and follow thee What ever by her thou hast sense of is but in part and the whole whereof these are parts thou knowest not and yet this little contents thee But had the sense of thy flesh beene capable of comprehending the whole and not for thy punishment beene stinted to a part of the whole thou wouldst have then desired that whatsoever hath existence at this present should passe away that so the whole might better have pleased thee altogether For what wee speake by the same sense of the flesh thou hearest and yet wouldst not thou have the same syllables sound ever but flye away that others may come on and thou mayst heare up the whole sentence Thus are all these things in ever Being which have still any one part of theirs in being and yet all those parts which goe to the making up of that whole Being are never all together in present Being All together surely must needs delight morefully than parts single if the pleasure of all could be felt all at once But farre better than these all is he that made all and he is our God nor does he depart away for that he hath no successor If bodies then please thee praise God for them and turne thy love upon him that made them lest otherwise in those things which please thee thou displease him CHAP. 12. Love of the creatures is not forbidden provided that in those which please us God bee loved 1. IF then soules please thee let them be loved in God for they are mutable but in him are they firmly established or else would they passe and perish In him therefore let them be beloved and draw unto him along with thee as many soules as thou canst and say to them Him let us love let us love him he made all these nor is hee farre from them For he did not once make them and then get him gone But of him and in him they are See where he is even where-ever truth is savoury Hee is within the very heart but yet hath the heart strayed from him 〈◊〉 againe to your owne heart Oâ—â— transgressors and cleave fast â—â— to him that made you 〈◊〉 with him and you shall 〈◊〉 surely Repose your 〈…〉 him and yee shall rest 〈◊〉 Whither goe you iâ— these 〈◊〉 gy passages O whither goe you The good that you love is 〈◊〉 him and in respect of him 〈◊〉 both good and pleasant But it shall justly be turned to bitternesse because whatsoever is from him is unjustly loved if hee be forsaken for it 2. Whither now wander 〈◊〉 further and further over these difficult and troublesome passages There is no rest to be found where you seeke it Seeke what you doe seeke but yet 't is not there where you are seeking for it You seeke a blessed life in the land of death 't is not there for how should there be a happy life where there is at all no life But our Life descended downe hither and tooke away our death and kild him out of the abundance of his owne life and he thundered calling unto us to returne from hence to him into that secret place from whence he came forth to us comming first into the Virgins wombe where the Humanity was marryed unto him even our mortall flesh though not ever to be mortall and thence came he like a Bridegroome out of his chamber rejoycing as a Giant to run his course For hee foreslow'd not but he ranne crying both in words deedes death descent and ascension still crying to us to returne unto him And hee withdrew himselfe from our eyes that we might returne to our owne heart and there finde him 3. He withdrew himselfe and behold he is still here He would not tarry long with us yet hath he not utterly left us for thither is he gone from whence he never parted because the world was made by him And in this world hee was and into this world hee came to save sinners unto whom my soule now confesseth that he may heale it for it hath sinned against him O ye sonnes of men how long will ye be slow of heart will ye not now after that Life is descended downe to you will not you ascend up to it and live But whither ascended you when you were high-conceipted and lifted up your head into heaven Descend againe that you may ascend and ascend to God For descended you are by ascending against him Tell the soules whom thou lovest thus that they may weepe in this valley of teares and so carry them up with thee unto God because by his Spirit thou speakest thus unto them if speak thou doest burning with the fire of charity CHAP. 13. Love whence it comes 1. THese things I as then knew not and I fell in love with these inferior beauties and I was sinking even to the very bottome and unto my friends I said doe wee love any thing that is not beautifull For what is faire and what is beauty what is it that inveigles us thus and that drawes our affections to the things we love for unlesse there were a gracefulnesse and a beauty in them they could by no meanes draw us unto them And I markt narrowly and perceived that in the bodies themselves there was one thing as it were the whole feature which in that respect was beautifull and another thing that did therefore become because it was aptly fitted to some thing as some part of the body in respect of the whole body or a shooe in respect of the foot and the like And this consideration sprang up in my minde even out of the innermost of my very heart and I composed certaine bookes De Pulchro Apto two or three as I thinke Thou knowest it O Lord for 't is out of my memory For I have them not now by me but lost they are and I know not how CHAP. 14. Of his booke of Faire and Fit 1. WHat was the cause O Lord my GOD that moved me to dedicate unto Icherius an Orator of Rome these bookes of mine whom as then I so much as knew not by face but upon love to the man meerely for the fame of his learning which was eminent in him and some words of his that I had heard which very well pleased me But rather did he please me for that they pleased others who highly extold him admiting much that a Syrian borne brought up first in the Greeke Eloquence should afterwards prove so wonderfull a master in the Latine also being above all this a most knowing man in all the studies that pertaine unto Wisdome A man is commended and loved even when hee is absent Doth then this love enter the heart of the hearer immedidiately from the mouth of the prayser Nothing so But by one lover is another inflamed Hence comes it that hee is oft loved who is heard commended when namely his worth
did I yet observe that very Intention of mine by which I formed those Images was not any such corporeall substance which yet could not have formed them had not it selfe beene some great thing In like manner did I conceive thee O thou Life of my life to be some hugie corporeall substance on every side piercing thorow the whole Globe of this world yea and diffused every way without it and that by infinite spaces though unbounded So that the Earth should have thee the Heaven should have thee all things should have thee and that they should be bounded in thee but thou no where 4. For as the body of this Ayre which is about the Earth hindred not the light of the Sun from passing thorow it which pierceth it not by bursting or by cutting but by filling of it so thought I that not the body of the Heaven the Ayre Sea onely but of the Earth too to be at pleasure passable unto thee yea easie to be pierced by thee in all its greatest and smallest parts that all might receive thy presence which by a secret inspiration both inwardly and outwardly governeth all things which thou hast created Thus I suspected because any other thing I could not thinke of and yet was this false too For by this meanes should a greater part of the Earth have contained a larger portion of thee and the lesse a lesser and then should all things in such sort have been full of thee as that the body of an Elephant should containe so much more of thee than the body of a Sparrow by how much that should be bigger than this and take up more roome by it by which conceipt shouldest thou make thy parts present unto the severall parts of the World by bits as it were great gobbets to great parts little bits to little parts of the world But thus thou art not present But thou hadst not as yet enlightned my darknesse CHAP. 2. Nebridius confutes the Manichees 1. IT might have bin enough for me Lord to have opposed against those deceived and deceivers those dumbe praters therefore dumbe because they founded not forth thy Word That question might have serv'd the turne which long agoe whiles wee were at Carthage Nebridius used to propound at which all we that heard it were much staggered namely What that I know not which nation of darknesse which the Manichees were wont to set in opposition against thee would have done unto thee hadst thou beene minded to fight with it For had they answered It would have done thee some hurt thē shouldst thou have bin subject to violence and corruption but if they answered It could do thee no hurt then would there have beene no reason brought for thy fighting with it especially for such a fighting in which some certaine portion or member of thine or some off-spring of thy substance should have been mingled with those contrary powers those natures not created by thee by whom it should so farre have beene corrupted and changed to the worse that it should have beene turned from happinesse into misery and should have stood in neede of some assistance by which it must both be delivered and purged and that this Off-spring of thy substance was our soule which being inthralled thy Word that was free and being defiled thy Word that was pure and being may med thy Word that was entire might every way releeve and yet that Word it selfe also bee corruptible because it was the off-spring of one and the same substance 2. Againe should they affirme thee whatsoever thou art that is thy substance to be incorruptible then were all these fancies of theirs most false and execrable But if they should affirme thee to bee corruptible even that were most false and to be abhorred at the first hearing This Argument therefore of Nebridius verily had beene enough against those who deserved wholly to bee spised out of my over-charged stomake for that they had no evasion to betake themselves unto without most horrible blasphemy both of heart and tongue thinking and speaking of thee in this fashion CHAP. 3. Free will is the cause of Sinne. 1. BVt I as yet although I both said and thought most confidently that thou our Lord God who madest not only our soules but our bodies and not onely both soules and bodies but Vs all and all things else beside wert neither to bee corrupted or altered one way or other yet understood I not hitherto What should be the cause of evill And yet what-ever it were I perceived I ought in that sense to inquire after it that I might not be constrained to beleeve that the incommutable GOD could be altered by it left my selfe should bee made the thing that I desired to seeke After this therefore I inquired with more security being very certaine that the Manichees Tenet whom I dissented from with my whole heart was no way true for that I discovered them whilest they enquired after evill to be most full of maliciousnesse they thinking that thy substance did rather suffer ill than their owne commit evill Whereupon I applyed my industrie to understand the truth of what I had heard how that Free-will should be the cause of our ill-doing And thy just Iudgement that we suffered ill But I was not able cleerely to discerne it 2. Endevouring therefore to draw the eye of my soule out of that pit I was againe plunged into it and endevouring often I was plunged as often But this raised me a little up towards thy light that I now knew as well that I had a Will as that I had a life and when therefore I did either will or nill any thing I was most sure of it that I did no other thing but will and nill and there was the Cause of my sinne as I perceived presently But what I did against my will that seemed I to suffer rather than to doe That judged I not to be my fault but my punishment whereby I holding thee most just quickly confessed my selfe not to bee unjustly punished 3. But I objected to my selfe againe Who made me Did not my GOD who is not onely good but Goodnesse it selfe Whence then came it that I can both will and nill evill things that there might be cause found why I should be justly punisht for it Who was it that set this freedome in me that ingrafted into my stemme this Cyon of bitternesse seeing I was wholly made up by my most sweet God If the Divell were the Author whence is that same Divell And if he himselfe by his own perverse will of a good Angell became a Divell whence then proceeded that perverse will in him whereby he was made a Divell seeing that the whole nature of Angels was made good by that most good Creator And by such thoughts as these was I againe cast down and overwhelmed yet not so farre brought downe was I as the Hell of that Errour where no man shall confesse
unto thee namely that thou shouldst be rather thought to suffer ill than man to doe ill CHAP. 4. God cannot be compelled 1. IN this sort did I endevour now to finde out the rest as I had already found that what was incorruptible must needs bee better than that which was corruptible and THEE therefore whatsoever thou wert did I acknowledge to bee incorruptible For never yet soule was nor ever shall bee able to thinke upon any thing which may be better than thou who art the soveraigne and the best Good But whereas most truely and certainely that which is incorruptible is to be preferred before what is corruptible like as I did then preferre it I might very well have reached so high in my thoughts as something that should bee better than my God hadst not thou beene incorruptible Where therefore I saw that incorruptible ought to bee preferred before corruptible there ought I to have sought out thee and there to observe Whence evill should come that is even whence corruption comes by which thy substance can by no meanes be infected 2. For Corruption does no waies infect our God by no will by no necessity by no unlookt for chance because he is God and what he wils is good and he himselfe is that Good but to be corrupted is not good Nor all thou O God against thy will constrained to any thing for that thy will is not greater than thy power But greater should it be were thy selfe greater than thy selfe For the Will and Power of God is God himselfe And what chance can surprize thee unlookt for who knowest all things Nor is there any nature of things but thou knowest it And what should wee use more arguments to prove Why that substance which God is should not be corruptible seeing if it were so it should not be God CHAP. 5. Hee pursues his enquirie after the root of sinne 1. AND I sought Whence Evill should be and I sought ill nor did I see that evill which was in this very enquirie of mine I set now before the eyes of my spirit the whole Creation and whatsoever I could discerne of it as the Sea the Earth the Ayre the Starres the Trees the mortall Creatures yea and what-ever else in it wee doe not see as the Firmament of the heaven all the Angels moreover and all the spirituall inhabitants thereof But yet as if all these had beene bodies did my fancy dispose of them in such and such places and I made one great Masse of all thy Creatures distinguished by their severall kindes of bodies both those that were Bodies indeed or which my selfe had feyned instead of Spirits And this Masse I made hugie enough not yet so great as in it selfe it was which I could not come to the knowledge of but as bigge as I thought convenient yet every way finite But thee O Lord I imagined on every part environing and penâ—trating it though every way infinite As if there were supposed to bee a Sea which every where and on every side by a most unmeasurable infinitenesse should bee onely a Sea and that Sea should containe in it some hugie Sponge but yet finite which Sponge must needs bee every where and on every side filled with that unmeasurable Sea So thought I thy whole Creation to bee in it selfe finite filled by thee who art infinite and I said Behold God and behold what God hath created and God is good yea most mightily and incomparably better than all these which God being himselfe good created all them good and see how he environeth and full-fils them all 2. Where is Evill then and from whence and how crept it in hither What is the roote and what the seed of it Or hath it at all no being Why then doe wee feare and beware of that which hath no being Or if we feare it in vaine then surely is that feare evill which in vaine so gores and torments the soule Yea and so much a greater evill by how much that wants of being any thing which wee stand in feare of and yet doe feare Therefore is there some evill thing which we feare or else the very act of fearing is evill Whence is evill therefore seeing God who is good hath created all these things good that is the greater and chiefest Good hath created these lesser goods yea and he creating they created are all good Whence now is evill Or of what did God make it Was there any matter evill and as God formed and ordered it did he leave any thing in it which hee did not convert 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But why did he so Was â— not able so to turne and chanâ—e the whole lumpe that no evill should have remained in it seeing he is able to do any thing Lastly why would he make any thing at all of that and did not by the same omnipotency rather cause that there should be no such thing at all Or to say troth was it able to be of it selfe against His will Or if that evill matter had beene so from eternity why suffered hee it so to continue so infinite spaces of times past and was pleased so long while after to make something out of it 3. Or if hee were suddenly pleased now to goe about some worke this rather should the Omnipotent have done have caused namely that this evill matter should not at all have beene and that hee himselfe should have beene alone that soveraigne and infinite Good â—â— Or if it had not beene good 〈…〉 who was good should 〈…〉 and create something also that were not good then that evill matter being first taken away and brought unto nothing should he immediately have taken order for some good matter whereof hee might create all things For he should not bee omnipotent if he were not able to create something that were good of it selfe unlesse hee were assisted by that matter which himselfe had not created These thoughts tossed I up and downe in my miserable heart overcharged with biting Cares through the feare of death and though I had not found out the truth yet did the Faith of thy Christ our Lord and Saviour professed in thy Church firmly continue in my heart though in divers particulars verily not yet throughly perfected and swarving from the right Rule of Doctrine yet did not my minde utterly leave it off but every day tooke in more and more of it CHAP. 6. Divinations made by the Mathematicians are vaine 1. BY this time also had I rejected those deceitfull Divinations and impious dotages of the Astrologers Let thine owne mercies out of the most inward bowels of my soule consesse unto thee for this O my God For thou thou altogether for who else is it that cals us backe from the death of all errours but even that Life which knowes not how to dye and that wisedome which enlightens those mindes that need it it selfe needing no light by which the whole world is governed even to the falling away of
of that wisedome which remaines in them they are renewed that they may be made wise is there But that he in due time dyed for the wicked and that thou sparedst not thine onely Sonne but deliveredst him for us all is not there For thou hast hid these things from the wise and hast revealed them unto babes that they that labour and are heavy loaden might come unto thee and thou mightest refresh them Because he is meeke and lowly iâ—heart and the meeke he directeth in Iudgement and such as be mild he teacheth his waies beholding our humility and labour and forgiving us all our sinnes But such as are puft up with the high straine of a sublimer learning heare not him saying unto them Learne of mee for I am meeke and lowly inheart and you shall finde rest to your soules And If they know God yet they glorifie him not as God nor give thankes unto â—â—â— but waxe vaine in their imaginations and their foolish heart is darkned and professing that they were wise they became fooles 4. And there also did I read that they had changed the glory of thy incorruptible nature into Idols and divers shapes into the likenesse of the image of corruptible man and birds and beasts and Serpents yea verily into that Egyptian foode for which Esau lost his birth-right for that that people which was thy first-borne worshipped the head of a foure-footed Beast instead of thee turning in their heart backe towards Egypt and bowing thy Image their owne soule before the image of a Calfe that eateth hay These things found I there but I fed not on them For it pleased thee O Lord to take away the reproach of diminution from Iacob that the elder brother should serve the yonger and thou hast called the Gentiles into thine inheritance 5. And I my selfe came unto thee from among the Gentiles and I set my mind earnestly upon that gold which thou willedst thy people to take from the Egyptians seeing thine it was wheresoever it were And to the Athenians thou saidst by thy Apostle That in thee we live move and have our being as one of their own Poets had said And verily these Bookes came from thence But I set not my minde towards the Idols of Egypt which they made of thy gold even they who changed the truth of God into a lye and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator CHAP. 10. Divine things are more cleerely discovered unto him 1. ANd being upon this admonished to returne to my selfe I entred even into mine owne inwards thou being my Leader and able I was to do it for thou wert now become my helper Into my selfe I went and with the eye of my soule such as it was I discovered over the same eye of my soule over my minde the unchangeable light of the Lord. Not this vulgar light which all flesh may looke upon nor yet another greater of the same kinde as if this should much and much more cleerely and with its greatnesse take up all the roome This light was none of that but another yea cleane another from all these Nor was it in that manner above my soule as Oyle is upon water nor yet as the heaven is above the earth but superiour to my soule because it made me and I was inferiour to it because I was made by it He that knowes what Truth is knowes what that light is and he that knowes it knowes eternity Charity knowes it 2. O eternall Truth and true Charity and deare eternity Thou art my God to thee doe I sigh night and day Thee when I first saw thou liftedst ine up that I might see there was something which I might see and that yet it was not I that did see And thou diddest beat backe the infirmity of my owne sight darting thy beames of light upon me most strongly and I trembled both with love and horrour and I perceived my selfe to be far off from thee in the Region of utter Vnlikenesse as if I heard this voice of thine from on high I am the food of strong men grow apace and thou shalt feed upon me nor shalt thou convert me like common food into thy substance but thou shalt be changed into mee And I learned thereupon That thou with rebukes hast corrected me for iniquity thou madest my soule to consume away like a moath And I said Is Truth therefore nothing at all seeing it is neither diffused by infinite spaces of places nor by finite But thou cryedst to mee from afarre off Yea verily I AM that I AM. This voice I heard as things are heard in the heart nor was there any suspicion at all why I should doubt of it yea I should sooner doubt that I did not live than that it was not the Truth which is cleerely to be seene by those things which are made CHAP. 11. How the Creatures are and yet are not 1. ANd I cast mine eyes upon those other creatures beneath thee and I perceived that they neither have any absolute being nor yet could they be said to have no being A being they have because they had it from thee and yet no being because what thou art they are not For that truely hath a being which remaines unchangeably It is good then for mee to hold fast unto God for if I remaine not in him I shall never bee able to doe it in my selfe whereas he remaining in himselfe reneweth all things And thou art my Lord neither doest thou stand in need of my goodnesse CHAP. 12. All that is is good 1. ANd manifested unto me it was that even those things bee good which yet are corruptible which were they soveraignely good could never be corrupted because if soveraignely good they were they must needes bee incorruptible and if they held no goodnesse in them at all neither should they have any thing in them to bee corrupted For corruption hurts every thing but unlesse it could diminish their goodnes it could not hurt Either therefore corruption does at all no hurt which cannot be or which is most certaine all which is corrupted is deptived of its goodnesse If things then shall bee deprived of all their goodnesse they shall have at all no being For if they shall still bee and shall not bee at all corrupted they shall thereby become better because they remaine ever incorruptibly 2. What more absurd now than to affirme those things that have lost all their goodnesse to be made the better by it Therfore whenever they shall be deprived of all their goodnesse they shall also lose all their being So long therefore as they are they are good therefore whatsoever are are good That Evill then which I sought whence it should be is not any substance for were it a substance it should be good For either it should be an incorruptible substance that is to say of the chiefe sorts of good or else should it
bee some corruptible substance which unlesse it were some way or other good it could not be corrupted I perceived therefore and it was made plaine unto me that all things are good which thou hast made nor is there any substance at all which thou hast not made And for that all which thou hast made are not equall therefore are they all good in generall because all good in particular and all together very good because thou our God hast made all things very good CHAP. 13. All created things praise God 1. ANd to thee is there nothing at all evill yea not onely in respect of thee but also not in respect of thy Creatures in generall because there is not any thing which is without thee which hath power to breake in or discompose that Order which thou hast settled But in some particulars of thy Creatures for that some things there bee which so well agree not with some other things they are conceived to be evill whereas those very things sute well enough with some other things and are good yea and in themselves good And all these things which doe not mutually agree one with another doe yet sute well enough with this inferiour part which we cal Earth which hath such a cloudy and windie Region of Ayre hanging over it as is in nature agreeable to it 2. God forbid now that I should ever say that there were no other things extant besides these for should I see nothing but these verily I should went the better And yet even onely for these ought I praise thee 〈◊〉 that thou art to be praised 〈◊〉 things of the 〈◊〉 doe 〈◊〉 Dragons and all 〈…〉 Haile Snow â—ee and 〈◊〉 Wind which fulful thy 〈◊〉 Mountaines and all 〈◊〉 fruitfull Trees and all Cedars Beasts and all Cattell creeping things and flying Fowles Kings of the Earth and all people Princes and all Iudges of the Land Yong men and Maidens Old men and Children let them praise thy Name Seeing also these in heaven praise thee let them praise thee O our God in the heights Let all thy Angels praise thee and all thy Hosts Sunne and Moone all the Starres and Light the Heaven of Heavens and the Waters that be above the Heavens let them praise thy Name I did not now desire better because I had now thought upon them all and that those superior things were better than these inferior things but yet all together better than those superiour by themselves I resolved upon in my bettered judgement CHAP. 14. To a sober minde none of Gods Creatures are displeasing 1. THey are not well in their wits to whom any thing which thou hast created is displeasing no more than I my selfe was when as many things which thou hadst made did not like me And because my soule durst not take distaste at my God it would not suffer that ought should bee accounted thine which displeased it Hence fell it upon the opinion of two substances and no rest did it take but talkt idlie And turning from thence it fancied a God to it selfe which tooke up infinite measures of all places and him did it thinke to be thee and him it placed in its heart so that it became once againe the Temple of its own Idoll which was to thee so abominable But after thou hadst refreshed my head I not knowing of it and hadst shut up mine eyes that they should no more behold vanity I began to bee quieted a little within my selfe and my mad Fit was got asleepe out of which I awaked in thee and then discerned thee to be infinite another manner of way But this sight was not derived from any power of my flesh CHAP. 15. How there is truth and falshood in the Creatures 1. ANd I looked after this upon other things and I saw how they owed their being to thee and that all finite things are in thee but in a different manner not as in their proper place but because thou containest all things in thine hand of truth All things are true so farre forth as they have a being nor is there any falshood unlesse when a thing is thought to bee which is not And I marked how that all things did agree respectively not to their places onely but to their seasons also And that thou who onely art eternall didst not beginne to worke after innumerable spaces of times spent for that all spaces of times both those which are passed already and those which are to passe hereafter should neither goe nor come but by thee who art still working and still remaining CHAP. 16. All things are good though to some things not fit 1. ANd I both found and tryed it to bee no wonder that the same bread is lothsome to a distempered palate which is pleasant to a sound one and that to sore eyes that light is offensive which to the cleere is delightfull and that thy Iustice gives disgust unto the wicked yet not so much but the Viper and smallest vermine which thou hast created good but are fit enough to these inferiour portions of thy Creatures to which these very wicked are also fit and that so much the more fit by how much they be unlike thee but so much liker the superiour Creatures by how neerer resembling thee And I enquired what this same Iniquity should be But I found it not to bee a substance but a swarving meerely of the will crookt quite away from thee O God who art the supreme substance towards these lower things which casts abroad its inward corruption and swels outwardly CHAP. 17. What things hinder us of Gods knowledge 1. AND I wondred not a little that I was now come to love thee and no Phantasme instead of thee nor did I delay to enjoy my God but was ravisht to thee by thine owne beauty and yet by and by I violently fell off againe even by mine owne weight rushing with sorrow enough upon these inferiour things This weight I spake of was my old fleshly customes Yet had I still a remembrance of thee nor did I any way doubt that thou wert he to whom I ought to cleave but yet I was not the partie fit to cleave unto thee for that the body which is corrupted presseth downe the soule and the earthly tabernable weigheth downe the minde that museth upon many things And most certaine I was that thy invisible workes from the creation of the world are cleerely seene being understood by the things that are made even thy eternall power and Godhead 2. For studying now by what reasons to make good the beauty of corporeall things eyther celestiall or terrestriall and what proofe I had at hand solidly to passe sentence upon these mutable things in pronouncing This ought to be thus and this must be so plodding I say on this upon what ground namely I ought to judge seeing I did thus judge I had by this time found the unchangeable and true eternity of truth residing upon this
thee for it yet is our knowledge in comparison of thine but meere ignorance CHAP. 5. How the world was made of nothing 1. IN the beginning God made Heauen and Earth But how didst thou make them and what Engine hadst thou to worke all this vast fabrick of thine For thou wentest not about it like a fleshly artificer who shaping one body by another purposes according to the discretion of his minde to cast it into such a figure as in his fancy hee seeth fittest by his inward eye But whence should hee bee able to doe all this vnlesse thou hadst made him that fancy and he puts a figure vpon some Materiall that had existence before suppose clay or stone or wood or gold or other thing but whence should these materials haue their being hadst not thou appoynted it them T is thou that madest the Artificer his body thou that gauest a soule to direct his limbs thou madest the stuffe of which he makes any thing thou madest the apprehension whereby he takes his art by which he sees in himselfe what he hath to doe Thou gauest him the Sences of his body which being his Interpreters hee may from his mind vnto his stuffe conueigh that figure which hee is now a working which is to signifie vnto his minde againe what is done already that the minde vpon it may aske aduice of its President truth whether it bee well done or no. Let all these things prayse thee the Creator of these all 2. But yet which way doest thou make them how O God didst thou make heauen and earth Verily neyther in the heauen nor on the earth stoodest thou when thou madest heauen and earth no nor yet in the ayre or waters seeing these also belong vnto the heauen and the earth Nor yet standing in the whole world together didst thou make that whole world because there was no place where to make it before it was made that it might haue a Being Nor didst thou hold any thing in thy hand whereof to make this heauen and earth For how shouldst thou come by that which thy selfe hadst not made For what hath any Being but onely because thou art Therefore thou spakest and they were made and in thy Word thou madest them CHAP. 6. He disputes curiously what manner of Word the World was created by BVt how didst thou speake after the same way that the voyce came out of a Cloud saying This is my beloued Sonne As for that voyce it was vttered and passed away had a beginning and ending the sillables made a sound and so passed ouer the second after the first the third after the second and so forth in order vntill the last came after all the rest and silence after the last By which most cleare and plaine it is that the motion of a Creature expressed it performing thy eternall Will in it it selfe being but temporall And these words of thine thus made to serue for the time did the outward care giue notice of vnto the intelligent soule whose inward eare lay listening to thy eternall Word But whenas this latter had compared these words thus sounding within a proportion of time with that eternall Word of thine which is in the Silence it sayd This Word is far another frō that a very far different Word these words are far beneath me nay they are not at all because they flee and passe away but the Word of God is farre aboue me and abides for euer 2. If therefore in sounding passing words thou spakest that heauen and earth should bee made and that way didst create heauen and earth then was there a corporeal creature euen before heauen and earth by whose motions measured by time that voyce tooke his course in time But there was not any creature before heauen and earth or if there were surely then thou didst without such a passing voyce create that whereof thou mightest make this passing voyce by which thou wert to say the word Let the heauen and the earth be made For whatsoeuer that were of which such a voyce were to be made vnlesse by thy selfe it were made it should not at all haue any being That a body therefore might be made by which these words might be made by what word of thine was it commanded CHAP. 7. The Sonne of God is the Word coeternall with the Father 1. THou callest vs therfore to vnderstand the word who is God with thee God which word is spoken vnto all eternity and in it are all things spoken vnto euerlasting For neuer is that finished which was spoken or any other thing spoken after it that so all may come to bee spoken but all are spoken at once and vnto euerlasting For otherwise there should be time and alteration and no true eternity no true immortality Thus much I know O my God thankes to thee therefore This I know as I confesse to thee O Lord yea hee knowes and blesses thee as I doe whoeuer is not vnthankfull to thy assured Veritie 2. Wee know Lord wee know that in as much as any thing is not now what sometimes it hath beene or is now what heretofore it hath not beene so farre forth it is borne and dyes Nothing therefore of thy Word doeth retyre and come in place againe because it is truely immortall and eternall And therefore vnto thy Word coeternal vnto thy selfe thou dost once and for euer say all that thou dost say and it is made whateuer thou sayest shall bee made Nor doest thou make it otherwise then by saying and yet are not all things made together or euerlasting which so thou makest by saying CHAP. 8. The Word of God is our teacher in all 1. VVHy I beseech thee O Lord my God is this so Verily I see it after afort but how to expresse it I know not vnlesse thus it be namely that whatsoeuer begins to bee and leaues off to bee beginnes then and leaues off then when in thy eternall reason it is resolued that it ought to haue begun or left off in which Reason nothing does eyther beginne or leaue off That Reason is thy Word which is also the Beginning the same that likewise speakes vnto vs. Thus much sayd it in the Gospell by our Lords humanity and so much sounded outwardly in the eares of men to the intent it might be beleeued and sought for inwardly and found in the eternall verity where that good and onely Master taught all his Disciples There Lord heare I thy voyce speaking vnto mee because hee there speakes vnto vs who teacheth vs but he that doeth not teach vs though hee does speake yet to vs hee speaketh not 2. And who now is able to teach vs but the vnalterable Truth seeing that when wee receiue any admonishment from a mutable creature wee are but ledde along vnto that vnalterable Truth where we learne truely while wee stand to heare Him reioycing greatly because of the Bridegroomes voyce and returne our selues backe to that
Truth from whence we are deryued Which is therefore the beginning because vnlesse it should remayne firme there should not when wee erred bee any certainty whither to turne our selues vnto Now when we returne from error it is by knowing verily that wee doe returne and that we may know hee teacheth vs because hee is the Beginning and speaketh vnto vs. CHAP. 9. How the Word of God speaketh vnto the heart 1. IN this Beginning O God hast thou made heauen and earth namely in thy Word in thy Sonne in thy Power in thy VVisedome in thy Truth after a wonderfull manner speaking and after as wonderfull a manner making Who is able to cōprehend it Who can declare it What is that which shines thorow mee and strikes vpon my heart without hurting it at which I tremble with horror and yet burne with loue I tremble in as much as I am vnlike vnto it I burne in as much as I am like it 2. T is VVisedome Wisedome it is which thus shines into mee euen breaking thorow my Cloudynesse which yet againe ouershadowes mee now frequently faynting euen vnder the grosse fogge and heauy loade of mine owne paynes For my strength is puld so lowe in this poore case of mine as that I am not able to endure that which should be for my good till thou Lord becomming fauorable to all mine iniquities pleasest to heale my diseases For thou also shalt redeeme my life from corruption and shalt crowne me with louing kindnesse and tender mercies yea thou shalt satifie my desire with good things because my youth shall be restored like an Eagles For by hope wee are saued wherefore we through patience awaite for thy promises Let him that is able heare thee inwardly discoursing to him For my part in the words of thine Oracle will I boldly cry out How wounderfull are thy workes O Lord in Wisedome hast thou made them all and this wisedome is that Beginning and in that Beginning hast thou made heauen and earth CHAP. 10. Gods Will knows no beginning 1. LOe are they not full of their old leauen which demand of vs How did God imploy himselfe before he made Heauen and Earth For if hee were vn-imployed say they and did no worke why the◠does he not now from hence forth and for euer abstaine from working like as heretofore he did For did any new motion rise vp in God and any new Will to make a creation which hee had neuer made before how can there be a true eternity where then rises vp a new will which was not there before For the will of God is not a creature but before euery creature seeing that nothing could haue beene created vnlesse the will of the Creator had beene before it CHAP. 11. Gods eternity not to be measured by the parts of time 1. THe Will of God therefore is belonging vnto his Substance And if aught be newly risen vp in Gods Substance which was not there before then cannot that Substance bee truely sayd to bee Eternall Againe if the Will of God had meant from eternity that there should bee a Creation why also was not that Creation from all eternity They that prate thus doe not yet vnderstand thee O thou Wisedome of God thou light of our Soules they vnderstand not yet how these things bee made which by thee and in thee are made yea they striue to rellish eternall things though their heart bee flickering hitherto betweene the motions of things partly passed and partly to come and bee very vncertayne hitherto 2. Who is able to hold it hard to and so to fixe it that it may be settled a while and a little catch at a beame of light from that euer-fixed eternity and to compare it with the Times which are neuer fixed that it may thereby perceiue how there is no comparison betweene them and how that a long time cannot be made long but out of a many motions still passing on wards which cannot at the same instant be drawne all together and that all this while in the eternall nothing is flitting but all at once present whereas no time is all at once present and that he may perceiue all time passed to be driuen away by time to come and all time to come to follow vpon the passed and that all both passed and to come is made vp and flows out of that which is alwayes present Who now shall so hold fast this heart of man that it may stay and see howthat Eternity euer still-standing giues the word of commaund to the times passed or to come it selfe being neyther passed nor to come Is this hand of mine able peraduenture to make stay of this heart or is the hand of my mouth by any perswasions able to bring about so important a businesse CHAP. 12. What God did before the Creation of the world 1. SEE I now returne answer to the demand What God did before he made heauen and earth But I will not answere so as one was sayd to haue done merrily to breake the violence of the question God was a preparing hell saith hee for those that would pry into such profound mysteries T is one thing to looke what God did and another thing to make sport This shall bee none of my answere rather had I answere that I know not what indeede I do not know then answere so as may make him laught at that askt such high questions and the other commended that returned so false an answere But this I say O our God Creator of euery creature and if vnder the name of heauen and earth euery creature be vnderstood then I will boldly say That before God made heauen and earth hee did not make any thing For if he did what did he make but a creature And would to God I knew whatsoeuer I desired to know to mine owne profit as well as I know this That no creature was made before there was made any creature CHAP. 13. That before those times which God created there was no time 1. IF any giddy braine now should wildly roaue ouer the images of fore-passed times and wonder with himselfe that thou the God omnipotent and All-creator workmaster of heauen and earth didst if or innumerable ages forbeare to set vpon such a work before thou wouldst make it let him wake himselfe and consider well how that hee wonders at meere faife conceyts For how should such innumerable ages passe ouer which thou madest not thou being the Author and Creator of all ages or what times should these be which were not made by thee or how should they passe ouer if so be they neuer were Seeing therfore thou art the Creator of all times if any time had passed before thou madest heauen and earth why then is it sayd that thou didst rest from thy worke For that very time didst thou make nor could there any time passe ouer before thou hadst made those times But if before heauen and
their mutability by which they both leaue to bee what they haue beene and begin to bee what they haue neuer beene And this shifting out of one forme into another I suspected to bee caused by I know not what thing without form not by nothing at all yet this I was desirous to know not to suspect onely But if my voyce pen should here confesse all vnto thee whatsoeuer knots thou didst vnknâ—t for me in this questioÌ„ what Reader would haue so much patience to bee made conceiue it Nor shall my heart for all this cease at any time to giue thee honour and a Song of praise for all those things which it is not able to expresse For the changeable condition of changeble things is of it selfe capeable of all those forms into which these changable things are changed And this changeablenesse what is it Is it a soule or is it a body or is it any figure of a soule or body Might it be sayd properly that nothing were something and yet were not I would say This were it and yet was it both of these that so it might bee capeable of these visible and compounded figures CHAP. 7. Heauen is greater then Earth 1. BVt whence are both these but from thee from whom are all things so far forth as they haue being But how much the further off from thee so much the vnliker thee I doe not meane farrenesse of places Thou therefore O Lord who art not another in another place nor otherwise in another place but the same and the very same and the very selfe-same Holy Holy Holy Lord God almighty didst in the Beginning which is in thine owne selfe in thy Wisedome which was borne of thine owne Substance create something and that out of nothing 2. For thou createdst heauen and earth not out of thine owne selfe for so should they haue beene equall to thine onely Begotten Sonne and thereby vnto thine owne selfe too wheras no way iust it had beene that any thing should bee equall vnto thee which was not of thee Nor was there any thing besides thy selfe of which thou mightest create these things O God who art One in Trinity and Three in Vnity Therefore out of nothing hast thou created Heauen and Earth a great thing and a small thing for thou art omnipotent and good to make all things good euen the great heauen and the little earth Thou wert and nothing else was there besides out of which thou createdst Heauen and Earth two certaine things one neere thee the other neere to nothing One for thy selfe to bee superior vnto the other which nothing should bee inferiour vnto CHAP. 8. The Chaos was created out of nothing and out of that all things 1. BVt that Heauen of heauens which was for thy selfe Lord and this earth which thou gauest to the Sonnes of men to be seene and felt was not at first such as wee now both see and feele for it was inuisible and vnshapen and there was a deepe vpon which there was no light or darkenesse was vpon the deepe that is more then in the deepe Because this deepe of waters visible now adayes hath in his deepes a light proper for its nature perceiueable howeuer vnto the Fishes and creeping things in the bottome of it But all this whole was almost nothing because hitherto it was altogether without forme but yet there was now a matter that was apt to bee formed For thou Lord createdst the World of a matter without forme which being next to nothing thou madest out of nothing out of which thou mightest make those great workes which wee sonnes of men so much wonder at 2. For very wonderfull is this corporeall heauen which firmament betweene water and water the second day after the creation of light thou commandedst it to be made it was made Which Firmament thou calledst heauen the heauen that is to this earth and sea which thou createdst the third day by giuing a visible figure vnto the vnshapen matter which thou createdst before all dayes For euen already hadst thou created an heauen before all dayes but that was the Heauen of heauens because In the beginning thou createdst heauen and earth As for the earth which thou createdst it was an vnshapely matter because it was inuisible and without forme and darkenesse was vpon the deepe Of which inuisible earth and without forme of which vnshapelynes of which almost nothing thou mightest create all these of which this changeable world consists which continueth not the same but mutability it selfe appeares in it the times being easie to bee obserued and numbred in it For times are made by the alterations of things whilest namely their figures are varied and turned the matter whereof is this inuisible earth aforesayd CHAP. 9. What that Heauen of heauens is 1. THe Spirit therefore the Teacher of thy seruant whenas it recounts thee to haue in the beginning created heauen and earth speakes nothing of any times nor a word of any dayes For verily that Heauen of heauens which thou createdst in the beginning is some Intellectuall creature which although no waies coeternall vnto thee O Trinity yet being partaker of thy eternity doth through the sweetnesse of that most happy contemplation of thy selfe strongly restrayne its owne mutability and without any fall since its first creation cleauing close vnto thee hath set it selfe beyond all rowling interchange of times Yea neyther is this very vnshapelynesse of the inuisible earth and without forme once numbred among the dayes For where no figure nor order is there does nothing eyther come or goe and where this is not there playnely are no dayes nor any interchange of temporall spaces CHAP. 10. His desire to vnderstand the Scriptures 1. O Let truth the light of mine heart and not mine owne darkenesse now speake vnto me I fell off into that and became all be-darkned but yet euen for this euen vpon this occasion came I to loue thee I heard thy voyce behinde mee calling to mee to returne but scarcely could I discerne it for the noyse of my sinnes But see here I returne now sweating and panting after thy fountaine Let no man forbid me of this will I drinke and so shall I liue For I am not mine own life if I haue liued ill my death is farre from my selfe but t is in thee that I reuiue againe Speake thou vnto me discourse thou with mee I haue beleeued thy Bible but the words of it be most full of mystery CHAP. 11. What he learnt of God 1. NOw hast thou with a 〈…〉 voyce O Lord spoken in my inner care because thou art eternall that onely possessest immortality by reason that thou canst not be changed by any figure or motion nor is thy Will altered by times seeing no Will can be cald immortall which is now one and then another all this is in thy sight already cleare to me let it be more more cleared to me
I beseech thee and in the manifestation thereof let me with sobriety continue vnder thy wings Thou toldest mee also with a strong voyce O Lord in mine inner care how that t is thy selfe selfe who made all those Natures and substances which are not what thy selfe is and which yet haue their being and how that onely is not from thee which hath no being no nor the Will that slydes backe from thee that art eminently vnto that which hath an inferior being because that all such backeslyding is transgression and sinne and that no mans sinne does eyther hurt thee or disturbe the order of thy gouernment first or last All this is in thy sight now cleare vnto mee and let it bee so more and more I beseech thee and in the manifestation thereof let mee soberly continue vnder thy wings 2. With a strong voyce thou toldest mee likewise in mine inner care how that neyther is that creature coeternall vnto thy selfe whose desire thou onely art which with a most perseuering chastity greedily drinking thee in does in no place and at no time put off its naturall mutability and thy selfe being euer present withit vnto whom with its whole affection it kepes it selfe it hauing neyther any thing in future to expect nor conueying any thing which it remembreth into the time past is neyther altered by any change nor stretcht along into any times O blessed creature if any such there bee euen for cleauing so fast vnto thy blessednesse blest in thee the eternall Inhabitant and Enlightener thereof Nor doe I find what I am more glad to call the Heauen of heauens which is the Lords then thine owne House which still contemplating that delight which in thee it finds without any forsaking thee to goe into other a most pure mind most peacefully continuing one by that settled estate of peace of those holy spirits those Citizens of thy Citty in heauenly places which are farre wes that it is not here meant of the aboue those heauenly places that we see By this now may the Soule vnderstand how farre shee is cast off by her owne straggling if namely she now thirsts after thee if her owne teares be now become her bread while they daily say vnto her Where is now thy God If she now seekes thee alone and require this one thing that shee may dwell in thy house all the dayes of her life 3. And what is her life but thou And what are thy dayes but euen thy eternity like as thy yeeres are which fayle not because thou art euer the same Hereby therefore let the Soule that is able vnderstand how farre thou art aboue all times eternall seeing that thy very house which hath at no time departed from thee although it be not coeternall vnto thee yet by continually and inseparably cleauing vnto thee suffers not the least changeablenesse of Times All this is cleare vnto me in thy sight and more and more let it bee so I be seech thee and in the manifestation thereof let mee abide vnder thy wings 4. There is behold I know not what vnshapednesse in the alterations of these last made and lowest creatures and who shall tell mee what vnlesse such a one as through the emptynesse of his owne heart wanders and tosses himselfe vp and downe with his owne fancies Who now but euen such a one would tell mee That if all figure bee so wasted and consumed away as that there onely remaines vnshapelynesse by which the thing was changed and turned out of one figure into another that that were able to shew vnto vs the changeable courses of the Times Playnely it can neuer doe it because without the variety of motions there are no times and there is no variety where there is no forms CHAP. 12. Of two creatures not within compasso of time 1. THese things considred for as much as thou giuest O my God for as much as thou stirrest mee vp to knock and forasmuch as thou openest to me when I knock two things I finde that thou hast made not within the compasse of times notwithstanding that neyther of them bee coeternall with thy selfe One which is so formed as that without any ceasing to contemplate thee without any interruption of change though in it selfe it bee changeable yet hauing beene neuer changed it may thorowly for euer enioy thy eternity and vnchangeablenesse The other was so vnshapely as that it had wherewithall to be changed out of one forme into another eyther of motion or of station whereby it might become subiect vnto time But this thou didst not leaue thus vnshapely because before all dayes thou in the beginning didst create Heauen Earth the two things that I spake of 2. And the Earth was inuisible and without shape and darknesse was vpon the Deepe In which words is the vnshapelynesse noted vnto vs that such capacities may hereby bee drawne on by degrees as are not able to conceiue so vtter a priuatiō of all the forme of it as should not yet come so low as a meere nothing out of which another Heauen was to bee created together with a visible earth a well furnished and the Waters replenished with their kinds and whatsoeuer beside is in the setting foorth of the world recorded to haue beene not without dayes created and that because they are of such a nature that the successiue changes of times haue power ouer them by reason of their appoynted alterations of motions and of formes CHAP. 13. The nature of the Heauen of heauens described 1. THis O my God is my priuate iudgement in the meane time whenas I heare thy Scripture saying In the beginning God made Heauen and Earth and the Earth was without shape and voyd and darkenes was vpon the deepe and not once mentioning what day thou createdst them This I in the mean time iudge to bee spoken because of the Heauen of heauens that intellectuall Heauen where to vnderstand is to know all at once not in part not darkly not through a glasse but in whole clearely and face to face not this thing now and that thing anon but as I sayd know all at once without all succession of times and I iudge it spoken also because of that inuisible and voyd Earth exempted in like manner from all interchangeablenesse of times which vses to haue this thing now and anon that the reason is that where there is not any figure there can bee no variety of this or that Because of these two that One first formed vtterly vnperfected Heauen meaning the Heauen of heauens and this other earth meaning the inuisible and shapelesse earth because of these two as I iudge in the meane time did thy Scripture speake without mention of any dayes In the beginning God created Heauen and Earth seeing presently hee added what earth hee spake of and because also the Firmament being recorded to bee created the second day and called
part I say of all this doe you at last affirme to befalse Is it because I sayd that the first matter was without for me in which by reason there was no forme there was no order But then where no order was there could bee no interchange of times and yet this almost nothing in as much as it was not altogether nothing was from him certainely from whom is whatsoeuer is in what manner soeuer it is This also say they doe wee not deny CHAP. 16. Against such as contradict diuine truth and of his owne delight in it 1. VVIth these will I now parley a little in thy presence O my God who grant all these things to bee true which thy Truth whispers vnto my soule For as for those praters that deny all let them barke and bawle vnto themselues as much as they please my endeauour shall bee to perswade them to quiet and to giue way for thy word to enter them But if me they shall refuse and giue the repulse vnto do not thou hold thy peace I beseech thee O my God Speake thou truely vnto my heart for onely Thou so speakest and I will let them alone blowing the dust withou doores and raysing it vp into their owne eyes and myselfe will goe into my chamber and sing there a loue-song vnto thee mourning with groanes that cannot bee expressed and remembring Ierusalem with my heart lifted vp towards it Ierusalem my country Ierusalem my mother and thy selfe that rule in ouer it the enlightener the Father the guardian the husband the chast and strong delight and the solid ioy of it and all good things that bee vnspeakeable yea all at once because the onely Soueraigne and true good of it Nor will I bee made giue ouer vntill thou wholy gather all that is of me from the vnsetled and disordred estate I now am in into the peace of that our most deare mother where the first-fruites of my spirit be already whence I am ascertayned of these things and shall both conforme and for euer confirme mee in thy mercy O my God But as for those who no wayes affirme all these truths to bee false which giue all honour vnto thy holy Scriptures set out by Moses estating it as wee did in the top of that authority which is to bee followed and doe yet contradict mee in some thing or other to these I answer thus Be thy selfe Iudge O our God betweene my Confessions and these mens contradictions CHAP. 17. What the names of Heauen and Earth signifie 1. FOr they say Though all this that you say bee true yet did not Moses intend those two when by reuelation of the Spirit hee sayd In the beginning God created Heauen and Earth He did not vnder the name of heauen signifie that Spirituall or intellectuall creature which alwayes beholds the face of God nor vnder the name of earth that vnshap't matter What then That man of God say they meant as we say this was it hee declared by those words What 's that by the name of heauen and earth would hee signifie say they all this visible world in vniuersall and compendious termes first that afterwards in his sorting out the works of the seuerall dayes hee might ioynt by ioynt as it were bring euery thing into his order which it pleased the holy Ghost in such generall termes to expresse For such grosse heads were that rude and carnall people to which he spake as that he thought such workes of God as were visible onely fit to be mentioned vnto them So that this inuisible and vnshap't earth and that darkesome Deepe out of which consequently is shewne all these visible things generally knowne vnto all to haue beene made and disposed of in those sixe daies they doe and that not incongruously agree vpon to be vnderstood to bee this vnshapely first matter 2. What now if another should say That this vnshapelynesse confusednesse of matter was for this reason first insinuated to vs vnder the name of Heauen and earth because that this visible world with all those natures which most manifestly appeare in it which wee oft times vse to call by the name of heauen and earth was both created and fully furnished out of it And what if another should say that the inuisible and visible natures were not indeede absurdly called heauen and earth and consequently that the vniuersall creation which God made in his Wisedome that is In the begininng were comprehended vnder those two words Notwithstanding for that Al these bee not of the substance of God but created out of nothing because they are not the same that God is and that there is a mutable nature in them all whether they stand at a stay as the eternall house of God does or be changed as the soule and body of man are therfore the cōmon matter of all visible and inuisible things though yet vnshap't yet shapeable out of which both heauen and earth was to be created that is both the inuisible and visible creature now newly formed was expressed by the same names which the Earth as yet inuisible and vnshapen and the darknes vpon the deepe were to be called by but with this distinctiou that by the earth inuisible hitherto and vnshapen the corporeall matter be vnderstood before the qualitie of of any forme was introduced and by the darknesse vpon the deepe the spirituall matter bee vnderstood before it suffered any restraynt of its vnlimited fluidenesse and before it receiued any light from wisdome 3. There is yet more libertie for a man to say if hee be so disposed that namely the already perfected and formed natures both visible and inuisible were not comprehended vnder the name of heauen and earth when wee reade In the beginning God made heauen and earth but that the yet vnshapely rough hewing of things that Stuffe apt to receiue shape and making was onely called by these names and that because in it all these were confusedly contained as being not distinguished yet by their proper qualities and formes which being now digested into order are called Heauen and Earth meaning by that all spirituall creatures and by this all corporeall CHAP. 18. Diuers Expositors may vnderstand one Text seuerall wayes 1. ALL which things being heard well considered of I will not striue about words for that is profitable to nothing but the subuersion of the hearers but the law is good to edifie if a man vse it lawfully for that the end of it is charity out of a pure hart good conscience faith vnfained And well did our Master know vpon which two cōmandements he hung all the law and the Prophets And what preiudice does it mee now confessing zealously O my God thou light of my inner eyes if there may bee seuerall meanings gathered out of the same words so that withall both might bee true What hinders it mee I say if I thinke otherwise of the Writers meaning then another man does All wee
of whome are all things which are very good for as we affirme that to be a greater good which is created and formed so we confesse likewise that to be a lesser good which is made with no more then an aptnesse in it to receiue Creation and forme and yet euen that is good too But b yet hath not the Scripture set downe That God made this vnshapely Chaos no more then it hath set downe those many other things that Hee made as the Cherubins and Seraphins and the rest which the Apostle distinctly speaks of Thrones Dominions Principalities Powers all which that God made it is most apparant 3. Or if in that text where t is sayd He made heauen and earth all things bee comprehended what shall wee then say of the waters vpon which the Spirit of God mooued For if all things bee vnderstood to bee named at once in this word Earth how then can this formelesse matter bee meant in that name of Earth when wee see the waters so beautifull Or if it bee so taken why then is it written That out of the same vnshapely matter the Firmament was made and called Heauen and That the waters were created is not written For the waters remaine not formlesse inuisible vnto this day seeing wee behold them flowing in so comely a manner But if they at that time receiued the beauty they now haue whenas God sayd Let the waters vnder the Firmament bee gathered together vnto one place that so the gathering together of the waters may bee taken for the forming of them what will they answer for those waters which be aboue the Firmament seeing if they had not any forme at all neuer should they haue beene worthy of so honorable a seate nor is it written by what Word they were formed 4. So that if Genesis hath said nothing of Gods making of some one thing which yet no sound fayth nor well-grounded vnderstanding once doubteth but that he did make let no sober knowledge once dare to affirme these waters to bee coeternall with God for that we finding them to be barely mentioned in the booke of Genesis doe not finde withall where they were created Why seeing truth teaches vs may wee not as well vnderstand that formelesse matter which this Scripture calls the inuisible and vnshap't Earth and darksome deepe to haue beene created by God out of nothing and therefore not to be coeternall to him notwithstanding that this story hath omitted to shew where it was created CHAP. 23. In interpreting of holy Scripture truth is to be sought with a charitable construction 1. THese things therefore being heard and perceyued according to the weakenesse of my capacity which I cōfesse vnto thee O Lord that very well knowest it two sorts of differences doe I perceiue likely to arise whensoeuer any thing is by words related though euen by the truest reporters One when the difference riseth cōcerning the truth of the things the other when it is concerning the meaning of the Relater For we enquire one way about the making of the thing created what may be true another way what it is that Moses that notable dispencer of thy fayth would haue his reader and hearer to vnderstand in those words For the first sort away with all those which once imagine themselues to know that as a truth which is in it selfe false and for this other sort away with all them too which once imagine Moses to haue written things that bee false But let mee euer in thee O Lord take part with them and in thee delight my selfe in them that edifie themselues with thy truth in the largenesse of a charitable construction yea let vs haue recourse together vnto the words of thy booke and make search for thy meaning in them by the meaning of thy Seruant by whose pen thou hast dispensed them CHAP. 24. The Scripture is true though we vnderstand not the vttermost scope or depth of it 1. BVt which of vs all shall bee so able as to finde out this full meaning among those so many words which the seekers shall euery where meete withall sometimes vnderstood this way and sometimes that way as that hee can confidently affirme This Moses thought and This would be haue vnderstood in that story as hee may boldly say This is true whether he thought this or that For behold O my God I thy seruant who haue in this book vowed a Sacrifice of Confession vnto thee doe now beseech thee that by thy mercy I may haue leaue to pay my vowes vnto thee 2. See here how confidently I affirme That in thy Incommutable Word thou hast created all things visible and inuisible but dare I so confidently affirme That Moses had no further meaning when hee wrote In the beginning God made Heauen and earth No. Because though I perceiue this to be certaine in thy truth yet can I not so easily looke into his minde That he thought iust so in the writing of it For hee might haue his thoughts vpon Gods very entrance into the act of creating whenas hee sayd In the beginning hee might entend to haue it vnderstood by Heauen and Earth in this place no one nature eyther spirituall or corporeall as already formed and perfected but both of them newly begun and as yet vnshapen 3. For I perceiue that whichsoeuer of the two had beene sayd it might haue beene truely sayd but which of the two hee thought of in these words I doe not perceiue so truely Although whether it were eyther of these or any sence beside that I haue not here mentioned which so great a man saw in his minde at the vttering of these words I nothing doubt but that hee saw it truely and exprest it aptly Let no man vexe me now by saying Moses thought not as you say but as I say For if hee should aske mee How know you that Moses thought that which you inter out of his words I ought to take it in good part and would answer him perchance as I haue done heretofore or something more at large if I were minded to put him hard to it CHAP. 25. We are not to breake charity about a different Exposition of Scripture 1. BVt when he sayth Moses ment not what you say but what I say yet denyeth not what eyther of vs say these may both bee true O my God thou life of the poore whose brest harbours no contradiction rayne thou some thoughts of mitigation into my heart that I may patiently beare with such who differ not thus with me because they fauour of diuine things or be able to discouer in the heart of thy seruant what they speake but because they bee proud not knowing Moses opinion so well as louing their owne not for that t is truth but because t is theirs Otherwise they would as well loue another true opinion as I loue what they say when t is true 〈…〉 they say not because t is theirs but because t
somewell-filld Fruit-yards in which they discouering some fruites concealed vnder the leaues gladly flock thither and with cherefull chirpings seek out and pluck off these fruites For thus much at the reading or hearing of 〈…〉 words doe they discerne â— how that all things 〈…〉 to come are out 〈…〉 by thy eternall and 〈…〉 continuance at the 〈…〉 and how there is 〈…〉 all that any one of the 〈…〉 all creatures which 〈…〉 of thy making O God â—hose Will because it is the â—â—â— that thy selfe is is no â—â—â—s changed nor was it â—â—â— Will newly resolued vpâ—â— or which before was not â—â— thee by which thou createdst all things not out of thy selfe in thine own similiâ—â—â— which is the forme of â—â— things but out of nothing â—â— a formelesse vnlikenesse to â—â— selfe which might after â—â—â— formed by thy similitude â—â—â—â—â—king its recourse â—â—â— thee who art but one 〈…〉 to the capacity 〈…〉 for it so farre as is giuen to each thing in his kind and might all bee made very good whether they abide neere about thy selfe or which being by degrees remoued further off by times and by Places do eyther make or suffer many a goodly narration These things they see and they reioyce in the light of thy trueth according to all that little which from hence they are able to conceiue 2. Another bending his obseruation vpon that which is spokeÌ„ In the beginning God made heauen and earth hath a conceit that that begining is Wisedome because that also speaketh vnto vs. Another aduising likewise vpon the same words by Beginning vnderstands the first entrance of the things created taking them in this sense In the begining he made as if he should haue sayd He at first 〈◊〉 And among them that vnderstand In the beginning 〈◊〉 In thy Wisedome thou createdst heauen and earth One beleeues the matâ—â—â—â— of which the heauen and earth were to be created to be there called heauen and earth Another the natures already formed and distinguished Another vnder the 〈◊〉 of Heauen conceiues â—â—â— one formed nature and that the spirituall one to bee 〈◊〉 and vnder the name of Earth the other formelesse 〈◊〉 of the corporeall matter And as for them that vnder the names of heauen and earth vnderstand the matter as yet vnformed out of which heauen and earth 〈◊〉 to be formed neyther let they vnderstand it after 〈…〉 manner but One 〈◊〉 matter out of which both the intelligible and the sensible creature were to bee made vp Another that matter onely out of which this sensible corporeall bulke was to bee made which in his mighty bosome contaynes these natures so easie to bee seene and so ready to be had Neyther yet doe euen they vnderstand alike who beleeue the creatures already finished and disposed of to bee in this place called heauen and earth but one vnderstands both the inuisible and visible nature another the visible onely in which wee behold this lightsome heauen and darkesome earth with all things in them contayned CHAP. 29. How many wayes a thing may be sayd to be first 1. BVt he that no otherwise vnderstands In the beginning he made then if iâ— were sayd At first he made hath on ground whereupon with any truth he may vnderstand heauen earth vnlesse hee withall vnderstand the matter of heauen and earth that is to say of the vniuersall intelligible and corporeall creature For if he would haue the vniuerse to be already formed it may be rightly demanded of him If so be God made this first what then made hee after wards After the vniuerse surely he will finde nothing at all wherevpon must bee against his will heare of another question How is a thing first if after it there bee nothing But when he sayes God made the matter vnformed at first â—ad formed it afterwards there is no absurdity committed prouided that he bee able to discerne what 〈◊〉 first in eternity what in time what in choyce and what in Originall First in eternity so God is before all things first in time so is the flower before the fruit first in choyce so is the fruit before the flower first in Originall so is the sound before the Tune Of these foure the first and last that I haue mentioned are with extreme difficulty obtayned to be vnderstood but the two middlemost easily enough For too subtle and too losty a vision it is to behold thy eternity O Lord vnchangeably making these changeable things and so in that respect to be before them 2. And who in the second place is of so sharpe-sighted an vnderstanding as that hee is able without great paines to discerne how the sound should bee before the Tune yet is it so for this reason because a Tune is a sound that hath forme in it and likewise 〈…〉 that a thing not formed may haue a being whereas that which hath no forme can haue no being Thus is the matter before the thing made of â—â— Which matter is not before the thing in this respect for that it makes the thing seeing it selfe is rather made into the thing nor is it before in respect of distance of time for we doe not first in respect of time vtter formelesse founds without singing and then tune or fashion the same sounds into a form of singing afterwards iust as wood or siluer be seru'd whereof a chest or vessell is fashioned Such materials indeede doe in time precede the formes of those things which are made of them but in singing it is not so for when a man sings the sound is heard at the same time seeing that hee does not make a rude formelesse sound first and then bring it into the forme of a Tune afterwards 3. For a sound iust as it is made so it passeth nor canst thou finde aught of it which thou mayst call backe and set vnto a tune by any Art thou canst vse therefore is the tune carryed along in his sound which sound of his is his matter which verily receiues a forme that it may become a tune And therefore as I sayd is the matter of the sound before the forme of the tune not before in respect of any power it hath to make it a tune for a sound is no way the workemaster that makes the tune but being sent out of the body is like materials subiected to the soule to make a tune out of Nor is it first in our choyce seeing a sound is not better then a tune a tune being not onely a bare sound but a gracefull sound But it is first in Originall because a tune receiues not forme to cause it to become a sound but a sound receiues forme to cause it to become a tune By this example let him that is able vnderstand the matter of things to bee first made and called Heauen and Earth because Heauen and Earth were made out of it Yet was not this matter first made in respect of time because that the forme of
bee lesse if my seruice should bee wanting nor so to ply thee with my seruice as a man does his land that vnlesse I tilld thee thou must lye faellow but made I am both to serue and worship thee that I might receiue a well-being from thee from whom it proceedes that I haue such a being as is capeable of a well-being CHAP. 2. Of the creatures dependancy vpon their Creator 1. FOr by the fulnesse of thy goodnesse doth thy creature subsist that the good which could no wayes profite thee nor though of thee no wayes equall vnto thee yet being of thee might not bee wanting For what did Heauen and Earth which thou madest in the beginning deserue of thee Let those spirituall and corporeall natures which thou madest in thy Wisedome say how they deserued thee that things both now begunne and vnformed as yet euery one in its owne kinde spirituall or corporeall yea now falling away into an immoderate liberty and farre-distant vnlikenesse vnto thee should still haue their dependance vpon thee The Spirituall nature euen without its due forme as yet is farre more noble then any corporeall nature though fully formed and a corporeall thing though not yet formed better then if at all it had no being And in this manner should all things haue for euer depended vpon thy Word vnformed were they not by the same Word reduced vnto thy Vnity indued with a forme and improued by Thee the onely Soueraigne Good to become very good What can these formelesse natures deserue a being of thee seeing they could not haue so much as a beeing vnlesse they had it from thee 2. What did that corporeall matter deserue of thee that it should be made so much as inuisible shapelesse seeing it could not be so much as so hadst not thou made it so and therefore because it was not at all it could not deserue of thee to bee made Or what could the spirituall creature euen now begun to bee created deserue of thee that it might at least all darkesomely flit vp and downe like vnto the Deepe but very vnlike thee vnlesse it had beene by the same word call'd backe vnto that by whom it was created and by the same also enlightened that it might bee made light some by it although not in any equality yet in some conformity vnto that forme which is equall vnto thee For like as to a body simply to be is nor all one with being beautifull for then it could no wayes bee deformed so likewise to a created spirit to line is not all one with lining wisely for then should it euer continue wise vnchangeably But good it is for it to sticke close vnto thee lest what light it hath obteyned by turning to thee it may lose againe by turning from thee and relapse into a state of life resembling the darkesome deepe For euen wee our selues who according to our soules are a spirituall creature when wee were sometimes turned away from the our Light were very darkenesse in that estate of life yea and still wee labour amidst the reliques of our old darkenesse vntill in thy onely One wee bee made thy Righteousnesse which is like the great mountaines For wee haue somtimes vnder gone thy Iudgements which are like vnto the great Deepe CHAP. 3. All is of the grace of Gods 1. BY that which thou saydest in the first creation Let there be light and there was light I doe not vnfitly vnderstand the Spirituall creature because euen then was there a kinde of life which thou mightest illuminate But yet as then it had done nothing whereby to deserue of thee that there might bee such a light euen so when already it was come to bee could it not deserue of thee to bee enlightned For neyther could its formelesse estate bee pleasing vnto thee vnlesse it might bee made light light not by an absolute existing of light in it selfe but by beholding thee the Light all-illuminating and by cleauing vnto it that so the life that is liued at all and the life that is liued thus happily it might owe to nothing but thy grace being now conuerted by a better change vnto That which can neuer bee changed eyther into worse or better and that is vnto thee thy selfe onely because thou onely Art simply vnto thee it being not one thing to liue and another thing to liue well seeing thy selfe art thine own happinesse CHAP. 4. God needs not the Creatures but they him 1. VVHAT therefore could haue been wanting vnto thy good which thou thy selfe art although all these creatures should neuer haue been or haue remained vtterly without forme which thou madest not out of any want but out of the fulnesse of thy goodnesse holding them in and conuerting them to forme with no thought as if thy ioy were to receiue any accomplishment thereby For vnto thee who art absolutely perfect is their imperfection displeasing that so they be perfected by thee and thereby please thee not as if thou wert imperfect or wert to receiue perfection from their being perfected Thy good spirit indeede mooued vpon the waters yet was not borne vp by the waters as if he staied vp himselfe vpon them for vpon what waters thy good Spirit is sayd to stay those did hee cause to be stayed vp in himselfe But thy uncorruptible vnchangeable Will which is in it selfe all-sufficient for it selfe moued vpon that life which thy selfe hadst before created vnto which lining is not all one with happy liuing seeing it does but liue flitting vp and downe in its owne obscurity and which yet remaineth to be conuerted vnto him by whom it was made and to liue more and more neere by the fountain of life yea and in his light to see light and to be perfected at last and enlightened and made happy CHAP. 5. His Confession of the blessed Trinity 1. LOe now the Trinity appeares vnto mee in a glasse aarkly which is Thou my God because thou O Father in the beginning that is in thy Wisedome borne of thy selfe equall and coeternall vnto thee that is to say in thy Sonne hast created Heauen and Earth Much now haue we said of the Heauen of heauens and of the inuisible and vnshapen earth and of the dark some Deepe according namely vnto the wayning of spirituall deformity which euer it should haue wandered in vnlesse it had beene conuerted vnto him from whom that life which already it had was receiued by whose enlightning it might be made a beauteous life and become the heauen of that heauen which was afterwards set betweene water and water And vnder the name of God I now vnderstood the person of the Father who made all and vnder the name of beginning the person of the Sonne in whom hee made all and thus beleeuing as I did the Trinity to be my God I searcht further into thy holy Word and lo his Spirit moued vpon the waters See here the Trinity my God the Father and Sonne and holy
now of that flying kind which at thy word the waters brought foorth Send thou thy word into it by thy Messengers for their labors indeede they are which we speake of but yet thou art he that worketh in them that they may worke a soule to haue life in it 2. The Earth brings forth that is the Earth is the cause that â— they worke this in the soule like as the Sea was the cause that they wrought vpon the mouing things that haue life in them as also vpon the fowles that flie in the open firmament of heauen of whome this Earth hath no neede although it seedes vpon that fish which was taken out of the deepe vpon that Table which thou hast prepared for the faythfull For therefore was He taken out of the Deepe that hee might feede the Dry land the Fowle though bred in the Sea is yet multiplyed vpon the Earth For of the first preachings of the Euangelists mans infidelity was the cause yet giue they good exhortations vnto the faythfull also yea and many wayes doe they blesse them from day to day But as for the liuing soule that tooke his beginning from the Earth for it profits not the faythfull vnlesse they can containe themselues from the loue of this world that so their soule many only liue vnto thee which was dead while it lined in pleasure in such pleasures Lord as bring death with them For t is thou O Lord that art the vitall delight of a pure heart 3. Now therefore let thy Ministers worke vpon this with i not as sometimes they did vpon the waters of Infidelity when they preached and spake by miracles and Sacraments and mysterious expressions when as Ignorance the mother of Admiration might giue good care â—o theÌ„ out of a reuerent feare it had towards those secret wonders For such is the entrance that is made vnto faith by the sonnes of Adam forgetfull of thee while they 〈◊〉 themselues from thee 〈◊〉 become a darksome deep But let thy Ministers worke â—ow as vpon dry land that is separated from the gulfes of the great deepe and let them 〈◊〉 patterne vnto the faithfull by liuing before them â—â— stirring the vp to imitation For thus are men to heare not with an intent to hearken only but to doe also Seeke the Lord and your soule shall liue That the Earth may bring forth the liuing soule Be not conformed to this world Containe your selues from it then shall your soules liue by auoyding it which dyed by affecting it 4. Contayne your selues from the immoderate wild humour of pride the litherly voluptuousnesse of lust and the false name of knowledge that so the wilde beasts may be tamed the cattell made tractable and the Serpents harmelesse For these bee the motions of our minde vnder an Allegory that is to say the haughtynesse of pride the delight of lust and the poyson of curiosity these be the motions of a dead soule For the soule dyes not so vtterly as that it wants all motion because it dying by departing from the fountayne of life is there upon taken vp by this transitory world and is conâ—â—â—ed vnto it But thy word O God is the fountaine of eternall life and that neuer calleth away wherefore this departure of the Soule is restrayned by thy word when 〈◊〉 sayd vnto vs Be not conformed vnto this world that so the Earth may in the fountyne of life bring forth a 〈◊〉 soule that is a soule 〈◊〉 continent by vertue of 〈◊〉 Word deliuered by thy 〈◊〉 and by followâ—â—â— the followers of Christ 〈◊〉 is indeede to liue after 〈…〉 because the emution a man takes is from â—â— friend Be yee sayth he â— am for I am as you are 〈◊〉 in this liuing soule shall 〈◊〉 be good beasts meeke 〈◊〉 actions For thou 〈◊〉 commanded Goe on with thy businesse in meekenesse so shalt thou be beloued of all men And there shall be good cattell in it too which neither of they eate much shall haue nothing ouer nor if they eate little any lacke and good Serpents not dangerous to doe hurt but wise to take heed such as will make such a search into this temporall nature as may bee sufficient that Gods eternity may be cleerly seene being vnderstood by the things that are made For these Creatures are then obedient vnto Reason when being once restrayned from their deadly preuayling vpon vs they liue and become good CHAP. 22. Of Regeneration by the Spirit He allegorizes vpon the Creation of man 1. FOr behold O Lord our God our Creatour soone as euer our affectioÌ„s are restrayned from the loue of the world by which we died through our euill-liuing and began to bee a liuing soule through our good liuing and that the word which thou hast spoken be thy Apostle shal be made good in vs Be not conformed to this world that next followes vpon it which thou presently subioynedst saying But be ye transformed by the renuing of your mind not as liuing now after your kind as if you followed your neighbour next before you nor yet as liuing after the example of some better man for thou didst not say Let man be made after his kinde but Lei vs make man after our own Image and similitude that we might proue what thy will is For to this purpose sayd that dispencer of thine who begets Children by the Gospell that hee might not euer haue them babes whom hee must bee sayne to feede with milke and bring vp like a nurse Be ye transformed sayth he by the renewing of your mind that ye may proue what is that good that acceptable and perfect will of God Wherefore thou sayest not Let man he made but Let vs make man Nor saydst thou According to his kind but After our own Image likenesse For man being renewed in his minde and able to discerne and vnderstand thy truth needs no more any direction of man to follow after his kind but by thy shewing doth hee proue what is that good that acceptable and perfect will of thine yea thou teachest him that is now made capeable to discerne the Trinity of the Unity and the Vnity of the Trinity Whereas therefore it was spoken in the plurall number Let vs make man vet is it presently inferred in the singular And God made man and whereas t is sayd in the plurall number After our owne likenesse yet is inferred in the singular After the Image of God Thus is man renewed vnto the knowledge of God after the Image of him that created him and being made Spirituall he now iudges all things those namely that are to bee iudged yet hee himselfe is iudged of no man CHAP. 23 Of what things a Christian may iudge He allegorizes vpon mans dominion ouer the creatures THat hee now iudgeth all things this is the meaning That he hath dominion ouer the fish of the Sea and
of speaking it is corporeally expressed and thus doth this Fry of the waters increase and multiply Obserue againe Reader who euer thou art behold I say that which the Scripture deliuers and the voice pronounces one onely way In the Beginning God created Heauen Earth is it not vnderstood many a seuerall way not w th any deceit of errour but in seuerall kinds of very true sences Thus does mans of spring increase and multiply 4. If therefore wee can conceiue of the natures of things not allegorically but properly then may the phrase Increase and multiply very well agree vnto all things whatsoeuer that come of any kinde of Seede But if wee intreate of the words as figuratiuely spoken which I rather suppose to be the purpose of the Scripture which doth not I beleeue superfluously attribute this benediction vnto the increases of watery and humane creatures onely then verily doe we find multitudes both in creatures spirituall and creatures corporeall as in Heauen and Earth and in Soules both righteous and vnrighteous as in light and darkenesse and in holy Authors who haue beene the Ministers of the Law vnto vs as in the Firmament which is settled betwixt the higher and the lower Waters and in the society of people yet in the bitternesse of infidelity as in the Sea and in the studies of holy soules as in the dry land and in the workes of mercy done in this life as in the herbs bearing seede and in the fruitefull trees and in spirituall gifts shining forth for our edification as in the lights of heauen and in mens affections reformed vnto temperance as in the liuing soule in all these instances we meete with multitudes abundance and increase 5. But that such an increase and multiplying should come as that one thing may be vnderstood and expressed many wayes and one of those expressions vnderstood seuerall waies too wee doe no where find except in words corporeally expressed and in things intelligibly deuided By these words corporeally pronounced wee vnderstand the generations of the waters and that for the necessary causes of fleshly profundity by these things intelligibly diuided wee vnderstand humane generations and that for the fruitfulnesse of their reason And euen therefore we beleeue thee Lord to haue sayd to both these kinds Increase and multiply for that within the compasse of this blessing I conceiue thee to haue granted vs a power and a faculty both to expresse seuerall waies that which wee vnderstand but one and to vnderstand seuerall waies that which wee reade to bee obseurely deliuered but in one Thus are the waters of the Sea replenished which are not moued but by seuerall significations thus with humane increase is the earth also replenished whose drynesse appeared by its affections ouer which reason ruleth CHAP. 25. He allegorically compareth the Fruites of the Earth vnto the duties of piety I Will now also deliuer O Lord my God that which the following Scripture puts mee in minde of yea I will deliuer it without feare For I will vtter the truth thy selfe inspiring me with what thy pleasure was to haue me deliuer concerning those words But by no other inspiration then thine can I beleeue my selfe to speake truth seeing thou art the very truth and euery man a lyer He therefore that speaketh a lye speaketh it of his owne that therefore I may speake truth I will speake it from thee Behold thou hast giuen vnto vs for foode euery herbe bearing seede which is vpon the face of all the earth and euery tree in which is the fruit of a tree yeelding seede And that not to vs alone but also to all the Fowles of the ayre and to the beasts of the earth and to all creeping things but vnto the Fishes and to the greate whales hast thou not giuen them 2. Now by these fruites of the earth wee sayd before that the workes of mercy were signified and figured out in an Allegory which for the necessition of this life are afoorded as 〈◊〉 of a fruitfull earth Such an Earth was the doâ— out Quâ—siphâ—rus vnto whose housethou gauest mercy who often refreshed thy Paul and was not ashamed of his chaine With such a crop were those Brethren fruitfull also who out of Mecedonia supplied his wants But how much grieued hee for such trees as did not affâ—â—rd him the fruite due vnto him where hee sayth At my first â—â—swere no man stood by me 〈◊〉 men forsooke me I pray God that it may not be layd to their charge For these fruits are due vnto such as minister the Spirituall doctrine vnto vs out of their vnderstanding of the diuine Mysteries and they are due â—â— vnto them as they are 〈◊〉 yea and due so vnto them also as vnto liuing 〈◊〉 in that they giue themselues as patternes of imitation in all continencie â—nd so are they due vnto them also as they are flying 〈◊〉 for their Blessings which are multiplied vpon the 〈◊〉 because their found i gaue out into all lands CHAP. 26. The pleasure and the profit redounding to vs out of a 〈◊〉 turne done vnto our neyghbour 1. THey now are fedde by these fruites that are delighted with them nor are those delighted with them whose belly is their God Neither yet euen in them that yeeld them is that the fruit which they yeeld but the mind with which they affoord them Hee therefore that serued God not his own belly I plainely see the thing that caused him so to reioyce I see it and I reioyce with him For hee had receiued fruit from the Philippians who had sent it by Spaphroditâ—s vnto him and yet I still perceiue the cause of his reioycing For that which hee reioyced vpon that hee fed because hee speaking as truth was of it I reioyced sayth hee greatly in the Lord that now at last your 〈◊〉 of mâ— hath flourished againe wherein yee were also carefull but it was tedious vnto you These Philippians therefore had now euen rotted away with a longsome irkesomnesse and withered as it were in respect of the fruit of this good worke and he now reioyceth for them not for himselfe that they fliurisht again in asmuch as they now supplyed his wants Therefore sayth hee afterwards This I speake not in respect of want for I haue learned in whatsoeuer state I am therewith to be content I know both how to be abasâ—i and I know how to abound euery where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer neede I can do all things through him which strengtheneth me â— Of what art thou so glad O great Paul of what art thou so glad what is it thou so feedest vpoÌ„ Othou man renued in the knowledg of God after the image of him that created thee thou liuing soule of so much coÌ„tinency thou tongue of the flying fowles speaking such mysteries for to such creatures is this foode due what
other things they say thou neuer at all madest them nor euer so much as ioynedst them together instancing in all kinds of flesh and in all sorts of these smaller creatures and whatsoeuer thing hath its roote in the earth but that a certaine minde at enmity with thee and another nature which thou createdst not and which was contrary vnâ—o thee did in these lower stages of the world beget and fiame these things Mad men are they to affirme thus because they looke not vpon thy workes by the Spirit neyther doe they know thee in them CHAP. 31. The Godly allow that which is pleasing to God 1. BVt whosoeuer by Thy Spirit discernes these things t is Thou that discernest in them Therefore when they see that these things are good Thou seest that they are good and what soeuer for thy sake giues content t is Thou that giuest content in it and what by meanes of thy Spirit please vs they please Thee in vs. For what man knoweth the things of a man saue the Spirit of a man which is in him euen so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we sayth he haue receiued not the Spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that wee might know the things that are freely giuen to vs of God I am here upon put in minde still to say That the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God how then can we know what things are giuen vs of God Answere is made me That those things which we know by his Spirit no man in that manner knoweth them but the Spirit of God For as it is rightly sayd vnto those that were to speake by the Spirit It is not you that speake so is it as rightly sayd to them that Know through the Spirit of God It is not you that know Neuer the lesse therfore as it is rightly sayd to those that See through the Spirit of God It is not you that see so what soeuer through the spirit of God they see to bee good t is not they but God that sees that it is good 2. T is one thing therefore for a man to think that to be ill which indeed is good as the forenamed Manichees doe and another thing that what is good a man should see to be so because indeed it is so Euen iust as thy creatures be pleasing vnto diuers because they be good whom for all that Thou Thy selfe doest not please in those creatures so that rather had they inioy them then Thee Yea and another thing it is That when a man sees any thing that it is good t is God that sees in him that it is good and that to this end playnly That himselfe might be loued in his creature for he should neuer be loued but by the Holy Ghost which he hath giuen Because the loue of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is giuen vnto vs by whom we see that a thing is good whatsoeuer any way hath any Essence For from him it Is who Himselfe Is not by any way that other things are but originally of himselfe IS what he IS CHAP. 32. He briefely summes vp the works of God 1. THanks to Thee O Lord. Wee behold the Heauen and the Earth be it eyther the corporeall part superior and inferior or the Spirituall and corporeall creature and in the adorning of these integrall parts of which the vniuersall pile of this world and the whole creation together doth consist wee see light made and deuided from the darknes we see the Firmament of heauen or that which between the spirituall vpper waters â—â— the Inferior corporeall waters is the first compact body oâ— the world next aboue this space of Ayre which it selfe is also stiled heauen through which wander the fowles of heauen euen betwixt those waters which are in vapors lifted vp aboue it and which in cleare nights distill downe in dew again and those heauier waters which runne thorow and vpon the Earth 2. We behold a face of waters gathered together in those fields of the Sea and the dry land both vnfurnished and replenisht that it might be visible and fully shaped yea the matter of herbs Trees We behold the lights shining froÌ„ aboue the Sunne to serue the day the Moone the Starres to â—heate the night and in all these the seuerall Seasons to be marked out and signified We behold on all sides a kindly moisture blessed with abilitie to be fruitfull in fishes beasts and birds and that the grossenesse of the Ayre which beares vp the flights of Birds thickneth it selfe by the Exhalation of the waters 3. We behold the face of the Earth deckt vp with earthly creatures and Man created after Thine own Image and likenesse euen for that Image and likenesse sake that is the power of Reason and vnderstanding made superior to all vnreasonable creatures And like as in his soule ther is one power which beares rule by directing and another nature made subiect that it might obey euen so verily was there a woman made who in the mind of her reasonable vnderstanding should haue a parity of nature w th the man but in the sexe of her body should be in like manner subiect to the sexe of her husband as the appetite of doing is fayne to conceiue the skill of Right doing euen from the rationall direction of the vnderstanding These things wee behold and they are all seuerally good and altogether very good CHAP. 33. How euery creature ought to prayse the Creator 1. LEt all thy works praise Thee that wee may loue Thee yea let vs loue Thee and let all Thy works praise Thee euen those which from Time haue their beginning and their ending their rysing and their falling their growth and their decaying their forme and their priuation They haue therefore their succession of morning and euening part insensibly and paâ—tly more apparantly for they were of nothing made by thy power not of Thy substance not of any thing that is not thine nor of any thing that was before but of a matter concreated that is All at once created by Thee because that into that matter which was without forme and voyd Thou didst introduce a Forme without any distance of time betweene For seeing the matter of Heauen and Earth is one thing and the forme of Heauen and Earth is another thing Thou madest the matter of meerely nothing but the forme of the world Thou producedst out of the vnformed matter yet madest both matter and forme so iust at one instant that the forme should follow the matter without any respite of delay betweene CHAP. 34. Of the order and various fruit of a Christian life 1. VVE haue also lookt into this After whose patterne desirest thou to haue these things made in this order or described in this method And wee haue seene That all things are good
Psal 74. 16 a Nec herbam tuam spernas sitilentem â—his he translates Nor despise thou this withering grasse of thine which thirsteth for the dew of thy Grace Whereas St. Austen still followes this conceie of the forrest and Harts with all alluding to Psa 42. 1 Mat. 6. 33 Col. 2. 3. * Though in Plautus time the Hebrew were the vulgar language of Affrica and that there bee 6. or 7. Hebrew words still to be found in St. AusteÌ„s works yet in those 600. yeeres betwixt Plautus S. Austen and by the Romanes enforcing the Prouinces to learne Latine we see the Hebrew so disused and corrupted in Affrica that at the most the 2 tongues did but agree in most words as Austen sayes l. 2. contra Petilliter c. 104. which agreemeÌ„nt yet was not so much that the natiues of Affrica could naturally vnderstand Hebrew The other Translater rather abuses St. Austen then credits him in affirming him to haue skill in Hebrew Mat. 3. 17. Iohn 8. 25. Iohn 3â— 29 Psal 30. Psal 102 Psal 103. 4 5. Rom. 8. 28 Psal 104 â—4 a See Chap 10. b I read it Creator not Creatorem and lay this sentence into the following putting a Colon in stead of a Period Psal 101. 27 Psala 7. a This hee translates There was therefore no time wherein thou madest not 〈◊〉 I reade it Prasentiantur as the margent of one printed copie directs me not prasententur We haue Prasensio a fewe lines after a Signes Causes or fore-conceptions as before hee sayd Math 7. 1. a This hee translates And my labor is apparent to thee Psal 73 16 psal 116. 10 a I reade it breues in stead of veteres for that is neerer the sence of Psal 39. 5. which the Latine copies referre vs to in their margents a Gen 1. 14 This hee translates There are also Starres and lights in signes in seasons and in yeeres c a The Sun though Sommalius copie reades it ligneolae as if he meant the Potters wheele Iosua 11. Psal 18. 28. * Metimur spacia carminumspa cijs versuum I suppose that Carnen here signifies the seuerall Stanzaes or Staues of a poem rather then the whole poem for a staffe consisting of so many verses of seuerall kinds was then by measure acknowledged a true staffe when it had the compleate number variety and order of verses as an Hexameter verse was by measure found true when his seete were of their due kind number and order a Distensionem and so in the next Chapter Tendebatur in spacium Psal 100. 3 a I reade it quâ in steade of quam b Quantum excercitato sensui creditur So I reade it and not Sensu * Hee meanes that a verse or speech repeated in silence takes vp as much time as if it were pronounced â—o that though silence be not measured by long and short syllables as words are yet it takes vp Time So that t is not motion onely that makes time The other Translater hath done it other-wise which I leaue to censure a Quod noâ—i That I haue by heart saies the other translater which quite matreth the sense seeing he speakes nâ—t â—iâ—l afterward of the taking â— into 〈…〉 Psal 63. 3. a St. Austen loues to play with the word which oft-times makes him hard to translate and most commonly loses the conceit Phil. 3. 13 a Consequentia which are not ill habits and customes of sinne as the other Translater notes Psal 146. 4 Here doeth the other Translater as his manner is helpe out a false translation with a marginal note In his Title hee makes the Scriptures difficult in stead of the Truth Mat. 7. 7. Psa 115 16 a Or inuisible Gen. 1. 2. A great part of this booke is discourse a the manner of the creation of the world * Here Sommalius edition reads it better then others Neque enim in locis Itaeque cu domine c. In stead of Ista tu without a period at locis a Because at the first creation it had no forme nor thing in it Psa 115. 16 a The other Translater cals this The Imperiall heauen The man would or should haue sayd The Empyreall b Of Mosâ—â— a This shewes that by this creature he ment the Heauen of heauens whereas the other Translater in 4 marginall notes thinkes he meant the Angels b This phrase being in the ninth chapter applyed to the Heauen of heauens she Angels creature * Chap. 9 he calls is An intellectuall And so Chap. 13. Psal 42. 3. Psal 27. 4. Psa 102. 27 a Domus This the other Translater twice or thrice turnes Family and all to countenance his fancy of the Angels The Angels as t is thoght were created together with his heaueÌ„ but yet they are not this heauen for St Austen calles them Citizens of it Mat. 7. 7. a The Heauen of heauens he meanes Gen 1. 2. a Out of which earth without shape and voyd which is the Materia prima b Hee meanes that though the Heauen of heauens and the first matter of the shapelesse earth were created without time that is in the beginning of time eyther the first day or before it yet euery thing else is mentioned to be created in time and vpon such dayes because they were to bee subiect to time and change from which hee exempts the former two 1 Cor. 13 12 a He confirmes his Iudgement by two arguments * Here fals my papist out with fawcy and simple women as he stiles them for daring to reade the Scriptures without licence because they be hard But does the Popes licence make them the easier If none should read but such as vnderstand the St Austen had beene barred I wish our women would read more and interpret lesse They must read more that they may vnderstand not all but something But if our women haue too much I am sure yours haue too little reading Psa S 48. 6 a Iesus Christ b Pet. Lombard lib. sent 2. dist 2. affirmes that by Wisedome Eccles 1. 4. the Angels be vnderstood and the whole spirituall intellectuall nature namely this highest heauen in which the Angels were created and it by them instantly filled 2 Cor. 5. 22 Psal 26. 8. Psal 119. 176. Luk. 15. 5. * This Top of Authority my papist notes to be The authority of the Church He should haue done well to haue made sence of it then for I alwayes looke not for Reason from him To place the Scriptures in the authority of the Church what can he make of that St. Austen giues the Scriptures the top of Authority and this Top is higher then the Church Such marginall notes haue too often creptin to the Text and corrupted the Fathers by it 2 Tim. 2. 14 1 Tim. 18. 5. Ma. 22. 40 a To God a The 2 last of the former Chapter That which followes is the Confirmation of the Argument a Creab le formabile He begins to answere their obiections Col. 1.
16. Gen. 1. 9. Here the Popish Translater notes That Truth is a Catholicke benediction I allow it if he excepts Roman Ioh. 8. 44. a T is a maruell that my Papist put not in some Romish pinacle higher then that the diuell set our Sauior on to ouertop this height of the Scriptures authority What neuer a marginall note out against the Scriptures that 's maruaile a See here â—e one part of the Angels office who are Ministring spirites to the heyres of saluation Heb. 13. 14 b Origine * Tunelesse noyses a Here my M. S. and Sommalius copy well reades it Per saciendi potentiam whereas other Editions haue it â—erfioiendi potentia 1 Tm. 1. 8. * This is the third time that St Austen hath giuen the Scriptures this stile and neuer mentioned any subiection of the Scriptures vnto the Church which the Papist would so fayne haue a Moses Ps 143. 10. a My M. S. reades it Easine confessionimeae and not Ea fide confessionimeae as the Printed copies doe b Mala merita bona Merita If Merita in the Fathers must needes signifie merites why did not my Papist here tanslate it Euilt merits and good merits The word anciently signifies seruice or deseruings good or bad If God prevents vs how can wee in a proper strict sence be sayd to merit of him and if the Recompence bee due to God where 's your condignity or confidence to be recompe need for yout merits Eph. 5. 8. Psol 36. 6 1 Cor. 12. 21. Eph. 3 19. b This sentence was most generally in the Church-seruice and communion Nor is there scarce any one old Liturgy but hath it Sursum cordas Habâ—mus addominum psal 69. 2. psal 84. 5. * The Holy Ghost and not a furious blind zeale psal 122. 1. * The Angels Iohâ— 1. 9. Rom. 6. 17. Psal 36. 6. Math. 3. 2. 2 His conceit here in putting Repentance and light together is for that Baptisme was anciently called illumination as Heb 6. 4 Psa 42. 6. a Christ Phil. 2. 6 7 Eph. 5 8. 1 Cor. 5. 7 Rom. 8. 24 Psal 42. 7. 1 Cor. 3. 1 Phil. 3. 13 Psal 42. 1 1 Cor. 5. 1. b Vpon mankind Rom. 12. 2 1. Cor. l 4. 20. Gal. 3. 1. Acts 2. Ephe. 4 â— Psal 46. 4 Iohn 3. 29 Rom. 8. 13 a One deepe calls vpon another mans misery vpon Gods mercie Other Scriptures as Apoc 14. 2. by waters vnderstand the people b 2 Cor. 11. 3. where St. Austen read castitate in steade of Simplicitat These words with others before would the Popish Translator wrest as if spoken by St. aul now in heauen and praying for and sauing of soules whereas they bee onely the Confession of St. Austens owne zeale borowed out of St. aul's words 1 Ioh. 3. 2. Apoc. 7. 17 Ps 42. 4 5. Ps 119. 105 Esa 26. 20 Eph. 2. 3. Eph. 5. 8. Rom 8. 10 Cant. 2. 17 Psal 42. 11 Rom. 8. 11 * Here the popish Translater fals foule vpon the Caluenists for affirming their Church to consist onely of the Elect. He should haue done well to haue quoted some Author Mr. Caluin himselfe sayth onely That the church properly consists of the Elect. though many wicked be of the outward Church with whom he sayth wee are commanded to hold communion Institut lib. 4. c. 1. §. 7. Rom. 9. 21 Apoc. 6. 14 The Popish Translaters note That by men the Scriptures came to haue authority ouer vs is false vnlesse men made the Firmament mans nay the Penmans authority is here called Ministery and that 's seruice not true authority Nay the next words shew that mans authority obscured the Scriptures authority which was eminenter after the Penmen were dead a Adam and Eue. a Here is my papist forced to confesse the Scriptures to be aboue all humane authority and that the churches power is but to declare which be Scriptures Psal 36. 5 Mat. 24. 3 Eay 40. 6 8. 1 Cor. 13. 12 1 Iohn 3. 2 Cant 2. 9. 1 Iohn 3. 2 Psal 143. 6 Psal 36. 9 a Here the other Translater mistoole a a little in turning it Bitter waters Genes 1. 9 Psal 143. 6 Psal 95. 6 a St. Austen still alludes to the manner of the creation Gen. 1 His meaning is that we should not onely doe slightly for our neighbour as we doe for an herb which hauing feede in it selfe needs but our setting but be like a tree to him affoord him fruite strength and shadow Psa 85. 11 Gen. 1. 12 Esay 58 7 2 Cor. 5. 17 Rom. 13. 11 12. Pal 65. 11 Math 9 38 Ma. 13. 3 Gen. 1. 16 1 Cor. 12. 8 10. a Sacraments are here taken in the largest signification b Moses sayth the other Translater St. Paul say I. The phrase is St. Pauls 1 Cor. 3. 1 a He alludes to the Primitiue practice which admitted not their Catechumenos or vnbaptized to heare the higher poynts of religion handled till they were enlightened that is baptized yet these he aduised to rest contented with their catecheticall knowledge The other Translater is puzled Esay 1 16 He alludes to the Sacrament of Baptisme Gen. 1. 11 30. Here the other Translater misread his copy populi for pabuli and mis poynts the next sentence Mat. 19. 16 17 a Here my papist foysts in the word Counsayle into St. Austens words very fayne would he countenance the popish vow of pouerly which they say is counsayled though not commanded Mat. 13. 7. 1 Cor. 1. 27 Rom. 10. 5 Psal 19. 2. Acts. 2. 2. These Allegories had some meaning against the Manichees seeing in his booke de Genesi contra Manichaeos they be againe repeated which see * Now what will the papists say to this most cleare authority of the Scripture Doe the popish Emissaries fly hither vnder this or with this authority No but rather with the popes Nay fly they not contrary to this authority If not why doe they so much complayne of and vilyfie the Scripture where its authority serues not their turnes Psal 19. 4. * I he same sentence may Râ—scius Act and Cicero describe seuerall waies a 1 Hoe aludes to Baptisme in water accompanyed with the Word of the Gospell of the Institution whereof mans misery was the occasion Hee meanes that Baptisme which is the Sacrament of Initiation was not so profitable without the Lords Supper which the Ancients called the Sacrament of perfection or consummation Gen. 1. 20 Gen. 2. 7. a Baptisme which is necessary generally though not alwaies and particularly where the meanes are not And the Schoole-men teach that Martyrdome and an earnest desire doe counteruaile the want of Baptisme 1 Cor. 14. 22 Psal 24. 2 Gods messengers a Hee meanes Christ the first letters of whose â—ames did in Sybiles Acrosticke verses make vp the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Fish He was also resembled by Ionas drawn out of the Fish and Deepe And himselfe was raysed from the Graue and Hell He is fed vpon
Heauen giues vs to note of which Heauen hee before spake without mention of any dayes CHAP. 14. The depth of holy Scripture 1. VVOnderfull is the depth of thy Scriptures which at first sight little ones please themselues withall and yet are they a wonderfull deepnesse O my God a most admirable profundity A depth striking horror to looke into euen a horror of honor and a trembling of loue The enemies of it doe I hate vehemently oh that thou wouldst slay them with thy two-edged sword that they might no longer bee enemies vnto it for thus do I loue to haue them slayne vnto themselues that they may liue vnto thee But now behold others not fault-finders but extollers of thy booke of Genesis The Spirit of God say they which by his seruant Moses wrote these things would not haue those words thus vnderstood hee would not haue it vnderstood as thou faiest but so as we say Vnto whome making thy selfe Iudge O thou God of vs all do I thus answer CHAP. 15. The difference betwixt the Creator and the creatures Some discourses about the Heauen of Heauens 1. DAre you affirme it to bee false which with a strong voyce Truth told me in my inner care concerning the eternity of the Creator namely that his substance is no wayes changed by time nor his Will separated from his Substance Where vpon hee willeth not onething now and another thing anon but that once and at once and alwayes he willeth all things that he willeth not againe and againe nor now this now that nor willeth afterwards what before hee would not nor bee vnwilling with that now which hee was willing with before because such a will is mutable and no mutable thing is eternall but our God is eternall Agayn this is told me also in my inner eares That the Expectation of things to come is turned to Sight whenas they are once come and the same Sight again is turned to memory so soone as they be once past Now euery Intention which is thus varied is mutable and no mutable is eternall but our God is eternall These collections I make and put together and finde that God euen my eternall God hath not vpon any such new Will made any creature nor that his knowledge suffereth any transitory passion 2. What will you then reply O yee gainesayers are these things false No they say What is this Is this false 〈◊〉 That euery nature that is formed euery matter capable of forme hath no other being but from Him who is supremely good because supremly he hath his being neither say they doe we deny this What then doe you deny this that there is a certain sublime creature with so chast aloue cleauing vnto the true and true eternall God as that notwithstanding it bee not Coeternall to him yet that vpon occasion of no variety and turne of times does it let goe its hold or parteth with Him but rests it selfe contented in the most true contemptation of him onely Because thou O God vnto him that loueth thee so much as thou commandest doest shew thy selfe and giue him satisfaction and euen therefore doth hee neyther decline from thee nor toward himselfe This is the house of God not of earthly mould no nor of any celestiall bulke corporeall but a spirituall house and partaker of thy eternity because it remaines without blemish for euer For thou hast made it fast for euer and euer thou hast giuen it a law which shall not be broken And yet is it not coeternall vnto thee because it is not without beginning for it is created For notwithstanding wee find no time before it yet hath Wisdome beene created before all things not that Wisedome I meane which is altogether equall and coeternall vnto thee his Father by which all things were created and in whom being the beginning thou createdst heauen and earth but that Wisedome verily which is created that is to say the Intellectuall nature which by contempiating of the light is become light For this though created is also called Wisedome 3. But looke what difference there is betwixt that light which enlighteneth and the light that is enlightened somuch is there betwixt that Wisedome that createth and this Wisedome which is created like as there is betwixt that Righteousnesse which iustifyeth and that righteousnesse which is made by iustification For wee also are called thy Righteousnesse for so sayth a certaine seruant of thine That we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Therefore Wisedome hath beene created before all things which was created a rationall mind and an intellectuall of that chast City of thine our mother which is aboue and is free and eternall in the heauens In what heauen if not in those that praise thee euen the Heauen of heauens because this is also the heauen of heauens made for the Lord. And though wee finde no time before it because that which hath beene created before all things hath precedency of the creature of time yet is the eternity of the Creator himselfe euen before it from whom that being created tooke beginning not beginning of its time for time was not yet in being but of its creation Hence comes it so to be of thee our God as that it is altogether another frō thee not thou thyselfe because though wee neyther finde time before it nor in it it being most meete euer to behold thy face nor is euer drawne away from it for which cause it is not changed by any alteration yet is there a mutable condition in it for all this which would cause it to waxe darke and cold but for that by so strong an affection it cleaueth vnto thee that it receiues both light and heate from thee as from a perpetuall noone 4. O house most lightsome and delightsome I haue loued thy beauty and the place of the habitation of the glory of my Lord thy builder and owner Let my way faring here sigh after thee and to him I speake that made thee that he would take possession of me also in thee seeing he hath likewise made me I haue gon astray like a lost sheepe yet haue I a good hope vpon the shoulders of my Shepheard thy builder to bee brought backe into thee What say you now vnto mee O ye Gaynsayers that I was speaking vnto you that beleeue Moses to haue beene the faythfull seruant of God and his bookes to bee the Oracle of the Holy Ghost Is not this house of God though not coeternall indeed with God yet after its manner eternall in the heauens where you seeke for the changes of times all in vaine because there you shall neuer finde them For it farre ouergoes all extention and all running space of Age the happinesse of it being Euer to cleaue vnto God It is so say they What part then of all that which my heart hath so lowdly vttered vnto God whenas inwardly it heard the voyce of his prayse what