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
changeable mind of mine And thus by degrees passing from bodies to the soule which makes use of the senses of the body to perceive by and from thence to its inner faculties unto which the senses of the body are to represent their outward objects and so forward as farre as the irrationall creatures are able to goe Thence againe passed I on to the Reasoning facultie unto which whatever is received from the senses of the body is referred to bee judged 2. This also finding it selfe to be variable in me betooke it selfe towards its owne understanding drawing away my thoughts from my old fleshly custome and withdrawing it selfe from those confused multitudes of phantasies which contradict one another that so it might find out that light which it now had a glimpse of presently upon the finding whereof without all further doubting it cryed out that what was unchangeable was to be preferred before what was changeable by which it had come to know that unchangeable Which unlesse by some meanes or other it had knowne it could never have had sure ground for the preferring of it before the Changeable nor have come so high as that which is set within hence of the twinckling eye-sight And now came I to have a sight of those invisible things of thee which are understood by those things which are made But I was not able to fixe mine eye long upon them but my infirmity being beaten backe againe I was turned to my wonted fancies carrying along with me no more but a liking of those new thoughts in my memory and an appetite as it were to the meat I had smelt which as yet I was not able to eate of CHAP. 18. Onely Christ is the way to Salvation 1. THen set I my selfe to seeke a meanes of recovering so much strength as should bee sufficient to enjoy thee but I could not finde it untill I embraced that Mediator betwixt God and man the Man Iesus Christ who is over all God blessed for evermore then calling unto me and saying I am the way the truth and the life who mingled that food which I was unable to take his owne flesh unto ouâ— flesh For the Word was made flesh that by thy wisedome by which thou createdst â— things hee might sackle oâ—â— infancy For I not yet humbled enough did not appreheâ— my Lord Iesus Christ who haâ— made himselfe humble nor did I yet know what lesson that infirmity of his would teach us For thy Word the eternall truth being so highly exalted above the highest of thy Creatures reaches up those that were cast downe unto it selfe having here below built for it selfe a lowly Cottage of our clay by which hee intended to abase from the height of their owne imaginations those that were to be cast downe that so hee might bring them about unto himselfe allaying the swelling of their pride and cherishing of their love To the end they might goe on no further in the confidence of themselves but might finde their owne weaknesse rather seeing the Divinity it selfe enfeebled at our feete by taking our fleshly garment upon him that so being weary at length they might cast downe their selves selves upon it and that rising might raise up them together with it CHAP. 19. What he thought of Christs incarnation 1. BVt I had before farre other thoughts conceiving onely of my Lord Christ as of a man of excellent wisedome whom no man could bee equalled unto and in this regard especially for that being so wonderfully borne of a Virgine giving us an example how to contemne worldly things for the obtaining of immortality that divine care of his seemed to have deserved so much authority as to be the Master over us But what Mystery this might carry with it The Word was made flesh I could not so much as imagine Thus much I collected out of what is come to us being written of him how that he did eate and drinke and sleepe and walkt and rejoyced in spirit and was heavy and preached that flesh alone did not cleave unto thy Word but our humane soule and minde also with it Every body knowes thus much that knoweth the unchangeablenesse of thy Word which I my selfe now knew as well as I could nor did I at all make any doubt of it For for him to move the limbes of his body by his will and other-whiles not to move them now to be stirred by some affection and at another time not to bee affected now to deliver wise sentences and another while to keepe silence all these be properties of a soule and mind that are mutable And should these things be falsely written of him all the rest verily would be in suspicion of being a lye nor should there be left at all in those Bookes any safenesse of Faith for mankinde 2. Because therefore none but Truths are there written I even then acknowledged a perfect man to bee in Christ Not the body of a man onely a sensitive soule without a rationall but a very man whom not onely for his being a person of Truth but for a certaine extraordinary excellency of humane nature that was in him I judged worthy to be preferred before all other men As for Alipius hee imagined the Catholikes to have beleeved God to be so cloathed with flesh that besides God and flesh there was no soule at all in Christ and that they had preached there was no soule of man in him And because hee was verily perswaded that those Actions which were recorded of him could not bee performed but by a vitall and a rationall Creature he was the slower therefore in moving towards the Christian Faith But understanding afterwards that this was the errour of the Apollinarian Heretikes hee was better pleased with the Catholike faith and better complyed with it But something later it was I confesse ere I learned how in this sentence The Word was made flesh the Catholike Truth could be cleered of the heresie of Photinus For the confuting of the Heretikes makes the opinion of thy Church more eminent and the Tenet which the sound doctrine maintaineth For there must be also Heresies that they which are approved may bee made manifest among the weake CHAP. 20. Of divers Bookes of the Platonists 1. BVt having read as then these Bookes of the Platonists having once gotten the hint from them and falling upon the search of incorporeall truth I came to get a sight of these invisible things of thine which are understood by those things which are made and being put backe againe I perceived how that the darknesse of mine own mind was it which so hindred my contemplation as that I was not suffered to bee certaine That thou were both infinite and yet not diffused over finite and infinite places and that thou art truely the same that thou art ever nor in any part nor by any motion otherwise at one time than at another and that all other things
I had entered against my selfe untill it came to a good issue but which way God thou knowest I doe not Onely I was for the time most soberly madde and I dyed vitally sensible enough what piece of misery for the present I now was but utterly ignorant how good I shortly was to grow Into that Garden went I and Alipius followed mee foot by foot for I had no secret retiring place if hee were neere or when did he ever forsake me when he perceiv'd me to be ill disposed Downe wee sate us as farre yet from the house as possibly we could I fretted in the spirit angry at my selfe with a most tempestuous indignation for that I went not about to make my peace and league with thee my God which all my bones cryed out upon me to doe extolling it to the very skies A businesse it is which we goe not about carried unto in Shippes or Chariots or upon our own legges no not so small a part of the way to it as I had comen from the house into that place where wee were now sitting 3. For not to goe towards onely but to arrive fully at that place required no more but the Will to goe to it but yet to Will it resolutely and throughly not to stagger and tumble downe an halfe wounded Will now on this side and anon on that side setting the part advancing it selfe to struggle with another part that is a falling Finally in these vehement passions of my delay many of those things performed I with my body which men sometimes would doe but cannot if either they have not the limbs to doe them withall or if those limbs bee bound with cords weakened with infirmity or be any other waies hindered If I teare my selfe by the haire beate my forehead if locking my fingers one within another I beclasped my knee all this I did because I would But I might have willed it and yet not have done it if so be the motion of my limbs had not beene pliable enough to have performed it So many things therefore I now did at such time as the Will was not all one with the Power and something on the other side I then did not which did incomparably more affect mee with pleasure which yet so soone as I had the Will to doe I had the Power also because so soone as ever I willed I willed it throughly for at such a time the Power is all one with the Will and the willing is now the doing and yet was not the thing done And more easily did my body obey the weakest willing of my soules in the moving of its limbs at her beck then my soule had obeyed its selfe in this point of her great contentment which was to receive perfection in the Will alone CHAP. 9. Why the soule is so slow to goodnesse 1. VVHence now is this monster and to what purpose Let thy mercy enlighten mee that I may put this question if so be those concealed anguishes which men feele and those most undiscoverable pangs of contrition of the sonnes of Adam may perhaps afford mee a right answer Whence is this monster and to what end The soule commands the body and is presently obeyed the soule commands it selfe and is resisted The soule gives the word commanding the hand to be moved and such readinesse there is that the instant of command is scarcely to be discerned from the moment of execution Yet the soule is the soule whereas the hand is of the body The soule commands that the soule would Will a thing nor is the soule another thing from the soule and yet obeyes it not the command Whence is this monster and to what purpose The soule I say commands that it selfe would Will a thing which never would give the command unlesse it willed it yet is not that done which it commanded 2. But it willeth not entirely therefore doth it neither command entirely For so farre forth it commandeth as it willeth and so farre forth is not the thing done which is commanded as it willeth it not Because the Will commandeth that there be a Will not another will but the same Because verily it doth not command fully therefore is not the thing done which it commanded For were the willing full it would never command there should be a Willing because that Willing was extant before T is therefore no monster partly to Will and partly to Nill onely an infirmity of the soule it is that it being overloaded with ill custome cannot entirely rise up together though supported by Verity Hence is it that there be two Wills for that one of them is not entire and the one is supplied with that wherein the other is defective CHAP. 10. The will of man is various 1. LEt them perish out of thy sight O GOD as those vaine bablers and those seducers of the soule doe perish who when as they did observe that there were two Wills in the act of deliberating affirmed thereupon that there are two kindes of natures of two kinds of soules one good and the other bad Themselves are truly bad when as they beleeve these bad opinions and the same men shall then become good when they shall come to beleeve true opinions and shall consent unto the true that the Apostle may say unto them yee were sometimes darkenesse but now are ye light in the Lord. But these fellowes would be light indeed not in the Lord but in themselves imagining the nature of the soule to bee the same that God is Thus are they made more grosse darkenesse for that they went backe farther from thee through a horrid arrogancie from thee the true light that enlightneth every man that cometh into this world Take heed what you say and blush for shame draw neere unto him and be enlightned and your faces shall not bee ashamed My selfe when sometime I deliberated upon serving of the Lord my God I had long purposed it was I my selfe who willed it and I my selfe who nilled it I was I my selfe I neither willed entirely nor yet nilled entirely Therefore was I at strife with my selfe and ruinated by mine owne selfe Which ruining befell me much against my minde nor yet shewed it forth the nature of another mans minde but the punishment of mine owne I therefore my selfe was not the causer of it but the sinne that dwelt in me and that as a punishment of that farre spreading sinne of Adam whose sonne I was 2. For if there bee so many contrary natures in man as there be Wills resisting one another there shall not now be two natures alone but many Suppose a man should deliberate with himselfe whether he should goe to their Conventicle or goe see a Play presently these Manichees cry out Behold here are 2 natures one good which leades this way and another bad which drawes that way For whence else is this mammering of the wills thus thwarting one another But I answer that
to 〈◊〉 evill for soule and body 〈…〉 Appetites be in the Motive faculty of the 〈◊〉 Soule by these â—â—e soule moves herselfe to or 〈◊〉 sesued or abhorred object Here the old 〈◊〉 much mistakes for want of Philosophie Psal 18. 28 Ioh 1. 16 9 Iam. 1. 16. 1 Pet. 5. 5. Psal 51. 8. * Multa in pulvere depingentibus Which the Other Translator turnes writing them in the dust noting in his margent that it was a manner of â—â—iting then used Boldly affirmed I dare say there was never such a manner of writing But thus it was The Mathematicians had their pulverem Mathematicum dust in linnen bagges which scirced or pownc'd upon a board they drew their Schemes and Diagrams upon to make ocular demonstration withall either for their owne use or their Schollers This they could easily and the aply put in and out againe Arch medes was taken in his Study drawing his Mathematicall Lines in such dust He alludes to the Prodigall Luk. â—5 O wonderful naturall wit of S. Augustine The Papists brag of being in the true Church but plainely their Chickens seldome prove more than spoone-feathered not hardpenn'd For they want the food here spoken of Sound Faith Traditions Legends seined Miracles carnall Vowes and out side Sanctity may puffe up not edifie * He meanes that the goodly order and workmanship of the creatures causes those that well consider them to open their mouthes in praises to God for theÌ„ The Old Translator is much puzled here confounding both the sense and Sentences Psal 139. 7 Psal 138. 6 Deut. 4. 21. 1 Cor. 1. 30 Rom. 1. 21. Rom. 1. 21. Rom. 1. 23 25. Rom. 1. 21. Wis 11. 20 Iob 28. 28. Manichaeus his pride and blasphemy All Heretikes doe thus brag of the Spirit Eph. 4. 13 14. * Iust the Purilane humour of our tiâ—es with whom our incomparable Court Sermons are flatteries and our neatest Preachers are Ladypreachers for so they call them * This was the old fashion of the East where 〈◊〉 Schollers had liberty to aske questions of their Masters and to move doubts as the Professors were reading or so soone as the Lecture was done Thus did our Saviour with the Doctors 〈◊〉 2. 46. So 〈◊〉 still in some European Vniversities Pro. 21. 29 * The insolent fashion of the Students in Carthage Psal 142. 5. * He means the waters of baptisme * Memoria beati Cypriani This the former Translator turnes The Shrine of Saint Cyprian and notes in his margent The place where S. Cyprians Reliques were kept See our Preface * Because he was not yet baptised Eph. 2. 16. * Another errour of the Manichees who beleeved not Christ to have assumed a true body but a phantasticall appearance and shape onely * He alludes to his owne Manichaean humour and contempt of Baptisme that Physike of the soule which suffers it not to dye the second death thogh the body through sicknesse dyes the first Here the former Translator mistakes and misses talking of I know not what journey * NusquaÌ„nisi or nusquam non as Suetonius hath it no place omitted or in every place In the Latine the Interrogative point should not be after intermissione but after ad te * See 1 Tim. 5. 10. * Oblations were those offerings of bread meale or wine for making of the Eucharist or of Almes besides for the poore which the Primitive Christians every time they communicated brought to the Church where it was received by the Deacons who presented them to the Priest or Bishop Here note 1. They communicated daily 2. They had Service morning and evening and two Sermons a 〈◊〉 many times 3. Note that Saint Monica never heard Masse as the Popish Translater would have it in his margeat for Masse is not sound in Saint Augustine 4. Observe that here bee Sermons too which because the Papists have not with their Masses he cunningly but falâ—ily translates Sermonibus Inspirations * These glorious titles did the Manichees assume So doe our own schismaticall Pure ones This spirituall pride still accompanies Hereticks yea 't is a sare marke of heresie Marke how Saint Augustine describes them We have those now a dayes that say God sees no sinne in them and 't is not they that sinne but corruption in them Psal 141. 3 4. * Other of the Manichees errours * 〈◊〉 carni concerneretur Concerni autem non inquinari c. * See Booke 3. Chap. 3. Psal 139. 22. * Impertita etiam evectione publica Sending of Waggons or Horses and a man to defray his charges upon the Cities purse Thus had the Ancients their publike Horses or Waggons for the service of the State and defraying the charges of their ministers Thus did Constantine oppoint Coaches and Horses of Relay for the Bishops that were to come to the Councell of Nice This is supplyed by our Post-Horses and by the Secretary of State his allowance of money to those that ride with Packets upon the Kings Service The former Translator whom I finde no great Antiquary nor Critike in Grammar not standing to examine this turnes Impertita etiam evectione publica The Election being publike Wilfully changing eveâ—â—â—â—â— into electione But what then shall become of impertita In a marginall Note upon the end of the last Chapter but one he challenges us to shew where the Papists had corrupted the Fathers Sure here is Saint Augustine corrupted if not out of malice yet upon shrewd suspâ—tion of ignorance and a desire to be rid of his Taske of Translating The collapsed Ladios he knew had no skill to examine the Latine Your Implicite Faith is your onely Faith Why Because 't is Romane Catholike * Vt dictione proposita me probatum mitteret This was and still is the fashion to make an Oration or to read a Lecture for a void Professors place in our Vniversities The former Translator turnes it would send me as approved from thence upon publike provision to bee made I understand not the man * He alludes to Psal 4. 7. * He alludes to that in 2 Cor. 3. The letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life * Another of the Manichees errours * An Audiâ—â—r or a Disciple * Here Saint Augustine was too blame for he should have said A Romane Catholik and not a Christian Catholike And yet I quit him For sure that Bull of Romane Catholike was not heard of in his time Luk. 7. 14. * Fidelem Catholicum A faithfull Catholike See what we have noted in the first Booke upon this word Fidelis Marke here is Christianus Catholicus and Fidelis Catholicus but yet not Romanus Catholicâ—â— 't is strange that Saint Augustine should so soone have forgotten Rome from whence hee came sâ—lately * She meanes Baptisme * Here the former Translator incurres some suspicion of non sense or of not full understanding the place * See what wee have noted upon the eighth Chapter of the former Booke a Pultes There was the Romane Puls and
my soule is not affrighted at it I will love thee O Lord and thanke thee and I will confesse unto thy Name because thou hast forgiven mee this crime and these hainous deeds of mine unto thy grace and mercie doe I ascribe that thou hast dissolved my sinnes as it were Ice yea unto thy grace doe I ascribe whatsoever evils I have not done For what evill was not I apt enough to commit who loved the sinne for the sinnes sake Yea all I confesse to be forgiven me both what evils I committed wilfully and what by thy guidance I have not committed 2. What man is he who upon consideration of his owne infirmity dares so farre to ascribe his chastity and innocency to his owne vertue as that he thereupon should love thee the lesse as if thy mercy by which thou forgivest those that turne unto thee had beene lesse necessary for him Who soever now being effectually called by thee hath obeyed thy voice and declined those transgressions which hee here reades me remembring and confessing of my selfe let him not laugh at me who am now cured by that same Physician who ministred unto him such preservatives that he might not be sicke at all or but a little distempered rather but let him take occasion thereupon to love thee so much yea so much the more since by that Physician he hath observed mee to have beene recovered out of such deepe consumptions of sinfulnesse by the same hand he perceives himselfe not to have beene incumbred by the like CHAP. 8. What hee loved in that his theft 1. VVHat fruite had I wretched man heretofore in these things of the remembrance whereof I am now ashamed In that piece of theeverie especially wherein I loved nothing but the very Theft it selfe whereas that was nothing of it selfe but I much the more miserable by it Yet by my selfe alone I would not have committed it so well I now remember what my disposition then was that alone I would never have done it Belike therefore it was the company that I loved who were with me at it And even therfore I loved nothing but the theft it selfe yea verily nothing else because that circumstance of the company was indeed a very nothing 2. What is this verily who is it that teacheth me but even he that inlightneth my heart and discovers the darknesse of it What is that which came into my head to enquire into and to discusse and consider better of For had I then loved those Peares which I stole I might have done it by my selfe had it beene enough barely to commit the The every by which I might attaine my pleasure nor needed I have provoked that itch of mine owne desires by the rubbing of those guilty consciences But because the pleasure I tooke consisted not in those Peares it must needes therefore bee in the very pranke it selfe which the company of us offenders joyntly committed together CHAP. 9. Bad company is infectious 1. VVHat kinde of disposition was that then For it was too bad plainly and woe to me that I had it But yet what was it Oh wh◠can understand his errours We laught heartily till wee tickled againe that wee could beguile the owners who little thought what wee were a doing and would never have indured it Yet againe why tooke I delight even in this that I did it not alone Is it for that no man doth so readily laugh alone ordinarily indeed no body does but yet a fit of laughter sometimes comes upon men by themselves and singly when no body else is with them if any thing worthy to be laught at comes eyther in their eye or fancies Yet I for my part would not have done this alone I should never have done it alone verily 2. See here my God the lively emembrance of my soule set beforethee Alone I would never have committed that Theft wherein what I stole did not so much content me as because I stole it which would never have pleased me so well to have done alone nor would I ever have done it O friendship too unfriendly thou inveigler of the soule thou reasonlesse greedinesse to doe mischiefe all out of a mirth and wantonnesse thou thirst to doe wrong to others though upon no pleasure of gaine or revenge unto our selves but even because when one cryes Let 's goe let 's doe this or that 't is ashame not to be shamelesse CHAP. 10. Whatsoever is good is in God 1. VVHo can picke out that crooked and intricate knottinesse 'T is filthy I will never give my mind to it I will not so much as looke towards it But thee I desire O Righteousnesse and Innocency most beautifull and comely to all chaste eyes yea with an insatiable satiety I desire to behold thee With thee is Rest assured and a life never to bee disturbed Hee that enters into thee enters into his masters joy and hee shall have no cause of feare and shall be well in him who is the best 〈◊〉 a way from thee and I went astray O my God yea too much astray from thee my stay in these dayes of my youth and I became to my selfe as it were that far Country of misery SAINT AVGVSTINES Confessions THE THIRD BOOKE CHAP. 1. He is caught with love which he hunted after TO Carthage I came where a whole Frying-pan full of abominable Loves crakled round about me and on every side I was not in love as yet yet I loved to be in love with a more secret kind of want I hated my selfe having little want I sought about for something to love loving still to be beloved safety I hated and that way too that had no snares in it and all because I had a famine within me even of that inward food thy selfe my God though that famine made mee not hungry For I continued without all appetite towards incorruptible nourishments not because I was already full but the more empty the more queasie stomackt For this cause my soule was not very well but miserably breaking out into botches had an extreme itch to be scratcht by the touch of these sensible things who yet if they had not a life could not deserve to be beloved It was very pleasurable to me both to love and to be beloved but much more when I obtained to enjoy the person whom I loved 2. I defiled therefore the Spring of friendship with the filth of uncleannesse and I be fullied the purity of it with the hell of lustfulnesse But thus filthy and dishonest as I was with a superlative kind of vanity I took a pride to passe for a spruce and a gentile companion I forced my selfe also into love with which I affected to be insuared My God my Mercy with how much sowrenesse didst thou out of thy goodnesse to me besawce that sweetenesse For obtayning once to be beloved againe and secretly arriving to the bond of enjoying I was with much joy bound with sorrow-bringing
at all no being such empty huskes as these was I then fed with yet not a whit nourished 3. But thou my Love after whom I pine that I may gather the more strength art not these bodies which we see though froÌ„ heaven appearing nor art thou any of those which wee see not there for all those hast thou created nor yet in these chiefest pieces of thy workmanship art thou farre absent How farre then art thou from those fond fantasies of mine the phantasies of those bodies which have at all no being than which the Images of those bodies which have reall existence are farre more certaine and yet the bodies themselves more certaine than their owne Images yet these bodies thou art not No nor yet art thou the Soule which is the life of those bodies though better and more certaine be the life of those bodies than the bodies themselves are But thou art the life of soules the life of lives yea the very living life itselfe nor art thou altered O life of my soule Where therefore how neere wert thou then unto me and how far from me Very far verily had I stragled from thee being even barr'd from the huskes of those swine whom with huskes I was set to feed How much better then are those fables of the Poets and Grammarians than these fooletraps For their Verses and Poems and Medea flying are more profitable surely than these mens Five elements odly devised to answer the Five Dens of darknesse which have at all no being and which slay the beleever For verses and Poems I verily can referre to the true Elements But Medea flying although I charted sometimes yet I maintaind not the truth of and though I heard it sung I beleeved it not But these phantasies I throughly beleeved 4. Alas alas by what degrees was I brought into the very bottome of hell when as toyling and tunnoyling my selfe through want of Truth I sought after thee my GOD to thee I now confesse it who hadst mercy on me when I had not yet confessed not according to the understanding of the minde wherein thou madest mee excell the beasts but according to the sense of the flesh But thou at the same time wert more inward to me than my most inward part and superiour then unto my supremest I chanced upon that bold woman who is simple and knoweth nothing that subtilty in Salomon sitting at the doore of her house and saying Eate yee bread of secrecies willingly and drinke yee stolne waters which are sweete This harlot seduced me because she found my soule without doores dwelling in the eye of my flesh and chewing the cud by my selfe upon such bayts as through her inticement I had devoured CHAP. 7. The absurd doctrine of the Manichees 1. FOr I knew not that there was any other truth and was as it were through mine owne sharpe wit perswaded to give my consent to those foolish deceivers when they put these questions to me Whence cometh evill and whether God were made up in a bodily shape and had haires and nayles and whether those were to be esteemed righteous men who had many wives at once and did kill men and offered sacrifices of living creatures At which things ignorant I was much troubled and while I went quite from the truth I seemed to my selfe to be making towards it because I yet knew not how that evill was nothing else but a privation of good having of it selfe at all no being Which how should I come to see whose sight pierced no further than to a Body with mine eyes and with my soule no deeper than to a meere phantasie 2. Nor did I yet know God to be a Spirit who hath not any parts extended in length and breadth or whose Being was to bee a bulke for that every bulke is lesser in his part than in his whole and if it be infinite it must needs be lesse in some part that is limited in a certaine space than that which is not limited and cannot so bee wholly every where as a spirit as God is And which part in us that should be by which we were like to God and how rightly in the Scriptures we may be said to be made after the Image of God I was altogether ignorant Nor was yet acquainted with that true and inward righteousnesse which judgeth not according to custome but out of the most rightfull Law of God Almighty by which the fashions of severall places and times were so desposed as was fittest both for those times and places it selfe in the meane time being The same alwaies and every where not another thing in another place nor otherwise upon another occasion According to which righteousnesse both Abraham and Isaac and Iacob and Moses were righteous yea and all those other commended by the mouth of GOD but they were judged unrighteous by unskilfull people judging out of humane judgment and measuring all mankinde in generall by the model of their owne customes just as iâ— in an Armory a man being ignorant what peice were appointed for what part should clap a boote upon his head draw an headpeice upon his leg and then murmur because they would not fit him or as if upon some â—â— day when the course of Iustice 〈◊〉 publikely forbidden in the afternoone a shopkeeper should stomacke at it that he may not have leave to sell his wares which it was lawfull for him to doe it the forenoone or when in some house he observeth some servant to passe that kinde of businesâ— through his hands which the Butcher is not suffered to medle withall or some thing done behinde the stable which is forbidden in the dyning-roome or as if he should bee angry that where there is one dwelling house and one family the same equality of distribution is not observed every where and to all alike in it 3. Of the same humor bee those who are fretted to heare something to have beene lawfull for righteous men in the former age which is not so for just men now adayes And because GOD commanded them one thingthen and these an other thing now for certaine temporall respects and yet those of both ages to be servants to the same righteousnesse whereas they may observe that in one man and in one day and in one house one thing to bee fit enough for one member and one thing to bee lawfull now which an hower hence is not so and some thing to be permitted or commanded in one corner which is forbidden and punished in another Is Iustice thereupon various or mutable No but the times rather in which Iustice governes are not like one another for they are times But men now whose life is but short upon the earth for that in their owne apprehensions they are not able to compare together the causes of those former ages and of other nations which they have had no experience of with these which they have had experience of
and that in one the same body day or family they may easily observe what is fitting for such a member at what seasons what parts and what persons they take exceptions to those but to these they servilely submit their approbations 4. These things I then knew not nor did I marke them and they on every side beate about mine eyes yet did not I see them I endited verses in which I had not liberty to place every foot where I pleased but in one meeter in one place and in another meeter in another place and not the selfe same foot in all places of the selfe same verse neither yea and the very Art of Poetry it selfe by which I endited had not Rules different in one place from those in another but all answerable Not did I then behold how that Rule of Righteousnesse to which those good and holy men obeyed did farre more excellently and sublimely containe all those things which God commanded answerably one unto another which though not varyed from it selfe in any part yet in different Ages did not distribute or command all the same things at one time but what was fit and proper for each time Thus blinde I reprehended those holy Fathers not onely for making use of the present things with that liberty which God both commanded and inspired them but even also for foretelling things to come which God had revealed to them CHAP. 8. Heynous offences what be and how punished 1. CAN it at any time or place be an unjust thing for a man to love God with all his heart with all his soule and with all his minde and his neighbour as himselfe Therefor are those crimes which be against nature to be every where and at all times both detested and punished such as those of the men of Sodome were which should all nations commit they should stand all guilty of the same crime by the Law of God which hath not so made men that they should any way abuse one another For even that society which should bee betwixt God and us is then violated when the same Nature of which he is Author is polluted by the preposterousnesse of lust Those Actions also which are offences against the Customes and publike usage of people are to bee avoided with respect had to the diversity of those severall Customes and usages so that a thing publikely agreed upon and confirmed eyther by the custome or Law of a Citie or Nation amongst themselves may not be violated at the lawlesse pleasure of any whether native or forreiner 2. But when God commands any thing to be done eyther against the Customes or Constitutions of any people whatsoever though the like were never done heretofore yet is it to bee done now and if ever it hath beene intermitted before it is to be restored now and if it were never made a Law before it is to be made one now For lawfull if it be for a King in that Citie which he reignes over to command that which never any Prince had before him nor hee himselfe ever heretofore and that it cannot be held to be against the common good of the Citie that he is obeyed nay it were against it if he were not obeyed For a generall agreement of all humane Societies it is That Princes should be obeyed How much more dutifull then ought we to be to God who is Lord Paramount over al his creatures and that without any sticking at all at whatsoever hee pleases to command us For as amongst those Powers appointed in humane Society the greater Authority is set over the lesser to command obedience so is God set over all In heinous offences also where there arises a licentious will to hurt another be it either by offering reproach or injurie and both of these eyther upon occasion of revenge as in one enemy against another or for the compassing of some piece of profit not in his owne power as in the high-way theefe to the travailer or for the esche wing of some evill as in him that is afraid of another or in case of envying as the miserable wretch against him in happier condition or as hee that is well thriven in any thing feares him that is to grow up to him or is grieved at him already in equall case with him or for the pleasure alone at another mans mischance as those that are spectators of the Sword-players or that deride or put tricks upon others These bee these chiefe heads of iniquity which sprout forth from that lawlesse desire of Bearing rule of Seeing much or of Feeling pleasure or of any one or two of these or of all three together Thus we live offensively against Three and Seven that Psaltery of ten strings thy ten Commandements O God most high and mostsweet 3. But what foule offences can there be against thee seeing thou canst not by them be corrupted or what high-handed transgressions can crosse thee who canst not be harmed But this is it that thou revengest that namely which men commit against one another seeing also when they sin against thee they doe wickedly even against their owne soules and iniquity gives it selfe the lye either by corrupting or perverting it's owne nature which thou hast created and ordained or else by an immoderate use of those creatures appointed for them or in burning in lust towards the use of what is not appoynted which is against nature or when as they are guilty to themselves for raving with heart and tongue against thee kicking thereby against the pricke or when as breaking open the pale of all human society audacious people rejoyce themselves in their privie bargaines of bawderies or theeveries right as any thing eyther delighteth or offendeth them 4. And these pranks are plaid when-ever thou art forsaken O Fountaine of Life which art the onely and the true Creator and Governor of this Vniverse when as out of a singularity of pride any one false thing is in part loved By an humble devoutnesse must we therefore returne unto thee and then thou purgest away our lewd customes and provest favourable to their sinnes that confesse unto thee and thou hearest the groanes of those that are enthralled by them and thou loosest those fetters which wee have made for our owne selves if so be we doe not lift up against thee the hornes of a feined liberty through a gripplenesse of having more though with a danger of losing all even by more strongly settling our love upon our owne private commodity than upon thee the common good of All. CHAP. 9. The difference that is betwixt sins and betwixt the judgement of God and men 1. BVt amongst those infamous and high-handed offences are the sinnes of these men to be reckoned who are good proficients otherwise in vertue which by those that judge rightly and after the Rule of perfection are discommended and yet the persons commended withall upon hope of better fruit as is the greeneblade of the
about these senses of ours but they cause strange operations in our minds Behold they went aâ—â— same day by day and by going and comming to and againe they brought into my minde other notions and other remembrances and by little and little prec'd mee up againe with my old kind of delights unto which my present sorrow gave some way And yet to that againe there succeeded though not other griefes yet the causes of other griefes For how came that former griefe so easily and so deepely to make impression in me but even from hence that I had spilt my soule upon the sand in loving a man that must once dye as if he never had beene to dye For the coÌ„fortings of other friends did mostly repaire and refresh me with whom I did love what for thy sake I did not love and this was a great Fable and a long lye by the impare repetition whereof our soule which lay itching in our eares was wholly corrupted 2. But that Fable would Not yet dye with me so oft as any or my friends dyed But there were some other things which in my friends company did take my minde namely to discourse and to laugh with them and to doe obsequious offices of courtesie one to another to reade pretty bookes together sometimes to be in jest and other whiles seriously honest to one another sometimes so to dissent without discontent as a man would doe with his owne selfe and even with the seldomnesse of those dissenting season our more frequent consentings sometimes would we teach and sometimes learne one of another wish for the company of the absent with impatience and welcome 〈◊〉 the new commers with joyâ—â—â—nesse With these and the like expressions proceeding out of the hearts of those that loved and repaired one anothers affections by the countenance by the tongue by the eyes and by a thousand other most pleasing motions did we soder or runne as it were our soules together and made but one out of many CHAP. 9. The comparing of humane friendship with divine 1. THis is it now which a man loves in our friends and so loves it that he must in conscience confesse himselfe guilty if he should not love him that loves him againe or not love that man againe that loves him first expecting no other thing from him besides the pure demonstration of his love Hence is that mourning when ever a friend dyes yea those overcastings of sorrowes that steeping of the heart in teares all sweetnesse utterly turn'd into bitternesse hence too upon the losse of the life of the dying comes the death of the living But blessed is the man that loves thee and his friend in thee and his enemy for thee For he alone loses none that is deare unto him to whom all are deare in him that can never bee lost And who is this but our God the God that made heaven and earth and who filleth them because in filling them he created them Thee no man loses but he that lets thee go And he that lets thee goe whither goes hee or whither runnes he but from thee well pleased backe to thee offended For where shall not such a one finde thy Law fulfilled in his owne punishment And thy Law is truth and Truth is thy selfe CHAP. 10. All beauty is from God who is to be praysed for all 1. TUrne us O God of Hosts shew us the light of thy countenance and wee shall bee whole For which way soever the soule of man turnes it selfe unlesse towards thee it is even rivetted-into dolours Yea though it settles it selfe upon beautifull objects without thee and without it selfe which beauties were no beauties at all unlesse they were from thee They rise and set and by rising they beginne to have Being they grow up that they may attaine perfection which having attained they waxe old and wither for grow old all must and all must wither too Therefore when they spring up and tend towards a Being looke how much more hast they make to Be so much the more they also make not to Be. This is the law of them Thus much hast thou bequeath'd them because they are parcels of things which are not extant all at one time but which by decaying and succeeding doe altogether play the part of the whole universe whereof they are the parcels And even thus is our speech delivered by sounds significant for it will never be a perfect sentence unlesse one word gives way when it hath sounded his part that another may succeede it 2. And by them let my soule prayse thee O God Creator of things but yet let not my soule bee fastned in to these things with the glew of love through the senses of my body For these things goe whither they were purposely to go that they might no longer Be and they cleave the soule in sunder which most pestilent desires even * because the soule earnestly desires to be one with them and loves finally to rest in these things which shee loves But in those things shee finds not settlement which are still fleeing because they stand not ever at the same stay and who is he that can follow them with the senses of his flesh yea who is able to overtake them when they are hard by him 3. For the sense of our flesh is slow even because it is the sense of our flesh and it 's selfe is it's owne measure Sufficient enough it is for the end it is made for but it is not sufficient for this namely to hold at a stay things running of course from their appointed starting place to their Races end For in thy Word by which they were created they heare this signall from hence and even thus farre CHAP. 11. All things are created mutable in themselves and immutable in God 1. BE not foolish O my soule and make not the care of thine heart deafe with the tumult of folly But hearken now the Word it selfe calls to thee to returne for there is the place of quiet not to be disturbed where thy love can never be forsaken if it selfe leaves not off to love Behold these things give way that other things may come in their places that so this lower would may at last have all his parts But doe I ever depart saith the Word of God There set up thy dwelling trust there whatsoever thou hast left O my soule especially since thou art at length tired out with these uncertainties Recommend over unto truth whatsoever thou hast left of truth and thou shalt lose nothing by the bargaine yea thy decaies shall reflourish againe and all thy languishments shall be recovered thy fadings shall be refreshed shall be renewed and shall be made to continue with thee nor shall they put thee downe to the place whither themselves descend but they shall stay with thee and stand fast for ever before that God who himselfe stayes and stands fast for ever 2. Why now my perverse
is beleeved to be truely set forth by the unfeined heart of the commender that is when he that loves him prayses him Thus then loved I men upon the judgement of men but not upon thine O my God in which no man is deceived But yet why not as that noble Chariotier or Huntsman so famously spoken of by our vulgar affections no but farre otherwise and more seriously and even so as I would desire to be my selfe commended 2. For I would by no meanes have my selfe or commended or lov'd in that kinde that Stage-players are though I my selfe did sometimes both commend and love them but I would choose rather to have liv'd concealed than to be knowne that way and to be hated than in that kinde to be beloved Where now are these overswayings of such various and divers kinds of loves distributed in one soule what is it that I am in love with in another man And what againe is it that did I not hate him for I should not detest and keepe him out of my company seeing wee are men either of us For the comparison holds not that as a good horse is loved by him who would not yet be that horse no not though he might the same should likewise be affirmed of a Stage-player who is a fellow in nature with us Doe I therefore love that in a man which I hate to be seeing I am a man Man is a great deepe whose very hayres thou numberest O Lord and they fall not to the ground without thee and yet are the hayres of his head easier to be numbered than are his affections and the motions of his heart 3. But that Orator whom I so loved was one of those that I would have wisht my selfe to have beene and I erred through a swelling pride and was tossed up and downe with every wind but I was governed by thee very secretly And how now shall I know and how may I upon a sure ground confesse unto thee that I loved that man more for the love of them that commended him than for the good parts themselves for which hee was commended Because if the selfe same men should not have dispraysed him whom they before had praysed and by dispraysing and despising him had they not told the same things of him I should never have been so kindled and provoked to love him 4. See where the impotent so le lyes along that is not yet staid up by the solidity of truth Iust as the blasts of tougues blow out of the brests of censurers so is it carryed this way and that way tumbled and tossed up and downe and the light is so beclowded that it can never discerne the truth And yet it is right before us I conceived to purchase some great credit by it if my stile and meditations might but be knowne to that famous man which should he allow of then were I more on fire but if he disapprov'd this vaine heart of mine utterly voyd of thy solidity had been cut to the quick at it And yet that subject of Faire and Fit upon which I wrote to him my meditations gladly laboured upon and though I wanted others to commend it yet did I my selfe admire it CHAP. 15. How his understanding being overshadowed with corporeall Images hee could not discerne the spirituall 1. BVt I could not all this while discover the maine point of the businesse in that artfull carriage of thine O thou Omnipotent who onely doest great wonders and my conceit rang'd through corporeal forms as Faire that is so absolutely of it selfe and Fit which becomes gracefull when applyed to some other thing and I defined and distinguished and confirm'd my argument by corporeall examples I set my studies afterwards to consider of the nature of the Soule but that false opinion which I had already entertained concerning spirituall matters would not let me discover the truth yet the force of truth did ever and anon flash into mine eyes but I turn'd away my panting soule from all incorporeall substances setting it upon line aments and colours and swelling quantities And for that I was not able to see all these in my soule I verily beleeved that I could not see that soule of mine And whereas in vertue I loved peace and in vitiousnesse I abhorred discord in the first I observed an Vnity but division ever to be in this And in that Vnity I conceived the nature both of truth and of our chiefest goodnesse to consist but in this division silly I imagined I know not what substance of an irrationall life and the nature of the greatest evill which should not onely be a substance but a very true life also and yet not at all depend on thee O my God of whom are all things And yet that first I called Vnity as if it had been a Soule with 〈◊〉 but the latter I stiled a Duality or a Division which should bee Anger in unmanly cruelties and lust in beastly impurities little knowing what I talke of 2. For I had not as yet either knowne or learn'd that neither was any substance evill or that our owne soule was not that chiefest and unchangeable goodnesse For even as those are to be called facinora that is bold heinous and desperate deedes if so be that motion of the soule in which the force of the Appetite now is be vicious or corrupted stirring it selfe insolently and unrulily and those are to be stiled Flagitia Crimes or naughty actions when that affection of the soule by which carnall pleasures are taken into resolution be any way immoderate or disorderly And thus doe Errours and false opinions defile the conversation if so be that the reasonable soule it selfe be viciously disposed as it was in me at that time when I was utterly ignorant of any other light to illustrate it by to make it partaker of the Truth seeing of it selfe it is not that Nature of Truth For thou shalt light my Candle O Lord my God thou shalt enlighten my darknesse and of thy fulnesse have wee all received for thou art the true light that lighteth every man that commeth into the world for that in thee there is no variablenesse neither shadow of change But I pressed towards thee and was as fast thrust from thee that I might taste of death for thou resistest the proud 3. And what could be prouder than for me with a wonderfull madnesse to maintaine my selfe to be that by nature which thou thy selfe art For whereas my selfe was mutable so much appearing manifestly unto mee in that I became so ambitious to grow wiser that of worse I might so prove better yet chose I rather to imagine thee to bee mutable than my selfe not to be that which thou wert Therefore gavest thou me the repulse and thou curiedst my unconstant stiffe-neckednesse and I fancied to my selfe certaine corporeall formes and being flesh I accused flesh and being a way faring spirit I did not
turne towards thee but went nuddling on and on towards those fancies which have no being neither in thee nor in mee nor in any body For they were not created for me by thy Truth but devised meerely by mine owne vaine conceipt fancying out a body And I demanded of thy faithfull little ones my fellow-Citizens from whom unbeknowing to my selfe I stood exiled I put the question to them I say prating and foolish man that I was Why therfore doth the soule erre which God hath created But I would endure upon no termes any one should demand of me Why therefore doth God erre And I stiffly maintained that thy vnchangeable substance rather did erre upon constraint than be brought to confesse mine owne changhable substance to have gone astray voluntarily or gone any thing neere it 4. I was at that time perchance sixe or seven and twenty yeere old when I composed those Volumnes canvassing up and downe with my selfe these corporeall fictions which were still buzzing in the eares of my heart which eares I intended rather O sweet Truth to hearken after thy inward melody plodding all this time upon my Faire and Fit and desiring to stay and to hearken to thee and to rejoyce exceedingly at the voice of thy Spouse but could not bring my selfe to it for by the cals of mine owne errours I was drawne out of my selfe and opprest with the weight of my owne proud conceipt I sunke into the lowest pit For thou didst not make me to heare 〈◊〉 and gladnesse that the 〈…〉 which thou hadst not yet enough broken might rejoyce CHAP. 16. The admirable aptnesse to Learning and the great understanding S. Augustine had 1. ANd what was I the better for it when scarce twenty yeeres old that Booke of Aristotles Praedicaments falling into my hands of which my Rhetoricke-master of Carthage and others esteemed very good Schollers would be cracking with full mouthes I earnestly and with much suspence gap't upon it at first as upon I know not what deepe and divine peece but read it over afterwards yea and attained the understanding of it by my selfe alone And comparing my Notes afterwards with theirs who protested how hardly they gate to understand the Booke from very able Tutors not dictating to them onely by word of mouth but taking paines also to delineate out in the dust the Schemes and demonstrations of it they could teach me no more of it than I had observed before upon mine owne reading And it seem'd plaine enough to my capacity when they discourst of Substances such as Man is and of the Accidents inhering to these Substances as for example the figure of a man how qualified he was and of what shape and stature how many foot high and his relation to his kindred whose brother he is or where placed or when borne or whether he stands or sits or bee shod or armed or does or suffers any thing and whatsoever to bee learned besides in these nine Praedicaments of which I have given these former examples or these other innumerable observations in that chiefe Praedicament of Substance 2. What now did all this further me seeing withal it as much hindred mee when as I tooke paines to understand thee O my God whose Essence is most wonderfully simple and unchangeable imagining whatsoever had being to bee comprehended under those tenne Praedicaments as if thy selfe had beene subject to thine owne Greatnesse or Beauty and that these two had an inherence in thee like Accidents in their Subject or as in a Body whereas thy greatnesse and beauty is thy Essence but a body is not great or faire in that regard as it is a body seeing that though it were lesse great or faire yet should it be a body notwithstanding But it was a meere falsehood which of thee I had conceived and no truth a very fiction of mine owne foolery and no solid ground of thy happinesse For thou hadst given forth the command and so it came to passe in me that my earth should bring forth bryars and thornes in me and that in the sweat of my browes I should eate my bread 3. And what was I the better that I the vile Slave to wicked affections read over by my selfe and understood all the bookes of those Sciences which they call liberall as many as I could cast mine eye upon And that I tooke great delight in them but knew not all this while whence all that came whatsoever was true or certaine in them For I stood with my backe to the light and with my face toward these things which received that light and therfore my face with which I discern'd these things that were illuminated was not it selfe illuminated What-ever was written either of the Art of Rhetoricke or Logicke what-ever of Geometry Musicke and Arithmeticke I attain'd the understanding of by my selfe without any great difficulty or any instructor at all as thou knowest O Lord my God even because the quicknes of conceiving and the sharpnesse of disputing is thy gift and yet did I not sacrifice any part of it to thy acknowledgement All this therefore served not mee to any good imployment but to my destruction rather since I went about to get so good a part of my portion into mine owne custody and I preserved not mine own abilities entire for thy service but wandring into a far Country to spend it there upon my Harlotries For what good did it me to have good abilities and not employ them to good uses For I understood not that those Arts were attained with great difficulty even by those that were very studious and ingenuous Schollers untill that my selfe going about to interpret them in others hearing hee was held the most excellent at them who was able to follow me with least slownesse 4. But what at last did all this benefit mee thinking all this while that thou O Lord my God of truth wert nothing but a vast and bright Body and my selfe some peece of that Body O extreme perversenesse but in that case was I then nor doe I blush O my God to confesse thy mercies towards mee to call upon thee who blushed not then openly to professe before men mine owne blasphemies and to barke against thee What good did then my nimble wit able to runne over all those Sciences and all those most knotty Volumes made easie to me without helpe or light from any Tutor seeing I err'd so fouly and with so much sacrilegious shamefulnesse in the Doctrine of Piety Or what hinderance was a farre slower wit to thy little ones seeing they straggled not so farre from thee but that in the Nest of thy Church they might securely plume themselves and nourish the wings of charity by the food of a solid faith 5. O Lord our God under the shadow of thy wings let us hope defend thou hold us up Thou shalt beare us up both while we are little and when we are gray-headed for our weaknesse
was I welcomed with the rod of bodily sicknesse and I was even ready to goe to hell carrying with me all those sinnes which I had committed both against thee and my selfe yea many and grievous offences against others over and above that bond of originall sinne whereby wee all dye in Adam For thou hadst not yet forgiven mee any thing in Christ nor had he yet slaine that enmity by his Crosse which by my sins I had incurred and how indeed could he by an imaginary suffering upon it which was my beleefe of it How false therefore the death of his Flesh seemed unto mee so true was the death of my soule and how true the death of his body was so false was the life of my soule which did not beleeve the death of his body My feaâ—es now growing more violent upon me I was at the point of going and perishing for whither should I have gone had I dyed at that time but into fire and torments such as my misdeeds were worthy of in the truth of thy decree Of all this nothing knew my mother yet continued she to pray for me though in absence But thou who art present every where heardest her where she was and hadst compassion upon me whereas I was for I recovered health of body thereupon though sorely crazed as yet in my sacrilegious heart For I had not in all that danger desired thy baptisme I was better affected being but a youth when through my mothers devotion in my sicknesse I had bin very earnest to receive it as I have before recited and confessed 2. But I had from thenceforth growne worse and worse to my owne shame and now starke madde I scoffed at those prescripts of that Physike of thine by which thou wouldst not suffer me to dye two deaths at once with which wound should my mothers heart have beene goared it could never have been cured For I want words to expresse the affection shee bare towards me and with how much vehementeranguish she was now in labour of me in the spirit than she had been at her child-bearing in the flesh I cannot possible see therefore how she should have beene cured had so unchristian a death of mine once strucken through the bowels of her love And what should then have become of those passionate prayers of hers so frequently and incessantly in all places made unto thee But wouldst thou O God of mercies have despised that contrite and humbled heart of that chast and sober widdow so frequent in Almesdeeds so obsequious and serviceable to thy Saints who passed no day without her oblation at thine Altar never missing twice a day morning and evening to come to Church not to listen after idle tales and old wives chat but that shee might heare thee speaking to her in thy Sermons and thou her in her prayers 3. Couldst thou despise and reject without thy succour those teares of hers with which shee beg'd no gold or silver of thee nor any mutable or fading good but the salvation of her sonnes soule onely couldst thou doe it by whose grace she was inspired to doe thus By no meanes Lord. Yea thou wert still at hand and thou heardest her and thou didst all in the selfe-same order thou hadst predestinated it should be done in Let it never bee thought thou shouldst deceive her in those Visions and Answers shee had of thee both those which I have already remembred and those which I have not remembred all which shee laid up in her faithfull heart which in her prayers ever and anon shee would presse thee withall as with thine owne handwriting For thou because they mercy endureth for ever vouchsafest unto those whose debts thou forgivest thoroughly even to become a kinde of debter by thy promises CHAP. 10. His errours before his receiving of the Doctrine of the Gospell 1. THou recoveredst me therfore of that sicknesse and healedst the sonne of thy handmayd at that time in his body that thou mightest bestow upon him a health farre better and more certaine I consorted my selfe in Rome at that time with those deceiving and deceived Holy ones not onely with their Disciples of which mine Host was one in whose house I fell sicke and recovered but also with those whom they called The Elect. For I was hitherto of the opinion That it was not wee our selves that sinned but I know not what other nature in us and it much delighted my proud conceipt to bee set beyond the power of sinne and when I had committed any sinne not to confesse I had done any that thou mightest heale my soule when I had sinned against thee but I loved to excuse it and to accuse I know not what other corruption that I bare about me and that it was not I that did it But verily it was I my selfe altogether and mine owne impiety had made the division in me and that sinne of mine was the more incurable for that I did not judge my selfe to be a sinner and most execrable iniquity it was that I had rather have thee O GOD Almighty even thee I say to bee overcome by me to mine owne destruction than my selfe to bee overcome of thee to mine owne salvation 2. Thou hadst not yet therefore set a watch before my mouth and kept the doore of my lipps that my heart might not incline to wicked speeches to the excusing of these excuses of my sinnes with the men that worke iniquity and even therefore continued I still combined with their Elect ones But yet now as it were dispayring much to profit my selfe in that false doctrine even those opinions of theirs with which if I could chance upon no better I was resolv'd to rest contented I began now to be something more remisse and carelesse in the holding For there rose a conceipt in me That those Philosophers which they call Academikes should bee wiser than the rest even for that they hold men ought to make a doubt upon every thing and for that they determined how that no truth can bee comprehended by man for thus to me they seemed clearly to have thought as it is commonly received even by such as understand not the utmost of their meaning by it 3. And as free and open I was to disswade that Host of mine from that too much confidence which I perceived him to settle upon those fabulous opinions which the Manichees bookes are full of And yet I made more familiar use of their friendship than I did of other mens that were not of this heresie Yet did I not maintaine it with my ancient obstinacy but yet did my familiarity with that Sect of whom Rome shelters too many make me slower to seeke out any other way especially seeing I now despayred O LORD of heaven and earth Creator of all visible and invisible things to finde the truth in thy Church which they had quite put mee out of conceipt with And it then seem'd a
very unseemely thing to beleeve thee to have the shape of our humane flesh and to be girt up in the bodily lineaments of our members And because that when I had a desire to meditate upon God I knew not how to thinke of him but as of a Bulke of bodies for that seemed to me not to bee any thing which was not such this was the greatest and almost the onely cause of my inevitable misprision 4. For hence it was that I beleeved Evill to have been a kind of substance and had a bulke of earth belonging to it either deformed and grosse which they called Earth or else thinne and subtile like the body of the Ayie which they imagine to be some ill-natured mind gliding thorow that Earth And for that I know not what not ill-minded piety constrained me to beleeve that the good God never created any evill nature I supposed two Bulkes contrary to one another both infinite but the Evill to be lesser and the Good larger and out of this pestilent foundation other sacrilegious conceipts followed upon me For when my minde endevoured to have recourse backe unto the Catholike faith I was still stav'd off againe for that that indeed was not the Catholike faith which I beleeved to have beene And I seemed more reverently opinioned if I should have beleeved thee O my God to whom thy mercies wrought in me doe now confesse to bee infinite in other parts although on that side by which Evill was set in opposition unto thee I was constrained to confesse thee to be finite than if in all parts I should imagine thee to be finitely concluded within the shape of an humane body 5. And it seemed safer for me to beleeve thee to have never created any evill which to ignorant me seemed not some substance onely but to be corporeall also and for that I could not hit to thinke of any spirituall minde unlesse it should be a subtle body and that diffused too by locall spaces than to beleeve any thing could come from thee of that condition which I imagined the nature of Evill to be Yea and our blessed Saviour himselfe thy onely begotten Sonne reached as it were for our Salvation out of the most bright masse of thy Substance I so thought of as that I beleeved no other thing of him than that I was able to imagine by mine own vaine fancie Such a nature therefore I thought could never bee borne of the Virgin Mary unlesse it were incorporated into her flesh and how that which I had on this fashion figured out to my selfe should bee incorporated and not therewithall defiled I saw not I feared therefore to beleeve Christ to be borne in the flesh lest I should be inforced also to beleeve that he was defiled by the flesh Now will thy spirituall children in a mild and loving manner laugh at me when they shall reade these my Confessions But such a man I then was CHAP. 11. How bee compared the Manichees Tenents with the Catholikes 1. FVrthermore what-ever these Manichees had found fault withall in thy Scriptures I thought not possible to be detended but yet verily had I a good will now and then to confer upon these severall points with some man that were best skilled in those bookes and to make experience what hee thought of the matter For the speech of one Helpidius speaking and disputing face to face against the said Manichees had already begun to stirre me even whilst I was at Carthage when namely he produced such Texts out of the Scriptures which were not easily to bee withstood and that the Manichees Answer seemed but very weake unto me 2. which Answer they would not willingly be drawne to deliver in publike hearing but amongst our selves onely in private namely when as they said that the Scriptures of the New Testament had beene corrupted by I know not whom who were desirous to insert the Law of the Iewes into the Christian Faith whereas themselves all this while brought not out any Copies that had not beene so corrupted But me strongly captivated and stifled as it were with beating my thoughts about these corporeall phantasies did these bulkes keep downe under which struggling for the breath of thy truth I was not able to take it in pure and untainted CHAP. 12. The cunning tricks put at Rome by Schollers upon their Masters 1. DIligently therefore began I to put in practice that for which I came to Rome that is to teach Rhetoricke And first of all to draw some to my Lodging to whom and through whose meanes I beganne to bee made knowne abroad when as behold I came to know how that other misdemeanours were committed in Rome which I could not indure in Africke For those OVERTVRNINGS 't is true committed by desperate yong fellowes were not here practised as it was plainely told me but yet said they to avoid payment of their Masters stipend divers yong Schollers plot together and all on the sudden to avoid due payment to their Masters these promise-breakers who for the love of money make no account of just dealing remove themselves to another These sharking companions my heart hated also though not with a perfect hatred For I more hated them perchance for that my selfe was to suffer by them than for that they plaid such dishonest pranks with every man 2. Such verily bee but base fellowes and they play false with thee in loving these fleeting mockeries of the Times and in griping after this dirty gaine which when it is got hold of bemyres the hand and in embracing this sleeing World and in despising thee who abidest ever and who callest backe and grantest pardon to mans adulterated soule that returnes unto thee And now I much hated such wicked and perverse natures though I could well love them were they to bee amended and that they would once preferre Learning before their Money and above their Learning esteeme of thee O GOD the Truth and fulnesse of all assured good and the most chast peace But I was even for mine owne sake more unwilling in those dayes to beare with those that dealt ill with me than desirous that they should at last become good for thy sake CHAP. 13. He goes to Millan to teach Rhetoricke and how S. Ambrose there entertaines him 1. VVHen therefore they of Millan had sent to Rome to the Praefect of the Citie desiring to bee furnished thence with a Rhetoricke-Master for their Citie taking order also for the accommodating him in his journey upon the publike charges I put on to stand for the place and that by meanes of those very Manichees drunken with vanities to be rid of whom I purposely went away yet did neither of us know certainely whether upon my making a publike Oration for the Place Symmachus then Praefect of the Citie would so farre approve of me as to send me thither Well unto Milan I came to Bishop Ambrose a man of the best fame all
CHAP. 7. He disswades Alipius from his excessive delight in the Circensian games 1. WE joyntly bemoaned our selves for this who lived like friends together but chiefly and most familiarly did I speake hereof with Alipius and Nebridius of whom Alipius was borne in the same Towne with me whose parents were of the chiefe ranke there and himselfe yonger than I he had also studied under me first when I set up Schoole in our owne Towne and at Carthage afterwards He loved me very much because I seemed of a good disposition to him and well learned and I loved him againe for his great towardlines to vertue which was eminent enough for one of no greater yeerâ—â— But that Whirlepit of th◠〈◊〉 thaginian fashions amongst whom those idler spectacles are hotly followed had already swallowed up him in immoderate delight of the Circensian sports But meane while that he was miserably-tumbled up and downe that way and I professing Rhetoricke there had set up a publike Schoole he made no use of me as his Master by reason of some unkindnesse risen betwixt his Father and me Although therefore I had found how dangerously he doted upon the Race-place and that I were grievously perplexed that hee tooke the course to undoe so good a hope as was conceived of him or rather as me thought he had already undone it yet had I no meanes either privately to advise him or by way of constraint to reclaime him by interest of a friendship or the awe of a Master For I supposed verily that he had had the same opinion of me with his Father but he was not of that minde Loying aside therefore his Fathers Quarell hee beganne to salute me comming sometimes into my Schoole heare a little and bee gone By this meanes forgate I to deale with him that he should not for a blinde and headstrong desire of such vaine pastimes undoe so good a wit 2. But thou O Lord thou who sittest at the sterne of all thou hast created hadst not forgotten him who was one day to prove a chiefe Priest of thy Sacraments And that his amendment might plainely be attributed to thy selfe thou truely broughtest it about by my meanes who yet knew nothing of it For when as one day I sate in my accustomed place with my schollers before me in came he saluted me sate him downe and applyed his minde to what I then handled I had by chance a passage then in hand which that I might the better illustrate it seemed very seasonable to me to make use of a similitude borrowed from the Circensian races both to make that which I infinuated more pleasant and more plaine and to give a biting quippe withall at those whom that madnes had enthralled God thou knowest that I little thought at that time of curing Alipius of that pessilence But hee tooke it to himselfe and conceived that I meerely intended it towards him And what another man would have made an occasion of being angry with mee that good yong man made a reason of being offended at himselfe and to love me the more fervently For thou hadst said it long agoe and put it into thy Booke Ribuke a wise man and he will love thee 3. But for my part I meant no rebuke towards him but 't is thou who makest use of all men both knowing or not knowing in that order which thy selfe knowest and that order is just Out of my heart and tongue thou wrought'st burning coales by which thou mightest set on fire that languishing disposition of his of which so good hopes had been conceived and mightst cure it Let such a one conceale thy praises who considers not of thy mercies which my very marrow confesses unto thee For he upon that speech heav'd himselfe out of that pit so deepe wherein he had wilfully beene plunged and had beene hood winkt with the wretched pastime of it and rowzed up his minde with a well-resolved moderntion whereupon all those filths of the Circensian pastimes slew off from him nor came he ever at them afterwards Vpon this prevailed he with his unwilling Father that he might be one of my Schollers Hee yeelded and condescended so that Alipius beginning to bee my Auditor againe was bemussled in the same superstitioÌ„ with me loving that ostentation of continency in the Manichees which he supposed to be true and unseined But verily no better it was than a senselesse and a seducing continency insnaring precious soules not able yet to reach to the height of vertue and easie to be beguiled with a faire outside of that which was but a wel-shadowed a feined vertue CHAP. 8. Alipius is taken with a delight of the Sword-plaies which before he hated 1. HEe not forsaking that worldly course which his parents had charm'd him to pursue went before me to Rome to study the Laws where he was carried away with an incredible greedinesse of seeing the Sword-players For being utterly against and detesting such spectacles when he was one day by chance met withall by divers of his acquaintance and fellow students comming from dinner they with a familiar kinde of violence haled him vehemently denying and resisting them along into the Amphitheater on a time when these cruell and deadly shewes were exhibited he thus protesting Though you hale my body to that place and there set me can you after that force me to give my minde and lend my eyes to these shewes I shall therefore be absent even while I am present and so shall I overcome both you and them too His Companions hearing these words lead him on never the slower desirous perchance to try whether he could be as good as his word or no. When they were come thither and had taken their places as they could all that Round grew hot with mercilesse Pastimes 2. But Alipius closing up the doores of his eyes forbade his minde to range abroad after such mischiefes and I would he had stopped his eares also For upon the fall of one in the sight a mighty cry of the people beating strongly upon him hee being overcome by curiosity and as it were prepared whatsoever it were to contemne it with his sight and to overcome it opened his eyes and was strucken with a deeper wound in his soule than the other was in his body whom hee desired to behold and he presently fell more miserably than the Sword-player did upoÌ„ whose fal that mighty noise was raised Which noise entred through his eares and unlockt his eyes to make way for the striking beating downe of his soule which was bold rather than valiant hitherto and so much the weaker for that it presumed now on it selfe which ought onely to have trusted upon thee For so soone as hee saw another mans blood hee at the very instant drunke downe a kinde of savagenesse nor did he turne away his head but fixed his eye upon it drinking up unawares the very Furies themselves being much taken with the barbarousnesse of
If ye have not beene faithfull in the unrighteous Mamman who will commit to your trust true riches And if ye have not beene faithfull in that which is another mans who shall give you that which is your owne Such a man as I have described did at that time adjoyne himselfe unto me and wavered in his purpose as I did what course of life was to be taken Nebridius also who having left his native Countrey neere Carthage yea and Carthage it selfe where for the most part he lived leaving his Fathers lands which were very rich leaving his owne house and a Mother behinde who meant not like mine to follow after him was by this time come to Millan and for no other reason neither but that he might bestow himselfe with me in a most ardent desire after Truth and Wisdome Together with mee hee sighed and with me he wavered still continuing a most ardent searcher after happinesse and a most acute examiner of the difficultest Questions Thus were there now gotten together the mouthes of three Beggars fighing out their wants one to another and waiting upon thee that thou mightest give them their meat in due season And in much anguish of spirit which by the disposing of thy mercie still followed our worldly affaires looking towards the end why wee should suffer all this darknesse beelouded us whereupon wee turned away mourning to our selves saying How long will things continue at this stay This wee often said but in saying so wee yet forsooke not our errours for that wee yet discovered no certainty which when wee had forsaken them we might betake our selves unto CHAP. 11. Hee deliberates what course of life he were best to take 1. ANd I admired extremely pondering earnestly with my selfe and examining of my memory what a deale of time I had consumed since that nine and twentieth yeere of mine age in which I began first to be inflamed with the study of wisdome resolving that when I had found that to let passe all those empty hopes and lying phrenzies of vaine desires And behold I was now going of my thirtieth yeere still sticking in the same clay still possest with a greedinesse of enjoying things present they as fast flitting and wasting my soule I still saying to my selfe To morrow I shall finde it out it will appeare very plainely and I shall understand it and behold Faustus the Manichee will come and cleere every thing O you great men of the Academikes opinion who affirme That no certaine course for the ordering of our lives can possibly be comprehended Nay let us rather search the more diligently and not despaire of finding for behold those things in the Ecclesiasticall Bookes are not absurd to us now which sometimes seemed so for they may be otherwise yea and that honestly understood I will hence-forth pitch my foot upon that step on which being yet a child my parents placed mee untill such time as the cleere Truth may be found out 2. But where-abouts shall it be sought for When shall it be sought for Ambrose is not at leasure nor have we our selves any spare time to reade But where shall we finde the Books to reade on Whence or when can we procure them or from whom borrow them Let set times be appointed and certaine houres distributed for the health of our soules We now begin to conceive great hopes The Catholike Faith teaches not what we thought it had whereof we vainely accused it The learned men of that Faith hold it for a detestable opinion to beleeve God to be comprehended under the figure of our humane body and do we doubt to knocke that the other mysteries may be also opened unto us All the forenoones our schollers take up what shall we doe the rest of the day Why goe wee not about this But when then shall we visite our greater friends of whose favours we stand in need What time shall wee have to compose some discourses to sell to Schollers When shall wee recreate our selves and unbend our mindes from those cares they are too earnest upon Let all these thoughts perish let us give over these vaine and empty fancies and betake our selves solely to search out the Truth Life is miserable Death uncertaine if it steales upon us on the sudden in what case shall wee goe out of the world where shall we then learne what wee have here neglected Or rather shall we not there suffer the due punishment of our negligence If it be objected That Death will quite cut off both care and sense of all these things and there 's an end of them Rather let that bee first inquired into But God forbid that we should be of that mind It is not for no purpose 't is no idle toy that so eminent a heighth of authority which the Christian Faith hath is diffused all the world over Should then such and so great blessings be by the divine providence wrought for us if so be that together with the death of the body the life of the soule should bee brought to nothing also Wherefore then delay we time any longer that giving over our hopes of this world we might give up our selves wholly to seek after God a happy life 3. But stay a while Even these worldly things are sweet and they have some and that no small pleasure We are not too lightly to divorce our purposes from them for that it were a foule shame to make love againe to them See 't is no such great matter to obtain some Office of honour and what should a man desire more in this world We have store of potent friends though we had nothing else let us put our selves forward some place of preferment or other may be bestowed upon us or a Wife at least may be had with a good portion to ease our charges and this shal be the full point of our desires Many great persons and those worthy of our imitation have addicted themselves to the study of wisdome in the state of mariage 4. Whilest these things wee discoursed of and these winds of uncontainties changed up and downe and drove my heart this way and that way the time still passed on but I was slow to bee converted to my Lord God and from one day to another I deferred to live in thee but deferred not daily to dye within my selfe Being thus in love with an happy life yet feared I to finde it in its proper place and fleeing from it I sought after it I thought I should be too miserable should I bee debarred of the imbracements of a Woman as for that medicine of thy mercie which should cure that infirmity I never thought of it and all because I had no experience of it As for continency I supposed it to bee in the liberty of our owne power of which I for my part was not guilty being so foolish withall that I knew it not to be written That no man can preserve his
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
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
forgiue her trespasses what-euer shee hath drawne vpon her selfe in so many yeeres since her cleansing by the water of baptisme forgiue her Lord forgiue her I beseech thee enter not into iudgement with her but let thy mercy bee exalted aboue thy iustice and that because thy words are true and thou hast promised mercy vnto the mercifull which that people might bee is thy gift to them who wilt haue mercy on whome thou wilt haue mercy and wilt shew deeds of mercy vnto whom thou hast been mercifully inclined And I now beleeue that thou hast already done what I request of thee but take in good part O Lord these voluntary petitions of my mouth 3. For shee the day of her dissolution being at hand tooke no thought to haue her body sumptuously wound vp or imbalmed with spices nor was she ambitious of any choyce monument or cared to bee buried in her owne Country These things shee gaue vs no command for but desired only to haue her name commemorated at thy Altar which shee had serued without intermission of one day from whence she knew that holy Sacrifice to bee dispensed by which that Hand-writing that was against vs is blotted out through which Sacrifice the Enemy was triumphed ouer he who summing vp our offences and seeking for something to lay to our charge sound nothing in Him in whom wee are conquerours Who shall restore vnto him his innocent blood who shall repay him the price with which hee bought vs and so bee able to take vs out of his hands vnto the Sacrament of which price of our redemption this handmaid of thine had bound her owne soule by the bond of fayth 4. Let none plucke her away from thy protection let neyther the Lyon nor the Dragon interpose himselfe by force or fraud For shee will not answere that shee owes nothing lest she bee disprooued and gotten the better of by her crafty accuser but she will answer how that her sins are forgiuen her by him vnto whome none is able to repay that price which hee layd downe for vs who owed nothing Let her rest therefore in peace together with her husband before or after whom shee had neuer any whom shee obeyed through patience bringing forth fruit vnto thee that shee might winne him vnto thee And inspire O Lord my God inspire thy seruants my brethren thy sonnes my masters whom with voyce and heart and pen I serue that so many of them as shall reade these Confessions may at thy Altar remember Monica thy handmayd together with Patricius her sometimes husband by whose bodies thou broughtest mee into this life though how I know not May they with deuout affection be mindefull of these parents of mine in this transitory light and of my brethren that are vnder thee our Father in our Catholicke Mother and of those who are to be my fellow Citizens in that eternall Ierusalem which thy people here in their pilgrimage so sigh after euen from their birth vnto their returne thither That so what my mother in her last words desired of me may the more plentifully bee performed for her in the prayers of many as well by meanes of my Confessions as of my prayers The end of the Ninth Booke Saint Agustines Confessions The tenth Booke CHAP. 1. The Confessions of the heart 1 LEt mee know Thee O Lord who knowest mee let me know thee as I am knowne of thee O thou the vertue of my soule make thy entrance into it and so fit it for thy selfe that thou mayst haue and hold it without spotte or wrinkle This is my hope and therefore doe I now speake and in this hope doe I reioyce when at all I reioyce As for other things of this life they deserue so much the lesse to bee lamented by how much the more wee doe lament them and againe so much the more to bee lamented by how much the lesse we doe lament them For behold thou hast loued truth and hee that does so commeth to the light This will I publish before thee in the confession of my heart and in my writing before many witnesses CHAP. 2. Secret things are knowne to God 1. ANd from thee O Lord vnto whose eyes the bottome of mans Conscience is layd bare what can bee hidden in mee though I would not confesse it For so should I hide thee from mee not my selfe from thee But now for that my groaning is witnesse for mee that I am displeased with my selfe thou shinest out vnto mee and art pleasing to me yea desired and beloued of mee and I will bee ashamed of my selfe yea I will renounce mine owne selfe and make choyce of thee and neuer may I please thee nor my selfe but in thee 2. Vnto thee therefore O Lord am I layd open what euer I am and with what fruit I may Confesse vnto thee I haue before spoken Nor doe I it with words and speeches of the body but with the expressions of my very soule and the crye of my thoughts which thy care onely vnderstandeth For when I am wicked then to confesse vnto thee is no other thing but to displease my selfe but when I am well giuen to confesse vnto thee is then no other thing but not to attribute this goodnesse vnto my selfe because it is thou O Lord that blessest the Iust but first thou iustifiest him being wicked My Confession therefore O my God in thy sight is made vnto thee priuately and yet not priuately for in respect of noyse it is silent but yet it cryes alowd in respect of my affection For neither doe I vtter any thing that is right vnto men which thy selfe hath not before heard from mee nor caust thou heare any such thing from me which thy selfe hath not first sayd vnto me CHAP. 3. The Confession of our ill deeds what it helpes vs. 1. VVHat therefore haue I to doe with men that they should heare my Confessions as if they could cure all my infirmities A curious people to pry into another mans life but slothfull enough to amend their owne Why doe they desire to heare from me what I am who will not heare from thee what themselues are And how know they whenas they heare my selfe confessing of myselfe whether I say true or no seeing none knowes what is in man but the spirit of man which is in him But if they heare from thee any thing concerning themselues they cannot say The Lord lyeth For what els is it from thee to heare of themselues but to know themselues and who is hee that knowing himselfe can say It is false vnlesse himselfe lyes But because Charity beleeueth all things that is to say amongst those whom by knitting vnto it selfe it maketh one I therefore O Lord doe so also confesse vnto thee as that men may heare to whom though I be not able to demonstrate whether I confesse truely yet giue they credit vnto mee whose eares charitie hath set
because the memory now feeling that it did not beare about so much of it together as it had wont to doe and halting as it were vpon the may me receiued in the losse of what it had beene vsed vnto it eagerly layes about to haue that made vp againe which was wanting Like as some knowne man eyther seene or thought on if hauing forgotten his name we study to recouer it what euer name but his comes into our memory it will not peize in with it and all because that name was neuer vsed to bee thought vpon together with that man which name therfore is so long reiected vntil that at length presents it selfe vnto the memory with which as hauing beene acquainted with the knowledge of it may euenly iump in withall And from whence does that name present it selfe but out of the memory for when being put in minde by some other man wee know it to bee the same 't is by vertue of the memory Nor doe wee now beleeue it as any new name but vpon the assurance of our Remembrance doe wee allow it to be the same that was named to vs. But were the name vtterly blotted out of the minde we should not then remember it when we were againe put in minde of it For wee haue not vtterly as yet forgotten that which wee remember our selues to haue forgotten That lost notion therefore which wee haue vtterly forgotten shall we neuer be able so much as to seeke after CHAP. 20. All men desire blessednesse 1. HOw then doe I seeke after thee O Lord For when I seeke thee my God I seeke an happy life I will seeke thee that my soule may liue For my body that liueth by my soule and my soule by thee Which way then doe I seeke for an happy life seeing it is not to bee found vntill I can say It is enough in that place where I am to say it How seeke I it Whether by way of Remembrance as one that had forgotten it and yet remember my selfe to haue forgotten it Or by way of appetite to learne it as a thing vnknown which eyther I neuer knew or at least to haue so farre forgotten it as that I doe not so much as remember that I haue forgotten it Is nor an happy life the thing which all desire and is there any man that some way or other desires it not But where gate they the knowledge of it that they are so desirous of it where did they euer see it that they are now so enamored of it Truely we haue it but which way I know not yea there is a certaine other way which when any hath hee is euen then blessed And some there bee that bee blessed in hope These haue it in a meaner kind then those who are in possession who yet are much better then such as are neyther blessed in deede nor in hope which very same men for all this had they it not in some sort or other would not so much as desire to bee happy which that they doe desire is most certaine 2. How they come to know it I cannot tell and therefore haue they it by I know not what secret notice concerning which in much doubt I am whether it bee in the memory or no which if it bee then should wee sometimes haue beene blessed heretofore But whether euery man should haue beene so happy as seuerally considered in himselfe or as in the loynes of that man who first sinned and in whom wee are all dead and from whom being descended wee are all borne with misery I now inquire not but this I demaund whether this blessed life bee in the memory or no For neuer should wee loue it did wee not know it Wee heare the name and we all confesse our desire vnto the thing for wee are not delighted with the sound onely For when a Grecian heares the name sounded in Latine he is no wayes delighted for that hee knowes not what is spoken but wee Latines are delighted with it euen as he is if hee heares it pronounced in Greeke because the thing it selfe is neyther Greeke nor Latine the attayning whereof both Greekes and Latines doe so earnestly looke after like as the men of other Languages doe Knowne therfore vnto all it is and could they with one voyce bee demanded Whether they would be happy or no without doubt they would all answer That they would And this could not bee vnlesse the thing it selfe expressed by this name were still reserued in their memory CHAP. 21. We also remember what we neuer had 1. BVt is it so in memory as Carthage is to a man that hath seeue it No. For a blessed life is not to bee seene with the eye because it is not a body Doe wee then so remember it as wee doe numbers Neyther For these hee that already hath in his knowledge seekes not further to attayne vnto As for blessed lofe wee haue that already in our knowledge therefore doe we loue it and yet desire to attaine that wee may bee blessed Doe wee remember it then as we doe eloquence Nor so For although some vpon hearing of the name doe thereupon call to minde the thing who yet were neuer eloquent and many doe it that desire to bee so whereupon it appeares to bee already in their knowledge yet hauing by their outward Sences obserued others to bee more eloquent they are both delighted at it and desire to be so themselues notwithstanding if by their outward notice they had not obserued it they could not haue beene delighted with it nor to be eloquent but that they were delighted with such as were eloquent But what this blessed life should be wee can by no sence of our body get the experience of 2. Or is it so in memory as the ioy is that wee remember perchance so indeede for my ioy I remember euen whilest I am sadde like as I doe a happy life euen whilest I am vnhappy nor did I euer with any bodily sence eyther see or heare or smell or taste or touch that ioy of mine but I found it in my minde wheneuer I reioyced and the knowledge of it stucke so fast in my memory that I was well able to call it to remembrance with contempt sometimes and with fresh desire other whiles euen according to the diuersity of those things for which I remembred my selfe to haue reioyced For euen at vncleane thoughts was I sometimes ouerioyed which calling to minde againe I now both detest and curse And other whiles doe I ioy at good and honest thoughts which I call to minde with some desire although they perchance present not themselues and therefore againe sad at it doe I call to mind my former reioycing Where therfore and when had I any feeling of a blessed life that I should remember and loue and desire it Nor is it my desire alone or of some few besides but euery man verily would be happy which vnlesse by some certaine knowledge
in my flesh as that these false visions perswade me vnto that when I am asleepe which true visions cannot doe when I am awake Am I not my selfe at that time O Lord my God And is there yet so much difference betwixt my selfe and my selfe in that moment wherein I passe from waking to sleeping or returne from sleeping vnto waking 2. Where is my reason at that time by which my mind when it is a wake resisteth such suggestions as these at which time should the things themselues presse in vpon mee yet would my resolution re maine vnshaken Is my reason clozed vp together with mine eyes or is it lull'd asleepe with the sences of my body But whence then comes it to posse that wee so often euen in our sleepe make such resistance and being mindefull of our purpose and remaine most chastly in it wee yeeld no assent vnto such enticements And yet so much difference there is as that when any thing hath otherwise hapned in our sleepe wee vpon our waking returne to peace of conscience by the distance of time discouering that it was not wee that did it notwithstanding wee bee sorry that there is something someway or other done in vs. Is not thy hand able O God almighty to cure all the discases of my soule and with a more abundant measure of thy grace also to quench the lasciuious motions of my sleepe 3. Thou shalt increase O Lord thy graces more and more vpon mee that my soule may follow my selfe home to thee wholy freed of that birdâ—ly me of concupiscence that it may no longer rebell against it selfe nor may in dreames not onely not commit these adult erous vncleannesses by meanes of these sensuall Images procuring pollution of the flesh but that it may not so much as once consent vnto them For to hinder that no such fancy no not so much as should neede any checke to restraine it doe its pleasure in the chast affection of those that sleepe not in this life onely but euen in this age of youth is not hard for the Almighty to doe who is able to doe aboue all that wee aske or thinke And for this time in what case I yet am in this kind of naughtinesse haue I confessed vnto my good Lord reioycing with trembling in that grace which thou hast already giuen me and bemoaning my selfe for that wherein I am still vnperfect well hoping that thou wilt one day perfect thy mercies in mee euen vnto a fulnesse of peace which both my outward and inward man shall at that time enioy with thee whenas death shall be swallowed vp in victory CHAP. 31. The temptation of eating and drinking 1. THere is another euill of the day which I wish were sufficient vnto it that we are fayne by eating and drinking to repaire the daily decayes of our body vntill such time as thou destroyest both belly and meat whenas thou shalt kill this emptinesse of mine with a wonderfull fulnesse and shalt cloath this incorruptible with an eternall incorruption Butin this life euen necessity is sweete vnto me against which swetnes do I fight lest I should bee beguiled by it yea a daily warre doe I make bringing my body into subiection by my fastings the pinchings whereof are by the pleasure I take in it expelled Hunger Thirst verily are painefull they burne vp and kill like a feaver vnlesse the physicke of nourishments relieue vs. Which for that it is readily to bee had out of the comfort wee receiue by thy gifts with which both land and water and ayre serue our necessities are our calamities termed our delicacies Thus much hast thou taught mee that I am to take my meat as sparingly as I would doe my Physicke 2. But in the while I am passing from the pinching of emptynesse vnto the content of a competent replenishing does that snare of lickorishnesse euen in the very passage lie in ambush for mee For that passage betweene is a kinde of pleasure nor is there any other way to passe by but that which necessity constraines vs to goe by And whereas health is the cause of our eating and drinking there will a dangerous lickorishnesse goes a-long with health like a handmayd yea endeauours oftentimes so to goe before it as that I eate that for my tooths sake which I eyther say I doe or desire to doe for my healths sake Nor is there the same moderation in both for that which is enough in respect of health is nothing neere enough in respect of lickorishnesse yea very vncertaine it is oftentimes whether the necessary care of my body still requires sustenance or whether a voluptuous deceiueablenesse of Epicurisme supplies lust with maintenance And for that this case is vncertaine does my vnhappy soule reioyce prouides it thereby of a protection of excuse reioycing for that it cannot now appeare what may bee sufficient for health that so vnder the cloake of health it may disguise the matter of Epicurisme 3. These enticements doe I endeauour to resist dayly yea I call thy right hand to help me and to thee doe I referre my perplexities for that I am resolued of no counsell as yet whereby to effect it I heare the voyce of my God commanding Let not your hearts bee ouercharged with surfeting and drunkennesse As for drunkennesse I am farre enough from it and thou wilt haue mercy vpon mee that it may neuer come neere mee But full-feeding hath many a time stolne vpon thy seruant but thou wilt haue mercy vpon mee that it may hereafter bee put farre from mee for no man can bee temperate vnlesse thou giue it Many things thou vouchsafest vnto vs which wee pray for and what good thing soeuer wee haue receiued before wee pray from thee haue we receiued it yea to this end haue wee already receiued it that wee might acknowledge so much afterwards Drunkard was I neuer but I haue knowne many a drunkard made a sober man by thee Thy doing therefore it is that such should bee kept from being drunkards hereafter who haue not beene that way faulty heeretofore as from thee it also comes that those should not continue faulty for euer who haue beene giuen to that vice heretofore yea from thee it likewise proceedes that both these parties should take notice from whom all this proceeded 4. I heard also another voyce of thine Goe not after thine owne lusts and from thine owne pleasures turne away thy face Yea by thy fauour haue I heard this saying likewise which I haue much delighted in Neyther if wee eate are wee the better neyther if wee eate not are we the worse which is to say that neythes shall this thing makes me rich nor that miserable Also another voyce of thine haue I heard For I haue learned in whatsoeuer state I am therewith to be content and I know how to abound and how to suffer neede I can doe all things through Christ that
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
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
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
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
were catled fideles faithful â— symbolo fidei fideles nominantur Ier. 51. 6. Psal 73. 7. Catiline He aliudes to Ionas flight and Gourd Rom. 6 21. Psal 19. 12 Mat. 25. 21. He alludes to the Prodigall childe Luk. 15. 13. He alludes to the Sea of Sodome which is said to bubble out a pitchy slime into which other rivers running are there lost in it And like the lake it self rename unmoveable wherefore 't is called the dead Sea * EVERâ—ORES OVERTVRNERS or VNDOERS These for their boldnesse were like our Roâ—ers and for their itering like the worser sort of those that would be cald The wits Col. 2. 8. * He meanes Ciceroes Hortensius * These were frequent with the Manichees * He alludes to the Manichees Philosophicall Theologie Iam. 1. 17. * Here the Popish Translator patches two sentenses into one losing halfe the force of the Fathers Argument * Nee in summis ruis conditionibus abes Here be hath missed the whole sense turning it And when thou wilt thou canst make nobler than they meaning than the Angels as his margine intimates Iudge Reader Saint Augustine alludes to Act. 17. 27. as may he seene by his following it * Another cobble of the old Translator which he turnes Though with husks I was entertaining my brutish appetite * The Manichees fooleries hee alludes unto * Another mistake Advera elementa transfero I can apply to a true sense saith he So can not I his translation * Compare Prev 7. 10. with Prov. 9. 13 17. ver and you have the meaning * Cui effe moles effet Heb. 11. * Here the old translator bewrayes ignorance enough Thus he renders it Or as when publike justice should command the shops to be shut after noon upon some certaine day one should chafe for not being suffered to sell his wares although the next day he might lawfully doe it Let me helpe him In Romanes had 3. sorts of dayes 1. Festos or Ferias whole holydayes 2. Professos whole working dayes 〈◊〉 Intercisâ—â— halfe holydayes In this lost sort the courts Iustice and shops having beene open the forenoone usu some sudden accident suppose the death or funerall some great personage c. the Bedlâ— proclaim'd a 〈◊〉 on from working and pleading Vpon the same 〈◊〉 have we in our Vniversities a sudden Non Terâ—inus and ceasing of all disputations namely upon the deathe some Master of Arts or Doctor Deut. 6. Mat. 22. * See 1 Ioh. 2. 1. * Psal 33. 2. Acts 9. 5. He alludes in this Chapter to the folly of the Manichees a He alludes bere to that devout manner of the Eastern Ancients who used to lye flat on their faces in prayer b Here the old Translator is mistaken falsly construing the word Crederet c Her vision d In quadam Tegula Lignea and not in regula Linea or Lignea as the printed Coppies read it This Tegula signifies an upper roome next the tiles But in those hot Affricane Countries they used to be much upon the Roâ—fes of their houses which therefore were commanded to be battlemented lest any should fall from thence Deut. 22. 8. so â—e such upper roome gallery or pergula it is likest to have beene a Iust thus doe the Puritanes of our dayes some champions they have that are stil scribling and others bragging in their conventicles how able they are to confute the Adversary but in private houses they pretend sanctity and long Prayers and stillseeme zealous against the pretended imperfections of the Church times and governors temporall and spirituall b It was the old fashion to humme and give low plauditees with the band to their Orators and Preachers as may be seene in Saint Basile and Saint Chrysostome c It was the Roman custome to rebearse upon the stage or in publike their owne composures which they cald Reponere before they set forth copies of them which when they did they were said Edere Thus edere spectaculum edere librum Semper ego auditor tantum nunquamne reponam Pers * He derides at this wicked Sacrament of the Manichees in which they thought to imitate the receiving and benefit of the Lords Supper Here had they a chosen meat consecrated by their elect and they hoped by it to bee purged and as it were united to God * Oh that those Lawyers would learne this who thinke they may undoe any mans life cause or reputation so it be for their Clyent say or unsay any thing for their Clyent * I read it Nodum â—nd not Modum * He alludes to the Manichees errours who thought God and the Angels to be but glorious bodies Hos 12. 1. The old Translator is often mistaken in this Chapter Psal 41. 4. Iob. 5. 14. Rom. 2. 6. Psal 51. 17. * This was part of the Proconsuls Office in the Romane Provinces to be Iudge at these kinde of Exercises and in these lesser Cities so serve from Rome a meane man might bee Proconsul The old Translator turnes Proconsul In place of the Consul ignorantly * I am 4. 6. Rom. 5. 5. Psal 94. 1. * The wonderfull effect of the Sacrament of Baptisme * Ararâ— conceipt * The old Translator confounds these two sentences This conceipt Saint Augustine Retracted afterwards Retract lib. 2. cap. 6. * Conscissam cruentatam not cruentam animam * This passage hath the old Translator rendred very mannerly and I have followed him * Conflare facere Here the Infinitive Mood is put for the Praeter imperfect tense plurall Hee illudes to â—he running or melting of glasse or metals together Ioh. 17. 17 * O most dainty comparison and expression Quonâ—aâ—aâ—â—mâ— ipsa esse vult This he translates for the soule desires to be Short of the sense * Ab initio debito usque ad finem debtum Esay 46. 8. Psal 19. 5. Iohn 1. 1 Tim. 1. 15 Psal 41. 4. * Of Faire and Fit Mat. 10. 29. 30. He alludes to the Manichees errors which had infected him The old Translator jumbles two sentences into one * He alludes to the Manichees foolish Philosophical Divinity which notwithstanding that the soâ—le and 〈◊〉 â—â—culties were created all at once and all good 〈…〉 by the Fall yet they made the Soule onely to be good from which vertue came which they called vnity 〈◊〉 that the soule was but one but the powers of the soule they having an eye onely to the Fall and not to the Creation made to be absolutely and originally Evill and â—â— causes of all Evill Such were those two power of 〈◊〉 Sensitive Appetite the Concupiscible theâ—â—cible â—â—cible of which they made their Duality or Division whereof nature intended the first the Concupiscible or Longing appetite for the conservation of the 〈◊〉 and the pleasant or well being of it and the 〈◊〉 or angry appetite for the defence of the Concupiscible by which we are angry at and resist whatsoever 〈◊〉 our wellbeing The use of both together is to 〈◊〉 good and
In Geneva I hope the Minister hath more authority than in England a Romae assidebat Comiti largitionuÌ„ ItalicaruÌ„ The Lord high Treasurer of the Westerne Empire was called Comes sacrarum laâ—gitionum he had sâ—xe other Treasurers in so many Provinces under him whereof he of Italy was one Vnder whom this Alipius had sâ—me Office of Iudicature ourâ—aions â—aions of the Exchequer See Sir Henry 〈◊〉 Glossary in the word 〈◊〉 And 〈…〉 l. 5. c. 40. The other Translator 〈◊〉 Assessor to the Prefect of the Contributioner of Italy Ill. Luk. 16. 10 11. 12. Psal 145. 15. * Here 's an obiection of flesh and blood against the motions of Gods Spirit * Another Obiection of flesh and blood * Why then doe the Papists inforce so many young Maids and men to vow as if it were in their own power And why suffer they those to keepe the habite and place of Chastity when as their Visitor knowes they have broken the Vow of Chastity * Mat. 19. 11. * Promeruissent Deum Which the Popish Translator turnes And were gratefull unto God Very well gratefull that is acceptable Seeing then promerita is but acceptablenesse why should merita the single word have so sawcie a signification in Popish doctrine as merits Let them mince the matter with Logike how they can by their distinction of condignity and congruity of merits sure they are gone by the Lawes of Grammar which admits no such signification of promereo or of merita unlesse perchance our Dictionaries have the word Merits not in the genuine signification but to learne us to understand what the Papists meane by it * See what we have before noted pag. 36. in the margent * Quem tunc graves aestus negotioruÌ„ suorum ad ComitatuÌ„ attraxerant This the former Translator turnes That place of our residence The man had ill lucke to misse at every hard place He helpe him Comitatus was like the place where our Termes be kept the Imperiall Chamber at Spires in Germany may rightly be called Comitatus The Emperours appointed it in any good Towne where they pleased though themselves were not there and at this time for these parts it was at Millan So plainely sayes Possidonius in the life of Saint Augustine Comitatus is the place whither subiects repaire for the dispateh of such businesse as depends upon the Kings Courts of Iustice London is our Comitatus the Kings Chamber for the South Yorke for the North. This word is familiar to the Civill Lawyers See the eighth and ninth Canons of the Councell of Sardica Mat. 7. 13. Psal 33. 11 Psal 145. * A Vow of Chastity sayes the Popish TraÌ„slator and a goodly one too How many such Nuns hath the Church of Rome that then vow chastity wheÌ„ they are satisfied with lust But well it were they had no worse Nunnes than such as vow upon remorse of conscience as this whoore did But this was a private Vow yet which God knowes how long she kept and no formall Nunnery Vow she carried not her portion into the Nunnery with her Money is of the substance of the Nunnes Vow now-a dayes Chastity is but a formality She vowes not to know a man but her money does not so the Friers may know that The Primitives admitted no Nunnes but pure Virgins and if ever it could be proved she had plaid false before her Admission she was canonically to be put out of the House Any crackt Chamber-maid will make as good a Nunne as the best now-a daies Could Nunnes keepe their Vow I would never speake against their Order * Et tractus meritorum This the Popish Translator turnes And that which Merits do import Meere non sense And notes in his margent Merits As if the place made for Popish merits Doughtily proved as if Augustine who was yet no Divine knew any thing of the Doctrine of Merits Hee taâ—kâ— before of the last Iudgement and here he talkes of the places of punishment or reward which Epicurus Philosophy knew nothing of If he pleases to looke his Dicticnary he shall finde Tractus to signifie a Region or Countrey He alludes to other Philosophers beleeving of the severall Regions of Hell and Elysium which were both under the earth but distinguisht into severall Quarters or Regions Tractus is the Accusative case plurall a This Philosophical word the former Translator turnes This Action of my minde Short of the sense Saint Augustine alludes to that in Philosophy That all naturall bodies to make theÌ„selves perceived by the sense doe send and beame out from them some figure Image c. by which the sense may appâ—hend them which figure or shape striking upon the sense provokes it and so makes it take actuall notice of us proper object And this spirituall figure representing a reall object which these bodies send out doe the Philosophers call their Intention So that Austens 〈◊〉 fancying the like Images he cals it the intention of his minds a The other Tranlator renders it thus And that this helpe must bee the Soule which thy Word being free might succour Succour a helpe A meere Bull and Non-sense which utterly loses the force and meaning of the Argument a Here flyes my Popish Translator out upon Mr. Calvine for teaching Gods Decree and purpose by with-holding of his Grace to be the Causes of Sinne and Damnation Verily Mr. Calvine is wronged that way But this being an Arminian Controversie I had rather obey His Majesties two Proclamations and one Declaration than to be so soole-hardy as to meddle with it I am neither Calvinist nor Arminian I am of the Religion of the Primitive Fathers which the Church of England professes b Here the Popish Translator commits a most negligent and grosse mistake as if the soule of man had of a pure Angell turn'd to a Divell Saint Augustine speakes not of the Soules turning Divell but of him that was once created a good Angell a Here the Popish Translater grossely playes the Papist purposely wresting the sense thus Yet did the beliefe of the Catholike Church concerning thy Christ sticke fast in me As if Saint Augustine had held this Popish implicite faith To beleeve as the Church beleeves had beene enough There is much difference betwixt a mans cleere and explicite knowledge of what he beleeves in Christ and a blinde implicite beliefe as the Church beleeves when he knowes not what the Church beleeves a See the 3. Chap. of the 4. Booke a Scripturis quas Ecclesiae commendaret autoritas Where Ecclesiae may be the dative Case and then may it goe thus Which Scriptures thy authority recommended unto the Church as before hee said lib. 6. cap. 5. See the place Here the Popish Translator would needes give Authority to the Church to teach us what is Scripture For that controversie see our Preface Iob 15. 26. I am 4. 6. a This was likely to be the Booke of Amelius the Platonist who hath indeed this beginning of S. Iohns Gospell