(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)
Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing initially
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi =
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute =
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe,
when necessary.
ST. AUGUSTINE
CONCERNING THE NATURE OF GOOD, AGAINST THE MANICHAEANS.
[DE NATURA BONI CONTRA MANICHAEOS.]
[Translated by Albert H. Newman, D.D., L.L.D., Professor of Church History
and Comparative Religion, in Toronto Baptist (Theological) Seminary,
Toronto, Canada.]
CHAP. 1.--GOD THE HIGHEST AND UNCHANGEABLE GOOD, FROM WHOM ARE ALL OTHER
GOOD THINGS, SPIRITUAL AND CORPOREAL.
THE highest good, than which there is no higher, is God, and
consequently He is unchangeable good, hence truly eternal and truly
immortal. All other good things are only from Him, not of Him. For what is
of Him, is Himself. And consequently if He alone is unchangeable, all
things that He has made, because He has made them out of nothing, are
changeable. For He is so omnipotent, that even out of nothing, that is out
of what is absolutely non-existent, He is able to make good things both
great and small, both celestial and terrestrial, both spiritual and
corporeal. But because He is also just, He has not put those things that He
has made out of nothing on an equality with that which He begat out of
Himself. Because, therefore, no good things whether great or small, through
whatever gradations of things, can exist except from God; but since every
nature, so far as it is nature, is good, it follows that no nature can
exist save from the most high and true God: because all things even not in
the highest degree good, but related to the highest good, and again,
because all good things, even those of most recent origin, which are far
from the highest good, can have their existence only from the highest good.
Therefore every spirit, though subject to change, and every corporeal
entity, is from God, and all this, having been made, is nature. For every
nature is either spirit or body. Unchangeable spirit is God, changeable
spirit, having been made, is nature, but is better than body; but body is
not spirit, unless when the wind, because it is invisible to us and yet its
power is felt as something not inconsiderable, is in a certain sense called
spirit.
CHAP. 2.--HOW THIS MAY SUFFICE FOR CORRECTING THE MANICHAEANS.
But for the sake of those who, not being able to understand that all
nature, that is, every spirit and every body, is naturally good, are moved
by the iniquity of spirit and the mortality of body, and on this account
endeavor to bring in another nature of wicked spirit and mortal body, which
God did not make, we determine thus to bring to their understanding what we
say can be brought. For they acknowledge that no good thing can exist save
from the highest and true God, which also is true and suffices for
correcting them, if they are willing to give heed.
CHAP. 3.--MEASURE, FORM, AND ORDER, GENERIC GOODS IN THINGS MADE BY GOD.
For we Catholic Christians worship God, from whom are all good things
whether great or small; from whom is all measure great or small; from whom
is all form great or small; from whom is all order great or small. For all
things in proportion as they are better measured, formed, and ordered, are
assuredly good in a higher degree; but in proportion as they are measured,
formed, and ordered in an inferior degree, are they the less good. These
three things, therefore, measure, form, and order,--not to speak of
innumerable other things that are shown to pertain to these three,--these
three things, therefore, measure, form, order, are as it were generic goods
in things made by God, whether in spirit or in body. God is, therefore,
above every measure of the creature, above every form, above every order,
nor is He above by local spaces, but by ineffable and singular potency,
from whom is every measure, every form, every order. These three things,
where they are great, are great goods, where they are small, are small
goods; where they are absent, there is no good. And again where these
things are great, there are great natures, where they are small, there are
small natures, where they are absent, there is no nature. Therefore all
nature is good.
CHAP. 4.--EVIL IS CORRUPTION OF MEASURE, FORM, OR ORDER,
When accordingly it is inquired, whence is evil, it must first be
inquired, what is evil, which is nothing else than corruption, either of
the measure, or the form, or the order, that belong to nature. Nature
therefore which has been corrupted, is called evil, for assuredly when
incorrupt it is good; but even when corrupt, so far as it is nature it is
good, so far as it is corrupted it is evil.
CHAP. 5.--THE CORRUPTED NATURE OF A MORE EXCELLENT ORDER SOMETIMES BETTER
THAN AN INFERIOR NATURE EVEN UNCORRUPTED.
But it may happen, that a certain nature which has been ranked as more
excellent by reason of natural measure and form, though corrupt, is even
yet better than another incorrupt which has been ranked lower by reason of
an inferior natural measure and form: as in the estimation of men,
according to the quality which presents itself to view, corrupt gold is
assuredly better than incorrupt silver, and corrupt silver than incorrupt
lead; so also in more powerful spiritual natures a rational spirit even
corrupted through an evil will is better than an irrational though
incorrupt, and better is any spirit whatever even corrupt than any body
whatever though incorrupt. For better is a nature which, when it is present
in a body, furnishes it with life, than that to which life is furnished.
But however corrupt may be the spirit of life that has been made, it can
furnish life to a body, and hence, though corrupt, it is better than the
body though incorrupt.
CHAP. 6.--NATURE WHICH CANNOT BE CORRUPTED IS THE HIGHEST GOOD; THAT WHICH
CAN, IS SOME GOOD.
But if corruption take away all measure, all form, all order from
corruptible things, no nature will remain. And consequently every nature
which cannot be corrupted is the highest good, as is God. But every nature
that can be corrupted is also itself some good; for corruption cannot
injure it, except by taking away from or diminishing that which is good.
CHAP. 7.--THE CORRUPTION OF RATIONAL SPIRITS IS ON THE ONE HAND VOLUNTARY,
ON THE OTHER PENAL.
But to the most excellent creatures, that is, to rational spirits, God
has offered this, that if they will not they cannot be corrupted; that is,
if they should maintain obedience under the Lord their God, so should they
adhere to his incorruptible beauty; but if they do not will to maintain
obedience, since willingly they are corrupted in sins, unwillingly they
shall be corrupted in punishment, since God is such a good that it is well
for no one who deserts Him, and among the things made by God the rational
nature is so great a good, that there is no good by which it may be blessed
except God. Sinners, therefore, are ordained to punishment; which
ordination is punishment for the reason that it is not conformable to their
nature, but it is justice because it is conformable to their fault.
CHAP.8.--FROM THE CORRUPTION AND DESTRUCTION OF INFERIOR THINGS IS THE
BEAUTY OF THE UNIVERSE.
But the rest of things that are made of nothing, which are assuredly
inferior to the rational soul, can be neither blessed nor miserable. But
because in proportion to their fashion and appearance are things themselves
good, nor could there be good things in a less or the least degree except
from God, they are so ordered that the more infirm yield to the firmer, the
weaker to the stronger, the more impotent to the more powerful; and so
earthly things harmonize with celestial, as being subject to the things
that are pre-eminent. But to things falling away, and succeeding, a certain
temporal beauty in its kind belongs, so that neither those things that die,
or cease to be what they were, degrade or disturb the fashion and
appearance and order of the universal creation; as a speech well composed
is assuredly beautiful, although in. it syllables and all sounds rush past
as it were in being born and in dying.
CHAP. 9.--PUNISHMENT IS CONSTITUTED FOR THE SINNING NATURE THAT IT MAY BE
RIGHTLY ORDERED.
What sort of punishment, and how great, is due to each fault, belongs
to Divine judgment, not to human; which punishment assuredly when it is
remitted in the case of the converted, there is great goodness on the part
of God, and when it is deservedly inflicted, there is no injustice on the
part of God; because nature is better ordered by justly smarting under
punishment than by rejoicing with impunity in sin; which nature
nevertheless, even thus having some measure, form, and order, in whatever
extremity there is as yet some good, which things, if they were absolutely
taken away, and utterly consumed, there will be accordingly no good,
because no nature will remain.
CHAP. 10.--NATURES CORRUPTIBLE, BECAUSE MADE OF NOTHING.
All corruptible natures therefore are natures at all only so far as
they are from God, nor would they be 'corruptible if' they were of Him;
because they would be what He himself is. Therefore of whatever measure, of
whatever form, of whatever order, they are, they are so because it is God
by whom they were made; but they are not immutable, because it is nothing
of which they were made. For it is sacrilegious audacity to make nothing
and God equal, as when we wish to make what has been born of God such as
what has been made by Him out of nothing.
CHAP. 11.--GOD CANNOT SUFFER HARM, NOR CAN ANY OTHER NATURE EXCEPT BY HIS
PERMISSION.
Wherefore neither can God's nature suffer harm, nor can any nature
under God suffer harm unjustly: for when by sinning unjustly some do harm,
an unjust will is imputed to them; but the power by which they are
permitted to do harm is from God alone, who knows, while they themselves
are ignorant, what they ought to suffer, whom He permits them to harm.
CHAP. 12.--ALL GOOD THINGS ARE FROM GOD ALONE.
All these things are so perspicuous, so assured, that if they who
introduce another nature which God did not make, were willing to give
attention, they would not be filled with so great blasphemies, as that they
should place so great good things in supreme evil, and so great evil things
in God. For what the truth compels them to acknowledge, namely, that all
good things are from God alone, suffices for their correction, if they were
willing to give heed, as I said above. Not, therefore, are great good
things from one, and small good things from another; but good things great
and small are from the supremely good alone, which is God.
CHAP. 13.--INDIVIDUAL GOOD THINGS, WHETHER SMALL OR GREAT, ARE FROM GOD.
Let us, therefore, bring before our minds good things however great,
which it is fitting that we attribute to God as their author, and these
having been eliminated let us see whether any nature will remain. All life
both great and small, all power great and small, all safety great and
small, all memory great and small, all virtue great and small, all
intellect great and small, all tranquillity great and small, all plenty
great and small, all sensation great and small, all light great and small,
all suavity(1) great and small, all measure great and small, all beauty
great and small, all peace great and small, and whatever other like things
may occur, especially such as are found throughout all things, whether
spiritual or corporeal, every measure, every form, every order both great
and small, are from the Lord God. All which good things whoever should wish
to abuse, pays the penalty by divine judgment; but where none of these
things shall have been present at all, no nature will remain.
CHAP. 14.--SMALL GOOD THINGS IN COMPARISON WITH GREATER ARE CALLED BY
CONTRARY NAMES.
But in all these things, whatever are small are called by contrary
names in comparison with greater things; as in the form of a man because
the beauty is greater, the beauty of the ape in comparison with it is
called deformity. And the imprudent are deceived, as if the former is good,
and the latter evil, nor do they regard in the body of the ape its own
fashion, the equality of members on both sides, the agreement of parts, the
protection of safety, and other things which it would be tedious to
enumerate.
CHAP. 15.--IN THE BODY OF THE APE THE GOOD OF BEAUTY IS PRESENT, THOUGH IN
A LESS DEGREE.
But that what we have said may be understood, and may satisfy those too
slow of comprehension, or that even the pertinacious and those repugnant to
the most manifest truth may be compelled to confess what is true, let them
be asked, whether corruption can harm the body of an ape? But if it can, so
that it may become more hideous, what diminishes but the good of beauty?
Whence as long as the nature of the body subsists, so long something will
remain. If, accordingly, good having been consumed, nature is consumed, the
nature is therefore good. So also we say that slow is contrary to swift,
but yet he who does not move at all cannot even be called slow. So we say
that a heavy voice is contrary to a sharp voice, or a harsh to a musical;
but if you completely remove any kind of voice, there is silence where
there is no voice, which silence, nevertheless, for the simple reason that
there is no voice, is usually opposed to voice as something contrary
thereto. So also lucid and obscure are called as it were two contrary
things, yet even obscure things have something of light, which being
absolutely wanting, darkness is the absence of light in the same way in
which silence is the absence of voice.
CHAP. 16.--PRIVATIONS IN THINGS ARE FIT-TINGLY ORDERED BY GOD.
Yet even these privations of things are so ordered in the universe of
nature, that to those wisely considering they not unfittingly have their
vicissitudes. For by not illuminating certain places and times, God has
also made the darkness as fittingly as the day. For if we by restraining
the voice fittingly interpose silence in speaking, how much more does He,
as the perfect framer of all things, fittingly make privations of things?
Whence also in the hymn of the three children, light and darkness alike
praise God,(1) that is, bring forth praise in the hearts of those who well
consider.
CHAP. 17.--NATURE, IN AS FAR AS IT IS NATURE, NO EVIL.
No nature, therefore, as far as it is nature, is evil; but to each
nature there is no evil except to be diminished in respect of good. But if
by being diminished it should be consumed so that there is no good, no
nature would be left; not only such as the Manichaeans introduce, where so
great good things are found that their exceeding blindness is wonderful,
but such as any one can introduce.
CHAP. 18.--HYLE, WHICH WAS CALLED BY THE ANCIENTS THE FORMLESS MATERIAL OF
THINGS, IS NOT AN EVIL.
For neither is that material, which the ancients called Hyle, to be
called an evil. I do not say that which Manichaeus with most senseless
vanity, not knowing what he says, denominates Hyle, namely, the former of
corporeal beings; whence it is rightly said to him, that he introduces
another god. For nobody can form and create corporeal beings but God
alone; for neither are they created unless there subsist with them measure,
form, and order, which I think that now even they themselves confess to be
good things, and things that cannot be except from God. But by Hyle I mean
a certain material absolutely formless and without quality, whence those
qualities that we perceive are formed, as the ancients said. For hence also
wood is called in Greek hu'lh, because it is adapted to workmen, not that
itself may make anything, but that it is the material of which something
may be made. Nor is that Hyle, therefore, to be called an evil which cannot
be perceived through any appearance, but can scarcely be thought of
through any sort of privation of appearance. For this has also a capacity
of forms; for if it cannot receive the form imposed by the workman,
neither assuredly may it be called material. Hence if form is some good,
whence those who excel in it are called beautiful,(2) as from appearance
they are called handsome,(3) even the capacity of form is undoubtedly
something good. As because wisdom is a good, no one doubts that to be
capable of wisdom is a good. And because every good is from God, no one
ought to doubt that even matter, if there is any, has its existence from
God alone.
CHAP. 19.--TO HAVE TRUE EXISTENCE IS AN EXCLUSIVE PREROGATIVE OF GOD.
Magnificently and divinely, therefore, our God said to his servant: "I
am that I am," and "Thou shalt say to the children of Israel. He who is
sent me to you."(1) For He truly is because He is unchangeable. For every
change makes what was not, to be: therefore He truly is, who is
unchangeable; but all other things that were made by Him have received
being form Him each in its own measure. To Him who is highest, therefore
nothing can be contrary, save what is not; and consequently as from Him
everything that is good has its being, so from Him is everything that by
nature exists; since everything that exists by nature is good. Thus every
nature is good, and everything good is from God; therefore every nature is
from God.
CHAP. 20.--PAIN ONLY IN GOOD NATURES.
But pain which some suppose to be in an especial manner an evil,
whether it be in mind or in body, cannot exist except in good natures. For
the very fact of resistance in any being leading to pain, involves a
refusal not to be what it was, because it was something good; but when a
being is compelled to something better, the pain is useful, when to
something worse, it is useless. Therefore in the case of the mind, the will
resisting a greater power causes pain; in the case of the body, sensation
resisting a more powerful body causes pain. But evils without pain are
worse: for it is worse to rejoice iniquity than to bewail corruption; yet
even such rejoicing cannot exist save from the attainment of inferior good
things. But iniquity is the desertion of better things. Likewise in a body,
a wound with pain is better than painless putrescence, which is especially
called the corruption which the dead flesh of the Lord did not see, that
is, did not suffer, as was predicted in prophecy: "Thou shall not suffer
Thy Holy one to see corruption."(2) For who denies that He was wounded by
the piercing of the nails, and that He was stabbed with the lance?(3) But
even what is properly called by men corporeal corruption, that is,
putrescence itself, if as yet there is anything left to consume, increases
by the diminution of the good. But if corruption shall have absolutely
consumed it, so that there is no good, no nature will remain, for there
will be nothing that corruption may corrupt; and so there will not even be
putrescence, for there will be nowhere at all for it to be.
CHAP. 21.--FROM MEASURE THINGS ARE SAID TO BE MODERATE-SIZED.(4)
Therefore now by common usage things small and mean are said to have
measure, because some measure remains in them, without which they would no
longer be moderate-sized, but would not exist at all. But those things that
by reason of too much progress are called immoderate, are blamed for very
excessiveness; but yet it is necessary that those things themselves be
restrained in some manner under God who has disposed all things in
extension, number, and weight.(5)
CHAP. 22.--MEASURE IN SOME SENSE IS SUITABLE TO GOD HIMSELF.
But God cannot be said to have measure, lest He should seem to be
spoken of as limited. Yet He is not immoderate by whom measure is bestowed
upon all things, so that they may in any measure exist. Nor again ought God
to be called measured, as if He received measure from any one. But if we
say that He is the highest measure, by chance we say something; if indeed
in speaking of the highest measure we mean the highest good. For every
measure in so far as it is a measure is good; whence nothing can be called
measured, modest, modified, without praise, although in another sense we
use measure for limit, and speak of no measure where there is no limit,
which is sometimes said with praise as when it is said: "And of His kingdom
there shall be no limit."(6) For it might also be said, "There shall be no
measure," so that measure might be used in the sense of limit; for He who
reigns in no measure, assuredly does not reign at all.
CHAP. 23.--WHENCE A BAD MEASURE, A BAD FORM, A BAD ORDER MAY SOMETIMES BE
SPOKEN OF.
Therefore a bad measure, a bad form, a bad order, are either so called
because they are less than they should be, or because they are not adapted
to those things to which they should be adapted; so that they may be called
bad as being alien and incongruous; as if any one should be said not to
have done in a good measure because he has done less than he ought, or
because he has done in such a thing as he ought not to have done, or more
than was fitting, or not conveniently; so that the very fact of that being
reprehended which is done in a bad measure, is justly reprehended for no
other cause than that the measure is not there maintained. Likewise a form
is called bad either in comparison with something more handsome or more
beautiful, this form being less, that greater, not in size but in
comeliness; or because it is out of harmony with the thing to which it is
applied, so that it seems alien and unsuitable. As if a man should walk
forth into a public place naked, which nakedness does not offend if seen in
a bath. Likewise also order is called bad when order itself is maintained
in an inferior degree. Hence not order, but rather disorder, is bad; since
either the ordering is less than it should be, or not as it should be. Yet
where there is any measure, any form, any order, there is some good and
some nature; but where there is no measure, no form, no order, there is no
good, no nature.
CHAP. 24.--IT IS PROVED BY THE TESTIMONIES OF SCRIPTURE THAT GOD IS
UNCHANGEABLE. THE SON OF GOD BEGOTTEN, NOT MADE.
Those things which our faith holds and which reason in whatever way has
traced out, are fortified by the testimonies of the divine Scriptures, so
that those who by reason of feebler intellect are not able to comprehend
these things, may believe the divine authority, and so may deserve to know.
But let not those who understand, but are less instructed in ecclesiastical
literature, suppose that we set forth these things from our own intellect
rather than what are in those Books. Accordingly, that God is unchangeable
is written in the Psalms: "Thou shalt change them and they shall be
changed; but Thou thyself art the same."(1) And in the book of Wisdom,
concerning wisdom: "Remaining in herself, she renews all things."(2) Whence
also the Apostle Paul: "To the invisible, incorruptible, only God."(3) And
the Apostle James: "Every best giving and every perfect gift is from above,
descending from the Father of light, with whom there is no changeableness,
neither obscuring of influence."(4) Likewise because what He begat of
Himself is what He Himself is, it is said in brief by the Son Himself: "I
and the Father are one."(5) But because the Son was not made, since through
Him were all things made, thus it is written "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word; this was in the
beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was
made nothing;"(6) that is, without Him was not anything made.
CHAP. 25.--THIS LAST EXPRESSION MISUNDERSTOOD BY SOME.
For no attention should be paid to the ravings of men who think that
nothing should be understood to mean something, and moreover think to
compel any one to vanity of this kind on the ground that nothing is placed
at the end of the sentence. Therefore, they say, it was made, and because
it was made, nothing is itself something. They have lost their senses by
zeal in contradicting, and do not understand that it makes no difference
whether it be said: "Without Him was made nothing," or "without Him nothing
was made." For even if the order were the last mentioned, they could
nevertheless say, that nothing is itself something because it was made. For
in the case of what is in truth something, what difference does it make if
it be said "Without him a house was made," so long as it is understood that
something was made without him, which something is a house? So also because
it is said: "Without Him was made nothing," since nothing is assuredly not
anything, when it is truly and properly spoken, it makes no difference
whether it be said: "Without Him was made nothing or Without Him nothing
was made," or "nothing was made." But who cares to speak with men who can
say of this very expression of mine "It makes no difference," "Therefore it
makes some difference, for nothing itself is something?" But those whose
brains are not addled, see it as a thing most manifest that this something
is to be understood when it says "It makes no difference," as when I say
"It matters in no respect." But these, if they should say to any one, "What
hast thou done?" and he should reply that he has done nothing, would,
according to this mode of disputation, falsely accuse him saying, "Thou
hast done something, therefore, because thou hast done nothing; for nothing
is itself something." But they have also the Lord Himself placing this word
at the end of a sentence, when He says: "And in secret have I spoken
nothing."(7) Let them read, therefore, and be silent.(8)
CHAP. 26.--THAT CREATURES ARE MADE OF NOTHING.
Because therefore God made all things which He did not beget of
Himself, not of those things that already existed, but of those things that
did not exist at all, that is, of nothing," the Apostle Paul says: "Who
calls the things that are not as if they are."(9) But still more plainly it
is written in the book of Maccabees: "I pray thee, son, look at the heaven
and the earth and all the things that are in them; see and know that it was
not these of which the Lord God made us."(1) And from this that is written
in the Psalm: "He spake, and they were made."(2) It is manifest. that not
of Himself He begat these things, but that He made them by word and
command. But what is not of Himself is assuredly of nothing. For there was
not anything of which he should make them, concerning which the apostle
says most openly: "For from Him, and through Him, and in Him are all
things."(3)
CHAP. 27.--"FROM HIM" AND "OF HIM" DO NOT MEAN THE SAME THING.
But "from Him" does not mean the same as "of Him."(4) For what is of
Him may be said to be from Him; but not everything that is from Him is
rightly said to be of Him. For from Him are heaven and earth, because He
made them; but not of Him because they are not of His substance. As in the
case of a man who begets a son and makes a house, from himself is the son,
from himself is the house, but the son is of him, the house is of earth and
wood. But this is so, because as a man he cannot make something even of
nothing; but God of whom are all things, through whom are all things, in
whom are all things, had no need of any material which He had not made to
assist His omnipotence.
CHAP. 28.--SIN NOT FROM GOD, BUT FROM THE WILL OF THOSE SINNING.
But when we hear: "All things are from Him, and through Him, and in
Him," we ought assuredly to understand all natures which naturally exist.
For sins, which do not preserve but vitiate nature, are not from Him; which
sins, Holy Scripture in many ways testifies, are from the will of those
sinning, especially in the passage where the apostle says: "But dost thou
suppose this, O man, that judgest those who do such things, and doest them,
that thou shall escape the judgment of God? Or dost thou despise the riches
of His goodness, and patience, and long-suffering, not knowing that the
patience of God leadeth thee to repentance? But according to the hardness
of thy heart and thy impenitent heart, thou treasurest up for thyself wrath
against the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God,
who will render unto every one according to his works."(5)
CHAP. 29.--THAT GOD IS NOT DEFILED BY OUR SINS.
And yet, though all things that He established are in Him, those who
sin do not defile Him, of whose wisdom it is said: "She touches all things
by reason of her purity, and nothing defiled assails her."(6) For it
behooves us to believe that as God is incorruptible and unchangeable, so
also is He consequently undefilable.
CHAP. 30.--THAT GOOD THINGS, EVEN THE LEAST, AND THOSE THAT ARE EARTHLY,
ARE BY GOD.
But that God made even the least things, that is, earthly and mortal
things, must undoubtedly be understood from that passage of the apostle,
where, speaking of the members of our flesh: "For if one member is
glorified, all the members rejoice with it, and if one member suffers, all
the members suffer with it;" also this he then says: "God has placed the
members each one of them in the body as he willed;" and "God has tempered
the body, giving to that to which it was wanting greater honor, that there
should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same
care one for another."(7) But what the apostle thus praises in the measure
and form and order of the members of the flesh, you find in the flesh of
all animals, alike the greatest and the least; for all flesh is among
earthly goods, and consequently is esteemed among the least.
CHAP. 31.--TO PUNISH AND TO FORGIVE SINS BELONG EQUALLY TO GOD.
Likewise because it belongs to divine judgment, not human, what sort of
punishment and how great is due to every. fault, it is thus written: "O the
height of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how
inscrutable are His judgments and his ways past finding out!"(8) Likewise
because by the goodness of God sins are forgiven to the converted, the very
fact that Christ was sent sufficiently shows, who not in His own nature as
God, but in our nature, which He assumed from a woman, died for us; which
goodness of God with reference to us, and which love of God, the apostle
thus sets forth: "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we
were yet sinners Christ died for us; much more now being justified in His
blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies
we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more being
reconciled we shall be saved in His life."(1) But because even when due
punishment is rendered to sinners, there is no unrighteousness on God's
part, he thus says: "What shall we say? Is God unrighteous who visiteth
with wrath?"(2) But in one place he has briefly admonished that goodness
and severity are alike from Him, saying: "Thou scent then the goodness and
severity of God; toward them that have fallen, severity, but towards thee
goodness, if thou shouldst continue in goodness.(3)
CHAP. 32.--FROM GOD ALSO IS THE VERY POWER TO BE HURTFUL.
Likewise because the power even of those that are hurtful is from God
alone, thus it stands written, Wisdom speaking: "Through me kings reign and
tyrants hold the land through me."(4) The apostle also says: "For there is
no power but of God."(5) But that it is worthily done is written in the
book of Job: "Who maketh to reign a man that is a hypocrite. on account of
the perversity of the people."(6) And concerning the people of Israel God
says: "I gave them a king in my wrath."(7) For it is not unrighteous, that
the wicked receiving the power of being hurtful, both the patience of the
good should be proved and the iniquity of the evil punished. For through
power given to the Devil both Job was proved so that he might appear
righteous,(8) and Peter was tempted lest he should be presumptuous,(9) and
Paul was buffeted lest he should be exalted,(10) and Judas was damned so
that he should hang himself.(11) When, therefore, through the power which
He has given the Devil, God Himself shall have done all things righteously,
nevertheless punishment shall at last be rendered to the Devil not for
these things justly done, but for the unrighteous willing to be hurtful,
which belonged to himself, when it shall be said to the impious who
persevered in consenting to his wickedness, "Go ye into everlasting fire
which my God has prepared for the Devil and his angels."(12)
CHAP. 33.--THAT EVIL ANGELS HAVE BEEN MADE EVIL, NOT BY GOD, BUT BY
SINNING.
But because evil angels also were not constituted evil by God, but were
made evil by sinning, Peter in his epistle says: "For if God spared not
angels when they sinned, but casting them down into the dungeons of smoky
hell, He delivered them to be reserved for punishment in judgment."(13)
Hence Peter shows that there is still due to them the penalty of the last
judgment, concerning which the Lord says: "Go ye into everlasting fire,
which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels." Although they have
already penally received this hell, that is, an inferior smoky air as a
prison, which nevertheless since it is also called heaven, is not that
heaven in which there are stars, but this lower heaven by the smoke of
which the clouds are conglobulated, and where the birds fly; for both a
cloudy heaven is spoken of, and flying things are called heavenly. As when
the Apostle Paul calls those evil angels, against whom as enemies by living
piously we contend, "spiritual things of wickedness in heavenly
places."(14) That this may not be understood of the upper heavens, he
plainly says elsewhere: "According to the presence of the prince of this
air, who now worketh in the sons of disobedience."(15)
CHAP. 34.--THAT SIN IS NOT THE STRIVING FOR AN EVIL NATURE, BUT THE
DESERTION OF A BETTER.
Likewise because sin, or unrighteousness, is not the striving after
evil nature but the desertion of better, it is thus found written in the
Scriptures: "Every creature of God is good."(16) And accordingly every tree
also which God planted in Paradise is assuredly good. Man did not therefore
strive after an evil nature when he touched the forbidden tree; but by
deserting what was better, he committed an evil deed. Since the Creator is
better than any creature which He has made, His command should not have
been deserted, that the thing forbidden, however good, might be touched;
since the better having been deserted, the good of the creature was striven
for, which was touched contrary to the command of the Creator. God did not
plant an evil tree in Paradise; but He Himself was better who prohibited
its being touched.
CHAP. 35.--THE TREE WAS FORBIDDEN TO ADAM NOT BECAUSE IT WAS EVIL, BUT
BECAUSE IT WAS GOOD FOR MAN TO BE SUBJECT TO GOD.
For besides, He had made the prohibition, in order to show that the
nature of the rational soul ought not to be in its own power, but in
subjection to God, and that it guards the order of its salvation through
obedience, corrupting it through disobedience. Hence also He called the
tree, the touching of which He forbade, the tree "of the knowledge of good
and evil;"(1) because when man should have touched it in the face of the
prohibition, he would experience the penalty of sin, and so would know the
difference between the good of obedience, and the evil of disobedience.
CHAP. 36.--NO CREATURE OF GOD IS EVIL, BUT TO ABUSE A CREATURE OF GOD IS
EVIL.
For who is so foolish as to think a creature of God, especially one
planted in Paradise, blameworthy; when indeed not even thorns and thistles,
which the earth brought forth, according to the judiciary judgment of God,
for wearing out the sinner in labor, should be blamed? For even such herbs
have their measure and form and order, which whoever considers soberly will
find praiseworthy; but they are evil to that nature which ought thus to be
restrained as a recompense for sin. Therefore, as I have said, sin is not
the striving after an evil nature, but the desertion of a better, and so
the deed itself is evil, not the nature which the sinner uses amiss. For it
is evil to use amiss that which is good. Whence the apostle reproves
certain ones as condemned by divine judgment, "Who have worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator."(2) He does not reprove the
creature, which he who should do would act injuriously towards the Creator,
but those who, deserting the better, have used amiss the good.
CHAP. 37.--GOD MAKES GOOD USE OF THE EVIL DEEDS OF SINNERS.
Accordingly, if all natures should guard their own proper measure and
form and order, there would be no evil: but if any one should wish to
misuse these good things, not even thus does he vanquish the will of God,
who knows how to order righteously even the unrighteous; so that if they
themselves through the iniquity of their will should misuse His good
things, He through the righteousness of His power may use their evil deeds,
tightly ordaining to punishment those who have perversely ordained
themselves to sins.
CHAP 38.--ETERNAL FIRE TORTURING THE WICKED, NOT EVIL.
For neither is eternal fire itself, which is to torture the impious, an
evil nature, since it has its measure, its form and its order depraved by
no iniquity; but it is an evil torture for the damned, to whose sins it is
due. For neither is yonder light, because it tortures the blear-eyed, an
evil nature.
CHAP. 39.--FIRE IS CALLED ETERNAL, NOT AS GOD IS, BUT BECAUSE WITHOUT END.
But fire is eternal, not as God, is eternal, because, though without
end, yet it is not without beginning; but God is also without beginning.
Then, although it may be employed perpetually for the punishment of
sinners, yet it is mutable nature. But that is true eternity which is true
immortality, that is that highest immutability, which cannot be changed at
all. For it is one thing not to suffer change, when change is possible, and
another thing to be absolutely incapable of change. Therefore, just as man
is called good, yet not as God, of whom it was said, "There is none good
save God alone;"(3) and just as the soul is called immortal, yet not as
God, of whom it was said, "Who alone hath immortality;"(4) and just as a
man is called wise, yet not as God, of whom it was said, "To God the only
wise;"(5) so fire is called eternal, yet not as God, whose alone is
immortality itself and true eternity.
CHAP. 40.--NEITHER CAN GOD SUFFER HURT, NOR ANY OTHER, SAVE BY THE JUST
ORDINATION OF GOD.
Since these things are so, according to the Catholic faith, and
wholesome doctrine, and truth perspicuous to those of good understanding,
neither can any one hurt the nature of God, nor can the nature of God
unrighteously hurt any one, or suffer any one to do hurt with impunity.
"For he that doeth hurt shall receive," says the apostle, "according to the
hurt that he has done; and there is no accepting of persons with God."(6)
CHAP. 41.--HOW GREAT GOOD THINGS THE MANICHAEANS PUT IN THE NATURE OF EVIL,
AND HOW GREAT EVIL THINGS IN THE NATURE OF GOOD.
But if the Manichaeans were willing, without pernicious zeal for
defending their error, and with the fear of God, to think, they would not
most criminally blaspheme by supposing two natures, the one good, which
they call God, the other evil, which God did not make: so erring, so
delirious, nay so insane, are they that they do not see, that even in what
they call the nature of supreme evil they place so great good things: life,
power safety, memory, intellect, temperance, virtue, plenty, sense, light,
suavity, extensions, numbers, peace, measure, form, order; but in what they
call supreme good, so many evil things: death, sickness, forgetfulness,
foolishness, confusion, impotence, need, stolidity, blindness, pain,
unrighteousness, disgrace, war, intemperance, deformity, perversity. For
they say that the princes of darkness also have been alive in their own
nature, and in their own kingdom were safe, and remembered and understood.
For they say that the Prince of Darkness harangued in such a manner, that
neither could he have said such things, nor could he have been heard by
those by whom he was said to have been heard, without memory and
understanding; and to have had a temper suitable to his mind and body, and
to have ruled by virtue of power, and to have had abundance and
fruitfulness with respect; to his elements, and they are said to have
perceived themselves mutually and the light as near at hand, and to have
had eyes by which they could see the light afar off; which eyes assuredly
could not have seen the light without some light (whence also they are
rightly called light); and they are said to have enjoyed exceedingly the
sweetness of their pleasures, and to have been determined by measured
members and dwelling-places. But unless there had been some sort of beauty
there, they would not have loved their wives, nor would their bodies have
been steady by adaptation of parts; without which, those things could not
have been done there which the Manichaeans insanely say were done. And
unless some peace had been there, they would not have obeyed their Prince.
Unless measure had been there, they would have done nothing else than eat
or drink, or rage, or whatever they might have done, without any society:
although not even those that did these things would have had determinate
forms, unless measure had been there. But now the Manichaeans say that they
did such things that they cannot be denied to have had in all their actions
measures suitable to themselves. But if form had not been there, no natural
quality would have there subsisted. But if there had been no order there,
some would not have ruled, others been ruled; they would not have lived
harmoniously in their element; in fine, they would not have that the
Manichaeans vainly fable. But if they say that God's nature does not die,
what according to their vanity does Christ raise from the dead? If they say
that it does not grow sick, what does He cure? If they say that it is not
subject to forgetfulness, what does He remind? If they say that it is not
deficient in wisdom, what does He teach? If they say that it is not
confused, what does He restore? If they say that it was not vanquished and
taken captive, what does He liberate? If they say that it was not in need,
to what does He minister aid? If they say that it did not lose feeling,
what does He animate? If they say that it has not been blinded, what does
He illuminate? If it is not in pain, to what does He give relief? If it is
not unrighteous, what does He correct through precepts? If it is not in
disgrace, what does He cleanse? If it is not in war, to what does He
promise peace? If it is not deficient in moderation, upon what does He
impose the measure of law? If it is not deformed, what does He reform? If
it is not attributed not to that thing which was made by God, and which has
become depraved by its own free choice in sinning, but to the very nature,
yea to the very substance of God, which is what God Himself is.
CHAP. 42. --MANICHAEAN BLASPHEMIES CONCERNING THE NATURE OF GOD.
What can be compared to those blasphemies? Absolutely nothing, unless
the errors of other sectaries be considered; but if that error be compared
with itself in another aspect, of which we have not yet spoken, it will be
convicted of far worse and more execrable blasphemy. For they say that some
souls, which they will have to be of the substance of God and of absolutely
the same nature, which have not sinned of their own accord, but have been
overcome and oppressed by the race of darkness, which they call evil, for
combating which they descended not of their own accord, but at the command
of the Father, are lettered forever in the horrible sphere of darkness. So
according to their sacrilegious vaporings, God liberated Himself in a
certain part from a great evil, but again condemned Himself in another
part, which He could not liberate, and triumphed over the enemy itself as
if it had been vanquished from above. O criminal, incredible audacity, to
believe, to speak, to proclaim such things about God! Which when they
endeavor to defend, that with their eyes shut they may rush headlong into
yet worse things, they say that the commingling of the evil nature does
these things, in order that the good nature of God may suffer so great
evils: for that this good nature were lauded as incorruptible, because it
does not hurt itself, and not because it cannot suffer hurt from another.
Then if the nature of God hurt the nature of darkness, and the nature of
God, there are therefore two evil things which hurt each other in turn, and
the race of darkness was the better disposed, because if it committed hurt
it did it unwillingly; for it did not wish to commit hurt, but to enjoy the
good which belonged to God. But God wished to extinguish it, as Manichaeus
most openly raves forth in his epistle of the ruinous Foundation. For
forgetting that he had shortly before said: "But His most resplendent
realms were so founded upon the shining and happy land, that they could
never be either moved or shaken by any one;" he afterwards said: "But the
Father of the most blessed light, knowing that great ruin and desolation
which would arise from the darkness, threaten his holy worlds, unless he
should send in opposition a deity excellent and renowned, mighty in
strength, by whom he might at the same time overcome and destroy the race
of darkness, which having been extinguished, the inhabitants of light would
enjoy perpetual rest." Behold, he feared ruin and desolation that
threatened his worlds! Assuredly they were so founded upon the shining and
happy land that they never could be either moved or shaken by any one?
Behold, from fear he wished to hurt the neighboring race, which he
endeavored to destroy and extinguish, in order that the inhabitants of
light might enjoy perpetual rest. Why did he not add, and perpetual
bondage? Were not these souls that he fettered forever in the sphere of
darkness, the inhabitants of light, of whom he says plainly, that "they
have suffered themselves to err from their former bright nature?" when
against his will he is compelled to say, that they sinned by free will,
while he wishes to ascribe sin only to the necessity of the contrary
nature: everywhere ignorant what to say, and as if he were himself already
in the sphere of darkness which he invented, seeking, and not finding, how
he may escape. But let him say what he will to the seduced and miserable
men by whom he is honored far more highly than Christ, that at this price
he may sell to them such long and sacrilegious fables. Let him say what he
will, let him shut up, as it were, in a sphere, as in a prison, the race of
darkness, and let him fasten outside the nature of light, to which he
promised perpetual rest on the extinction of the enemy: behold, the penalty
of light is worse than that of darkness; the penalty of the divine nature
is worse than that of the adverse race. But since although the latter is in
the midst of darkness it pertains to its nature to dwell in darkness; but
souls which are the very same thing that God is, cannot be received, he
says, into those peaceful realms, and are alienated from the life and
liberty of the holy light, and are fettered in the aforesaid horrible
sphere: whence he says, "Those souls shall adhere to the things that they
have loved, having been left in the same sphere of darkness, bringing this
upon themselves by their own deserts." Is not this assuredly flee voluntary
choice? See how insanely he ignores what he says, and by making self-
contradictory statements wages a worse war against himself than against the
God of the race of darkness itself. Accordingly, if the souls of light are
damned, because they loved darkness, the race of darkness, which loved
light, is unjustly damned. And the race of darkness indeed loved light from
the beginning, violently, it may be, but yet so as to wish for its
possession, not its extinction: but the nature of light wished to
extinguish in war the darkness; therefore when vanquished it loved
darkness. Choose which you will: whether it was compelled by necessity to
love darkness, or seduced by free will. If by necessity, wherefore is it
damned? if by free will, wherefore is the nature of God involved in so
great iniquity? If the nature of God was compelled by necessity to love
darkness, it did not vanquish, but was vanquished: if by free will, why do
the wretches hesitate any longer to attribute the will to sin to the nature
which God made out of nothing, lest they should thereby attribute it to the
light which He begat?
CHAP. 43.--MANY EVILS BEFORE HIS COMMINGLING WITH EVIL ARE ATTRIBUTED TO
THE NATURE OF GOD BY THE MANICHAEANS.
What if we should also show that before the commingling of evil, which
stupid fable they have most madly believed, great evils were in what they
call the nature of light? what will it scum possible to add to these
blasphemies? For before the conflict, there was the hard and inevitable
necessity of fighting: here is truly a great evil, before evil is
commingled with good. Let them say whence this is, when as yet no
commingling had taken place? But if there was no necessity, there was
therefore free will: whence also this so great evil, that God himself
should wish to hurt his own nature, which could not be hurt by the enemy,
by sending it to be cruelly commingled, to be basely purged, to be unjustly
damned? Behold, the great evil of a pernicious, noxious, and savage will,
before any evil from the contrary nature was mingled with it! Or perchance
he did not know that this would happen to his members, that they should
love darkness and become hostile to holy light, as Manichaeus says, that
is, not only to their own God, but also to the Father from whom they had
their being? Whence therefore this so great evil of ignorance, before any
evil from the nature of darkness was mingled with it? But if he knew that
this would happen, either there was in him everlasting cruelty, if he did
not grieve over the contamination and damnation of his own nature that was
to take place, or everlasting misery, if he did so grieve: whence also this
so great evil of your supreme good before any commingling with your supreme
evil? Assuredly that part of the nature itself which was fettered in the
eternal chain of that sphere, if it knew not that this fate awaited it,
even so was there everlasting ignorance in the nature of God, but if it
knew, then everlasting misery: whence this so great evil before any evil
from the contrary nature was commingled? Or perchance did it, in the
greatness of its love (charity), rejoice that through its punishment
perpetual rest was prepared for the residue of the inhabitants of light?
Let him who sees how abominable it is to say this, pronounce an anathema.
But if this should be done so that at least the good nature itself should
not become hostile to the light, it might be possible, perchance, not for
the nature of God indeed, but for some man, as it were, to be regarded as
praiseworthy, who for the sake of his country should be willing to suffer
something of evil, which evil indeed could be only for a time, and not
forever: but now also they speak of that fettering in the sphere of
darkness as eternal, and not indeed of a certain thing but of the nature of
God; and assuredly it were a most unrighteous, and execrable, and ineffably
sacrilegious joy, if the nature of God rejoiced that it should love
darkness, and should become hostile to holy light. Whence this so monstrous
and abominable evil before any evil from the contrary nature was
commingled? Who can endure insanity so perverse and so impious, as to
attribute so great good things to supreme evil, and so great evils to
supreme good, which is God?
CHAP. 44.--INCREDIBLE TURPITUDES IN GOD IMAGINED BY MANICHAEUS.
But now when they speak of that part of the nature of God as everywhere
mixed up in heaven, in earth, in all bodies dry and moil, in all sorts of
flesh, in all seeds of trees, herbs, men, and animals: not as present by
the power of divinity, for administering and ruling all things,
undefilably, inviolably, incorruptibly, without any connection with them,
which we say of God; but fettered, oppressed, polluted, to be loosed and
liberated, as they say, not only through the running to and fro of the sun
and the moon, and through the powers of light, but also through their
Elect: what sacrilegious and incredible turpitudes this kind of error
recommends to them even if it does not induce them to accept, it is
horrible to speak of. For they say that the powers of light are transformed
into beautiful males and are set over against the women of the race of
darkness; and that the same powers again are transformed into beautiful
females and are set over against the males of the race of darkness; that
through their beauty they enkindle the foulest lust of the princes of
darkness, and in this manner vital substance, that is, the nature of God,
which they say is held lettered in their bodies, having been loosed from
their members relaxed through lust, flies away, and when it has been taken
up or cleansed, is liberated. This the wretches read, this they say, this
they hear, this they believe, this they put as follows, in the seventh book
of their Thesaurus (for so they call a certain writing of Manichaeus, in
which these blasphemies stand written): "Then the blessed Father, who has
bright ships, little apartments, dwelling-places, or magnitudes, according
to his in dwelling clemency, brings the help by which he is drawn out and
liberated from the impious bonds, straits, and torments of his vital
substance. And so by his own invisible nod he transforms those powers of
his, which are held in this most brilliant ship, and makes them to bring
forth adverse powers, which have been arranged in the various tracts of the
heavens. Since these consist of both sexes, male and female, he orders the
aforesaid powers to bring forth partly in the form of beardless youths, for
the adverse race of females, partly in the form of bright maidens, for the
contrary race of males: knowing that all these hostile powers on account of
the deadly and most foul lust innate in them, are very easily taken
captive, delivered up to these most beautiful forms which appear, and in
this manner they are dissolved. But you may know that this same blessed
Father of ours is identical with his powers, which for a necessary reason
he transforms into the undefiled likeness of youths and maidens. But these
he uses as his own arms, and through them he accomplishes his will. But
there are bright ships full of these divine powers, which are stationed
after the likeness of marriage over against the infernal races, and who
with alacrity and ease effect at the very moment what they have planned.
Therefore, when reason demands that these same holy powers should appear to
males, straightway also they show by their dress the likeness of most
beautiful maidens. Again when females are to be dealt with, putting aside
the forms of maidens, they show the forms of beardless youths. But by this
handsome appearance of theirs, ardor and lust increase, and in this way the
chain of their worst thoughts is loosed, and the living soul which was held
by their members, relaxed by this occasion escapes, and is mingled with its
own most pure air; when the souls thoroughly cleansed ascend to the bright
ships, which have been prepared for conveying them and for ferrying them
over to their own country. But that which still bears the stains of the
adverse race, descends little by little through billows and fires, and is
mingled with trees and other plants and with all seeds, and is plunged into
divers fires. And in what manner the figures of youths and maidens from
that great and most glorious ship appear to the contrary powers which live
in the heavens and have a fiery nature; and from that handsome appearance,
par of the life which is held in their members having been released is
conducted away through fires into the earth: in the same manner also, that
most high power, which dwells in the ship of vital waters appears in the
likeness of youths and holy maidens to those powers whose nature is cold
and moist, and which are arranged in the heavens. And indeed to those that
are females, among these the form of youths appears, but to the males, the
form of maidens. By his changing and diversity of divine and most beautiful
persons, the princes male and female of the moist and cold race are loosed,
and what is vital in them escapes; but whatever should remain, having been
relaxed, is conducted into the earth through cold, and is mingled with all
the races of darkness" Who can endure this? Who can believe, not indeed
that it is true, but that it could even be said? Behold those who fear to
anathematize Manichaeus teaching these things, and do not fear to believe
in a God doing them and suffering them!
CHAP. 45.--CERTAIN UNSPEAKABLE TURPITUDES BELIEVED, NOT WITHOUT REASON,
CONCERNING THE MANICHAEANS THEMSELVES.
But they say, that through their own Elect that same commingled part
and nature of God is purged, by eating and drinking forsooth, (because they
say that it is held lettered in all foods); that when they are taken up by
the Elect for the nourishment of the body in eating and drinking, it is
loosed, sealed, and liberated through their sanctity. Nor do the wretches
pay heed to the fact that this is believed about them not without good
reason, and they deny it in vain, so long as they do not anathematize the
books of Manichaeus and cease to be Manichaeans. For if, as they say, a
part of God is fettered in all seeds, and is purged by eating on the part
of the Elect; who may not properly believe, that they do what they read in
the Thesaurus was done among the powers of heaven and the princes of
darkness; since indeed they say that their flesh is also from the race of
darkness, and since they do not hesitate to believe and to affirm that the
vital substance fettered in them is a part of God? Which assuredly if it is
to be loosed, and purged by eating, as their lamentable error compels them
to acknowledge; who does not see, who does not shudder at the greatness and
the unspeakableness of what follows?
CHAP. 46.--THE UNSPEAKABLE DOCTRINE OF THE FUNDAMENTAL EPISTLE.
For they even say that Adam, the first man, was created by certain
princes of darkness so that the light might be held by them test it should
escape. For in the epistle which they call Fundamental, Manichaeus wrote as
follows respecting the way in which the Prince of Darkness, whom they
represent as the father of the first man, spoke to the rest of his allied
princes of darkness, and how he acted: "Therefore with wicked inventions he
said to those present: What does this huge light that is rising seem to you
to be? See how the pole moves, how it shakes most of the powers. Wherefore
it is right for me rather to ask you beforehand for whatever light you have
in your powers: since thus I will form an image of that great one who has
appeared in his glory, through which we may be able to rule, freed in some
measure from the conversation of darkness. Hearing these things, and
deliberating for a long time among themselves, they thought it most just to
furnish what was demanded of them. For they did not have confidence in
being able to retain the light that they had forever; hence they thought it
better to offer it to their Prince, by no means without hope that in this
way they would-rule. It must be considered therefore how they furnished the
light that they had. For this also is scattered throughout all the divine
scriptures and the heavenly secrets; but to the wise it is easy enough to
know how it was given: for it is known immediately and openly by him who
should truly and faithfully wish to consider. Since there was a promiscuous
throng of those who had come together, females and males of course, he
impelled them to copulate among themselves: in Which copulation the males
emitted seed, the females were made pregnant. But the offspring were like
those who had begotten them, the first obtaining as it were the largest
portion of the parents' strength. Taking these as a special gift their
Prince rejoiced. And just as even now we see take place, that the nature of
evil taking thence strength forms the fashioner of bodies, so also the
aforesaid Prince, taking the offspring of his companions, which had the
senses of their parents, sagacity, light, procreated at the same time with
themselves in the process of generation, devoured them; and very many
powers having been taken from food of this kind, in which there was present
not only fortitude, but much more astuteness and depraved sensibilities
from the ferocious race of the progenitors, he called his own spouse to
himself, springing from the same stock as himself, emitted, like the rest
the abundance of evils that he had devoured, himself also adding something
from his own thought and power, so that his disposition became the former
and arranger of all the things that he had poured forth; whose consort
received these things as soil cultivated in the best way is accustomed to
receive seed. For in her were constructed and woven together the images of
all heavenly and earthly powers, so that what was formed obtained the
likeness, so to speak, of a full orb."
CHAP. 47.--HE COMPELS TO THE PERPETRATION OF HORRIBLE TURPITUDES.
O abominable monger! O execrable perdition and ruin of deluded souls! I
am not speaking of the blasphemy of saying these things about the nature of
God which is thus fettered. Let the wretches deluded and hunted by deadly
error give heed to this at least, that if a part of their God is fettered
by the copulation of males and females which they profess to loose and
purge by eating it, the necessity of this unspeakable error compels them
not only to loose and purge the part of God from bread and vegetables and
fruits, which done they are seen publicly to, partake of, but also from
that which might be fettered through copulation, if conception should take
place. That they do this some are said to have confessed before a public
tribunal, not only in Paphlagonia, but also in Gaul, as I heard in Rome
from a certain Catholic Christian; and when they were asked by the
authority of what writing they did these things, they betrayed this fact
concerning the Thesaurus that I have just mentioned. But when this is cast
in their teeth, they are in the habit of replying, that some enemy or other
has withdrawn from their number, that is from the number of their Elect,
and has made a schism, and has founded a most foul heresy of this kind.
Whence it is manifest that even if they do not themselves practise this
thing, some who do practise it do it on the basis of their books. Therefore
let them reject the books, if they abhor the crime, which they are
compelled to commit, if they hold to the books; or if they do not commit
them, they endeavor in opposition to the books to live more purely. But
what do they do when it is said to them, either purge the light from
whatever seeds you can, so that you cannot refuse to do that which you
assert that you do not do; or else anathematize Manichaeus, when he says
that a part of God is in all seeds, and that it is fettered by copulation,
but that whatever of light, that is, of the aforesaid part of God, should
become the food of the Elect, is purged by being eaten. Do you see what he
compels you to believe, and do you still hesitate to anathematize him? What
do they do, I say, when this is said to them? To what subterfuges do they
betake themselves, when either so nefarious a doctrine is to be
anathematized, or so nefarious a turpitude committed, in comparison with
which all those intolerable evils to which I have already called attention,
seem tolerable, namely, that they say of the nature of God that it was
pressed by necessity to wage war, that it was either secure by everlasting
ignorance, or was disturbed by everlasting grief and fear, when the
corruption of com-mingling and the chain of everlasting damnation should
come upon it, that finally as a result of the conflict it should be taken
captive, oppressed, polluted, that after a false victory it should be
fettered forever in a horrible sphere and separated from its original
blessedness, while if considered in themselves they cannot be endured?
CHAP. 48.--AUGUSTIN PRAYS THAT THE MANICHAEANS MAY BE RESTORED TO THEIR
SENSES.
O great is Thy patience, Lord, full of compassion and gracious, slow to
anger, and plenteous in mercy, and true;(1) who makest Thy sun to rise upon
the good and the evil, and who sendest rain upon the just and the
unjust;(2) who willest not the death of the sinner, so much as that he
return and live;(3) who reproving in parts, dost give place to repentance,
that wickedness having been abandoned, they may believe on Thee, O Lord;(1)
who by Thy patience dost lead to repentance, although many according to the
hardness of their heart and their impenitent heart treasure up for
themselves wrath against the day of wrath and of the revelation of Thy
righteous judgment, who wilt render to every man according to his works;(2)
who in the day when a man shall have turned from his iniquity to Thy mercy
and truth, wilt forget all his iniquities:(3) stand before us, grant unto
us that through our ministry, by which Thou hast been pleased to refute
this execrable and too horrible error, as many have already been liberated,
many also may be liberated, and whether through the sacrament Of Thy holy
baptism, or through the sacrifice of a broken spirit and a contrite and
humbled heart,(4) in the sorrow of repentance, they may deserve to receive
the remission of their sins and blasphemies, by which through ignorance
they have offended Thee. For nothing is of any avail, save Thy surpassing
mercy and power, and the truth of Thy baptism, and the keys of the kingdom
of heaven in Thy holy Church; so that we must not despair of men as long as
by Thy patience they live on this earth, who even knowing how great an evil
it is to think or to say such things about Thee, are detained in that
malign profession on account of the use or the attainment of temporal or
earthly convenience, if rebuked by Thy reproaches they in any way flee to
Thy ineffable goodness, and prefer to all the enticements of the carnal
life, the heavenly and eternal life.
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF I/IV, Schaff). The digital version is by The Electronic Bible
Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
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