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
in respect of the hidden deservings of the soules thou thinkest fit for him to heare To whom let not man say What is this or Why is that Let him not say so never let him ask such a questioÌ„ seeing he is but a man CHAP. 7. He is miserably tortured in his enquirie after the Root of Evill 1. ANd now O my helper hadst thou discharged me from those fetters and presently enquired I whence Evill should be but found no way out of my question But thou sufferedst me not to be carried away from the Faith by any waves of those thoughts by which Faith I beleeved both that thou wert and that thy substance was unchangeable and that thou hadst a care of and passedst thy judgement upon men and that in Christ thy Sonne our Lord and thy holy Scriptures which the Authority of thy Church should acknowledge thou hast laid out the way of mans salvation to passe to that life which is to come after death These grounds remaining safe and irremoveably settled in my minde I with much anxiety sought from what root the nature of Evill should proceed What torments did my teeming heart then endure and what throwes O my God! yet even to them were thine eares open and I knew it not and when in silence I so vehemently enquired after it those silent conditions of my soule were strong cryes unto thy mercy 2. Thou and not man knewest how much I suffered For how great was that which my tongue sent forth into the eares of my most familiar friends And yet did I disclose the whole tumule of my soule for which neither my time nor tongue had beene sufficient Yet did all of it ascend into thy hearing which I roared out from the grones of my heart yea my whole desires were said up before thee nor was I master of so much as of the light of mine owne eyes for that was all turn'd inward but I outward nor was that confined to any place but I bent my selfe to those things that are contained in places but there found I no place to rest in nor did those places so entertain mee that I could say It is enough and 't is well nor did they yet suffer me to turne back where I might finde well-being enough For to these things was I superiour but inferiour to thee and thou art that true joy of me thy Subject and thou hast subjected under mee those things which thou createdst below me 3. And this was the true temper and the middle Region of my safety where I might remaine conformable to thine Image and by serving thee get the dominion over mine owne body But when as I rose up proudly against thee and when I ran upon my Lord with my necke with the thick bosses of my buckler then were these inferiour things made my over-matches and kept me under nor could I get either releasement or space of breathing They ran on all sides by heapes and troopes upon mee broad-looking on them but having in my thoghts these corporeall Images they way-laid me as I turn'd backe 〈◊〉 they should say unto mee Whither goest thou O thou unworthy and base creature And these grew more in number even out of my wound for thou hast humbled the proud like as him that is wounded through my owne swelling was I set further off from thee yea my cheekes too big swolne even blinded up mine eyes CHAP. 8. How the mercy of God at length relieved him 1. THou Lord art the same for ever nor art thou angry with us for ever because thou hast pitie upon dust and ashes and it was pleasing in thy sight to reforme my deformities and by inward gallingsdidst thou startle me that I shouldst become unquiet till such time as it might bee assured unto my inward sight that it was thou thy selfe Thus by the secret hand of thy medicining was my swelling abated and that troubled and bedimmed eyesight of my soule by the smart eye-salve of mine owne wholsome dolours daily began more and more to be cleered CHAP. 9. What he found in some Bookes of the Platonists agreeable to the Christian Doctrine 1. AND thou being desirous first of all to shew unto me how thou resistest the proud but givest grace unto the humble and with what great mercy of thine the way of humility is traced out unto men in that thy WORD was made flesh and dwelt among men thou procuredst for mee by meanes of a certaine man puft up with a most unreasonable pride to see certaine Bookes of the Platonists translated out of Greeke into Latine And therein I read not indeed in the selfe same words but to the very same purpose perswaded by many reasons and of severall kinds That In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and that Word was God The same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made In him was life and the life was the light of men And the light shined in the darknesse and the darknesse comprehended it not And for that the soule of man though it gives testimony of the light yet it selfe is not that light but the Word of God is for God is that true light that lighteth every man that commeth into the world And because he was in the world and the world was made by him the world knew him not and because hee came unto his owne and his owne received him not But as many as received him to them gave hee power to become the sons of God as many as beleeved in his name All this did I not read there 2. There again did I read that God the Word was not borne of flesh nor of blood nor of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but of God But that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us did I not there reade I found out in those Bookes that it was many and divers waies said that the Sonne being in the forme of the Father thought it no robbery to be equal with God for that naturally he was the same with him But that 〈◊〉 himselfe of no reputaâ—â—â— taking upon him the forme â—â— a servant and was made in 〈◊〉 likenesse of men and was sound in fashion as a man and humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse Wherefore God hath highty exalted him from the dead and given him a name over every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth And that every tongue should confesse that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father those Bookes have not 3. But that thy onely begotten Sonne coeternall with thee war before all times and beyond all times remains unchangeable and that of his fulnesse all soules receive what makes theÌ„ blessed and that by participation
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
delight to jeere at and to put tricks upon others CHAP. 4. How Tullies Hortensuis provokt him to study Philosophie 1. AMongst these mad companions in that tender age of mine learnd I the Bookes of Eloquence wherein my ambition was to be eminent all out of a damnable and vaine-glorious end puse up with a delight of humane glory By the ordinary course of study I fell upon a certaine booke of one Cicerâ— whose tongue almost every man admires though not his heart This booke of his contaynes an exhortation to Philosophie and 't is called Hort ensius This very Book quite altered my affection turned my prayers to thy selfe O Lord and made me have cleane other purposes and desires All my vayne hopes I thenceforth slighted and with an incredible heat of spirit I thirsted after the immortality of wisdome and began now to rowse up my selfe that I might turne again to thee ward For I made not use of that booke to file my tongue with which I seemed to buy with that â—â—â—â—bition my another allowed me in that mine tenth yeere of my age my father being dead two yeeres before I made not use therefore of that book I say to sharpen my tongue withall nor had it perswaded me to affect the find language in it but the matter of in 2. How did I burne then my God how was I inflamed to fly from earthly delights towards thee and yet I knew not what thou meanedst to doe with me For with thee is wisdome That love of wisedome is in Greeke called Philosophie with which that booke inflam'd mee Some there bee that seduce others through Philosophie under a great a faire promising and an honest name colouring over and palliating their owne errors and almost all those who in the same and former ages had beene of that stamp are in that booke censured and set forth there also is that most wholesome advice of thy Spirit given by thy good and devout servant made plaine Beware left any man spoyle you through Philosophie and vaine deceipt after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ For in him dwelleth all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily 3. For my part thou light of my heart knowest that the Apostolicall Scriptures were scarce knowne to me at that time but this was it that so delighted mee in that exhortation that it did not ingage mee to this or that sect but left me free to love and seeke and obtaine and hold and embrace wisdome it selfe what ever it were Perchance 't was that booke I was stirred up and inkindled and inflamed by This thing only in such a heat of zeale tooke me off that the name of Christ was not in it For this Name according to thy mercy O Lord this Name of my Saviour thy Sonne had my tender heart even together with my mothers milke devoutly drunken in and charily treasured up so that what booke soever was without that Name though never so learned politely and truely penned did not altogether take my approbation CHAP. 5. Hee sets lightly by the Holy Scriptures because of the simplicity of the stile 1. I Resolved thereupon to bend my studies towards the holy Scriptures that I might see what they were But behold I espie something in them not revealed to the proud not discovered unto children humble in stile sublime in operation and wholly veyled over in mysteries and I was not so fitted at that time as to pierce into the sense or stoope my high neck to track the stile of it For when I attentively read these Scriptures I thought not then so highly of them as I now speake but they seemed to me farre unworthy to be compared to the statelinesse of the Ciceronian eloquence For my swelling pride soar'd above the temper of their stile nor was my sharpe wit able to pierce into their sense And yet such are thy Scriptures as grew up together with thy little Ones But I much disdained to be held a little One and big-swoln with pride I tooke my selfe to be some great man CHAP. 6. How hee was insnared by the Manichees 1. ANd even therefore I fell upon a sect of men proudly doting too carnall and prating in whose mouths were the very snares of the divell and a very Birdlime compounded by the mixture of the syllables of thy Name and of our Lord Iesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost the Comforter All these names came not out of their mouth but so farre forth as the sound only and the noyse of the tongue for their heart was voyd of true meaning Yet they cryed out Truth and Truth and divers sounded the word to mee yet was the Truth it selfe no where to be found amongst them But they spake falsehood not of thee onely who truely art the Truth it selfe but also of the elements of this world thy creatures Concerning which it had beene my duty O my supreme good Father thou beauty of all things that are beautifull to have out-stripped all the Philosophers though they spake most truely O Truth Truth how inwardly did the very marrow of my soule pant after thee when as they often and divers wayes though but barely pronounced thy name to me with their voice onely and in many bookes and hugie volumes And these were the dishes wherein to hunger-starven me they instead of thee served in the Sun and Moone Beautifull works indeed of thine but thy creatures notwithstanding not thy selfe no nor thy first creatures neither For thy spirituall works are before these corporeall workes celestiall though they be and shining 2. But I hungered and thirsted not after those first workes of thine but after thee even thee the Truth with whom there is no variablenesse neither shadow of turning yet they still set before me in those dishes glorious phantasies than which much better it were to love this Sunne which is true to our sights at least than those phantasies which by our eyes serve to deceive our minde Yet because I thought Them to be Thee I fell to and fed not greedily though for thou wert not savoury in my mouth nor like thy selfe for thou wast not those empty fictions nor was I soundly nourisht by them but drawne dry rather That food we dreame of shewes very like the food which we eat awake yet are not those asleepe nourisht by it for they are asleep But neither were those phantasies any way like to thee as thou hast since spoken to me for that those were corporeall phantasies only false bodies than which these true bodies both celestiall and terrestriall which with our fleshly sight we behold are far more certaine These things the very beasts and birds discerne as well as wee and they are much more certayne than any we can fancy of our selves And againe we doe with more certaintie conceive the images of these than by them entertaine the least suspition of any vaster or infinite bodies which have
there can in like manner any thing chance vnto thee that art vnchangeably Eternall that is the Eternall Creator of Soules Like as therefore thou in the beginning knewest the heauen and the earth without any variety of thy knowledge euen so didst thou in the beginning create heauen and earth without any distinction of thy action Let him that vnderstandeth it confesse vnto thee and let him that vnderstandeth it not confesse vnto thee also Oh how high art thou and yet the humble in heart are the house that thou dwellest in For thou vayself vvthose that are bowed down and neuer can they fall whose strength thou art Saint Augustines Confessions The twelfth Booke CHAP. 1. T is very difficult to finde out the truth MY heart O Lord toucht with the words of holy Scripture is busily imployed in this pouerty of my life And euen therefore in our discourse oftentimes appeares there a most plentifull pouerty of humane vnderstanding because that our enquiring spends vs more words then our finding out does and wee are longer about demanding then about obtayning and our hand that knocks hath more worke to doe then our other hand that receiues A promise haue wee layd holde of who shall defeate vs of it If God bee on our side who can bee against vs Aske and yee shall haue seeke and you shall finde knocke and it shall bee opened vnto you For euery one that askes receiues and he that seekes finds and to him that knocketh shall it be opened These be thine owne promises and who needes feare to bee deceiued whenas the Truth promiseth CHAP. 2. That the heauen we see is but earth in respect of the heauen of heauens which wee see not 1. VNto thy Highnesse the lowlynesse of my tongue now confesseth because thou hast made heauen and earth this heauen I meane which I see and this earth that I treade vpon whence is this earth that I beare about me Thou madest it But where is that Heauen of Heauens made for the Lord which wee heare of in the words of the Psalmist The heauen euen the heauens are the Lords but the earth hath he giuen to the children of men Where is that Heauen which we see not that in comparison whereof all this heauen which wee see is but meere earth For this heauen is wholy corporeall For all this which is wholy corporeall is not euery where beautifull alike in these lower parts the bottome wherof is this earth of ours but in comparison of that Heauen of heauens euen the heauen to this our earth is but earth yea both these great bodies may not absurdly bee called earth in comparison of that I know not what manner of heauen which is the Lords and not giuen to the Sonnes of men CHAP. 3. Of the darknesse vpon the face of the Deepe 1. AND now was this Earth without shape and voyde and there was I know not what profoundnesse of the Deepe vpon which there was no light because as yet it had no shape Therefore didst thou command it to bee written that darknesse was vpon the face of the deepe which what other thing was it then the Absence of light For if there had been light where should â—â— haue beene bestowed but in being ouer all by shewing it selfe and enlightening others Where therefore as light was not yet what was it that darkenesse was present but that light was absent Darknesse therefore was ouer all hitherto because light was absent like as where there is no found there is silence And what is it to haue silence there but to haue no sound there Hast not thou O Lord taught these things vnto the soule which thus confesses vnto thee Hast not thou taught mee Lord that before thou createdst diuersifyedst this vnshapen matter there was nothing neyther colour nor figure nor body nor Spirit and yet was there not altogether an absolute nothing for there was a certaine vnshapednes without any forme in it CHAP. 4. Of the Chaos and what Moses called it 1. ANd how should that be called and by what sence could it bee insinuated to people of slow apprehensions but by some ordinary word And what among all the parts of the world can be found to come neerer to an absolute vnshapednesse then the Earth and the deepe For surely they bee lesse beautifull in respect of their low situation then those other higher parts are which are all transparent and shining Wherefore then may I not conceiue the vnshapelynesse of the first matter which thou createdst without form of which thou wert to make this goodly world to bee significantly intimated vnto men by the name of Earth without shape and voyd CHAP. 5. That this Chaos is hard to conceiue 1. VVHen herein the thoughts of man are seeking for somewhat which the Sence may fasten vpon and returnes answere to it selfe It is no intelligible forme as life is or as Iustice is because it is the matter of bodies Nor is it any thing sensible for that in this earth inuisible as yet and without forme there was nothing to bee perceiued Whilest mans thoughts thus discourse vnto himselfe let him endeauour eyther to know it by being ignorant of it or to bee ignorant by knowing it CHAP. 6. What himselfe sometimes thought of it 1. FOr mine owne part O Lord if I may confesse all vnto thee both by tongue and pen what-euer thy selfe hast taught me of that matter the name whereof hauing heard before but not vnderstanding because they told me of it who themselues vnderstood it not I conceiued of it as hauing innumerable formes and diuerse and therefore indeede did I not at all conceiue it in my minde I tossed vp and downe certaine vgly and hideous formes all out of order but yet formes they were notwithstanding and this I cald without forme Not that it wanted all for me but because it had such a mis-shapen one insomuch as if any vnexpected thought or absurdity presented it selfe vnto mee my sence would straight wayes turne from it and the fraylenesse of my humane discourse would bee distracted And as for that which my conceite ranne vpon it was me thought without forme not for that it was depriued of all forme but it comparison of more beautifull formes but true reason did perswade me that I must vtterly vncase it of all remnants of formes whatsoeuer if so bee I meant to conceiue a matter absolute without forme but I could not For sooner would I haue imagined that not to bee at all which should be depriued of all forme then once conceiue there was likely to bee any thing betwixt forme and nothing a matter neyther formed nor nothing without forme almost nothing 2. My minde gaue ouer thereupon to question any more about it with my spirit which was wholy taken vp already with the images of formed bodies which I changed and varied as mee listed and I bent my enquiry vpon the bodies themselues and more deeply lookt into
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
Readers verily striue both to finde out and to vnderstand the authors meaning whom wee reade and seeing wee beleeue him to speake truely wee dare not once imagine him to haue let fall any thing which our selues eyther know or thinke to be false Whilest euery man endeauours therefore to collect the same sence from the holy Scriptures that the Penman himselfe intended what hurt is it if a man so iudges of it euen as thou O' the light of all true-speaking minds dost shew him to bee true although the Author whom hee reades perceiued not so much seeing he also collecteth a Truth out of it though this particular trueth he perchance obserueth not CHAP. 19. Of some particular apparent truthes 1. FOr true it is O Lord That thou madest Heauen and Earth and it is true too that that Beginning is thy Wisedome in which thou createdst all and true againe that this visible world hath for his greater parts the Heauen and the Earth which in a briefe expression comprehend all made and created natures And true too That whatsoeuer is mutable giues vs to vnderstand that there is a want of forme in it by meanes whereof it is apt to receiue a forme or is changed or turned by reason of it It is true that that is subiect to no times which cleaueth so close vnto that vnchangeable forme as that though the nature of it bee mutable yet is it selfe neuer changed T is true that that vnshapednesse which is almost nothing cannot be subiect to the alteration of times T is true that that whereof a thing is made may by a figuratiue kinde of speaking bee called by the name of the thing made of it whence might heauen and earth bee sayd to bee that vnshap't Chaos whereof heauen and earth were made T is true that of things hauing forme there is not any neerer to hauing no forme then the earth and the deepe T is true that not onely euery created and formed thing but whatsoeuer is apt to bee created and formed is of thy making of whom are all things T is true that whatsoeuer is formed out of that which had no forme was vnformed before it was formed CHAP. 20. He interprets Gen. 1. 1. otherwise 1. OVt of these truths of which they little doubt whose internall eye thou hast enabled to see them and who irremoueably beleeue thy seruant Moses to haue spoken in the Spirit of truth Out of all these therefore I say hee collecteth another sence vnto himselfe who sayth In the beginning God made the heauen and the earth that is to say in his Word coeternall vnto himselfe God made the intelligible and the sensible or the spirituall and the corporeall creature And he another that saith In the beginning God made Heauen and Earth that is in his Word coeternall vnto himselfe did God make the vniuersall bulke of this corporeall world together with all those apparantly knowne creatures which it contayneth 2. And hee another that sayth In the beginning God made Heauen and Earth that is In his word coeternall vnto himselfe did God make the formelesse matter both of the creature spirituall and corporeall And he another that sayth In the beginning God created Heauen and Earth that is In his Word coeternall vnto himselfe did God create the formeles matter of the creature corporeal wherein heauen and earth lay as yet confused which being now distinguished and formed we at this day see in the bulke of this world And he another who sayth In the beginning God made heauen and earth that is In the very beginning of creating and of working did God make that formelesse matter confusedly contayning in it selfe both heauen and earth out of which what were afterwards formed doe at this day eminently appeare with all that is in them CHAP. 21. These words The Earth was voyd c. diuersly vnderstood 1. ANd forasmuch as concerns the vnderstanding of the words following out of all which truths that Interpreter chuses one to himselfe who sayth But the Earth was inuisible and vnfashioned and darknesse was vpon the deepe that is That incorporeall thing that God made was as yet a formelesse matter of corporeall things without order without light Another sayes thus The Earth was inuisible and vnfashioned and darknesse was vpon the deepe that is This All now called heauen and earth was a shapelesse and darksome matter hitherto of which the corporeall heauen and the corporeall earth were to bee made with all things in them now knowne vnto our corporeall sences Another sayes thus The Earth was inuisible and shapeless and darknes was vpon the deepe that is This All now called heauen and earth was but a formelesse and a darkesome matter hitherto out of which was to be made both that intelligible heauen which is other where called The Heauen of heavens and the Earth that 〈◊〉 say the whole corporeall 〈…〉 which 〈…〉 vnderstood this corporeall heauen also that â—â—â—ely out of which euery visible and inuisible creature 〈…〉 be created â— mother sayes thus The â—â—rth was inuisible and shapelesse and darknes was vpon the deepe that is The Scripture did not call that vnshapelynesse by the name of Heauen and Earth for that vnshapelynes sayth hee was already in being and that was it hee called the Earth inuisible without and shape and darkenesse vpon the deepe of which hee had sayd before that God had made heauen and earth namely the spirituall and corporeall creature Another sayes The Earth was inuisible and without shape and darknes was vpon the Deepe that is the matter was now a certayne vnshapelynesse of which the Scripture sayd before that God made heauen and earth namely the whole corporeall bulke of the world deuided into two great parts vpper and lower with all the common known creatures in them CHAP. 22. That the waters are also contayned vnder the names of Heauen and Earth 1. BVt if any man shall attempt to dispute against these two last opinions with this argument If you will not allow that this vnshapelynesse of matter seemd to be called by the name of heauen and earth Ergo there was something which God neuer made out of which he was to make heauen and earth Nor indeed hath the Scripture told vs that God made this heauen and earth but meerely to haue vs vnderstand that matter to be signified eyther by the name of heauen and earth together or of the earth alone whenas it sayd In the beginning God made the heauen and earth that so by that which followes And the Earth was inuisible and without forme although it pleased Him to call the formlesse matter by those termes yet may wee vnderstand no other matter but that which God made in that Text where t is written God made Heauen and Earth 2. The mayntayners of those two latter opinions eyther this or that will vpon the first hearing returne this answere Wee doe not deny this formelesse matter to be indeede created by God
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