Confessions 13.23–13.44

times you give heavenly good things upon the earth; since "to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom," like the greater light, for those who delight in the light of clear truth, as at the beginning of the day; "to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit," like the lesser light; "to another faith, to another the gift of healing, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another kinds of tongues"; and all these are like the stars. "For all these are worked by one and the same Spirit, dividing to each his own as he wills," and making the stars appear in manifestation for the common good. But the word of knowledge, in which are contained all the sacraments, which vary with the times like the moon, and the other known gifts, which are named next like the stars, differ from that brightness of wisdom in which the day just mentioned rejoices, just so far as they are at the beginning of the night. For they are necessary to those to whom that most prudent servant of yours "could not speak as to spiritual people, but as to carnal," he who "speaks wisdom among the perfect." But "the natural man," like a little one in Christ and a drinker of milk, until he is strengthened for solid food and makes his eye firm to look at the sun, should not have his night deserted, but should be content with the light of the moon and stars. These things you discuss with us most wisely, our God, in your book, your firmament, so that we may discern all things in wonderful contemplation, although still "in signs and in times and in days and in years."

But first, "wash yourselves, be clean, take away the wickedness from your souls and from the sight of my eyes," so that the dry land may appear. "Learn to do good, judge for the orphan and do justice to the widow," so that the earth may bring forth the grass of pasture and the fruit-bearing tree; "and come, let us reason together, says the Lord," so that there may be "lights in the firmament of heaven, to shine upon the earth." That rich man asked the good Teacher what he should do to obtain eternal life. Let the good Teacher, whom he thought a man and nothing more (but he is good because he is God), tell him that, if he wants to enter into life, he should keep the commandments, separate from himself the bitterness of malice and wickedness, not kill, not commit adultery, not steal, not bear false witness, so that the dry land may appear and sprout honor of mother and father and love of neighbor. "I have done all these," he says. Where, then, do so many thorns come from, if the earth is fruitful? Go, root out the wooded thickets of avarice, "sell what you possess," and be filled with fruit by "giving to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven"; and "follow" the Lord "if you wish to be perfect," joined to those among whom he "speaks wisdom" who knows what to allot to the day and to the night, so that you too may know it, so that for you too there may be lights in the firmament of heaven; which will not happen unless your heart is there; which again will not happen unless your treasure is there, as you have heard from the good Teacher. But the barren earth was saddened, and the thorns choked the word.

But you, a chosen race, in the firmament of the world, who have left everything to follow the Lord, go after him and confound the strong; go after him, beautiful feet, and shine in the firmament, so that "the heavens may declare his glory," dividing between the light of the perfect, though not yet like that of the angels, and the darkness of the little ones, though not of those without hope. Shine over all the earth; and let the day, bright with the sun, "pour forth to the day" the word of wisdom, and the night, shining with the moon, "proclaim to the night" the word of knowledge. The moon and stars shine for the night, but the night does not darken them, since they enlighten it according to its measure. For see, as if God were saying, "Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven," "suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and there appeared divided tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them," and there were made lights in the firmament of heaven, "holding the word of life." Run everywhere, holy fires, beautiful fires. For you are "the light of the world" and are not "under a bushel." He to whom you clung has been exalted, and he has exalted you. Run everywhere, and make yourselves known to all nations.

Let the sea too conceive and bring forth your works, and let "the waters bring forth creeping things with living souls." For, separating the precious from the worthless, you have become the mouth of God, through which he might say: Let the waters bring forth, not the living soul which the earth will bring forth, but "creeping things with living souls and birds flying over the earth." For your sacraments, God, have crept through the works of your saints amid the waves of the world's temptations, to initiate the nations in your name in your baptism. And among these were done great and wonderful works, like the great whales, and the voices of your messengers flying over the earth near the firmament of your book, which was set over them as the authority under which they should fly wherever they went. For "there is no speech or language in which their voices are not heard," since "their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world"; because you, Lord, have multiplied these things by blessing them.

Am I lying, or mixing things up in confusion and not distinguishing the clear knowledge of these things in the firmament of heaven from the bodily works in the surging sea and under the firmament of heaven? For of the things whose knowledge is solid and bounded, without increase by generation, like the lights of wisdom and knowledge, of the same things the bodily operations are many and various, and one grows from another and they are multiplied in your blessing, God, who have consoled the weariness of mortal senses, so that in the knowledge of the mind one thing may be represented and expressed in many ways by the motions of the body. The waters brought these forth, but in your word; the needs of peoples estranged from the eternity of your truth brought them forth, but in your gospel; for the waters themselves cast them up, whose bitter sickness was the cause of their coming forth in your word.

And all things are beautiful since you make them, and see, you who made all things are indescribably more beautiful. If Adam had not fallen away from you, there would not have poured forth from his loins that brine of the sea, the human race, deeply curious, stormily swelling, and restlessly fluid; and so there would have been no need for your dispensers to work mystical deeds and words bodily and perceptibly in many waters. For so the creeping things and flying creatures now appear to me: men instructed and initiated by them, being subject to bodily sacraments, would not go further unless the soul came alive spiritually on another level, and, after the word of initiation, looked toward perfection.

And so, in your word, it is not the depth of the sea but the earth, separated from the bitterness of the waters, that brings forth, not "creeping things with living souls and flying creatures," but "the living soul." For it no longer needs baptism, as the nations need it, as it did need it when it was covered by the waters; for there is no other way of entering the kingdom of heaven since you established that it should be entered so. Nor does it seek great wonders to produce faith; for it is not one that "believes only if it sees signs and wonders," since the faithful earth is now separated from the waters of the sea, bitter with unbelief, and "tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers." So neither does the earth which you "founded upon the waters" need that kind of flying creature which the waters brought forth at your word. Send your word into it through your messengers. For we tell of their works, but it is you who work in them, so that they may work a living soul. The earth brings it forth, because the earth is the reason for their doing these things in it, as the sea was the reason for their working the creeping things with living souls and the flying creatures under the firmament of heaven, which the earth no longer needs, although it eats the fish lifted up from the deep at that table which you "have prepared in the sight of" believers; for it was lifted from the deep for this reason, to feed the dry land. And the birds are the offspring of the sea, yet they multiply upon the earth. For the unbelief of men was the cause of the first voices of those who preached the gospel; but the faithful too are exhorted and blessed by them in many ways from day to day. But the living soul takes its beginning from the earth, because it profits only those already faithful to restrain themselves from the love of this world, so that their soul may live to you, which was dead while living in pleasures, deadly pleasures, Lord; for you are the life-giving delight of the pure heart.

So let your ministers now work on the earth, not as in the waters of unbelief, by proclaiming and speaking through miracles and sacraments and mystical words, where ignorance, the mother of wonder, becomes attentive in fear of hidden signs (for such is the entrance to faith for the children of Adam who have forgotten you, while they hide themselves from your face and become an abyss); but let them work also as on the dry land, separated from the whirlpools of the abyss, and let them be a pattern to the faithful by living before them and rousing them to imitation. For so they hear not only in order to listen but also in order to do: "Seek God, and your soul shall live," so that the earth may bring forth the living soul. "Do not be conformed to this world"; restrain yourselves from it. The soul lives by avoiding what by desiring it dies. Restrain yourselves from the savage wildness of pride, from the sluggish pleasure of lust, and from the false name of knowledge, so that there may be tame beasts, domesticated cattle, and harmless serpents. For these are motions of the soul in allegory; but the haughtiness of pride, the delight of lust, and the poison of curiosity are motions of a dead soul; for it does not die so as to lack all motion, since it dies by departing from the fountain of life, and so it is taken up by the passing world and conformed to it.

But the Word, God, is the fountain of eternal life and does not pass away; and so in your Word that departure is restrained, when it is said to us, "Do not be conformed to this world," so that the earth may bring forth, in the fountain of life, a living soul, in your word, through your evangelists, a soul that is continent by imitating the imitators of your Christ. For this is "according to its kind," since a man's emulation comes from his friend: "Be as I am," he says, "because I too am as you are." So in the living soul there will be good beasts, in gentleness of action. For you have commanded, saying, "Do your works in gentleness, and you will be loved by every man." And there will be good cattle, neither having too much if they eat, nor lacking if they do not eat; and good serpents, not destructive to harm, but wise to be on guard, and exploring temporal nature only as much as is enough for eternity "to be clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made." For these animals serve reason when, restrained from their deadly advance, they live and are good.

For see, Lord our God, our Creator, when our affections have been restrained from the love of the world, by which we were dying by living badly, and the soul has begun to be a living soul by living well, and your word has been fulfilled which you spoke through your apostle, "Do not be conformed to this world," there will follow what you added at once: "but be reformed in the newness of your mind," no longer "according to kind," as imitating a neighbor who goes before, nor living by the authority of a better man. For you did not say, "Let man be made according to his kind," but "Let us make man in our image and likeness," so that we may prove what your will is. For this is why that dispenser of yours, begetting children through the gospel, so as not always to have little ones whom he must nourish with milk and cherish like a nurse, says: "Be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." And so you do not say, "Let man be made," but "Let us make"; nor do you say, "according to his kind," but "in our image and likeness." For renewed in mind and beholding your truth, understood, he does not need a human instructor to imitate his own kind, but with you as instructor he himself proves what your will is, what is good and acceptable and perfect; and you teach him, now capable, to see the Trinity of the Unity and the Unity of the Trinity. And so, after the plural "Let us make man," the singular follows: "and God made man"; and after the plural "in our image," the singular follows: "in the image of God." So man "is renewed in the knowledge of God according to the image of him who created him," and, having become spiritual, "judges all things," those, that is, which are to be judged, "but he himself is judged by no one."

But that he "judges all things" means that he "has dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and all cattle and wild beasts and all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." For he does this by the understanding of his mind, by which he perceives "the things of the Spirit of God." Otherwise, "man, being set in honor, did not understand; he has been compared to senseless cattle and has become like them." So in your church, our God, according to your grace which you have given it, since "we are your workmanship, created in good works," not only those who are spiritually in authority but also those who are spiritually subject to those in authority (for in this way you made man "male and female" in your spiritual grace, where according to bodily sex there is neither male nor female, because there is "neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free"), the spiritual, then, whether they are in authority or obey, judge spiritually. They do not judge the spiritual knowledge that shines in the firmament, for it is not right to judge so sublime an authority; nor your book itself, even if something there does not shine clearly, since we submit our understanding to it and hold it certain that even what is closed to our sight has been rightly and truly said. For so man, although already spiritual and "renewed in the knowledge of God according to the image of him who created him," must be "a doer of the law, not a judge." Nor does he judge the distinction between spiritual and carnal men, who are known to your eyes, our God, and have not yet appeared to us by any works, so that "we may know them by their fruits"; but you, Lord, already know them and have divided and called them in secret, before the firmament was made. Nor does the spiritual man judge the turbulent peoples of this world. For "what is it to him to judge those outside," not knowing who from there will come into the sweetness of your grace and who will remain in the perpetual bitterness of ungodliness?

And so man, whom you made in your image, did not receive dominion over the lights of heaven, nor over the hidden heaven itself, nor over the day and night which you called before the establishment of heaven, nor over the gathering of the waters, which is the sea; but he received dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and all cattle and all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. For he judges and approves what he finds right, and disapproves what he finds wrong, whether in that solemnity of the sacraments by which those are initiated whom your mercy searches out in many waters; or in that in which is presented the Fish which, lifted up from the deep, the devout earth eats; or in the signs of words and utterances subject to the authority of your book, flying as it were under the firmament, by interpreting, expounding, discussing, disputing, blessing and calling upon you, signs bursting forth and sounding from the mouth, so that the people may answer "Amen." The reason for all these utterances having to be spoken bodily is the abyss of the world and the blindness of the flesh, by which thoughts cannot be seen, so that they must be sounded in the ears. So, although the birds multiply upon the earth, they still take their origin from the waters. The spiritual man judges also, approving what he finds right and disapproving what he finds wrong, in the works and conduct of the faithful: in almsgiving, as in the fruitful earth; and in the affections of the living soul made gentle, in chastity, in fasting, in devout thoughts about things perceived by the bodily senses. For he is now said to judge those things over which he also has the power to correct.

But what is this, and what kind of mystery is it? See, you bless men, Lord, that they may "increase and multiply and fill the earth." Do you give us no hint by this, so that we may understand why you did not so bless the light, which you called day, nor the firmament of heaven, nor the lights, nor the stars, nor the earth, nor the sea? I would say, our God, who created us in your image, I would say that you wished to bestow this gift of blessing on man as his own, if you had not blessed the fish and whales in this way too, that they should increase and multiply and fill the waters of the sea, and the birds should multiply upon the earth. Likewise I would say that this blessing belongs to those kinds of things which are propagated by generating from themselves, if I found it given to trees and shrubs and the cattle of the earth. But as it is, neither to plants and trees nor to beasts and serpents was it said, "Increase and multiply," although all these too, like fish and birds and men, increase by generating and preserve their kind.

What, then, shall I say, my light, Truth? That this is empty, that it was said in vain? Not at all, Father of piety; far be it that a servant of your word should say this. And if I do not understand what you mean by this saying, let better men, that is, more intelligent than I am, make better use of it, each according as you have given him to understand. But let my confession too be pleasing in your eyes, in which I confess to you that I believe, Lord, that you did not speak so in vain; nor will I keep silent about what the occasion of this reading suggests to me. For it is true, and I do not see what prevents me from understanding the figurative sayings of your books in this way. For I know that something understood in one way by the mind may be signified in many ways by bodily means, and that something signified in one way by bodily means may be understood in many ways by the mind. See, the single love of God and neighbor: by how many sacraments, in how many countless languages, and in each language by how many countless manners of speaking it is expressed bodily! So the offspring of the waters increase and multiply. Attend again, whoever reads this: see, what Scripture offers and the voice sounds in one way, "In the beginning God made heaven and earth," is it not understood in many ways, not by deceptive errors, but by kinds of true understanding? So the offspring of men increase and multiply.

So if we think of the natures of things themselves, not allegorically but literally, the word "Increase and multiply" applies to all things generated from seed. But if we treat these things as set down figuratively (which I rather think Scripture intended, since it certainly did not attribute this blessing to the offspring of water creatures and men alone without reason), we find multitudes indeed in spiritual and bodily creatures, as in heaven and earth; and in just and unjust souls, as in light and darkness; and in the holy authors through whom the law was ministered, as in the firmament made firm between water and water; and in the society of embittered peoples, as in the sea; and in the zeal of devout souls, as in the dry land; and in works of mercy in this present life, as in seed-bearing plants and fruit-bearing trees; and in spiritual gifts made manifest for the common good, as in the lights of heaven; and in affections formed to self-control, as in the living soul. In all these we find multitudes and abundance and increase; but that something should increase and multiply in such a way that one thing is expressed in many ways, and one expression understood in many ways, we find only in signs uttered bodily and in things thought out intelligibly. We have understood signs uttered bodily as the generations of the waters, because of the necessary causes of carnal depth; and things thought out intelligibly as human generations, because of the fruitfulness of reason. And so we have believed that to both these kinds it was said by you, Lord, "Increase and multiply." For in this blessing I take it that we have been granted by you the ability and power both to express in many ways what we have understood in one way, and to understand in many ways what we have read expressed obscurely in one way. So the waters of the sea are filled, which are moved only by various significations; so too the earth is filled with human offspring, whose dryness appears in zeal, and reason rules over it.

I want also to say, Lord my God, what the next part of your Scripture reminds me of, and I will say it and not be afraid. For I will say true things by your inspiration, since you willed that I should say them from these words. For I do not believe that I speak the truth by any other inspiration than yours, since you are the Truth, but "every man is a liar"; and so "he who speaks a lie speaks from his own." So that I may speak the truth, then, I speak from what is yours. See, you have given us for food "every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has in itself the fruit of seed"; and not to us alone, but also to all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth and the serpents; but to the fish and the great whales you did not give these. For we said that by these fruits of the earth are signified and figured in allegory the works of mercy which are shown for the needs of this life from the fruitful earth. Such earth was the devout Onesiphorus, to whose house you gave mercy, because he often refreshed your Paul and was not ashamed of his chain. So too did the brothers, and they bore such fruit, who supplied what he lacked from Macedonia. But how he grieves over certain trees which did not give him the fruit they owed, when he says: "At my first defense no one stood by me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them." For these things are owed to those who minister rational teaching through the understanding of divine mysteries, and so they are owed to them as to men. They are owed to them also as to the living soul, since they offer themselves for imitation in all continence. Likewise they are owed to them as to flying creatures, because of their blessings, which multiply upon the earth, since "their sound has gone out into all the earth."

They are fed by these foods who rejoice in them; and those do not rejoice in them "whose god is their belly." For in those who give these things, too, the fruit is not what they give, but the spirit in which they give. And so I see plainly why he rejoices who "served God and not his own belly"; I see it, and I rejoice with him greatly. For he had received from the Philippians what they had sent by Epaphroditus; yet I see why he rejoices. And what he rejoices in, on that he feeds; for, speaking in truth, he says: "I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you have flourished again in caring for me, as you did care; but you had grown weary." So these had withered with long weariness, and as it were dried up from this fruit of good work; and he rejoices for them, because they flourished again, not for himself, because they relieved his need. So he goes on to say: "Not that I speak of want; for I have learned to be content in whatever state I am. I know how to have little, and I know how to abound; in everything and in all things I have been instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things in him who strengthens me."

In what, then, do you rejoice, great Paul? In what do you rejoice, on what do you feed, man "renewed in the knowledge of God according to the image of him who created you," living soul of such great continence, and winged tongue speaking mysteries? For to such living creatures this food is owed. What is it that feeds you? Joy. Let me hear what follows: "Nevertheless," he says, "you did well in sharing in my affliction." In this he rejoices, on this he feeds, that they did well, not that his distress was relieved, he who says to you, "In tribulation you have enlarged me," because he knows both how to abound and how to suffer need in you, who strengthen him. "For you yourselves also know, Philippians," he says, "that in the beginning of the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone; for even in Thessalonica you sent once and again for my needs." He now rejoices that they have returned to these good works, and is glad that they have flourished again, as at the reviving fertility of a field.

Is it for his own needs, because he said, "You sent for my needs," is it for that reason that he rejoices? Not for that reason. And how do we know this? Because he himself goes on to say: "Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit." I have learned from you, my God, to distinguish between gift and fruit. The gift is the thing itself which is given by one who shares these necessities, such as money, food, drink, clothing, shelter, help. But the fruit is the good and right will of the giver. For the good Teacher did not say only, "He who receives a prophet," but added, "in the name of a prophet"; nor did he say only, "He who receives a righteous man," but added, "in the name of a righteous man"; for so the one will receive a prophet's reward, the other a righteous man's reward. Nor did he say only, "He who gives a cup of cold water to drink to one of my least ones," but added, "only in the name of a disciple," and so continued, "Truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward." The gift is to receive a prophet, to receive a righteous man, to offer a cup of cold water to a disciple; but the fruit is to do this in the name of a prophet, in the name of a righteous man, in the name of a disciple. Elijah was fed with fruit by the widow, who knew that she was feeding a man of God and fed him for that reason; but by the raven he was fed with a gift. Nor was it the inner Elijah that was fed, but the outer, who could also have perished for lack of such food.

And so I will say what is true before you, Lord: when ignorant and unbelieving men, for whose initiation and winning the sacraments of initiation and the great works of miracles are necessary (which we believe are signified by the name of fish and whales), receive your servants to refresh them bodily or to help them in some need of this present life, while not knowing why this should be done or what it leads to, neither do they feed your servants nor are your servants fed by them; because neither do they do these things with a holy and right will, nor do your servants rejoice in their gifts, in which they do not yet see fruit. For the mind is fed by that in which it rejoices. And so the fish and whales do not feed on the foods which only the earth brings forth when it has been separated and divided from the bitterness of the sea's waves.

"And you saw, God, all that you had made, and behold, it was very good"; because we too see them, and behold, all things are very good. In each kind of your works, when you had said that they should be made and they had been made, you saw this and that, that it was good. I have counted seven times that it is written that you saw that what you made was good; and this is the eighth, that you saw all that you had made, and behold, it was not only good but also very good, as all together. For individually they were only good, but all together they were both good and very good. All beautiful bodies say this too; for a body made up of beautiful members is far more beautiful than the individual members themselves, by whose most ordered union the whole is completed, although they too are beautiful individually.

And I looked closely to find whether you saw seven or eight times that your works were good, when they pleased you; and I did not find in your seeing any times by which I might understand that you saw so many times what you had made. And I said: "O Lord, is not this Scripture of yours true, since you, being truthful and the Truth, have published it? Why, then, do you tell me that there are no times in your seeing, while this Scripture of yours tells me that on each day you saw that what you made was good, and when I counted them I found how many times?" To this you say to me, since you are my God and speak with a strong voice in the inner ear to your servant, breaking through my deafness and crying out: "O man, what my Scripture says, I say. And yet it says it in time, but time does not touch my Word, because it stands in eternity equal with me. So the things which you see through my Spirit, I see, just as the things which you say through my Spirit, I say. And so, while you see them in time, I do not see them in time; just as, while you say them in time, I do not say them in time."