182 GOD ALONE, ETERNAL AN CHAPTER XV. How Truth and Falsehood are in Creatures. ND I reflected on other things, and saw that they owed their being to Thee, and were all bounded in Thee; yet not in such a manner as if in a place, but because Thou holdest all things in Thy Hand, in truth; and all things, in so far as they have a being, are true; nor is there any falsehood, unless something is supposed to exist which does not exist. And I saw that all things harmonised, both in respect of their proper places and proper seasons. And that Thou, Who art alone eternal, didst not begin to work after innumerable spaces of time; for that spaces of time, both in the past and in the future, neither go nor come, save through Thee, working and abiding. CHAPTER XVI. All Things are good, although not suitable to all AND I felt and discovered that it was nothing wonderful, that bread which is sweet to the healthy palate, should be distasteful to one diseased; and that to weak eyes the light should be painful, which to sound ones is a positive delight. And Thy Justice offended the wicked; much more the viper and the worm, which Thou hast created good, having their fitting place in the lower portions of Thy creation; with which the wicked themselves correspond, the EVIL, THE perversion OF THE WILL 183 more unlike they are to Thee; but according as they become more like to Thee, so may they be compared with the superior creatures. And I sought what iniquity was, and found that it was no substance, but the perversion of the will, turned away from Thee, the Supreme Being, to the lower things, and "casting out its inmost parts," and swelling externally. CHAPTER XVII. What retarded his Knowledge of Divine Things. A ND I marvelled that I now loved Thee, and no phantasm instead of Thee. Yet I did not eagerly press on to enjoy my God; but I was drawn to Thee by Thy Beauty, and soon borne down from Thee by my own weight, and I sorrowfully relapsed into those lower things; and the weight which dragged me down was carnal habit. But the remembrance of Thee did not fade away, nor did I at all doubt that there was One to Whom I should cling, but I was not yet in such a state as to be able to cleave to Him, for "the corruptible body presseth down the soul; and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things."2 And I was most certain, that Thy "invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even Thy eternal Power and Godhead." 3 For seeking, what it was which led me to admire the beauty of bodies whether heavenly or earthly; and what enabled me to exercise sound judgment on mutable things, and to say, "This ought to be thus, that not Ecclus. x. 10. 2 Wisd. ix. 15. 3 Rom. i. 20. 184 A FLASH OF THE HIGHEST TRUTH so;" seeking, I say, from whence I derived this judgment, when I so judged, I arrived at the unchangeable and true eternity of Truth, above my changeable mind. And thus by degrees I passed from bodies to the soul, which perceives through the body; and thence to those inward powers, to which the outward senses of the body appeal, so far the beasts possess the same; and thence further to that reasoning faculty to which the information brought in by the senses is referred, that judgment may be passed upon it. Which faculty also finding itself variable, raised itself up to its own understanding, and abstracted my thoughts by habit, drawing itself from those troops of contradictory phantasms, that so it may discover what that light was by which it was besprinkled, when, all doubt being dismissed, it cried out "that the unchangeable is to be preferred to the changeable;" whence it knew the Unchangeable itself, for without some knowledge of it, it could have in no way preferred it to the changeable. And it came to that which IS, with the flash of a trembling glance. And then I saw Thy "invisible things, understood through the things which are made;" but I could not behold them with fixed gaze, and through my infirmity beaten back, I returned to my accustomed ways, carrying nothing away with me but a loving remembrance and a longing for that, the savour of which I had smelt, so to speak, but of which I was not yet able to eat. CHRIST, THE ONE MEDIATOR 185 CHAPTER XVIII. Christ alone, the Way to Salvation. AND I sought a way of gaining the strength which I was requisite that I might enjoy Thee; and I found it not, until I had embraced "the Mediator of God and man, the Man Christ Jesus," "Who is above all, God blessed for ever," calling unto me and saying, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life," 3 and mingling that food which I was too weak to receive with our flesh; for "the Word was made flesh," 4 that Thy Wisdom, by which Thou hast created all things, might be capable of yielding milk for our infancy. For I did not as yet apprehend my Lord Jesus, as the humble grasps the Humble One; nor did I know the lesson which His weakness was to teach For Thy Word, Eternal Truth, superior to all the higher parts of Thy creation, elevates those who are brought low to Himself: but in this lower world He has built for Himself a lowly house of our clay, so that He might cast down from themselves such as willed to be subjected, and bring them over to Himself, healing their swelling, and nourishing their love; so that they may not go on any longer in self-confidence, but rather become weak, before whose feet Divinity Itself is weak, through taking our coats of skins; "5 us. II Tim. ii. 5. 3 John xiv. 6. 2 Rom. ix. 5. 4 John i. 14. 5 That is, our mortality, for skins are taken from dead animals. Our first parents were clothed with "coats of skins," figuring their liability to death. 186 CHRIST AS MAN, MAN'S EXAMPLE and wearied, might prostrate themselves upon It, and be lifted up by Its rising. CHAPTER XIX. What he perceived of the Mystery of the Incarnation. BUT UT I thought otherwise, conceiving only of my Lord Christ as of a Man of excellent wisdom, to Whom no one could be equalled; because in that He was wonderfully born of the Virgin, to be an example to us of the way temporal things should be despised for the obtaining of immortality, He seemed, through the Divine care for us, to have gained so great eminence as a Master. But what mystery "the Word was made flesh" had in it, I could not even suspect. Only I had learned out of what was written of Him and delivered to us, that He ate, drank, slept, walked, rejoiced, grieved, and conversed; that the flesh was not joined to Thy Word alone, but also with the human soul and mind. This all know who know the unchangeableness of Thy Word, which I already knew, as far as I could, nor did I at all doubt of it. For to move or not to move the limbs at will; now to be touched with some affection, now not; now to give utterance to wise sayings by signs, now to be silent,are the properties of a soul and mind which are liable to changes. But if these things which are written about Him be false, all the rest would be suspected of untruth, nor in those writings would any saving faith remain for mankind. Since, then, they were written truly, I recognised in Christ man's entire nature; not man's body only, nor body and soul without mind,' but 'An allusion to the tripartite division of man's nature into |