POETS BETTER THAN MANICHEANS

57

have a real existence are more certain; and still further, the bodies themselves which really exist are more certain than the images of them, which bodies Thou art not; nor art Thou the soul, which is the life of the bodies; and better indeed and more certain is the life of the bodies than the bodies! But Thou art the Life of souls, the Life of lives, the Life self-derived and unchangeable, the Life of my soul.

But where wert Thou then, and how far from me? And I gone indeed into a far country, away from Thee, debarred even from feeding on the husks of the swine,' whom with husks I fed. For how much better were the fables of the grammarians and poets, than these deceptions ! For verses and poems and "Medea's Flight" were certainly more useful, than their fair elements, variously dyed, corresponding to the fair caverns of darkness, which have no existence at all, and destroy him who believes in them. For a verse or a song I can turn into real meat. But of "Medea's Flight," although I sang, I did not appropriate the story; though I heard it sung, I did not give it credit but those things I did believe.

Alas! alas! by what steps was I brought down to "the depths of hell"!3 Toiling indeed and restless through lack of the Truth, when for Thee, my God, I sought (for to Thee I now confess it, Who hadst mercy on me, when not yet confessing it)-when for Thee

Luke xv. 16.

2 The Manichæans held that on the side of the great and holy land was a deep and immense region of darkness, in which there were five elements, viz. vapour, darkness, fire, water, and wind; and that each element produced a chief, who in that particular region or nation bore rule under "the cruel prince and leader of all." 3 Prov. ix. 18.

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GOD WRONGLY SOUGHT

I sought, not according to the understanding of the mind-that faculty whereby Thou didst will that I should be superior to the beasts—but according to the sense of the flesh. But Thou wert deeper within me than my deepest thought, and higher than my highest. I came upon that bold woman, void of wisdom, according to Solomon's parable," sitting at the door, and saying, Eat ye bread of secrecy freely, and drink stolen waters which are sweet;"1 she seduced me, because she found me dwelling on outward objects, and ruminating on such food, as with the eye of flesh I had swallowed down.

CHAPTER VII.

The Doctrine of the Manichaeans, to which he had given his Adhesion, absurd.

FOR

OR I did not know of anything else which really existed; and I was as it were adroitly persuaded to cast in my lot with foolish deceivers, who put to me the question, "Whence is evil?" and, "Is God enclosed by a bodily form, having hair and nails?” and, "Are those men to be accounted righteous who had many wives at once, and those who killed men, and those who offered animals in sacrifice?" These questions perplexed me very much, in my ignorance, and when I was going away from the truth, I thought to myself that I was making towards it; for I did not yet know, that evil was nothing else but the privation of good until at last a thing had no existence remaining to it. And how should I see this, as my eyes reached only to bodies, and my mind only to material

Prov. ix. 13-17.

GOD'S LAW CHANGELESS YET ADAPTABLE 59

conceptions? And I knew not that "God was a Spirit," and that as such, He had neither members, nor height, nor breadth, nor bulk; for that which has bulk is less in a part than in the whole, and if it is infinite, it will be less than infinite in some circumscribed part; and cannot be everywhere whole, as a Spirit, as God. And what that could be in us, according to which we were like unto God, and were rightly said in Scripture to be "after the image of God," I had no idea.

I

And I did not know that true inward righteousness, which does not judge by custom, but according to the most righteous law of God, by which the manners of countries and times were suited to those different countries and times-a law which is always and everywhere the same, and not one thing at one time or place, and another at another; according to this law, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David were righteous, and all those who have been commended by the Mouth of God: but the same persons were condemned by foolish men, who "judge according to man's day," and measure the manners of the whole human race by their own narrow rule. As if any one who knew nothing of armour, and was ignorant of the member of the body to which each piece belonged, should cover his head with greaves, or try to put the helmet on his feet, and then complain that they did not fit; or, as if on a day when there was a public suspension of business in the afternoon, any one should be vexed that he was not allowed to keep his shop open, because in the morning he had been allowed to carry on his trade; or when in one house he should complain, because some servant took a thing I Gen. i. 27. 2 I Cor. iv. 3.

60 TIME AND PLACE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT

in his hands, which usually the butler is not allowed to touch; or something done behind the stables, which is not permitted in the dining-room; and should be indignant because in one family and household, all have not precisely the same arrangements. Such are those who are vexed, when they hear that in one age something was lawful for just men, which is now forbidden them; and that for certain reasons connected with the times, God commanded one thing then, and commands another thing now, and both obeyed the same righteousness when they see, in one man and one day and one house, different things suited to different members, and one thing which was a little time since lawful, after a while not so; and a thing permitted or enjoined in one corner, justly forbidden or punished in another. Is justice, then, a variable and changeable thing? No, but the times vary, over which it presides; for they are only times. But men-whose life on earth is short-because they have not the power to fit together the causes which operated in past times and other nations, of which they have had no experience, with those which they have experienced; whereas in one body, time, or household they can easily see what is fitting for each member, season, part, or person; take offence at the former, but concur with the latter.

These things at that time I did not know, and did not observe; though they met my eye on every side, yet I did not see them. In making verses, I was not allowed to place every foot everywhere, but I had to arrange each foot according to the particular metre, and in no single verse the same foot in all places; yet the art itself of versification embraced within one principle all these various measures. And I did not

NOT WORDS ONLY BUT ACTS PROPHETIC 61

see that the law of righteousness which good and holy men obeyed, did in a far more sublime and excellent manner contain in one all that God commanded, and was in itself unchangeable; and yet it was not all at once enjoined, but at various times, according to the requirements and capacities of each succeeding age. I then, in my blindness, found fault with the holy patriarchs, not only for using things in their day, such as God commanded and inspired them to use; but also for their prophetic actions, whereby God was revealing in them things to come.

CHAPTER VIII.

He argues against the Manichaeans, as to what Dffences are always detestable, and what are Crimes.

WAS

AS it ever then or anywhere unjust "to love God with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind, and to love our neighbour as ourself"?' Therefore unnatural crimes have been at all times and in all places detested and punished, such, for instance, as were those of the men of Sodom. For all nations, if they committed such offences, would stand equally guilty at the bar of the Law of God, Who hath not made men for such an end. For that fellowship which we should have with God is violated, when that nature of which He is the Author is polluted by a perverted lust. But offences which are simply against customs, are to be avoided according to the custom which prevails at the particular time; so that an agreement made by any city or nation, and ratified by law and 1 Matt. xxii. 37-39.