Book W.

HE DESCRIBES HIS TWENTY-NINTH YEAR. HOW HE DISCOVERED THE FALLACIES OF THE MANICHEANS, AND BECame a ProfesSOR OF RHETORIC IN Rome and MILAN. HOW HE HEARD S. Ambrose,

AND BEGAN TO RETURN TO HIS RIGHT MIND.

CHAPTER I.

That it becomes the soul to praise God, and to confess to Him.

ACCEPT the sacrifice of my confessions offered by my

tongue, which thou hast formed and stirred up to confess unto Thy name. "Heal Thou all my bones, and let them say, O Lord, who is like unto Thee?" (Ps. xxxv. 10), for he that confesses to Thee, doth not inform Thee of what is wrought within him; seeing a closed heart cannot shut out Thine eye, nor can man's hardheartedness thrust back Thy hand: for Thou dost melt it, when Thou willest, either in pity or in vengeance, "and there is none hid from Thy heat" (Ps. xix. 6). But let my soul praise Thee, that it may love Thee; and let it confess to Thee Thy mercies, that it may praise Thee. Thy whole creation ceaseth not Thy praises, and is silent never: neither the spirit of every man, by his voice directed towards Thee, nor creatures animate or inanimate, by the voice of those who meditate thereon that so our souls may from their weariness arise towards Thee, leaning on those things which Thou hast created, and passing on to Thyself, who madest them wonderfully; and there is refreshment and true strength.

CHAPTER II.

Of the vanity of them that would escape from God, seeing He is
everywhere present.

LE

ET the restless and the unrighteous depart and flee from Thee; yet thou seest them, and dividest the darkness; and behold, all things with them are fair, but

themselves are foul. And how have they injured Thee? or how have they dishonoured thy government, which, from the heavens to this lowest earth is just and perfect? For whither fled they, when they fled from Thy presence? or where dost not Thou find them? But they fled, that they might not see Thee, who seest them, and, blinded, might stumble against Thee; because "Thou forsakest nothing Thou hast made" (Wisd. xi. 25), that the unjust might stumble against Thee, and justly be hurt; withdrawing themselves from Thy gentleness, and stumbling at Thy righteousness, and falling upon their own ruggedness. Indeed, they know not that thou art everywhere, and that no place encloseth Thee; and Thou alone art near, even to those that are far off from Thee. Let them then be converted and seek Thee because not as they have forsaken their Creator, hast Thou forsaken Thy creature. Let them be converted and seek Thee; and behold, Thou art there in their heart, in the heart of those that confess to Thee, and cast themselves upon Thee, and weep in Thy bosom, after all their rugged ways. Then dost Thou graciously wipe away their tears, and they weep the more, and joy in weeping; even for that Thou, Lord—not man of flesh and blood, but-Thou, Lord, who madest them, dost renew them and console them. But where was I, when I was seeking Thee? And Thou wert before me, but I had departed even from myself; nor did I find myself, how much less Thee!

CHAPTER III.

Having heard Faustus, the most learned bishop amongst the Manichæans, he understandeth that God, the Creator of things animate and inanimate, hath especial care for the lowly.

I

WILL now declare, in the presence of God, the twentyninth year of my age. There had at that time come to Carthage, a certain Bishop of the Manichæans, Faustus by name, a great snare of the Devil, and many were entangled by him through the charm of his fluent speech: but though I praised it, I was able to distinguish it from the truth of the things which I hungered to learn: nor did I care so much how that Faustus, so renowned among them, dished up his discourse, as what kind of food of knowledge he set

before me. Fame had before bespoken him most knowing in all honourable learning, and especially well equipped in the liberal sciences. And since I had read many treatises of philosophers, and kept in my mind their maxims, I compared some things of theirs with those long fables of the Manichæans, and the former struck me as more probable, which they taught who were able only to know so much as to judge this present world, though by no means could they find out the Lord thereof" (Wisdom xiii. 9). "For thou art great, O Lord, and hast respect unto the lowly, but the proud Thou beholdest afar off" (Ps. cxxxviii. 6). Nor dost thou "draw near," but to "the contrite in heart" (Ps. xxxiv. 18); nor art found by the proud; not even if by curious skill they could number the stars and the sand, and measure the starry regions, and track the paths of constellations.

For with their understanding and wit, which Thou bestowedst on them, they search out these things; and much have they found out; and foretold, many years before, eclipses of those luminaries, the sun and moon, at what day and hour they would be, and whether partial or total; nor did their calculation fail; and it came to pass as they foretold; and they wrote down the laws they had discovered, and these are read at this day, and out of them do others foretell in what year, and month of the year, and what day of the month, and what hour of the day, and what part of its light, moon, or sun is to be eclipsed, and as it is predicted, so will it happen. At these things men, that know not this art, marvel, and are astonished, and they that know it, exult, and are puffed up; and through their ungodly pride withdraw themselves from Thy Light, and are in eclipse, and though so long before they can foresee a coming eclipse of the sun, their own present eclipse they see not. For they search not religiously whence they have the wit, wherewith they search out this. And finding that Thou madest them, they give not themselves up to Thee, that Thou mayest keep what Thou hast made; nor do they sacrifice themselves to Thee, being such as they have made themselves; nor slay their own soaring imaginations, as "fowls of the air," nor their own curious enquiries, wherewith, like the "fishes of the sea," they walk through the secret paths of the deep (cf. Ps. viii. 8); nor their own wantonness, as

"beasts of the field," that "Thou, Lord, a consuming fire" (Deut. iv. 24), mayest burn up those dead cares of theirs, and renew them to immortality.

But they knew not the Way, Thy Word, by Whom Thou madest these things which they number, and themselves who number, and the sense whereby they perceive what they number, and the understanding, by which they number; or that "of Thy wisdom there is no number" (Ps. cxlvii. 5). But the Only Begotten is Himself "made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification" (1 Cor. i. 30), and was numbered among us, and "paid tribute unto Cæsar" (S. Matt. xvii. 27). They knew not this Way whereby to descend to Him from themselves, and by Him ascend unto Him. They knew not this Way, and deemed themselves exalted amongst the stars and shining; and behold, they fell to the earth "and their foolish heart was darkened" (Rom. i. 21). They discourse many things truly concerning the creature; but Truth, Artificer of the creature, they seek not piously, and therefore find him not; or if they find Him, "knowing Him to be God, they glorify Him not as God, neither are thankful, but become vain in their imaginations, and profess themselves to be wise" (Rom. i. 21, 22), attributing to themselves what is Thine; and thereby with most perverse blindness, seek to attribute to Thee what is their own, speaking lies against Thee who art the Truth, and "changing the glory of the uncorruptible God, into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things, changing Thy truth into a lie, and worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator" (Rom. i. 23-25).

Yet I remembered many truths concerning the creature declared by these men; and their reasoning was confirmed to me by their calculations, and the succession of times, and the visible testimony of the stars; and I compared them with the sayings of Manichæus, who in his crazy folly has written much and copiously upon these subjects; but none of his reasoning of the solstices, nor equinoxes, nor eclipses, nor whatever of this kind I had learned in books of secular philosophy, was satisfactory to me. But I was commanded to believe; and yet it corresponded not with the reasonings obtained by calculations, and by my own observations, but was quite contrary.

CHAPTER IV.

That no scientific acquaintance with things terrestrial or celestial can give happiness, but only the knowledge of God.

DOTH then, O Lord God of truth, whoso knoweth these

things, therefore please Thee? Nay, but unhappy is the man who knoweth all these, and knoweth not Thee: but happy whoso knoweth Thee, though he know not these. And whoso knoweth both Thee and them, is not the more blessed for knowing them, but for Thee alone is blessed, if, "knowing Thee, he glorifies Thee as God, and is thankful, and becomes not vain in his imaginations" (Rom. i. 21). For as he is better off, who knows how to possess a tree, and returns thanks to Thee for the use thereof, although he know not how many cubits high it is, or how wide it spreads, than he that can measure it, and count all its boughs, and neither possesses it, nor knows or loves its Creator: so a faithful man, to whom all the world of wealth belongs, and "who having nothing, yet possesseth all things" (2 Cor. vi. 10), by cleaving unto Thee, whom all things serve, though he know not even the circles of the Great Bear, yet is it folly to doubt but he is in a better state than one who can measure the heavens, and number the stars, and weigh the elements, yet neglecteth Thee "Who hast made all things in number, weight, and measure" (Wisd. xi. 20).

CHAPTER V.

Concerning Manichæus; his pertinacity in teaching falsehood, and his pride in claiming to be the Holy Spirit.

BUT yet who bade that Manichæus write on these things

also, since piety could be learnt without any skill in such matters ? "For Thou hast said to man, Behold, piety is wisdom (Job xxviii. 28); of the one he might be ignorant, though he had a perfect knowledge of these things; but inasmuch as he most impudently dared to teach these things, though he knew nothing about them, he plainly could have no knowledge of piety. For it is vanity to make profession of these worldly things even when