Tuesday
BOOK FIVESt. Augustine's twenty-ninth year. Faustus, a snare of
Satan to many, made an instrument of deliverance to St. Augustine,
by showing the ignorance of the Manichees on those things, wherein
they professed to have divine knowledge. Augustine gives up all
thought of going further among the Manichees: is guided to Rome
and Milan, where he hears St. Ambrose, leaves the Manichees, and
becomes again a Catechumen in the Church Catholic.
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, out of which they number; or that of Thy
wisdom there is no number. But the Only Begotten is Himself made
unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and was
numbered among us, and paid tribute unto Caesar. 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 upon
the earth, and their foolish heart was darkened. 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, attributing to
themselves what is Thine; and thereby with most perverse blindness,
study to impute to Thee what is their own, forging lies of Thee
who art the Truth, and changing the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like corruptible man, and to birds, and
four-footed beasts, and creeping things, changing Thy truth into
a lie, and worshipping and serving the creature more than the
Creator.
Yet many truths concerning the creature retained I from these
men, and saw the reason thereof from calculations, the succession
of times, and the visible testimonies of the stars; and compared
them with the saying of Manicheus, which in his frenzy he had
written most largely on these subjects; but discovered not any
account of the solstices, or equinoxes, or the eclipses of the
greater lights, nor whatever of this sort I had learned in the
books of secular philosophy. But I was commanded to believe; and
yet it corresponded not with what had been established by calculations
and my own sight, but was quite contrary.
Doth then, O Lord God of truth, whoso knoweth these things, therefore
please Thee? Surely unhappy is he 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 happier for them,
but for Thee only, if, knowing Thee, he glorifies Thee as God,
and is thankful, and becomes not vain in his imaginations. For
as he is better off who knows how to possess a tree, and return
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 owns it, nor knows or
loves its Creator: so a believer, whose all this world of wealth
is, and who having nothing, yet possesseth all things, 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 poise the elements, yet neglecteth Thee who hast
made all things in number, weight, and measure.
But yet who bade that Manicheus write on these things also, skill
in which was no element of piety? For Thou hast said to man, Behold
piety and wisdom; of which he might be ignorant, though he had
perfect knowledge of these things; but these things, since, knowing
not, he most impudently dared to teach, he plainly could have
no knowledge of piety. For it is vanity to make profession of
these worldly things even when known; but confession to Thee is
piety. Wherefore this wanderer to this end spake much of these
things, that convicted by those who had truly learned them, it
might be manifest what understanding he had in the other abstruser
things. For he would not have himself meanly thought of, but went
about to persuade men, "That the Holy Ghost, the Comforter
and Enricher of Thy faithful ones, was with plenary authority
personally within him." When then he was found out to have
taught falsely of the heaven and stars, and of the motions of
the sun and moon (although these things pertain not to the doctrine
of religion), yet his sacrilegious presumption would become evident
enough, seeing he delivered things which not only he knew not,
but which were falsified, with so mad a vanity of pride, that
he sought to ascribe them to himself, as to a divine person.
For when I hear any Christian brother ignorant of these things,
and mistaken on them, I can patiently behold such a man holding
his opinion; nor do I see that any ignorance as to the position
or character of the corporeal creation can injure him, so long
as he doth not believe any thing unworthy of Thee, O Lord, the
Creator of all. But it doth injure him, if he imagine it to pertain
to the form of the doctrine of piety, and will yet affirm that
too stiffly whereof he is ignorant. And yet is even such an infirmity,
in the infancy of faith, borne by our mother Charity, till the
new-born may grow up unto a perfect man, so as not to be carried
about with every wind of doctrine. But in him who in such wise
presumed to be the teacher, source, guide, chief of all whom he
could so persuade, that whoso followed him thought that he followed,
not a mere man, but Thy Holy Spirit; who would not judge that
so great madness, when once convicted of having taught any thing
false, were to be detested and utterly rejected? But I had not
as yet clearly ascertained whether the vicissitudes of longer
and shorter days and nights, and of day and night itself, with
the eclipses of the greater lights, and whatever else of the kind
I had read of in other books, might be explained consistently
with his sayings; so that, if they by any means might, it should
still remain a question to me whether it were so or no; but I
might, on account of his reputed sanctity, rest my credence upon
his authority.