For if we find our happiness complete in one another, we stop
short upon the road, and place our hope of happiness in man or
angel. Now the proud man and the proud angel arrogate this to
themselves, and are glad to have the hope of others fixed upon
them. But, on the contrary, the holy man and the holy angel,
even when we are weary and anxious to stay with them and rest
in them, set themselves to recruit our energies with the provision
which they have received of God for us or for themselves; and
then urge us thus refreshed to go on our way towards Him, in
the enjoyment of whom we find our common happiness. For even
the apostle exclaims, "Was Paul crucified for you? Or were
ye baptized in the name of Paul?" And again: "Neither
is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God
that giveth the increase." And the angel admonisheth the
man who is about to worship him, that he should rather worship
Him who is his Master, and under whom he himself is a fellow-servant.
37. But when you have joy of a man in God, it is God rather than
man that you enjoy. For you enjoy Him by whom you are made happy,
and you rejoice to have come to Him in whose presence you place
your hope of joy. And accordingly, Paul says to Philemon, "Yea,
brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord." For if he
had not added "in the Lord," but had only said, "Let
me have joy of thee," he would have implied that he fixed
his hope of happiness upon him, although even in the immediate
context to "enjoy" is used in the sense of to "use
with delight." For when the thing that we love is near us,
it is a matter of course that it should bring delight with it.
And if you pass beyond this delight, and make it a means to that
which you are permanently to rest in, you are using it, and it
is an abuse of language to say that you enjoy it. But if you
cling to it, and rest in it, finding your happiness complete
in it, then you may be truly and properly said to enjoy it. And
this we must never do except in the case of the Blessed Trinity,
who is the Supreme and Unchangeable God.
Christ the first way to God
And mark that even when He who is Himself the Truth and the Word,
by whom all things were made, had been made flesh that He might
dwell among us, the apostle yet says: "Yea, though we have
known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him
no more." For Christ, desiring not only to give the possession
to those who had completed the journey, but also to be Himself
the way to those who were just setting out, determined to take
a fleshly body. Whence also that expression, "The Lord created
me in the beginning of His way," that is, that those who
wished to come might begin their journey in Him. The apostle,
therefore, although still on the way, and following after God
who called him to the reward of His heavenly calling, yet forgetting
those things which were behind, and pressing on towards those
things which were before, had already passed over the beginning
of the way, and had now no further need of it; yet by this way
all must commence their journey who desire to attain to the truth,
and to rest in eternal life. For He says: "I am the way,
and the truth, and the life;" that is, by me men come, to
me they come, in me they rest. For when we come to Him, we come
to the Father also, because through an equal an equal is known;
and the Holy Spirit binds, and as it were seals us, so that we
are able to rest permanently in the supreme and unchangeable
God. And hence we may learn how essential it is that nothing
should detain us on the way, when not even our Lord Himself,
so far as He has condescended to be our way, is willing to detain
us, but wishes us rather to press on; and, instead of weakly
clinging to temporal things, even though these have been put
on and worn by Him for our salvation, to pass over them quickly,
and to struggle to attain unto Himself, who has freed our nature
from the bondage of temporal things, and has set it down at the
right hand of His Father.
The fulfilment and end of Scripture is the love of God and our
neighbour
Of all, then, that has been said since we entered upon the discussion
about things, this is the sum: that we should clearly understand
that the fulfilment and the end of the Law, and of all Holy Scripture,
is the love of an object which is to be enjoyed, and the love
of an object which can enjoy that other in fellowship with ourselves.
For there is no need of a command that each man should love himself.
The whole temporal dispensation for our salvation, therefore,
was framed by the providence of God that we might know this truth
and be able to act upon it; and we ought to use that dispensation,
not with such love and delight as if it were a good to rest in,
but with a transient feeling rather, such as we have towards
the road, or carriages, or other things that are merely means.
Perhaps some other comparison can be found that will more suitably
express the idea that we are to love the things by which we are
borne only for the sake of that towards which we are borne.
That interpretation of Scripture which builds us up in love is
not perniciously deceptive nor mendacious, even though it be
faulty. The interpreter, however should be corrected
Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures,
or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them
as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our
neighbour, does not yet understand them as he ought. If, on the
other hand, a man draws a meaning from them that may be used
for the building up of love, even though he does not happen upon
the precise meaning which the author whom he reads intended to
express in that place, his error is not pernicious, and he is
wholly clear from the charge of deception. For there is involved
in deception the intention to say what is false; and we find
plenty of people who intend to deceive, but nobody who wishes
to be deceived. Since, then, the man who knows practices deceit,
and the ignorant man is practiced upon, it is quite clear that
in any particular case the man who is deceived is a better man
than he who deceives, seeing that it is better to suffer than
to commit injustice. Now every man who lies commits an injustice;
and if any man thinks that a lie is ever useful, he must think
that injustice is sometimes useful. For no liar keeps faith in
the matter about which he lies. He wishes, of course, that the
man to whom he lies should place confidence in him; and yet he
betrays his confidence by lying to him. Now every man who breaks
faith is unjust. Either, then, injustice is sometimes useful
(which is impossible), or a lie is never useful. Whoever takes
another meaning out of Scripture than the writer intended, goes
astray, but not through any falsehood in Scripture. Nevertheless,
as I was going to say, if his mistaken interpretation tends to
build up love, which is the end of the commandment, he goes astray
in much the same way as a man who by mistake quits the high road,
but yet reaches through the fields the same place to which the
road leads. He is to be corrected, however, and to be shown how
much better it is not to quit the straight road, lest, if he
get into a habit of going astray, he may sometimes take cross
roads, or even go in the wrong direction altogether.
Dangers of mistaken interpretation
For if he takes up rashly a meaning which the author whom he
is reading did not intend, he often falls in with other statements
which he cannot harmonize with this meaning. And if he admits
that these statements are true and certain, then it follows that
the meaning he had put upon the former passage cannot be the
true one: and so it comes to pass, one can hardly tell how, that,
out of love for his own opinion, he begins to feel more angry
with Scripture than he is with himself. And if he should once
permit that evil to creep in, it will utterly destroy him. "For
we walk by faith, not by sight." Now faith will totter if
the authority of Scripture begin to shake. And then, if faith
totter, love itself will grow cold. For if a man has fallen from
faith, he must necessarily also fall from love; for he cannot
love what he does not believe to exist. But if he both believes
and loves, then through good works, and through diligent attention
to the precepts of morality, he comes to hope also that he shall
attain the object of his love. And so these are the three things
to which all knowledge and all prophecy are subservient: faith,
hope, love.
Love never faileth
But sight shall displace faith; and hope shall be swallowed up
in that perfect bliss to which we shall come: love, on the other
hand, shall wax greater when these others fail. For if we love
by faith that which as yet we see not, how much more shall we
love it when we begin to see! And if we love by hope that which
as yet we have not reached, how much more shall we love it when
we reach it! For there is this great difference between things
temporal and things eternal, that a temporal object is valued
more before we possess it, and begins to prove worthless the
moment we attain it, because it does not satisfy the soul, which
has its only true and sure resting-place in eternity: an eternal
object, on the other hand, is loved with greater ardour when
it is in possession than while it is still an object of desire,
for no one in his longing for it can set a higher value on it
than really belongs to it, so as to think it comparatively worthless
when he finds it of less value than he thought; on the contrary,
however high the value any man may set upon it when he is on
his way to possess it, he will find it, when it comes into his
possession, of higher value still.
He who is mature in faiths hope and love, needs Scripture no
longer
And thus a man who is resting upon faith, hope and love, and
who keeps a firm hold upon these, does not need the Scriptures
except for the purpose of instructing others. Accordingly, many
live without copies of the Scriptures, even in solitude, on the
strength of these three graces. So that in their case, I think,
the saying is already fulfilled: "Whether there be prophecies,
they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease;
whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." Yet by
means of these instruments (as they may be called), so great
an edifice of faith and love has been built up in them, that,
holding to what is perfect, they do not seek for what is only
in part perfect--of course, I mean, so far as is possible in
this life; for, in comparison with the future life, the life
of no just and holy man is perfect here. Therefore the apostle
says: "Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but
the greatest of these is charity:" because, when a man shall
have reached the eternal world, while the other two graces will
fail, love will remain greater and more assured.
What manner of reader Scripture demands
And, therefore, if a man fully understands that "the end
of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and of a
good conscience, and of faith unfeigned," and is bent upon
making all his understanding of Scripture to bear upon these
three graces, he may come to the interpretation of these books
with an easy mind. For while the apostle says "love,"
he adds "out of a pure heart," to provide against anything
being loved but that which is worthy of love. And he joins with
this "a good conscience," in reference to hope; for,
if a man has the burthen of a bad conscience, he despairs of
ever reaching that which he believes in and loves. And in the
third place he says: "and of faith unfeigned." For
if our faith is free from all hypocrisy, then we both abstain
from loving what is unworthy of our love, and by living uprightly
we are able to indulge the hope that our hope shall not be in
vain. For these reasons I have been anxious to speak about the
objects of faith, as far as I thought it necessary for my present
purpose; for much has already been said on this subject in other
volumes, either by others or by myself. And so let this be the
end of the present book. In the Next
I shall discuss, as far
as God shall give me light, the subject of signs.