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34. Let no one now trouble me by saying, Moses thought not as you
say, but as I say." For should he ask me, "Whence knowest thou
that Moses thought this which you deduce from his words?" I ought to
take it contented]y, and reply perhaps as I have before, or somewhat
more fully should he be obstinate. But when he says, "Moses meant
not what you say, [but what I say," and yet denies not what each of
us says, and that both are true, O my God, life of the poor, in
whose bosom there is no contradiction, pour down into my heart Thy
soothings, that I may patiently bear with such as say this to me; not
because they are divine, and because they have seen in the heart of
Thy servant what they say, but because they are proud, and have not
known the opinion of Moses, but love their own,- not because it is
true, but because it is their own. Otherwise they would equally love
another true opinion, as I love what they say when they speak what is
true j not because it is theirs, but because it is true, and therefore
now not theirs because true. But if they therefore love that because
it is true, it is now both theirs and mine, since it is common :to
all the lovers of truth. But because they contend that Moses meant
not what I say, but I what they themselves say, this I neither like
nor love; because, though it were so, yet that rashness is not of
knowledge, but of audacity; and not vision, but vanity brought it
forth. And therefore, 0 Lord, are Thy judgments to be dreaded,
since Thy truth is neither mine, nor his, nor another's, but of all
of us, whom Thou publicly callest to have it in common, warning us
terribly not to hold it as specially for ourselves, test we be deprived
of it. For whosoever claims to himself as his own that which Thou
appointed to all to enjoy, and desires that to be his own which belongs
to all, is forced away from what is common to all to that which is his
own that is, from truth to falsehood. For he that "speaketh a
lie, speaketh of his Own. I,
35. Hearken, O God, Thou best Judge! Truth itself, hearken
to what I shall say to this gainsayer; hearken, for before Thee I
say it, and before my brethren who use Thy law lawfully, to the end
of charity. hearken and behold what I shall say to him, if it be
pleasing unto Thee. For this brotherly and peaceful word do I return
unto him: "If we both see that that which thou sayest is true, and
if we both see that what I say is true, where, I ask, do we see
it? Certainly not I in thee, nor thou in me, but both in the
unchangeable truth itself? which is above our minds." When,
therefore, we may not contend about the very light of the Lord our
God, why do we contend about the thoughts of. our neighbour, which
we cannot so see as incommutable truth is seen; when, if Moses
himself had appeared to us and said, "This I meant," not so should
we see it, but believe it? Let us not, then, "be puffed up for one
against the other,". above that which is written; let us love the
Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our
mind, and our neighbour as ourself. As to which two precepts of
charity, unless we believe that Moses meant whatever in these books he
did mean, we shall make God a liar when we think otherwise concerning
our fellow-servants' mind than He hath taught us. Behold, now,
how foolish it is, in so great an abundance of the truest opinions
which can be extracted from these words, rashly to affirm which of them
Moses particularly meant; and with pernicious contentions to offend
charity itself, on account of which he hath spoken all the things whose
words we endeavour to explain.
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