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1. IN the book before this, viz. the twelfth of this work, we
have done enough to distinguish the office of the rational mind in
temporal things, wherein not only our knowing but our action is
concerned, from the more excellent office of the same mind, which is
employed in contemplating eternal things, and is limited to knowing
alone. But I think it more convenient that I should insert somewhat
out of the Holy Scriptures, by which the two may more easily be
distinguished.
2. John the Evangelist has thus begun his Gospel: "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were
made by Him; and without was Him not anything made that was made.
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light
shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was
a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a
witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through Him
might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness
of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man
that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was
made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own,
and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on
His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of
the only-begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." This
entire passage, which I have here taken from the Gospel, contains in
its earlier portions what is immutable and eternal, the contemplation
of which makes us blessed; but in those which follow, eternal things
are mentioned in conjunction with temporal things. And hence some
things there belong to knowledge, some to wisdom, according to our
previous distinction in the twelfth book. For the words, " In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were
made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light
shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not: " require
a contemplative life, and must be discerned by the intellectual mind;
and the more any one has profiled in this, the wiser without doubt will
he become. But on account of the verse, "The light shineth in
darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not," faith certainly was
necessary, whereby that which was not seen might be believed. For by
"darkness" he intended to signify the hearts of mortals turned away
from light of this kind, and hardly able to behold it; for which
reason he subjoins. "There was a man sent from God, whose name was
John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light,
that all men through Him might believe." But here we come to a thing
that was done in time, and belongs to knowledge, which is comprised in
the cognizance of facts. And we think of the man John under that
phantasy which is impressed on our memory from the notion of human
nature. And whether men believe or not, they think this in the same
manner. For both alike know what man is, the outer part of whom,
that is, his body, they have learned through the eyes of the body;
but of the inner, that is, the soul, they possess the knowledge in
themselves, because they also themselves are men, and through
intercourse with men; so that they are able to think what is said,
"There was a man, whose name was John," because they know the
names also by interchange of speech. But that which is there also,
viz. "sent from God," they who hold at all, hold by faith; and
they who do not hold it by faith, either hesitate through doubt, or
deride it through unbelief. Yet both, if they are not in the number
of those over-foolish ones, who say in their heart "There is no
God," when they, hear these words, think both things, viz. both
what God is, and what it is to be sent from God; and if they do not
do this as the things themselves really are, they do it at any rate as
they can.
3. Further, we know from other sources the faith itself which a man
sees to be in his own heart, if he believes, or not to be there, if
he does not believe: but not as we know bodies, which we see with the
bodily eyes, and think of even when absent through the images of
themselves which we retain in memory; nor yet as those things which we
have not seen, and which we frame howsoever we can in thought from
those which we have seen, and commit them to memory, that we may recur
to them when we will, in order that therein we may similarly by
recollection discern them, or rather discern the images of them, of
what sort soever these are which we have fixed there; nor again as a
living man, whose soul we do not indeed see, but conjecture from our
own, and from corporeal motions gaze also in thought upon the living
man, as we have learnt him by sight. Faith as not so seen in the
heart in which it is, by him whose it is; but most certain knowledge
holds it fast, and conscience proclaims it. Although therefore we are
bidden to believe on this account, because we cannot see what we are
bidden to believe; nevertheless we see faith itself in ourselves, when
that faith is in us; because faith even in absent things is present,
and faith in things which are without us is within, and faith in things
which are not seen is itself seen, and itself none the less comes into
the hearts of men in time; and if any cease to be faithful and become
unbelievers, then it perishes from them. And sometimes faith is
accommodated even to falsehoods; for we sometimes so speak as to say,
I put faith in him, and he deceived me. And this kind of faith, if
indeed it too is to be called faith, perishes from the heart without
blame, when truth is found and expels it. But faith in things that
are true, passes, as one should wish it to pass, into the things
themselves. For we must not say that faith perishes, when those
things which were believed are seen. For is it indeed still to be
called faith, when faith, according to the definition in the Epistle
to the Hebrews, is the evidence of things not seen?
4. In the words which follow next, "The same came for a witness,
to hear witness of the Light, that all men through him might
believe;" the action, as we have said, is one done in time. For to
bear witness even to that which is eternal, as is that light that is
intelligible, is a thing done in time. And of this it was that John
came to bear witness who "was not that Light, but was sent to bear
witness of that Light." For he adds "That was the true Light that
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world,
and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came
unto His own, and His own received Him not." Now they who know
the Latin language, understand all these words, from those things
which they know: and of these, some have become known to us through
the senses of the body, as man, as the world itself, of which the
greatness is so evident to our sight; as again the sounds of the words
themselves, for hearing also is a sense of the body; and some through
the reason of the mind, as that which is said, "And His own
received Him not;" for this means, that they did not believe in
Him; and what belief is, we do not know by any sense of the body,
but by the reason of the mind. We have learned, too, not the
sounds, but the meanings of the words themselves, partly through the
sense of the body, partly through the reason of the mind. Nor have we
now heard those words for the first time, but they are words we had
heard before. And we were retaining in our memory as things known,
and we here recognized, not only the words themselves, but also what
they meant. For when the bisyllabic word mundus is uttered, then
something that is certainly corporeal, for it is a sound, has become
known through the body, that is, through the ear. But that which it
means also, has become known through the body, that is, through the
eyes of the flesh. For so far as the world is known to us at all, it
is known through sight. But the quadri-syllabic word crediderunt
reaches us, so far as its sound, since that is a corporeal thing,
through the ear of the flesh; but its meaning is discoverable by no
sense of the body, but by the reason of the mind. For unless we knew
through the mind what the word crediderunt meant, we should not
understand what they did not do, of whom it is said, "And His own
received Him not." The sound then of the word rings upon the ears of
the body from without, and reaches the sense which is called hearing.
The species also of man is both known to us in ourselves, and is
presented to the senses of the body from without, in other men; to the
eyes, when it is seen; to the ears, when it is heard; to the touch,
when it is held and touched; and it has, too, its image in our
memory, incorporeal indeed, but like the body. Lastly, the
wonderful beauty of the world itself is at hand from without, both to
our gaze, and to that sense which is called touch, if we come in
contact with any of it: and this also has its image within in our
memory, to which we revert, when we think of it either in the
enclosure of a room, or again in darkness. But we have already
sufficiently spoken in the eleventh book of these images of corporeal
things; incorporeal indeed, yet having the likeness of bodies, and
belonging to the life of the outer man. But we are treating now of the
inner man, and of his knowledge, namely, that knowledge which is of
things temporal and changeable; into the purpose and scope of which,
when anything is assumed, even of things belonging to the outer man,
it must be assumed for this end, that something may thence be taught
which may help rational knowledge. And hence the rational use of those
things which we have in common with irrational animals belongs to the
inner man; neither can it rightly be said that this is common to us
with the irrational animals.
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