Yet even these privations of things are so ordered in the universe of nature, that to those wisely considering they not unfittingly have their vicissitudes. For by not illuminating certain places and times, God has also made the darkness as fittingly as the day. For if we by restraining the voice fittingly interpose silence in speaking, how much more does He, as the perfect framer of all things, fittingly make privations of things? Whence also in the hymn of the three children, light and darkness alike praise God,' that is, bring forth praise in the hearts of those who well consider.
' Pan. ill.
CHAP. 17. NATURE, IN AS FAR AS IT IS NA- TURE, NO KVIL.
No nature, therefore, as far as it is nature, is evil; but to each nature there is no evil except to be diminished in respect of good. But ii by being diminished it should be consumed so that there is no good, no nature would be left; not only such as the Manichseans introduce, where so great good things f^ are found that their exceeding blindness is wonderful, but such as any one can introduce.
CHAP. 18. — ^HYLEj WJilCH WAS CALLED BY THE ANCIENTS THE FORMLESS MATERIAL OF THINGS, IS NOT AN EVIL.
For neither is that material, which the ancients called Ifj^e, to be called an evil. I do not say that which Manichceus with most senseless vanity, not knowing what he says, denominates Hv/e, namely, the former of corporeal beings; whence it is rightly said to him, that he introduces another god. For nobody can form and create corporeal beings but God alone; for neither are they created unless there subsist with them measure^Torm, and order, which I think that now even they themselves confess to be good things, and things that cannot be except from God. But by Ify/e I mean a certain material absolutely formless and without quality, whence those qualities that we perceive are formed, as the ancients said. For hence also wood is called in Greek uXtj, because it is adapted to workmen, not that itself may make anything, but that it is the material of which something may be made. Nor is that Hyle, therefore, to be called an evil which cannot be perceived through any appearance, but can scarcely be thought of through any sort of privation of appearance. For this has also a capacity of forms; for if it cannot receive the form im.-posed by the workman, neither assuredly may it be called material. Hence if form is some good, whence those who excel in it are called beautiful,^ as from appearance they are called handsome, 3 even the capacity of form is undoubtedly something good. As because wisdom is a good, no one doubts that to be capable of wisdom is a good. And because every good is from God, no one ought to doubt that even matter, if there is any, has its existence from God alone.
CHAP. 19. TO HAVE TRUE EXISTENCE IS AN EXCLUSIVE PREROGATIVE OF GOD.
Magnificently and divinely, therefore, our God said to his servant: " I am that I am,'' I Chai.. XXIII.] NATURE OF GOOD, AGAINST THE MANICH^ANS.
o:)D and " Thou shalt say to the children of Israel, He who is sent me to you." ' For He truly is because He is unchangeable. For every change makes what was not, to be: therefore He truly is, who is unchangeable; but all other things that were made by Him have received being form Him each in its own measure. To Him who is highest, therefore, nothing can be contrary, save what is not; and consequently as from Him everything that is good has its being, so from Him is everything that by nature exists; since everything that exists by nature is good. Thus every nature is good, and everytliing good is from God; therefore every nature is from God.
CHAP. 20. PAIN ONLY IN GOOD NATURES.
But pain which some suppose to be in an especial manner an evil, whether it be in mind or in body, cannot exist except in good natures. For the very fact of resistance in any being leading to pain, involves a refusal not to be what it was, because it was something good; but when a being is compelled to sorms.thing better, the pain is useful, when to something worse, it is useless. Therefore in the case of the mind, the will resisting a greater power causes pain; in the case of the body, sensation resisting a more powerful body causes pain. But evils without pain are worse: for it is worse to rejoice in iniquity than to bewail corruption; yet even such rejoicing cannot exist save from the attainment of inferior good tilings. But iniquity is the desertion of better things. Likewise in a body, a wound with pain is better than painless putrescence, which is especially called the corruption which the dead flesh of the Lord did not see, that is, did not suffer, as was predicted in prophecy: "Thou shalt not suffer Thy Holy one to see corruption."^ For who denies that He was wounded by the piercing of the nails, and that He was stabbed with the lanes? ^ But even what is properly called by men corporeal corruption, that is, putrescence itself, if as yet there is anything left to consume, increases by the diminution of the good. But if corruption shall have absolutely consumed it, so that there is no good, no nature will remain, for there will be nothing that corruption may corrupt; and so there will not even be putrescence, for there will be nowhere at all for it to be.
CHAP. 21. FROM MEASURE THINGS ARE SAID TO BE MODERATE-SIZED.-* Therefore now by common usage things ' Ex. iii. 14.
3 John xix. iS, 34.
- Ps. xvl. 10.
4 ModttSy iiiodica.
small and mean are said to have measure, because some m.easure remains in them, without which they would no longer be moderatesized, but would not exist at all. But those things that by reason of too much progress are called immoderate, are blamed for very excessiveness; but yet it is necessary that those things themselves be restrained in some manner under God who has disposed all things in extension, number, and weight. ^ CHAP. 22. AIEASURE IN SOME SENSE IS SUITA- "bLE to god HIMSELF.
But God cannot be said to have measure, lest He should seem to be spoken of as limited. Yet He is not immoderate by whom measure is bestowed upon all things, so that they may in any measure exist. Nor again ought God to be called measured, as if He received measure from any one. But if we say that -He is the highest measure, by chance we say something; if indeed in speaking of the highest measure we mean the highest good. For every measure in so far as it is a measure is good; whence nothing can be called measured, modest, modified, without praise, although in another sense we use measure for liviit, and speak of no measure where there is no //;;///, which is sometimes said with praise as when it is said: " And of His kingdom there shall be no limit." * For it might also be said, "There shall be no measure," so that measure might be used in the sense of limit; for He who reigns in no measure, assuredly does not reign at all.
CHAP.
-WHENCE A BAD MEASURE, A BAD FORM, A BAD ORDER MAY SOMETIMES BE SPOKEN OF.
Therefore a bad measure, a bad form, a bad_order, are either so called because they are less than they should be, or because they are not adapted to those things to which they should be adapted; so that they may be called bad as being alien and incongruous; as if any one should be said not to have done in a good measure because he has done less than he ought, or because he has done in such a thing as he ought not to have done, or more than was fitting, or not conveniently; so that the very fact of that being reprehended which is done in a bad measure, is justly reprehended for no other cause than that the measure is not there maintained. Likewise a form is called bad either in comparison with sometlTihg more handsome or more beautiful, this form being less, that greater^ not in size but V 5 Wisd. xi. 21.
* Luke i. 33.
[Chap. XXVI.
in comeliness; or because it is out of harmony with the thing to which it is applied, so that it seems alien and unsuitable. As if a man should walk forth into a public place naked, which nakedness does not offend if seen in a bath. Likewise also order is called bad when order itself is maintained in an inferior degree. Hence not order, but rather j disorder, is bad; since either the ordering is ' less than it should be, or not as it should be. Yet where there is any measure, any form, any order, there is some good and some nal ture; but where there is no measure, no form, I no order, there is no good, no nature.
CHAP. 24. IT IS PROVED BY THE TESTIMONIES OF SCRIPTURE THAT GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE. THE SON OF GOD BEGOTTEN, NOT MADE.
Those things which our faith holds and which reason in whatever way has traced out, are fortified by the testimonies of the divine Scriptures, so that those who by reason of feebler intellect are not able to comprehend these things, may believe the divine authority, and so ma)' deserve to know. But let not those who understand, but are less instructed in ecclesiastical literature, suppose that we set forth these things from our own intellect rather than what are in those Books. Accordingly, that God is unchangeable is written in the Psalms: " Thou shalt change them and they shall be changed; but Thou thyself art the same." ' And in the book of Wisdom, concerning wisdom: " Remaining in herself, she renews all things."- Whence also the Apostle Paul: " To the invisible, incorruptible, only God." - And the Apostle James: " Every best giving and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of light, with whom there is no changeableness, neither obscuring of influence."'* Likewise because what He begat of Himself is what He Himself is, it is said in brief by the Son Himself: " I and the Father are one,'" ^ But because the Son was not made, since through Plim were all things made, thus it is written- " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word; this was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing; " * that is, without Him was not anything made.
CHAP. 25. — THIS LAST EXPRESSION MISUNDER- STOOD BY SOME.
For no attention should be paid to the rav- 27.
ings of men who think that nothing should be understood to mean soinethitig, and moreover think to compel any one to vanity of this kind on the ground that noihiiig is placed at the end of the sentence. Therefore, they say, it was made, and because it was made, nothing is itself something. They have lost their senses by zeal in contradicting, and do not understand that it makes no difference whether it be said: "Without Him was made nothing," or "without Him nothing was made." For even if the order were the last mentioned, they could nevertheless say, that nothing is itself something because it was made. For in the case of what is in truth something, what difference does it make if it be said " Without him a house was made,'' so long as it is understood chat something was made without him, which something is a house? So also because it is said: "Without Him was made nothing," since nothing is assuredly not anything, when it is truly and properly spoken, it makes no difference whether it be said: " Without Him was made nothing or Without Him nothing was made," or " nothing was made." But who cares to speak with men who can say of this very expression of mine " It makes no difference," " Therefore it makes some difference, for nothing itself is something? '' But those whose brains are not addled, see it as a thing most manifest that this something is to be understood when it says " It makes no difference," as when I say " It matters in no respect." But these, if they should say to any one, " What hast thou done? " and he should reply that he has done nothing, would, according to this mode of disputation, falsely accuse him saying, " Thou hast done something, therefore, because thou hast done nothing; for nothing is itself something." But they have also the Lord Himself placing this word at the end of a sentence, when He says: "And in secret have I spoken nothing. "^ Let them read, therefore, and be silent.« CHAP. 26. THAT CREATURES ARE MADE OF NOTHING.
Because therefore God made all things which He did not beget of Himself, not of those things that already existed, but of those things that did not exist at all, that is, of nothing," the Apostle Paul says: "Who calls the things that are not as if they are."^' But stilU more plainly it is written in the book of Maccabees: "I pray thee, son, look at the 7 John xviii. 20.
8 It is difficult for us to understand why Augustin should have thought it worth while to refute so elaborately an argument so puerile. But it is his way to be prolix in such matters.— A. H. N.
9 Rom. iv. 17.
vjy -€^^A-.''KW, <;- T ^' Chap. XXXL] NATURE OF GOOD, AGAINST THE MANICH.iANS.
heaven and the earth and all the things that are in them; see and know that it was not these of which the Lord God made us." ' And from this that is written in the Psalm: " He spake, and they were made."' It is manifest, that not of Himself He begat these things, but that He made them by word and command. But what is not of Himself is assuredly of nothing. For there was not anything of which he should make them, concerning which the apostle says most /openly: " For from Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things. "(^£^ CHAP. 27. — ''from him" and " OF HIM" DO NOT MEAN THE SAME THING.
Bu^ " from Him '^ does not mean the same vas " of Hi^m." ^ For what is of Him may be said to belrom Him; but not everything that is from Him is rightly said to be of Him. For from Him are he^^en and earth, because He made them;/Kijt not of Him because they are not of His substance. As in the case of a man who begets a son and makes a house, from himself is the son, from himself is the house, but the son is of him, the house is of earth and wood. But this is so, because as a man he cannot make something even of nothing; but God of whom are all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things, had no need of any material which He had not made to assist His omnipotence.
CHAP. 28. — SIN NOT FROM GOD, BUT FROM THE WILL OF THOSE SINNING.
But when we hear: "All things are from Him, and through Him, and in Him," we ought assuredly to understand all natures which naturally exist. For sins, which do not preserve but vitiate nature, are not from Him; which sins, Hoh' Scripture in many ways testifies, are from the will of those sinning, especially in the passage where the apostle says: "But dost thou suppose this, O man, that judgest those who do such things, and doest them, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or dost thou despise the riches of His goodness, and patience, and long-suffering, not knowing that the patience of God leadeth thee to repentance? But according to the hardness of thy heart and thy impenitent heart, thou treasurest up for thyself wrath against the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render unto every one according to his works. "^ I Mac. vii. 2S. 2 Ps. cxlviii. 5. 3 Rom. xi. 36.
* £x i/'so and de ipso. 5 Rom. ii. 3-6.
CHAP. 29. THAT GOD IS NOT DEFILED BY OUR SINS.
And yet, though all things that He established are in Him, those who sin do not defile Him, of whose wisdom it is said: "She touches all things by reason of her purity, and nothing defiled assails her." * For it 'hehooves us to believe that as God is incorruptible and unchangeable, so also is He consequently undefilable.
CHAP. 30. THAT GOOD THINGS, EVEN THE LEAST, AND THOSE THAT ARE EARTHLY, ARE BY GOD.
But that God made even the least things, that is, earthly and mortal things, must undoubtedly be understood from that passage of the apostle, where, speaking of the members of our flesh: " For if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it, and if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it;" also this he then says: "God has placed the members each one of them in the body as he willed;" and "God has tempered the body, giving to that to which it was wanting greater honor, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. "^ But what the apostle thus praises in the measure and form and order of the members of the flesh, you find in the flesh of all animals, alike the greatest and the least; for all flesh is among earthly goods, and consequently is esteemed among the least.
CHAP. 31. — TO PUNISH AND TO FORGIVE SINS BELONG EQUALLY TO GOD.
Likewise because it belongs to divine judgment, not human, what sort of punishment and how great is due to every fault, it is thus written: "O the height of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how inscrutable are His judgments and his ways past finding out!" * Likewise because by the goodness of God sins are forgiven to the converted, the very fact that Christ was sent sufficiently shows, who not in His own nature as God, but in our nature, which He assumed from a woman, died for us; which goodness of God with reference to us, and which love of God, the apostle thus sets forth: " But Go(' commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us; much more now being justified in His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to [Chap. XXXV.
God through the death of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved in.His life.^'' But because even when due punishment is rendered to sinners, there is no unrighteousness on God's part, he thus says: "What shall we say? Is God unrighteous who visiteth with wrath? " " But in one place he has briefly admonished that goodness and severity are alike from Him, saying: " Thou seest then the goodness and severity of God; toward them that have fallen, severity, but towards thee goodness, if thou shouldst continue in goodness.3 CHAP. 32. FRO:\I GOD ALSO IS THE VERY POWER TO BE HURTFUL.
Likewise because the power even of those that are hurtful is from God alone, thus it stands written, Wisdom speaking: " Through me kings reign and tyrants hold the land through me."'* The apostle also says: "For there is no power but of God.'-'-v But that it is worthily done is written in the book of Job: " Who maketh to reign a man that is a hypocrite, on account of the perversity of the people."* And concerning the people of Israel God says: " I gave them a king in my wrath. "? For it is not unrighteous, that the wicked receiving the power of being hurtful, both the patience of the good should be proved and the iniquity of the evil punished. For through power given to the Devil both Job was proved so that he might appear righteous,^ and Peter was tempted lest he should be presumptuous,^ and Paul was buffeted lest he should be exalted,'" and Judas was damned so that he should hang himself." When, therefore, through the power which He has given the Devil, God Himself shall have done all things righteously, nevertheless punishment shall at last be rendered to the Devil not for these things justly done, but for the unrighteous willing to be hurtful, which belonged to himself, when it shall be said to the impious who persevered in consenting to his wickedness, "Go ye into everlasting fire which my God has prepared for the Devil and his angels." ^- CHAP. 33. THAT EVIL ANGELS HAVE BEEN MADE EVIL, NOT BY GOD, BUT BY SINNING.
But because evil angels also were not constituted evil by God, but were made evil by sinning, Peter in his ef istle says: " For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but 4 Prov. viii. 15. 5 Rom. xiii. i.
6 Job xxxiv. 30. Compare the Revised English Version. The sense seems to be completely missed in Augustin's text. — A. H. N.
casting them down into the dungeons of smoky hell, He delivered them to be reserved for punisiiment in judgment." '^ Hence Peter shows that there is still due to them the penalty of the last judgment, concerning which the Lord says: "Go ye into everlasting fire, which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels." Although they have already penally received this hell, that is, an inferior smoky air as a prison, which nevertheless since it is also called heaven, is not that heaven in which there are stars, but this lower heaven by the smoke of which the clouds are conglobulated, and where the birds fly; for both a cloudy heaven is spoken of, and flying things are called heavenly. As when the Apostle Paul calls those evil angels, against whom as enemies by living piously we contend, " spiritual things of wickedness in heavenly places." '** That this may not be understood of the upper heavens, he plainly says elsewhere: "According to the presence of the prince of this air, who now worketh in the sons of disobedience." '^ CHAP. 34. THAT SIN IS NOT THE STRIVING FOR AN EVIL NATURE, BUT THE DESERTION OF A BETTER.
Likewise because sin, or unrighteousness, is not the striving after evil nature but the desertion of better, it is thus found written in the Scriptures: " Every creature of God is good." '* And accordingly every tree also which God planted in Paradise is assuredly good. Man did not therefore strive after an evil nature when he touched the forbidden tree; but by deserting what was better, he committed an evil deed. Since the Creator is better than any creature which He has made, His command should not have been deserted, that the thing forbidden, however good, might be touched; since the better having been' deserted, the good of the creature was striven for, which was touched contrary to the command of the Creator. God did not plant an evil tree in Paradise; but He Himself was better who prohibited its being touched.
CHAP. 35. THE TREE WAS FORBIDDEN TO ADAM NOT BECAUSE IT WAS EVIL, BUT BECAUSE IT WAS GOOD FOR MAN TO BE SUBJECT TO GOD.
For besides. He had made the prohibition, in order to show that the nature of ihe rational soul ought not to be in its own power, but in subjection to God, and that it guards the order of its salvation through obedience.
13 2 Pet. ii. 4.
13 /iid. ii. 2.
Chap. XLL] NATURE OF GOOD, AGAINST THE.MANICH.-EANS.
corrupting it through disobedience. Hence also He called the tree, the touching of which He forbade, the tree "of the knowledge of good and evil;"' because when man should have touched it in the face of the prohibition, he would experience the penalty of sin, and so would know the difference between the good of obedience, and the evil of disobedience.
CHAP. ^6. NO CREATURE OF GOD IS EVJL, BUT TO ABUSE A CREATURE OF GOD IS EVIL.
For who is so foolish as to think a creature of God, especially one planted in Paradise, blameworthy; when indeed not even thorns and thistles, which the earth brought forth, according to the judiciary judgment of God, for wearing out the sinner in labor, should be blamed? For even such herbs have their measure and form and order, which whoever considers soberly will find praiseworthy; but t;iey are evil to that nature which ought thus to be restrained as a recompense for sin. Therefore, as I have said,* sin is not the striving after an evil nature, but the desertion of a better, and so the deed itself is evil, not the nature which the sinner uses amiss. For it is evil to use amiss that which is good. Whence the apostle reproves certain ones as condemned by divine judgment, "Who have worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.''- He does not reprove the creature, which he who should do would act injuriously towards the Creator, but those who, deserting the better, have used amiss the good.
CHAP. 37. GOD MAKES GOOD USE OF THE EVIL DEEDS oTsTnNERsV Accordingly, if all natures should guard their own proper measure and form and order, there would be no evil: but if any one should wish to misuse these good things, not even thus does he vanquish the will of God, who knows how to order righteously even the unrighteous; so that if they themselves through the iniquity of their will should misuse His good things. He through the righteousness of His power may use their evil deeds, rightly ordaining to punishment those who have perversely ordained themselves to sins.
CHAP 38. — ETERNAL FIRE TORTURING THE WICKED, NOT EVIL.
For neither is eternal fire itself, which is to torture the impious, an evil nature, since it has its measure, its form and its order de- ' Gen. ii. 9, 2 Rom. i. 25.
praved by no iniquity; but it is an evil torture for the damned, to whose sins it is due. For neither is yonder light, because it tortures the blear-eyed, an evil nature.
CHAP. 39. FIRE IS CALLED ETERNAL, NOT AS GOD IS, BUT BECAUSE WITHOUT END.
But fire is eternal, not as God is eternal, because, though without end, yet it is not without beginning; but God is also without beginning. Then, although it may be employed perpetually for the punishment of sinners, yet it is mutable nature. But that is true eternity which is true immortality, that is that highest immutability, which cannot be changed at all. For it is one thing not to suffer change, when change is possible, and another thing to be absolutely incapable of change. Therefore, just as man is called good, yet not as God, of whom it v/as said, "There is none good save God alone; "^ and just as the soul is called immortal, yet not as God, of whom it was said, " Who alone hath immortality; " * and just as a man is called wise, yet not as God, of whom it was said, "To God the only wise;" s so fire is called eternal, yet not as God, whose alone is immortality itself and true eternity.
CHAP. 40. — NEITHER CAN GOD SUFFER HURT, NOR ANY OTHER, SAVE BY THE JUST ORDINA- TION OF GOD.
Since these things are so, according to the Catholic faith, and wholesome doctrine, and truth perspicuous to those of good understanding, neither can any one hurt the nature of God, nor can the nature of God unrighteously hurt any one, or suffer any one to do hurt with impunity. " For he that doeth hurt shall receive," says the apostle, "according to the hurt that he has done; and there is no accepting of persons with God." * CHAP. 41. HOW GREAT GOOD THINGS THE MANICH^ANS PUT IN THE NATURE OF EVIL, AND HOW GREAT EVIL THINGS IN THE NA- TURE OF GOOD.
But if the Manichasans were willing, without pernicious zeal for defending their error, and with the fear of God, to think, they would not most criminally blaspheme by supposing two natures, the one good, which they call God, the other evil, which God did not make: so erring, so delirious, nay so insane, are they that they do not see, that even in what they call the nature of supreme evil they place so great good things: life, power, safety, mem- ;6o [Chap. XLII.
ory, intellect, temperance, virtue, plenty, sense, light, suavity, extensions, numbers, peace, measure, form, order; but in whiat they call supreme good, so many evil things; death, sickness, forgetfulness, foolishness, confusion, impotence, need, stolidity, blindness, pam, unrighteousness, disgrace, war, intemperance, deformity, perversity. For they say that the princes of darkness also have been alive in their own nature, and in their own kingdom were safe, and remembered and understood. For they say that the Prince of Darkness harangued in such a manner, that neither could he have said such things, nor could he have been heard by those by whom he was said to have been heard, without memory and understanding; and to have had a temper suitable to his mind and body, and to have ruled by virtue of power, and to have had abundance and fruitfulness with respect to his elements, and they are said to have perceived themselves mutually and the light as near at liand, and to have had eyes by which they could see the light afar off; which eyes assuredly could not have seen the light without some light (whence also they are rightly called light); and they are said to have enjoyed exceedingly the sweetness of their pleasures, and to have been determined by measured members and dwelling-places. But unless there had been some sort of beauty there, they would not have loved their wives, nor would their bodies have been steady by adaptation of parts; without which, those things could not have been done there which the Manichaeans insanely say were done. And unless some peace had been there, they would not have obeyed their Prince. Unless measure had been there, they would have done nothing else than eat