1. Everything true is true by truth; and every soul is a soul by that whereby it is a true soul. Every soul, therefore, has it from truth that it is a soul at all.

But the soul is one thing, truth another. For truth never undergoes falsity, whereas the soul is often deceived. Therefore, since the soul is by truth, it is not from itself. But truth is God: God, therefore, the soul has as the author of its being a soul.

2. Everything that is made cannot be equal to that by which it is made. Otherwise justice, which ought to render to each its own, would necessarily be taken away from things.

When God made man, then, although he made him very good, he nevertheless did not make what he himself was. But a man who is good by will is better than one who is good by necessity. A free will, therefore, had to be given to man.

3. With no wise man as its author does a human being become worse. For this is no small fault; indeed it is so great that it cannot fall upon any wise man whatever. But God is more excellent than every wise man. Much less, therefore, does a human being become worse with God as author; for the will of God is far more excellent than the will of a wise man. And when he is said to be the author, it is said that he wills it. There is, then, a defect of the will whereby a human being is made worse. And if this defect is far removed from the will of God, as reason teaches, where it lies must be sought.

4. The cause that a human being is made worse is either in himself, or in some other, or in nothing. If in nothing, there is no cause. Or if "in nothing" is taken in the sense that man was made from nothing, or from those things that were made from nothing, then again the cause will be in himself, since the nothing is, as it were, his matter.

If in some other, it must be asked whether it is in God, or in some other man, or in that which is neither God nor man. But not in God; for God is the cause of good things.

If, then, in a man, it is either by force or by persuasion. But by force in no way, lest he be stronger than God. For God made man so very good that, if he willed to remain very good, he would be hindered by nothing standing in his way.

But if we grant that a man is corrupted by the persuasion of another man, it will again have to be asked by whom the persuader himself was corrupted; for one who persuades to such things cannot fail to be depraved.

There remains I know not what, which is neither God nor man. But this too, whatever it is, either brought force to bear or persuaded. As to force, the same answer is given as above. As to persuasion, whatever it is, since persuasion does not compel the unwilling, the cause of his corruption returns to the will of the man himself, whether he was corrupted with someone persuading or with no one persuading.

5. An animal that lacks reason lacks knowledge. But no animal that lacks knowledge can be happy. It does not, therefore, fall to animals devoid of reason to be happy.

6. Everything that is is either corporeal or incorporeal; the corporeal is contained by a sensible form, the incorporeal by an intelligible form. Everything that is, therefore, is not without some form. But where there is some form, there is necessarily some measure; and measure is something good. The highest evil, then, has no measure; for it lacks all good. It does not, therefore, exist, because it is contained by no form; and this whole name of "evil" was found from the privation of form.

7. "Soul" is sometimes spoken of so as to be understood together with the mind, as when we say that man consists of soul and body; sometimes so as to be spoken of apart from the mind. But when it is spoken of apart from the mind, it is understood from those operations which we have in common with the beasts. For the beasts lack reason, which is proper to the mind.

8. That the soul is moved of itself, he perceives who perceives that there is a will in him. For if we will, no other wills on our behalf.

And this motion of the soul is spontaneous; for this was granted to it by God. Yet this motion is not from place to place, as that of a body is; for to be moved with respect to place is proper to a body.

And though the soul, by the will—that is, by that motion which is not local—nevertheless moves its own body with respect to place, it is not on that account shown that the soul itself is also moved with respect to place. Just as we see something moved by a hinge through a great extent of space, and yet the hinge itself is not moved with respect to place.

9. Everything that a bodily sense reaches, which is also called sensible, is changed without any interval of time; as when the hairs of our head grow, or the body inclines toward old age or blossoms into youth, this happens perpetually and does not at all cease happening. But what does not remain cannot be perceived; for that is perceived which is comprehended by knowledge, and what is changed without interval cannot be comprehended. The purity of truth is not, therefore, to be expected from the senses of the body.

But lest anyone say that there are some sensible things that remain always in the same way, and bring forward to us the question of the sun and the stars, in which the point cannot easily be carried, there is certainly no one who is not compelled to admit this: that there is nothing sensible which does not have something like the false, so that it cannot be told apart.

For, to pass over other things, all the things we sense through the body—even when they are not present to the senses—we nevertheless undergo images of them as though they were altogether present, whether in sleep or in madness; and when we undergo this, we are wholly unable to discern whether we sense those things by the senses themselves or whether they are images of sensible things.

If, therefore, there are false images of sensible things which cannot be told apart by the senses themselves, and nothing can be perceived except what is distinguished from the false, then the judgment of truth is not established in the senses.

Therefore we are most healthfully admonished to turn away from this world, which is assuredly corporeal and sensible, and to turn, with all eagerness, toward God—that is, toward the truth that is grasped by the intellect and the inner mind, which always remains and is of one same kind, which has no image of the false from which it cannot be distinguished.

10. Every good is from God; every beautiful thing is good, insofar as it is beautiful; and everything that contains form is beautiful. But every body, in order to be a body, is contained by some form. Every body, therefore, is from God.

11. When God sets free, he does not set free some part, but sets free the whole that happens to be in danger. The Wisdom and Power of God, therefore, who is called the only-begotten Son, by taking on a man indicated the liberation of man.

But the liberation of the human being had to appear in both sexes. Therefore, because it was fitting to take on a man, which is the more honorable sex, it followed that the liberation of the female sex should appear from this, that that man was born of a woman.

12. "Take action," he says, "O wretched mortals, take action that the malignant spirit may never pollute this dwelling, that it may not, mingled with the senses, defile the holiness of the soul and overcloud the light of the mind.

This evil creeps in through all the avenues of the senses: it gives itself to shapes, adapts itself to colors, clings to sounds, lies hidden in anger, in the deceit of speech; it submits itself to smells, pours itself into tastes, and, by the flood of turbid motion, darkens the senses with shadowy affections; with certain mists it fills all the passages of the understanding, through which the ray of the mind is wont to spread out the light of reason. And because it is a ray of ethereal light, and in it is a mirror of the divine presence—for in it God, in it the innocent will, in it the merit of right action shine back.

God is present everywhere. But he is present to each one of us at the moment when the unimpaired purity of our mind has supposed itself to be in his presence. For just as the sight of the eyes, if it has been damaged, supposes that whatever it cannot see is not present—for in vain does the present image of things stand round the eyes if soundness is lacking to the eyes—so too God, who is nowhere absent, is present in vain to polluted souls, since the blindness of the mind cannot see him."

13. Among the many things by which it can be shown that the human being surpasses the beasts by reason, this is plain to all: that wild beasts can be tamed and made gentle by human beings, but human beings can in no way be tamed by wild beasts.

14. If the body of Christ was a phantasm, Christ deceived; and if he deceives, he is not the truth; but Christ is the truth. His body, therefore, was not a phantasm.

15. Everything that understands itself comprehends itself; but what comprehends itself is finite to itself; and the intellect understands itself, therefore it is finite to itself. Nor does it will to be infinite, although it could be, because it wills to be known to itself; for it loves itself.

16. God is the cause of all things that are; but what is the cause of all things is also the cause of his own Wisdom; nor was God ever without Wisdom. He is, therefore, the everlasting cause of his everlasting wisdom; nor is he prior in time to his wisdom. Then, if it belongs to God to be everlastingly a Father, and he was never at any time not a Father, he was never without the Son.

17. Everything past is now no longer, everything future is not yet; everything, therefore, both past and future is lacking. But with God nothing is lacking; therefore neither the past nor the future is lacking, but with God everything is present.

18. Everything that is is one thing in that of which it consists, another in that by which it is distinguished, another in that by which it is in harmony.

The whole of creation, therefore, if it both exists in some way, and is most far removed from that which is utterly nothing, and is in harmony with itself in its own parts, must also have a threefold cause: that by which it is, that by which it is this, and that by which it is at peace with itself. But the cause of creation—that is, its author—we call God.

There must be, then, a Trinity, than which perfect reason can find nothing more excellent, more intelligent, and more blessed. And so too, when truth is sought, there can be no more than three kinds of questions: whether a thing exists at all, whether it is this or something else, and whether it is to be approved or disapproved.

19. What is unchangeable is eternal; for it is always of the same kind. But what is changeable is subject to time; for it is not always of the same kind, and therefore is not rightly called eternal. For what is changed does not remain; what does not remain is not eternal.

And this is the difference between the immortal and the eternal: that everything eternal is immortal, but not everything immortal is, to speak precisely, called eternal; because even if something always lives, yet if it undergoes changeableness, it is not properly called eternal, since it is not always of the same kind—although it may rightly be called immortal, because it always lives.

Yet sometimes even what is immortal is called eternal. But that which both undergoes change and is said to live by the presence of a soul, though it is not itself a soul, can in no way be understood as immortal, and much less as eternal. For in the eternal, when the word is properly used, neither is anything past as though it had passed away, nor anything future as though it were not yet, but whatever is, simply is.

20. God is not somewhere. For what is somewhere is contained by place; what is contained by place is a body; but God is not a body. He is not, therefore, somewhere. And yet, because he exists and is not in a place, all things are in him rather than he somewhere—and yet not in him in such a way that he is a place. For place is in the space that is occupied by the length, breadth, and height of a body; and God is no such thing. All things, therefore, are in him, and he is not a place.

Yet the temple of God is, by a misuse of the word, called the place of God—not because he is contained by it, but because he is present to it. And this is understood as nothing better than a clean soul.

21. Whoever is the author of all the things that are, and to whose goodness it belongs only that everything which exists should exist, can in no way have not-being pertain to him. But everything that fails, fails from being and tends toward not-being. To exist and to fail in nothing is good, and to fail is evil.

But he to whom not-being does not pertain is not the cause of failing—that is, of tending toward not-being—because, so to speak, he is the cause of being. He is, therefore, the cause of good only, and for that reason he is himself the highest good. Wherefore he who is the author of all the things that are is not the author of evil, because insofar as they are, to that extent they are good.

22. Where there is no want, there is no necessity; where there is no defect, there is no want. But there is no defect in God; therefore there is no necessity.

23. Everything chaste is chaste by chastity, and everything eternal is eternal by eternity, and everything beautiful by beauty, and everything good by goodness. So too everything wise is wise by wisdom, and everything like is like by likeness.

But a thing is said to be chaste by chastity in two ways: either because it begets it, so that it is chaste by the chastity which it begets and to which it is the beginning and cause of its being; or, in another way, a thing is chaste by participation in chastity, which can at some time be not chaste. And so it is to be understood of the rest.

For the soul, too, is understood or believed to attain eternity, but it becomes eternal by participation in eternity. God, however, is not eternal in this way, but is so because he is the author of eternity itself. This may be understood also of beauty and of goodness.

Wherefore, when God is called wise, and is called wise by that wisdom without which it is impious to believe that he either ever was or could be, he is not called wise by participation in wisdom, as the soul is—which can be both wise and not wise—but because he himself begot that wisdom by which he is called wise.

Likewise, those things which are chaste or eternal or beautiful or good or wise by participation receive, as has been said, the capacity to be neither chaste nor eternal nor beautiful nor good nor wise. But chastity itself, eternity, beauty, goodness, and wisdom in no way admit either corruption or, so to speak, temporality, or baseness, or malice. So too those things which are like by participation admit unlikeness. But likeness itself can in no way be unlike in any part.

Hence it comes about that when the Son is called the likeness of the Father—because it is by participation in him that whatever things are like, whether to one another or to God, are like; for he is the first form, by which they are, so to speak, given form, and the shape by which all things are shaped—he can in no part be unlike the Father. He is, therefore, the same as the Father, so that this Son is that Father—that is, this is the likeness, that is the one whose likeness it is; this is substance, that is substance, from which there is one substance.

For if it is not one substance, the likeness admits unlikeness, which all most truthful reason denies can happen.

24. Whatever happens by chance happens at random; whatever happens at random does not happen by providence. If, then, some things happen by chance in the world, the whole world is not administered by providence. If the whole world is not administered by providence, there is some nature and substance that does not pertain to the work of providence. But everything that is, insofar as it is, is good. For that good is in the highest degree, by participation in which the rest are good. And everything that is changeable is good, not through itself, but by participation in the unchangeable good, insofar as it is. Now that good, by participation in which the rest are good however much they are, is good not through another but through itself—which we also call divine providence. Nothing, therefore, happens by chance in the world.

Once this is established, it seems to follow that whatever is done in the world is done partly by God and partly by our will. For God is far and incomparably better and more just than any man, however good and most just. But the just one, ruling and governing all things, allows no punishment to be inflicted on anyone undeservedly, and no reward to be given undeservedly. Now the desert of punishment is sin, and the desert of reward is right action; nor can sin or right action justly be imputed to anyone who has done nothing by his own will. Both sin and right action, therefore, lie within the free choice of the will.

25. The Wisdom of God took on a man as an example by which we might live rightly. But it belongs to a right life not to fear the things that are not to be feared. And death is not to be feared. It was fitting, therefore, that this very thing be shown by the death of that man whom the Wisdom of God took on. But there are men who, although they do not fear death itself, nevertheless shudder at some kind of death. Yet, just as death itself is not to be feared, so no kind of death is to be feared by a man living well and rightly. None the less, therefore, this too had to be shown by the cross of that man. For among all kinds of death there was none more execrable and dreadful than that kind.

26. Some sins are of weakness, others of inexperience, others of malice. Weakness is contrary to virtue, inexperience is contrary to wisdom, malice is contrary to goodness. Whoever, therefore, knows what the virtue and wisdom of God is (See 1 Cor 1:24) can judge which sins are venial. And whoever knows what the goodness of God is can judge for which sins a fixed punishment is owed, both here and in the world to come. When these things have been well treated, it can be judged with probability who are not to be compelled to a mournful and tearful penance, although they confess their sins, and for whom no salvation at all is to be hoped, unless they have offered to God the sacrifice of a contrite spirit through penance.

27. It can happen that divine providence both punishes and brings help through an evil man. For the impiety of the Jews both supplanted the Jews and was for the salvation of the gentiles. Likewise it can happen that divine providence both condemns and assists through a good man, as the Apostle says, to some we are the fragrance of life unto life, but to others the fragrance of death unto death (2 Cor 2:16).

But since every tribulation is either a punishment of the impious or a training of the just—because the same threshing-sledge both cuts up the chaff and strips the grain from the chaff, from which "tribulation" took its name—and since, again, peace and quiet from bodily troubles both profit the good and corrupt the wicked, divine providence orders all these things according to the deserts of souls.

Yet the good do not choose for themselves the service of tribulation, nor do the wicked love peace. Wherefore these too, through whom is brought about what they do not know, receive the wage not of the justice that is referred to God, but of their own ill will. Just as it is not imputed to the good that harm is done to someone when they wish to be of profit, but the reward of good will is bestowed on a good disposition.

So too the rest of creation is, according to the deserts of rational souls, either felt or hidden, either troublesome or convenient. For since the most high God administers well all the things he has made, there is nothing disordered in the universe and nothing unjust, whether we know it or not.

But the sinful soul gives offense in a part; yet because it is, according to its deserts, there where it is fitting for such a one to be, and suffers those things which it is just for such a one to suffer, it disfigures the whole kingdom of God with no foulness of its own.

Wherefore, since we do not know all the things that the divine order does well concerning us, in good will alone do we act according to the Law; but in the rest we are acted upon according to law, while the law itself remains unchangeable and orders all changeable things by a most beautiful governance. Glory, therefore, to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke 2:14).

28. One who asks why God willed to make the world is asking for the cause of the will of God. But every cause is efficient. And everything efficient is greater than that which is effected. But nothing is greater than the will of God; its cause, therefore, is not to be sought.

29. Mind the things that are above (Col 3:2). We are commanded to mind the things that are above—namely, spiritual things, which are to be understood as being above not by the places and parts of this world but by the merit of their own excellence—lest we fix our mind in a part of this world, of which as a whole we ought to divest ourselves. Above and below, however, exist in its parts.

For the universe itself does not have an above and below; for it is corporeal, since everything visible is corporeal, but in the whole body there is nothing above and below. For although motion that is called straight—that is, that is not circular—seems to take place in six directions: forward and backward, to the right and to the left, upward and downward, there is no reason at all why the whole body should have no before and behind and no right and left, but should have an above and below. But in considering this, people are deceived because it is difficult to withstand the senses and habit. For the turning of the body that occurs if someone wishes to be moved head downward is not as easy for us as is the turning from right to left or from front to back. Wherefore, words being set aside, one must busy oneself with the matter inwardly in the mind, so as to be able to discern this.

30. As there is a difference between "the honorable" and "the useful," so there is also between what is to be enjoyed and what is to be used.

For although it can be subtly defended that everything honorable is useful and everything useful is honorable, nevertheless, because "honorable" is more properly and more usually said of what is to be sought for its own sake, and "useful" of what is to be referred to something else, we now speak according to this distinction—keeping in mind, of course, that the honorable and the useful are in no way opposed to each other.

For these are sometimes thought, by the unskilled and in common speech, to be opposed to each other. We are said, then, to enjoy that thing from which we take pleasure; we use that which we refer to that from which pleasure is to be taken. And so all human perversity, which is also called vice, is to wish to use the things to be enjoyed and to enjoy the things to be used; and, again, all right ordering, which is also called virtue, is to enjoy the things to be enjoyed and to use the things to be used. Now the honorable things are to be enjoyed, but the useful things are to be used.

By "honorableness" I mean intelligible beauty, which we properly call spiritual; by "usefulness," divine providence. Wherefore, although there are many beautiful visible things, which are less properly called honorable, beauty itself, from which whatever things are beautiful are beautiful, is in no way visible.

Likewise there are many useful visible things, but usefulness itself, from which whatever things profit us profit us, which we call divine providence, is not visible. Let it be known, of course, that by the name "visible" all corporeal things are included.

We ought, therefore, to enjoy the invisible beautiful things—that is, the honorable ones; but whether all of them, is another question, although perhaps it is fitting to call honorable only those which are to be enjoyed. But all useful things are to be used, in whatever way there is need of them.

And to enjoy food and any bodily pleasure is not so absurdly thought to be done even by beasts; but to use a thing cannot be done except by an animal that shares in reason. For to know to what each thing is to be referred is not given to those devoid of reason, nor even to the rational who are foolish.

Nor can anyone use a thing of which he does not know to what it is to be referred; and no one can know this except the wise. Wherefore those who do not use well are more rightly said to misuse. For nothing is of profit to anyone when he uses it badly; and what is not of profit is surely not useful. But whatever is useful is useful in the using; and so no one uses anything but the useful. He does not, therefore, use, whoever uses badly.

The perfect reason of man, then, which is called virtue, uses first itself for understanding God, so that it may enjoy him by whom it was also made; it uses also the other rational living beings for fellowship, and the irrational ones for preeminence.

It refers even its own life to this: that it may enjoy God; for thus it is happy. It therefore uses also itself. And this assuredly begins its wretchedness through pride, if it is referred to itself and not to God.

It uses also certain bodies, by giving them life, for beneficence; for so it uses its own body. It uses some bodies, by taking them up or rejecting them, for health; some, by enduring them, for patience; some, by ordering them, for justice; some, by considering them, for some lesson of truth; it uses also those from which it abstains, for temperance.

Thus it uses all things, both those that are felt and those that are not felt, and there is no third kind. But it judges concerning all the things it uses; concerning God alone it does not judge, because it judges concerning the rest according to God.

Nor does it use him, but enjoys him; for God is not to be referred to anything else, since everything that is to be referred to something else is inferior to that to which it is to be referred, and there is nothing superior to God—not in place, but in the excellence of his nature.

All things, therefore, that were made were made for the use of man, because reason, which was given to man, uses all things by judging them.

And before the fall, indeed, it did not use the things to be endured; nor after the fall does it use them except when converted, and though before the death of the body, yet already, as far as it can, a friend of God, because willingly his servant.

31. 1. "Virtue is a habit of mind in accord with the measure of nature and with reason. Wherefore, once all its parts are known, the whole force of simple honorableness will have to be considered. It has, then, four parts: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

Prudence is the knowledge of things good, bad, and neither. Its parts are memory, understanding, and foresight. Memory is that by which the mind recalls the things that have been; understanding, that by which it perceives the things that are; foresight, that by which something future is seen before it has happened.

Justice is a habit of mind that, the common advantage being preserved, renders to each his own worth.

Its beginning proceeds from nature; then certain things came into custom by reason of advantage; afterward, things both proceeding from nature and approved by custom were sanctioned by the fear of laws and by religion.

The right that is of nature is that which opinion did not beget, but which a certain innate force implanted: such as religion, devotion, gratitude, retribution, deference, and truthfulness.

Religion is that which brings the care and ceremony of a certain higher nature, which they call divine; devotion is that by which loving service is rendered to those joined by blood and to the fatherland, and diligent honor is paid them;

gratitude is that in which is contained the memory of friendships and of the good offices of another, and the will to repay them;

retribution is that by which violence or injury, and in general everything that will be harmful, is driven off by defending or avenging;

deference is that by which men who excel in some dignity are thought worthy of a certain regard and honor; truthfulness is that by which the things that are, or were, or will be are stated unaltered.

The right that is of custom is that which either, drawn lightly from nature, usage has nourished and made greater—as religion, and any of those things we mentioned before which we see, having proceeded from nature, made greater on account of custom—or that which long age has brought into a usage by the approval of the populace.

Of this kind are agreement, equity, and adjudication.

Agreement is what is settled among certain parties; equity is what is fair toward all; adjudication is that about which something has already been established by the verdicts of someone or of several.

The right that is of law is what is contained in that writing which is set forth to the people for them to observe.

Fortitude is the considered undertaking of dangers and the endurance of toils. Its parts are magnificence, confidence, patience, and perseverance. Magnificence is the thinking out and carrying through of great and lofty matters with a certain ample and splendid purpose of mind.

Confidence is that by which, in great and honorable matters, the mind itself has placed much trust in itself with sure hope. Patience is the voluntary and lasting endurance of hard and difficult things for the sake of honorableness or advantage. Perseverance is a stable and perpetual remaining in a well-considered plan of reason.

Temperance is the firm and moderate mastery of reason over lust and other wrong impulses of the mind. Its parts are continence, clemency, and modesty. Continence is that by which desire is ruled by the governance of counsel; clemency is that by which minds rashly enticed and stirred up to hatred of someone are held back by kindliness; modesty is that by which honorable shame procures a precious and stable authority."

31. 2. "And all these things are to be sought for their own sake alone, so that no advantage be added. To show this neither pertains to our present design nor is consistent with the brevity of instruction.

But to be avoided for their own sake are not only those things which are contrary to these—as cowardice is to fortitude and injustice to justice—but also those which seem to be near and bordering on them, yet are very far off. Of this kind, distrust is contrary to confidence, and for that reason is a vice; boldness is not contrary, but adjacent and near to it, and is nevertheless a vice.

Thus for each virtue a bordering vice will be found, either called already by a fixed name—as boldness, which borders on confidence, obstinacy, which borders on perseverance, superstition, which is near to religion—or without any fixed name. And all these likewise, as things contrary to the good, will be placed among the things to be avoided. And concerning that kind of honorableness which is sought in every respect for its own sake, enough has been said. Now it seems we must speak of that in which advantage too is added, which we nevertheless call honorable."

31. 3. "There are, then, many things that draw us both by their worth and by their own fruit. In this kind are glory, dignity, eminence, and friendship.

Glory is frequent report about someone with praise; dignity is someone's honorable authority, worthy of regard and honor and respect.

Eminence is a great abundance of power or majesty or of certain resources; friendship is the will toward someone for the sake of good things, for the sake of that very one whom one loves, together with his equal will. Here, because we are speaking of civil matters, we add fruit to friendship, so that it may seem also to be sought for the sake of these, lest perhaps those who suppose we are speaking of friendship in general should find fault.

Although there are some who think friendship is to be sought only on account of advantage, some who think it is to be sought for its own sake alone, and some both for its own sake and on account of advantage. Which of these is to be settled most truly will be matter for another place to consider."

32. Whoever understands any thing otherwise than that thing is, is deceived; and everyone who is deceived does not understand that in which he is deceived. Whoever, therefore, understands any thing otherwise than it is, does not understand it. Nothing, then, can be understood except as it is.

But we understand something just as it is—as this very thing, that nothing is understood which is not understood as it is. Wherefore it is not to be doubted that there is a perfect understanding, than which none more excellent can be, and therefore that the understanding by which each thing is understood does not proceed to infinity, nor can one person understand it more than another.

33. It is doubtful to no one that there is no other cause for fearing than lest we lose what we love once attained, or not attain what we hope for. Wherefore, whoever has come to love and to have this very thing—not to fear—what fear will there be lest he be able to lose it?

For many things that we love and have, we fear to lose, and so we guard them by fear. But no one can guard by fearing the state of not fearing. Likewise, whoever loves not to fear, and does not yet have it but hopes that he will have it, ought not to fear that he will not attain it. For by this fear nothing else is feared than that same fear.

Furthermore, all fear flees something; and no thing flees itself. Fear, therefore, is not feared. But if anyone thinks it is not rightly said that fear fears something, since it is the soul rather that fears by fear itself, let him attend to what is easy to know: that there is no fear except of a future and impending evil.

But it is necessary that whoever fears something should flee it. And so whoever fears to fear is assuredly most absurd, because by fleeing he has the very thing he flees. For since nothing is feared except lest some evil happen, to fear lest fear happen is nothing other than to embrace what you reject.

But if this is contradictory, as it is, then whoever loves nothing other than not to fear fears in no way at all. And for that reason no one can love this alone and not have it. But whether this alone is to be loved is another question. Now one whom fear does not unnerve, neither does desire lay waste, nor sickness wear away, nor exultant and empty gladness toss about.

For if he desires—since desire is nothing other than love of passing things—he must needs fear lest he either lose them once attained or not attain them. But he does not fear; therefore he does not desire.

Likewise, if he is racked by grief of mind, he must needs also be agitated by fear, since where there is anxiety over present evils, there is fear of impending ones. But he is free from fear, therefore also from anxiety. Likewise, if he rejoices emptily, he rejoices over those things which he can lose, and so he must needs fear lest he lose them. But he fears in no way; in no way, therefore, does he rejoice emptily.

34. If it is a vice not to fear, it is not to be loved. But no one most happy fears, and no one most happy is in a vice. Not to fear, then, is not a vice.

But boldness is a vice. It is not, then, the case that whoever does not fear is bold, although everyone who is bold does not fear. Likewise, every corpse does not fear.

Wherefore, since not to fear is common to the most happy, to the bold, and to the corpse—but the most happy one has it through tranquillity of mind, the bold through rashness, the corpse because it lacks all sensation—not to fear is neither to be left unloved, since we wish to be happy, nor to be loved alone, since we do not wish to be bold or lifeless.

35. 1. Since whatever does not live does not fear, and no one would persuade us that life is to be done without so that we might be able to be without fear as well, it is to be loved to live without fear.

But again, because a life free from fear, if it also lacks understanding, is not to be sought, it is to be loved to live without fear and with understanding. Is that alone to be loved, or is love itself also to be loved?

But it is to be loved in such a way that the former things are not loved without it. Yet if love is loved on account of other things that are to be loved, it is not rightly said to be loved. For to love is nothing other than to seek a thing for its own sake. Is love, then, to be sought for its own sake, when, if what is loved is absent, this is undoubted wretchedness?

Next, since love is a certain motion, and there is no motion except toward something, when we ask what is to be loved we are asking what that is toward which one ought to be moved.

Wherefore, if love is to be loved, surely not every love is to be loved. For there is also a base love, by which the mind pursues things lower than itself, which is more properly called cupidity—namely, the root of all evils (1 Tim 6:10). And therefore that is not to be loved which can be taken away from the one loving and enjoying it.

The love of what thing, then, is to be loved, except of that which cannot be absent while it is loved? But that is what is nothing other to have than to know. Further, gold and every body is not such that to have it is to know it; it is not, therefore, to be loved.

And since something can be loved and not had—not only of those things which are not to be loved, such as some beautiful body, but even of those which are to be loved, such as the happy life—and since, again, something can be had and not loved, such as fetters, it is rightly asked whether anyone can fail to love that which to have is nothing other than to know, when he has it, that is, knows it.

But since we see that some people learn arithmetic, for instance, for no other reason than to become wealthy by that same discipline or to please men—and when they have learned it they refer it to the same end which they had set themselves when learning it—and since to have any discipline is nothing other than to know it, it can happen that someone has something which to have is the same as to know, and yet does not love it.

Although no one can perfectly have or know a good that is not loved. For who can know how great a good is that which he does not enjoy? But he does not enjoy it if he does not love it; therefore he who does not love does not have what is to be loved, even though he who does not have it may be able to love it. No one, therefore, knows the happy life and is wretched, since, if it is to be loved, as it is, to know it is to have it.

35. 2. Since this is so, what else is it to live happily but to have something eternal by knowing it? For that is eternal in which alone one rightly trusts, which cannot be taken away from the one loving it; and this very thing is what is nothing other to have than to know.

For the most excellent of all things is that which is eternal; and therefore we cannot have it except by that whereby we are more excellent, that is, the mind. But whatever is had by the mind is had by knowing; and no good is perfectly known that is not perfectly loved.

Nor, just as the mind alone can know, can it likewise love alone. For love is a certain appetite; and we see that appetite is present also in the other parts of the soul, which, if it agrees with the mind and reason, will be free, in such peace and tranquillity, for the mind to contemplate what is eternal.

Therefore the mind ought to love, with its other parts as well, this thing so great which is to be known by the mind. And since what is loved must of necessity affect the lover from itself, it comes about that what is eternal, when so loved, affects the mind with eternity.

Wherefore that life alone is happy which is eternal. But what is eternal that may affect the mind with eternity, except God?

But the love of things to be loved is better called love (caritas) or affection (dilectio). Wherefore that most healthful precept is to be considered with all the powers of thought: you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind (Matt 22:37); and that which the Lord Jesus says: this, however, is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent (John 17:3).

36. 1. By "love" I mean that by which are loved the things which are not to be despised in comparison with the lover himself, that is, what is eternal and what can love the eternal itself. God and the mind, then, when they are loved, are properly called love—most purified and consummated, if nothing else is loved; and this may also be called affection. But when God is loved more than the mind, so that a man would rather be his than his own, then true and supreme provision is made for the mind, and consequently also for the body, while we take no care for it by some busy appetite, but take up only what is ready and offered.

But the poison of love is the hope of acquiring or retaining temporal things; its nourishment is the diminishing of cupidity; its perfection, no cupidity. The sign of its advance is the diminishing of fear; the sign of its perfection, no fear, since both cupidity is the root of all evils (1 Tim 6:10) and consummated affection casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Whoever, therefore, wishes to nourish it, let him press on to diminish his desires. Now cupidity is the love of acquiring or obtaining temporal things. The beginning of diminishing it is to fear God, who alone cannot be feared without love. For thus one tends toward wisdom, and nothing is more true than what was said: the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Sir 1:16).

For there is no one who does not flee pain more than he seeks pleasure, since indeed we see that even the most savage beasts are deterred from the greatest pleasures by the fear of pains; and when this has turned into a habit in them, they are called tamed and gentle.

Wherefore, since there is in man reason, which, when it serves cupidity by a wretched perversion so that men may not be feared, suggests that what is committed can lie hidden, and contrives the most cunning deceits to cover up hidden sins,

it comes about that men whom the beauty of virtue does not yet delight, unless they are deterred from sinning by the punishments which are most truly proclaimed through holy and divine men, and unless they accept that what they conceal from men cannot be concealed from God, are tamed with more difficulty than wild beasts.

But that God may be feared, it must be persuaded that all things are ruled by divine providence—not so much by reasonings, for one who can enter upon these can already perceive also the beauty of virtue, as by examples, whether recent ones, if any occur, or from history, and especially those which, by the providing of divine providence itself, have received in the Old or in the New Testament the most excellent authority of religion. At the same time, one must treat both of the punishments of sins and of the rewards of right actions.

36. 2. But now, when some habit of not sinning has persuaded that what was thought burdensome is easy, let the sweetness of devotion begin to be tasted and the beauty of virtue to be commended, so that the liberty of love may stand out above the slavery of fear.

Then it must already be persuaded to the faithful—the sacraments of regeneration having gone before, which must of necessity move them greatly—what difference there is between the two men, the Old and the New, the outer and the inner, the earthly and the heavenly, that is, between him who pursues carnal and temporal goods and him who pursues spiritual and eternal ones,

and they must be warned not to expect from God perishable and passing benefits, in which even wicked men can abound, but firm and everlasting ones, for the receiving of which all the things that are thought in this world to be goods and evils are utterly to be despised.

Here that most excellent and unique example of the Lord's Man must be set forth, who, although by so many miracles he showed that he had such great power over things, both spurned those things which the unskilled think great goods and bore those which they think great evils. And lest anyone dare the less to take up these morals and this discipline the more he honors him, it must be shown, both from his promises and exhortations and from the multitude of those who imitate him—Apostles, martyrs, and innumerable saints—how those things are not to be despaired of.

36. 3. But when the enticements of carnal pleasures have been overcome, care must be taken lest the cupidity of pleasing men creep in and take their place, whether through certain wondrous deeds, or through difficult continence or patience, or through some bestowing of gifts, or under the name of knowledge or eloquence.

In that class is also the cupidity of honor. Against all these let there be brought forward the things that are written about the praise of love and the emptiness of boasting, and let it be taught how shameful it is to wish to please those whom you would not wish to imitate; for either they are not good, and it is nothing great to be praised by the wicked, or they are good, and one ought to imitate them.

But those who are good are good by virtue; and virtue does not seek what is in the power of other men. He, then, who imitates the good seeks the praise of no man, since one who imitates the wicked is not worthy of praise. But if you wish to please men in order that you may profit them toward loving God, then you no longer desire this but something else. And one who desires to please still has fear as a necessity: first, lest by sinning secretly he be counted by the Lord among the hypocrites; then, if he seeks to please by good deeds, lest, hunting for this reward, he lose what God is going to give.

36. 4. But when this cupidity has been overcome, pride must be guarded against. For it is difficult for one who no longer desires to please men, and thinks himself full of virtue, to deign to associate with men. And so fear is still necessary, lest even what he seems to have be taken away from him (See Matt 25:29), and, his hands and feet bound, he be cast into the outer darkness (See Matt 22:13). Wherefore the fear of God not only begins but also perfects wisdom, that is, in him who supremely loves God and his neighbor as himself. But what dangers and difficulties on this road are to be feared, and what remedies one ought to use, is another question.

37. Better is he who is ever born than he who is ever being born, because he who is ever being born is not yet born, and is never born nor will have been born, if he is ever being born.

For to be born is one thing, to have been born another. And through this, never a son, if never born. But the Son, because born, is also ever the Son; therefore ever born.

38. Since nature is one thing, instruction another, and practice another, and these are understood in one soul with no diversity of substance;

likewise, since natural talent is one thing, virtue another, tranquillity another, similarly of one and the same substance; and since the soul is of a different substance than God, although made by him, while God himself is that most sacred Trinity, known to many by word but to few in reality—most diligently must that be investigated which the Lord Jesus says: no one comes to me unless the Father has drawn him (John 6:44); and, no one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6); and, he will lead you into all truth (John 16:13).

39. What is it that receives a thing which it changes, as a living being receives food? What is it that is received and changed, as that same food? What is it that is received and not changed, as light by the eyes and sound by the ears? But these the soul receives through the body.

But what is it that the soul receives through itself and changes into itself, as another soul, which by receiving into the friendship of itself it makes like itself?

And what is it that it receives through itself and does not change, as truth? Wherefore it must be known both what was said to Peter, kill and eat (Acts 10:13); and what is said in the Gospel, and the life was the light of men (John 1:4).

40. From diverse things seen comes a diverse appetite of souls; from a diverse appetite, a diverse success in attaining; from a diverse success, a diverse habit; from a diverse habit, a diverse will.

But the order of things makes the diverse things seen—hidden, indeed, yet sure under divine providence. It is not, therefore, to be thought, on this account, that the natures of souls are diverse because their wills are diverse, since even the will of one soul is varied according to the diversity of times; seeing that at one time it desires to be rich, at another time, riches being despised, it longs to be wise. And in the very appetite for temporal things, at one time trade pleases one man, at another time soldiering.

41. Because all things would not be, if they were equal. For there would not be the many kinds of things by which the universe is made up, having creatures ordered as first and second and so on down to the last. And this is what is meant by "all things."

42. In the way that a man's word, even if many hear it, individuals hear the whole of it.

43. Because the one came to show men an example of living, the other appeared to signify the gift itself by which, through living well, one arrives there. But both were done visibly for the sake of the carnal, who are to be carried over, by the steps of the sacraments, from the things that are seen with bodily eyes to the things that are understood by the mind. For words too sound and pass away; yet the things signified by words, when something divine and eternal is set forth in speaking, do not likewise pass away.

44. Because every beautiful thing is from the highest beauty, which is God, but temporal beauty is carried out by things departing and succeeding. Now each several age, from infancy to old age, has its own comeliness in each several man. As, therefore, one who would wish only the age of youth to exist in a man subject to time is absurd—for he would begrudge the other beauties which in the other ages carry out their turns and order—so one who longs for a single age in the whole human race itself is absurd. For the race too, as one man, passes through its ages; nor was it fitting that a Teacher come from God, by imitation of whom one might be formed in the best morals, except at the time of youth.

To this bears what the Apostle says, that under the Law the little ones were guarded as under a guardian (See Gal 3:23-24), until he should come for whom it was being kept, who had been promised through the prophets.

For it is one thing that divine providence does, as it were privately, with individuals, another that it provides, as it were publicly, for the whole race. For even whatever individuals have arrived at sure wisdom have been enlightened only by that same truth, at the opportune time of their several ages. And it was from this truth that, in order that the people might become wise, a man was taken on at the opportune age of the human race itself.

45. 1. The ancients did not call "mathematicians" those who are now so called, but those who tracked out the numbers of the times by the motion of the heaven and the stars, of whom it is most rightly said in the Holy Scriptures: again, neither are these to be pardoned. For if they could know so much as to be able to estimate the world, how did they not more easily find the Lord of it? (Wis 13:8-9)

For the human mind, in judging concerning visible things, can recognize that it is itself better than all visible things. Yet when it also confesses that it is changeable, on account of its falling away and advancing in wisdom, it finds that above it is unchangeable truth; and so, clinging after it, as it is said, my soul clung after you (Ps 63:9 (62:9)), it is made happy, finding within even the creator and Lord of all visible things, not seeking outside the visible things, however heavenly, which either are not found, or are found in vain and with great labor, unless from the beauty of the things that are outside there be found the craftsman who is within and who works first in the soul the higher beauties, then in the body the lower ones.

45. 2. But against those who are now called mathematicians, who wish to subject our acts to the heavenly bodies and to sell us to the stars, and to receive from us the very price for which we are sold, nothing can be said more truly and more briefly than that they give no answer except upon receiving the constellations. Now in the constellations, degrees are noted, of which they say the zodiacal circle has three hundred sixty. And the motion of the heaven takes place, in one hour, over fifteen degrees, so that in such a span as one hour holds, fifteen degrees rise. And these degrees are said to have, each, sixty minutes. But the minutes of minutes, in the constellations from which they say they predict the future, they do not find.

But the conception of twins, since it is effected by a single intercourse—as the physicians attest, whose discipline is far more sure and manifest—happens in so small a point of time that it does not extend to two minutes of minutes. Whence, then, in twins is there so great a diversity of actions and outcomes and wills, who must of necessity have the same constellation of conception, and for both of whom one constellation is given to the mathematician, as though of one man?

But if they wish to hold to the constellations of birth, they are refuted by the very twins, who for the most part are poured forth from the womb one after the other in such a way that this interval of time again comes down to minutes of minutes, which they never take up to handle in the constellations, nor can they handle them.

But when it is said that they have predicted many true things, this comes about because people do not hold in memory the falsehoods and errors of those men, but, intent only on the things that have come about in accord with their answers, they forget those that have not come about, and they recall those that happen not by that art, which is no art at all, but by some obscure casting of lots.

But if they wish to attribute this to their skill, let them say that even dead written parchments, any whatever, divine by skill, from which a lot for the most part comes out according to one's wish. But if it is not by art that a verse foretelling the future often comes out of books, what wonder is it if even from the mind of one speaking, not by art but by lot, some prediction of future things comes out?

46. 1. Plato is reported to have been the first to use the name "ideas." Yet if this name did not exist before he established it, it does not on that account follow either that the things themselves, which he called ideas, did not exist, or that they were understood by no one; but they were perhaps named by others, now by one name, now by another. For one is permitted to impose any name whatever on a thing one knows that has no usual name. For it is not likely either that there were no wise men before Plato, or that they did not understand those things which Plato, as has been said, calls ideas, whatever things they are, since so great a force is established in them that no one can be wise without understanding them.

It is credible, too, that beside Greece there were wise men also among other peoples, which Plato himself sufficiently attests, not only by traveling abroad for the sake of perfecting his wisdom, but also by recording it in his books. These men, then, if there were any, are not to be thought to have been ignorant of the ideas, although perhaps they called them by another name. But let what has been said about the name suffice. Let us look at the thing itself, which is especially to be considered and known, the words being within our power, so that everyone may call by what he will the thing he has come to know.

46. 2. Ideas, therefore, we can in Latin call either "forms" (formae) or "species," so as to seem to translate word for word. But if we call them "reasons" (rationes), we depart indeed from the propriety of interpretation; for reasons in Greek are called [MISSING GREEK TEXT], not ideas. Yet whoever wishes to use this word will not be out of keeping with the thing itself.

For the ideas are certain principal forms or stable and unchangeable reasons of things, which themselves have not been given form, and through this are eternal and ever holding themselves in the same way, which are contained in the divine understanding. And although they themselves neither come to be nor pass away, nevertheless everything that can come to be and pass away, and everything that comes to be and passes away, is said to be formed according to them.

But the soul, it is denied, can behold them unless it is rational, by that part of itself by which it is preeminent, that is, by the mind and reason itself, as by a certain face or by its own inner and intelligible eye. And even that rational soul itself, not every one and any whatever, but the one that has been holy and pure—this is asserted to be fit for that vision, that is, the one that has its very eye, by which these things are seen, sound and clear and serene and like the things which it intends to see.

But what religious person, imbued with true religion, although he cannot yet behold these things, would dare nevertheless to deny—indeed, would not also profess—that all things which are, that is, whatever are contained in their own kind by a certain proper nature so as to be, have been brought into being with God as their author, and that with him as author all things that live, live, and that the universal soundness of things, and the very order by which the things that are changed carry out their temporal courses with a sure regulation, are contained and governed by the laws of the most high God?

This being established and granted, who would dare to say that God founded all things irrationally?

But if this cannot rightly be said or believed, it remains that all things were founded by reason, and not man by the same reason as the horse; for it is absurd to think this.

Individual things, therefore, were created by their own proper reasons. But where is it to be thought that these reasons are, except in the very mind of the Creator?

For he was not beholding anything placed outside himself, so as to establish according to it what he was establishing; for to suppose this is sacrilegious. But if these reasons of all things to be created or created are contained in the divine mind, and nothing can be in the divine mind except what is eternal and unchangeable, and Plato calls these principal reasons of things ideas, then not only are there ideas, but they themselves are true, because they are eternal and remain of the same kind and unchangeable. By participation in them it comes about that whatever is, is, in whatever way it is.

But the rational soul, among the things that have been founded by God, surpasses all and is nearest to God when it is pure; and insofar as it has clung to him in love, so far, suffused and in a way illumined by him with that intelligible light, it discerns—not through the bodily eyes, but through its own principal part by which it is preeminent, that is, through its understanding—these reasons, by the vision of which it is made most happy.

These reasons, as has been said, may be called either ideas or forms or species or reasons, and many are permitted to call them what they please, but to very few is it given to see what is true.

47. It is usually asked how, after the resurrection and the change of the body which is promised to the saints, we can see our own thoughts. A conjecture, then, must be drawn from that part of our body which has more light, since it must be believed that the angelic bodies, such as we hope to have, are most luminous and ethereal. If, then, many motions of our mind are now recognized in the eyes, it is probable that no motion of the mind will lie hidden when the whole body has become ethereal, in comparison with which these eyes are flesh.

48. There are three kinds of believable things. Some are always believed and never understood, such as is all history, running through temporal and human deeds;

others are understood as soon as they are believed, such as are all human reasonings, whether about numbers or about any disciplines;

a third, which are first believed and afterward understood, such as are those things about divine matters which cannot be understood except by those who are clean of heart, which comes about when the precepts received concerning living well are kept.

49. Because there are also spiritual sacred rites, whose images the carnal people had to celebrate, so that there might be a prefiguration of the new people by the servitude of the old. The difference of these two peoples may be observed even in each one of us, since each one, from his mother's womb, must of necessity act the old man, until he comes to the age of youth, where it is now no longer necessary to be wise in a carnal way, but he can be converted by will to spiritual things and be regenerated within.

What, therefore, happens in one rightly educated man by the order of nature and by instruction, this it is most beautiful that, in proportion, should be done and carried out in the whole human race through divine providence.

50. God, since he could not beget one better than himself the one whom he begot—for nothing is better than God—begot an equal. For if he willed and could not, he is weak; if he could and would not, he is envious. From which it follows that he begot an equal Son.

51. 1. Since Divine Scripture mentions the outer and the inner man and distinguishes them so far that it was said by the Apostle, and although our outer man is being corrupted, yet the inner one is being renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16), it can be asked which of these was made to the image and likeness of God; for to ask this is foolish, if one was, which of them it was.

For who doubts that one should say it is rather he who is renewed than he who is corrupted? But whether both were is a great question. For if the outer man is Adam and the inner is Christ, both are well understood. But since Adam did not remain good, as he was made by God, and, by loving carnal things, was made carnal, it can seem not absurd that this very thing was for him to fall, namely to lose the image and likeness of God. And through this, he himself is renewed and he himself is also the inner man.

How, then, is he himself also the outer man? Is it according to the body, so that he is inner according to the soul, and there is a resurrection and renewal of the inner man, which now takes place according to the death of the former life, that is, of sin, and according to the regeneration of the new life, that is, of justice?

These same two men he likewise so names that he mentions one as old, whom we ought to put off, the other as new, and that one as to be put on (See Col 3:9-10). Of these, again, he calls the one the image of the earthly man, because it is conducted according to the sin of the first man, who is Adam, and the other the image of the heavenly man (1 Cor 15:49), because it is conducted according to the justice of the second man, who is Jesus Christ. But the outer man, who is now being corrupted, will be renewed in the future resurrection, when he has paid off that death which he owes to nature by that law which was given in paradise through the precept.

51. 2. But how it is not incongruous that the body too is said to have been made to the likeness of God, one easily understands who diligently attends to what was said: and God made all things very good (Gen 1:31); for no one doubts that he himself is primordially good.

For in many ways things can be said to be like God: some made according to virtue and wisdom, because in him is virtue and wisdom not made; others insofar as they only live, because he supremely and primordially lives; others insofar as they are, because he supremely and primordially is.

And therefore those things which only are, and yet neither live nor are wise, are to his likeness not perfectly but slightly, because they too are good in their own order, since he is good above all things, from whom good things come.

But all things that live and are not wise participate the likeness a little more. For what lives also is, but not whatever is also lives. Now further, the things that are wise are so near to that likeness that among creatures nothing is nearer. For what participates wisdom both lives and is, but what lives must of necessity be, yet need not be wise. Wherefore, since man can be a partaker of wisdom according to the inner man, according to that inner man he is so to the image that he is formed with no nature interposed, and therefore nothing is more conjoined to God. For he is wise and lives and is, than which creature nothing is better.

51. 3. But if the outer man is taken to be that life by which we sense through the body with the five most familiar senses, which we have in common with the beasts—for it too can be corrupted by the sensible troubles which are brought on by persecutions—not undeservedly is this man too said to be a partaker of the likeness of God, not only because he lives, which appears even in beasts, but further because he turns toward the mind that rules him, which wisdom illumines, which cannot happen in the beasts, who lack reason.

The body of man too, because alone among the bodies of earthly animals it is not laid prostrate face-down upon the belly, since it is visible and erect for gazing at the heaven, which is the beginning of visible things—although it is known to live not by its own presence but by that of the soul—nevertheless, not only because it is, and insofar as it is, is surely good, but also because it is such that it is more fit for contemplating the heaven, it can rightly be seen to have been made more to the likeness of God than the other bodies of animals.

Yet because a human being is not rightly called such without life, the outer man is perhaps more rightly understood to be neither the body alone nor the life alone, which is in the sense of the body, but both together.

51. 4. Nor is it unskillfully distinguished that the image and likeness of God, who is also called the Son, is one thing, and that to the image and likeness of God, as we understand man to have been made, is another. There are also those who not without reason understand that two things were said, "to the image and likeness," when, they assert, if it were one thing, one name could have sufficed.

But they hold that the mind was made to the image, which, with no substance interposed, is formed by truth itself, and which is also called spirit—not that Holy Spirit who is of the same substance as the Father and the Son, but the spirit of man.

For the Apostle thus distinguishes these: no one knows what takes place in a man except the spirit of the man, and no one knows what takes place in God except the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:11). Likewise, of the spirit of man he says: may he keep your spirit and soul and body (1 Thess 5:23).

For this too was made by God, as also the rest of creation. For it is written in Proverbs in this way: know that the Lord knows the hearts of all, and he who fashioned the spirit for all, he himself knows all things (Prov 16:2).

Therefore this spirit, with no one doubting, is taken to have been made to the image of God—the spirit in which is the understanding of truth; for it clings to truth with no creature interposed. The rest of man they hold to have been made to the likeness, because every image is indeed like, but not everything that is like is also properly an image, though perhaps it can be so called by a misuse of the word.

But in such matters one must take care that nothing be thought to need too much asserting—that point being, of course, healthfully kept, lest, because any body whatever is extended through local spaces, something of the kind be believed to be the substance of God. For a thing which is smaller in a part than in the whole does not befit the dignity of the soul, much less the majesty of God.

52. The Divine Scriptures, raising us from an earthly and human sense to a divine and heavenly one, have come down even to those words which the custom of even the most foolish people uses among themselves.

And so the names even of those affections which our mind undergoes—which one who is wiser now understands to be most far removed from God—those men through whom the Holy Spirit spoke did not hesitate most fittingly to set down in the books;

so that, for example, because it is most difficult for a man to take vengeance without anger, they judged that the vengeance of God, which takes place altogether without that disturbance, should nevertheless be called anger;

likewise, because men are accustomed to guard the chastity of a wife by being jealous, they called that providence of God—by which it is enjoined and brought about that the soul not be corrupted and, following now these gods and now those, in a way play the harlot—the jealousy of God;

so too the hand of God means the power by which he works; and the feet of God, the power by which he reaches out to guarding and governing all things;

and the ears of God or the eyes of God, the power by which he perceives and understands all things; and the face of God, the power by which he manifests himself and is recognized, and the rest in this manner,

for this reason, namely, because we, to whom the discourse is made, are accustomed both to work with our hands, and to walk with our feet, and to arrive where the mind carries us, and to perceive corporeal things with our ears and eyes and the other senses of the body, and to be made known by the face, and whatever else pertains to this, as it were, rule.

In this manner, then, since we are not accustomed easily to change something begun and to carry it over into something else except by repenting—although divine providence appears, to those who behold it with a serene mind, to administer all things in a most certain order—nevertheless, most fittingly adapted to lowly human understanding, those things which begin to be and do not persist as long as they were hoped to persist are said to be taken away, as it were, by the repentance of God.

53. 1. Whoever diligently beholds the dispensations of the two Testaments, distributed according to the fittingness of the times to the ages of the human race, understands well enough, as I think, what befits the earlier age of the human race and what the later.

For, divine providence beautifully ordering all things, the whole series of generations from Adam to the end of the world is so administered as that of a single man, prolonging his time from boyhood to old age and marking it off by the stages of age.

And therefore one who directs a devout mind to the divine readings ought to distinguish the stages of the virtues too in morals, until one comes to the highest and perfect virtue of man, lest perhaps, when he finds that at one time small things are commanded to the small, at another time greater things to the greater, reckoning that, in comparison with the greater, those which are lesser are sins, he should think it unbecoming that God should command such things to men.

But to discuss now the stages of the virtues would be too long; nevertheless, what is enough for examining the present question: as far as deceiving is concerned, the highest and perfect virtue is to deceive no one and to display what was said, let it be on your lips: yes, yes; no, no (Matt 5:37).

But because this was commanded to those to whom the kingdom of heaven has already been promised—and it is a great virtue to fulfill these greater things, to whom this reward is owed, for the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and those who do violence seize it (Matt 11:12)—it must be asked by what stages one comes to that summit and perfection.

Among which stages, at any rate, are found those to whom as yet an earthly kingdom was being promised, by which promise, as little ones, they might play their first part, and, having for the time obtained from the one God, who is the Lord of all, the earthly joys for which they still gaped, advancing thence and growing in spirit, they might dare even to hope for heavenly things.

As, therefore, it is the highest and almost divine virtue to deceive no one, so it is the lowest vice to deceive anyone whatever. For those tending from this lowest vice toward that highest virtue, there is a stage: to deceive indeed no one, whether friend or stranger, but yet at some time an enemy.

Whence that saying, too, uttered by the poet, has by now nearly obtained the usage of a proverb: "Deceit or valor, who would ask in an enemy?"

But since the enemy himself can for the most part be deceived unjustly, as when some pact is made concerning a temporal peace, which they call a truce, and faith is not kept, and other such things, much more purified and nearer to that highest virtue is he who, although he may wish to deceive an enemy, nevertheless does not deceive him except by divine authority. For God knows, either alone or certainly far more excellently and purely than men, by what punishment or reward each one is worthy.

53. 2. Wherefore God indeed deceives no one through himself; for he is the Father of Truth and the Truth and the Spirit of Truth. Yet, distributing worthy things to the worthy—since this too pertains to justice and truth—he uses souls according to their merits and dignities, which are in their stages,

so that, if anyone is worthy to be deceived, he both does not deceive him through himself, nor through such a man as already fittingly loves and persists in keeping let it be on your lips: yes, yes; no, no (Matt 5:37), nor through an angel to whom the role of deceit does not belong, but either through such a man as has not yet stripped himself of desires of this kind, or through such an angel as, by the perversity of his own will, has been ordered, for the punishment of sins or for the training and purification of those who are reborn according to God, among the lowest stages of nature.

For we read that a king was deceived by the false prophesying of false prophets, and we read it in such a way that we find it was not done without divine judgment, since he was worthy to be thus deceived, nor through that angel whom the office of deception would not befit, but through the angel of error, who of his own accord asked, with gladness, that such a part be laid upon him (See 1 Kgs 22:6-36).

For in certain places of the Scriptures something is set forth more openly, that the diligent and devout reader may understand it also in other places where it is less openly disclosed. For our God so regulated the divine books by the Holy Spirit, for the salvation of souls, that he willed not only to feed us with manifest things but also to train us with obscure ones.

From this ineffable and sublime administration of things, then, which takes place through divine providence, the natural law has been, as it were, transcribed into the rational soul, so that in the very conduct of this life and in earthly morals men preserve images of such distributions.

Hence it is that a judge thinks it unworthy of his person, and wicked, to strike a condemned man; yet at his command the executioner does this, who, according to his own desire, has been so ordered in his office that he strikes, by the regulation of the laws, a condemned man—he who could even strike an innocent one out of his own cruelty.

For the judge does this neither through himself nor through a magistrate or an advocate or anyone in his office on whom such a ministry is not fittingly laid. Hence it is also that we use irrational living beings for those things which it is wicked to have done through men.

For surely a thief is worthy to be torn by a bite; yet a man does this not through himself or through his son or a member of his household or even through his servant, but through a dog, which beast it befits to do such things according to the stages of nature.

Since, then, it befits certain ones to suffer something which it does not befit others to do, there are certain intermediate ministries to which worthy offices are enjoined, so that justice itself, using them, both commands each to suffer such things as it befits him to suffer, and also through those doing them whom it no less befits to do such things.

Wherefore, since both the Egyptians were worthy of deception, and the people of Israel, for that age of the human race, were as yet established in such a stage of morals that they would not unworthily deceive an enemy,

it came about that God commanded—or rather, in accordance with their desire, permitted—that the vessels of gold and silver, for which the seekers of an earthly kingdom still gaped, they should both ask of the Egyptians not meaning to return them and receive as though meaning to return them (See Exod 3:22).

And God willed this both to be a not unjust wage, according to the stage of such souls, for so long a labor and work, and a punishment of those whom he justly caused to lose what they ought to have returned.

God, therefore, is not a deceiver—which who would not understand to be wicked and impious to believe?—but a most just distributor of merits and persons, doing certain things through himself which are worthy of him alone and befit him alone, such as to illumine souls and, by offering himself to them for their full enjoyment, to render them wise and happy,

and other things through the creature serving him, ordered by most upright laws according to merits, commanding some of those things, permitting some, divine providence reaching out and coming even to the administration of sparrows, as the Lord says in the Gospel, and even to the comeliness of the grass, even to the number of our hairs (See Matt 10:29-30; Luke 12:27-28). Of which it is also said: it reaches mightily from end to end, and orders all things sweetly (Wis 8:1).

53. 3. But that God punishes through the ministries of souls serving his laws, and repays worthy punishments to the worthy, while he himself remains most tranquil, is written most openly thus:

to condemn even him who ought not to be punished, you reckon foreign to your power. For your power is the beginning of justice; and for this, that you are the Lord of all, you make yourself spare all. For you show your power, you who are not believed to be consummate in power, and among those who know it you expose audacity. But you, Lord of powers, judge with tranquillity, and with great reverence order us (Wis 12:15-18).

53. 4. Likewise, that at first, in earthly matters, a stage is made toward heavenly justice, which is now commanded to the stronger, the Lord shows when he says: if you have not been faithful in what is another's, who will give you what is your own? (Luke 16:12) And that souls are taught according to their stages, the Lord himself also demonstrates, saying: I have many things to say to you, but now you cannot bear them (John 16:12);

and the Apostle when he says: and I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to carnal. I gave you milk to drink, not food; for you were not able, and not even yet are you able, for you are still carnal (1 Cor 3:1-2).

What, therefore, was done in these according to their stages, this we recognize is done in the whole human race, so that some things were commanded to the carnal people, others to the spiritual, according to the fittingness of the times.

It is no wonder, then, if those who were as yet worthy to deceive an enemy were commanded to deceive an enemy worthy to be deceived. For they were not yet fit to be told, love your enemies, but were such that only this had to be said to them: you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy (Matt 5:43-44).

For as yet how broadly that neighbor was to be understood was not for that time to deliver. A certain beginning, then, was made under the guardian, so that perfection might be kept for the master, while nevertheless the same God both gave the guardian to the little ones—namely that Law through his servant—and the master to the more grown, that is, the Gospel through his Only One.

54. Everything that is either is always in the same way or is not. And every soul is better than every body; for everything that gives life is better than that which is given life, and that the body is given life by the soul, not the soul by the body, no one doubts.

But what is not a body and yet is something is either a soul or something better than a soul. For nothing is worse than every body, because, even if one should call it the matter from which the body itself comes to be, rightly, since it lacks all form, it is said to be nothing.

Again, between body and soul nothing is found that is better than body and worse than soul.

For if there were anything intermediate, it would either be given life by the soul, or give life to the soul, or neither; and it would either give life to the body, or be given life by the body, or neither. But whatever is given life by the soul is a body; and if anything gives life to the soul, it is better than the soul.

Again, that by which the body is given life is the soul; what is given life by the body is nothing. But neither—that is, that which needs no life and bestows no life—is either altogether nothing, or something better than both body and soul. But whether there is any such thing in the nature of things is another question.

For now, in the meantime, reason discovers that there is nothing between body and soul which is better than body and worse than soul. But that which is better than every soul, we call God; to whom whoever understands him is joined. For what is understood is true, and not everything that is believed is true.

But whatever is true and is separated from the senses and from the mind can only be believed, yet cannot be sensed or understood. To God, therefore, is joined that which understands God. But the rational soul understands God. For it understands that which is always of the same kind and undergoes no change.

But both the body, through time and places, and the rational soul itself, in that it is at one time wise, at another foolish, undergo change. But what is always in the same way is assuredly better than that which is not so. And nothing is better than the rational soul except God. When, therefore, it understands something that always holds itself in the same way, it understands him without doubt. And this is truth itself. And because the rational soul is joined to it by understanding, and this is the good of the soul, it is rightly taken that this is what was said: but for me it is good to cling to God (Ps 73:28 (72:28)).

55. The number ten can signify the knowledge of the universe. If this is referred to inner and intelligible things, which are signified by the number six, it becomes, as it were, ten times six, which is sixty; if to earthly and corruptible things, which can be signified by the number eight, it becomes ten times eight, which is eighty. The queens, then, are souls reigning over intelligible and spiritual things;

the concubines are those who receive the wage of earthly things, of whom it is said, they have received their wage (Matt 6:2); the young maidens without number are those whose knowledge is not fixed and who can be endangered by diverse doctrines, so that "number," as was said, signifies the sure and undoubted confirmation of knowledge.

56. Six, nine, twelve, eighteen—these come to forty-five in one. Add, then, the one itself, and they come to forty-six; this multiplied by six comes to two hundred seventy-six. Now human conception is said to proceed and be completed in such a way that in the first six days it has, as it were, the likeness of milk; in the following nine days it is turned into blood; then in twelve days it is made solid; in the remaining eighteen it is formed up to the perfect lineaments of all the members; and from then, for the remaining time up to the time of birth, it grows in size.

Forty-five days, then, with one added, which signifies the sum—because six and nine and twelve and eighteen brought into one make forty-five—with one added, then, as was said, make forty-six. And when these have been multiplied by that same number six, which holds the head of this arrangement, they make two hundred seventy-six, that is, nine months and six days, which are reckoned from the eighth day before the Kalends of April, on which day the Lord is believed to have been conceived, because on the same day he also suffered, up to the eighth day before the Kalends of January, on which day he was born. Not absurdly, then, is the Temple said to have been built in forty-six years, which signified his body (See John 2:20-21), so that as many years as there were in the building of the Temple, so many days there were in the perfecting of the Lord's body.

57. 1. All things are yours, but you are Christ's, and Christ is God's (1 Cor 3:22-23). If they are counted from the head, there are found one, two, three, four. Likewise: the head of woman is man, the head of man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God (1 Cor 11:3).

If they are counted in the same way, there are found likewise one, two, three, four. Now one and two and three and four brought together make ten. Wherefore the number ten rightly signifies the teaching that introduces God the founder and the founded creature. And when the perfect and indestructible body is made subject to the perfect and indestructible soul, and that in turn is made subject to Christ, and he to God—not as though unlike or of another nature, but as the Son to the Father—this whole is rightly signified by the same number ten, which is hoped to be, after the resurrection of the body, forever.

And perhaps for this reason those who are hired for the vineyard receive a denarius under the name of wage (See Matt 20:2). But as one and two and three and four together make ten, so one and two and three and four taken four times make forty.

57. 2. But if the number four rightly signifies the body on account of the four most familiar natures of which it consists—the dry, the moist, the cold, and the hot—and because the progression from a point to length, from length to breadth, from breadth to height makes the solidity of the body, which again is contained in the number four, not absurdly is the number forty understood to signify the temporal dispensation which was carried out for our salvation, when the Lord took on a body and deigned to appear visibly to men.

For one and two and three and four, which signify the Creator and the creature, taken four times—that is, demonstrated temporally through the body—make forty. For between "four" and "four times" there is this difference, that four is in a state of rest, four times in motion. Therefore, as four is referred to the body, so four times is referred to time; and the mystery carried out bodily and temporally is intimated, for the sake of those who were entangled in the love of bodies and subject to times. The number forty, then, as was said, is believed not incongruously to signify that temporal dispensation itself. And perhaps this is why the Lord fasted forty days (See Matt 4:2), showing the want of this world, which is carried on by the motion of bodies and by times; and he was forty days with his disciples after the resurrection, intimating to them, I believe, this very temporal dispensation which he carried out for our salvation.

But the number forty, its parts that measure it being reckoned, comes up to the number fifty, commending the same thing, since indeed those very parts which measure it are equal to one another—because corporeal and visible action, administered with equity in time, procures perfection for man. And this perfection, as was said, is signified by the number ten, just as the number forty, its equal parts being brought into a sum, brings forth ten, by which it comes to fifty, as was said above. For the one, of which forty has forty; and the two, of which it has twenty; and the four, of which it has ten; and the five, of which it has eight; and the eight, of which it has five; and the ten, of which it has four; and the twenty, of which it has two—brought together make fifty. For no other number can measure the number forty by equal parts except these which we have enumerated and, reckoned, have brought up to the number fifty. When the forty days after the resurrection had been completed with his disciples—that is, commending to them what was carried out for us temporally—the Lord ascended into heaven; and after another ten days he sent the Holy Spirit (See Acts 1:3-9; 2:1-4), by whom those who had believed visible and temporal things might be perfected spiritually for grasping invisible things—in those very ten days, after which he sent the Holy Spirit, indicating by the number ten that same perfection which is conferred through the Holy Spirit, which the number forty, its equal parts being reckoned, brings forth, and it becomes fifty; just as by the temporal dispensation administered with equity one arrives at the perfection which the number ten signifies, which ten together with forty makes fifty. Therefore, since the perfection that comes about through the Holy Spirit, so long as we still walk in the flesh, although we do not live carnally, is coupled with that temporal dispensation itself, the number fifty rightly seems to pertain to the Church—but now purified and perfect, which embraces in love both the faith of the temporal dispensation and the hope of future eternity, that is, couples, as it were, the number forty with ten.

But this Church, to which the number fifty pertains, whether because it is strained out from three kinds of men—Jews, gentiles, and carnal Christians—or because it is imbued with the mystery of the Trinity, by the number that signifies it taken three times comes up to one hundred fifty; for fifty taken three times makes one hundred fifty. And when you have added to it the three themselves, because what is washed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit by the bath of regeneration ought to be marked and eminent (See Matt 28:19), they make one hundred fifty-three.

Which number of fish is found, because the nets were cast into the right-hand part, and therefore it holds great fish (See John 21:6-11), that is, perfect ones and fit for the kingdom of heaven. For that other similitude of the little net, not cast into the right hand, caught good and bad together, who are separated on the shore (Matt 13:48).

For now, within the nets of the precepts and sacraments of God, good and bad dwell together in the Church that now is. But the separation comes about at the end of the world, as at the end of the sea, that is, on the shore, when the just reign, first temporally, as is written in Revelation, then forever in that city which is there described (See Rev 21), where, the temporal dispensation now coming to rest, which is signified by the number forty, the ten remains, which the saints who labor in the vineyard are to receive as their wage.

57. 3. It can also, if this number is considered, point to the holiness of the Church, which was brought about through our Lord Jesus Christ; so that, since the creature consists of the number seven—the three being attributed to the soul and the four to the body—the taking on of the man himself is said to be three times seven, because both the Father sent the Son, and the Father is in the Son, and by the gift of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin.

And these are three, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; but the man himself, seven times, was taken on by the temporal dispensation, so as to become everlasting. The sum of the number, then, becomes twenty-one, that is, three times seven. And this taking on of the man availed for the liberation of the Church, of which he is the head (See Eph 5:23).

But the Church itself, on account of soul and body, is found in the same number seven. Let twenty-one, then, likewise be taken seven times, on account of those who are freed through the Lord's Man, and they make one hundred forty-seven. To this is added the number six, the sign of perfection, because it consists of its parts that measure it, in such a way that nothing less and nothing more is found. For one measures it, of which it has six; and two, of which it has three; and three, of which it has two; which brought together, one and two and three, make six. And this perhaps pertains also to that mystery, that God on the sixth day perfected all his works (See Gen 2:2).

When, therefore, you have added six to one hundred forty-seven, which is the sign of perfection, they make one hundred fifty-three. Which number of fish is found, after, at the Lord's command, the nets were cast into the right-hand part, where the sinners, who pertain to the left, are not found.

58. 1. John the Baptist, considering the Scripture which is read about him in the Gospel, is not absurdly believed, by many probable proofs, to bear the person of prophecy, and especially because of what the Lord says about him: more than a prophet (Matt 11:9). For he bears the image of the whole prophecy which, from the beginning of the human race to the coming of the Lord, was made concerning the Lord.

But the person of the Gospel is in the Lord himself, who was foretold through prophecy, whose preaching is increased throughout the whole world from the coming of the Lord himself, but prophecy is diminished after that which it foretold has come. And so the Lord says: the Law and the Prophets were until John the Baptist; from now on the kingdom of God is preached (Luke 16:16); and John himself says: he must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30).

And this was figured both in the days on which they were born and in the deaths by which they suffered. For John is born from the time when the days begin to diminish; the Lord is born from the time when the days begin to increase. The one is diminished in the head when he is killed; the other, indeed, is lifted up on the cross.

After, then, prophecy itself, established in John, pointed out with the finger as present him whom from the beginning of the human race it had sung as to come, it begins to diminish, and from then the preaching of the kingdom of God begins to grow. And therefore John baptized unto penance (See Matt 3:11); for the old life is brought to an end up to penance, and from then the new begins.

58. 2. But not only in those who are properly called prophets, but in the very history of the Old Testament, it is gathered by those who devoutly seek, and are divinely helped to investigate these things, that prophecy is not silent. Yet it appears especially in those more evident figures of things: that the just Abel is killed by his brother (See Gen 4:8)

and the Lord by the Jews; that the ark of Noah is governed as the Church, as it were in the flood of the world (See Gen 7:1); that Isaac is led to be sacrificed, and the ram in the briars is recognized in his place as, as it were, crucified (See Gen 22:3-13); that in the two sons of Abraham, one of the slave woman, the other of the free woman, the two Testaments are understood (See Gal 4:22-24); that the two peoples are foreshown in the twins Esau and Jacob (See Gen 25:22);

that Joseph, having suffered persecution from his brothers, is honored by strangers (See Gen 37; 41), just as the Lord, killed by the persecuting Jews, was glorified among the gentiles. It would be long to recall them one by one, since the Apostle so concludes and says: but these things happened to them in figure; and they were written for our sake, upon whom the end of the ages has come (1 Cor 10:11).

But the end of the ages, as the old age of the old man—when you have set up the whole human race as one man—is marked by the sixth age, in which the Lord came. For there are six ages even in one man: infancy, boyhood, adolescence, youth, maturity, and old age.

The first age of the human race, then, is from Adam to Noah; the second from Noah to Abraham, which are the most evident and most familiar joints; the third from Abraham to David, for thus the Evangelist Matthew divides it (See Matt 1:17); the fourth from David to the migration to Babylon; the fifth from the migration to Babylon to the coming of the Lord.

The sixth is to be hoped from the coming of the Lord to the end of the world, in which the outer man, who is also called old, is corrupted as by old age, and the inner is renewed day by day (See 2 Cor 4:16). From then there is everlasting rest, which is signified by the Sabbath. To this it accords that man was made on the sixth day to the image and likeness of God (See Gen 1:27).

But no one is ignorant that the life of man, when it is now administering something, is supported by knowledge and action. For action is rash without knowledge, and knowledge sluggish without action. But the first life of man, to which no administration is rightly entrusted, is given over to the five senses of the body, which are sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. And therefore the first two ages of the human race are defined by ten generations each, as it were infancy and boyhood, that is, by five doubled, since generation is propagated by both sexes. There are, then, ten generations from Adam to Noah, and from there to Abraham another ten, which two ages we have said are the infancy and boyhood of the human race. But adolescence and youth and maturity, that is, from Abraham to David, and from there to the migration to Babylon, and from there to the coming of the Lord, are figured by four times ten generations, by seven doubled according to the same reckoning of both sexes, when action and knowledge have been added to the five which is in the senses of the body.

But old age is wont to hold even as much time as all the remaining ages. For since old age is said to begin from the sixtieth year, and human life can reach up to one hundred twenty years, it is manifest that old age alone can be as long as all the earlier ages. The last age, then, of the human race, which begins from the coming of the Lord to the end of the world, by how many generations it is to be reckoned is uncertain. And God willed this usefully to be hidden, as is written in the Gospel (See Matt 24:36), and the Apostle attests, saying that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night (See 1 Thess 5:2).

58. 3. But nevertheless, that the human race was visited in the sixth age by the humble coming of the Lord is taught by the generations distinguished above. By this visitation prophecy begins to be made manifest, which in the earlier five ages lay hidden. And because John bore the person of this prophecy, as was said above, therefore he is born of aged parents, as though, the world growing old, that prophecy begins to become known; and his mother hides herself for five months, as is written: Elizabeth hid herself for five months (Luke 1:24).

But in the sixth month she is visited by Mary the mother of the Lord, and the infant leaps in the womb, as though, at the first coming of the Lord, in which he deigned to appear in humility, prophecy begins to be made manifest—but as though in the womb, that is, not yet so evidently that all confess it to be manifest as in the light, which we believe will happen at the second coming of the Lord, in which he is to come in glory, of whose coming Elijah is hoped to be the forerunner, as John was of this one.

And therefore it is said by the Lord: Elijah has already come, and men did many things to him; and, if you wish to know, he himself is John the Baptist, who is to come (Matt 11:14; 17:12). Because in the same spirit and in the same power, as it were by the office of a preceding herald, both this one has already come and that one is to come. For this reason it is said that this John too, through the Spirit by which his father was filled as a seer, would be the forerunner of the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah (See Luke 1:17, 76).

But when Mary had spent three months with Elizabeth, she departs (See Luke 1:56). By which number it seems to me there is signified the faith of the Trinity and Baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, by which the human race is imbued through the humble coming of the Lord and is perfected by the future coming of his glory.

59. 1. Among the parables spoken by the Lord, that which is set down concerning the ten virgins is wont to exercise inquirers much. And many, indeed, have had many thoughts on it which are not beyond the faith; but how the exposition may fit all its parts, that is what must be worked out.

I have also read in a certain Scripture, of the kind that are called apocryphal, something that is not against the Catholic faith, but it seemed to me less fitting to this place, when I considered all the parts of this similitude. Yet about that exposition I dare rashly to judge nothing, lest perhaps it was not its unsuitability that made difficulties for me, but my own slowness that did not find its suitability. But what seems to me to be taken not absurdly in this place, I will expound as briefly and diligently as I can.

59. 2. Our Lord, then, having been asked privately by the disciples about the consummation of the world, among many other things which he said, said this also: then the kingdom of heaven will be likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. But five of them were foolish and five wise. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them; the wise, however, took oil with them in their vessels along with the lamps. And while the bridegroom delayed, they all slept.

But last of all the remaining virgins come, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us.' But he, answering, said, 'amen I say to you, I do not know you. Watch, therefore, for you do not know the day nor the hour (Matt 25:1-13).'

That of ten virgins five are admitted and five excluded signifies the discernment of the good and the bad. Wherefore, if the name of virginity is honorable, why is it common to those received and those excluded? Then, what does the number five in each part mean? And what does the oil signify? It seems strange that the wise do not share with those who ask, since it is not right either to begrudge those who are so perfect that they are received by the bridegroom, by which name, with no one doubting, the Lord Jesus Christ is signified, and one ought to be merciful in giving from what one has, that sentence of the same Lord prescribing it, who says: give to everyone who asks you (Luke 6:30).

But what is it that, by giving, could be not enough for both? These things especially increase the difficulty of the question; although, the rest too being diligently considered, great caution must be applied, so that all things may run together into one account, and nothing be said for one side that hinders another.

59. 3. It seems to me, then, that the five virgins signify the fivefold continence from the enticements of the flesh. For the appetite of the mind must be restrained from the pleasure of the eyes, from the pleasure of the ears, from the pleasure of smelling, of tasting, of touching.

But because this continence takes place partly before God, that he may be pleased in the inner joy of conscience, and partly before men, only that human glory may be seized, five are called wise and five foolish, yet both virgins, because both are continent, although they rejoice in a different kindling.

But the lamps, because they are carried in the hands, are the works that are done according to this continence. And it was said: let your works shine before men (Matt 5:16). But all took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom (Matt 25:1). It must be understood, then, that those of whom there is question are reckoned by the name of Christ; for those who are not Christians cannot go out to meet the bridegroom Christ.

But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them (Matt 25:3). For many, although they hope for very much from the goodness of Christ, nevertheless have no joy, while they live continently, except in the praises of men. They do not, then, have oil with them. For I think that joy itself is signified by oil. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you, it says, with the oil of gladness (Ps 45:8 (44:8)). But one who does not rejoice for this reason, that he pleases God within, does not have oil with him.

But the wise took oil with them in their vessels along with their lamps (Matt 25:4), that is, they placed the joy of good works in the heart and conscience. So the Apostle too admonishes: but let a man test himself, he says, and then he will have glory in himself and not in another (Gal 6:4).

But while the bridegroom delayed, they all slept (Matt 25:5), because, from both kinds of continent persons—whether of those who exult before God or of those who rest content in the praises of men—they die during this interval of time, until at the coming of the Lord the resurrection of the dead takes place.

But in the middle of the night, that is, with no one knowing or expecting—since the Lord himself says, but of that day and hour no one knows (Matt 24:36), and the Apostle, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night (1 Thess 5:2), by which it is signified that it is utterly hidden—when he comes: a cry arose: behold, the bridegroom comes, go out to meet him (Matt 25:6). In the twinkling of an eye and at the last trumpet we shall all rise again (See 1 Cor 15:52).

Therefore all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps (Matt 25:7), that is, the accounts of their works that must be rendered. For we must be presented before the tribunal of Christ, so that there each one may receive what he has done in the body, whether good or evil (See 2 Cor 5:10).

And the foolish said to the wise, give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out (Matt 25:8). For those whose deeds are propped up by the praise of others fail when that same praise is withdrawn; and by habit they always seek out that from which the mind is wont to rejoice. And so they wish to have, with God, who is the inspector of the heart, the testimony of men, who do not see hearts.

But what did the wise answer? Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you (Matt 25:9). For each one will render an account for himself, nor is anyone helped by another's testimony with God, to whom the secrets of the heart are apparent; and each one scarcely suffices for himself, that his own conscience may bear him witness.

For who will boast that he has a clean heart (See Prov 20:9)? Hence it is that the Apostle says: to me it is a very small thing that I be judged by you or by a human day; but neither do I judge myself (1 Cor 4:3). Wherefore, since each one can either not at all or scarcely bring a true judgment concerning himself, how can he judge concerning another, since no one knows what takes place in a man except the spirit of the man (See 1 Cor 2:11)?

Go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves. They are not to be thought to have given counsel, but to have recalled, obliquely, the crime of those women. For flatterers sell oil, who, by praising things either false or unknown, send souls into error, and, by conciliating to them empty joys as to fools, receive from these some wage, whether of food or of money or of honor or of some temporal advantage—the souls not understanding what was said: those who call you happy send you into error (Isa 3:12). But it is better to be reproached by a just man than to be praised by a sinner. The just man, it says, will correct me in mercy and reprove me; but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head (Ps 141:5 (140:5)).

Go, then, to those who sell and buy for yourselves, that is, let us now see how those help you who were accustomed to sell you praises and to lead you into error, so that you sought glory not before God but from men.

But while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, that is, while they were bending down toward the things that are outside and seeking their wonted joys, because they did not know the inner joys, he came who judges, and those who were ready, that is, those to whom conscience bore good testimony before God, went in with him to the wedding (Matt 25:10), that is, where the clean soul is coupled, to be made fruitful, with the pure and perfect and everlasting Word of God.

And the door was shut, that is, those having been received who are changed into the angelic life. For we shall all rise again, it says, but we shall not all be changed (1 Cor 15:51): the entrance to the kingdom of heaven is shut. For after the judgment there lies open no place for prayers or merits.

But last of all the remaining virgins come, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us (Matt 25:11). It is not said that they bought oil, and therefore they are to be understood, with no joy from others' praises now remaining, to return, in straits and great afflictions, to the imploring of God; but great is the severity, after the judgment, of him whose ineffable mercy was bestowed beforehand before the judgment.

And so, answering, he says: amen I say to you that I do not know you (Matt 25:12), namely by that rule whereby the art of God, that is, the Wisdom of God, does not have it that those should enter into his joy who were seen to do something according to his precepts not before God, but in order to please men;

and thus he concludes: watch, therefore, for you do not know the day nor the hour (Matt 25:13), not only of that last time at which the bridegroom is to come, but each one does not know the day and hour of his own falling asleep. But whoever is ready up to sleep, that is, up to the death which is owed by all, will be found ready also when that voice has sounded in the middle of the night, by which all are to be awakened.

59. 4. But that he said the virgins come to meet the bridegroom, I think is to be understood in such a way that she who is called the bride consists of the virgins themselves—as if, when all Christians run together into the Church, the children were said to run together to the mother, when she who is called the mother consists of the very children gathered together.

For now the Church is betrothed, and is a virgin to be led to the wedding, that is, when she keeps herself from worldly corruption; but at that time she will marry, when, all mortality passing away, she will be made fruitful by an immortal joining.

I betrothed you, he says, to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ (2 Cor 11:2). You, he says, a virgin, concluding from the plural to the singular. Therefore they can be called both virgins and a virgin.

But why they are said to be five has, as it seems to me, been expounded. But we see now through a riddle, but then face to face (1 Cor 13:12); and now in part, but then in whole. But that we now discern something through a riddle and in part in the Scriptures, which is nevertheless according to the Catholic faith, comes from that pledge which the virgin Church received at the humble coming of her bridegroom, whom she is to marry at that last coming, when he will come in glory, when now she will behold him face to face. For he gave us the Holy Spirit as a pledge, as the Apostle says (See 2 Cor 5:5). And therefore this exposition beholds nothing certain, except that it be according to the faith, nor does it prejudge other expositions which could no less be according to the faith.

60. Just as God is said to know even when he makes someone know, as it is written: the Lord your God tests you, that he may know whether you love him (Deut 13:3).

For it was not said as though God did not know, but so that they themselves might know how far they had advanced in the love of God, which is not fully recognized by men except by the temptations that befall them; and the "tests" is put for "allows to be tested."

So too, when he is said not to know, it is either put for the fact that he does not approve, that is, does not recognize in his discipline and teaching, as it was said, I do not know you (Matt 25:12), or for the fact that he usefully makes them not know what it is useless to know.

Therefore it is rightly taken both that what was said—that the Father alone knows—was said in this way because he makes the Son know, and that what was said—that the Son does not know—was said in this way because he makes men not know, that is, does not disclose to them what they would know uselessly.

61. 1. The five barley loaves with which the Lord fed the crowds on the mountain signify the old Law—whether because it was given not yet to spiritual but still to carnal men, that is, to those given over to the five senses of the body (for the crowds themselves were five thousand men (See John 6:9-13)), or because the Law itself was given through Moses; for Moses wrote five books.

And that the loaves were of barley signifies well either the Law itself, which was given in such a way that in it the vital nourishment of the soul was covered over by corporeal sacraments—for the pith of barley is covered by a most clinging husk—or the very people not yet stripped of carnal desire, which clung to their heart as a husk, that is, not yet circumcised in heart, so that not even by the threshing of tribulations, when they were led through the deserts for forty years, did they, the understanding being revealed, lay aside the carnal coverings, just as neither is barley stripped of that husky covering by the threshing of the threshing-floor. And so to that people a Law of such a kind was fittingly given.

61. 2. But the two fish, which gave a pleasant savor to the bread, seem to signify those two persons by whom that people was ruled, so that through them it might receive the regulation of its counsels, namely the royal and the priestly, to which that most sacred anointing also pertained.

Whose office it was never to be broken and corrupted by popular storms and waves, and often to break through the violent contradictions of the crowds as opposing waves, sometimes, their own integrity being kept, to yield to them—in short, after the manner of fish, to move about, as in a stormy sea, so in the turbulent administration of the people.

Yet these two persons prefigured our Lord; for he alone bore both, and fulfilled them, alone, not figuratively but properly. For Jesus Christ is also our king, who showed us an example of fighting and conquering, taking up our sins in mortal flesh, yielding to the enemy's temptations, neither the alluring nor the terrible ones, and at last putting off the flesh, despoiling the principalities and powers, confidently, and triumphing over them in himself (See Col 2:15).

And so, with him as leader, we are freed from the burdens and labors of this our pilgrimage as from Egypt, and the sins pursuing us are overwhelmed as we escape by the sacrament of Baptism; and as long as we are in the hope of his promise which we do not yet see, we are led as through the deserts, the word of God consoling us in the Holy Scriptures as the manna from heaven did them.

With this same leader we presume that we can be brought into the heavenly Jerusalem as into the land of promise, and, with him reigning and guarding there forever, be preserved. Thus our Lord Jesus Christ is shown to be our king. He is also our priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (See Ps 110:4 (109:4)), who offered himself as a holocaust for our sins, and commended the likeness of that sacrifice to be celebrated in memory of his passion, so that what Melchizedek offered to God (See Gen 14:18) we now see offered throughout the world in the Church of Christ.

Therefore, since our king took up our sins, that he might show us an example of fighting and conquering, the Evangelist Matthew, signifying the taking up of those same sins and the royal person, taking up his generation which is according to the flesh from Abraham, who is the father of the faithful people, and enumerating the succession of offspring downward, comes to David, in whom the establishment of the kingdom appears most manifest, and thence, through Solomon, born of her with whom his father had sinned, pursuing the royal stock, brings it down to the generation of the Lord (See Matt 1:1-17).

But Luke, the other Evangelist, since he too undertook to set out the generation of the Lord which is according to the flesh, but in the priestly person, to which person belongs the cleansing and abolition of sins, begins, not from the beginning of the book as Matthew does, but from that place where Jesus was baptized, where he prefigured the cleansing of our sins, to pursue step by step the origin of his parents—and not downward, like the one who showed him as descending to the taking up of sins, but upward, like one who presented him as ascending after the abolition of sins, nor naming the same parents as the other (See Luke 3:23-38).

For there was another, priestly origin, which had brought it about, through one of the sons of David obtaining, as is customary, a marriage from the priestly tribe, that Mary derived her kinship from both tribes, that is, from the royal and from the priestly. For when Joseph and Mary were enrolled, it is written that they were of the house, that is, of the lineage of David (See Luke 2:4). And Elizabeth, who is none the less written as a kinswoman of Mary, was of the priestly tribe (See Luke 1:5, 36). But just as Matthew, who presents Christ the king as descending to take up our sins, descends from David through Solomon, because Solomon was born of her with whom David had sinned, so Luke, who presents Christ the priest as ascending after the abolition of sins, ascends through Nathan to David, because Nathan was the prophet who had been sent, by whose rebuke David, by doing penance, obtained the abolition of his own sin (See 2 Sam 12:1-13).

And so, after Luke has passed the person of David, he is not at variance with Matthew in the names of the generations. For he names, ascending from David to Abraham, those whom the other names descending from Abraham to David.

For from David that origin was distributed into two families, the royal and the priestly; of which two families, as was said, Matthew, descending, followed the royal, and Luke, ascending, the priestly, so that our Lord Jesus Christ, our king and priest, both derived kinship from the priestly stock and yet was not of the priestly tribe, that is, of the tribe of Levi, but was of the tribe of Judah, that is, of the tribe of David, from which tribe no one attends at the altar. Therefore he is especially called the son of David according to the flesh, because both Luke ascending and Matthew descending met each other in David.

For it was fitting that he who was to empty out the sacrifices which were made in the Levitical priesthood according to the order of Aaron should not be of the tribe of Levi, lest the cleansing of sins should seem to pertain to that tribe and to that priesthood, which was temporally a shadow of what was to come—the cleansing which the Lord fulfilled by the offering of his holocaust, which was figured in the old priesthood.

And he gave the image of his holocaust to be celebrated in the Church in memory of his passion, that he might be a priest forever, not according to the order of Aaron, but according to the order of Melchizedek (See Heb 6:20). The mystery of this matter can be considered still more diligently; but on account of the two fish, in which we said that the two persons, the royal and the priestly, were figured, let it suffice that it has been treated thus far on this point.

61. 3. But that the crowd reclined upon the grass signifies that those who had received the Old Testament, because a temporal kingdom and a temporal Jerusalem was promised them, had been placed in a carnal hope; for all flesh is grass, and the glory of man as the flower of grass (Isa 40:6). But that from the remnants of the fragments twelve baskets of morsels were filled signifies that, from the opening up and discussion of the Law itself, which the Jews had left and deserted, the disciples of the Lord were filled, among whom the number twelve holds the chief place. For there was not yet a writing of the New Testament when the Lord, as it were by breaking and opening what was hard and closed in the Law, filled the disciples, when after the resurrection he opened to them the Old Scriptures, beginning from Moses and all the prophets, interpreting to them in all the Scriptures the things that were about himself. For then too two of them recognized him in the breaking of the bread (See Luke 24:27-31).

61. 4. And therefore the second feeding of the people, which was done with seven loaves, is rightly understood to pertain to the preaching of the New Testament. For it was not said by any evangelist that these loaves were of barley, as John said of those five. This feeding, then, with seven loaves, pertains to the grace of the Church, which is recognized by that most familiar sevenfold working of the Holy Spirit. And therefore here it is not written that there were two fish, as in the old Law, where two alone were anointed, the king and the priest, but a few fish, that is, those who first believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and were anointed in his name, and sent to the preaching of the Gospel, and to enduring the turbulent sea of this world, so that they might act as ambassadors on behalf of that great fish himself, that is, on behalf of Christ, as the apostle Paul says (See 2 Cor 5:20).

Nor in this crowd were there five thousand men, as there, where those receiving the Law carnally, that is, those given over to the five senses of the flesh, are signified, but rather four thousand, by which number the spiritual are signified, on account of the four virtues of the mind by which one lives spiritually in this life: prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice.

Of which the first is the knowledge of things to be sought and to be fled; the second, the restraining of desire from those things which delight temporally; the third, firmness of mind against those things which are temporally troublesome; the fourth, which is diffused through all the rest, the love of God and neighbor.

61. 5. Indeed, both there five thousand and here four thousand, apart from women and children, are recorded to have been (See Matt 15:34-38), which seems to me to pertain to this: that we may understand that even in the people of the Old Testament there were some weak in fulfilling the justice which is according to the law, in which justice the Apostle Paul says he conducted himself without blame (See Phil 3:6), and that there were likewise others who were easily seduced into the worship of idols.

Which two kinds, that is, of weakness and of error, are figured by the names of women and children. For the sex of women is weak for action, and childhood is prone to play. And what is so like childish play as to worship idols, since the Apostle too referred this kind of superstition to this, when he said: nor let us serve idols as some of them did, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play (1 Cor 10:7)? Like women, then, were those who, in the labors of waiting until they should arrive at the promises of God, not perseveringly and manfully, tempted God; and like children those who sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

But not only there, but also in the people of the New Testament, those who do not persevere in arriving at the perfect man (See Eph 4:13), whether by weakness of strength or by lightness of mind, are to be compared to women and children.

For to the former it is said: if indeed we hold firm to the end the beginning of his substance (Heb 3:14); and to the latter: do not become children in your senses, but be infants in malice, that you may be perfect in your senses (1 Cor 14:20).

And therefore neither in the Old nor in the New Testament are such admitted to the number; but, whether there five thousand or here four thousand, they are said to have been, apart from women and children (See Matt 14:21; 15:38).

61. 6. But although both there and here, on account of Christ himself, who is constantly called a mountain in the Scriptures, each people was fittingly fed on the mountain, here, nevertheless, they do not recline on grass but on the ground.

For there the loftiness of Christ is, on account of carnal men and the earthly Jerusalem, covered with carnal hope and desire; but here, all carnal desire being removed, the firmness of the abiding hope of the New Testament, as the solidity of the mountain itself, held the guests with no grass interposed.

61. 7. And since the Apostle most rightly says, but before faith came, we were guarded under the law (Gal 3:23), the Lord too seems to signify this when he says, of those whom he was about to feed with five loaves: they have no need to go; but you, give them to eat (Matt 14:16).

For under these words they are figuratively detained, as it were to be guarded, when the disciples had admonished him to send them away. But of this crowd, which pertains to the seven loaves, he says that he of his own accord has mercy, because it was now the third day since they had clung to him fasting.

For in the whole age of the human race there is a third period, in which the grace of the Christian faith has been given. The first is before the Law, the second under the Law, the third under grace; and since a fourth period still remains, in which we are to come to the fullest peace of the heavenly Jerusalem—the goal toward which everyone strives who rightly believes in Christ—therefore the Lord says that he refreshes that crowd, lest they faint along the way.

For this dispensation, by which the Lord deigned to appear to us in time and visibly in a man and gave us the Holy Spirit as a pledge—by whose sevenfold working we might be sustained, with the apostolic authority joined to it like the flavor of a few fish—what else does this dispensation accomplish but that we may be able to reach the prize of the heavenly calling without any failing of our strength? For we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:7).

And the Apostle Paul himself says that he has not yet laid hold of the kingdom of God: but forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on, he says, toward the prize of the heavenly calling. Nevertheless, let us hold true to what we have attained (Phil 3:13-14, 16), because, clinging to the Lord on the third day and fed by him, we will not faint along the way.

61. 8. Here too, of course, an end to the eating could not be reached, but food was left over. For it is not in vain that it was said of the future: when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth? (Luke 18:8) And I believe it will be so on account of the women and children. Yet the remains of the fragments filled seven baskets, to which the sevenfold Church—which is also described in the Apocalypse (See Rev 1:4)—belongs, that is, everyone who will have persevered to the end.

For he who said, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?, indicated indeed that at the end of the banquet his food could be left and abandoned; but since he likewise said, he who perseveres to the end will be saved (Matt 24:13), he indicated that there will be no lack of a Church that may more abundantly receive those same seven loaves in the number seven, and that may contain, in the breadth of its heart, that very perseverance which the baskets seem to signify.

The question is asked whether those who were baptized at the time when it is written that the Lord, through his disciples, baptized more than John received the Holy Spirit; for in another place in the Gospel it is said: for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39).

And the easiest answer, indeed, is this: that the Lord Jesus, who even raised the dead, could have allowed none of them to die until, after his glorification—that is, his resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven—they received the Holy Spirit. But there comes to mind that thief to whom it was said, amen I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43), who had not even received baptism. And although Cornelius and those of the gentiles who had believed with him received the Holy Spirit even before they were baptized (See Acts 10:44-47), still I do not see how that thief either could have said without the Holy Spirit, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom (Luke 23:42); for no one, says the Apostle, says 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:13). And the Lord himself showed the fruit of his faith, saying, amen I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

Therefore, just as by the ineffable power and justice of the sovereign God baptism was reckoned even to the believing thief, and what could not be received in his crucified body was held as received in his free soul, so too the Holy Spirit was given secretly before the Lord's glorification; but after the manifestation of his divinity, the Spirit was given more manifestly. And this is what was said: but the Spirit had not yet been given, that is, the Spirit had not yet so appeared that everyone would acknowledge that it had been given, just as the Lord too had not yet been glorified among men—and yet his eternal glorification never ceased to be, just as his coming is itself said to be that manifestation in mortal flesh, for he came to where he was, since he came to his own, and he was in this world, and the world was made through him (John 1:10-11).

Therefore, just as the coming of the Lord is understood as a bodily manifestation, and yet before this manifestation he himself spoke in all the holy prophets as the Word of God and the Wisdom of God, so too the coming of the Holy Spirit is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit even to bodily eyes, when divided fire was seen over them and they began to speak in tongues (See Acts 2:3-4). For if the Holy Spirit was not in men before the Lord's visible glorification, how could David say, and take not your Holy Spirit from me (Ps 51:11 (50:11)); or how was Elizabeth filled, and Zechariah her husband, so that they prophesied, and Anna and Simeon, of all of whom it is written that, filled with the Holy Spirit, they said the things we read in the Gospel (See Luke 1:41-45, 60-79; 2:25-38)?

Now, that God works some things secretly but others visibly through a visible creation belongs to the governance of his providence, by which all the divine actions are carried out with a most beautiful distinction in the orders of places and times, while the divinity itself is neither confined to nor moves among places, nor is stretched out or varied through times. And just as the Lord himself certainly had the Holy Spirit with him in that very man whom he bore, when he came to John to be baptized—and yet, after he was baptized, the Holy Spirit was seen to descend upon him in the form of a dove (See Matt 3:13-16)—so it must be understood that, before the manifest and visible coming of the Holy Spirit, whatever saints there were could have had the Spirit secretly. We have said this, of course, so that we may understand that even by that visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit, which is called his coming, the fullness of the Spirit was poured more abundantly into the hearts of men in a manner ineffable or even unthinkable.

63. In the beginning was the Word (John 1:1). What in Greek is called logos means in Latin both "reason" and "word." But in this passage we do better to interpret it as "word," so that not only the relation to the Father is signified, but also the operative power directed to those things that were made through the Word. Reason, however, even if nothing is made through it, is rightly called reason.

64. 1. The evangelical mysteries marked in the words and deeds of our Lord Jesus Christ do not lie open to all; and some, by interpreting them less carefully and less soberly, often bring forward destruction instead of salvation and error instead of knowledge of the truth.

Among these is that mystery which is written: that the Lord came at the sixth hour of the day to Jacob's well, and, weary from the journey, sat down, and asked a drink of the Samaritan woman, and the other things that are said for examination and discussion in the same passage of the Scriptures.

On this matter, this must first be held, which must be guarded with the greatest vigilance in all the Scriptures: that the exposition of a divine mystery be in accord with the faith.

64. 2. At the sixth hour of the day, then, our Lord came to the well. I see in the well a dark depth. I am therefore prompted to understand the lowest parts of this world, that is, the earthly parts, to which the Lord Jesus came at the sixth hour—that is, in the sixth age of the human race, as in the old age of the old man, which we are commanded to put off so that we may put on the new man who was created according to God (See Eph 4:22-24).

For the sixth age is old age, since the first is infancy; the second, childhood; the third, adolescence; the fourth, youth; the fifth, maturity. And so the life of the old man, which is lived out according to the flesh in the temporal condition, is brought to a close in the sixth age, as in old age.

In this old age, as I have said, of the human race, our Lord, our creator and restorer, came to us, so that, with the old man dying, he might establish a new man in himself, whom, stripped of the earthly stain, he might transfer into the heavenly kingdoms. Therefore the well, as has been said, signifies by its dark depth the earthly toil and error of this world.

And since the old man is outer and the new man inner—for it was said by the Apostle, and though our outer man is being corrupted, yet the inner man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16)—most fittingly of all (since all visible things, which Christian discipline renounces, belong to the outer man) did the Lord come to the well at the sixth hour,

that is, at midday, when this visible sun now begins to decline toward its setting, since for us too, called by Christ, the delight in visible things diminishes, so that the inner man, renewed by the love of invisible things, may return to the inner light, which never sets—following the apostolic discipline of not seeking the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Cor 4:18).

64. 3. That he came weary to the well signifies the weakness of the flesh; that he sat down signifies humility, since he both took on the frailty of the flesh for us and deigned to appear humbly as a man to men.

Of this weakness of the flesh the prophet says, a man set in affliction and knowing how to bear infirmity (Isa 53:3); and of his humility the Apostle speaks, saying, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death (Phil 2:8). And yet his sitting down, since teachers are accustomed to sit, may by another interpretation show not the modesty of humility but the role of a master.

64. 4. But it may be asked why he asked to drink from the Samaritan woman, who had come for the sake of filling her water jar with water, when he himself afterward proclaimed that he could give an abundance of the spiritual fountain to those who asked him.

But of course the Lord thirsted for the faith of that woman, since she was a Samaritan, and Samaria is accustomed to bear the image of idolatry; for the Samaritans themselves, separated from the people of the Jews, had devoted the glory of their souls to the images of dumb animals, that is, to golden calves. But the Lord Jesus had come so that he might lead the multitude of the gentiles, who served images, to the stronghold of the Christian faith and of uncorrupted religion: for it is not the healthy, he says, who need a physician, but the sick (Matt 9:12). Therefore he thirsts for the faith of those for whom he shed his blood. So Jesus said to her: 'Woman, give me to drink (John 4:10).'

And that you may know what our Lord thirsted for, a little later his disciples come, who had gone into the city to buy food, and they say to him: 'Rabbi, eat.' But he said to them: 'I have food to eat that you do not know.' So the disciples said to one another: 'Has anyone brought him something to eat?' Jesus says to them: 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work (John 4:31-34).'

Is any other will of the Father, who sent him, here to be understood, and any other work of his that he answered he wished to accomplish, than that he might turn us from the destructive error of the world to faith in himself? Such, then, as his food is, such also is his drink.

For this reason he thirsted in that woman to do in her the will of the Father and to accomplish his work. But, understanding carnally, she answered: since you are a Jew, how is it that you ask a drink of me, since I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. To her our Lord said: if you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, 'give me to drink,' you would rather have asked of him, and he would have given you living water (John 4:9-10), so that he might show her by this that he had not asked for such water as she had understood, but that, because he himself thirsted for her faith, he desired to give the Holy Spirit to her as she thirsted.

For we rightly understand this living water to be the gift of God, as he himself says, if you knew the gift of God; and as the same John the Evangelist testifies in another place, saying that Jesus stood and cried out: 'If anyone thirsts, let him come and drink. He who believes in me, as Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:37).'

Quite consistently: he who believes in me, he says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, because we first believe, that we may merit these gifts. These rivers of living water, then, which he wished to give to that woman, are the reward of the faith for which he first thirsted in her. And he subjoins the interpretation of this living water thus: this he said, he says, about the Spirit whom those who were to believe in him were to receive. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:38-39). This, then, is the gift of the Holy Spirit, which after his glorification he gave to the Church, as another Scripture says: ascending on high he led captivity captive; he gave gifts to men (Ps 68:18 (67:18); Eph 4:8).

64. 5. But that woman still understands carnally; for she answered thus: Lord, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; from where then do you have living water to give me? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, and his sons and his cattle? Now indeed the Lord explains what he had said. Everyone, he says, who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst forever; but that water which I shall give will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. But the woman still clings to the prudence of the flesh.

For what did she answer? Lord, give me this water, so that I may neither thirst nor come here to draw. Jesus says to her: 'Go, call your husband, and come here.' Since he knew that she had no husband, it is asked why he said this. For when the woman had said, I have no husband, Jesus says to her: you have rightly said that you have no husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly (John 4:11-18).

But these things are not to be taken carnally, lest we seem to be like this very Samaritan woman herself. Rather, if we have now tasted something of that gift of God, let us treat these matters spiritually.

64. 6. Some take the five husbands to be the five books that were administered through Moses. And what was said, and the one you now have is not your husband (John 4:18), they understand the Lord to have said of himself,

so that the sense is this: "first you served the five books of Moses as five husbands, but now the one you have, that is, the one you hear, who speaks with you, is not your husband, because you have not yet believed in him."

But since, not yet believing in Christ, she was still certainly held by the bond of those five husbands, that is, of the five books, it can give pause how it could be said, you have had five husbands, as though she no longer had them now, when she was still certainly living subject to them.

Then, since the five books of Moses proclaim nothing other than Christ, as he himself says, if you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me also; for he wrote of me (John 5:47), how can it be understood that a person departs from those five books in order to pass over to Christ, when the one who believes in Christ embraces those five books all the more eagerly—not as to be abandoned, but as to be understood spiritually?

64. 7. There is therefore another interpretation, by which the five husbands are understood as the five senses of the body:

one which pertains to the eyes, by which we perceive this visible light and any colors and shapes of bodies; another, that of the ears, by which we sense the movements of voices and all sounds; the third, of the nostrils, by which we are delighted by the various sweetness of odors;

the fourth, taste in the mouth, which senses the sweet and the bitter and has the testing of all flavors; the fifth, by touching throughout the whole body, distinguishes hot and cold, soft and hard, smooth and rough, and whatever else there is that we sense by touching.

And so by these five carnal senses the first age of a person is steeped, by the necessity of mortal nature, in which we are so born after the sin of the first man that, the light of the mind not yet restored, we pass through a carnal life subject to the carnal senses, without any understanding of the truth.

Such must infants and little children be, who cannot yet receive reason. And because these senses are natural, which govern the first age and have been bestowed on us by God the maker, they are rightly called husbands, that is, lawful spouses, as it were, since it is not error by its own fault but the maker's craftsmanship of God that has bestowed them as nature.

But when anyone has come to that age in which he can already be capable of reason, if he is able straightway to grasp the truth, he will no longer use those senses as rulers, but will have as his husband the rational spirit, to which he reduces those senses into service, subjecting his body to servitude, when the soul is no longer subject to the five husbands, that is, the five senses of the body, but has the divine Word as its lawful husband—and, joined and clinging to it, when the spirit of the man too clings to Christ, since the head of the man is Christ (See 1 Cor 11:3), it will enjoy eternal life in a spiritual embrace, with no fear of separation. For who shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ? (Rom 8:35)

But since that woman was held by error—she who signified the multitude of the world subjugated to vain superstitions—after those times of the five carnal senses, by which the first age, as we have said, is governed, the word of God had not received her in marriage, but the devil possessed her in an adulterous embrace.

And so the Lord, seeing that she was carnal, that is, that she understood carnally, says to her: go, call your husband, and come here, that is, remove yourself from the carnal affection in which you are now placed, by which you cannot understand what I say; and call your husband, that is, be present in the spirit of understanding.

For the spirit of man is in a certain way like a husband to the soul, governing the animal affection as though a spouse—not that Holy Spirit who remains unchangeable with the Father and the Son and is given unchangeably to worthy souls, but the spirit of man, of whom the Apostle says, no one knows what is in a man except the spirit of the man (1 Cor 2:11).

For that Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, of whom he again says, so too no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. This spirit of man, then, when it is present, that is, when it is within, and subjects itself in piety to God, the person understands what is said spiritually; but when the error of the devil rules in the soul, as though understanding were absent, it is an adulterer.

Call, then, he says, your husband, that is, the spirit that is in you, by which a person can understand spiritual things if the light of truth illumines it; let it be present when I speak to you, so that you may be able to receive the spiritual water.

And when she said, I have no husband, he says, you have said well, for you have had five husbands, that is, the five senses of the flesh governed you in your first age, and the one you now have is not your husband (John 4:17-18), because there is not in you the spirit that understands God, with whom you could have a lawful marriage, but rather the error of the devil holds sway, which corrupts you with an adulterous defilement.

64. 8. And perhaps, in order to indicate to those who understand that the five aforementioned senses of the body are signified by the name of five husbands, after five carnal responses this woman in her sixth response names Christ.

For her first response is: since you are a Jew, how is it that you ask a drink of me? The second: Lord, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. The third: Lord, give me this water, so that I may neither thirst nor come here to draw. The fourth: I have no husband. The fifth: I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain.

For this response too is carnal. For to carnal people an earthly place had been given where they might worship, but the Lord said that spiritual people would worship in spirit and in truth. And after he had spoken this, the woman in her sixth response confesses that Christ is the teacher of all these things; for she says: I know that the Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When he comes, he himself will announce all things to us (John 4:25).

But still she errs, because she does not see that the one she hopes will come has already come. Yet now, by the mercy of the Lord, this error is cast out like an adulterer. For Jesus says to her: I am he who speaks with you. On hearing this, she did not respond, but at once, leaving her water jar behind, she went off into the city, hurrying not only to believe the gospel and the Lord's coming, but even to proclaim it.

Nor should it be passed over carelessly that she departed leaving her water jar behind. For the water jar perhaps signifies the love of this world, that is, the desire by which people draw for themselves, from the dark depth whose image the well bears—that is, from earthly conversation—the pleasure which, once received, they again burn to desire, just as whoever drinks of that water, he says, will thirst again (John 4:13). But it was fitting that, believing in Christ, she should renounce the world, and by leaving the water jar behind should show that she had left worldly desire behind, believing in her heart not only unto righteousness, but also about to confess and proclaim with her mouth what she believed, unto salvation (See Rom 10:10).

65. Although, according to the gospel history, we hold with full faith that Lazarus was raised, yet I do not doubt that it also signifies something by way of allegory; nor, when deeds that were done are allegorized, do they lose the credit of the deed performed—just as when Paul expounds the allegory of Abraham's two sons as being the two Testaments (See Gal 4:22-24). Was it therefore the case either that Abraham did not exist, or that he did not have those sons?

Therefore, in the allegory too, let us take Lazarus in the tomb to be the soul buried under earthly sins, that is, the whole human race, which in another place the Lord signifies by the lost sheep, for whose freeing he says that, leaving the ninety-nine in the mountains, he came down (See Luke 15:4).

And that he asks, saying, where have you laid him?, I judge to signify our calling, which takes place in secret; for the predestination of our calling is hidden. A sign of this secret is the Lord's question, as though he did not know, when it is we who do not know—as the Apostle says, that I may know, as also I am known (1 Cor 13:12); or because the Lord shows in another place that he does not know sinners, saying, I never knew you (Matt 7:23), which the buried Lazarus signified, because in his discipline and precepts there are no sins. Similar to this question is that one in Genesis: Adam, where are you? (Gen 3:9), since he had sinned and had hidden himself from the face of God.

This hiding the burial here signifies, so that the one dying may have the likeness of one sinning, the one buried of one hidden from the face of God. And that he says, take away the stone (John 11:39), I think signifies those who wished to impose the burden of circumcision on those coming to the Church from the gentiles, against whom the Apostle writes in many ways (See Gal 2), or those who live corruptly in the Church and are a stumbling block to those wishing to believe. Martha says to him: 'Lord, it is already the fourth day, and he stinks (John 11:39).' The last of the four elements is earth; it therefore signifies the stench of earthly sins, that is, of carnal desires.

For you are earth, said the Lord to Adam when he had sinned, and into the earth you shall go (Gen 3:19). And when the stone had been taken away, he came out of the tomb with hands and feet bound, and his face was covered with a cloth. That he came out of the tomb signifies the soul withdrawing from carnal vices; but that he was wrapped in bindings is because we who withdraw from carnal things and serve the law of God with the mind, while still established in the body, cannot be free from the troubles of the flesh, as the Apostle says: with the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin (Rom 7:25).

And that his face was covered with a cloth is because in this life we cannot have full knowledge, as the Apostle says: now we see through a glass in a riddle, but then face to face (1 Cor 13:12). And that Jesus said, loose him and let him go (John 11:44), is because after this life all veils are taken away, so that we may see face to face.

And how great a difference there is between the man whom the Wisdom of God bore, through whom we have been freed, and other men, is understood from this: that Lazarus is not loosed except by coming out of the tomb—that is, even the reborn soul cannot be free from all sin and ignorance except by the dissolution of the body, so long as it sees through a glass in a riddle; but the Lord's linen cloths and the face cloth—he who committed no sin and was ignorant of nothing—were found in the tomb (See John 20:7).

For he alone in the flesh not only was not so confined by the tomb that any sin should be found in him (See Isa 53:9), but was not even wrapped in linen cloths, so that anything should be hidden from him or hold him back from the journey.

66. 1. In this comparison in which the Apostle speaks of a man and a woman, since a woman is bound by the law of her husband, he commends three things for consideration: the woman, the husband, and the law—namely, the woman subjugated to the husband by the bond of the Law, by which bond she is freed at the death of the husband, so that she may marry whom she wishes.

For he says: for a woman, while her husband lives, is bound by Law to her living husband; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband. Therefore, while the husband lives, she will be called an adulteress if she is with another man; but if her husband dies, she is freed from the Law, so that she is not an adulteress if she is with another man (Rom 7:2-3). Up to this point it is a comparison. Then he begins to speak of the matter, for the explaining and proving of which he introduced the comparison.

In this matter too, three things must likewise be attended to: the person, sin, and the Law. For he says that a person is under the law so long as he lives in sin, just as a woman is under the law of the husband so long as the husband lives. And this sin must here be understood as the sin that came in through the Law.

He says that this sin is beyond measure, since, though it appears to be sin, it nevertheless becomes sin and is heaped up with the added transgression. For where there is no law, there is no transgression (Rom 4:15). And this is what he says: that it might become beyond measure a sinner, or sin, through the commandment (Rom 7:3).

For this reason he says that the Law, although it forbids sinning, was nevertheless not given so as to free from sin, but so as to make sin manifest—sin to which the soul, while it serves it, ought to turn itself to the grace of the liberator, so that it may be freed from sin. For through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Rom 3:21).

And in another place he says: but sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good (Rom 7:13). Where, then, there is no grace of the liberator, the prohibition of sins increases the desire to sin. This is indeed useful for this purpose: that the soul may perceive that it is not sufficient of itself to draw itself out of the slavery of sin, and that in this way, with all pride deflated and extinguished, it may be made subject to its liberator, and that a person may sincerely say, my soul has clung to you (Ps 63:8 (62:8)), which is now to be not under the law of sin, but in the law of righteousness.

It is called the law of sin, not because the Law itself is sin, but because it is imposed on sinners; for this reason also the law of death, because the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23); the sting of death is sin, but the power of sin is the Law (1 Cor 15:56). For by sinning we slip into death.

And we sin more vehemently when the Law forbids than if we were forbidden by no law. But when grace comes, that very thing which the law had burdensomely commanded we now fulfill without burden and most gladly.

The law of sin and death, therefore, that is, the law that was imposed on those who sin and die, only commands that we not covet, and yet we covet. But the law of the spirit of life, which pertains to grace and frees from the law of sin and death, brings it about that we do not covet and that we fulfill the commands of the Law—no longer slaves of the Law through fear, but friends through love, and servants of the righteousness from which that Law was promulgated.

Righteousness, however, is to be served not in a servile but in a free way, that is, by love rather than by fear. And therefore it was most truly said: do we then nullify the Law through faith? By no means. Rather, we establish the Law (Rom 3:31). For faith accomplishes what the Law commands. The Law, then, is established through faith. And if this faith is not present, the Law only commands, and it holds guilty those who do not fulfill the commands, so that, groaning and unable to fulfill what is commanded, it may at some time turn them to the grace of the liberator.

66. 2. Since, then, we see three things in that comparison—the woman, the husband, and the Law—and again three things in this matter for the sake of which the comparison was applied—the soul, sin, and the law of sin—this alone is different: that in that comparison the husband dies, so that the woman may marry whom she wishes and be released from the law of the husband, but here the soul itself dies to sin, so that it may marry Christ.

And when it dies to sin, it also dies to the law of sin. And so, he says, my brothers, you too have died to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, who rose from the dead, that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, he says—that is, when we were held bound by carnal desires—the passions of sins, which are through the Law, were at work in our members, so as to bear fruit unto death (Rom 7:4-5).

With desire increased—the desire that the Law forbids—where there was no faith, and with the charge of transgression added to the heap of sins, since where there is no Law, there is no transgression (Rom 4:15), he calls these the passions which are through the Law, at work in our members, so as to bear fruit unto death.

Under these passions, as under a ruling husband, the soul acted before grace came through faith. To these passions, then, he dies who now serves the law of God with the mind, although the passions themselves are not yet dead, so long as with the flesh he serves the law of sin.

There still remains, therefore, something in the one who is under grace which does not conquer him or lead him captive, until everything that has been strengthened by bad habit is mortified; and on this account the body is said to be even now dead, so long as it does not perfectly serve the spirit. And it will come about that it serves perfectly when the mortal body itself has been given life.

66. 3. From this we grasp that there are four distinct conditions even in one person, which, passed through by degrees, lead to abiding in eternal life. For since it was fitting, and it was just, that after our nature sinned, having lost the spiritual blessedness signified by the name "paradise," we should be born animal and carnal, the first condition is before the Law, the second under the Law, the third under grace, the fourth in peace.

The condition before the Law is when we are ignorant of sin and follow carnal desires. The condition under the Law is when we are now forbidden from sin, and yet, overcome by the habit of it, we sin, since faith does not yet help us. The third condition is when we now most fully believe in our Liberator, and attribute nothing to our own merits but, by loving his mercy, are no longer conquered by the delight of bad habit when it strives to lead us to sin—though we still endure it as it solicits us, even while we are not handed over to it. The fourth condition is when there is absolutely nothing in a person that resists the spirit, but all things, harmoniously joined and connected together, guard some one thing in firm peace—which will come about when the mortal body has been given life, when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality (See 1 Cor 15:54-55).

66. 4. For demonstrating the first condition, these testimonies come to hand for now: through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, and so it passed through to all men, in whom all sinned. For until the Law sin was in the world. But sin was not reckoned when there was no Law (Rom 5:12-13); and again: for without the Law sin is dead, but I once lived without the Law (Rom 7:8-9). For what he here calls dead is what above he calls not reckoned, that is, it lay hidden. He makes this clear in what follows, where he says: but sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good (Rom 7:13), that is, through the Law, because the Law is good if one uses it lawfully (See 1 Tim 1:8). If, then, he here says that sin might appear, it is manifest that above he therefore called it dead and said it was not reckoned because it did not appear before it was shown by the prohibiting Law.

66. 5. For the second condition, these testimonies are fitting: but the Law slipped in, so that the offense might abound (Rom 5:20), for transgression too was added, which did not exist before; and that which has already been mentioned: for when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which are through the Law, were at work in our members, so as to bear fruit unto death (Rom 7:5);

and that: what then shall we say? Is the Law sin? By no means. But I did not know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known desire unless the Law said, 'you shall not covet.' But sin, seizing the occasion, worked in me through the commandment every kind of desire (Rom 7:7-8); and a little later: when the commandment came, he says, sin revived. But I died, and the commandment, which was unto life, was found to be unto death for me. For sin, seizing the occasion, deceived me through the commandment, and through it killed me (Rom 7:9-11).

So that he says I died, he wishes it to be understood: I knew that I was dead, because he who sees through the Law what he ought not to do, and yet does it, now sins even by transgression; and that he says, sin deceived me, seizing the occasion through the commandment (Rom 7:11), is either because the enticement of delight toward sinning is more vehement when the prohibition is present, or because, even if a person does something according to the commands of the Law, if there is not yet the faith that is in grace, he wishes to attribute this to himself and not to God, and by being proud sins all the more.

He therefore continues and says: and so the Law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Did then what is good become death to me? By no means. But sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good, so that the sinner, or sin offending through the commandment, might become beyond measure. But we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal (Rom 7:12-14), that is, I consent to the flesh, not yet freed by spiritual grace, sold under sin (Rom 7:14), that is, sinning for the price of temporal pleasures. For what I do, I do not know (Rom 7:15), that is, I do not recognize it to be among the precepts of truth, where there is true knowledge.

According to this manner of speaking, the Lord says to sinners: I never knew you. For nothing is hidden from him; but because sins are not found in the rules of the precepts that Truth holds, therefore Truth itself says to sinners: I never knew you. For just as darkness is perceived by the eyes through not seeing, so sins are perceived by the mind through not knowing.

From this manner of speaking I judge it was said in the Psalms: who understands his faults? (Ps 19:12 (18:12)) For I do not do the good that I will, but the evil that I hate, that I do. But if I do what I do not will, I consent to the Law, that it is good. But now it is no longer I who work it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. For to will lies close at hand for me, but to accomplish the good I do not find. For I do not do the good that I will, but the evil that I do not will, that I do. But if I do what I do not will, it is no longer I who work it, but the sin that dwells in me. I find, then, a law for me when I wish to do good, since evil lies close at hand for me. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man; but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members (Rom 7:15-23).

Up to this point are the words of a person established under the Law, not yet under grace, who, even though he does not wish to sin, is conquered by sin. For carnal habit has grown strong, and the natural bond of mortality by which we are propagated from Adam. Let him, then, who is so placed implore help, and let him know that what fell was his own, but that it is not his own that he rises. For now, freed and recognizing the grace of his liberator, he says: wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:24-25).

66. 6. And now there begin to be spoken the words of a person established under grace in the condition we have shown to be the third—the condition which indeed has the mortality of the flesh struggling against it, but not conquering and taking it captive into consent to sinning. For he says: therefore I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and death. For what was impossible for the Law, in that it was weakened through the flesh (Rom 7:25; 8:1-3), that is, through carnal desires—for the law was not fulfilled for this reason, that there was not yet the love of righteousness itself, which would hold the mind by an inner delight, lest it be drawn to sin by delight in temporal things.

Therefore the Law was weakened through the flesh, that is, it did not make righteous those given over to the flesh, but God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom 8:3). For it was not sinful flesh, since it was not born of carnal delight, yet there was in it the likeness of sinful flesh, because it was mortal flesh. But Adam did not deserve death except by sin.

But what did the Lord do? From sin he condemned sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3), that is, by taking on the flesh of a sinful man, and by teaching how we should live, he condemned sin in that very flesh, so that the spirit, burning with the love of eternal things, might not be led captive into consent to lust. That the righteousness, he says, of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit (Rom 8:4).

And so the precepts of the law were fulfilled through love, which could not be fulfilled through fear.

For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, that is, they desire carnal goods as the highest goods; but those who are according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For the prudence of the flesh is death, but the prudence of the spirit is life and peace, because the prudence of the flesh is hostile toward God (Rom 8:5-7).

He himself shows what he meant by hostile, lest anyone suppose that some other first principle comes from the opposite side; for he adds and says: for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be (Rom 8:7). Therefore to act against the Law is to be hostile toward God—not because anything can harm God, but because whoever resists the will of God harms himself; for this is to kick against the goad, as was said by God to the apostle Paul when he was still persecuting the Church (See Acts 9:5).

And it was said thus: for it is not subject to the law of God; nor indeed can it be (Rom 8:7), as though it were said: "snow does not warm; nor indeed can it. For as long as it is snow, it does not warm; but it can be melted and grow hot, so as to warm; but when it does this, it is now no longer snow."

So too it is called the prudence of the flesh when the soul desires temporal goods as great goods; for as long as such an appetite is in the soul, it cannot be subject to the law of God, that is, it cannot fulfill what the Law commands. But when it has begun to desire spiritual goods and to despise temporal ones, it will cease to be the prudence of the flesh, and will not resist the spirit.

For the same soul, when it desires lower things, is said to have the prudence of the flesh; when higher things, the prudence of the spirit—not because the prudence of the flesh is a substance with which the soul is clothed or unclothed, but it is an affection of the soul itself, which will cease to exist altogether when the soul has turned itself wholly to the things above.

But those who are in the flesh, he says, cannot please God (Rom 8:8), that is, those who acquiesce in the pleasures of the flesh. For lest anyone should think this was said of those who have not yet departed from this life, he most opportunely added: but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit (Rom 8:9).

Certainly he is still speaking to those established in this life; for they were in the spirit, because in faith and hope and love they acquiesced in the desires of spiritual things. If, however, he says, the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness (Rom 8:9-10).

He calls the body dead so long as it is such that it troubles the soul by the lack of bodily things, and, by certain motions arising from that very lack, solicits it to desire earthly things. Yet, although these exist, the mind does not consent to doing unlawful things—the mind that now serves the law of God and is established under grace.

For to this purpose serves what was said above: with the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin (Rom 7:25). And that person is now described as being under grace who does not yet have the perfect peace that will come about by the resurrection and transformation of the body.

66. 7. It remains, then, that he speaks of the peace itself of the resurrection of the body, which is the fourth condition—if indeed that can be called a condition which is the highest rest. For he continues and says: if then the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (Rom 8:11).

Here there is a most evident testimony concerning the resurrection of the body; and it is sufficiently apparent that, so long as we are in this life, there is no lack of troubles through the mortal flesh, nor of certain ticklings of carnal delights. For although the one established under grace, who serves the law of God with the mind, does not give way, he nevertheless with the flesh serves the law of sin.

When a person has been perfected by these degrees, no substance is found to be evil. Nor is the Law evil, which shows a person in what bonds of sins he lies, so that through faith, the help of the Liberator being implored, he may deserve to be both loosed and raised up and most firmly established. In the first condition, then, which is before the Law, there is no fight with the pleasures of this world; in the second, which is under the Law, we fight but are conquered; in the third we fight and conquer; in the fourth we do not fight, but rest in perfect and eternal peace. For what is lower in us is subjugated to us—which on this account was not subjugated, because we had deserted God, who is higher than us.

67. 1. This chapter is obscure, because it is not sufficiently apparent here what he is here calling "creation." Now, according to Catholic teaching, whatever God the Father made and founded through his only-begotten Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit is called creation. Therefore not only bodies, but also our souls and spirits are contained under the name of creation. But it was said: creation itself will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God (Rom 8:21), as though we are not creation, but the sons of God, into the freedom of whose glory creation will be freed from slavery. Likewise he says: for we know that all creation groans together and is in pain even until now; and not only it, but we ourselves also (Rom 8:22-23), as though we are one thing and creation another. The whole chapter, then, must be considered piece by piece.

67. 2. For I consider, he says, that the sufferings of this present time are unworthy of the future glory that will be revealed in us (Rom 8:18). This is manifest. For he had said above: but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live (Rom 8:13). This cannot be done without trouble, for which patience is necessary.

To this pertains also what he said a little before: if indeed we suffer together, so that we may also be glorified together (Rom 8:17). And so, when he says, for the expectation of creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God (Rom 8:19), this, I think, is what he is saying. For this very thing in us that is in pain, when we put to death the deeds of the flesh—that is, when we hunger or thirst through abstinence, while we bridle the delight of intercourse through chastity, while we endure the lacerations of injuries and the stings of insults through patience, while, our pleasures neglected and rejected, we labor for the fruit of mother Church—whatever in us is in pain in this and similar wearing-down, is creation.

For the body and the soul are in pain, which is certainly creation, and it awaits the revelation of the sons of God, that is, it awaits when what has been called may appear, in that glory to which it has been called. For since the only-begotten Son of God cannot be called creation—seeing that through him were made all things whatsoever that God made—we too are distinctly called creation before that manifestation of glory, and are distinctly called sons of God, although we deserve this by adoption; for that Only-begotten is Son by nature.

Therefore the expectation of creation, that is, our expectation, awaits the revelation of the sons of God (Rom 8:19), that is, it awaits when what was promised may appear, when what we now are in hope may be manifest in the reality itself. For we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).

This is the revelation of the sons of God, which the expectation of creation now awaits—not that creation awaits the revelation of another nature, one that is not creation, but creation itself, such as it now is, awaits when it may be such as it is to be—as though it were said: while a painter is at work with the colors laid out before him and prepared for his work, the expectation of the colors awaits the manifestation of the image, not because there will then be other colors or that the colors will not be, but only that they will have another dignity.

67. 3. For creation, he says, was subjected to vanity (Rom 8:20). This is that: vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. What abundance has a man in all his labor, which he himself labors under the sun (Eccl 1:2-3)? To whom was it said: in labor you shall eat bread (Gen 3:19)? Creation, therefore, was subjected to vanity, not willingly (Rom 8:20). It is well added, not willingly.

For man sinned willingly, but was not condemned willingly. And so it was something voluntary to act against the precept of truth, but the penalty of sin is to be made subject to deception. Therefore creation was not subjected to vanity willingly, but on account of him who subjected it in hope (Rom 8:20), that is, on account of his justice and clemency, who neither left sin unpunished nor wished the sinner to be incurable.

67. 4. Because creation itself (Rom 8:21), that is, man himself, who, when the seal of the image had now been lost on account of sin, remained only creation: and creation itself, therefore—that is, that which is not yet called the perfected form of the sons, but only called creation—will be freed from the slavery of corruption (Rom 8:21). And so, that he says, it itself too will be freed, makes it understood that it itself too is like us,

that is, that even of those who are not yet called sons of God, because they have not yet believed, but are only creation, one must not despair, because they too will believe and will be freed from the slavery of corruption, just as we who are now sons of God, although it has not yet appeared what we shall be.

They will therefore be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God (Rom 8:21), that is, they too will be free instead of slaves, and glorious instead of dead, in the perfect life that the sons of God will have.

67. 5. For we know that all creation groans together and is in pain even until now (Rom 8:22). All creation is numbered in man—not because all the angels and the supereminent virtues and powers are in him, or heaven and earth and sea and all things that are in them, but because all creation is partly spiritual, partly animal, partly corporeal.

And, to consider this from the lower things, corporeal creation is extended through places, the animal gives life to the corporeal, the spiritual rules the animal—and it rules well when it subjects itself to be ruled by God; but when it transgresses his precepts, it is entangled in labors and hardships through the very things it was able to rule.

He, therefore, who lives from the body is called a carnal or an animal man—carnal because he pursues carnal things, animal because he is carried along by the dissolute wantonness of his soul, which the spirit does not rule nor restrain within the bounds of the natural order, because the spirit itself does not subject itself to be ruled by God.

But he who by the spirit rules the soul, and through the soul the body—which he cannot do unless he too has God as his ruler, since just as the head of the woman is the man, so the head of the man is Christ (See 1 Cor 11:3)—is called spiritual. This life is now lived with some trouble, but afterward will suffer none.

And since the highest angels live spiritually, the lowest animally, the beasts and all cattle carnally, while the body does not live but is given life, all creation is in man, because he both understands by the spirit and senses by the soul and is moved locally by the body. All creation, therefore, in man groans together and is in pain. For he did not say "the whole," but all, as if someone were to say:

"all men who are sound see the sun, but they do not see with the whole of themselves, because they see only with their eyes; so in man there is all creation, because he both understands and lives and has a body, but not the whole of creation is in him, because besides him there are also angels, who understand and live and exist, and cattle, which live and exist, and bodies, which only exist—since to live itself is more than not to live, and to understand itself more than to live without understanding."

When, therefore, wretched man groans and is in pain, all creation groans together and is in pain even until now. And he rightly said even until now, because even if there are now some in the bosom of Abraham (See Luke 16:23), and that thief, established with the Lord in paradise (See Luke 23:43), ceased to be in pain on the very day he believed, nevertheless even until now all creation groans together and is in pain, because in those who are not yet freed all creation is present, on account of the spirit and the soul and the body.

67. 6. And not only it, he says, does all creation groan together and is in pain, but we ourselves also, that is, not only in man do the body and soul and spirit together grieve from the difficulties of the body, but we ourselves also, the bodies excepted, groan within ourselves, having the firstfruits of the spirit.

And he rightly said having the firstfruits of the spirit, that is, those whose spirit has now been offered to God as a sacrifice and seized by the divine fire of love. These are the firstfruits of man, because truth first takes possession of our spirit, so that through it the rest may be taken hold of. He, then, now has firstfruits offered to God who says, with the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin (Rom 7:25); and who says, God whom I serve in my spirit; (Rom 1:9) and of whom it is said, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matt 26:41).

But since he still says, wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? (Rom 7:24) and it is still said to such people, he will also give life to your mortal bodies on account of his Spirit remaining in you (Rom 8:11); it is not yet a holocaust, but it will be when death is swallowed up in victory, when it will be said to it, where, death, is your striving? Where, death, is your sting? (1 Cor 15:54-55)

Now, therefore, he says, not only all creation, that is, together with the body, but we ourselves also, having the firstfruits of the spirit, that is, we souls, who have now offered our minds as firstfruits to God, groan within ourselves, that is, apart from the body, awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body (Rom 8:23), that is, so that the body too, receiving the benefit of the adoption of sons to which we have been called, may show us, wholly freed, with all troubles passed, to be on every side the sons of God.

For we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope (Rom 8:24). Then, therefore, that will be a reality which is now hope, when it has appeared what we shall be, that is, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).

67. 7. If this chapter is opened up in the manner in which it has been treated, we do not fall into those troubles by which very many people are compelled to say that all the angels and the sublime Virtues are in pain and groaning before we are fully freed, since it was said: all creation groans together and is in pain (Rom 8:22).

For although they help us in accordance with their sublimity, while they obey God—who deigned to send even his only Son for us—nevertheless they are to be believed to do this without groaning and pains, lest they be thought wretched, and lest that Lazarus from our own number, who now rests in the bosom of Abraham, be happier than they—especially since he said that this same creation which groans together and is in pain was subjected to vanity, which it is impious to believe of the highest and most excellent creatures among the virtues and powers. Then he said that it must be freed from the slavery of corruption, into which we cannot believe that those have fallen who live a most blessed life in the heavens.

Nevertheless nothing is to be affirmed rashly, but the Divine Words must be treated with pious diligence again and again, lest perhaps what groans together and is in pain, and was subjected to vanity, can be understood in some other way, so that it cannot impiously be supposed of the highest angels, as long as they help our weakness by the command of our Lord. But whether the exposition we have followed or some other exposition of this chapter is brought forward, this only must be guarded against: that it does not violate or wound the Catholic faith. For I know that empty-headed heretics have boasted many impious and inept things about this chapter.

68. 1. Since the Apostle seems to have rebuked the inquisitive by saying, O man, who are you to answer back to God? (Rom 9:20) they raise a question about this very thing, and they do not cease to be inquisitive about the very statement by which inquisitiveness itself was reproved—the impious indeed doing so with insult, so that they say the Apostle failed in resolving the question and reproved those asking because he could not expound what was asked.

But certain heretics, who deceive only when they promise a knowledge they do not display, and who, opposing the Law and the Prophets, charge that whatever the Apostle inserted into his discourse from them is false and inserted by corrupters, have preferred to number even this among the things they say were interpolated and to deny that Paul said, O man, who are you to answer back to God? since, if this is said to them as they slander in order to deceive people, they will doubtless fall silent, and will not dare to promise any knowledge concerning the will of almighty God to the unskilled whom they desire to deceive.

But some, reading the Scriptures with a good and pious mind, ask what can here be answered to either the slanderers or the calumniators. But let us, both wholesomely clinging to the apostolic authority and in no way supposing that the books which Catholic teaching guards have been falsified, hold what is true: that those for whom these things are closed are unworthy and too weak to understand the divine secrets,

and to those who murmur and are indignant that they do not learn the counsels of God, when they have begun to say, therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. Why does he still complain? For who resists his will? (Rom 9:18-19): when, then, with these words they have begun either to slander the Scriptures or to seek a hiding place for their sins, so as to despise the precepts by which they are invited to a good life, let us answer most confidently: O man, who are you to answer back to God?,

and let us not, out of deference to them, give what is holy to dogs or cast our pearls before swine (See Matt 7:6)—if indeed we ourselves are not now dogs and swine; and concerning the merits of souls, with the Holy Spirit revealing it, let us conjecture something sublime and most remote from common surmise, even if only in part and in a riddle.

68. 2. For the Apostle in this passage did not forbid the saints from asking, but those who are not yet rooted and founded in love, so as to be able to comprehend with all the saints the breadth, length, height, and depth, and the other things he sets forth in that same passage (See Eph 3:18-19). He did not, then, forbid from asking those of whom he says: but the spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one (1 Cor 2:15); and especially that: but we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may know the things that have been given to us by God (1 Cor 2:12).

Whom, then, did he forbid except the muddy and earthly, who, not yet inwardly regenerated and nourished, bear the image of that man who was first made of earth, earthly (See 1 Cor 15:47-49), and who, because he was unwilling to obey him by whom he was made, fell into that from which he was made, and deserved after his sin to hear: you are earth, and into the earth you shall go (Gen 3:19)?

To such people, therefore, the Apostle says: O man, who are you to answer back to God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'why have you made me thus?' (Rom 9:20) As long, then, as you are a thing formed, not yet a perfect son—because you have not yet drawn in the fullest grace by which power was given to us to become sons of God (See John 1:12), by which you might be able to hear, now I will no longer call you slaves but friends (John 15:15);

who are you to answer back to God, and to wish to know the counsel of God, you who, if you had wished to know the counsel of a man your equal, would act imprudently unless you were first received into friendship? Therefore, just as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly (See 1 Cor 15:49), putting off the old man and putting on the new (See Col 3:9-10), so that it may not be said to us, as to a muddy thing formed: does the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'why have you made me thus?' (Rom 9:21)

68. 3. And so that it may be manifest that these things are said not to the sanctified spirit but to the carnal mud, see what follows: or does the potter of the clay not have power to make from the same lump one vessel for honor, another for dishonor? (Rom 9:21) Ever since, then, our nature sinned in paradise, we are formed by that same divine providence, by mortal generation, not according to heaven but according to earth—that is, not according to the spirit but according to the flesh—and we have all been made one lump of mud, which is the lump of sin.

Since, then, we have lost merit by sinning, and, the mercy of God removed, nothing else is owed to sinners but eternal condemnation, what does a man of this lump mean by answering God and saying, why have you made me thus?

If you wish to know these things, do not be mud, but become a son of God through the mercy of him who gave power to become sons of God to those believing in his name—but not, as you desire, to those wishing to know divine things before they believe. For the reward of knowledge is rendered to merits; but merit is acquired by believing. And the grace itself, which was given through faith, was given with no merits of ours preceding. For what is the merit of a sinner and an impious man? But Christ died for the impious and for sinners (See Rom 5:6), so that we might be called to believe not by merit but by grace, and by believing might also lay up merit.

Sinners, therefore, are commanded to believe, so that by believing they may be purified from sins. For they do not know what they are to see by living rightly. For this reason, since they cannot see unless they live rightly, and cannot live rightly unless they believe, it is manifest that one must begin from faith, so that the precepts by which believers are turned away from this world may make the heart clean, where God can be seen. For blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8); and it is sung through the prophet: in simplicity of heart seek him (Wis 1:1).

For this reason it is rightly said to people remaining in the oldness of life and therefore bearing a darkened eye of the soul: O man, who are you to answer back to God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'why have you made me thus?' Or does the potter of the clay not have power to make from the same lump one vessel for honor, another for dishonor?

Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump (See 1 Cor 5:7), and in that very lump be not still a little one in Christ, to be given milk to drink (See 1 Cor 3:2), but come to the perfect man, so that you may be among those of whom it is said: we speak wisdom among the perfect (1 Cor 2:6).

Then at last you will hear rightly, and not in the wrong order, whatever there is concerning the most hidden merits of souls and concerning the secret grace or justice of almighty God.

68. 4. For about Pharaoh the answer is easy: by his prior merits, by which he afflicted strangers in his kingdom, he was made worthy that his heart should be hardened, so that he would not believe even at the most manifest signs of the commanding God.

From the same lump, therefore—that is, of sinners—he brought forth both vessels of mercy, with which he might come to aid when the sons of Israel besought him, and vessels of wrath, by whose punishment he might instruct them, that is, Pharaoh and his people,

because, although both were sinners and therefore belonged to one lump, those who groaned to the one God, that he might come to their aid, were nevertheless to be treated differently from those under whose unjust burdens they had groaned.

He endured, therefore, with much patience the vessels of wrath, which are fitted for destruction (Rom 9:22).

And by the very fact that he says with much patience, he sufficiently signified their prior sins, in which he endured them, so that he might take vengeance at the opportune moment, when by their vengeance aid was to be brought to those who were to be freed. And that he might make known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy, which he prepared for glory (Rom 9:23).

Here, perhaps disturbed, you return to that question: he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens; why does he still complain? For who resists his will? (Rom 9:18-19) Indeed, he has mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills he hardens; but this will of God cannot be unjust.

For it comes from the most hidden merits, because even sinners themselves, though by the general sin they make one lump, nevertheless there is among them no lack of diversity.

Something therefore goes before in sinners by which, though they are not yet justified, they are made worthy of justification; and likewise something goes before in other sinners by which they are worthy of being dulled.

You have the same Apostle saying elsewhere: since they did not see fit to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind (Rom 1:28). That he gave them up to a reprobate mind is the same as that he hardened the heart of Pharaoh (See Exod 4:21; 9:12); but that they did not see fit to have God in their knowledge is the same as that they showed themselves worthy to be given up to a reprobate mind.

68. 5. Yet it is true that it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy (Rom 9:16). For even if anyone, by lighter sins—or certainly even by graver and many sins, yet by great groaning and grief of repenting—becomes worthy of God's mercy, this is not of him who, if he were abandoned, would perish, but of the merciful God who comes to the aid of his prayers and grief.

For it is too little to will, unless God has mercy; but God, who calls to peace, does not have mercy unless the will has gone before, because on earth peace to men of good will (Luke 2:14). And since no one can even will unless he has been admonished and called—whether inwardly, where no man sees, or outwardly through a resounding word or some visible signs—it comes about that God works even the willing itself in us (See Phil 2:13).

For to that supper which the Lord says in the Gospel was prepared, not all who were called wished to come, nor could those who came have come unless they were called. And so neither should those who came attribute it to themselves, because they came when called; nor should those who refused to come attribute it to another, but only to themselves, since, that they might come, they had been called in free will (See Luke 14:16-24).

The calling, therefore, works the will before merit. For this reason, even if anyone attributes to himself that he came when called, he cannot attribute to himself that he was called.

But he who, called, does not come—just as he had no merit of reward in being called, so he begins to merit punishment when, called, he neglected to come. So there will be those two things: mercy and judgment I will sing to you, Lord (Ps 101:1 (100:1)).

To mercy belongs the calling; to judgment belong the blessedness of those who came when called and the punishment of those who refused to come. Was it then hidden from Pharaoh how much good those lands had obtained through the coming of Joseph (See Gen 41)?

The knowledge of that deed performed, therefore, was his calling, that, treating the people of Israel mercifully, he should not be ungrateful. But because he was unwilling to obey this calling, and exercised cruelty against those to whom kindness and mercy were owed, he deserved a penalty: that his heart should be hardened and that he should suffer so great a blindness of mind as not to believe at so many and so great and so manifest signs of God,

so that by his punishment—whether of hardening or of the final visible drowning—the people could be instructed, by whose affliction he himself acquired the merit both of the hidden dulling and of the manifest drowning (See Exod 5-14).

68. 6. Now this calling, which works—whether in individual people or in peoples and in the human race itself—through the opportunities of times, belongs to a high and deep ordering. To this pertains also that: in the womb I sanctified you (Jer 1:5); and: when you were in the loins of your father, I saw you (See Heb 7:10); and: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Mal 1:2-3): since it was said before they were born.

Nor can it be comprehended except perhaps by those who love the Lord their God with their whole heart and with their whole soul and with their whole mind, and love their neighbor as themselves (See Matt 22:37-39). For, founded in so great a love, they can now perhaps comprehend with the saints the length, breadth, height, and depth (See Eph 3:18).

This, however, must be held by a most constant faith: that God does nothing unjustly, and that there is no nature which does not owe to God what it is—because to God is owed all comeliness and beauty and fittingness of parts, which, if you have followed it through thoroughly, and have removed even down to all the remnants from things, nothing remains.

69. 1. Those who contend that the Son of God is not equal to the Father are accustomed to make rather free use of this testimony, where the Apostle says: but when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.

For an error cloaked with the name "Christian" could not arise for them except from Scriptures not understood; for they say: "if he is equal, how will he be subjected?" This is certainly like that gospel question: "if he is equal, how is the Father greater?" For the Lord himself says: because the Father is greater than I (John 14:28).

The rule of the Catholic faith stands thus: that when some things are said in Scripture of the Son such that he is less than the Father, they are understood according to his taking on of man, but when those things are said by which he is shown to be equal, they are taken according to that which he is as God. It is apparent, then, how it was said both, the Father is greater than I, and, I and the Father are one (John 10:30); and, the Word was God, and, the Word was made flesh, and, he did not consider it robbery to be equal to God, and, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil 2:6-7).

But since many things are said of him also according to the property of the person—apart from what pertains to the taking on of man—in such a way that the Father must be understood as nothing other than the Father, and the Son as nothing other than the Son, the heretics think that in these things which are so said and understood there cannot be equality. For it is written: all things were made through him (John 1:3), namely through the Son, that is, through the Word of God—by whom, if not by the Father?

But nowhere is it written that the Son made any creature through the Father. Likewise it is written that the Son is the image of the Father (See Col 1:15); but nowhere is it written that the Father is the image of the Son;

then, that the one is begetter, the other begotten, and other things of this kind, which pertain not to an inequality of substance but to the property of the persons—in which things they say there cannot be equality, since they bring rather coarse minds to penetrating them, they must be pressed by the weight of authority.

For if equality could not be understood in these things—of him through whom all things were made and of him by whom they were made, of the image and of him whose image it is, of the begotten and of the begetter—the Apostle, closing the mouths of contentious people, would in no way have put down the very word, saying: he did not consider it robbery to be equal to God (Phil 2:6).

69. 2. Since, then, the things that are written for the distinction of the Father and the Son are written partly on account of the properties of the persons, partly on account of the taking on of man—while nevertheless the deity and unity and equality of the divine substance of the Father and the Son remains—

it is rightly asked in this place whether the Apostle said according to the properties of the persons or according to the taking on of man: then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who subjected all things to him (1 Cor 15:28).

The context of Scripture is accustomed to illuminate a statement, when the things written round about, touching the present question, are treated with diligent discussion. We find, then, that this place was reached in such a way that above he said: but now Christ has risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who sleep (1 Cor 15:20); for he was treating of the resurrection of the dead. This came about in the Lord according to the taking on of man; though most plainly he continues and says: for since through a man came death, also through a man came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: the beginning, Christ. Then those who are Christ's, at his coming (parousia). Then the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God and the Father, when he has emptied out every rule and every power and might. For he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he subjected all things under his feet. But when he says that all things are subjected, it is manifest that this excepts him who subjected all things to him. But when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all (See 1 Cor 15:21-28). It is manifest, then, that this was said according to the taking on of man.

69. 3. But other things in this chapter, whose whole text I have recalled, are accustomed to present a question: first, that it was said, when he hands over the kingdom to God and the Father, as though the Father does not now hold the kingdom.

Then, that it was said, for he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet, as though afterward he will not reign, and to this purpose serves what was said above: then the end. Which by a sacrilegious opinion they take as though he called the end the consummation of his kingdom, when in the Gospel it is written: and of his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:33).

Finally, that it was said, but when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, they wish to be understood as though now either something is not subjected to the Son, or he himself is not subjected to the Father.

69. 4. The question, then, is resolved by the manner of speaking. For Scripture often speaks in such a way that what always is, is said then to come about in someone, when it has begun to be known by him. For thus we say in prayer: hallowed be your name (Matt 6:9), as though it were at some time not holy.

Therefore, just as hallowed be means "let it be made known to be holy," so too: when he hands over the kingdom to God and the Father, that is: when he has shown the Father to reign, so that what is now believed by the faithful and not thought to be so by unbelievers may grow clear through the manifestation and revealing.

And he will empty out every rule and power precisely by manifesting the kingdom of the Father, so that it may be known to all that none of the princes and powers—whether heavenly or earthly—had anything of rule and power through itself, but from him from whom are all things, not only that they exist, but also that they are ordered.

For in that manifestation no hope will remain to anyone in any prince or in any man. This is even now sung prophetically: it is good to hope in the Lord rather than to hope in man; it is good to hope in the Lord rather than to hope in princes (Ps 118:8-9 (117:8-9)), so that by this meditation the soul may now rise up into the kingdom of the Father, neither making much of anyone's power except his, nor most perniciously flattering itself with its own.

He will therefore hand over the kingdom to God and the Father, when through him the Father will be known through manifestation. For his kingdom is those in whom he now reigns through faith. For the kingdom of Christ is spoken of in one way according to the power of his divinity—that all creation is subjected to him—

and in another way his kingdom is called the Church, according to the property of the faith that is in him, according to which he prays who says: possess us (Isa 26:13). For it is not that he does not himself possess all things; according to which that too is said: when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness (Rom 6:20). He will therefore empty out every rule and every power and might, so that no one who beholds the Father through the Son may have need or take pleasure in resting in the power of any creature or in his own.

69. 5. For he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet (1 Cor 15:25), that is, his kingdom must be manifested to such a degree until all his enemies confess that he reigns; for this is what is understood by his enemies being under his feet. And if we take this of the just, the word enemies was used because from being unjust they are justified and made subject to him by believing. But of the unjust, who do not belong to the future blessedness of the just, it must be taken thus: that they too, confounded by the very manifestation of his kingdom, will confess that he reigns. Therefore, he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet, was not said as though, when he has put his enemies under his feet, he will not reign afterward, but: he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet means—he must, he says, bring his kingdom to such evidence until his enemies can in no way dare to deny that he reigns.

For it is also written: our eyes are toward the Lord our God, until he has mercy on us (Ps 123:2 (122:2)); nor for that reason, however, when he has had mercy on us, ought we to turn our eyes from him; for our blessedness is precisely in proportion as we enjoy the contemplation of him. So, then, this too was said. The intention of our eyes is not directed toward the Lord only up to the obtaining of his mercy, so as afterward to be turned away from it, but so as to seek nothing further from it. Until, therefore, is put for "so that you understand nothing further."

For to what further—that is, up to what greater manifestation—will the kingdom of Christ be manifested, except until all his enemies confess that he reigns? It is one thing, then, not to be manifested further, another not to remain further. Not to be manifested further is not to become more manifest; not to remain further is not to become more enduring. But when will the kingdom of Christ be more manifest than when it has grown clear to all his enemies?

69. 6. The last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Cor 15:26). For there will be nothing else to be destroyed, after this mortal has put on immortality. For he subjected all things under his feet: this is, that he may also destroy death. But when he says that all things are subjected (the prophet certainly said this in the Psalms (Ps 8:8)), it is manifest that this excepts him who subjected all things to him:

he wishes the Father to be understood as having subjected all things to the Son, just as in many places the same Lord commends and proclaims in the Gospel,

not only on account of the form of the servant, but also on account of the principle from which he is and from which he is equal to him from whom he is.

For he loves to refer all things to one principle, as his image (See Col 1:15), but one in whom dwells all the fullness of divinity (See Col 2:9).

69. 7. But when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who subjected all things to him (1 Cor 15:28). Not as though it is now not so, but then it will be manifest, according to the manner of speaking treated above, that God may be all in all.

He himself is the end which he recalled above, when he wished first to conclude the whole briefly. Then, as it were, to unfold and expound it piece by piece; for he was speaking of the resurrection where he said: the beginning, Christ; then those who are Christ's at his coming; then the end.

He himself, namely, is the end, that God may be all in all. For an end that pertains to consummation is spoken of in one way, an end that pertains to consumption in another; for a tunic is finished in one way by weaving, food in another by eating. But God is said to be all in all, so that none of those who cling to him may love his own will against him, and so that it may be manifest to all what the same Apostle says in another place: but what do you have that you have not received? (1 Cor 4:7)

69. 8. There are likewise those who understand this place thus: he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet, so as to say that reign is here put in another sense, not in the sense in which kingdom is put, of which he says: when he hands over the kingdom to God and the Father,

so that he called kingdom that by which God rules the whole creation, but called reign in such a way that it is understood as leading an army against an enemy or defending a city—so that for this reason he said, he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet, because there will be no occasion for such a reign as the commanders of armed men have, once the enemy is so subjected that it cannot rebel.

For it was certainly said in the Gospel: and of his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:33), according to which he reigns forever; but according to that by which warfare is waged under him against the devil, this warfare will certainly last until he puts all his enemies under his feet; but afterward it will not be, when we shall enjoy perpetual peace.

These things, however, have been said so that we may know that this too must be considered more diligently: in what sense the Lord now reigns by the dispensation of his mystery, through the incarnation and passion.

For according to that which he is the Word of God, his kingdom is as much without end as without beginning and without interruption; but according to that which the Word was made flesh (See John 1:14), he began to reign in believers through faith in his incarnation. From this comes also that: the Lord has reigned from the tree (Ps 96:10 (95:10)). And from this he emptied out every rule and every power and might, since it is not through his brightness, but through his humility, that those believing in him are saved.

This is what is hidden from the wise and prudent and revealed to little ones (See Matt 11:25), since it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching (See 1 Cor 1:21) to save those who believe. And the Apostle says that he knows nothing among the little ones except Christ Jesus, and him crucified (See 1 Cor 2:2). This preaching is needed for as long as it takes until all his enemies are put under his feet—that is, until all worldly pride yields and is made subject to that humility of his, which I judge is signified by the name of feet—as has already for the most part been done, and as we see being done daily. But to what end do these things come about?

That he may hand over the kingdom to God and the Father, that is, that he may lead those nourished by faith in his incarnation to the vision by which he is equal to the Father. For he was already speaking to those who had believed when he said: if you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will free you (John 8:31-32).

For he will hand over the kingdom to the Father when he reigns in those contemplating the truth by that whereby he is equal to the Father, and through himself, the Only-begotten, will make the Father seen through the vision; for now he reigns in believers through that whereby he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (See Phil 2:7).

But then he will hand over the kingdom to God and the Father, when he has emptied out every rule and power and might. By what will he empty it out except by humility, patience, and weakness?

For what rule is not emptied out, when the Son of God reigns in believers for this reason: that the princes of the world judged him?

What power is not emptied out, when he through whom all things were made reigns in believers for this reason: that he was so subjected to the powers that he said to a man, you would have no power over me unless it had been given to you from above (John 19:11)?

What might is not emptied out, when he himself, through whom the heavens were made firm, reigns in believers for this reason: that he was made weak even unto the cross and death? But in this way the Son properly reigns in the faith of believers. For the Father cannot be said or believed to be either incarnate or judged or crucified.

But through the vision by which he is equal to the Father, he reigns with the Father in those contemplating the truth.

And that he will hand over the kingdom to God and the Father, leading those who now believe in him from faith in his incarnation to the vision of his deity, he will not himself lose, but each will offer himself as one for the enjoyment of those who contemplate.

But for as long as it is needed, in people not yet able to behold the equality of the Father and the Son with the clear light of the mind, Christ reigns through that which such people can grasp, and through what he himself properly took on—that is, the humility of the incarnation—until he puts all his enemies under his feet, that is, until all worldly pride is made subject to the humility of his incarnation.

69. 10. Of course, what was said—then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who subjected all things to him (1 Cor 15:28)—although it is said according to the taking on of man, since the question arose from that, while he was treating of the resurrection of the dead, nevertheless it is rightly asked whether it was said only according to him who is the head of the Church (See Eph 1:22; 5:23), or according to the whole Christ, his body and members being counted in.

For when he says to the Galatians: it does not say, 'and to seeds,' as in many, but as in one, 'and to your seed,' which is Christ, lest in this place we should understand only that Christ who was born of the Virgin Mary, he afterward says: for you are all one in Christ Jesus. But if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed (Gal 3:16; 28-29).

And to the Corinthians, when he spoke of love, drawing a comparison from the members of the body: for as the body is one, he says, and has many members, but all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ (1 Cor 12:12); he did not say, "so also are Christ's members," but, so also is Christ, showing that the whole is rightly called Christ, that is, the head together with his body, which is the Church.

And in many places of the Scriptures we find Christ called even in this way, so that he is understood together with all his members, to whom it was said: you are the body of Christ and its members (1 Cor 12:27). Not absurdly, then, do we understand thus: then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, so that by the Son we understand not only the head of the Church, but all the saints together with him, who are one in Christ, one seed of Abraham—but subjected according to the contemplation of eternal truth, for the obtaining of blessedness, with no movement of the mind, no part of the body resisting, so that in that life, no one loving his own power, God may be all in all.

70. It is commonly asked what this means: then will come about what is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your striving? Where, death, is your sting? But the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.' I judge that death here signifies carnal habit, which resists the good will by the delight of enjoying temporal things.

For it would not be said, where, death, is your striving? if it had not resisted and fought back. Its striving is described also in that place: the flesh desires against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you wish (Gal 5:17). It comes about, then, through perfect sanctification, that every carnal appetite is subjected to our spirit, illumined and given life—that is, to the good will.

And just as now we see that we are free of many childish delights which, if they had been denied us as children, tormented us most bitterly, so it must be believed will be the case with every carnal delight when perfect holiness has restored the whole person. But now, so long as there is in us something that resists the good will, we need the help of God through good men and good angels, so that, until our wound is healed, it may not so trouble us as to destroy even the good will.

But this death we deserved by the sin which was formerly altogether in free choice, when in paradise no pain of denied delight resisted a person's good will as it does now. For example, if there exists someone whom hunting has never delighted, he is altogether free as to whether he wishes to hunt or not, nor does anyone who forbids it torment him. But if, having used this freedom badly, he has hunted against the command of the one forbidding it, the delight, creeping in little by little, puts the soul to death, so that, if he should wish to abstain, he cannot do so without trouble and anguish, whereas before, in full health, he did not engage in it at all.

Therefore the sting of death is sin, because by sin there came to be a delight which can now resist the good will and be checked only with pain. And this delight, because it lies in the failing of a soul made worse, we rightly call death. But the power of sin is the law, because what the law forbids is committed much more wickedly and shamefully than if it were forbidden by no law.

And so death will be swallowed up in victory when, through sanctification perfected in every part of a person, carnal delight will be overwhelmed by the delight of spiritual things.

71. 1. Because the observance of the Old Testament had fear, it could not be more openly signified that the gift of the New Testament is love than in this place, where the Apostle says: bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. For he is understood to call this the law of Christ by which the Lord himself commanded that we love one another, placing such weight of precept in that statement that he said: by this it will be known that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:34-35).

And the duty of this love is to bear one another's burdens. But this duty, which is not everlasting, will indeed lead to everlasting blessedness, in which there will be no burdens of ours that we are commanded to bear for one another. But now, while we are in this life, that is, on this road, let us bear one another's burdens, so that we may be able to come to that life which is free of every burden.

For just as some who are devoted to such observations have written about deer, when they cross a strait to an island for the sake of pasture, they arrange themselves so that they carry the burdens of their heads, which they bear in their horns, upon one another, in such a way that the one behind lays its head upon the neck of the one in front.

And because there must be one which, going before the rest, does not have before itself one on whom to incline its head, they are said to do this by turns, so that the one who goes in front, wearied by the burden of its own head, returns behind them all, and there succeeds it the one whose head it was carrying while it itself went ahead. Thus, bearing one another's burdens, they cross the strait until they come to the firmness of land. Perhaps Solomon had this nature of deer in mind when he said: let the deer of friendship and the colt of your graces converse with you (Prov 5:19). For nothing so proves a friend as the carrying of a friend's burden.

71. 2. And yet we would not bear one another's burdens if there were one and the same time of weakness for both who bear their burdens, or one and the same kind of weakness.

But different times and different kinds of weakness bring it about that we are able to bear one another's burdens. For example, you will bear a brother's anger at the time when you are not angry against him, so that in turn, at the time when anger has seized you beforehand, he may support you with gentleness and tranquility. This example pertains to the case where the times of those bearing their burdens are different, although the weakness itself is not different; for in both, anger is borne by the other.

But for a different kind of weakness another example must be seen: as if someone has conquered talkativeness in himself but has not yet conquered obstinacy, while another is still talkative but is now not obstinate; the former ought to bear the latter's talkativeness, and the latter the former's obstinacy, through love, until that fault is healed in the one and this in the other.

For if an equal weakness in two people occurs at one time, they are unable to bear each other, when it is directed against each other.

For against some third person, two who are angry agree with each other and bear with each other—although they are not to be said to bear with each other, but rather to console each other.

Just as those who are sad about one and the same thing bear with each other more, and, as it were, lean on each other, than if one were sad and the other rejoiced. But if they are sad against each other, they can by no means bear with each other.

And therefore, in affections of this kind, the very sickness from which you wish another to be freed through you must be taken up a little, and so taken up that it serves for help and not for an equality of misery,

just as one who stretches out a hand to someone lying down bends himself; for he does not throw himself down so that both may lie down, but only stoops so as to raise up the one lying down.

71. 3. Nor does anything make this dutiful labor of bearing the burdens of others be spent gladly, except when we consider how much the Lord endured for us.

For admonishing us about this, the Apostle says: have this mind in you that was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:5-8).

For above he had said: each one looking not to his own things but to the things of others (Phil 2:4). To this statement he joined what was said; for it continues thus: have this mind in you that was also in Christ Jesus, precisely to this end: that, just as he, in that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), and, though he was without sin, took on our sins, looking not to his own things but to ours, so we too may gladly, in imitation of him, bear one another's burdens.

71. 4. To this consideration is added also that consideration: that he took on a man, but we are men and ought to consider that the sickness, whether of mind or of body, which we see in another man we too could have had or can have. Let us therefore show to him whose weakness we wish to bear what we would wish to be shown to us by him, if perhaps we were in it and he were not. To this pertains what the Apostle himself says: I have become all things to all, that I might gain all (1 Cor 9:22), by considering, namely, that he too could have been in the fault from which he desired to free another. For he did this rather by compassion, not by lying, as some suppose—and those especially who, in defending their lies, which they cannot deny, seek the patronage of some great example.

71. 5. Then this too must be considered: that there is no man who cannot have some good that you do not yet have, even if it is hidden, in which without doubt he can be superior to you.

This consideration serves to crush and tame pride, lest you think that, because your own goods stand out and appear, another therefore has none that are hidden—and perhaps goods of greater weight, by which he surpasses you without your knowing.

For the Apostle does not command us to deceive ourselves or rather to use flattery when he says: nothing through contention nor through vainglory, but in humility of mind esteeming one another superior to yourselves (Phil 2:3). We ought not to esteem this in such a way that we pretend to esteem it, but let us truly esteem that there can be something hidden in another by which he is superior to us, even if our own good, by which we seem to be superior to him, is not hidden.

These considerations, pressing down pride and sharpening love, bring it about that a brother's burdens are borne for one another not only with an even mind, but even most gladly. But in no way is judgment to be passed on any unknown man; and no one is known except through friendship. And therefore we bear the evils of friends more firmly, because their goods delight and hold us.

71. 6. And so the friendship of no one who presents himself for the joining of friendship is to be rejected—not that he should be received at once, but that one to be received should be wished for and so treated that he can be received. For we can say that the one received into friendship is the one to whom we would dare to pour out all our counsels.

And if there is anyone who does not dare to present himself for making friendship, being held back by some temporal honor or dignity of ours, we must go down to him, and offer him, with a certain courtesy and submission of mind, what he himself does not dare to ask for.

Of course, though more rarely, it nevertheless sometimes happens that the evils of the one whom we wish to receive into friendship become known to us before his goods, and, offended and in a way driven back by them, we abandon him and do not come to the searching out of his goods, which perhaps are more hidden.

And so the Lord Jesus Christ, who wishes us to become his imitators, admonishes us to bear with his weak ones, so that, through the forbearance of love, we may be led to certain sound ones in whose delight we may rest. For he says: the healthy do not need a physician, but the sick (Matt 9:12).

And therefore, if for the love of Christ we ought not to drive from our mind even one who is perhaps sick in every part, since he can be healed through the Word of God, how much less the one who can seem to us wholly sick for this reason: that we could not endure certain wounded parts of him at the first entrance into friendship—and, what is graver, that with offense of mind we dared to pass a rash sentence of prejudgment about the whole man, not fearing what was said: do not judge, lest you be judged; and: with the measure you have measured, it will be measured back to you (Matt 7:1-2).

But often those things that are good appear first, in which too a rash judgment of benevolence must be guarded against, lest, when you have thought the whole to be good, the things that afterward appear bad find you secure and unprepared and offend you more gravely, so that you hate more bitterly the one you had loved rashly—which is wicked.

For even if none of his goods went before, and these evils that appeared afterward stood out first, they would nevertheless have to be borne, until you had carried out with him all the things by which such things are usually healed—how much more when those goods went before, which, as pledges, ought to bind us to bearing later things.

71. 7. This, then, is the law of Christ: that we bear one another's burdens. And by loving Christ we easily bear the weakness of another, even one whom we do not yet love on account of his own goods. For we consider that the Lord whom we love died for him. This love the apostle Paul instilled in us when he said: and the weak one will perish in your knowledge, brother, the one for whom Christ died! (1 Cor 8:11) so that, if we love that weak one less on account of the fault by which he is weak, we may consider in him the one who died for him. But not to love Christ is not weakness but death. For this reason, with immense care and the mercy of God implored, we must take thought lest we neglect Christ on account of the weak one, when we ought to love the weak one on account of Christ.

72. It can be asked how it was said by the apostle Paul: before eternal times (Tit 1:2). For if they are times, how are they eternal? Or if they are eternal, how are they times? Unless perhaps he wished "before all times" to be understood, because if he had said before times and had not added eternal, it could be taken as "before certain times," which would have other times before them. But he preferred to say eternal rather than "all," perhaps for this reason: that time did not begin from time. Or did he by eternal times signify an age, between which and time there is this difference: that the former is stable, but time is changeable?

73. 1. We speak of "habit" in many ways: either the habit of the mind, such as the grasp of any discipline strengthened and made firm by use; or the habit of the body, according to which we say that one person is more full-bodied and stronger than another, which is more properly called "constitution"; or the habit of those things that are fitted to our members from without, according to which we speak of one clothed, shod, armed, and anything of that kind.

In all these kinds (since indeed this word is derived from that verb which is "to have"), it is manifest that "habit" is spoken of in regard to that which befalls someone in such a way that he can also not have it. For both teaching befalls the mind, and fullness and strength the body, and there is no doubt that clothing and arms befall our members—in such a way that the mind can be unskilled, if teaching did not befall it, and the body thin and languid without the fullness of the inward parts and strength, and a person can be naked without clothing and unarmed without arms and barefoot without footwear. "Habit," then, is spoken of in regard to that which befalls us so as to be had.

Nevertheless there is this difference: that certain of the things which befall us so as to make a "habit" are not changed by us, but they themselves change us into themselves, remaining whole and unshaken—as wisdom, when it befalls a person, is not itself changed, but changes the person, whom it makes wise from foolish. But certain things befall us in such a way that they both change and are changed—as food itself, losing its own form, is turned into our body, and we, restored by the food, are changed from thinness and languor into strength and vigor.

There is a third kind, when the things that befall are themselves changed so as to make a "habit," and are in a way formed by those for which they make a "habit,"

as is clothing; for when it has been thrown off or put away, it does not have the form it takes when it is put on and drawn over the members. Therefore, put on, it receives a form that it did not have when taken off, while the members themselves, both when they are clothed and when they are unclothed, remain in their own state.

There can also be a fourth kind, when the things that befall so as to make a "habit" neither change those to which they befall nor are themselves changed by them, as a ring on a finger, if it is not considered too subtly. Nevertheless this kind is either nonexistent, if you examine it diligently, or altogether most rare.

73. 2. When, therefore, the Apostle was speaking of the only-begotten Son of God, as far as pertains to his divinity, according to that whereby he is most truly God, he said that he was equal to the Father, which was not for him as something seized—that is, as though to desire what belonged to another—if, always remaining in that equality, he were unwilling to be clothed with man and to appear to men as a man;

but he emptied himself, not changing his own form, but taking the form of a servant—neither converted and transmuted into a man, with his unchangeable stability lost, but, by taking on, as it were, a true man, himself the one who took on, made in the likeness of men, not for himself but for those to whom he appeared in man, and was found in appearance as a man (Phil 2:6-7), that is, by having a man he was found as a man.

For he could not be found by those who had an unclean heart and could not see the Word with the Father, except by taking on this which they could see, and through which they might be led to that inner light.

But this "habit" is not from the first kind; for the nature of man, remaining in itself, did not change the nature of God; nor from the second, for man did not both change God and was changed by him; nor from the fourth, for man was not taken on in such a way that he neither changed God nor was changed by him; but rather from the third: for he was taken on in such a way that he was changed for the better, and was formed by him ineffably more excellently and more closely than clothing is by a man when it is put on.

By this word "habit," then, the Apostle sufficiently signified in what sense he said made in the likeness of men, because he was made not by a transfiguration into man, but by a habit, since he was clothed with a man whom, uniting and in a way conforming to himself, he would join to immortality and eternity.

But that habit which lies in the grasp of wisdom and discipline the Greeks call hexis, while this one, according to which we speak of one clothed or armed, they rather call schema. From which it is understood that the Apostle spoke of this kind of habit, since indeed in the Greek copies there is written what we in the Latin have as "habit."

By which word it must be understood that the Word was not changed by the taking on of man, just as the members are not changed when clothed with a garment, although that taking on ineffably joined the one taken on to the one taking on.

But, as far as human words can be fitted to ineffable realities, lest God, the one who took on human frailty, be understood to be changed, it was chosen that in Greek and in Latin that taking on should be called a habit.

74. Image and equality and likeness must be distinguished: for where there is an image, there is at once likeness, but not at once equality; where there is equality, there is at once likeness, but not at once an image; where there is likeness, there is not at once an image, not at once equality.

Where there is an image, there is at once likeness, but not at once equality: as in a mirror there is the image of a man; because it is expressed from him, there is also necessarily likeness, but not equality, because many things are lacking to the image which are present in that thing from which it is expressed.

Where there is equality, there is at once likeness, but not at once an image: as in two equal eggs, because there is equality, there is also likeness; for whatever is present in one is present in the other; yet there is no image, because neither is expressed from the other.

Where there is likeness, there is not at once an image, not at once equality; for every egg is like every egg, insofar as it is an egg; but the egg of a partridge, although insofar as it is an egg it is like the egg of a hen, is nevertheless not its image, because it is not expressed from it, nor equal, because it is both smaller and of another kind of living thing.

But where it is said "not at once," it is certainly understood that it can sometimes be so. There can therefore be some image in which there is also equality, so that in parents and children there would be found image and equality and likeness, if an interval of time were lacking; for from the parent the likeness of the child is expressed, so that it is rightly called an image, and it can be so great that equality too is rightly spoken of, except that the parent precedes in time. From which it is understood that equality too can sometimes have not only likeness but also an image, which was made manifest in the earlier example.

There can also sometimes be likeness and equality, although there is no image, as we said of equal eggs. There can also be likeness and an image, although there is no equality, as we showed in the mirror. There can also be likeness where there is both equality and an image, as we recalled of children, except for the time by which the parents precede. For thus we call one syllable equal to a syllable, although the one precedes and the other follows.

But in God, because the condition of time is absent—for God cannot rightly be seen to have begotten in time the Son through whom he founded times—it follows that not only is there his image, because it is from him, and likeness, because it is an image (See Col 1:15), but also equality so great that not even an interval of time is an impediment.

75. 1. As the Apostle says to the Hebrews: a testament is made firm by the death of the testator (Heb 9:17); for this reason he asserts that, Christ having died for us, the New Testament was made firm, of which the Old Testament was a likeness, in which the death of the testator was prefigured by the victim. If, then, it is asked how we are, according to the words of the same Apostle, coheirs of Christ and sons and heirs of God (Rom 8:17), when an inheritance too is held firm by the death of the one who departs, nor can an inheritance be understood in any other way: it is answered that we were indeed made heirs by his death, since we are also called his sons: the sons of the bridegroom do not fast, he says, as long as the bridegroom is with them (Matt 9:15).

We are therefore called his heirs, because he left us the possession of the Church's peace through faith in the temporal dispensation, which we possess in this life, which he attested when he said: my peace I give to you, peace I leave to you (John 14:27). But we shall be made his coheirs when, at the end of the age, death will be swallowed up in victory (See 1 Cor 15:54). For then we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (See 1 John 3:2). This inheritance we do not obtain by the death of that Father who cannot die, since indeed he himself becomes our inheritance, according to what is written: the Lord is the portion of my inheritance (Ps 16:5 (15:5)),

but because, when we were called, while still little ones and less fit for contemplating spiritual things, the divine mercy extended itself even to our lowliest thoughts, so that, however we might strive to discern what we did not discern evidently and clearly, that very thing which we discerned in a riddle dies when we have begun to discern face to face. For what will be taken away is fittingly said to be about to die: but when what is perfect comes, what is in part will be taken away (1 Cor 13:10). So in a way the Father dies for us in the riddle, and the same Father becomes our inheritance, when he is seen face to face—not because he himself dies, but because our imperfect vision of him is destroyed by the perfect vision; and yet, unless that prior vision had nourished us, we would not be made fit for the other, fullest and most evident one.

75. 2. But if a pious understanding admits this even of the Lord Jesus Christ—not according to the Word who in the beginning was God with God (See John 1:1), but according to the boy who advanced in age and wisdom (See Luke 2:40; 52), that proper taking on being preserved, which he does not have in common with other men—by whose death, as it were, he possesses an inheritance, it is manifest. For we cannot be his coheirs unless he himself is an heir. But if piety does not admit this—that the Lord's manhood should see first in part, then wholly, although he was said to advance in wisdom—let the heir be understood to be in his body, that is, in the Church, of which we are coheirs, just as we are called the sons of his mother, although it is composed of us.

75. 3. But again it can be asked by whose death we too were made the inheritance of God, according to that: I will give you the nations as your inheritance (Ps 2:8), unless perhaps the death of this world, by which we were formerly held as by a master. But afterward, when we say, the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14), Christ possesses us, the one who possessed us having died; when we renounce it, we die to it and it to us.

76. 1. Since the apostle Paul, in preaching that a man is justified by faith without works, was not well understood by those who took what was said in such a way as to think that, once they had believed in Christ, even if they acted badly and lived in a criminal and disgraceful way, they could be saved by faith, this passage of this Letter expounds how the same meaning of the apostle Paul is to be understood (See Jas 2:20).

And therefore he rather uses the example of Abraham [to demonstrate] that faith is empty if it does not work well, since the apostle Paul too used the example of Abraham to prove that a man is justified by faith without the works of the Law (See Rom 4:2).

For when he recalls the good works of Abraham, which accompanied his faith, he sufficiently shows that the apostle Paul does not, through Abraham, teach that a man is justified by faith without works in such a way that, if anyone has believed, it does not pertain to him to work well, but rather to this end: that no one should think that he has come to the gift of justification, which is in faith, by the merits of prior good works.

For in this the Jews wished to prefer themselves to the gentiles believing in Christ: that they said they had come to the grace of the Gospel by the merits of the good works which are in the Law; and therefore many of those who had believed from among them were scandalized that the grace of Christ was being handed over to the uncircumcised gentiles. For which reason the apostle Paul says that a man can be justified by faith without preceding works.

For how can one justified by faith do anything thereafter except justly, although beforehand, having worked nothing justly, he came to the justification of faith not by the merit of good works but by the grace of God, which cannot be idle in him, since he now works well through love?

But if, when he has believed, he soon departs from this life, the justification of faith remains with him—neither with preceding good works, because he came to it not by merit but by grace, nor with subsequent ones, because he is not permitted to be in this life.

From which what the apostle Paul says is manifest: for we judge that a man is justified by faith without works (Rom 3:28). Yet it is not to be understood in such a way that, faith having been received, if he lives, we should call him just, even if he lives badly. Therefore the apostle Paul too uses the example of Abraham, because without the works of the Law, which he had not received, he was justified by faith; and James too, because he shows that good works followed the faith of Abraham himself, showing how what the apostle Paul preached is to be understood.

76. 2. For those who think that this statement of the apostle James is contrary to that statement of the apostle Paul can suppose that Paul himself too is contrary to himself, because he says in another place: for the hearers of the Law are not just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified (Rom 2:13); and in another place: but faith which works through love (Gal 5:6). And again: for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live (Rom 8:13).

But what the deeds of the flesh are, which must be put to death by spiritual works, he shows in another place, saying: now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornications, impurities, the service of idols, sorceries, enmities, contentions, jealousies, animosities, dissensions, heresies, envies, drunkennesses, carousings, and things like these; which I foretell to you, as I have foretold, that those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21); and to the Corinthians: do not err: neither fornicators, nor those who serve idols, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor men who lie with men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor the rapacious will possess the kingdom of God. And these things indeed you were; but you have been washed, but you have been sanctified, but you have been justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God (1 Cor 6:9-11).

By which statements he teaches most manifestly that they did not come to the justification of faith by a past good work; nor was this grace given to their merits, when he says: and these things indeed you were. But when he says, those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God, he sufficiently shows that, from the time they believed, they ought to work well.

This both James says, and in very many places the same apostle Paul sufficiently and openly proclaims: that all who have believed in Christ must live rightly, lest they come to punishments. This the Lord himself also recalls, saying: not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he will enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 7:21); and elsewhere: why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? (Luke 6:46); and: everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken to a prudent man, who built his house upon the rock, and the rest. And he who hears these words of mine and does not do them, I will liken to a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand (Matt 7:24-27) and the rest.

For this reason the statements of the two apostles Paul and James are not contrary to each other, when the one says that a man is justified by faith without works, and the other says that faith is empty without works, because the former speaks of the works that precede faith, the latter of those that follow faith, as Paul himself too shows in many places.

77. Every disturbance is a passion, every desire is a disturbance; therefore every desire is a passion. But every passion, when it is in us, we undergo by the passion itself, and we undergo it insofar as it is a passion; therefore every desire, when it is in us, we undergo by the desire itself, and we undergo it insofar as it is a desire. But every passion, insofar as we undergo it by the passion itself, is not a sin.

So too, if we undergo fear, it is not a sin. As if it were said: "if it is two-footed, it is not a beast." If, then, this does not follow, because there are many two-footed beasts, then that too does not follow, because there are many sins that we undergo. For the objection is that it does not follow that, if we undergo fear, it is therefore not a sin. But you say that it does follow that, if we undergo fear, it is not a sin; though you nevertheless concede that there are some sins that we undergo.

78. That highest art of almighty God, through which all things were made from nothing—which is also called his wisdom—itself works also through craftsmen, so that they make beautiful and fitting things, although they work not from nothing, but from some matter, such as wood or marble or ivory, or any other kind of matter subjected to the hands of the craftsman.

But these men cannot fashion anything from nothing for this reason: that they work through the body, while nevertheless those numbers and that fittingness of outlines, which they impress upon a body through the body, they receive in the mind from that highest wisdom, which impressed those very numbers and that very fittingness far more skillfully upon the whole body of the world, which it fashioned from nothing. In which there are also the bodies of animals, which are now fashioned from something—that is, from the elements of the world—but far more powerfully and more excellently than when human craftsmen imitate those same figures and forms of bodies in their works.

For not all the numerical proportion of the human body is found in a statue, but nevertheless whatever is found there is conveyed from that wisdom, through the mind of the craftsman, which fashions the human body itself by nature. Nor, however, are those who fashion or love such works to be held in high regard, because the soul, intent on lesser things, which it makes corporeally through the body, clings less to that highest wisdom from which it has these powers.

These powers it uses badly while it exercises them outwardly; for, loving those things in which it exercises them, it neglects their stable inner form, and is made emptier and weaker.

But how far those who even worship such works have strayed from the truth can be understood from this: that if they worshiped the very bodies of animals, which are fashioned far more excellently and of which those are imitations, what more wretched thing could we call them?

79. 1. Every soul partly bears the power of something private to itself, and is partly constrained and ruled by the laws of the whole, as by public ones. Since, then, each visible thing in this world has an angelic power set over it, as the divine Scripture testifies in several places, it acts upon the thing over which it is set in one way as by private right, and in another way is compelled to act as it were publicly.

For the whole is more powerful than the part, since even that which it does there privately it is allowed to do only as far as the law of the whole allows. But each soul is the more purified by piety the less it delights in what is private to itself and the more it looks to the law of the whole and obeys it devoutly and gladly.

For the law of the whole is divine wisdom. But the more it rejoices in what is private to itself, and, neglecting God—who usefully and wholesomely presides over all souls—wishes to be as a god to itself or to others over whom it can have power, loving its own power over itself or over others rather than his over all, the more sordid it is, and the more it is compelled, as a punishment, to serve the divine laws, as it were public ones.

Therefore, the more the human soul, having deserted God, has been delighted by its own honors or its own power, the more it is made subject to such powers, which rejoice in what is private to themselves and desire to be honored by men like gods.

To whom it is often granted by divine law that, to those whom they have subjugated to themselves according to their merits, they may by that private right grant even something of miracles to be displayed in those things over which they are set, in the lowest yet most ordered rank of powers.

But where the divine law, as it were a public one, commands, it certainly overcomes the private license, although even that private license would be nothing except by the permission of the universal divine power.

And so it comes about that the holy servants of God, when it is useful for them to have this gift, command the lowest powers, according to the public and in a way imperial law—that is, the power of the most high God—to perform certain visible miracles.

For in them God himself commands, whose temple they are, and whom they love most ardently, content with his private power. But in magical commands, for the enticement of deception—so that they may subjugate to themselves those to whom they grant such things—they grant effect to their prayers and rites, bestowing by that private right what they are allowed to bestow on those who honor them and serve them and keep certain pacts with them in their rites.

And when the magicians seem to command, they terrify the lower ones through the names of more sublime ones, so as to display to those who marvel certain visible things—which, because of the weakness of the flesh, seem great to men unable to behold eternal things, things which the true God grants through himself to those who love him.

But God permits these things, justly moderating all things, so that he may distribute their servitudes and freedoms according to their desires and choices; and if at any time, by the invocation of the most high God, they obtain something for their evil desires, that is vengeance, not grace. For not in vain does the Apostle say: God gave them up to the desires of their heart (Rom 1:24, 26). For the facility of perpetrating certain sins is the punishment of other preceding ones.

79. 2. But as for what the Lord says—Satan cannot cast out Satan (Mark 3:23)—lest perhaps anyone, using the names of certain lowest powers, when he has cast out a demon, should think this statement of the Lord false, let him understand it to be said in this sense: that in this way Satan, even if he spares the body or the bodily senses, spares them for this reason: that, through the error of impiety, he may rule over the will of the man himself with a greater triumph. But in this way Satan does not go out, but rather enters into the inmost parts, so as to work in him as the Apostle says: according to the prince of the power of this air, who now works in the sons of distrust (Eph 2:2). For he was not disturbing and tormenting the senses of their body, or dashing their bodies together, but reigning in their will, or rather in their desire.

79. 3. But as for what he says—that false prophets will perform many signs and wonders, so as to deceive even, if it were possible, the elect (See Mt 24:24)—he certainly admonishes us to understand that even wicked men perform certain miracles such as the saints cannot perform. Nor, however, are they on that account to be thought to be of a better standing with God. For the magicians of the Egyptians were not more acceptable to God than the people of Israel, because that people could not do what they did, although Moses, in the power of God, could do greater things (See Exod 7-12). But these things are not bestowed on all the saints for this reason: lest the weak be deceived by a most pernicious error, supposing that there are greater gifts in such deeds than in the works of righteousness, by which eternal life is acquired. For this reason the Lord forbids the disciples to rejoice in this, when he says: do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20).

79. 4. When, therefore, the magicians do such things as the saints sometimes do, they indeed appear to be such visibly, but they are done both with a different end and by a different right. For the former do them seeking their own glory, the latter seeking the glory of God; and the former do them through certain things granted to the powers in their order, as by private dealings or favors, but the latter through public administration, by the command of him to whom all creation is subjected.

For in one way a possessor is compelled to give a horse to a soldier, in another way he hands it over to a buyer, or gives or lends it to anyone. And just as very many bad soldiers, whom the imperial discipline condemns, terrify certain possessors with the standards of their emperor, and extort from them something that is not publicly commanded, so sometimes bad Christians or schismatics or heretics, through the name of Christ or Christian words or sacraments, exact something from the powers, which have been enjoined to yield to the honor of Christ.

But when they willingly yield to bad men commanding them, they yield in order to seduce men, in whose error they rejoice. For this reason the magicians perform miracles in one way, good Christians in another, bad Christians in another: the magicians through private contracts, good Christians through public justice, bad Christians through the signs of public justice.

Nor is it surprising that these signs have force when they are employed by them, since even when they are usurped by outsiders, who have not at all given their name to this service, they nevertheless have force on account of the honor of the most excellent emperor.

Of whom was that man about whom the disciples reported to the Lord that he was casting out demons in his name, although he did not follow with them (See Luke 9:49). But when powers of this kind do not yield to these signs, God himself forbids it in hidden ways, when he judges it just and useful.

For in no way do any spirits dare to despise these signs; for they tremble at them, wherever they have beheld them. But, with men unaware, something else is divinely commanded—whether to confound the bad, when they ought to be confounded, as we read of the sons of Sceva in the Acts of the Apostles, to whom the unclean spirit said: Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you? (Acts 19:14-15); or to admonish the good, that they may advance in faith and be able to do these things not boastfully but usefully; or to distinguish the gifts of the members of the Church, as the Apostle says: are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? (1 Cor 12:30) For these reasons, then, as has been said, it is often divinely commanded, with men unaware—that is, that when these signs are employed, powers of this kind do not obey the will of men.

79. 5. But so that the bad often harm the good temporally, they receive power over them for the greater benefit of the good, on account of the exercise of patience. And so let the Christian soul always be watchful, in its tribulations, to follow the will of its Lord, lest by resisting the ordering of God it acquire for itself a heavier judgment.

For what the Lord himself, acting as a man, said to Pontius Pilate, this Job too could say to the devil: you would have no power over me unless it had been given to you from above (John 19:11). Therefore not the will of the one to whose malice power is given over the good, but the will of him by whom this power is given, ought to be most dear to us. Since tribulation works patience, and patience proof, and proof hope; but hope does not confound, since the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5).

80. 1. When certain heretics—who are said to be called Apollinarists from a certain Apollinaris, their authority—asserted that our Lord Jesus Christ, insofar as he deigned to become a man, did not have a human mind, some, clinging to them and eagerly listening to them, were indeed delighted by that perversity by which he diminished the man in God, saying that he did not have a mind, that is, a rational soul, by which a man differs from the beasts in respect of the mind.

But when they themselves considered within themselves that, if it is so, it must be confessed that the only-begotten Son of God, the Wisdom and Word of the Father, through whom all things were made, is believed to have taken on a certain beast with the figure of a human body, they were displeased with themselves,

not, however, unto correction, so that they would return to the way of truth and confess that the whole man was taken on by the Wisdom of God, with no diminution of nature,

but, using a greater audacity, alienating from him the soul itself and the whole vital part of the man, they said that he took on only human flesh, even adducing a testimony from the Gospel—rather, perverse by not understanding that statement, they dare to contend against the Catholic truth, saying it is written: the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). For under these words they wish the Word to be so joined and grown together with the flesh that there is there not only no mind, but not even a human soul.

80. 2. To whom it must first be answered that this was so placed in the Gospel because that assumption of human nature made by the Lord extended as far as the visible flesh, and in that whole unity of the taking on the Word is principal, while the flesh is the extreme and last.

And so the Evangelist, wishing to commend for us the abasement of the humility of God, who humbled himself, and expressing how far he humbled himself, named the Word and the flesh, passing over the nature of the soul, which is inferior to the Word, more excellent than the flesh. For it commends humility more that it was said, the Word was made flesh, than if it were said, "the Word was made man."

For if these words are regarded too closely, another, no less perverse, can so slander our faith from these words as to say that the Word itself was converted and changed into flesh and ceased to be the Word, because it is written: the Word was made flesh,

just as human flesh, when it becomes ash, is not flesh and ash, but ash from flesh, and, according to the more common usage of speaking, whatever comes to be that was not, ceases to be what it was. Yet we do not so understand these words. But they too understand with us in such a way that, the Word remaining what it is, it was said, the Word was made flesh, from the fact that it received the form of a servant, not from the fact that it was converted into that form by some change.

Then, if wherever flesh is named and the soul is passed over in silence, it must be so understood that the soul is believed not to be there, then those of whom it was said will not have a soul: and all flesh will see the salvation of God (Isa 40:5; Luke 3:6); and that in the Psalm: hear my prayers; to you all flesh will come (Ps 65 (64):2); and that in the Gospel: as you have given him power over all flesh, so that all that you have given him may not perish but have eternal life (John 17:2).

From which it is understood that men are accustomed to be signified by the naming of the flesh alone, so that according to this manner of speaking that too can be understood, so that what was said, the Word was made flesh, is nothing other than: "the Word was made man." For just as, by the whole from a part, a man is generally understood when the soul alone is named, as is that: so many souls went down into Egypt (Gen 46:22, 27), so again, by the whole from a part, a man is understood even when the flesh alone is named, as are those passages that we have set down.

80. 3. Accordingly, just as we answer this objection of theirs, which they put forward from the Gospel, in such a way that no man is so foolish as to think that by these words we are compelled to believe and confess that the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (See 1 Tim 2:5), did not have a human soul, so I ask how they answer our objections, so manifest, by which we show that, in innumerable places of the gospel Scripture, it was narrated of him by the evangelists that he was in those affections which cannot exist without a soul.

For I do not bring these forth from myself, but the things which the Lord himself recalls so often: my soul is sorrowful unto death (Mt 26:38); and: I have the power to lay down my soul and to take it up again (John 10:18); and: no one has greater love than to lay down his soul for his friends (John 15:13).

These an obstinate contradictor can tell me were said figuratively by the Lord, just as it is manifest that he spoke many things in parables. For even if these are not so, there is nevertheless no need to act contentiously, where we have the narratives of the evangelists, through which we have come to know both that he was born of the Virgin Mary, and seized by the Jews, and scourged and crucified and killed, and buried in a tomb—all of which no one can understand to have been done without a body.

Nor would anyone, even the most demented, say that these are to be taken figuratively, since they were said by those who narrated the deeds done as they remembered them. Therefore, just as these things testify that he had a body, so those affections, which cannot exist except in a soul, indicate that he had a soul—affections which we nonetheless read of, the same evangelists narrating them.

And Jesus marveled (See Mt 8:10) and was angry (See Mt 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45-46; John 2:13-16) and was saddened (See Mark 3:4) and was gladdened (See John 11:15) and innumerable other things, as also those which show duties joined together both of the soul and of the body: such as that he hungered (See Mt 4:2), that he slept (See Mt 8:24), that, wearied from the journey, he sat down (See John 4:6), and other things of this kind. For they cannot say that in the Old Books too the anger of God and joy and certain motions of this kind are spoken of, and yet that it does not follow that God must be believed to have had a soul.

For those things were said by prophetic imaginings, not by a narrative manifestation.

For the members of God too are spoken of, both hands and feet and eyes and face and the like; just as these do not indicate that he has a body, so neither do those indicate a soul. But just as something narrated, where the hands of Christ and his head and the rest are named, indicates his body, so too the things named, in the same tenor of narration, concerning the affections of the soul indicate his soul.

But it is foolish to believe the evangelist who narrates that he ate, and not to believe him that he hungered. For although it does not follow that everyone who eats hungers—for we read that an angel ate (See Gen 18:8-9; Tob 12:19), but we do not read that it hungered—nor that everyone who hungers eats, if he either restrains himself by some duty, or food and the means of eating are lacking to him, nevertheless, when the evangelist narrates both (See Mt 4:2; 9:11), both must be believed; because he wrote both, as an indicator of deeds done, as having been done and performed. But just as, because he ate, it cannot be understood without a body, so, because he hungered, it could not have come about without a soul.

80. 4. Nor does that empty and inept slander frighten us, by which, resisting enviously, they say: therefore he was placed under necessity, if he had these affections of the soul truly. For we easily answer: therefore he was placed under necessity, because he was seized, scourged, crucified, and died,

so that at last, without obstinacy, if they are willing, they may understand that he took on the passions of the soul—that is, the affections—by the will of the dispensation, yet true ones, as it pleased him, in the same way that he took on the passions of the body by the same will of the dispensation, without any necessity.

Just as we do not die by will, so too we are not born by will; but he displayed both, as it was fitting, by will, and yet displayed them most truly.

Just as, then, by the name of necessity no one tears either us or them away from faith in the most true passion, through which his body is shown, so by the very name of necessity let no one frighten us away from faith in the most true affection, through which we recognize his soul—nor ought it to frighten them away from consenting to the Catholic faith, if the ruinous shame of changing an opinion, though false, yet long and rashly defended, does not frighten them away.

81. 1. The whole discipline of wisdom, which pertains to the instruction of men, is to distinguish the Creator and the creation, and to worship the one as ruling and confess the other as subject. Now the Creator is God, from whom are all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things (See Rom 11:36), and therefore the Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

But the creation is partly invisible, like the soul, partly visible, like the body. To the invisible the number three is assigned, which is why we are commanded to love God in a threefold way, with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with the whole mind (Mt 22:37); to the body the number four, on account of its most evident nature, that is, the hot and the cold, the moist and the dry; to the whole creation, therefore, the number seven.

For this reason the whole discipline that distinguishes and discerns the Creator and the creation is conveyed by the number ten.

This discipline, so long as it is signified temporally by bodily motions, consists in believing, and it nourishes little ones, as it were with milk, by the authority of deeds done that come and pass away, so as to make them fit for the contemplation which does not come and pass away but always remains.

In which discipline anyone—the things done temporally and divinely for the salvation of men having been narrated to him, or things to be done which are still proclaimed as future—if he has remained in faith and hoped for the things promised and taken care to fulfill with untiring love what the divine authority enjoins, will rightly conduct the life of this necessity and time, which is commended by the number forty.

For the number ten, which conveys the whole discipline, led out four times—that is, multiplied by the number assigned to the body, because the administration is carried on through bodily motions, which has been said to consist in faith—produces the number forty.

Thus it also obtains the stable wisdom that lacks any time, which is commended by the number ten, so that ten is added to forty—because the equal parts of the number forty, led together, also come to fifty. Now the number forty has these equal parts: first forty in single units, then twenty in twos, ten in fours, eight in fives, five in eights, four in tens, two in twenties. Therefore one and two and four and five and eight and ten and twenty, led together, make fifty. For this reason, just as the number forty, when its equal parts are computed, brings forth a further ten and becomes fifty, so the time of faith in the things done and to be done for our salvation, conducted with equity of life, obtains the understanding of stable wisdom, so that the discipline is made firm not only by believing, but also by understanding.

81. 2. And therefore the Church that now is—although we are sons of God, yet before it appears what we shall be—conducts itself in labors and afflictions, and in it the just man lives by faith (See Rom 1:17). For unless you believe, he says, you will not understand (Isa 7:9). And this is the time in which we groan and are in pain, awaiting the redemption of our body (See Rom 8:23), which is celebrated as Lent. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2): when the ten is added to the forty, so that we may deserve not only to believe the things that pertain to faith, but also to understand the truth clearly. Such a Church—in which there will be no mourning, no admixture of evil men, no iniquity, but gladness and peace and joy—is prefigured by the celebration of Pentecost.

For this reason, after our Lord rose from the dead, the forty days having been spent with his disciples—namely, that same temporal dispensation which pertains to faith being conveyed through this number—he ascended into heaven (See Acts 1:3-9), and, ten other days having been spent, he sent the Holy Spirit (See Acts 2:1-4): that is, so that the ten might be added to the forty by a certain breathing and burning of love and charity, for beholding not human and temporal things, but divine and eternal ones. And therefore this whole, that is, the number fifty of the days, is now to be marked by a celebration of gladness.

81. 3. These two times—that is, one of labor and anxiety, the other of joy and security—our Lord also signifies by the nets cast into the sea. For before his passion it is said of the net cast into the sea that they caught so many fish that they barely brought them to shore by dragging, and the nets were breaking (See Luke 5:6-7). For they were not cast on the right side—for the Church of this time has many bad people—nor on the left—for it has good people too—but at random, so as to signify the admixture of good and bad.

And that the nets were broken signifies that, love having been violated, many heresies went out. But after the resurrection, when he wished to foreshow the Church of the future time, where all will be perfect and holy, he commanded the nets to be cast on the right side, and huge fish were caught, one hundred fifty-three, the disciples marveling that, although they were so big, the nets were not broken (See John 21:6-11).

Their size signifies the greatness of wisdom and righteousness, but the number signifies the discipline itself, made perfect both by the temporal dispensation and by the eternal regeneration, which we said is commended by the number fifty.

For since there will then be no need of bodily aids, and faith and wisdom will be contained in the mind—because we said that the number three is assigned to the mind—we lead fifty three times, and they make one hundred fifty. To which number the Trinity is added, because all this perfection is consecrated in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; so they make one hundred fifty-three, which is found to be the number of the fish caught on the right side.

82. 1. Many, murmuring under the discipline of God, raise a question when they see the just often suffer grave troubles in respect of this life, as though it profits them nothing that they serve God, because they suffer either the common labors—indifferently, of bodies and of losses and insults and all the other things that mortals think evils—or even greater ones than the rest, on account of the word of God and righteousness, which, being burdensome to those who sin, stir up tumultuous seditions or plots or hatreds against its preachers.

To whom it is answered that, if this life alone belonged to men, it would seem not altogether absurd that the just life either profits nothing or even harms. Although there have not been lacking those who would so weigh the sweetness of righteousness and its inner joy against all the bodily labors and troubles which the human race suffers by the condition of its mortality—against all the things too which, on account of righteousness itself, are most injuriously stirred up against those who live justly—that, the hope of the future life set aside, they would be tortured more pleasantly and more gladly for the love of truth than the luxurious would feast for the desire of drunkenness.

82. 2. But nevertheless to those who think God unjust, when they see the just in pains and labors—or certainly, if they do not dare to call God unjust, who either suppose that he does not care for human affairs, or that he has once established the necessities of the fates, against which not even he himself does anything, lest he be believed to disturb by inconstancy the order of things arranged by him, or who hold some other opinion: that God, weak in some respect, cannot forbid these evils to the just—

it must be said that there would have been no righteousness in men if God did not care for human affairs, because all this righteousness of men—which the human mind can both hold by acting rightly and lose by sinning—would not be impressed on the soul unless there were some unchangeable righteousness, which would be found whole by the just when they turned to it, and would be left whole by sinners when they turned away from its light.

This unchangeable righteousness is certainly God's, nor would he extend it to illumine those who are turned to him, if he did not care for human affairs.

But if he allowed the just to suffer grave things for this reason: that he was unwilling to come against the order of things arranged by him, then he himself would not be just—not because he wishes to preserve his arrangement, but because he so arranged the very order of things that the just are afflicted with unmerited punishments.

But whoever holds the opinion that God is in some respect weak for repelling the evils that the just suffer is foolish for this reason: that he does not understand that, just as it is wicked to call God unjust, so it is wicked to deny him almighty.

These things being briefly established for the present occasion of the question taken up—since it is the most pernicious iniquity to doubt both that God exists and that he is just and almighty—no more probable cause occurs why just men generally labor in this life, except that this is to their advantage. For the righteousness of men which now is, for receiving everlasting salvation, is one thing; the righteousness which ought to have belonged to man, then established in paradise, for retaining and not losing that same everlasting salvation, was another.

For just as it is the righteousness of God to enjoin useful things, and to distribute punishments to the disobedient but rewards to the obedient, so it is the righteousness of man to obey the useful precepts.

But since blessedness is in the soul as health is in the body—just as in the body itself one medicine is prescribed lest good health be lost, but another so that, once lost, it may be recovered—so in the whole state of man certain precepts were then given lest he lose immortality, and others are now prescribed so that he may receive it.

And just as in the health of the body, if anyone, by not obeying the precepts of the physician by which that same good health is to be guarded, falls into some disease, he receives other precepts so that he can be healed—which often do not suffice, if the disease is such, unless certain remedies are applied by the physician, generally harsh and bringing pains, which nevertheless have force for recovering health, whence it comes about that a man, although now obeying the physician, nevertheless still suffers pains, not only from the disease itself not yet healed, but also from the remedy of the medicine;

so a man, fallen through sin into the diseased and calamitous mortality of this life—because he was unwilling to obey the first precept, by which he would have guarded and held everlasting salvation—received, sick, second precepts, obeying which he is now indeed said, not absurdly, to live justly, but nevertheless suffers troubles which he suffers either from the disease itself not yet healed or from the remedy of the medicine.

To which remedy is reckoned what is written: for whom the Lord loves he rebukes, and he scourges every son whom he receives (Heb 12:6). But those who, not obeying the most wholesome precepts, live wickedly increase their diseases more and more; and either from these they suffer innumerable labors and pains of miseries even in this life, or, with punishments also applied so that what is not sound may be touched and feel pain, they are mercifully admonished of the evil they are in, so that, turned to the medicine, they may be made sound through the grace of God.

And if they despise all these things—that is, the precepts of words and of pains—they will deserve, after this life, a just everlasting condemnation. And therefore he can say that these things happen unjustly who, thinking that the only life is the mortal one we now lead, does not believe the things divinely proclaimed as future, being about to pay the gravest punishments for the perseverance of his sins and his unbelief.

83. If the Lord admits only the cause of fornication for dismissing a spouse, and does not forbid a pagan marriage to be dismissed, it follows that paganism is reckoned as fornication. Now it is manifest that the Lord makes only the cause of fornication an exception, when he speaks in the Gospel about dismissing a spouse.

But a pagan marriage is not forbidden to be dismissed for this reason: that when the Apostle gave counsel on this matter—that a believer should not dismiss an unbelieving spouse who is willing to be with him—he says: I say, not the Lord,

so that the Lord is understood not indeed to command that it be dismissed—lest the Apostle seem to give counsel against his command—but nevertheless to permit it, so that no one is held in that matter by the necessity of a command, but acts freely by the will of counsel.

Nevertheless, if anyone asserts that the Lord admits, as a cause for leaving a spouse, only that fornication which is commonly called fornication—that is, which is perpetrated by unlawful intercourse—he can say this: that the Lord, when he spoke of this matter, spoke of both spouses being believers, both husband and wife, so that if both are believers, neither is permitted to leave the other except for the cause of fornication, where paganism cannot be understood, because each is a believer.

For thus the Apostle too seems to distinguish, when he says: but to those who are in marriage I command, not I but the Lord, that a wife not depart from her husband; but if she departs, she should remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband (1 Cor 7:10-11).

Where it is understood that, even if for that one cause by which alone the leaving of marriage is permitted a woman has departed from her husband, she ought to remain unmarried, or, if she does not contain herself, to be reconciled rather to her husband—either corrected or at least tolerated—than to marry another.

And he continues and says: and let the husband not dismiss his wife (1 Cor 7:11), briefly intimating in the husband the same form which he was prescribing in the woman.

These things being conveyed from the command of the Lord, there follows: but to the rest I say, not the Lord: if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she consents to dwell with him, let him not dismiss her; and if a woman has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to dwell with her, let her not dismiss her husband (1 Cor 7:12-13).'

Where he gives to understand that the Lord spoke of these so that neither should dismiss the other, if both were believers.