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| Divine Things are the More Clearly Manifested to Him Who Withdraws into the Recesses of His Heart.
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Chapter X.—Divine Things are the
More Clearly Manifested to Him Who Withdraws into the Recesses of
His Heart.
16. And being thence warned to return to
myself, I entered into my inward self, Thou leading me on; and I
was able to do it, for Thou wert become my helper. And I entered,
and with the eye of my soul (such as it was) saw above the same eye
of my soul, above my mind, the Unchangeable Light.529
| 529 Not the “corporeal brightness” which as a
Manichee he had believed in, and to which reference has been made
in iii. secs. 10, 12, iv. sec. 3, and sec. 2, above. The Christian
belief he indicates in his De Trin. viii. 2: “God is Light
(1
John i. 5), not in such
way that these eyes see, but in such way as the heart sees when it
is said, ‘He is Truth.’” See also note 1, sec. 23, above. | Not this
common light, which all flesh may look upon, nor, as it were, a
greater one of the same kind, as though the brightness of this
should be much more resplendent, and with its greatness fill up all
things. Not like this was that light, but different, yea, very
different from all these. Nor was it above my mind as oil is above
water, nor as heaven above earth; but above it was, because it made
me, and I below it, because I was made by it. He who knows the
Truth knows that Light; and he that knows it knoweth eternity. Love
knoweth it. O Eternal Truth, and true Love, and loved Eternity!530
| 530 If we knew not God, he says, we could not love Him
(De Trin. viii. 12); but in language very similar to that
above, he tells us “we are men, created in the image of our
Creator, whose eternity is true, and whose truth is eternal; whose
love is eternal and true, and who Himself is the eternal, true, and
adorable Trinity, without confusion, without separation”, (De
Civ. Dei, xi. 28); God, then, as even the Platonists hold,
being the principle of all knowledge. “Let Him,” he concludes,
in his De Civ. Dei (viii. 4), “be sought in whom all
things are secured to us, let Him be discovered in whom all truth
becomes certain to us, let Him be loved in whom all becomes right
to us.” | Thou art my
God; to Thee do I sigh both night and day. When I first knew Thee,
Thou liftedst me up, that I might see there was that which I might
see, and that yet it was not I that did see. And Thou didst beat
back the infirmity of my sight, pouring forth upon me most strongly
Thy beams of light, and I trembled with love and fear; and I found
myself to be far off from Thee, in the region of dissimilarity, as
if I heard this voice of Thine from on high: “I am the food of
strong men; grow, and thou shalt feed upon me; nor shall thou
convert me, like the food of thy flesh, into thee, but thou shall
be converted into me.” And I learned that Thou for iniquity dost
correct man, and Thou dost make my soul to consume away like a
spider.531
And I said,
“Is Truth, therefore, nothing because it is neither diffused
through space, finite, nor infinite?” And Thou criedst to me from
afar, “Yea, verily, ‘I Am that I
Am.’”532
| 532 Ex. iii. 14. Augustin, when in his De
Civ. Dei (viii. 11, 12) he makes reference to this text, leans
to the belief, from certain parallels between Plato’s doctrines
and those of the word of God, that he may have derived information
concerning the Old Testament Scriptures from an interpreter when in
Egypt. He says: “The most striking thing in this connection, and
that which most of all inclines me almost to assent to the opinion
that Plato was not ignorant of those writings, is the answer which
was given to the question elicited from the holy Moses when the
words of God were conveyed to him by the angel; for when he asked
what was the name of that God who was commanding him to go and
deliver the Hebrew people out of Egypt, this answer was given: ‘I
am who am; and thou shalt say to the children of Israel, He who
is sent me unto you;’ as though, compared with Him that truly
is, because He is unchangeable, those things which have been
created mutable are not,—a truth which Plato vehemently
held, and most diligently commended. And I know not whether this
sentiment is anywhere to be found in the books of those who were
before Plato, unless in that book where it is said, ‘I am who am;
and thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Who is sent me
unto you.’ But we need not determine from what source he learned
these things,—whether it was from the books of the ancients who
preceded him or, as is more likely, from the words of the apostle
(Rom.
i. 20), ‘Because that
which is known of God has been manifested among them, for God hath
manifested it to them. For His invisible things from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by those thing
which have been made, also His eternal power and
Godhead.’”—De Civ. Dei, viii. 11, 12. | And I heard
this, as things are heard in the heart, nor was there room
for doubt; and I should more readily doubt that I live than that
Truth is not, which is “clearly seen, being understood by the
things that are made.”533
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