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| That Word Itself is the Beginning of All Things, in the Which We are Instructed as to Evangelical Truth.
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Chapter VIII.—That Word Itself is
the Beginning of All Things, in the Which We are Instructed as to
Evangelical Truth.
10. Why is this, I beseech Thee, O Lord my
God? I see it, however; but how I shall express it, I know not,
unless that everything which begins to be and ceases to be, then
begins and ceases when in Thy eternal Reason it is known that it
ought to begin or cease where nothing beginneth or ceaseth. The
same is Thy Word, which is also “the Beginning,” because also
It speaketh unto us.1033
| 1033 John viii. 25, Old Ver. Though some
would read, Qui et loquitur, making it correspond to the
Vulgate, instead of Quia et loquitur, as above, the latter
is doubtless the correct reading, since we find the text similarly
quoted in Ev. Joh. Tract. xxxviii. 11, where he enlarges on
“The Beginning,” comparing principium with ἄρχη. It
will assist to the understanding of this section to refer to the
early part of the note on p. 107, above, where the Platonic view of
the Logos, as ἐνδιάθετος and
προφορικός, or in the “bosom of the
Father” and “made flesh,” is given; which terminology, as Dr.
Newman tells us (Arians, pt. i. c. 2, sec. 4), was accepted
by the Church. Augustin, consistently with this idea, says (on John
viii. 25, as above): “For if the Beginning, as it is in itself,
had remained so with the Father as not to receive the form of a
servant and speak as man with men, how could they have believed in
Him, since their weak hearts could not have heard the word
intelligently without some voice that would appeal to their senses?
Therefore, said He, believe me to be the Beginning; for that you
may believe, I not only am, but also speak to you.” Newman, as
quoted above, may be referred to for the significance of ἄρχη as
applied to the Son, and ibid. sec. 3, also, on the
“Word.” For the difference between a mere “voice” and the
“Word,” compare Aug. Serm. ccxciii. sec. 3, and Origen,
In Joann. ii. 36. | Thus, in the gospel He speaketh
through the flesh; and this sounded outwardly in the ears of men,
that it might be believed and sought inwardly, and that it might be
found in the eternal Truth, where the good and only Master teacheth
all His disciples. There, O Lord, I hear Thy voice, the voice of
one speaking unto me, since He speaketh unto us who teacheth us.
But He that teacheth us not, although He speaketh, speaketh not to
us. Moreover, who teacheth us, unless it be the immutable Truth?
For even when we are admonished through a changeable creature, we
are led to the Truth immutable. There we learn truly while we stand
and hear Him, and rejoice greatly “because of the Bridegroom’s
voice,”1034
restoring
us to that whence we are. And, therefore, the Beginning, because
unless It remained, there would not, where we strayed, be whither
to return. But when we return from error, it is by knowing that we
return. But that we may know, He teacheth us, because He is the
Beginning and speaketh unto us.
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