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| To Lady Italica
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Letter XCII.
(a.d. 408.)
To the Noble and Justly
Distinguished Lady Italica, a Daughter Worthy of Honour in the Love
of Christ, Bishop Augustin Sends Greeting in the Lord.
1. I have learned, not only by your letter,
but also by the statements of the person who brought it to me, that
you earnestly solicit a letter from me, believing that you may
derive from it very great consolation. What you may gain from my
letter it is for yourself to judge; I at least felt that I should
neither refuse nor delay compliance with your request. May your own
faith and hope comfort you, and that love which is shed abroad in
the hearts of the pious by the Holy Ghost,2125
whereof we have now a portion as
an earnest of the whole, in order that we may learn to desire its
consummate fulness. For you ought not to consider yourself desolate
while you have Christ dwelling in your heart by faith; nor ought
you to sorrow as those heathens who have no hope, seeing that in
regard to those friends, who are not lost, but only called earlier
than ourselves to the country whither we shall follow them, we have
hope, resting on a most sure promise, that from this life we shall
pass into that other life, in which they shall be to us more
beloved as they shall be better known, and in which our pleasure in
loving them shall not be alloyed by any fear of
separation.
2. Your late husband, by whose decease you are
now a widow, was truly well known to you, but better known to
himself than to you. And how could this be, when you saw his face,
which he himself did not see, if it were not that the inner
knowledge which we have of ourselves is more certain, since no man
“knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in
man”?2126
but when
the Lord cometh, “who both will bring to light the hidden things
of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts,”2127
then shall
nothing in any one be concealed from his neighbour; nor shall there
be anything which any one might reveal to his friends, but keep
hidden from strangers, for no stranger shall be there. What tongue
can describe the nature and the greatness of that light by which
all those things which are now in the hearts of men concealed shall
be made manifest? who can with our weak faculties even approach it?
Truly that Light is God Himself, for “God is Light, and in Him is
no darkness at all;”2128
but He is the Light of purified
minds, not of these bodily eyes. And the mind shall then be, what
meanwhile it is not, able to see that light.
3. But this the bodily eye neither now is, nor
shall then be, able to see. For everything which can be seen by the
bodily eye must be in some place, nor can be everywhere in its
totality, but with a smaller part of itself occupies a smaller
space, and with a larger part a larger space. It is not so with
God, who is invisible and incorruptible, “who only hath
immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto;
whom no man hath seen nor can see.”2129
For He cannot be seen by men
through the bodily organ by which men see corporeal things. For if
He were inaccessible to the minds also of the saints, it would not
be said, “They looked unto Him, and were lightened” [translated
by Aug., “Draw near unto Him, and be enlightened”];2130
and if He
was invisible to the minds of the saints, it would not be said,
“We shall see Him as He is:” for consider the whole context
there in that Epistle of John: “Beloved,” he says, “now are
we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:
but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for
we shall see Him as He is.”2131
We shall therefore see Him
according to the measure in which we shall be like Him; because now
the measure in which we do not see Him is according to the measure
of our unlikeness to Him. We shall therefore see Him by means of
that in which we shall be like Him. But who would be so infatuated
as to assert that we either are or shall be in our bodies like unto
God? The likeness spoken of is therefore in the inner man, “which
is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created
him.”2132
And we
shall become the more like unto Him, the more we advance in
knowledge of Him and in love; because “though our outward man
perish, our inward man is renewed day by day,”2133
yet so as that, however far one
may have become advanced in this life, he is far short of that
perfection of likeness which is fitted for seeing God, as the
apostle says, “face to face.”2134
If by these words we were to
understand the bodily face, it would follow that God has a face
such as ours, and that between our face and His there must
be a space intervening when we shall see Him face to face. And if a
space intervene, this presupposes a limitation and a definite
conformation of members and other things, absurd to utter, and
impious even to think of, by which most empty delusions the natural
man, which “receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,”2135
is
deceived.
4. For some of those who talk thus foolishly
affirm, as I am informed, that we see God now by our minds, but
shall then see Him by our bodies; yea, they even say that the
wicked shall in the same manner see Him. Observe how far they have
gone from bad to worse, when, unpunished for their foolish
speaking, they talk at random, unrestrained by either fear or
shame. They used to say at first, that Christ endowed only His own
flesh with this faculty of seeing God with the bodily eye; then
they added to this, that all the saints shall see God in the same
way when they have received their bodies again in the resurrection;
and now they have granted that the same thing is possible to the
wicked also. Well, let them grant what gifts they please, and to
whom they please: for who may say anything against men giving away
that which is their own? for he that speaketh a lie, speaketh of
his own.2136
Be it
yours, however, in common with all who hold sound doctrine, not to
presume to take in this way from your own any of these errors; but
when you read, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God,”2137
learn from
it that the impious shall not see Him: for the impious are neither
blessed nor pure in heart. Moreover, when you read, “Now we see
through a glass darkly,2138
but then face to face,”2139
learn from
this that we shall then see Him face to face by the same means by
which we now see Him through a glass darkly. In both cases alike,
the vision of God belongs to the inner man, whether when we walk in
this pilgrimage still by faith, in which it uses the glass and
the αἴνιγμα, or when, in
the country which is our home, we shall perceive by sight, which
vision the words “face to face” denote.
5. Let the flesh raving with carnal
imaginations hear these words: “God is a Spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”2140
If this be
the manner of worshipping Him, how much more of seeing Him! For who
durst affirm that the Divine essence is seen in a corporal manner,
when He has not permitted it to be worshipped in a corporal manner?
They think, however, that they are very acute in saying and in
pressing as a question for us to answer: Was Christ able to endow
His flesh so as that He could with His eyes see the Father, or was
He not? If we reply that He was not, they publish abroad that we
have denied the omnipotence of God; if, on the other hand, we grant
that He was able, they affirm that their argument is established by
our reply. How much more excusable is the folly of those who
maintain that the flesh shall be changed into the Divine substance,
and shall be what God Himself is, in order that thus they may endow
with fitness for seeing God that which is meanwhile removed by so
great diversity of nature from likeness to Him! Yet I believe they
reject from their creed, perhaps also refuse to hear, this error.
Nevertheless, if they were in like manner pressed with the question
above quoted, as to whether God can or cannot do this [viz. change
our flesh into the Divine substance], which alternative will they
choose? Will they limit His power by answering that He cannot; or
if they concede that He can, will they by this concession grant
that it shall be done? Let them get out of the dilemma which they
have proposed to others as above, in the same way by which they get
out of this dilemma proposed to others by them. Moreover, why do
they contend that this gift is to be attributed only to the eyes,
and not to all the other senses of Christ? Shall God then be a
sound, that He may be perceived by the ear? and an exhalation, that
He may be discerned by the sense of smell? and a liquid of some
kind, that He may be also imbibed? and a solid body, that He may be
also touched? No, they say. What then? we reply; can God be this,
or can He not? If they say He cannot, why do they derogate from the
omnipotence of God? If they say He can, but is not willing, why do
they show favour to the eyes alone, and grudge the same honour to
the other senses of Christ? Do they carry their folly just as far
as they please? How much better is our course, who do not prescribe
limits to their folly, but would fain prevent them from entering
into it at all!
6. Many things may be brought forward for the
confutation of that madness. Meanwhile, however, if at any time
they assail your ears, read this letter to the supporters of such
error, and do not count it too great a labour to write back to me
as well as you can what they say in reply. Let me add that our
hearts are purified by faith, because the vision of God is promised
to us as the reward of faith. Now, if this vision of God were to be
through the bodily eyes, in vain are the souls of saints exercised
for receiving it; nay, rather, a soul which cherishes such
sentiments is not exercised in itself, but is wholly in the flesh.
For where will it dwell more resolutely and fixedly than in that by means of
which it expects that it shall see God? How great an evil this
would be I rather leave to your own intelligence to observe, than
labour to prove by a long argument.
May your heart dwell always under the Lord’s
keeping, noble and justly distinguished lady, and daughter worthy
of honour in the love of Christ! Salute from me, with the respect
due to your worth, your sons, who are along with yourself
honourable, and to me dearly beloved in the Lord.
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