101 Ps. xix. 7. See p. 62, note 6, above.
103 He alludes to the Manichaeans. See notes, pp. 67, 81, and 87.
104 See part 2 of note 8 on p. 76, above.
107 "Legunt, eligunt, et diligunt."
112 Isa. xl. 6-8. The law of storms, and that which regulates the motions of the stars or the ebbing and flowing of the tides, may change at the "end of the world." But the moral law can know no change, for while the first is arbitrary, the second is absolute. On the difference between moral and natural law, see Candlish, Reason and Revelation, "Conscience and the Bible."
118 See Dean Mansel on this place (Bampton Lectures, lect. v. note 18), who argues that revelation is clear and devoid of mystery when viewed as intended "for our practical guidance," and not as a matter of speculation. He says: "The utmost deficiency that can be charged against human faculties amounts only to this, that we cannot say that we know God as God knows Himself,-that the truth of which our finite minds are susceptible may, for aught we know, be but the passing shadow of some higher reality, which exists only in the Infinite Intelligence." He shows also that this deficiency pertains to the human faculties as such, and that, whether they set themselves to consider the things of nature or revelation. See also p. 193, note 8, above, and notes, pp. 197, 198, below.
121 Gen. i. 9. In his comment on Psalm lxiv. 6 (sec. 9), he interprets "the sea," allegorically, of the wicked world. Hence were the disciples called "fishers of men." If the fishers have taken us in the nets of faith, we are to rejoice, because the net will be dragged to the shore. On the providence of God, regulating the wickedness of men, See p. 79, note 4, above.
122 Ps. cxliii. 6, and lxiii. 1.
124 Ps. civ. 9, and Job xxxviii. 11, 12.
125 Gen. i. 11. As he interprets (See sec. 20, note, above) the sea as the world, so he tells us in Ps. lxvi. 6, sec. 8, that when the earth, full of thorns, thirsted for the waters of heaven, God in His mercy sent His apostles to preach the gospel, whereon the earth brought forth that fruit which fills the world; that is, the earth bringing forth fruit represents the Church.
140 Compare his De Trin. xii. 22-55, where, referring to I Cor. xii. 8, he explains that "knowledge" has to do with action, or that by which we use rightly things temporal: while wisdom has to do with the contemplation of things eternal. See also in Ps. cxxxv. sec. 8.
143 1 Cor xiii. 2. The Authorized Version and the Vulgate render more correctly, "mysteries." From Palmer (See p. 118, note 3, above), we learn that "the Fathers gave the name of sacrament or mystery to everything which conveyed one signification or property to unassisted reason, and another to faith;" while, at the same time, they counted Baptism and the Lord's Supper as the two great sacraments. The sacraments, then, used in this sense are "varied in their periods," and Augustine, in Ps. lxxiii. 2, speaks of distinguishing between the sacraments of the Old Testament and the sacraments of the New. "Sacramenta novi Testamenti" he says, "dant salutem, sacramenta veteris Testamenti promiserunt salvatorem." So also in Ps. xlvi. he says: "Our Lord God varying, indeed, the sacraments of the words, but commending unto us one faith, hath diffused through the sacred Scriptures manifoldly and variously the faith in which we live, and by which we live. For one and the same thing is said in many ways, that it may be varied in the manner of speaking in order to prevent aversion, but may be preserved as one with a view to concord."
146 1 Cor. iii. 2, and Heb. v. 12. The allusion in our text is to what is called the Disciplina Arcani of the early Church. Clement of Alexandria, in his Stromata, enters at large into the matter of esoteric teaching, and traces its use amongst the Hebrews, Greeks, and Egyptians. Clement, like Chrysostom and other Fathers, supports this principle of interpretation on the authority of St. Paul in Heb. v. and vi., referred to by Augustine above. He says (as quoted by Bishop Kaye, Clement of Alexandria, ch. iv. p. 183): "Babes must be fed with milk, the perfect man with solid food; milk is catechetical instruction, the first nourishment of the soul; solid food, contemplation penetrating into all mysteries (h9 e0poptikh' qewria), the blood and flesh of the Word, the comprehension of the Divine power and essence." Augustine, therefore, when he speaks of being "contented with the light of the moon and stars," alludes to the partial knowledge imparted to the catechumen during his probationary period before baptism. It was only as competentes, and ready for baptism, that the catechumens were taught the Lord's Prayer and the Creed. We have already adverted to this matter in note 4 on p. 89, and need not now do more than refer the reader to Dr. Newman's Arians. In ch. i. sec. 3 of that work, there are some most interesting pages on this subject, in its connection with the Catechetical School of Alexandria. See also p. 118, note 8, above; Palmer, Origines Liturgicae, iv. sec. 7: and note 1, below.
147 Those ready for strong meat were called "illuminated" (See p. 118, note 4, above), as their eyes were "enabled to look upon the Sun." We have frequent traces in Augustine's writings of the Neo-Platonic doctrine that the soul has a capacity to see God, even as the eye the sun. In Serm. lxxxviii. 6 he says: "Daretne tibi unde videres solem quem fecit, et non tibi daret unde videres eum qui te fecit, cum te ad imaginem suam fecerit?" And, referring to 1 John iii. 2, he tells us in Ep. xcii. 3, that not with the bodily eye shall we see God, but with the inner, which is to be renewed day by day: "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." Compare also Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, c. 4: "Plato, indeed, says, that the mind's eye is of such a nature, and has been given for this end, that we may see that very Being who is the cause of all when the mind is pure itself." Some interesting remarks on this subject, and on the three degrees of divine knowledge as held by the Neo-Platonists, will be found in John Smith's Select Discourses, pp. 2 and 165 (Cambridge 1860). On growth in grace, See note 4, p. 140, above.
148 "He alludes to the sacrament of Baptism."-W. W.
169 That is, as having their light from Him who is their central Sun (See p. 76, note 2, above). For it is true of all Christians in relation to their Lord, as he says of John the Baptist (Serm. ccclxxxii. 7): "Johannes lumen illuminatum: Christus lumen illuminans." See also note 1, above.
173 Ps. xix. 3, 4. The word "sound" in this verse (as given in the LXX. and Vulg.), is in the Hebrew sw@kaqrke
, which is rightly rendered in the Authorized Version a "line" or "rule." It may be noted, in connection with Augustine's interpretation, that the word "firmament" in the first verse of this psalm is the Ckayqkae
of Gen. i. 7: translated in both places by the LXX. steriwma The "heavens" and the "firmament" are constantly interpreted by the Fathers as referring to the apostles and their firmness in teaching the word: and this is supported by reference to St. Paul's quotation of the text in Rom. x. 18: "But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world."
175 See end of note 17, p. 197, above.
176 "He alludes to Baptism in water, accompanied with the word of the gospel; of the institution whereof man's misery was the occasion."-W. W.