as those for which this Book was given. By them it was proved and seen who were worthy to have mysteries revealed to them, and who not; who were content patiently and humbly to wait at the doors of the Eternal Wisdom, and even when these were not opened to them at their first knocking, to tarry there; to believe that all was well said, was best said, when to their limited faculties it might seem contradictory and confused.* It was seen, on the other hand, who were ready to go away in a rage; having come to Scripture with no due preparations for understanding it, to assume there was no meaning in that of which they could not grasp the meaning at the first-no

As in one place he says: Latere te æquitas potest; esse ibi iniquitas non potest.

For himself, there are not a few passages concerning which he is content to avow his own continued ignorance, or at least that he has nothing certain to propose for their interpretation. Nay, in respect of Scripture in general, he exclaims, certainly with no mock modesty, but in entire sincerity (Ep. 95): Quid ipsa divina eloquia, nonne palpantur potius quam tractantur a nobis, dum in multis pluribus quærimus potius quid sentiendum sit, quam definitum aliquid fixumque sentimus? In respect of all these he lays down that golden rule (De Gen. ad Litt. 1. 8. c. 5): Melius est dubitare de rebus occultis, quam litigare de incertis. Among the passages of which he thus confesses his ignorance is 2 Thess. ii. 7, who is meant by o KATEXwv, (De Civ. Dei, 1. 20. c. 19. §. 2;) so too in regard of 1 Pet. iii. 18; see his interesting letter on this hard question of the preaching to the spirits in prison, Ep. 164, ad Euod. Thus too on the question of the origin of souls, and whether they be ex traduce, or each one a new creation, though he must greatly have inclined to the former of these opinions as a strong confirmation of his dogmatic system, still, weighing the difficulty of the question, and acknowledging the silence in which Scripture has left it, he declares that he

righteousness in that dealing, the righteousness of which they could not at once comprehend; forward to accuse it of absurdity or immorality, rather than themselves of a dullness of mental, or, which was more probably the case, of spiritual vision.* No one, indeed, oftener or more earnestly urges humility as the one condition of so knocking at the door of divine mysteries, that it may be opened to us. He had himself known, as he is forward to confess, what it was to knock in quite another spirit, in a temper in which it was inevitable that he should knock in vain.†

has come to no certain determination, observing (Ep. 190, c. 5): Ubi res naturaliter obscura nostrum modulum vincit, et aperta Divina Scriptura non subvenit, temere hinc aliquid definire humana conjectura præsumit. He satisfies himself with the consideration that after all it is not the birth, but the new birth, of the soul, which mainly concerns the Christian, making these beautiful remarks (Ep. 190. §. 3, ad Optat.): Unde si origo animæ lateat, dum tamen redemptio clareat, periculum non est. Neque enim in Christum credimus, ut nascamur, sed ut renascamur. See his Letter to Jerome (Ep. 166) on the same subject.

* De Util. Cred. c. 7.: Nullâ imbutus disciplinâ Terentianum Maurum sine magistro attingere non auderes; Asper, Cornutus, Donatus et alii innumerabiles requiruntur, ut quilibet poëta possit intelligi, cujus carmina et theatri plausus videntur captare: tu in eos libros, qui, quoquo modo se habeant, sancti tamen divinarumque rerum pleni, prope totius generis humani confessione diffamantur, sine duce irruis, et de his sine præceptore audes ferre sententiam; nec si tibi aliqua occurrunt quæ videantur absurda, tarditatem tuam et putrefactum tabe hujus mundi animum, qualis omnium stultorum est, accusas potius, quam eos qui fortasse a talibus intelligi nequeunt. Cf. In Joh. Tract. 20: Perversa corda perturbat, sicut pia corda exercet Verbum Dei.

Thus Conf. 1. 3. c. 5: Institui animum intendere in Scripturas

But beside being these exercises of humility, or supplying this touchstone of its absence, these difficulties and obscurities were further profitable in that they hindered men from growing weary of Scripture, as though it was a book which they had entirely mastered, of which they had taken the length and breadth and height and depth, so that it had now no further secrets to reveal to them, no new pastures into which to lead them.* Then too there was the delight of finding, which was so much the greater after the labour of seeking. And in the very claims which these harder portions of God's Word made on

sanctas, ut viderem quales essent. Et ecce video rem non compertam superbis, neque nudatam pueris; sed incessu humilem, successu excelsam et velatam mysteriis; et non eram ego talis, ut intrare in eam possem, aut inclinare cervicem ad ejus gressus. Visa est mihi indigna quam Tullianæ dignitati compararem. And Serm. 51. c. 5: Loquor vobis aliquando deceptus, cum primo puer ad divinas Scripturas ante vellem afferre acumen discutiendi quam pietatem quærendi; ego ipse perversis moribus claudebam januam Domini mei; quum pulsare deberem, ut aperiretur, addebam ut clauderetur. Superbus

enim audebam quærere, quod nisi humilis non potest invenire.

* De Doctr. Christ. 1. 2. c. 6: Magnifice igitur et salubriter Spiritus S. ita Scripturas sacras modificavit, ut locis apertioribus fami occurreret, obscurioribus autem fastidia detergeret.

† Enarr. in Ps. xxxviii. 1: Dulcedo inventionis, quam præcessit labor inquisitionis; and again (Con. Mendac. c. 10): Quæ propterea figuratis velut amictibus obteguntur, ut sensum pie quærentis exerceant, et ne nuda ac prompta vilescant. Quamvis quæ aliis locis aperte ac manifeste dicta didicimus, cum ea ipsa de abditis eruuntur, in nostrâ quodam modo cognitione renovantur, et renovata dulcescunt. Nec invidentur discentibus, quod his modis obscurantur: sed commendantur magis, ut quasi subtracta desiderentur ardentius, et inveniantur desiderata jocundius.

the powers and faculties of the mind, there was profit; since there is nothing that so dwarfs its powers and stunts its growth as the having always to do with that which is perfectly easy and at once comprehended, while, on the contrary, the mind gradually expands to the size of that which it has to take in.*

A portion, or rather a fruit, of this humility, is a right understanding of the relations in which reason and faith stand to one another; and the light in which Augus

* Thus on the words of the Psalmist, "His eyelids try the children of men," (Ps. xi. 4,) he says (Enarr. in Ps. x. 5): Quippe quibusdam Scripturarum locis obscuris tanquam clausis oculis Dei exercentur [filii hominum,] ut quærant: et rursus quibusdam locis manifestis, tanquam apertis oculis Dei, illuminantur, ut gaudeant. Et ista in sanctis libris crebra opertio atque adapertio tanquam palpebræ sunt Dei quæ interrogant, id est, quæ probant filios hominum, qui neque fatigantur rerum obscuritate, sed exercentur; neque inflantur cognitione, sed confirmantur. Cf. Serm. 51. c. 4; and again, Enarr. in Ps. cxlvi. 6: Non intelligis, parum intelligis, non consequeris: honora Scripturam Dei, honora verbum Dei, etiam non apertum, differ pietate intelligentiam. Noli protervus esse accusare aut obscuritatem, aut quasi perversitatem Scripturæ. Perversum hic nihil est, obscurum autem aliquid est; non ut tibi negetur, sed ut exerceat accepturum. Ergo quando obscurum est, medicus illud fecit ut pulses. Voluit ut exercereris in pulsando; voluit, ut pulsanti aperiret. Pulsando exerceberis; exercitatus, latior efficieris; latior factus, capies quod donatur. Ergo noli indignari quod clausum est: mitis esto, mansuetus esto. Noli recalcitrare adversus obscura et dicere, Melius diceretur si sic diceretur. Quando enim potes tu sic dicere aut judicare, quomodo dici expediat ? Sic dictum est, quomodo dici debuit. Non corrigat æger medicamenta sua, novit ea medicus modificare; ei crede, qui te curat. And again: Si nusquam aperta esset Scriptura, non te pasceret; si nusquam occulta, non te exerceret.

tine regards the submission in the Christian man of the first to the last, is peculiarly interesting. We see here how it came to pass that he was the Father to whom schoolman and mystic alike appealed. He does demand this submission; he does evermore affirm that the true order is not, as proud man would have it, Know and believe, but rather, Believe and know:* yet at the same time reason, in the very submission which it makes, does honour to its own worth; since it is by an act of its own that it recognises the reasonableness of putting itself into an higher school, of postponing its own exercise. For this he very much dwells on, that it is a postponing, not a renouncing, of its own exercise. It is subjected indeed, but "subjected in hope," in the hope that partly in this world and altogether in the world to come any seeming discords between its conclusions and Faith's mandates shall be removed. This shall be the reward of faith, that what the faithful man now believes, he shall by and bye entirely understand. He knows that the intellectual eye of his soul is now, not indeed extinguished, but diseased, and is therefore liable to see things distorted, not because they are so, but because it has lost in part its healthy capacity of vision. Under the treatment of the Great Physician it hopes to recover perfect healthiness of vision; which re

*Serm. 43. c. 3: Dicet mihi homo, Intelligam ut credam. Ego ei respondeam, Immo crede ut intelligas. Intellectus enim merces est fidei. And again: Credat in Christum, ut possit intelligere Christum. And in this sense he expounds the words of our Lord, John vii. 17. (In Ev. Joh. Tract. 29. §. 6.)