Chapter 22.—God Alone to Be Enjoyed.

20.  Among all these things, then, those only are the true objects of enjoyment which we have spoken of as eternal and unchangeable.  The rest are for use, that we may be able to arrive at the full enjoyment of the former.  We, however, who enjoy and use other things are things ourselves.  For a great thing truly is man, made after the image and similitude of God, not as respects the mortal body in which he is clothed, but as respects the rational soul by which he is exalted in honor above the beasts.  And so it becomes an important question, whether men ought to enjoy, or to use, themselves, or to do both.  For we are commanded to love one another:  but it is a question whether man is to be loved by man for his own sake, or for the sake of something else.  If it is for his own sake, we enjoy him; if it is for the sake of something else, we use him.  It seems to me, then, that he is to be loved for the sake of something else.  For if a thing is to be loved for its own sake, then in the enjoyment of it consists a happy life, the hope of which at least, if not yet the reality, is our comfort in the present time.  But a curse is pronounced on him who places his hope in man.25    Jer. xvii. 5.

21.  Neither ought any one to have joy in himself, if you look at the matter clearly, because no one ought to love even himself for his own sake, but for the sake of Him who is the true object of enjoyment.  For a man is never in so good a state as when his whole life is a journey towards the unchangeable life, and his affections are entirely fixed upon that.  If, however, he loves himself for his own sake, he does not look at himself in relation to God, but turns his mind in upon him self, and so is not occupied with anything that is unchangeable.  And thus he does not enjoy himself at his best, because he is better when his mind is fully fixed upon, and his affections wrapped up in, the unchangeable good, than when he turns from that to enjoy even himself.  Wherefore if you ought not to love even yourself for your own sake, but for His in whom your love finds its most worthy object, no other man has a right to be angry if you love him too for God’s sake.  For this is the law of love that has been laid down by Divine authority:  “Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself;” but, “Thou shall love God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind:”26    Matt. xxii. 37–39.  Compare Lev. xix. 18; Deut. vi. 5.  so that you are to concentrate all your thoughts, your whole life and your whole intelligence upon Him from whom you derive all that you bring.  For when He says, “With all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” He means that no part of our life is to be unoccupied, and to afford room, as it were, for the wish to enjoy some other object, but that whatever else may suggest itself to us as an object worthy of love is to be borne into the same channel in which the whole current of our affections flows.  Whoever, then, loves his neighbor aright, ought to urge upon him that he too should love God with his whole heart, and soul, and mind.  For in this way, loving his neighbor as himself, a man turns the whole current of his love both for himself and his neighbor into the channel of the love of God, which suffers no stream to be drawn off from itself by whose diversion its own volume would be diminished.

CAPUT XXII. Solo Deo fruendum.

20. In his igitur omnibus rebus illae tantum sunt quibus fruendum est, quas aeternas atque incommutabiles commemoravimus; caeteris autem utendum est, ut ad illarum perfructionem pervenire possimus. Nos itaque qui fruimur et utimur aliis rebus, res aliquae sumus. Magna enim quaedam res est homo, factus ad imaginem et similitudinem Dei, non in quantum mortali corpore includitur, sed in quantum bestias rationalis animae honore praecedit . Itaque magna quaestio est utrum frui se homines debeant, an uti, an utrumque. Praeceptum est enim nobis ut diligamus invicem; sed quaeritur utrum propter se homo ab homine diligendus sit, an propter aliud. Si enim propter se, fruimur eo; si propter aliud, utimur eo. Videtur autem mihi propter aliud diligendus. Quod enim propter se diligendum est, in eo constituitur vita beata; cujus etiamsi nondum res, tamen spes ejus nos hoc tempore consolatur. Maledictus autem qui spem suam ponit in homine (Jerem. XVII, 5).

21. Sed nec seipso quisquam frui debet, si liquido advertas; quia nec seipsum debet propter seipsum diligere, sed propter illum quo fruendum est. Tunc est quippe optimus homo, cum tota vita sua pergit in incommutabilem vitam, et toto affectu inhaeret illi: si autem se propter se diligit, non se refert ad Deum; sed ad seipsum conversus, non ad incommutabile aliquid convertitur. Et propterea jam cum defectu aliquo se fruitur; quia melior est cum totus haeret 0027 atque constringitur incommutabili bono, quam cum inde vel ad seipsum relaxatur. Si ergo teipsum non propter te debes diligere, sed propter illum ubi dilectionis tuae rectissimus finis est, non succenseat alius homo, si etiam ipsum propter Deum diligis. Haec enim regula dilectionis divinitus constituta est: Diliges, inquit, proximum tuum sicut teipsum; Deum vero ex toto corde, et ex tota anima et ex tota mente (Levit. XIX, 18; Deut. VI, 5; et Matth. XXII, 37, 39); ut omnes cogitationes tuas et omnem vitam et omnem intellectum in illum conferas, a quo habes ea ipsa quae confers. Cum autem ait, toto corde, tota anima, tota mente, nullam vitae nostrae partem reliquit, quae vacare debeat et quasi locum dare ut alia re velit frui; sed quidquid aliud diligendum venerit in animum, illuc rapiatur, quo totus dilectionis impetus currit. Quisquis ergo recte proximum diligit, hoc cum eo debet agere, ut etiam ipse toto corde, tota anima, tota mente diligat Deum. Sic enim eum diligens tanquam seipsum, totam dilectionem sui et illius refert in illam dilectionem Dei, quae nullum a se rivulum duci extra patitur, cujus derivatione minuatur.