Preface.—The Knowledge of God is to Be Sought from God.

1. Theknowledge of things terrestrial and celestial is commonly thought much of by men. Yet those doubtless judge better who prefer to that knowledge, the knowledge of themselves; and that mind is more praiseworthy which knows even its own weakness, than that which, without regard to this, searches out, and even comes to know, the ways of the stars, or which holds fast such knowledge already acquired, while ignorant of the way by which itself to enter into its own proper health and strength. But if any one has already become awake towards God, kindled by the warmth of the Holy Spirit, and in the love of God has become vile in his own eyes; and through wishing, yet not having strength to come in unto Him, and through the light He gives, has given heed to himself, and has found himself, and has learned that his own filthiness cannot mingle with His purity; and feels it sweet to weep and to entreat Him, that again and again He will have compassion, until he have put off all his wretchedness; and to pray confidently, as having already received of free gift the pledge of salvation through his only Saviour and Enlightener of man:—such an one, so acting, and so lamenting, knowledge does not puff up, because charity edifieth;431    See above, Book ii. chap. vii. n. 13.    1 Cor. viii. 1 for he has preferred knowledge to knowledge, he has preferred to know his own weakness, rather than to know the walls of the world, the foundations of the earth, and the pinnacles of heaven. And by obtaining this knowledge, he has obtained also sorrow;432    John ii. 9    Eccles. i. 18 but sorrow for straying away from the desire of reaching his own proper country, and the Creator of it, his own blessed God. And if among men such as these, in the family of Thy Christ, O Lord my God, I groan among Thy poor, give me out of Thy bread to answer men who do not hunger and thirst after righteousness, but are sated and abound.433    Wisd. xvi. 24, 25    Matt. v. 6 But it is the vain image of those things that has sated them, not Thy truth, which they have repelled and shrunk from, and so fall into their own vanity. I certainly know how many figments the human heart gives birth to. And what is my own heart but a human heart? But I pray the God of my heart, that I may not vomit forth (eructuem) into these writings any of these figments for solid truths, but that there may pass into them only what the breath of His truth has breathed into me; cast out though I am from the sight of His eyes,434    Wisd. viii. 1    Ps. xxxi. 22 and striving from afar to return by the way which the divinity of His only-begotten Son has made by His humanity. And this truth, changeable though I am, I so far drink in, as far as in it I see nothing changeable: neither in place and time, as is the case with bodies; nor in time alone, and in a certain sense place, as with the thoughts of our own spirits; nor in time alone, and not even in any semblance of place, as with some of the reasonings of our own minds. For the essence of God, whereby He is, has altogether nothing changeable, neither in eternity, nor in truth, nor in will; since there truth is eternal, love eternal; and there love is true, eternity true; and there eternity is loved, and truth is loved.

PROOEMIUM.

1. Scientia Dei a Deo petenda. Scientiam terrestrium coelestiumque rerum magni aestimare solet genus humanum: in quo profecto meliores sunt qui huic scientiae praeponunt nosse semetipsos; laudabiliorque est animus cui nota est vel infirmitas sua, quam qui ea non respecta, vias siderum scrutatur etiam cogniturus, aut qui jam cognitas tenet, ignorans ipse qua ingrediatur ad salutem ad firmitatem suam. Qui 0886 vero jam evigilavit in Deum, Spiritus sancti calore excitatus, atque in ejus amore coram se viluit, ad eumque intrare volens nec valens, eoque sibi lucente attendit in se, invenitque se, suamque aegritudinem illius munditiae contemperari non posse cognovit; flere dulce habet, cumque deprecari, ut etiam atque etiam miscreatur, donec exuat totam miseriam, et precari cum fiducia, jam accepto gratuito pignore salotis, 0887 per ejus unicum Salvatorem hominis et illuminatorem: hunc ita agentem et dolentem scientia non inflat, quia charitas aedificat (I Cor. VIII, 1); praeposuit enim scientiam scientiae, praeposuit scire infirmitatem suam, magis quam scire mundi moenia, fundamenta terrarum, et fastigia coelorum: et hanc apponendo scientiam, apposuit dolorem (Eccle. I, 18); dolorem peregrinationis suae ex desiderio patriae suae, et conditoris ejus beati Dei sui. In hoc genere hominum, in familia Christi tui, Domine Deus meus, si inter pauperes tuos gemo, da mihi de pane tuo respondere hominibus qui non esuriunt et sitiunt justitiam (Matth. V, 6), sed satiati sunt et abundant. Satiavit autem illos phantasma eorum, non veritas tua, quam repellendo resiliunt, et in suam vanitatem cadunt. Ego certe sentio quam multa figmenta pariat cor humanum: et quid est cor meum, nisi cor humanum? Sed hoc oro Deum cordis mei, ut nihil ex eis figmentis pro solido vero eructuem in has litteras, sed inde veniat in eas quidquid per me venire potuerit, unde mihi, quamvis projecto a facie oculorum suorum (Psal. XXX, 23), et de longinquo redire conanti , per viam quam stravit humanitate divinitas Unigeniti sui, aura veritatis ejus aspergitur. Quam in tantum licet mutabilis haurio, in quantum in ea nihil mutabile video, nec locis et temporibus, sicut corpora; nec solis temporibus et quasi locis, sicut spirituum nostrorum cogitationes; nec solis temporibus, et nulla vel imagine locorum, sicut quaedam nostrarum mentium ratiocinationes. Omnino enim Dei essentia, qua est, nihil mutabile habet, nec in aeternitate, nec in veritate, nec in voluntate: quia aeterna ibi est veritas, aeterna charitas; et vera ibi est charitas, vera aeternitas; et chara ibi est aeternitas, chara veritas.