Chapter II.—On the Vanity of Those Who Wished to Escape the Omnipotent God.

2. Let the restless and the unjust depart and flee from Thee. Thou both seest them and distinguishest the shadows. And lo! all things with them are fair, yet are they themselves foul.235    Augustin frequently recurs to the idea, that in God’s overruling Providence, the foulness and sin of man does not disturb the order and fairness of the universe. He illustrates the idea by reference to music, painting, and oratory. “For as the beauty of a picture is increased by well-managed shadows, so, to the eye that has skill to discern it, the universe is beautified even by sinners, though, considered by themselves, their deformity is a sad blemish” (De Civ. Dei, xi. 23). So again, he says, God would never have created angels or men whose future wickedness he foreknew, unless He could turn them to the use of the good, “thus embellishing the course of the ages as it were an exquisite poem set off with antitheses” (ibid. xi. 18); and further on, in the same section, “as the oppositions of contraries lend beauty to language, so the beauty of the course of this world is achieved by the opposition of contraries, arranged, as it were, by an eloquence not of words, but of things.” These reflections affected Augustin’s views as to the last things. They seemed to him to render the idea entertained by Origen (De Princ. i. 6) and other Fathers as to a general restoration [ἀποκατάστασις] unnecessary. See Hagenbach’s Hist. of Doct. etc. i. 383 (Clark).    Ps. lxxi. 5. And how have they injured Thee?236    “In Scripture they are called God’s enemies who oppose His rule not by nature but by vice, having no power to hurt Him, but only themselves. For they are His enemies not through their power to hurt, but by their will to oppose Him. For God is unchangeable, and wholly proof against injury” (De Civ. Dei, xii. 3).    See iv. sec. 18, note, above. Or in what have they disgraced Thy government, which is just and perfect from heaven even to the lowest parts of the earth. For whither fled they when they fled from Thy presence?237    Ps. cxxxix. 7.    Luke vii. 12-l5. Or where dost Thou not find them? But they fled that they might not see Thee seeing them, and blinded might stumble against Thee;238    Gen. xvi. 13, 14.    Fidelem Catholicum—those who are baptized being usually designated Fideles. The following extract from Kaye’s Tertullian (pp. 230, 231) is worthy of note:—“As the converts from heathenism, to use Tertullian’s expression, were not born, but became Christians [fiunt, nascuntur, Christiani], they went through a course of instruction in the principles and doctrines of the gospel, and were subjected to a strict probation before they were admitted to the rite of baptism. In this stage of their progress they were called catechumens, of whom, according to Suicer, there were two classes,—one called ‘Audientes,’ who had only entered upon their course, and begun to hear the word of God; the other, συναιτοῦντες, or ‘Competentes,’ who had made such advances in Christian knowledge and practice as to be qualified to appear at the font. Tertullian, however, appears either not to have known or to have neglected this distinction, since he applies the names of ‘Audientes’ and ‘Auditores’ indifferently to all who had not partaken of the rite of baptism. When the catechumens had given full proof of the ripeness of their knowledge, and of the stedfastness of their faith, they were baptized, admitted to the table of the Lord, and styled Fideles. The importance which Tertullian attached to this previous probation of the candidates for baptism, appears from the fact that he founds upon the neglect of it one of his charges against the heretics. ‘Among them,’ he says, ‘no distinction is made between the catechumen and the faithful or confirmed Christian; the catechumen is pronounced fit for baptism before he is instructed; all come in indiscriminately; all hear, all pray together.’” There were certain peculiar forms used in the admission of catechumens; as, for example, anointing with oil, imposition of hands, and the consecration and giving of salt; and when, from the progress of Christianity, Tertullian’s above description as to converts from heathenism had ceased to be correct, these forms were continued in many churches as part of the baptismal service, whether of infants or adults. See Palmer’s Origines Liturgicæ, v. 1, and also i. sec. 17, above, where Augustin says: “I was signed with the sign of the cross, and was seasoned with His salt, even from the womb of my mother.” since Thou forsakest nothing that Thou hast made239    Wisd. ii. 26. Old ver.    John iv. 14.—that the unjust might stumble against Thee, and justly be hurt,240    He also refers to the injury man does himself by sin in ii. sec. 13, above; and elsewhere he suggests the law which underlies it: “The vice which makes those who are called God’s enemies resist Him, is an evil not to God but to themselves. And to them it is an evil solely because it corrupts the good of their nature.” And when we suffer for our sins we should thank God that we are not unpunished (De Civ. Dei, xii. 3). But if, when God punishes us, we still continue in our sin, we shall be more confirmed in habits of sin, and then, as Augustin in another place (in Ps. vii. 15) warns us, “our facility in sinning will be the punishment of God for our former yieldings to sin.” See also Butler’s Analogy, Pt. i. ch. 5, “On a state of probation as intended for moral discipline and improvement.”    “Sermons,” says Goodwin in his Evangelical Communicant, “are, for the most part, as showers of rain that water for the instant; such as may tickle the ear and warm the affections, and put the soul into a posture of obedience. Hence it is that men are oft-times sermon-sick, as some are sea-sick; very ill, much troubled for the present, but by and by all is well again as they were.” withdrawing themselves from Thy gentleness, and stumbling against Thine uprightness, and falling upon their own roughness. Forsooth, they know not that Thou art everywhere whom no place encompasseth, and that Thou alone art near even to those that remove far from Thee.241    Ps. lxxiii. 27. Let them, then, be converted and seek Thee; because not as they have forsaken their Creator hast Thou forsaken Thy creature. Let them be converted and seek Thee; and behold, Thou art there in their hearts, in the hearts of those who confess to Thee, and cast themselves upon Thee, and weep on Thy bosom after their obdurate ways, even Thou gently wiping away their tears. And they weep the more, and rejoice in weeping, since Thou, O Lord, not man, flesh and blood, but Thou, Lord, who didst make, remakest and comfortest them. And where was I when I was seeking Thee? And Thou wert before me, but I had gone away even from myself; nor did I find myself, much less Thee!

CAPUT II. Dei praesentiam iniquos non effugere: itaque ad eum debere converti.

2. Eant et fugiant a te inquieti et iniqui: et tu vides eos, et distinguis umbras; et ecce pulchra sunt cum eis omnia, et ipsi turpes sunt. Et quid nocuerunt tibi? aut in quo imperium tuum dehonestaverunt, a coelis usque in novissima justum et integrum? Quo enim fugerunt, cum fugerent a facie tua? aut ubi tu non invenis eos? Sed fugerunt, ut non viderent te videntem se, atque excaecati in te offenderent; quia non deseris aliquid eorum quae fecisti: in te offenderent injusti, et juste vexarentur ; subtrahentes 0707 se lenitati tuae, et offendentes in rectitudinem tuam, et cadentes in asperitatem suam . Videlicet nesciunt quod ubique sis, quem nullus circumscribit locus, et solus es praesens, etiam iis qui longe fiunt a te. Convertantur ergo et quaerant te, quia non sicut ipsi deseruerunt creatorem suum, ita et tu deseruisti creaturam tuam. Ipsi convertantur, et quaerant te; et ecce ibi es in corde eorum, in corde confitentium tibi, et projicientium se in te, et plorantium in sinu tuo post vias suas difficiles: et tu facilis tergens lacrymas eorum; et magis plorant et gandent in fletibus, quoniam tu, Domine, non aliquis homo caro et sanguis; sed tu, Domine, qui fecisti, reficis et consolaris eos. Et ubi ego eram, quando te quaerebam? Et tu eras ante me; ego autem et a me discesseram, nec me inveniebam; quanto minus te?