Chapter 18.—The Son of God Became Incarnate in Order that We Being Cleansed by Faith May Be Raised to the Unchangeable Truth.

24. Since, then, we were not fit to take hold of things eternal, and since the foulness of sins weighed us down, which we had contracted by the love of temporal things, and which were implanted in us as it were naturally, from the root of mortality, it was needful that we should be cleansed. But cleansed we could not be, so as to be tempered together with things eternal, except it were through things temporal, wherewith we were already tempered together and held fast. For health is at the opposite extreme from disease; but the intermediate process of healing does not lead us to perfect health, unless it has some congruity with the disease. Things temporal that are useless merely deceive the sick; things temporal that are useful take up those that need healing, and pass them on healed, to things eternal. And the rational mind, as when cleansed it owes contemplation to things eternal; so, when needing cleansing, owes faith to things temporal. One even of those who were formerly esteemed wise men among the Greeks has said, The truth stands to faith in the same relation in which eternity stands to that which has a beginning. And he is no doubt right in saying so. For what we call temporal, he describes as having had a beginning. And we also ourselves come under this kind, not only in respect to the body, but also in respect to the changeableness of the soul. For that is not properly called eternal which undergoes any degree of change. Therefore, in so far as we are changeable, in so far we stand apart from eternity. But life eternal is promised to us through the truth, from the clear knowledge of which, again, our faith stands as far apart as mortality does from eternity. We then now put faith in things done in time on our account, and by that faith itself we are cleansed; in order that when we have come to sight, as truth follows faith, so eternity may follow upon mortality. And therefore, since our faith will become truth, when we have attained to that which is promised to us who believe: and that which is promised us is eternal life; and the Truth (not that which shall come to be according as our faith shall be, but that truth which is always, because in it is eternity,—the Truth then) has said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent:”521    John xvii. 3 when our faith by seeing shall come to be truth, then eternity shall possess our now changed mortality. And until this shall take place, and in order that it may take place,—because we adapt the faith of belief to things which have a beginning, as in things eternal we hope for the truth of contemplation, lest the faith of mortal life should be at discord with the truth of eternal life,—the Truth itself, co-eternal with the Father, took a beginning from earth,522    Ps. lxxxv. 11 when the Son of God so came as to become the Son of man, and to take to Himself our faith, that He might thereby lead us on to His own truth, who so undertook our mortality, as not to lose His own eternity. For truth stands to faith in the relation in which eternity stands to that which has a beginning. Therefore, we must needs so be cleansed, that we may come to have such a beginning as remains eternal, that we may not have one beginning in faith, and another in truth. Neither could we pass to things eternal from the condition of having a beginning, unless we were transferred, by union of the eternal to ourselves through our own beginning, to His own eternity. Therefore our faith has, in some measure, now followed thither, whither He in whom we have believed has ascended; born,523    Ortus. dead, risen again, taken up. Of these four things, we knew the first two in ourselves. For we know that men both have a beginning and die. But the remaining two, that is, to be raised, and to be taken up, we rightly hope will be in us, because we have believed them done in Him. Since, therefore, in Him that, too, which had a beginning has passed over to eternity, in ourselves also it will so pass over, when faith shall have arrived at truth. For to those who thus believe, in order that they might remain in the word of faith, and being thence led on to the truth, and through that to eternity, might be freed from death, He speaks thus: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.” And as though they would ask, With what fruit? He proceeds to say, “And ye shall know the truth.” And again, as though they would say, Of what good is truth to mortal men? “And the truth,” He says, “shall make you free.”524    John viii. 31, 32 From what, except from death, from corruptions, from changeableness? Since truth remains immortal, incorrupt, unchangeable. But true immortality, true incorruptibility, true unchangeableness, is eternity itself.

CAPUT XVIII.

24. Filius Dei incarnatus est ut per fidem mundati evehamur ad incommutabilem veritatem. Quia igitur ad aeterna capessenda idonei non eramus, sordesque peccatorum nos praegravabant temporalium rerum amore contractae, et de propagine mortalitatis tanquam naturaliter inolitae, purgandi eramus. Purgari autem ut contemperaremur aeternis, 0904 non nisi per temporalia possemus, qualibus jam contemperati tenebamur. Sanitas enim a morbo plurimum distat: sed media curatio , nisi morbo congruat, non perducit ad sanitatem. Inutilia temporalia decipiunt aegrotos, utilia temporalia suscipiunt sanandos, et trajiciunt ad aeterna sanatos. Mens autem rationalis sicut purgata contemplationem debet rebus aeternis; sic purganda, temporalibus fidem. Dixit quidam et illorum qui quondam apud Graecos sapientes habiti sunt: Quantum ad id quod ortum est aeternitas valet, tantum ad fidem veritas. Et profecto est vera sententia. Quod enim nos temporale dicimus, hoc ille quod ortum est appellavit. Ex quo genere etiam nos sumus, non tantum secundum corpus, sed etiam secundum animi mutabilitatem. Non enim proprie vocatur aeternum, quod aliqua ex parte mutatur. In quantum igitur mutabiles sumus, in tantum ab aeternitate distamus. Promittitur autem nobis vita aeterna per veritatem, a cujus perspicuitate rursus tantum distat fides nostra, quantum ab aeternitate mortalitas. Nunc ergo adhibemus fidem rebus temporaliter gestis propter nos, et per ipsam mundamur; ut cum ad speciem venerimus, quemadmodum succedit fidei veritas, ita mortalitati succedat aeternitas. Quapropter quoniam fides nostra fiet veritas, cum ad id quod nobis credentibus promittitur pervenerimus: promittitur autem nobis vita aeterna; et dixit Veritas, non quae fiet sicut futura est fides nostra, sed quae semper est Veritas, quia ibi est aeternitas; dixit ergo Veritas, Haec est autem vita aeterna, ut cognoscant te unum verum Deum, et quem misisti Jesum Christum (Joan. XVII, 3): cum fides nostra videndo fiet veritas, tunc mortalitatem nostram commutatam tenebit aeternitas. Quod donec fiat, et ut fiat, quia rebus ortis accommodamus fidem credulitatis, sicut in aeternis speramus veritatem contemplationis, ne fides mortalis vitae dissonaret a veritate aeternae vitae, ipsa Veritas Patri coaeterna de terra orta est (Psal. LXXXIV, 12), cum Filius Dei sic venit ut fieret filius hominis, et ipse in se exciperet fidem nostram, qua nos perduceret ad veritatem suam, qui sic suscepit mortalitatem nostram, ut non amitteret aeternitatem suam. Quantum enim ad id quod ortum est aeternitas valet, tantum ad fidem veritas. Ita ergo nos purgari oportebat, ut ille nobis fieret ortus qui maneret aeternus, ne alter nobis esset in fide, alter in veritate. Nec ab eo quod orti sumus ad aeterna transire possemus, nisi aeterno per ortum nostrum nobis sociato ad aeternitatem ipsius trajiceremur. Nunc itaque illuc quodam modo secuta est fides nostra, quo ascendit in quem credidimus, ortus, mortuus, resuscitatus, assumptus. Horum quatuor, duo priora noveramus in nobis; scimus enim homines et oriri et mori: duo autem reliqua, id est resuscitari et assumi, juste in nobis futura speramus, quia in illo facta credidimus. Itaque in illo quia et id quod ortum erat transiit ad aeternitatem, transiturum est et nostrum, cum fides pervenerit ad veritatem. Jam enim 0905 credentibus, ut in verbo fidei manerent, et inde ad veritatem, ac per hoc ad aeternitatem perducti a morte liberarentur, ita loquitur: Si manseritis in verbo meo, vere discipuli mei eritis . Et quasi quaererent, Quo fructu? secutus ait: Et cognoscetis veritatem. Et rursus quasi dicerent, Quid prodest mortalibus veritas? Et veritas, inquit, liberabit vos (Joan. VIII, 31, 32). Unde, nisi a morte, a corruptione, a mutabilitate? Veritas quippe immortalis, incorrupta, incommutabilis permanet. Vera autem immortalitas, vera incorruptibilitas, vera incommutabilitas, ipsa est aeternitas.