Book XIII

Augustine opens by calling upon God as his mercy and creator, establishing that God initiated the process of conversion through grace before Augustine himself called out, and that all human well-being depends entirely on God's goodness rather than any human deservings.

Augustine argues that creatures exist solely from God's abundance and could not have deserved existence, since non-being cannot merit anything; all creation depends entirely on God's Word and unity.

Augustine establishes that for created spirits, existence and living wisely are not identical—creatures can exist without wisdom—but creatures must cleave to God to avoid falling into darkness and maintain their illumination.

Augustine interprets God's command 'Let there be light' as referring to the spiritual creature becoming illuminated through turning toward God, not merely existing but becoming beautifully alive through beholding divine light.

Augustine emphasizes that God created from perfect abundance, not from any want or incompleteness, and that God's joy is not fulfilled by creation but rather perfects imperfect things in restrained, ordered fashion.

Augustine sees the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) revealed in the Genesis account: the Father as creator, the Son as the Beginning through whom all was made, and the Spirit borne upon the waters.

Augustine questions why Scripture specifically mentions the Spirit being borne above the waters rather than the Father or Son, probing the theological significance of this particular scriptural phrasing.

Augustine develops an analogy explaining that just as physical bodies seek their proper places through weight, so spiritual souls are lifted upward by love and charity; the Spirit borne above waters symbolizes divine love raising believers from moral darkness.

Augustine notes that angels and human souls fell away, revealing the abyss of darkness, but God's original command 'Let there be light' ensures that obedient intelligence clings to God and rests in the Holy Spirit, preventing all creation from descending into darkness.

Augustine explains that every being seeks its proper place through its weight or nature; for souls, love is the weight that determines whether they ascend toward God or descend into darkness.

Augustine contrasts the heavenly creature, which was made light without interval and never knew darkness, with humanity, which fell into darkness and must be progressively renewed through the Word.

Augustine acknowledges that the Trinity cannot be fully comprehended and most people who speak of it do not understand what they speak; yet he proposes examining three aspects of the soul—being, knowing, and willing—as an analogy to understand the Trinity's inseparability.

Augustine examines how in the human soul, being, knowing, and willing are inseparably intertwined as one life and essence yet remain distinct, offering an imperfect analogy to the Trinity in God.

Augustine acknowledges that while the analogy helps, God's nature—whether the Trinity exists in God as in the soul or all three belong to each person, or both ways simultaneously—remains incomprehensible and beyond human expression.

Augustine calls the faithful to confess the Trinity and note that the Church, both spiritual and carnal, has been created in Christ and baptized in the Triune Name.

Augustine applies the Genesis creation narrative allegorically to the Church: before receiving doctrine, it was invisible and formless in darkness; through the Spirit hovering over it and the call to repentance, it became light in the Lord.

Augustine emphasizes that the faithful see through faith, not sight, and are saved by hope; they await the day when they will see God as He is and their darkness will become noon-day.

Augustine traces how Paul and other apostles, groaning in their earthly state but bearing the first-fruits of the Spirit, worked through the Spirit's gifts to transform unbelieving minds and protect the Church's purity.

Augustine expresses longing for the day when believers will see God as He is and the tears that have sustained faith will pass away, replaced by eternal vision and peace.

Augustine portrays the soul as oscillating between joy and sadness in its earthly pilgrimage, strengthened by faith as a lamp in darkness, hoping to stand in God's presence at morning and be restored to eternal light.

Augustine asserts that God alone comprehends His own nature and work; God's knowledge and rest are not temporal but eternal, and human understanding cannot grasp what belongs to God's unchangeable being.

Augustine interprets Scripture as the 'firmament' stretched over the faithful like a skin, whose authority has been extended and established through the mortality and witness of those who delivered it.

Augustine praises Scripture for its power to destroy pride and the enemy of reconciliation, and for persuading readers to confess and accept God's yoke through pure, penetrating words.

Augustine interprets the waters above the firmament as the immortal celestial people—the angels—who eternally behold God's face and read His unchangeable will without need of temporal words or signs.

Augustine contrasts the passing away of material creation and Scripture's written expression with the eternal permanence of God's Word itself, which the faithful now see only through a dark glass.

Augustine emphasizes that God's Being, Knowledge, and Will are inseparably unified in absolute unchangeability, unlike creation where these attributes are distinct; divine knowledge and human knowledge are incommensurable.

Augustine interprets the gathering of bitter waters into the sea as those whose hearts are fixed on temporal felicity; God restrains their wicked desires and sets bounds to their waves.

Augustine contrasts the bitter sea of worldly desires with the separated dry land of faithful souls, which God waters with a sweet spring so they produce fruits of mercy and compassionate action.

Augustine calls for truth to spring from the earth and righteousness to look down from heaven, and for believers to become lights in the firmament through practical charity and intellectual discernment.

Augustine argues that the Church's spiritual members, established in Scripture's authority through grace, divide between intellectual and sensual things, serving as signs of redemptive times and approaching salvation.

Augustine interprets various spiritual gifts (wisdom, faith, healing, prophecy, etc.) as celestial lights: wisdom as the sun for the mature, other gifts as moon and stars guiding those still in spiritual night.

Augustine explains that spiritual babes must be content with the lower lights of faith and spiritual gifts until they grow strong enough to behold the Sun of wisdom and are strengthened for solid teaching.

Augustine interprets the command to put away evil and learn good works as necessary for the dry land to appear and bring forth green fruits of moral virtue.

Augustine uses the Gospel account of the rich young ruler to illustrate how attachment to wealth chokes the word and prevents the dry land from bearing fruit, despite outward observance of commandments.

Augustine celebrates those who have forsaken all to follow Christ as beautiful feet and lights in the firmament, dividing the perfect from the little ones and shining wisdom and knowledge to the world.

Augustine interprets the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as the fulfillment of 'Let there be lights in the firmament,' creating apostles and witnesses as lights for the world.

Augustine interprets sacraments and miraculous works as creatures brought forth by the waters of temptation to hallow the Gentiles and display divine wonders through apostolic ministry.

Augustine distinguishes between the fixed knowledge of truth in the firmament and the varied material works arising from it; sacraments and practices multiply from Scripture's teachings.

Augustine explains that had Adam not fallen, the sea of human curiosity and restlessness would not exist, and there would be no need for spiritual ministers to work through material sacraments and sensible signs.

Augustine argues that the moving and flying creatures (sacraments and miracles) are temporary aids; people initiated through corporeal sacraments must advance to spiritual life and perfection.

Augustine explains that the faithful (the dry land separated from infidelity) bring forth living souls that no longer need the external signs and miracles required for unbelievers but seek spiritual maturation.

Augustine argues that spiritual ministers should work among the faithful not through miraculous signs but through virtuous living and example, stirring believers to imitate Christ and live by faith.

Augustine emphasizes that spiritual teachers teach not only through words but through living exemplary lives, so that believers hear and obey, transforming souls through imitation.

Augustine interprets the wild beasts, cattle, and serpents allegorically as the haughtiness of pride, delight of lust, and poison of curiosity—motions of a dead soul that must be restrained.

Augustine affirms that God's Word as the eternal fountain of life restrains the soul from conforming to the world, enabling it to be continent in God's word and attain spiritual maturity.

Augustine emphasizes that just as followers of Christ imitate Him, believers naturally imitate their leaders and friends; the living soul bears good fruits through this imitation and restraint of passions.

Augustine explains that when affections are restrained from worldly love and the soul becomes living through good living, the mind is transformed and renewed to recognize God's truth and discern His will.

Augustine interprets the plural 'Let us make man' as indicating that humanity is made for God's direct instruction and for discerning divine truth, not merely for following human example.

Augustine explains that man's dominion over fish, fowls, cattle, wild beasts and creeping things is exercised through intellectual understanding of God's spiritual truth, not through mere physical power.

Augustine specifies that spiritual members of the Church, whether leaders or followers, judge spiritual matters rightly through grace, but must not presume to judge Scripture itself or those whose spiritual state God alone knows.

Augustine clarifies that human dominion extends only to earthly creatures and sensible things, not to the lights of heaven, hidden things, the spiritual hierarchy, or the sea of ungodly multitude.

Augustine explains that the spiritual man rightly judges the living fruits of faithful souls—their alms, chastity, fasting, and holy meditations—and has authority to correct when necessary.

Augustine raises the question of why God blessed humans, fish, and whales to increase and multiply but not other creatures, suggesting this points to a deeper spiritual meaning about the multiplication of signs, words, and understanding.

Augustine argues that the specific blessing of increase and multiply for humans, fish, and whales signifies the multiplication of understanding through varied signs and expressions—one truth understood many ways.

Augustine demonstrates that one truth (like love of God and neighbor) can be expressed through countless sacraments, languages, and modes of speaking, and one scriptural passage understood in multiple valid ways.

Augustine interprets the blessing figuratively to mean that all things—spiritual and corporeal, righteous and unrighteous, knowledge and affection—increase and multiply through signs and understanding.

Augustine notes that God provided every herb bearing seed and every fruit-bearing tree for food to humans, fowls, beasts, and creeping things, but not to fishes and whales.

Augustine interprets the fruits of the earth as allegorical representations of works of mercy provided for physical necessities from the fruitful faithful earth.

Augustine distinguishes sharply between a gift (material provision) and fruit (the virtuous intention of the giver), arguing that reward depends on the fruit—the heart with which giving is done.

Augustine uses Elijah's example: the raven fed him a mere gift (external food), but the widow, knowing she fed a prophet of God, fed him with fruit (right intention), nourishing his inner self.

Augustine argues that carnal, unbelieving people may provide material aid to God's servants, but without right intention and understanding, they provide only gifts, not fruit, and the faithful are not truly nourished.

Augustine notes that Scripture repeatedly says God saw His works good, but emphasized that together they are very good—the whole creation in harmonious order exceeds individual parts.

Augustine questions how Scripture can say God saw His works at different times when God is eternal and timeless, probing the apparent conflict between temporal language and divine eternality.

Augustine presents God's reply that while Scripture speaks in time about God's works, God's Word exists in eternal simultaneity with God Himself; God sees all things eternally, not sequentially.

Augustine refutes the Manichean objection that God created the material heavens from conquered enemies and that lesser material things were created by an evil mind, not God.

Augustine asserts that those who see God's works through the Holy Spirit perceive them as very good; God sees their righteous seeing and is pleased in them through the Spirit.

Augustine explains that just as the human spirit knows human things, only the Spirit of God knows and reveals God's things; believers receive this Spirit to know what God has freely given.

Augustine distinguishes between seeing good as evil (Manichees), seeing creatures as good but preferring them to God, and seeing creatures as good while seeing God in them through the Holy Spirit.

Augustine concludes that righteous seeing comes through the Holy Spirit given to us, by whom the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, enabling us to see all being as good.

Augustine gives thanks to God, noting that believers can behold all aspects of creation—corporeal and spiritual, heavens and earth, lights and seasons—and perceive that they are very good.

Augustine explains that God created matter itself from nothing and simultaneously gave form to formless matter; both creation and forming occurred without temporal interval.

Augustine notes that God predestined all creation without time, but executes it in time to reveal hidden things and rectify human disorder caused by sin and the fall.

Augustine traces God's providential acts: establishing Scripture's authority over the faithful, gathering unbelievers in opposition, kindling apostles as lights, and forming the living soul through ordered affections.

Augustine concludes that all of God's providential works are very good because God sees them accomplished in the faithful through the Spirit He has given them.

Augustine prays for God to grant the peace of eternal Sabbath rest, which has no evening, when all temporal creation passes away and believers rest eternally in God.

Augustine explains that the seventh day has no evening because God sanctified it for everlasting continuance; the faithful, after their good works, shall rest eternally in God as God rests in them.

Augustine affirms that God eternally rests and works without temporal succession; God sees, moves, and rests outside of time while making temporal things and times themselves.

Augustine establishes the ultimate dependence of creation: creatures exist because God eternally beholds them, and humans see them as existing and good within time.

Augustine contrasts human choice developing in time (from evil to good) with God's unchanging eternal goodness; all human good is a gift from God, and eternal rest is trust in God's hallowing.

Augustine concludes by inviting all to ask of God, seek in God, and knock for understanding of these mysteries, promising that such seeking will receive, find, and be opened to divine truth.