Confessions, Book XI

Book XI

• Confessions XI.1 — By Confession He Desires to Stimulate Towards God His Own Love and That of His Readers. Chapter I.—By Confession He Desires to Stimulate Towards God His Own Love and That of His Readers. 1. O Lord, since eternity is…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.2 — He Begs of God that Through the Holy Scriptures He May Be Led to Truth. 2. But when shall I suffice with the tongue of my pen to express all Thy exhortations, and all Thy terrors, and comforts, and guidances, whereby…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.3 — He Begins from the Creation of the World—Not Understanding the Hebrew Text. 5. Let me hear and understand how in the beginning Thou didst make the heaven and the earth. Moses wrote this; he wrote and departed,—passed…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.4 — Heaven and Earth Cry Out that They Have Been Created by God. 6. Behold, the heaven and earth are; they proclaim that they were made, for they are changed and varied. Whereas whatsoever hath not been made, and yet…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.5 — God Created the World Not from Any Certain Matter, But in His Own Word. 7. But how didst Thou make the heaven and the earth, and what was the instrument of Thy so mighty work? For it was not as a human worker…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.6 — He Did Not, However, Create It by a Sounding and Passing Word. 8. But how didst Thou speak? Was it in that manner in which the voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son”? For that voice was uttered…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.7 — By His Co-Eternal Word He Speaks, and All Things are Done. 9. Thou callest us, therefore, to understand the Word, God with Thee, God, which is spoken eternally, and by it are all things spoken eternally. For what was…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.8 — That Word Itself is the Beginning of All Things, in the Which We are Instructed as to Evangelical Truth. Chapter VIII.—That Word Itself is the Beginning of All Things, in the Which We are Instructed as to Evangelical…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.9 — Wisdom and the Beginning. 11. In this Beginning, O God, hast Thou made heaven and earth,—in Thy Word, in Thy Son, in Thy Power, in Thy Wisdom, in Thy Truth, wondrously speaking and wondrously making. Who shall…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.10 — The Rashness of Those Who Inquire What God Did Before He Created Heaven and Earth. Chapter X.—The Rashness of Those Who Inquire What God Did Before He Created Heaven and Earth. 12. Lo, are they not full of their…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.11 — They Who Ask This Have Not as Yet Known the Eternity of God, Which is Exempt from the Relation of Time. Chapter XI.—They Who Ask This Have Not as Yet Known the Eternity of God, Which is Exempt from the Relation of…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.12 — What God Did Before the Creation of the World. 14. Behold, I answer to him who asks, “What was God doing before He made heaven and earth?” I answer not, as a certain person is reported to have done facetiously…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.13 — Before the Times Created by God, Times Were Not. 15. But if the roving thought of any one should wander through the images of bygone time, and wonder that Thou, the God Almighty, and All-creating, and All-sustaining,…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.14 — Neither Time Past Nor Future, But the Present Only, Really is. 17. At no time, therefore, hadst Thou not made anything, because Thou hadst made time itself. And no times are co-eternal with Thee, because Thou…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.15 — There is Only a Moment of Present Time. 18. And yet we say that “time is long and time is short;” nor do we speak of this save of time past and future. A long time past, for example, we call a hundred years ago; in…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.16 — Time Can Only Be Perceived or Measured While It is Passing. 21. And yet, O Lord, we perceive intervals of times, and we compare them with themselves, and we say some are longer, others shorter. We even measure by how…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.17 — Nevertheless There is Time Past and Future. 2. I ask, Father, I do not affirm. O my God, rule and guide me. “Who is there who can say to me that there are not three times (as we learned when boys, and as we have…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.18 — Past and Future Times Cannot Be Thought of But as Present. 23. Suffer me, O Lord, to seek further; O my Hope, let not my purpose be confounded. For if there are times past and future, I desire to know where they are.…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.19 — We are Ignorant in What Manner God Teaches Future Things. 25. Thou, therefore, Ruler of Thy creatures, what is the method by which Thou teachest souls those things which are future? For Thou hast taught Thy prophets.…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.20 — In What Manner Time May Properly Be Designated. 26. But what now is manifest and clear is, that neither are there future nor past things. Nor is it fitly said, “There are three times, past, present and future;” but…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.21 — How Time May Be Measured. 27. I have just now said, then, that we measure times as they pass, that we may be able to say that this time is twice as much as that one, or that this is only as much as that, and so of…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.22 — He Prays God that He Would Explain This Most Entangled Enigma. 28. My soul yearns to know this most entangled enigma. Forbear to shut up, O Lord my God, good Father,—through Christ I beseech Thee,—forbear to shut up…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.23 — That Time is a Certain Extension. 29. I have heard from a learned man that the motions of the sun, moon, and stars constituted time, and I assented not. For why should not rather the motions of all bodies be time?…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.24 — That Time is Not a Motion of a Body Which We Measure by Time. 31. Dost Thou command that I should assent, if any one should say that time is “the motion of a body?” Thou dost not command me. For I hear that no body…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.25 — He Calls on God to Enlighten His Mind. 32. And I confess unto Thee, O Lord, that I am as yet ignorant as to what time is, and again I confess unto Thee, O Lord, that I know that I speak these things in time, and that…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.26 — We Measure Longer Events by Shorter in Time. 33. Doth not my soul pour out unto Thee truly in confession that I do measure times? But do I thus measure, O my God, and know not what I measure? I measure the motion of…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.27 — Times are Measured in Proportion as They Pass by. 34. Persevere, O my mind, and give earnest heed. od is our helper; He made us, and not we ourselves. Give heed, where truth dawns. Lo, suppose the voice of a body…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.28 — Time in the Human Mind, Which Expects, Considers, and Remembers. 37. But how is that future diminished or consumed which as yet is not? Or how doth the past, which is no longer, increase, unless in the mind which…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.29 — That Human Life is a Distraction But that Through the Mercy of God He Was Intent on the Prize of His Heavenly Calling. Chapter XXIX.—That Human Life is a Distraction But that Through the Mercy of God He Was Intent on…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.30 — Again He Refutes the Empty Question, ‘What Did God Before the Creation of the World?’. Chapter XXX.—Again He Refutes the Empty Question, “What Did God Before the Creation of the World?” 40. And I will be immoveable,…vatican.va
• Confessions XI.31 — How the Knowledge of God Differs from that of Man. 41. O Lord my God, what is that secret place of Thy mystery, and how far thence have the consequences of my transgressions cast me? Heal my eyes, that I may enjoy…vatican.va