{"id":"01KJR8Q6AYWZT9RPHJH0FHER9E","cid":"bafkreieegfk7pbsjvufa64b3h6fvoqhe4gahf4tbd7fluvfuy6ghensyzy","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":142682,"char_start":134683,"chunk_index":19,"chunk_total":89,"estimated_tokens":2000,"source_file_key":"confessions","text":"the creature; but Truth, Artificer of the creature, they seek not\r\npiously, and therefore find Him not; or if they find Him, knowing Him\r\nto be God, they glorify Him not as God, neither are thankful, but\r\nbecome vain in their imaginations, and profess themselves to be wise,\r\nattributing to themselves what is Thine; and thereby with most perverse\r\nblindness, study to impute to Thee what is their own, forging lies of\r\nThee who art the Truth, and changing the glory of uncorruptible God\r\ninto an image made like corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed\r\nbeasts, and creeping things, changing Thy truth into a lie, and\r\nworshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator.\r\n\r\nYet many truths concerning the creature retained I from these men, and\r\nsaw the reason thereof from calculations, the succession of times, and\r\nthe visible testimonies of the stars; and compared them with the saying\r\nof Manichaeus, which in his frenzy he had written most largely on these\r\nsubjects; but discovered not any account of the solstices, or equinoxes,\r\nor the eclipses of the greater lights, nor whatever of this sort I\r\nhad learned in the books of secular philosophy. But I was commanded to\r\nbelieve; and yet it corresponded not with what had been established by\r\ncalculations and my own sight, but was quite contrary.\r\n\r\nDoth then, O Lord God of truth, whoso knoweth these things, therefore\r\nplease Thee? Surely unhappy is he who knoweth all these, and knoweth not\r\nThee: but happy whoso knoweth Thee, though he know not these. And whoso\r\nknoweth both Thee and them is not the happier for them, but for Thee\r\nonly, if, knowing Thee, he glorifies Thee as God, and is thankful, and\r\nbecomes not vain in his imaginations. For as he is better off who knows\r\nhow to possess a tree, and return thanks to Thee for the use thereof,\r\nalthough he know not how many cubits high it is, or how wide it spreads,\r\nthan he that can measure it, and count all its boughs, and neither owns\r\nit, nor knows or loves its Creator: so a believer, whose all this world\r\nof wealth is, and who having nothing, yet possesseth all things, by\r\ncleaving unto Thee, whom all things serve, though he know not even\r\nthe circles of the Great Bear, yet is it folly to doubt but he is in a\r\nbetter state than one who can measure the heavens, and number the stars,\r\nand poise the elements, yet neglecteth Thee who hast made all things in\r\nnumber, weight, and measure.\r\n\r\nBut yet who bade that Manichaeus write on these things also, skill in\r\nwhich was no element of piety? For Thou hast said to man, Behold\r\npiety and wisdom; of which he might be ignorant, though he had perfect\r\nknowledge of these things; but these things, since, knowing not, he most\r\nimpudently dared to teach, he plainly could have no knowledge of piety.\r\nFor it is vanity to make profession of these worldly things even when\r\nknown; but confession to Thee is piety. Wherefore this wanderer to this\r\nend spake much of these things, that convicted by those who had truly\r\nlearned them, it might be manifest what understanding he had in the\r\nother abstruser things. For he would not have himself meanly thought of,\r\nbut went about to persuade men, \"That the Holy Ghost, the Comforter and\r\nEnricher of Thy faithful ones, was with plenary authority personally\r\nwithin him.\" When then he was found out to have taught falsely of the\r\nheaven and stars, and of the motions of the sun and moon (although these\r\nthings pertain not to the doctrine of religion), yet his sacrilegious\r\npresumption would become evident enough, seeing he delivered things\r\nwhich not only he knew not, but which were falsified, with so mad a\r\nvanity of pride, that he sought to ascribe them to himself, as to a\r\ndivine person.\r\n\r\nFor when I hear any Christian brother ignorant of these things, and\r\nmistaken on them, I can patiently behold such a man holding his opinion;\r\nnor do I see that any ignorance as to the position or character of the\r\ncorporeal creation can injure him, so long as he doth not believe any\r\nthing unworthy of Thee, O Lord, the Creator of all. But it doth injure\r\nhim, if he imagine it to pertain to the form of the doctrine of piety,\r\nand will yet affirm that too stiffly whereof he is ignorant. And yet\r\nis even such an infirmity, in the infancy of faith, borne by our mother\r\nCharity, till the new-born may grow up unto a perfect man, so as not\r\nto be carried about with every wind of doctrine. But in him who in such\r\nwise presumed to be the teacher, source, guide, chief of all whom he\r\ncould so persuade, that whoso followed him thought that he followed,\r\nnot a mere man, but Thy Holy Spirit; who would not judge that so great\r\nmadness, when once convicted of having taught any thing false, were\r\nto be detested and utterly rejected? But I had not as yet clearly\r\nascertained whether the vicissitudes of longer and shorter days and\r\nnights, and of day and night itself, with the eclipses of the greater\r\nlights, and whatever else of the kind I had read of in other books,\r\nmight be explained consistently with his sayings; so that, if they by\r\nany means might, it should still remain a question to me whether it\r\nwere so or no; but I might, on account of his reputed sanctity, rest my\r\ncredence upon his authority.\r\n\r\nAnd for almost all those nine years, wherein with unsettled mind I had\r\nbeen their disciple, I had longed but too intensely for the coming of\r\nthis Faustus. For the rest of the sect, whom by chance I had lighted\r\nupon, when unable to solve my objections about these things, still held\r\nout to me the coming of this Faustus, by conference with whom these\r\nand greater difficulties, if I had them, were to be most readily and\r\nabundantly cleared. When then he came, I found him a man of pleasing\r\ndiscourse, and who could speak fluently and in better terms, yet still\r\nbut the self-same things which they were wont to say. But what availed\r\nthe utmost neatness of the cup-bearer to my thirst for a more precious\r\ndraught? Mine ears were already cloyed with the like, nor did they seem\r\nto me therefore better, because better said; nor therefore true, because\r\neloquent; nor the soul therefore wise, because the face was comely,\r\nand the language graceful. But they who held him out to me were no good\r\njudges of things; and therefore to them he appeared understanding and\r\nwise, because in words pleasing. I felt however that another sort of\r\npeople were suspicious even of truth, and refused to assent to it, if\r\ndelivered in a smooth and copious discourse. But Thou, O my God, hadst\r\nalready taught me by wonderful and secret ways, and therefore I believe\r\nthat Thou taughtest me, because it is truth, nor is there besides Thee\r\nany teacher of truth, where or whencesoever it may shine upon us. Of\r\nThyself therefore had I now learned, that neither ought any thing to\r\nseem to be spoken truly, because eloquently; nor therefore falsely,\r\nbecause the utterance of the lips is inharmonious; nor, again, therefore\r\ntrue, because rudely delivered; nor therefore false, because the\r\nlanguage is rich; but that wisdom and folly are as wholesome and\r\nunwholesome food; and adorned or unadorned phrases as courtly or country\r\nvessels; either kind of meats may be served up in either kind of dishes.\r\n\r\nThat greediness then, wherewith I had of so long time expected that man,\r\nwas delighted verily with his action and feeling when disputing, and his\r\nchoice and readiness of words to clothe his ideas. I was then delighted,\r\nand, with many others and more than they, did I praise and extol him.\r\nIt troubled me, however, that in the assembly of his auditors, I was not\r\nallowed to put in and communicate those questions that troubled me,\r\nin familiar converse with him. Which when I might, and with my friends\r\nbegan to engage his ears at such times as it was not unbecoming for him\r\nto discuss with me, and had brought forward such things as moved me; I\r\nfound him first utterly ignorant of liberal sciences, save grammar, and\r\nthat but in an ordinary 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