{"id":"01KJR8Q6HN7BSRBJA70C7CSYHB","cid":"bafkreigdbq3c245mtrvdejf2zacmeosrwfxmrfyteit4nkaefy7x5hlkpy","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":535211,"char_start":527248,"chunk_index":74,"chunk_total":89,"estimated_tokens":1991,"source_file_key":"confessions","text":"as I say: for if he should ask me, \"How know you that Moses thought that\r\nwhich you infer out of his words?\" I ought to take it in good part, and\r\nwould answer perchance as I have above, or something more at large, if\r\nhe were unyielding. But when he saith, \"Moses meant not what you say,\r\nbut what I say,\" yet denieth not that what each of us say, may both be\r\ntrue, O my God, life of the poor, in Whose bosom is no contradiction,\r\npour down a softening dew into my heart, that I may patiently bear with\r\nsuch as say this to me, not because they have a divine Spirit, and have\r\nseen in the heart of Thy servant what they speak, but because they be\r\nproud; not knowing Moses' opinion, but loving their own, not because it\r\nis truth, but because it is theirs. Otherwise they would equally love\r\nanother true opinion, as I love what they say, when they say true: not\r\nbecause it is theirs, but because it is true; and on that very ground\r\nnot theirs because it is true. But if they therefore love it, because\r\nit is true, then is it both theirs, and mine; as being in common to all\r\nlovers of truth. But whereas they contend that Moses did not mean what\r\nI say, but what they say, this I like not, love not: for though it\r\nwere so, yet that their rashness belongs not to knowledge, but to\r\noverboldness, and not insight but vanity was its parent. And therefore,\r\nO Lord, are Thy judgements terrible; seeing Thy truth is neither mine,\r\nnor his, nor another's; but belonging to us all, whom Thou callest\r\npublicly to partake of it, warning us terribly, not to account\r\nit private to ourselves, lest we be deprived of it. For whosoever\r\nchallenges that as proper to himself, which Thou propoundest to all to\r\nenjoy, and would have that his own which belongs to all, is driven from\r\nwhat is in common to his own; that is, from truth, to a lie. For he that\r\nspeaketh a lie, speaketh it of his own.\r\n\r\nHearken, O God, Thou best judge; Truth Itself, hearken to what I shall\r\nsay to this gainsayer, hearken, for before Thee do I speak, and before\r\nmy brethren, who employ Thy law lawfully, to the end of charity:\r\nhearken and behold, if it please Thee, what I shall say to him. For this\r\nbrotherly and peaceful word do I return unto Him: \"If we both see that\r\nto be true that Thou sayest, and both see that to be true that I say,\r\nwhere, I pray Thee, do we see it? Neither I in thee, nor thou in me; but\r\nboth in the unchangeable Truth itself, which is above our souls.\" Seeing\r\nthen we strive not about the very light of the Lord God, why strive\r\nwe about the thoughts of our neighbour which we cannot so see, as the\r\nunchangeable Truth is seen: for that, if Moses himself had appeared to\r\nus and said, \"This I meant\"; neither so should we see it, but should\r\nbelieve it. Let us not then be puffed up for one against another, above\r\nthat which is written: let us love the Lord our God with all our heart,\r\nwith all our soul, and with all our mind: and our neighbour as ourself.\r\nWith a view to which two precepts of charity, unless we believe that\r\nMoses meant, whatsoever in those books he did mean, we shall make God\r\na liar, imagining otherwise of our fellow servant's mind, than he hath\r\ntaught us. Behold now, how foolish it is, in such abundance of most\r\ntrue meanings, as may be extracted out of those words, rashly to affirm,\r\nwhich of them Moses principally meant; and with pernicious contentions\r\nto offend charity itself, for whose sake he spake every thing, whose\r\nwords we go about to expound.\r\n\r\nAnd yet I, O my God, Thou lifter up of my humility, and rest of my\r\nlabour, Who hearest my confessions, and forgivest my sins: seeing Thou\r\ncommandest me to love my neighbour as myself, I cannot believe that Thou\r\ngavest a less gift unto Moses Thy faithful servant, than I would wish\r\nor desire Thee to have given me, had I been born in the time he was, and\r\nhadst Thou set me in that office, that by the service of my heart and\r\ntongue those books might be dispensed, which for so long after were to\r\nprofit all nations, and through the whole world from such an eminence of\r\nauthority, were to surmount all sayings of false and proud teachings. I\r\nshould have desired verily, had I then been Moses (for we all come from\r\nthe same lump, and what is man, saving that Thou art mindful of him?),\r\nI would then, had I been then what he was, and been enjoined by Thee to\r\nwrite the book of Genesis, have desired such a power of expression and\r\nsuch a style to be given me, that neither they who cannot yet understand\r\nhow God created, might reject the sayings, as beyond their capacity; and\r\nthey who had attained thereto, might find what true opinion soever they\r\nhad by thought arrived at, not passed over in those few words of\r\nthat Thy servant: and should another man by the light of truth have\r\ndiscovered another, neither should that fail of being discoverable in\r\nthose same words.\r\n\r\nFor as a fountain within a narrow compass, is more plentiful, and\r\nsupplies a tide for more streams over larger spaces, than any one of\r\nthose streams, which, after a wide interval, is derived from the same\r\nfountain; so the relation of that dispenser of Thine, which was to\r\nbenefit many who were to discourse thereon, does out of a narrow\r\nscantling of language, overflow into streams of clearest truth, whence\r\nevery man may draw out for himself such truth as he can upon these\r\nsubjects, one, one truth, another, another, by larger circumlocutions of\r\ndiscourse. For some, when they read, or hear these words, conceive that\r\nGod like a man or some mass endued with unbounded power, by some new\r\nand sudden resolution, did, exterior to itself, as it were at a certain\r\ndistance, create heaven and earth, two great bodies above and below,\r\nwherein all things were to be contained. And when they hear, God said,\r\nLet it be made, and it was made; they conceive of words begun and ended,\r\nsounding in time, and passing away; after whose departure, that came\r\ninto being, which was commanded so to do; and whatever of the like sort,\r\nmen's acquaintance with the material world would suggest. In whom, being\r\nyet little ones and carnal, while their weakness is by this humble\r\nkind of speech, carried on, as in a mother's bosom, their faith is\r\nwholesomely built up, whereby they hold assured, that God made all\r\nnatures, which in admirable variety their eye beholdeth around. Which\r\nwords, if any despising, as too simple, with a proud weakness, shall\r\nstretch himself beyond the guardian nest; he will, alas, fall miserably.\r\nHave pity, O Lord God, lest they who go by the way trample on the\r\nunfledged bird, and send Thine angel to replace it into the nest, that\r\nit may live, till it can fly.\r\n\r\nBut others, unto whom these words are no longer a nest, but deep shady\r\nfruit-bowers, see the fruits concealed therein, fly joyously around,\r\nand with cheerful notes seek out, and pluck them. For reading or hearing\r\nthese words, they see that all times past and to come, are surpassed by\r\nThy eternal and stable abiding; and yet that there is no creature formed\r\nin time, not of Thy making. Whose will, because it is the same that Thou\r\nart, Thou madest all things, not by any change of will, nor by a will,\r\nwhich before was not, and that these things were not out of Thyself, in\r\nThine own likeness, which is the form of all things; but out of nothing,\r\na formless unlikeness, which should be formed by Thy likeness (recurring\r\nto Thy Unity, according to their appointed capacity, so far as is given\r\nto each thing in his kind), and might all be made very good; whether\r\nthey abide around Thee, or being in gradation removed in time and place,\r\nmade or undergo the beautiful variations of the Universe. These things\r\nthey see, and rejoice, in the little degree they here may, in the light\r\nof Thy truth.\r\n\r\nAnother bends his mind on that which is said, In the Beginning God made\r\nheaven and earth; and beholdeth therein Wisdom, the Beginning because\r\nIt also speaketh unto us."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJR8NK5DAD726FMQ6JCHGZ5R","peer_label":"confessions","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJR8M0JHPZXCPKJ34HTYXSWW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJR8RPPKYW47TDNV7M0J1MEJ","peer_label":"augustine","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8R5M8VXDW8Z6YHQTCPK14","peer_label":"god","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_being","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RENT5GDAEZJJBSSVRRWR","peer_label":"truth","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RNM7Y4HPBH7YH481V2PG","peer_label":"moses","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RV4KS6NS45G7ZGGDPV4F","peer_label":"charity","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"virtue","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RV3RP7Q34Y2V2YBGN80T","peer_label":"wisdom","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S10YKTMRGJZCAHHMJFGA","peer_label":"lie","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S115K3XHJXGBFMGB4SZ1","peer_label":"gainsayer","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S13B2CHBMYTRYSWXAJSY","peer_label":"unchangeable truth","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S127KYD3K0JMW78JP8N0","peer_label":"two precepts of charity","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"moral_commandments","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S1RK8CXRBDXR4N4QH628","peer_label":"brethren","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group_of_people","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S17DNXQF43RBACBWM7GR","peer_label":"moses books","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"collection_of_writings","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S187PG215FNH0BNCAV71","peer_label":"book of genesis","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"religious_text","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S1SY6TJZ087KBCRWPA4D","peer_label":"heaven and earth","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"created_entities","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S24255HB4RH6KSBGDKCT","peer_label":"universe","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"creation","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S273XFWV99XNWAD46SN4","peer_label":"eternal and stable abiding","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"attribute","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S22TDJKQ7YT21VB9PVHG","peer_label":"little ones and carnal","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group_of_people","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S2GT5D87GRJ9CSYN40K6","peer_label":"the beginning","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S2MJARNFEGXHWHT3XAR4","peer_label":"angel","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_messenger","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:28.575Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T21:54:24.949Z","ts":"2026-03-02T21:55:29.784Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}