Hymns on Faith

Notes

1. p. 66, n. l. p. 69, n. t.
2. p. 126, n. a. p. 305, d.
3. R. xxx. §. 2.
4. R. xlvii. §. 2.
5. p. 179, n. a. p. 305, d.
6. p. 25, n. y.
7. p. 210, ref. 4.
8. R. xliv. §. 5. R. liii. §. 5.
9. §. 3. R. xxix. §. 3.
10. R. vii. §. 4. ix. §. 2. 3. lx. §. 1.
11. R. ii. §. 1. iv. §. 6. li. §. 6.
12. Gen. 2, 7.
13. p. 53.
14. Vol. iii. p. 339, f. p. 673, d. “A great elevation did God ordain for men, that fleshly creatures might ascend and be spiritual like the Angels on high. In all degrees did the Good One lift them up, by all devices did the wicked one bring them down.” See on R. xlvi. §. 6. The end of the §. alludes to Ham’s misconduct, or possibly to the well-known artifice of the Spartans with their slaves.
15. see R. xxxvii. §. 3.
16. Wisd. 2, 24.
17. p. 103, 203, n. f.
18. R. xlvii. §. 5.
19. R. x. §. 7. R. lii. §. 3.
20. The received doctrine is, that God only is able to enter the substance of the soul and dwell in it, and that no created spirit is able to do so. See Petav. de Deo iii. 8. §. 5. de Trin. ii. 16. §. 7. 8. 9. de Ang. i. 7. Berti de Disc. Theol. x. 10. Thomassin de Deo iii. 8. §. 7. v. 5. §. 6. Gotti. vol. i. Tr. ix. qu. 5. dub. 3. This was one of the arguments (as P. notices) for the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. Hence such passages as spoke of Satan entering into people were explained of his penetrating not in substance, but by his operations into men’s minds. Didymus perhaps may be looked on as the clearest voucher for this doctrine, although there is enough in other fathers to the same effect. (See Natal. Alex. Sæc. iv. diss. xliii. p. 528. The belief in the ignorance of Satan as to Christ’s Person and Office noticed above, p. 21, n. o. and p. 135, n. c. would alone confirm it. Now as St. E. qualifies his statement even in the end of this very §. by stating as a doubtful matter there, what he had here stated categorically; this alone would allow us to assume that he was not opposed to the ordinary teaching of his day. But before endeavouring to ascertain what positive meaning may be attached to the word ‘dwelleth,’ it will be right to put together some of his statements elsewhere upon the same subject. Note b. p. 211. and note b. p. 238. R. lviii. §. 5. and R. lxiv. §. 2. may be referred to first. In vol. i. p. 136, a. speaking of Gen. 3, 15. he says, “Let this be taken in another way of interpretation of the accuser, that invisible serpent: for it is he that watcheth for our heel, and of him the head is watched for. As for us, when evil and passionate thoughts are sown in our hearts by him, it behoveth us from the first to watch for the head as it were. (Comp. the next note.) But he inasmuch as our thoughts are not perceptible to him, watcheth for the heel, in our words that is, or in our deeds, in order that when he has discovered by their means what we have in our heart and mind, he may draw nigh to struggle with us and hurry us off, if possible, into the pit of destruction, and destroy us miserably.” Vol. ii. p. 332, b. “Let not death rise by thy windows, let him not enter into thy citadels, and dwell in them and defile the form of thy image which is beloved by God. The gates that are in thy head are stamped with the stamp of the Spirit, [a ceremony in Baptism, see Ass. Cod. Lit. i. p. 218. Selvaggi Antiq. Christ. iii. 5. §. 1.] with the seal of unction sealed are all thy limbs. The King has written thee his epistle, and hath set upon it seals of fire: let not strangers read it, and mar its letters. Break not open the signet of the King, lest robbers enter into thee: do not loose the seal, that murderers may not destroy thee. Whatsoever is within is thine own, and without thee is what is not thine. Within thee is God, and without thee Satan.” Comp. p. 174, n. c. In p. 334, a. what he says of God will throw light on this last sentence, and contrast with what he says in vol. i. of Satan. “The creatures are not too straight for Him, and when the heart seeketh for him, the heart though little holdeth Him. He taketh Him but a small space out of a man to dwell therein, that he may be a temple of God, so that He may dwell in him, and abide in him. A temple unto Him is the soul made, the heart is made the holy Altar, that He may be glorified on it, and have worship done Him, and that offerings may be offered on it. And the Spirit is made as it were a priest (comp. n. d. p. 146. and n. a. p. 282.) that stands thereat, and ministers at it. Let not foul sin come in, and the Spirit go forth from thee, &c.” In vol. ii. p. 504, b. he asks in a Rhythm we shall have occasion to quote below, how the devil, who [according to the Manichean theory] was akin to body, came to be more subtle than the mind, and be in one self in dreams, and yet one does not know how? and speaks of it as an inexplicable mystery. (See on R. lvii. §. 4.) Ibid. p. 546, a. “If the soul be an inspiration, angels that are spiritual, whence be they? If the angels are out of nothing, then the soul is so likewise. If, however, all of them are from the Creator, how is it that angels need not a bodily nature in order to see, while the soul cannot see or hear without the senses? If devils again are the offspring of matter, and the body which cometh from it is vile in their sight, how came the Maker to want to dwell in it by His inspiration; (see n. a. p. 263.) and how is it that the devil is unable to smite the body and dwell in it? or if the body be alien from his properties, how comes he to be akin to the soul? Oh what falsehoods these unbelievers utter!” Here he evidently contrasts God’s power of dwelling even in men’s bodies with Satan’s inability to do so, (i. e. without permission,) and implies that into the soul he could not enter. Into this alternative he does not explicitly enter, as his object there is to shew that evil and matter are not identical. Upon this and upon the text the following passage from vol. iii. p. 575, b. will throw light. It treats of a question analogous to the very important question which is said to have been somewhat grotesquely stated by the Schoolmen when they asked, ‘How many angels could stand upon a needle’s point?’ “I have also enquired this: whether paradise is sufficiently large for all the just to dwell therein? I enquired things not in Scripture, and He taught me by things in Scripture. Look, He said, to that man in whom a legion dwelt of all the devils: they were in him, yet not known, since that power is more subtle and fine even than the soul itself. The whole of that power dwelt in one single body. Now an hundred times more subtle is the body of the just after they are risen, and have come to life again!” Here he is using the power which a number of devils had to dwell in a body, as an illustration of the way in which, it may be, all the just will dwell in one space.—Not being aware of any passages which really affirm the view the text is calculated, at first sight, to give one, one may presume, from the denial of that view implied in what has been quoted, that St. E. means in the text to insist upon what appears to be (but is not really) the case, as a difficulty inexplicable to man. Somewhat also might be said upon the ground that ‘soul’ is used so excessively often in Syriac for ‘self,’ as to create an indefiniteness in the expressions used, which the context will not allow one to attempt to keep up in the English. The Holy Spirit also is said to dwell in men before Christian times in which only, in a strict sense, He blendeth His Substance (so to speak) with men: which might not only account for, but seem to justify, a less exact use of the word in regard to evil spirits. St. Austin (see Pet. de Angelis. i. 7. §. 10.) at one time thought that devils could see such thoughts as were thrown, in our minds, into explicit reasoning, though unable to search the heart fully. This would go to shew how strongly he, as well as St. E., felt the closeness of Satan’s approach and his seeming ubiquity: to explain which, notwithstanding the many damned he has to consult with, may be an impossibility, though it be a duty to submit to the received doctrine in spite of such difficulties to the reason.
21. There are several passages in St. E. in which he exhibits no common insight into the subtleties of Satan’s temptations. The following which will throw light on the text, may be adduced as a specimen: vol. i. p. 412, b. “From this (the history of Amnon and Thamar) thou mayest learn the craftiness of Satan, and the silliness of the soul that is off its guard: for Satan, when he wishes to obliterate its beauty, and is unable to effect any thing by force, struggles with it craftily, and persuades its childish simplicity to actions which are not imagined by it to be blameworthy, as those which very many times are by the subtle movements of the thoughts mischievously set in motion, and which, as if not blameworthy, we are negligent of; or as words which are as it were said in mirthfulness and in love—or as it happeneth in those things, which we without perceiving it, suffer when devils rise up against us, and throw us into a battle of imaginary obscene passions in visions of the night. Now concerning these and the like to these, when their soul repenteth and reflecteth in sober thought, how wrong they are, and how much they disturb its brightness and blacken it, and how that they are the beginning of transgression, it bewails itself, and from its weakness pours forth tears, and rendeth its garment, that is, the body, with hard labours, and the heart by the passion of repentance. They cover their head too from their passion and their shame, and go, crying as they go from their whole heart and calling aloud to the Lord to do judgment upon their persecutors.”