For wdien we use objects, we do so with a view to the full
CHAP. XXXII.] IN WHAT SENSE GOU USESMAX. 27
For He shows us pity on account of His own goodness, but we show pity to one another on account of His ;—that is. He pities us that we may fully enjoy Himself; we pity one another that we may fully enjoy Him.
Chap. xxxr. God uses rather than enjoys us.
34. And on this ground, when we say that we enjoy only that which we love for its own sake , and that nothing is a true object of enjoyment except that which makes us happy, and that all other things are for use, there seems still to be something that requires explanation. For God loves us, and Holy
Scripture frequently sets before us the love He has towards us. In what way then does He love us ? As objects of use or as objects of enjoyment ? If He enjoys us, He must be in need of good from us, and no sane man will say that ; for all the good we enjoy is either Himself, or what comes from Himself. And no one can be imorant or in doubt as to the fact o that the lio'ht stands in no need of the j^^litter of the thinsjs it has itself lit up. The Psalmist says most plainly, " I said to the Lord, Thou art my God, for Thou needest not my good-
He does not enjoy us then, but makes use of us. For if He neither enjoys nor uses us, I am at a loss to disness."
cover in what way He can love us.
Chap, xxxii.—In u-7iat ivay God uses man.
35. But neither does He use after our fashion of using. For wdien we use objects, we do so with a view to the full enjoyment of the goodness of God. God, however, in His use of us, has reference to His own goodness. For it is because He is good we exist ; and so far_as^ we truly exist we are good. And, further, because He is also just, we cannot with impunity be evil ; and so far as we are evil, so far is our existence less complete. Now He is the first and supreme existence, who is altogether unchangeable, and who could say in the fullest sense of the words, " I am that I am," and " Thou shalt say to them, I am hath sent me unto you
" ^ so tliat all other things that exist, both owe their existence entirely to Him, and are good only so far as He has given it to them to
1 Ps. xvi. 2 (LXX.). 2Ex. iii. 14.
28 ON cnrjsTTAN doctrtxr [book I.
be so. That use, then, wliicli God is said to make of us has no reference to His own advantage, but to ours only ; and, so far as He is concerned, has reference only to His goodness. When we take pity upon a man and care for liini, it is for his advantage vve do so ; but somehow or other our own advantage follows by a sort of natural consequence, for God does not leave the mercy we show to him who needs it to go without reward. Now this is our highest reward, that we should fully enjoy Him, and that all who enjoy Him should enjoy one another in Him.
Chat, xxxiii.—In what icay man should he enjoyed.
3G. For if we find our happiness complete in one another, we stop short upon the road, and place our hope of happiness in man or angel. Now the proud man and the proud angel arrogate this to themselves, and are glad to have the hope of others fixed upon them. But, on the contrary, the holy man and the holy angel, even when we are weary and anxious to stay with them and rest in them, set themselves to recruit our energies with the provision which they have received of God for us or for themselves ; and then urge us thus refreshed to go on our way towards Him, in the enjoyment of whom we find our common happiness. For even the apostle exclaims,
" Was Paul crucified for you ? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul ? " ^ and again : " Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth ; but God that giveth the increase." ^ And the angel admonisheth the man who is about to worship him, that he should rather worship Him who is his Master, and under whom he himself is a fellow-servant.^
37.' But when you have joy of a man in God, it is God rather than man that you enjoy. For you enjoy Him by whom you are made happy, and you rejoice to have come to Him in whose presence you place your liope of joy. And accordingly, Paul says to Philemon, " Yea, brother, let me have joy of tliee in the Lord." * For if he had not added " in the Lord," but had only said, " Let me have joy of thee," he would have implied that he fixed his hope of happiness upon him, although even in the immediate context to " enjoy " is used in the sense of to " use with delight." For when the