21. See Rom 5:5.
Book IV 251
17. We are indeed quite right to understand it in this way, because for one thing it is true, and for another it does not call for great perspicacity to see that God is said to rest when he makes us rest, just as he is said to come to know when he ensures that we come to know something. God, after all, does not come to know in time something he did not know previously, and yet he says to Abraham: Now l have come to know that you fear God (Gn 22:12), where we cannot take it to mean anything else, can we, but "Now I have made you come to know"? It is by these manners of speech, when we speak of things that do not happen to God as though they did, that we acknowledge it is he who makes them happen to us, those things at least that are praiseworthy, and these only to the extent that scriptural usage allows it. I mean, we certainly ought not to say anything of the sort about God, which we do not read in his scriptures.20
18. The apostle, I consider, was employing this manner of speech when he said : Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealedon the day of redemption (Eph 4:30). It is impossible, after all, for the very substance of the Holy Spirit, by which he is whatever he is, to be grieved, since he is in possession of eternal and unalterable bliss, or rather is itself eternal and unalterable bliss. But because he dwells in the saints in such a way as to fill them with charity, by which as human beings they cannot but rejoice in time at the progress made by the faithful and at their good works, and by the same token cannot but be grieved at the lapsing and the sins ofthose over whose faith and piety they were rejoicing (such grief is praiseworthy, because it comes from the love which the Holy Spirit pours into them21), for this reason the Spirit himself is said to be grieved by those who act in such a way that the saints are grieved by their behavior, and this purely and simply because they have the Holy Spirit. lt is his gift which makes them so good that the wicked sadden them, especially those whom they either knew or believed to be good. Not only is no fault to be found with such sadness, it is on the contrary to be most highly praised and commended.
19. The same apostle again made admirable use of this way of speaking, where he said: But now, having come to know God, or rather being known by God (Gal 4:9). lt was not only then, after all, that God had come to know them, foreknown as they were before thefoundation of the world ( 1 Pt 1 :20); but it was only then that they had come to know him by his munificence, not by their own merits or abilities. He therefore preferred to use a figure of speech, and to say that they would then be known by God when he granted them the benefit of his coming to be known by them, and apparently to correct himself, as though what
20. See The Trinity, 1, 1 1 ,23, where he also reverses the principle, so to say, and uses it to explain that difficult text of Mk 1 3:32, where Jesus says that not even the Son knows the hour and the day; this means that he "makes others not know; that he did not know this in such a way as to disclose it to the disciples." Also see The Trinity 111,11,25, in particular Augustine's own footnote there, where he enlarges a little on the point. 21. See Rom 5:5.
252 The Literal Meaning of Genesis he had said quite strictly had not been said correctly—he preferred to do this rather than to allow them to claim that they had been able all by themselves to do what God had enabled them to do.
Whether God himselfcould properly be said to rest
10, 20. So then, this understanding of the matter may possibly satisfy some people—that what is put in the text here about God resting from all the works he had made, which were very good, means that he makes us rest when we have done good works. I for my part, however, having undertaken a thorough study of this passage of the scriptures, am constrained to inquire in what kind ofway God too was able to rest, though certainly by mentioning his rest to us he was advising us to hope to find our final rest in him.
Now we have seen that he made heaven and earth and the things in them and that he finished them all on the sixth day. But it cannot be said that we created any of these things, with him giving us the ability to do so, and thus that the reason it said Godfinished on the sixth day all his works which he hadmade was that he authorized us to finish them. So too with what is said here: God restedon the seventh dayfrom all his works, which he had made; it is not surely our rest, which we are going to enjoy when he grants it to us, but his rest that we ought first of all to understand here, his resting on the seventh day after finishing his works. What first has to be demonstrated about all the things that are written here is that they actually happened and were actually done, and only after that, ifneed be, should any lessons be drawn about their further significance.
It is certainly quite right to say thatjust as God rested after his good works, so we too are going to rest after our good works. But this is yet another reason why it is right to demand thatjust as we have discussed the works of God, which clearly enough were his works, so too we should reflect upon God's rest which is shown to be properly his.
How to reconcile God's resting on the seventh day with his "working until now," John 5:17
1 1, 21. So it is that we are forced by the most compelling of reasons to work out, if we are able to, and to state how each can be true: both what is written here that God rested on the seventh day from all his works which he had made, and what he himself through whom they were made says in the gospel: My Father is working until now, and l myself am working (Jn 5:17). That, you see, is the answer he gave to those who were complaining that he failed to observe the sabbath which had been enjoined on them of old on account of God's rest, on the authority of this text of scripture. And indeed it can credibly be said that the Jews