{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>It is a great and very rare thing for a man, after he has\r\ncontemplated the whole creation, corporeal and incorporeal,\r\nand has discerned its mutability, to pass beyond it, and, by\r\nthe continued soaring of his mind, to attain to the unchangeable\r\nsubstance of God, and, in that height of contemplation, to\r\nlearn from God Himself that none but He has made all that\r\nis not of the divine essence. For God speaks with a man\r\nnot by means of some audible creature dinning in his ears, so\r\nthat atmospheric vibrations connect Him that makes with\r\nhim that hears the sound, nor even by means of a spiritual\r\nbeing with the semblance of a body, such as we see in dreams\r\nor similar states; for even in this case He speaks as if to the\r\nears of the body, because it is by means of the semblance of\r\na body He speaks, and with the appearance of a real interval of\r\nspace,—for visions are exact representations of bodily objects.\r\nNot by these, then, does God speak, but by the truth itself,\r\nif any one is prepared to hear with the mind rather than with\r\nthe body. For He speaks to that part of man which is better\r\nthan all else that is in him, and than which God Himself<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_438\">[Pg 438]</a></span>\r\nalone is better. For since man is most properly understood\r\n(or, if that cannot be, then, at least, <i>believed</i>) to be made in\r\nGod's image, no doubt it is that part of him by which he\r\nrises above those lower parts he has in common with the\r\nbeasts, which brings him nearer to the Supreme. But since\r\nthe mind itself, though naturally capable of reason and intelligence,\r\nis disabled by besotting and inveterate vices not\r\nmerely from delighting and abiding in, but even from tolerating\r\nHis unchangeable light, until it has been gradually healed,\r\nand renewed, and made capable of such felicity, it had, in\r\nthe first place, to be impregnated with faith, and so purified.\r\nAnd that in this faith it might advance the more confidently\r\ntowards the truth, the truth itself, God, God's Son, assuming\r\nhumanity without destroying His divinity,<a id=\"FNanchor_444_444\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_444_444\">[444]</a> established and\r\nfounded this faith, that there might be a way for man to\r\nman's God through a God-man. For this is the Mediator\r\nbetween God and men, the man Christ Jesus. For it is as\r\nman that He is the Mediator and the Way. Since, if the\r\nway lieth between him who goes, and the place whither he\r\ngoes, there is hope of his reaching it; but if there be no way,\r\nor if he know not where it is, what boots it to know whither\r\nhe should go? Now the only way that is infallibly secured\r\nagainst all mistakes, is when the very same person is at once\r\nGod and man, God our end, man our way.<a id=\"FNanchor_445_445\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_445_445\">[445]</a></p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK ELEVENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-757"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"98ba9bd9953e2892f9bdf78573e34ec93ac2d33c93a7b1d936e0af95e08f2910","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_444_444","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_444_444","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_444_444\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_444_444\"><span class=\"label\">[444]</span></a> Homine assumto, non Deo consumto.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_444_444","text_sha256":"d505c2b19ee4fd8affbefda19c73f606b9a83640bd25ce730d828e103e030eb2","verified":false,"work_id":null}