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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput VI: Qualis intellegenda sit esse locutio, qua deus angelis loquitur.

Poterat et illud, quando factus est homo, de angelis intellegi quod dictum est: faciamus hominem, quia non dixit: faciam; sed quia sequitur ad imaginem nostram, nec fas est credere ad imaginem angelorum hominem factum, aut eandem esse imaginem angelorum et dei: recte illic intellegitur pluralitas trinitatis. quae tamen trinitas quia unus deus est, etiam cum dixisset: faciamus: et fecit, inquit, deus hominem ad imaginem dei, non dixit fecerunt di aut ad imaginem deorum. poterat et hic eadem intellegi trinitas, tamquam pater dixerit ad filium et spiritum sanctum: uenite, et descendentes confundamus ibi linguam eorum, si aliquid esset, quod angelos prohiberet intellegi, quibus potius conuenit uenire ad deum motibus sanctis, hoc est cogitationibus piis, quibus ab eis consulitur incommutabilis ueritas, tamquam lex aeterna in illa eorum curia superna. neque enim sibi ipsi sunt ueritas, sed creatricis participes ueritatis ad illam mouentur, tamquam ad fontem uitae, ut, quod non habent ex se ipsis, capiant ex ipsa. et eorum stabilis est iste motus, quo ueniunt, qui non recedunt. nec sic loquitur angelis deus, quomodo nos inuicem nobis uel deo uel angelis uel ipsi angeli nobis siue per illos deus nobis, sed ineffabili suo modo; nobis autem hoc indicatur nostro modo. dei quippe sublimior ante suum factum locutio ipsius sui facti est inmutabilis ratio, quae non habet sonum strepentem atque transeuntem, sed uim sempiterne manentem et temporaliter operantem. hac loquitur angelis sanctis, nobis autem aliter longe positis. quando autem etiam nos aliquid talis locutionis interioribus auribus capimus, angelis propinquamus. non itaque mihi adsidue reddenda ratio est in hoc opere de locutionibus dei. aut enim ueritas incommutabilis per se ipsam ineffabiliter loquitur rationalis creaturae mentibus, aut per mutabilem creaturam loquitur, siue spiritalibus imaginibus nostro spiritui siue corporalibus uocibus corporis sensui. illud sane quod dictum est: et nunc non deficient ex illis omnia, quae conati fuerint facere, non dictum est confirmando, sed tamquam interrogando, sicut solet a comminantibus dici, quemadmodum ait quidam: non arma expedient totaque ex urbe sequentur? sic ergo accipiendum est, tamquam dixerit: nonne omnia deficient ex illis, quae conati fuerint facere? sed si ita dicatur, non exprimit comminantem. uerum propter tardiusculos addidimus particulam, id est ne, ut diceremus nonne, quoniam uocem pronuntiantis non possumus scribere. ex illis igitur tribus hominibus, Noe filiis, septuaginta tres, uel potius, ut ratio declaratura est, septuaginta duae gentes totidemque linguae per terras esse coeperunt, quae crescendo et insulas inpleuerunt. auctus est autem numerus gentium multo amplius quam linguarum. nam et in Africa barbaras gentes in una lingua plurimas nouimus, et homines quidem multiplicato genere humano ad insulas inhabitandas nauigio transire potuisse, quis ambigat?

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The City of God

Chapter 6.--What We are to Understand by God's Speaking to the Angels.

We might have supposed that the words uttered at the creation of man, "Let us," and not Let me, "make man," were addressed to the angels, had He not added "in our image;" but as we cannot believe that man was made in the image of angels, or that the image of God is the same as that of angels, it is proper to refer this expression to the plurality of the Trinity. And yet this Trinity, being one God, even after saying "Let us make," goes on to say, "And God made man in His image," ¹ and not "Gods made," or "in their image." And were there any difficulty in applying to the angels the words, "Come, and let us go down and confound their speech," we might refer the plural to the Trinity, as if the Father were addressing the Son and the Holy Spirit; but it rather belongs to the angels to approach God by holy movements, that is, by pious thoughts, and thereby to avail themselves of the unchangeable truth which rules in the court of heaven as their eternal law. For they are not themselves the truth; but partaking in the creative truth, they are moved towards it as the fountain of life, that what they have not in themselves they may obtain in it. And this movement of theirs is steady, for they never go back from what they have reached. And to these angels God does not speak, as we speak to one another, or to God, or to angels, or as the angels speak to us, or as God speaks to us through them: He speaks to them in an ineffable manner of His own, and that which He says is conveyed to us in a manner suited to our capacity. For the speaking of God antecedent and superior to all His works, is the immutable reason of His work: it has no noisy and passing sound, but an energy eternally abiding and producing results in time. Thus He speaks to the holy angels; but to us, who are far off, He speaks otherwise. When, however, we hear with the inner ear some part of the speech of God, we approximate to the angels. But in this work I need not labor to give an account of the ways in which God speaks. For either the unchangeable Truth speaks directly to the mind of the rational creature in some indescribable way, or speaks through the changeable creature, either presenting spiritual images to our spirit, or bodily voices to our bodily sense.

The words, "Nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do," ² are assuredly not meant as an affirmation, but as an interrogation, such as is used by persons threatening, as e.g., when Dido exclaims,

"They will not take arms and pursue?" ³

We are to understand the words as if it had been said, Shall nothing be restrained from them which they have imagined to do? ⁴ From these three men, therefore, the three sons of Noah we mean, 73, or rather, as the catalogue will show, 72 nations and as many languages were dispersed over the earth, and as they increased filled even the islands. But the nations multiplied much more than the languages. For even in Africa we know several barbarous nations which have but one language; and who can doubt that, as the human race increased, men contrived to pass to the islands in ships?