Confessions (1900) - Page 23

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CHAPTER XXV.—He calls on God to enlighten his mind, 253
CHAPTER XXVI.—We measure longer events by shorter in time, 253
CHAPTER XXVII.—Times are measured in proportion as they pass by, 254
CHAPTER XXVIII.—Time in the human mind, which expects, considers, and remembers, 257
CHAPTER XXIX.—That human life is a distraction, but that, through the mercy of God, he was intent on the prize of his heavenly calling, 258
CHAPTER XXX.—Again he refutes the empty question, "What did God before the creation of the world?" 258
CHAPTER XXXI.—How the knowledge of God differs from that of man, 259

BOOK TWELFTH

HE CONTINUES HIS EXPLANATION OF THE FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS ACCORDING TO THE SEPTUAGINT, AND BY ITS ASSISTANCE HE ARGUES, ESPECIALLY, CONCERNING THE DOUBLE HEAVEN, AND THE FORMLESS MATTER OUT OF WHICH THE WHOLE WORLD MAY HAVE BEEN CREATED; AFTERWARDS OF THE INTERPRETATIONS OF OTHERS NOT DISALLOWED, AND SETS FORTH AT GREAT LENGTH THE SENSE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.

CHAPTER I.—The discovery of truth is difficult, but God has promised that he who seeks shall find, 261
CHAPTER II.—Of the double heaven—the visible, and the heaven of heavens, 261
CHAPTER III.—Of the darkness upon the deep, and of the invisible and formless earth, 262
CHAPTER IV.—From the formlessness of matter, the beautiful world has arisen, 263
CHAPTER V.—What may have been the form of matter, 263
CHAPTER VI.—He confesses that at one time he himself thought erroneously of matter, 263
CHAPTER VII.—Out of nothing God made heaven and earth, 264
CHAPTER VIII.—Heaven and earth were made "in the beginning"; afterwards the world, during six days, from shapeless matter, 265
CHAPTER IX.—That the heaven of heavens was an intellectual creature, but that the earth was invisible and formless before the days that it was made, 266
CHAPTER X.—He begs of God that he may live in the true light, and may be instructed as to the mysteries of the sacred books, 267