That he might work and keep it.¹

Ut operaretur & custodiret illum.

I shall set down here the words of Augustine, so that what we have said of his view the reader may recognize more clearly and certainly from Augustine's own words. Thus, then, in the tenth chapter of the eighth book On Genesis according to the Letter, Augustine writes: “There is another sense in these words which I think not undeservedly to be preferred, namely that God should work and keep the man himself. For just as a man works the earth, not to make it be earth, but to make it cultivated and fruitful, so God much more works the man — whom He created that he be man — He Himself works him that he be just, provided the man does not depart from Him through pride. Since, therefore, God is the immutable good, but man, both according to soul and according to body, is a mutable thing, unless, turned to the immutable good which is God, he abide, he cannot be formed so as to be just and blessed. And by this the same God who creates the man that he be man, Himself works the man and keeps him, that he be also good and blessed. Wherefore, by the expression by which a man is said to work the earth — which was already earth — that it be adorned and fruitful, by that same expression God is said to work the man, who was already man, that he be pious and wise; and to keep him, because the man, by his own power, delighting in himself rather than in Him above him, and despising His dominion, cannot be safe.” Thus Augustine.⁴

Ponam hic Augustini verba, ut quod de sententia eius diximus, propriis ex verbis eius apertiùs & certiùs lector agnoscat. Sic igitur, in capite decimo libri octavi de Genesi ad litteram, scribit Augustinus: Est alius in his verbis sensus quem puto non immeritò praeponendum, ut ipsum hominem operaretur Deus & custodiret. Sicut enim operatur homo terram, non ut eam faciat esse terram, sed ut cultam atque fructuosam: sic Deus hominem multò magis, quem creavit ut homo sit, eum ipse operatur ut iustus sit, si homo ab illo per superbiam non abscedat. Quia ergo Deus est incommutabile bonum, homo autem & secundùm animam & secundùm corpus mutabilis res est; nisi ad incommutabile bonum quod est Deus conversus substiterit, formari ut iustus beatúsque sit non potest. Ac per hoc Deus idem qui creat hominem ut homo sit, ipse operatur hominem atque custodit, ut etiam bonus beatúsque sit. Quapropter, qua locutione dicitur homo operari terram, quae iam terra erat, ut ornata atque foecunda sit: ea locutione dicitur Deus operari hominem qui iam homo erat, ut pius sapiénsque sit; eúmque custodire, quòd homo sua potestate in se quàm illius supra se delectatus dominationémque eius contemnens tutus esse non possit. Sic Augustinus.

[...so that it is a great punishment for them] to be drawn away from it and called off to other things. Let the reader hear Augustine, in chapter 8 of the eighth book On Genesis according to the Letter, disputing on this matter in most elegant words: for, explaining those very words of Moses which we now treat — that Adam was placed by God in Paradise that he might work it — when he had raised the objection that God had condemned man, before sin, to the labors and troubles of agriculture, he subjoins this: “So indeed we would suppose, did we not see some men farm with such great pleasure of mind that it is for them a great punishment to be called off from it to something else. Whatever of delight, therefore, agriculture has, it was then assuredly far greater, when nothing adverse befell, whether from earth or from sky. For it was not an affliction of labor, but an exhilaration of the will, when the things which God had created came forth more joyfully and more fruitfully by the aid of human work; whence the Creator Himself would be the more abundantly praised, who had given to the soul, set in an animal body, the reason and faculty of working — as much as would suffice the willing mind, not as much as want of the body would force the unwilling. For what greater and more wonderful spectacle is there, or where can human reason in a manner more converse with the nature of things, than when, with seeds set, shoots planted, saplings transplanted, cuttings grafted, each power of root and germ is, as it were, interrogated, what it can and cannot do, whence it can, what avails in it the invisible and inner power of numbers, what diligence applied from without avails; and, in that very consideration, to perceive that neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase: because even that work which is added from without is added through Him, whom He nonetheless created, and whom God invisibly rules and orders.¹⁰

[...ut magna eis poena sit] inde abstrahi & ad alia evocari. Audiat lector August. in 8. cap. libri octavi de Genesi ad litteram, elegantissimis verbis ea de re disputantem: namque explanans ea ipsa verba Mosis quae nunc tractamus, Adam esse positum à Deo in Paradiso ut operaretur eum, cùm obiecisset, Deum hominem ante peccatum damnasse ad labores & molestias agriculturae, haec subiungit: Ita sanè arbitraremur, nisi videremus cū tanta voluptate animi agricolare quosdam, ut eis magna poena sit inde ad aliud avocari. Quicquid ergo deliciarum habet agricultura, tunc utique longè amplius erat, quando nihil accidebat adversi vel terra vel coelo. Non enim erat laboris afflictio, sed exhilaratio voluntatis, cùm ea quae Deus creaverat, humani operis adiutorio laetius feraciúsque provenirent: unde Creator ipse uberiùs laudaretur, qui animae in corpore animali constitutae rationé dedisset operandi ac facultatem quantum animo volenti satis esset, non quantum invitum indigentia corporis cogeret. Quod enim maius mirabiliúsque spectaculú est, aut ubi magis cum rerum natura humana ratio quodammodo loqui potest, quàm cum positis seminibus, plantatis surculis, translatis arbusculis, insitis malleolis, tanquam interrogatur quaeque vis radicis & germinis quid possit, quid-ve nó possit: unde possit, quid in ea valeat numerorum invisibilis interiórque potentia, quid extrinsecus adhibita diligentia: inque ipsa consideratione perspicere, quia neque qui plantat est aliquid, neque qui rigat, sed qui incrementum dat Deus: quia & illud operis quod accedit extrinsecus, per illum accedit, quem nihilominus creavit, & quem regit atque ordinat invisibiliter Deus.

From this, now, the eye of thought is raised to the world itself, as to a certain great tree of things; and in it, too, a twin operation of providence is found, partly natural, partly voluntary. Natural, indeed, through the hidden administration of God, which gives increase even to trees and herbs; but voluntary, through the works of Angels and of men. According to that first, the celestial things are ordered above and the terrestrial below, the luminaries and stars shine, the alternations of day and night are driven, the earth, founded upon the waters, is washed within and around, the air is poured higher above, trees and animals are conceived and born, grow and age, die, and whatever else in things is carried on by an inner and natural motion. But in this other, signs are given, teaching and learning happen, fields are tilled, societies are administered, arts are practiced — and whatever else is exercised, whether in the supernal society or in this earthly and mortal one, such that even good is provided for through the unknowing wicked.” Thus Augustine, who thereafter treats the same theme most lucidly in many words.¹¹

Hinc iam in ipsum mundum velut in quandam magnam arborem rerum, oculus cogitationis attollitur, atque in ipso quoque gemina operatio providéntia reperitur, partim naturalis, partim voluntaria. Naturalis quidem per occultam Dei administrationem quae etiam lignis & herbis dat incrementú; voluntaria verò per Angelorum opera & hominum. Secundùm illam primam, Coelestia superiùs ordinari inferiúsque terrestria, luminaria syderaque fulgere, diei noctísque vices agitari, aquis terram fundatam interlui atque circumlui, aerem altius superfundi, arbusta & animalia concipi & nasci, crescere & senescere, occidere, & quicquid aliud in rebus interiore naturalíque motu geritur. In hac autem altera signa dari, doceri & discere, agros coli, societates administrari, artes exerceri: & quaeque alia sive in superna societate exercentur, sive in hac terrena atque mortali, ita ut bonis consulatur etiam per nescientes malos. Sic Augustinus, qui multis deinceps verbis idem argumentum luculentissimè tractat.

“It is greatly needful,” says Gregory, “both always to do good things, and to keep ourselves cautiously, in our thinking, away from those very good works — lest, if they lift up the mind, those things be not good which serve not their Author but [self-]exaltation. And concerning this matter we do not act unfittingly if, from books published — though not canonical, yet for the edification of the Church — we bring forward a testimony: for Eleazar, in battle, striking an elephant, laid it low, but fell beneath the very one he had slain. Whom, then, does this man signify, whom his own victory crushed, except those who overcome vices, but, beneath the very thing they subdue, succumb by growing proud? For he, as it were, dies beneath the enemy he prostrates, who is lifted up over the fault he overcomes. It must therefore be greatly weighed, that good things cannot profit if the evils that creep in are not guarded against: all that is done perishes, if it is not anxiously kept in humility. Whence well also is it said of the first parent himself: ‘The Lord put him in the paradise of pleasure, that he might work it and keep it.’ For he works who does the good that is commanded; but he does not keep what he has worked, into whom there creeps that which is forbidden.” Thus he [Gregory].¹⁸

Magnopere oportet, inquit Gregorius, Et bona semper agere, & ab ipsis nos bonis operibus cautè in cogitatione custodire: ne si mentem elevent, bona non sint quae non auctori militent sed elationi. De qua re non inordinatè agimus, si ex libris licèt non canonicis sed tamen ad aedificationem Ecclesiae editis, testimonium proferamus: Eleazar namque in praelio elephantem feriens stravit, sed sub ipso quem extinxit occubuit. Quos ergo iste significat quem sua victoria oppressit, nisi eos qui vitia superant, sed sub ipsa qua subijciunt superbiendo succumbunt? quasi enim sub hoste quem prosternit moritur, qui de culpa quam superat elevatur. Pensandú ergo magnopere est, quia bona prodesse nequeunt, si mala quae subrepunt non caventur: perit omne quod agitur si non sollicitè in humilitate custoditur. Unde benè quoque de ipso primo parente dicitur: Posuit eum Dominus in paradiso voluptatis, ut operaretur & custodiret illum. Operatur quippe qui agit bonum quod praecipitur, sed quod operatus fuerit non custodit, cui hoc subrepit quod prohibetur. Haec ille.