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Chapter 14PsAugSoliloquia.1.14

Caput 14. Quod Deus jugiter inspiciat opera et intentiones hominum.

God's Unceasing Watchfulness

The soul gives thanks for God's blessings and marvels at how God, who fills all things and sees all, nonetheless attends to each individual as if they were his sole concern, never abandoning them and examining all their thoughts and deeds.

These and many other blessings you have done for me, Lord my God, life of my soul: things I would always delight to speak of, always to think about, and always to thank you for, so that I may praise you for all your good gifts, and love you with my whole heart, and with my whole soul, and with my whole mind, and with all my strength, and at the same time from the deepest marrow of my heart and every joint of my body, O blessed sweetness, Lord my God of all who delight in you.1 But your eyes have seen what is unfinished in me (Ps.2 138:16): your eyes, I mean, far brighter than the sun, surveying all the ways of human beings and the depth of the abyss, eyes that in every place always see the good and the bad (Prov. 15:3).3 For since you rule over all things, filling each particular, wholly present always and everywhere, and caring for all you have created — because you hate nothing you have made — in just this way you consider my steps and my paths, and day and night you keep watch over me, carefully noting all my paths, an everlasting watcher, as if, having forgotten all your creation of heaven and earth, you were considering me alone, and nothing else were any concern of yours.4 For the unchanging light of your vision does not grow if you look at only one thing, nor is it diminished if you see countless and varied things: because just as you consider one whole perfectly all at once, so your sight, wholly itself, perfectly and at once beholds each and every particular, though they differ, and the whole of them.5 But all things are as one, and as one are all things: so, wholly present, you consider each particular at once without division, change, or lessening. And so you, wholly yourself in all of time yet outside of time, consider the whole of me all at once and always, as if you had nothing else to consider. So you watch over me as if you had forgotten everyone else and wanted to focus your attention on me alone. For you always show yourself present everywhere; you always offer yourself ready, if you find me ready. Wherever I go, Lord, you don't abandon me, unless I abandon you first. Wherever I am, you do not withdraw, because you are everywhere; so that wherever I go, I may find you, through whom I can exist, so that I may not perish without you, since without you I cannot exist.6 I confess that whatever I do, I do it before you; and whatever it is, you see it better than I do. For whatever I am always doing, you likewise are always present beside me: as the perpetual examiner of all my thoughts, intentions, delights, and works. Lord, every desire of mine is always before you; my whole thought is before you. You see where the spirit comes from, where it is, and where it goes, because you are the Spirit, the weigher of all spirits.7

The Judge of Intentions

God, the inward Judge, searches the deepest roots of intention and writes all in his book for the final judgment, so that the soul is moved to fear and to live justly before the all-seeing Judge.

Whether the root is sweet or bitter—the root that puts out beautiful leaves on the outside—you yourself, the inward Judge, know me better than I know myself. You search even the pith of the roots more finely still; you gather, look upon, and mark not only the intention, but also the inmost marrow of that root by the most discerning truth of your light, so that you may repay each person not only according to their works or intention, but also according to that very interior, hidden marrow of the root from which the doer's intention proceeds. Whatever I aim at when I act, whatever I think, and whatever I take delight in—you see it; your ears hear it; your eyes consider it; you carefully mark it, note it, and write it in your book, whether it is good or evil. You do this so that afterward you may repay rewards for the good and punishments for the evil, when the books are opened and we are judged according to what was written in them.✦ (Rev. 20:12). This is perhaps what you have already said to us: "I will consider their last end" (Deut. 32:20).8 And what is said of you, Lord: "He himself considers the end of all things" (Job 28:3). 28:3): for in everything we do, you do indeed attend more to the end of the intention than to the act of the work itself. And when I carefully consider these things, Lord my God, terrible and strong, I am overwhelmed by fear and deep shame alike: for a great necessity of living justly and uprightly has been laid upon us—before whom we do all things, before the eyes of the Judge who sees everything.9

Read the original Latin

Haec et multa alia beneficia fecisti mihi, Domine Deus meus, vita animae meae: de quibus dulce esset mihi semper loqui, semper cogitare, semperque tibi gratias agere: ut possim te pro omnibus bonis tuis laudare, et amare te toto corde meo, et tota anima mea, et tota mente mea, et tota fortitudine mea, simul et ex omnibus medullis intimis cordis mei, et omnium compagum mearum, beata dulcedo, Domine Deus meus, omnium qui delectantur in te. Sed imperfectum meum viderunt oculi tui (Psal. CXXXVIII, 16): oculi, inquam, tui multo lucidiores super solem, circumspicientes omnes vias hominum et profundum abyssi, qui in omni loco semper contemplantur bonos et malos (Prov. XV, 3). Cum enim cunctis praesideas singula implens, totus semper ubique praesens, cunctorumque curam agens quae creasti, quia nihil odisti eorum quae fecisti; sic gressus meos semitasque consideras, et die noctuque super custodiam meam vigilas, omnes semitas meas diligenter notans, speculator perpetuus, veluti si totius creaturae tuae coeli et terrae oblitus, tantum me solum consideres, et nihil sit tibi curae de aliis. Neque enim crescit lux incommutabilis visionis tuae, si tantum unum aspicias; neque minuitur, si innumera videas et diversa: quia sicut unum totum simul perfecte consideras, sic singula quaelibet, licet diversa, perfecte simul totaque totus conspicit visus tuus. Sed omnia sicut unum, et sicut unum omnia, sic singula totus simul sine divisione, vel commutatione, vel diminutione consideras. Itaque totus tu in toto tempore sine tempore, totum me simul semperque consideras, ac si nihil aliud considerare habeas.

Sic igitur super custodiam meam stas, sicut si omnium oblitus sis, et mihi soli intendere velis. Semper quippe te ubique praesentem exhibes, semper te paratum offers, si me paratum inveneris. Quocumque iero, tu me, Domine, non deseris, nisi prior ego te deseram. Ubicumque fuero non recedis, quoniam ubique es; ut quocumque iero, inveniam te, per quem possim esse ne peream sine te, cum sine te esse non possim. Fateor equidem, quia quidquid facio, quaecumque facio, ante te facio: et illud quidquid est quod facio, melius tu vides quam ego qui facio. Quidquid enim semper operor, tu pariter semper praesens assistis: utpote perpetuus inspector omnium cogitationum, intentionum, delectationum, et operationum mearum. Domine, ante te est semper omne desiderium meum, ante te tota cogitatio mea. Tu vides unde veniat spiritus, ubi sit, et quo vadat; quia tu es spiritus omnium spirituum ponderator.

Et utrum radix sit dulcis, an amara, de qua foris pulchra folia emittuntur, tu judex internus melius ipse me nosti, et medullas etiam radicum subtilius perscrutaris: et non solum intentionem, sed etiam radicis ejus medullam intimam discretissima tuae lucis veritate colligis, intueris et signas; ut reddas unicuique non tantummodo secundum opera vel intentionem, sed etiam secundum ipsam interiorem absconditam medullam radicis, de qua procedit intentio operantis. Ad quid tendo cum operor, quidquid cogito, et in quocumque delector, tu vides, aures tuae audiunt, oculi tui considerant, signas attente, notas et scribis in libro tuo, sive bonum fuerit sive malum: ut reddas postea pro bono praemia, et pro malo supplicia, quando aperientur libri, et judicabimur secundum haec quae fuerunt scripta in libris tuis (Apoc. XX, 12). Hoc est forte quod jam dixisti nobis, Considerabo novissima eorum (Deut. XXXII, 20); et quod de te, Domine, dicitur, Universorum finem ipse considerat (Job. XXVIII, 3): quoniam tu quidem in omnibus quae agimus, finem intentionis, magis quam actum operationis attendis. Cumque haec diligenter considero, Domine Deus meus, terribilis et fortis, timore pariter et ingenti rubore confundor: quoniam magna nobis est indita necessitas juste recteque vivendi, cui cuncta facimus ante oculos judicis cuncta cernentis.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Rev.20.12 — And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their works.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩omnium qui delectantur in te taken as completing Domine Deus meus (God of all who delight in you); alternatively it could modify beata dulcedo (blessed sweetness of all who delight in you).
  2. 2 ↩Printed sentence is citation-truncated mid-parenthesis before Ps 138:16; imperfectum meum rendered as unfinished/incomplete self rather than unformed substance alone.
  3. 3 ↩Citation closer only; sense depends on Prov. reference opened in s3.
  4. 4 ↩super custodiam meam vigilas kept as keep watch over my custody to preserve the sentinel/watch-post image continued in 1.14.2 (super custodiam meam stas).
  5. 5 ↩totaque totus conspicit visus tuus parsed as your wholly undivided sight perfectly beholding both particulars and wholes together.
  6. 6 ↩Dense nested clauses: ut…inveniam te; per quem possim esse; ne peream sine te; cum sine te esse non possim. Rendered as purpose + instrumentality + negative purpose + causal ground.
  7. 7 ↩spiritus omnium spirituum ponderator taken as divine title: Spirit who weighs all spirits (cf. Prov 16:2 spiritus ponderator).
  8. 8 ↩forte rendered as 'perhaps'; it can also mean 'by chance' / 'it may be,' marking a tentative identification of the earlier word with the Deuteronomy saying.
  9. 9 ↩cui taken with Domine Deus meus / the Judge ('before whom we do all things'), not with necessitas; ante oculos judicis cuncta cernentis restates the same divine scrutiny.

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