Devotions of Saint Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury

CHAPTER XX

THOU therefore dost fill and embrace all things; Thou art before and beyond all things. And indeed Thou art before all things; because before they were made, Thou art.⁴⁰⁴⁰   John viii. 58. But how art Thou before all things? For in what manner art Thou beyond those things which are to have no end?⁴¹⁴¹   He has probably in view angels and human souls. Is it because they can in no wise be without Thee; but Thou, even though they should return into nothingness, no less art? In this way then Thou art in a manner of speaking beyond them. Or is it again because they can be conceived of as having an end, but Thou canst not? For in this way indeed they have in some sense an end;⁴²⁴²   That is, they might possibly have an end, though they will not. God who created them out of nothing, might annihilate them; though such is not His will. but Thou in no sense. And certainly that which in no sense hath an end is beyond that which in any sense hath an end. Dost Thou then thus also transcend all things, even though they be eternal, in that Thine eternity and theirs is 36present to Thee in their entirety, while they have not yet that part of their eternity which is to come, as they have no longer that part which is past. Thus Thou ever transcendest them; both in that Thou art always present to them, and because that is ever present to Thee whereunto they have not yet come.

CHAPTER XXI

IS this what we call the age of the age or the ages of the ages?⁴³⁴³   Saeculum saeculi, saecula saeculorum: translated in our Bibles and Prayer-books, world without end. For just as the age of time⁴⁴⁴⁴   Saeculum temporum, an age made up of times. In the Bible the whole course of this world, which goes on in time, is represented as destined to come to an end in the consummation of all things, which is often spoken of as the end of the age, consummatio saeculi (Matt. xiii. 40; xxiv. 3): the age then to be brought to a close is here thought of as an age embracing the various times which will have elapsed from the creation to the last day; for, according to St Augustine, time and the world were created together; the world was created not in tempore but cum tempere. In the Apocalypse (x. 6) an angel is represented as proclaiming that there shall be time no longer. The saeculum which now is, is contrasted with the saeculum, the world or age to come in such passages as Matt. xii. 32; Mark x. 30; Luke xviii. 30. comprehendeth all things that are in time, so Thine eternity comprehendeth the very ages of times themselves. And it is indeed rightly 37called an age, because it is one and indivisible; but also ages, because of the boundless immensity thereof. And although Thou art so great, O Lord, that all things are full of Thee and are in Thee; yet Thou art such, without being in space, so that in Thee there is neither middle nor half nor any other part.