Writings of Augustine. On the Trinity, De Trinitate
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On the Catechising of the Uninstructed [1331]
In One Book.
Translated by Rev. S. D. F. Salmond, D.D.,
Professor of Systematic Theology, Free Church College, Aberdeen.
Published in 1886 by Philip Schaff,
New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co.
Introductory Notice.
In the fourteenth chapter of the second book of his Retractations,
Augustin makes the following statement: "There is also a book of ours
on the subject of the Catechising of the Uninstructed, [or, for
Instructing the Unlearned, De Catechizandis Rudibus], that being,
indeed, the express title by which it is designated. In this book,
where I have said, `Neither did the angel, who, in company with other
spirits who were his satellites, forsook in pride the obedience of
God, and became the devil, do any hurt to God, but to himself; for God
knoweth how to dispose of souls that leave Him:' it would be more
appropriate to say, `spirits that leave Him,' inasmuch as the question
dealt with angels. This book commences in these terms: `You have
requested me, brother Deogratias.' "
The composition so described in the passage cited is reviewed by
Augustin in connection with other works which he had in hand about the
year 400 A.D., and may therefore be taken to belong to that date. It
has been conjectured that the person to whom it is addressed may
perhaps be the same with the presbyter Deogratias, to whom, as we read
in the epistle which now ranks as the hundred and second, Augustin
wrote about the year 406, in reply to some questions of the pagans
which were forwarded to him from Carthage.
The Benedictine editors introduce the treatise in the following terms:
"At the request of a deacon of Carthage, Augustin undertakes the task
of teaching the art of catechising; and in the first place, he gives
certain injunctions, to the effect that this kind of duty may be
discharged not only in a settled method and an apt order, but also
without tediousness, and in a spirit of cheerfulness. Thereafter
reducing his injunctions to practical use, he gives an example of what
he means by delivering two set discourses, presenting parallels to
each other, the one being somewhat lengthened and the other very
brief, but both suitable for the instruction of any individual whose
desire is to be a Christian."
[This treatise shows what was thought in the age of Saint Augustin to
be the most needful instruction in religion. The Latin text: De
Cactechizandis Rudibus, is in the sixth vol. of the Benedictine
edition, and in the handy ed. of C. Marriott: S. Augustini Opuscula
quædam, Oxford and London (Parker & Co.) 4th ed. 1885. An earlier and
closer English Version by Rev. C. L. Cornish, M. A., of Exeter
College, Oxford, appeared in the Oxford "Library of the Fathers"
(1847, pp. 187 sqq.,) under the title On Instructing the Unlearned. H.
De Romestin reproduces the Oxford translation in the English version
of Marriott's ed. of five treatises of St. Augustin, Oxford and
London, 1885, pp. 1-71.--P.S.]
Chapter 1.--How Augustin Writes in Answer to a Favor Asked by a Deacon
of Carthage.
1. You have requested me, brother Deogratias, to send you in writing
something which might be of service to you in the matter of
catechising the uninstructed. For you have informed me that in
Carthage, where you hold the position of a deacon, persons, who have
to be taught the Christian faith from its very rudiments, are
frequently brought to you by reason of your enjoying the reputation of
possessing a rich gift in catechising, due at once to an intimate
acquaintance with the faith, and to an attractive method of discourse;
[1332] but that you almost always find yourself in a difficulty as to
the manner in which a suitable declaration is to be made of the
precise doctrine, the belief of which constitutes us Christians:
regarding the point at which our statement of the same ought to
commence, and the limit to which it should be allowed to proceed: and
with respect to the question whether, when our narration is concluded,
we ought to make use of any kind of exhortation, or simply specify
those precepts in the observance of which the person to whom we are
discoursing may know the Christian life and profession to be
maintained. [1333] At the same time, you have made the confession and
complaint that it has often befallen you that in the course of a
lengthened and languid address you have become profitless and
distasteful even to yourself, not to speak of the learner whom you
have been endeavoring to instruct by your utterance, and the other
parties who have been present as hearers; and that you have been
constrained by these straits to put upon me the constraint of that
love which I owe to you, so that I may not feel it a burdensome thing
among all my engagements to write you something on this subject.
2. As for myself then, if, in the exercise of those capacities which
through the bounty of our Lord I am enabled to present, the same Lord
requires me to offer any manner of aid to those whom He has made
brethren to me, I feel constrained not only by that love and service
which is due from me to you on the terms of familiar friendship, but
also by that which I owe universally to my mother the Church, by no
means to refuse the task, but rather to take it up with a prompt and
devoted willingness. For the more extensively I desire to see the
treasure of the Lord [1334] distributed, the more does it become my
duty, if I ascertain that the stewards, who are my fellow-servants,
find any difficulty in laying it out, to do all that lies in my power
to the end that they may be able to accomplish easily and
expeditiously what they sedulously and earnestly aim at.
Footnotes
[1331] [The Oxford Library and H. de Romestin translate the title: On
Instructing the Unlearned.--P.S.]
[1332] Reading et doctrina fidei et suavitate sermonis, instead of
which, however, et doctrinam...suavitatem, etc. also occurs, =
possessing at once a rich gift in catechising, and an intimate
acquaintance with the faith, and an attractive method of discourse,
[or, sweetness of language].
[1333] Reading retineri as in the mss. Some editions give retinere =
know how to maintain the Christian life and profession.
[1334] Pecuniam Dominicam
Chapter 2.--How It Often Happens that a Discourse Which Gives Pleasure
to the Hearer is Distasteful to the Speaker; And What Explanation is
to Be Offered of that Fact.
3. But as regards the idea thus privately entertained by yourself in
such efforts, I would not have you to be disturbed by the
consideration that you have often appeared to yourself to be
delivering a poor and wearisome discourse. For it may very well be the
case that the matter has not so presented itself to the person whom
you were trying to instruct, but that what you were uttering seemed to
you to be unworthy of the ears of others, simply because it was your
own earnest desire that there should be something better to listen to.
Indeed with me, too, it is almost always the fact that my speech
displeases myself. For I am covetous of something better, the
possession of which I frequently enjoy within me before I commence to
body it forth in intelligible words: [1335] and then when my
capacities of expression prove inferior to my inner apprehensions, I
grieve over the inability which my tongue has betrayed in answering to
my heart. For it is my wish that he who hears me should have the same
complete understanding of the subject which I have myself; and I
perceive that I fail to speak in a manner calculated to effect that,
and that this arises mainly from the circumstance that the
intellectual apprehension diffuses itself through the mind with
something like a rapid flash, whereas the utterance is slow, and
occupies time, and is of a vastly different nature, so that, while
this latter is moving on, the intellectual apprehension has already
withdrawn itself within its secret abodes. Yet, in consequence of its
having stamped certain impressions of itself in a marvellous manner
upon the memory, these prints endure with the brief pauses of the
syllables; [1336] and as the outcome of these same impressions we form
intelligible signs, [1337] which get the name of a certain language,
either the Latin, or the Greek, or the Hebrew, or some other. And
these signs may be objects of thought, or they may also be actually
uttered by the voice. On the other hand however, the impressions
themselves are neither Latin, nor Greek, nor Hebrew, nor peculiar to
any other race whatsoever, but are made good in the mind just as looks
are in the body. For anger is designated by one word in Latin, by
another in Greek, and by different terms in other languages, according
to their several diversities. But the look of the angry man is neither
(peculiarly) Latin nor (peculiarly) Greek. Thus it is that when a
person says Iratus sum, [1338] he is not understood by every nation,
but only by the Latins; whereas, if the mood of his mind when it is
kindling to wrath comes forth upon the face and affects the look, all
who have the individual within their view understand that he is angry.
But, again, it is not in our power to bring out those impressions
which the intellectual apprehension stamps upon the memory, and to
hold them forth, as it were, to the perception of the hearers by means
of the sound of the voice, in any manner parallel to the clear and
evident form in which the look appears. For those former are within in
the mind, while this latter is without in the body. Wherefore we have
to surmise how far the sound of our mouth must be from representing
that stroke of the intelligence, seeing that it does not correspond
even with the impression produced upon the memory. Now, it is a common
occurrence with us that, in the ardent desire to effect what is of
profit to our hearer, our aim is to express ourselves to him exactly
as our intellectual apprehension is at the time, when, in the very
effort, we are failing in the ability to speak; and then, because this
does not succeed with us, we are vexed, and we pine in weariness as if
we were applying ourselves to vain labors; and, as the result of this
very weariness, our discourse becomes itself more languid and
pointless even than it was when it first induced such a sense of
tediousness.
4. But ofttimes the earnestness of those who are desirous of hearing
me shows me that my utterance is not so frigid as it seems to myself
to be. From the delight, too, which they exhibit, I gather that they
derive some profit from it. And I occupy myself sedulously with the
endeavor not to fail in putting before them a service in which I
perceive them to take in such good part what is put before them. Even,
so, on your side also, the very fact that persons who require to be
instructed in the faith are brought so frequently to you, ought to
help you to understand that your discourse is not displeasing to
others as it is displeasing to yourself; and you ought not to consider
yourself unfruitful, simply because you do not succeed in setting
forth in such a manner as you desire the things which you discern;
for, perchance, you may be just as little able to discern them in the
way you wish. For in this life who sees except as "in an enigma and
through a glass"? [1339] Neither is love itself of might sufficient to
rend the darkness of the flesh, and penetrate into that eternal calm
from which even things which pass away derive the light in which they
shine. But inasmuch as day by day the good are making advances towards
the vision of that day, independent of the rolling sky, [1340] and
without the invasion of the night, "which eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man," [1341] there is
no greater reason why our discourse should become valueless in our own
estimate, when we are engaged in teaching the uninstructed, than
this,--namely, that it is a delight to us to discern in an
extraordinary fashion, and a weariness to speak in an ordinary. And in
reality we are listened to with much greater satisfaction, indeed,
when we ourselves also have pleasure in the same work; for the thread
of our address is affected by the very joy of which we ourselves are
sensible, and it proceeds from us with greater ease and with more
acceptance. Consequently, as regards those matters which are
recommended as articles of belief, the task is not a difficult one to
lay down injunctions, with respect to the points at which the
narration should be commenced and ended, or with respect to the method
in which the narration is to be varied, so that at one time it may be
briefer, at another more lengthened, and yet at all times full and
perfect; and, again, with respect to the particular occasions on which
it may be right to use the shorter form, and those on which it will be
proper to employ the longer. But as to the means by which all is to be
done, so that every one may have pleasure in his work when he
catechises (for the better he succeeds in this the more attractive
will he be),--that is what requires the greatest consideration. And
yet we have not far to seek for the precept which will rule in this
sphere. For if, in the matter of carnal means, God loves a cheerful
giver, [1342] how much more so in that of the spiritual? But our
security that this cheerfulness may be with us at the seasonable hour,
is something dependent upon the mercy of Him who has given us such
precepts. Therefore, in accordance with my understanding of what your
own wish is, we shall discuss in the first place the subject of the
method of narration, then that of the duty of delivering injunction
and exhortation, and afterwards that of the attainment of the said
cheerfulness, so far as God may furnish us with the ideas.
Footnotes
[1335] Verbis sonantibus,--sounding words.
[1336] Perdurant illa cum syllabarum morulis
[1337] Sonantia signa,--vocal signs.
[1338] I am angry.
[1339] 1 Cor. xiii. 12
[1340] Sine volumine cæli
[1341] 1 Cor. ii. 9
[1342] 2 Cor. ix. 7
Chapter 3.--Of the Full Narration to Be Employed in Catechising.
5. The narration is full when each person is catechised in the first
instance from what is written in the text, "In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth," [1343] on to the present times of
the Church. This does not imply, however, either that we ought to
repeat by memory the entire Pentateuch, and the entire Books of
Judges, and Kings, and Esdras, [1344] and the entire Gospel and Acts
of the Apostles, if we have learned all these word for word; or that
we should put all the matters which are contained in these volumes
into our own words, and in that manner unfold and expound them as a
whole. For neither does the time admit of that, nor does any necessity
demand it. But what we ought to do is, to give a comprehensive
statement of all things, summarily and generally, so that certain of
the more wonderful facts may be selected which are listened to with
superior gratification, and which have been ranked so remarkably among
the exact turning-points (of the history); [1345] that, instead of
exhibiting them to view only in their wrappings, if we may so speak,
and then instantly snatching them from our sight, we ought to dwell on
them for a certain space, and thus, as it were, unfold them and open
them out to vision, and present them to the minds of the hearers as
things to be examined and admired. But as for all other details, these
should be passed over rapidly, and thus far introduced and woven into
the narrative. The effect of pursuing this plan is, that the
particular facts which we wish to see specially commended to attention
obtain greater prominence in consequence of the others being made to
yield to them; while, at the same time, neither does the learner,
whose interest we are anxious to stimulate by our statement, come to
these subjects with a mind already exhausted, nor is confusion induced
upon the memory of the person whom we ought to be instructing by our
teaching.
6. In all things, indeed, not only ought our own eye to be kept fixed
upon the end of the commandment, which is "charity, out of a pure
heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned," [1346] to which we
should make all that we utter refer; but in like manner ought the gaze
of the person whom we are instructing by our utterance to be moved
[1347] toward the same, and guided in that direction. And, in truth,
for no other reason were all those things which we read in the Holy
Scriptures written, previous to the Lord's advent, but for
this,--namely, that His advent might be pressed upon the attention,
and that the Church which was to be, should be intimated beforehand,
that is to say, the people of God throughout all nations; which Church
is His body, wherewith also are united and numbered all the saints who
lived in this world, even before His advent, and who believed then in
His future coming, just as we believe in His past coming. For (to use
an illustration) Jacob, at the time when he was being born, first put
forth from the womb a hand, with which also he held the foot of the
brother who was taking priority of him in the act of birth; and next
indeed the head followed, and thereafter, at last, and as matter of
course, the rest of the members: [1348] while, nevertheless the head
in point of dignity and power has precedence, not only of those
members which followed it then, but also of the very hand which
anticipated it in the process of the birth, and is really the first,
although not in the matter of the time of appearing, at least in the
order of nature. And in an analogous manner, the Lord Jesus Christ,
previous to His appearing in the flesh, and coming forth in a certain
manner out of the womb of His secrecy, before the eyes of men as Man,
the Mediator between God and men, [1349] "who is over all, God blessed
for ever," [1350] sent before Him, in the person of the holy
patriarchs and prophets, a certain portion of His body, wherewith, as
by a hand, He gave token beforetime of His own approaching birth, and
also supplanted [1351] the people who were prior to Him in their
pride, using for that purpose the bonds of the law, as if they were
His five fingers. For through five epochs of times [1352] there was no
cessation in the foretelling and prophesying of His own destined
coming; and in a manner consonant with this, he through whom the law
was given wrote five books; and proud men, who were carnally minded,
and sought to "establish their own righteousness," [1353] were not
filled with blessing by the open hand of Christ, but were debarred
from such good by the hand compressed and closed; and therefore their
feet were tied, and "they fell, while we are risen, and stand
upright." [1354] But although, as I have said, the Lord Christ did
thus send before Him a certain portion of His body, in the person of
those holy men who came before Him as regards the time of birth,
nevertheless He is Himself the Head of the body, the Church, [1355]
and all these have been attached to that same body of which He is the
head, in virtue of their believing in Him whom they announced
prophetically. For they were not sundered (from that body) in
consequence of fulfilling their course before Him, but rather were
they made one with the same by reason of their obedience. For although
the hand may be put forward away before the head, still it has its
connection beneath the head. Wherefore all things which were written
aforetime were written in order that we might be taught thereby,
[1356] and were our figures, and happened in a figure in the case of
these men. Moreover they were written for our sakes, upon whom the end
of the ages has come. [1357]
Footnotes
[1343] Gen. i. 1
[1344] In the mss. we also find the reading Ezræ = Ezra.
[1345] In ipsis articulis = "among the very articles," or "connecting
links." Reference is made to certain great epochs or articles of time
in sections 6 and 39.
[1346] 1 Tim. i. 5
[1347] Reading movendus, for which monendus = to be admonished, also
occurs in the editions.
[1348] Gen. xxv. 26
[1349] 1 Tim. ii. 5
[1350] Rom. ix. 5
[1351] Reading supplantavit. Some mss. give supplantaret = wherewith
also He might supplant, etc.
[1352] Temporum articulos
[1353] Rom. x. 3
[1354] Ps. xx. 8
[1355] Col. i. 18
[1356] Rom. xv. 4
[1357] 1 Cor. x. 11
Chapter 4.--That the Great Reason for the Advent of Christ Was the
Commendation of Love.
7. Moreover, what greater reason is apparent for the advent of the
Lord than that God might show His love in us, commending it
powerfully, inasmuch as "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us"? [1358] And furthermore, this is with the intent that, inasmuch as
charity is "the end of the commandment," [1359] and "the fulfilling of
the law," [1360] we also may love one another and lay down our life
for the brethren, even as He laid down His life for us. [1361] And
with regard to God Himself, its object is that, even if it were an
irksome task to love Him, it may now at least cease to be irksome for
us to return His love, seeing that "He first loved us," [1362] and
"spared not His own only Son, but delivered Him up for us all." [1363]
For there is no mightier invitation to love than to anticipate in
loving; and that soul is over hard which, supposing it unwilling
indeed to give love, is unwilling also to give the return of love. But
if, even in the case of criminal and sordid loves, we see how those
who desire to be loved in return make it their special and absorbing
business, by such proofs as are within their power, to render the
strength of the love which they themselves bear plain and patent; if
we also perceive how they affect to put forward an appearance of
justice in what they thus offer, such as may qualify them in some sort
to demand that a response be made in all fairness to them on the part
of those souls which they are laboring to beguile; if, further, their
own passion burns more vehemently when they observe that the minds
which they are eager to possess are also moved now by the same fire:
if thus, I say, it happens at once that the soul which before was
torpid is excited so soon as it feels itself to be loved, and that the
soul which was enkindled already becomes the more inflamed so soon as
it is made cognizant of the return of its own love, it is evident that
no greater reason is to be found why love should be either originated
or enlarged, than what appears in the occasion when one who as yet
loves not at all comes to know himself to be the object of love, or
when one who is already a lover either hopes that he may yet be loved
in turn, or has by this time the evidence of a response to his
affection. And if this holds good even in the case of base loves, how
much more [1364] in (true) friendship? For what else have we carefully
to attend to in this question touching the injuring of friendship than
to this, namely, not to give our friend cause to suppose either that
we do not love him at all, or that we love him less than he loves us?
If, indeed, he is led to entertain this belief, he will be cooler in
that love in which men enjoy the interchange of intimacies one with
another; and if he is not of that weak type of character to which such
an offense to affection will serve as a cause of freezing off from
love altogether, he yet confines himself to that kind of affection in
which he loves, not with the view of enjoyment to himself, but with
the idea of studying the good of others. But again it is worth our
while to notice how,--although superiors also have the wish to be
loved by their inferiors, and are gratified with the zealous attention
[1365] paid to them by such, and themselves cherish greater affection
towards these inferiors the more they become cognizant of that,--with
what might of love, nevertheless, the inferior kindles so soon as he
learns that he is beloved by his superior. For there have we love in
its more grateful aspect, where it does not consume itself [1366] in
the drought of want, but flows forth in the plenteousness of
beneficence. For the former type of love is of misery, the latter of
mercy. [1367] And furthermore, if the inferior was despairing even of
the possibility of his being loved by his superior, he will now be
inexpressibly moved to love if the superior has of his own will
condescended to show how much he loves this person who could by no
means be bold enough to promise himself so great a good. But what is
there superior to God in the character of Judge? and what more
desperate than man in the character of sinner?--than man, I ask, who
had given himself all the more unreservedly up to the wardship and
domination of proud powers which are unable to make him blessed, as he
had come more absolutely to despair of the possibility of his being an
object of interest to that power which wills not to be exalted in
wickedness, but is exalted in goodness.
8. If, therefore, it was mainly for this purpose that Christ came, to
wit, that man might learn how much God loves him; and that he might
learn this, to the intent that he might be kindled to the love of Him
by whom he was first loved, and might also love his neighbor at the
command and showing of Him who became our neighbor, in that He loved
man when, instead of being a neighbor to Him, he was sojourning far
apart: if, again, all divine Scripture, which was written aforetime,
was written with the view of presignifying the Lord's advent; and if
whatever has been committed to writing in times subsequent to these,
and established by divine authority, is a record of Christ, and
admonishes us of love, it is manifest that on those two commandments
of love to God and love to our neighbor [1368] hang not only all the
law and the prophets, which at the time when the Lord spoke to that
effect were as yet the only Holy Scripture, but also all those books
of the divine literature which have been written [1369] at a later
period for our health, and consigned to remembrance. Wherefore, in the
Old Testament there is a veiling of the New, and in the New Testament
there is a revealing of the Old. According to that veiling, carnal
men, understanding things in a carnal fashion, have been under the
dominion, both then and now, of a penal fear. According to this
revealing, on the other hand, spiritual men,--among whom we reckon at
once those then who knocked in piety and found even hidden things
opened to them, and others now who seek in no spirit of pride, lest
even things uncovered should be closed to them,--understanding in a
spiritual fashion, have been made free through the love wherewith they
have been gifted. Consequently, inasmuch as there is nothing more
adverse to love than envy, and as pride is the mother of envy, the
same Lord Jesus Christ, God-man, is both a manifestation of divine
love towards us, and an example of human humility with us, to the end
that our great swelling might be cured by a greater counteracting
remedy. For here is great misery, proud man! But there is greater
mercy, a humble God! Take this love, therefore, as the end that is set
before you, to which you are to refer all that you say, and, whatever
you narrate, narrate it in such a manner that he to whom you are
discoursing on hearing may believe, on believing may hope, on hoping
may love.
Footnotes
[1358] Rom. v. 8, 10
[1359] 1 Tim. i. 5
[1360] Rom. xiii. 10
[1361] 1 John iii. 16
[1362] 1 John iv. 10, 19
[1363] Rom. viii. 32
[1364] Reading quanto plus, for which some mss. give plurius, while in
a large number we find purius = with how much greater purity should it
hold good, etc.
[1365] Reading studioso...obsequio, for which studiose, etc., also
occurs in the editions = are earnestly gratified with the attention,
etc.
[1366] Æstuat= burn, heave.
[1367] Ex miseria...ex misericordia
[1368] Matt. xxii. 40
[1369] Reading conscripta, for which some mss. have consecuta = have
followed, and many give consecrata, dedicated.
Chapter 5.--That the Person Who Comes for Catechetical Instruction is
to Be Examined with Respect to His Views, on Desiring to Become a
Christian.
9. Moreover, it is on the gound of that very severity of God, [1370]
by which the hearts of mortals are agitated with a most wholesome
terror, that love is to be built up; so that, rejoicing that he is
loved by Him whom he fears, man may have boldness to love Him in
return, and yet at the same time be afraid to displease His love
toward himself, even should he be able to do so with impunity. For
certainly it very rarely happens, nay, I should rather say, never,
that any one approaches us with the wish to become a Christian who has
not been smitten with some sort of fear of God. For if it is in the
expectation of some advantage from men whom he deems himself unlikely
to please in any other way, or with the idea of escaping any
disadvantage at the hands of men of whose displeasure or hostility he
is seriously afraid, that a man wishes to become a Christian, then his
wish to become one is not so earnest as his desire to feign one.
[1371] For faith is not a matter of the body which does obeisance,
[1372] but of the mind which believes. But unmistakeably it is often
the case that the mercy of God comes to be present through the
ministry of the catechiser, so that, affected by the discourse, the
man now wishes to become in reality that which he had made up his mind
only to feign. And so soon as he begins to have this manner of desire,
we may judge him then to have made a genuine approach to us. It is
true, indeed, that the precise time when a man, whom we perceive to be
present with us already in the body, comes to us in reality with his
mind, [1373] is a thing hidden from us. But, notwithstanding that, we
ought to deal with him in such a manner that this wish may be made to
arise within him, even should it not be there at present. For no such
labor is lost, inasmuch as, if there is any wish at all, it is
assuredly strengthened by such action on our part, although we may be
ignorant of the time or the hour at which it began. It is useful
certainly, if it can be done, to get from those who know the man some
idea beforehand of the state of mind in which he is, or of the causes
which have induced him to come with the view of embracing religion.
But if there is no other person available from whom we may gather such
information, then, indeed, the man himself is to be interrogated, so
that from what he says in reply we may draw the beginning of our
discourse. Now if he has come with a false heart, desirous only of
human advantages or thinking to escape disadvantages, he will
certainly speak what is untrue. Nevertheless, the very untruth which
he utters should be made the point from which we start. This should
not be done, however, with the (open) intention of confuting his
falsehood, as if that were a settled matter with you; but, taking it
for granted that he has professed to have come with a purpose which is
really worthy of approbation (whether that profession be true or
false), it should rather be our aim to commend and praise such a
purpose as that with which, in his reply, he has declared himself to
have come; so that we may make him feel it a pleasure to be the kind
of man actually that he wishes to seem to be. On the other hand,
supposing him to have given a declaration of his views other than what
ought to be before the mind of one who is to be instructed in the
Christian faith, then by reproving him with more than usual kindness
and gentleness, as a person uninstructed and ignorant, by pointing out
and commending, concisely and in a grave spirit the end of Christian
doctrine in its genuine reality, and by doing all this in such a
manner as neither to anticipate the times of a narration, which should
be given subsequently, nor to venture to impose that kind of statement
upon a mind not previously set for it, you may bring him to desire
that which, either in mistake or in dissimulation, he has not been
desiring up to this stage.
Footnotes
[1370] De ipsa etiam severitate Dei...caritas ædificanda est
[1371] Non fieri vult potius quam fingere
[1372] Or = "signifying assent by its motions," adopting the reading
of the best mss., viz. salutantis corporis. Some editions give
salvandi, while certain mss. have salutis, and others saltantis.
[1373] Reading quando veniat animo, for which quo veniat animo also
occurs = the mind in which a man comes...is a matter hidden from us.
Chapter 6.--Of the Way to Commence the Catechetical Instruction, and
of the Narration of Facts from the History of the World's Creation on
to the Present Times of the Church.
10. But if it happens that his answer is to the effect that he has met
with some divine warning, or with some divine terror, prompting him to
become a Christian, this opens up the way most satisfactorily for a
commencement to our discourse, by suggesting the greatness of God's
interest in us. His thoughts, however, ought certainly to be turned
away from this line of things, whether miracles or dreams, and
directed to the more solid path and the surer oracles of the
Scriptures; so that he may also come to understand how mercifully that
warning was administered to him in advance, [1374] previous to his
giving himself to the Holy Scriptures. And assuredly it ought to be
pointed out to him, that the Lord Himself would neither thus have
admonished him and urged him on to become a Christian, and to be
incorporated into the Church, nor have taught him by such signs or
revelations, had it not been His will that, for his greater safety and
security, he should enter upon a pathway already prepared in the Holy
Scriptures, in which he should not seek after visible miracles, but
learn the habit of hoping for things invisible, and in which also he
should receive monitions not in sleep but in wakefulness. At this
point the narration ought now to be commenced, which should start with
the fact that God made all things very good, [1375] and which should
be continued, as we have said, on to the present times of the Church.
This should be done in such a manner as to give, for each of the
affairs and events which we relate, causes and reasons by which we may
refer them severally to that end of love from which neither the eye of
the man who is occupied in doing anything, nor that of the man who is
engaged in speaking, ought to be turned away. For if, even in handling
the fables of the poets, which are but fictitious creations and things
devised for the pleasure [1376] of minds whose food is found in
trifles, those grammarians who have the reputation and the name of
being good do nevertheless endeavor to bring them to bear upon some
kind of (assumed) use, although that use itself may be only something
vain and grossly bent upon the coarse nutriment of this world: [1377]
how much more careful does it become us to be, not to let those
genuine verities which we narrate, in consequence of any want of a
well-considered account of their causes, be accepted either with a
gratification which issues in no practical good, or, still less, with
a cupidity which may prove hurtful! At the same time, we are not to
set forth these causes in such a manner as to leave the proper course
of our narration, and let our heart and our tongue indulge in
digressions into the knotty questions of more intricate discussion.
But the simple truth of the explanation which we adduce [1378] ought
to be like the gold which binds together a row of gems, and yet does
not interfere with the choice symmetry of the ornament by any undue
intrusion of itself. [1379]
Footnotes
[1374] Prærogata sit
[1375] Gen. i. 31
[1376] Reading ad voluptatem. But many mss. give ad voluntatem =
according to the inclination, etc.
[1377] Avidam saginæ soecularis
[1378] Reading veritas adhibitoe rationis, for which we also find
adhibita rationis = the applied truth, etc.; and adhibita rationi =
the truth applied to our explanation.
[1379] Non tamen ornamenti seriem ulla immoderatione perturbans
Chapter 7.--Of the Exposition of the Resurrection, the Judgment, and
Other Subjects, Which Should Follow This Narration.
11. On the completion of this narration, the hope of the resurrection
should be set forth, and, so far as the capacity and strength of the
hearer will bear it, and so far also as the measure of time at our
disposal will allow, we ought to handle our arguments against the vain
scoffings of unbelievers on the subject of the resurrection of the
body, as well as on that of the future judgment, with its goodness in
relation to the good, its severity in relation to the evil, its truth
in relation to all. And after the penalties of the impious have thus
been declared with detestation and horror, then the kingdom of the
righteous and faithful, and that supernal city and its joy, should
form the next themes for our discourse. At this point, moreover, we
ought to equip and animate the weakness of man in withstanding
temptations and offenses, whether these emerge without or rise within
the church itself; without, as in opposition to Gentiles, or Jews, or
heretics; within, on the other hand, as in opposition to the chaff of
the Lord's threshing-floor. It is not meant, however, that we are to
dispute against each several type of perverse men, and that all their
wrong opinions are to be refuted by set arrays of argumentations: but,
in a manner suitable to a limited allowance of time, we ought to show
how all this was foretold, and to point out of what service
temptations are in the training of the faithful, and what relief
[1380] there is in the example of the patience of God, who has
resolved to permit them even to the end. But, again, while he is being
furnished against these (adversaries), whose perverse multitudes fill
the churches so far as bodily presence is concerned, the precepts of a
Christian and honorable manner of life should also be briefly and
befittingly detailed at the same time, to the intent that he may
neither allow himself to be easily led astray in this way, by any who
are drunkards, covetous, fraudulent, gamesters, adulterers,
fornicators, lovers of public spectacles, wearers of unholy charms,
sorcerers, astrologers, or diviners practising any sort of vain and
wicked arts, and all other parties of a similar character; nor to let
himself fancy that any such course may be followed with impunity on
his part, simply because he sees many who are called Christians loving
these things, and engaging themselves with them, and defending them,
and recommending them, and actually persuading others to their use.
For as to the end which is appointed for those who persist in such a
mode of life, and as to the method in which they are to be borne with
in the church itself, out of which they are destined to be separated
in the end,--these are subjects in which the learner ought to be
instructed by means of the testimonies of the divine books. He should
also, however, be informed beforehand that he will find in the church
many good Christians, most genuine citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem,
if he sets about being such himself. And, finally, he must be
sedulously warned against letting his hope rest on man. For it is not
a matter that can be easily judged by man, what man is righteous. And
even were this a matter which could be easily done, still the object
with which the examples of righteous men are set before us is not that
we may be justified by them, but that, as we imitate them, we may
understand how we ourselves also are justified by their Justifier. For
the issue of this will be something which must merit the highest
approval,--namely this, that when the person who is hearing us, or
rather, who is hearing God by us, has begun to make some progress in
moral qualities and in knowledge, and to enter upon the way of Christ
with ardor, he will not be so bold as to ascribe the change either to
us or to himself; but he will love both himself and us, and whatever
other persons he loves as friends, in Him, and for His sake who loved
him when he was an enemy, in order that He might justify him and make
him a friend. And now that we have advanced thus far, I do not think
that you need any preceptor to tell you how you should discuss matters
briefly, when either your own time or that of those who are hearing
you is occupied; and how, on the other hand, you should discourse at
greater length when there is more time at your command. For the very
necessity of the case recommends this, apart from the counsel of any
adviser.
Footnotes
[1380] Medicina
Chapter 8.--Of the Method to Be Pursued in Catechising Those Who Have
Had a Liberal Education.
12. But there is another case which evidently must not be overlooked.
I mean the case of one coming to you to receive catchetical
instruction who has cultivated the field of liberal studies, who has
already made up his mind to be a Christian, and who has betaken
himself to you for the express purpose of becoming one. It can
scarcely fail to be the fact that a person of this character has
already acquired a considerable knowledge of our Scriptures and
literature; and, furnished with this, he may have come now simply with
the view of being made a partaker in the sacraments. For it is
customary with men of this class to inquire carefully into all things,
not at the very time when they are made Christians, but previous to
that, and thus early also to communicate and reason, with any whom
they can reach, on the subject of the feelings of their own minds.
Consequently a brief method of procedure should be adopted with these,
so as not to inculcate on them, in an odious fashion [1381] things
which they know already, but to pass over these with a light and
modest touch. Thus we should say how we believe that they are already
familiar with this and the other subject, and that we therefore simply
reckon up in a cursory manner all those facts which require to be
formally urged upon the attention of the uninstructed and unlearned.
And we should endeavor so to proceed, that, supposing this man of
culture to have been previously acquainted with any one of our themes,
he may not hear it now as from a teacher; and that, in the event of
his being still ignorant of any of them, he may yet learn the same
while we are going over the things with which we understand him to be
already familiar. Moreover, it is certainly not without advantage to
interrogate the man himself as to the means by which he was induced to
desire to be a Christian; so that, if you discover him to have been
moved to that decision by books, whether they be the canonical
writings or the compositions of literary men worth the studying,
[1382] you may say something about these at the outset, expressing
your approbation of them in a manner which may suit the distinct
merits which they severally possess, in respect of canonical authority
and of skillfully applied diligence on the part of these expounders;
[1383] and, in the case of the canonical Scriptures, commending above
all the most salutary modesty (of language) displayed alongside their
wonderful loftiness (of subject); while, in those other productions
you notice, in accordance with the characteristic faculty of each
several writer, a style of a more sonorous and, as it were more
rounded eloquence adapted to minds that are prouder, and, by reason
thereof weaker. We should certainly also elicit from him some account
of himself, so that he may give us to understand what writer he
chiefly perused, and with what books he was more familiarly
conversant, as these were the means of moving him to wish to be
associated with the church. And when he has given us this information,
then if the said books are known to us, or if we have at least
ecclesiastical report as our warrant for taking them to have been
written by some catholic man of note, we should joyfully express our
approbation. But if, on the other hand, he has fallen upon the
productions of some heretic and in ignorance, it may be, has retained
in his mind anything which [1384] the true faith condemns, and yet
supposes it to be catholic doctrine, then we must set ourselves
sedulously to teach him, bringing before him (in its rightful
superiority) the authority of the Church universal, and of other most
learned men reputed both for their disputations and for their writings
in (the cause of) its truth. [1385] At the same time, it is to be
admitted that even those who have departed this life as genuine
catholics, and have left to posterity some Christian writings, in
certain passages of their small works, either in consequence of their
failing to be understood, or (as the way is with human infirmity)
because they lack ability to pierce into the deeper mysteries with the
eye of the mind, and in (pursuing) the semblance of what is true,
wander from the truth itself, have proved an occasion to the
presumptuous and audacious for constructing and generating some
heresy. This, however, is not to be wondered at, when, even in the
instance of the canonical writings themselves, where all things have
been expressed in the soundest manner, we see how it has
happened,--not indeed through merely taking certain passages in a
sense different from that which the writer had in view or which is
consistent with the truth itself, (for if this were all, who would not
gladly pardon human infirmity, when it exhibits a readiness to accept
correction?), but by persistently defending, with the bitterest
vehemence and in impudent arrogance, opinions which they have taken up
in perversity and error,--many have given birth to many pernicious
dogmas at the cost of rending the unity of the (Christian) communion.
All these subjects we should discuss in modest conference with the
individual who makes his approach to the society of the Christian
people, not in the character of an uneducated man, [1386] as they say,
but in that of one who has passed through a finished culture and
training in the books of the learned. And in enjoining him to guard
against the errors of presumption, we should assume only so much
authority as that humility of his, which induced him to come to us, is
now felt to admit of. As to other things, moreover, in accordance with
the rules of saving doctrine, which require to be narrated or
discussed, whether they be matters relating to the faith, or questions
bearing on the moral life, or others dealing with temptations, all
these should be gone through in the manner which I have indicated, and
ought therein to be referred to the more excellent way (already
noticed). [1387]
Footnotes
[1381] Reading odiose, for which several mss. give otiose = idly.
[1382] Utilium tractatorum
[1383] Reading exponentium. Various codices give ad exponendum = in
expounding.
[1384] Reading quod, with Marriott. But if we accept quod with the
Benedictine editors, the sense will = and in ignorance it may be that
the true faith condemns them, has retained them in his mind.
[1385] Aliorumque doctissimorum hominum et disputationibus et
scriptionibus in ejus veritate florentium. It may also be = bringing
before him the authority of the Church universal, as well as both the
disputations and the writings of other most learned men well reputed
in (the cause of) its truth.
[1386] Idiota
[1387] 1 Cor. xii. 31. See also above, § 9.
Chapter 9.--Of the Method in Which Grammarians and Professional
Speakers are to Be Dealt with.
13. There are also some who come from the commonest schools of the
grammarians and professional speakers, whom you may not venture to
reckon either among the uneducated or among those very learned classes
whose minds have been exercised in questions of real magnitude. When
such persons, therefore, who appear to be superior to the rest of
mankind, so far as the art of speaking is concerned, approach you with
the view of becoming Christians, it will be your duty in your
communications with them, in a higher degree than in your dealings
with those other illiterate hearers, to make it plain that they are to
be diligently admonished to clothe themselves with Christian humility,
and learn not to despise individuals whom they may discover keeping
themselves free from vices of conduct more carefully than from faults
of language; and also that they ought not to presume so much as to
compare with a pure heart the practised tongue which they were
accustomed even to put in preference. But above all, such persons
should be taught to listen to the divine Scriptures, so that they may
neither deem solid eloquence to be mean, merely because it is not
inflated, nor suppose that the words or deeds of men, of which we read
the accounts in those books, involved and covered as they are in
carnal wrappings, [1388] are not to be drawn forth and unfolded with a
view to an (adequate) understanding of them, but are to be taken
merely according to the sound of the letter. And as to this same
matter of the utility of the hidden meaning, the existence of which is
the reason why they are called also mysteries, the power wielded by
these intricacies of enigmatical utterances in the way of sharpening
our love for the truth, and shaking off the torpor of weariness, is a
thing which the persons in question must have made good to them by
actual experience, when some subject which failed to move them when it
was placed baldly before them, has its significance elicited by the
detailed working out of an allegorical sense. For it is in the highest
degree useful to such men to come to know how ideas are to be
preferred to words, just as the soul is preferred to the body. And
from this, too, it follows that they ought to have the desire to
listen to discourses remarkable for their truth, rather than to those
which are notable for their eloquence; just as they ought to be
anxious to have friends distinguished for their wisdom, rather than
those whose chief merit is their beauty. They should also understand
that there is no voice for the ears of God save the affection of the
soul. For thus they will not act the mocker if they happen to observe
any of the prelates and ministers of the Church either calling upon
God in language marked by barbarisms and solecisms, or failing in
understanding correctly the very words which they are pronouncing, and
making confused pauses. [1389] It is not meant, of course, that such
faults are not to be corrected, so that the people may say "Amen" to
something which they plainly understand; but what is intended is, that
such things should be piously borne with by those who have come to
understand how, as in the forum it is in the sound, so in the church
it is in the desire that the grace of speech resides. [1390] Therefore
that of the forum may sometimes be called good speech, but never
gracious speech. [1391] Moreover, with respect to the sacrament which
they are about to receive, it is enough for the more intelligent
simply to hear what the thing signifies. But with those of slower
intellect, it will be necessary to adopt a somewhat more detailed
explanation, together with the use of similitudes, to prevent them
from despising what they see.
Footnotes
[1388] Carnalibus integumentis involuta atque operta
[1389] Or = confusing the sense by false pauses: perturbateque
distinguere.
[1390] Ut sono in foro, sic voto in ecclesia benedici
[1391] Bona dictio, nunquam tamen benedictio
Chapter 10.--Of the Attainment of Cheerfulness in the Duty of
Catechising, and of Various Causes Producing Weariness in the
Catechumen.
14. At this point you perhaps desiderate some example of the kind of
discourse intended, so that I may show you by an actual instance how
the things which I have recommended are to be done. This indeed I
shall do, so far as by God's help I shall be able. But before
proceeding to that, it is my duty, in consistency with what I have
promised, to speak of the acquisition of the cheerfulness (to which I
have alluded). For as regards the matter of the rules in accordance
with which your discourse should be set forth, in the case of the
catechetical instruction of a person who comes with the express view
of being made a Christian, I have already made good, as far as has
appeared sufficient, the promise which I made. And surely I am under
no obligation at the same time to do myself in this volume that which
I enjoin as the right thing to be done. Consequently, if I do that, it
will have the value of an overplus. But how can the overplus be
super-added by me before I have filled up the measure of what is due?
Besides, one thing which I have heard you make the subject of your
complaint above all others, is the fact that your discourse seemed to
yourself to be poor and spiritless when you were instructing any one
in the Christian name. Now this, I know, results not so much from want
of matter to say, with which I am well aware you are sufficiently
provided and furnished, or from poverty of speech itself, as rather
from weariness of mind. And that may spring either from the cause of
which I have already spoken, namely, the fact that our intelligence is
better pleased and more thoroughly arrested by that which we perceive
in silence in the mind, and that we have no inclination to have our
attention called off from it to a noise of words coming far short of
representing it; or from the circumstance that even when discourse is
pleasant, we have more delight in hearing or reading things which have
been expressed in a superior manner, and which are set forth without
any care or anxiety on our part, than in putting together, with a view
to the comprehension of others, words suddenly conceived, and leaving
it an uncertain issue, on the one hand, whether such terms occur to us
as adequately represent the sense, and on the other, whether they be
accepted in such a manner as to profit; or yet again, from the
consideration that, in consequence of their being now thoroughly
familiar to ourselves, and no longer necessary to our own advancement,
it becomes irksome to us to be recurring very frequently to those
matters which are urged upon the uninstructed, and our mind, as being
by this time pretty well matured, moves with no manner of pleasure in
the circle of subjects so well-worn, and, as it were, so childish. A
sense of weariness is also induced upon the speaker when he has a
hearer who remains unmoved, either in that he is actually not stirred
by any feeling, or in that he does not indicate by any motion of the
body that he understands or that he is pleased with what is said.
[1392] Not that it is a becoming disposition in us to be greedy of the
praises of men, but that the things which we minister are of God; and
the more we love those to whom we discourse, the more desirous are we
that they should be pleased with the matters which are held forth for
their salvation: so that if we do not succeed in this, we are pained,
and we are weakened, and become broken-spirited in the midst of our
course, as if we were wasting our efforts to no purpose. Sometimes,
too, when we are drawn off from some matter which we are desirous to
go on with, and the transaction of which was a pleasure to us, or
appeared to be more than usually needful, and when we are compelled,
either by the command of a person whom we are unwilling to offend, or
by the importunity of some parties that we find it impossible to get
rid of, to instruct any one catechetically, in such circumstances we
approach a duty for which great calmness is indispensable with minds
already perturbed, and grieving at once that we are not permitted to
keep that order which we desire to observe in our actions, and that we
cannot possibly be competent for all things; and thus out of very
heaviness our discourse as it advances is less of an attraction,
because, starting from the arid soil of dejection, it goes on less
flowingly. Sometimes, too, sadness has taken possession of our heart
in consequence of some offense or other, and at that very time we are
addressed thus: "Come, speak with this person; he desires to become a
Christian." For they who thus address us do it in ignorance of the
hidden trouble which is consuming us within. So it happens that, if
they are not the persons to whom it befits us to open up our feelings,
we undertake with no sense of pleasure what they desire; and then,
certainly, the discourse will be languid and unenjoyable which is
transmitted through the agitated and fuming channel of a heart in that
condition. Consequently, seeing there are so many causes serving to
cloud the calm serenity of our minds, in accordance with God's will we
must seek remedies for them, such as may bring us relief from these
feelings of heaviness, and help us to rejoice in fervor of spirit, and
to be jocund in the tranquility of a good work. "For God loveth a
cheerful giver." [1393]
15. Now if the cause of our sadness lies in the circumstance that our
hearer does not apprehend what we mean, so that we have to come down
in a certain fashion from the elevation of our own conceptions, and
are under the necessity of dwelling long in the tedious processes of
syllables which come far beneath the standard of our ideas, and have
anxiously to consider how that which we ourselves take in with a most
rapid draught of mental apprehension is to be given forth by the mouth
of flesh in the long and perplexed intricacies of its method of
enunciation; and if the great dissimilarity thus felt (between our
utterance and our thought) makes it distasteful to us to speak, and a
pleasure to us to keep silence, then let us ponder what has been set
before us by Him who has "showed us an example that we should follow
His steps." [1394] For however much our articulate speech may differ
from the vivacity of our intelligence, much greater is the difference
of the flesh of mortality from the equality of God. And, neverless,
"although He was in the same form, He emptied Himself, taking the form
of a servant,"--and so on down to the words "the death of the cross."
[1395] What is the explanation of this but that He made Himself "weak
to the weak, in order that He might gain the weak?" [1396] Listen to
His follower as he expresses himself also in another place to this
effect: "For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether
we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth
us, because we thus judge that He died for all." [1397] And how,
indeed, should one be ready to be spent for their souls, [1398] if he
should find it irksome to him to bend himself to their ears? For this
reason, therefore, He became a little child in the midst of us, (and)
like a nurse cherishing her children. [1399] For is it a pleasure to
lisp shortened and broken words, unless love invites us? And yet men
desire to have infants to whom they have to do that kind of service;
and it is a sweeter thing to a mother to put small morsels of
masticated food into her little son's mouth, than to eat up and devour
larger pieces herself. In like manner, accordingly, let not the
thought of the hen [1400] recede from your heart, who covers her
tender brood with her drooping feathers, and with broken voice calls
her chirping young ones to her, while they that turn away from her
fostering wings in their pride become a prey to birds. For if
intelligence brings delights in its purest recesses, it should also be
a delight to us to have an intelligent understanding of the manner in
which charity, the more complaisantly it descends to the lowest
objects, finds its way back, with all the greater vigor to those that
are most secret, along the course of a good conscience which witnesses
that it has sought nothing from those to whom it has descended except
their everlasting salvation.
Footnotes
[1392] The sentence, "either in that he is actually not stirred...by
what is said," is omitted in many mss.
[1393] 2 Cor. ix. 7
[1394] 1 Pet. ii. 21
[1395] Phil. ii. 17. The form in which the quotation is given above,
with the omission of the intermediate clauses, is due probably to the
copyist, and not to Augustin himself. The words left out are given
thus in the Serm. XLVII on Ezekiel xxxiv.: "Being made in the likeness
of men, and being found in the fashion of a man: He humbled Himself,
being made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." [See
R.V.]
[1396] Cf. 1 Cor. ix. 22
[1397] 2 Cor. v. 13, 14
[1398] Cf. 2 Cor. xii. 15
[1399] Cf. 1 Thess. ii. 7
[1400] Illius gallinoe,--in reference to Matt. xxiii. 37
Chapter 11.--Of the Remedy for the Second Source of Weariness.
16. If, however, it is rather our desire to read or hear such things
as are already prepared for our use and expressed in a superior style,
and if the consequence is that we feel it irksome to put together, at
the time and with an uncertain issue, the terms of discourse on our
own side, then, provided only that our mind does not wander off from
the truth of the facts themselves, it is an easy matter for the
hearer, if he is offended by anything in our language, to come to see
in that very circumstance how little value should be set, supposing
the subject itself to be rightly understood, upon the mere fact that
there may have been some imperfection or some inaccuracy in the
literal expressions, which were employed indeed simply with the view
of securing a correct apprehension of the subject-matter. But if the
bent of human infirmity has wandered off from the truth of the facts
themselves,--although in the catechetical instruction of the
unlearned, where we have to keep by the most beaten track, that cannot
occur very readily,--still, lest haply it should turn out that our
hearer finds cause of offence even in this direction, we ought not to
deem this to have come upon us in any other way than as the issue of
God's own wish to put us to the test with respect to our readiness to
receive correction in calmness of mind, so as not to rush headlong, in
the course of a still greater error, into the defense of our error.
But if, again, no one has told us of it, and if the thing has
altogether escaped our own notice, as well as the observation of our
hearers, then there is nothing to grieve over, provided only the same
thing does not occur a second time. For the most part, however, when
we recall what we have said, we ourselves discover something to find
fault with, and are ignorant of the manner in which it was received
when it was uttered; and so when charity is fervent within us, we are
the more vexed if the thing, while really false, has been received
with unquestioning acceptance. This being the case, then, whenever an
opportunity occurs, as we have been finding fault with ourselves in
silence, we ought in like manner to see to it that those persons be
also set right on the subject in a considerate method, who have fallen
into some sort of error, not by the words of God, but plainly by those
used by us. If, on the other hand, there are any who, blinded by
insensate spite, rejoice that we have committed a mistake, whisperers
as they are, and slanderers, and "hateful to God," [1401] such
characters should afford us matter for the exercise of patience with
pity, inasmuch as also the "patience of God leadeth them to
repentance." [1402] For what is more detestable, and what more likely
to "treasure up wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the
righteous judgment of God," [1403] than to rejoice, after the evil
likeness and pattern of the devil, in the evil of another? At times,
too, even when all is correctly and truly spoken, either something
which has not been understood, or something which, as being opposed to
the idea and wont of an old error, seems harsh in its very novelty,
offends and disturbs the hearer. But if this becomes apparent, and if
the person shows himself capable of being set right, he should be set
right without any delay by the use of abundance of authorities and
reasons. On the other hand, if the offense is tacit and hidden, the
medicine of God is the effective remedy for it. And if, again, the
person starts back and declines to be cured, we should comfort
ourselves with that example of our Lord, who, when men were offended
at His word, and shrank from it as a hard saying, addressed Himself at
the same time to those who had remained, in these terms, "Will ye also
go away?" [1404] For it ought to be retained as a thoroughly "fixed
and immovable" position in our heart, that Jerusalem which is in
captivity is set free from the Babylon of this world when the times
have run their course, and that none belonging to her shall perish:
for whoever may perish was not of her. "For the foundation of God
standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His;
and, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from
iniquity." [1405] If we ponder these things, and call upon the Lord to
come into our heart, we shall be less apprehensive of the uncertain
issues of our discourse, consequent on the uncertain feelings of our
hearers; and the very endurance of vexations in the cause of a work of
mercy will also be something pleasant to us, if we seek not our own
glory in the same. For then is a work truly good, when the aim of the
doer gets its impetus from charity, [1406] and, as if returning to its
own place, rests again in charity. Moreover, the reading which
delights us, or any listening to an eloquence superior to our own, the
effect of which is to make us inclined to set a greater value upon it
than upon the discourse which we ourselves have to deliver, and so to
lead us to speak with a reluctant or tedious utterance, will come upon
us in a happier spirit, and will be found to be more enjoyable after
labor. Then, too, with a stronger confidence shall we pray to God to
speak to us as we wish, if we cheerfully submit to let Him speak by us
as we are able. Thus is it brought about that all things come together
for good to them that love God. [1407]
Footnotes
[1401] Cf. Rom. i. 30
[1402] Rom. ii. 4. [See R.V.]
[1403] Rom. ii. 5
[1404] John vi. 67
[1405] 2 Tim. ii. 19
[1406] A caritate jaculatur
[1407] Concurrant in bonum Rom. viii. 28
Chapter 12.--Of the Remedy for the Third Source of Weariness.
17. Once more, however, we often feel it very wearisome to go over
repeatedly matters which are thoroughly familiar, and adapted (rather)
to children. If this is the case with us, then we should endeavor to
meet them with a brother's, a father's, and a mother's love; and, if
we are once united with them thus in heart, to us no less than to them
will these things seem new. For so great is the power of a sympathetic
disposition of mind, that, as they are affected while we are speaking,
and we are affected while they are learning, we have our dwelling in
each other; and thus, at one and the same time, they as it were in us
speak what they hear, and we in them learn after a certain fashion
what we teach. Is it not a common occurrence with us, that when we
show to persons, who have never seen them, certain spacious and
beautiful tracts, either in cities or in fields, which we have been in
the habit of passing by without any sense of pleasure, simply because
we have become so accustomed to the sight of them, we find our own
enjoyment renewed in their enjoyment of the novelty of the scene? And
this is so much the more our experience in proportion to the intimacy
of our friendship with them; because, just as we are in them in virtue
of the bond of love, in the same degree do things become new to us
which previously were old. But if we ourselves have made any
considerable progress in the contemplative study of things, it is not
our wish that those whom we love should simply be gratified and
astonished as they gaze upon the works of men's hands; but it becomes
our wish to lift them to (the contemplation of) the very skill [1408]
or wisdom of their author, and from this to (see them) rise to the
admiration and praise of the all-creating God, with whom [1409] is the
most fruitful end of love. How much more, then, ought we to be
delighted when men come to us with the purpose already formed of
obtaining the knowledge of God Himself, with a view to (the knowledge
of) whom all things should be learned which are to be learned! And how
ought we to feel ourselves renewed in their newness (of experience),
so that if our ordinary preaching is somewhat frigid, it may rise to
fresh warmth under (the stimulus of) their extraordinary hearing!
There is also this additional consideration to help us in the
attainment of gladness, namely, that we ponder and bear in mind out of
what death of error the man is passing over into the life of faith.
And if we walk through streets which are most familiar to us, with a
beneficent cheerfulness, when we happen to be pointing out the way to
some individual who had been in distress in consequence of missing his
direction, how much more should be the alacrity of spirit, and how
much greater the joy with which, in the matter of saving doctrine, we
ought to traverse again and again even those tracks which, so far as
we are ourselves concerned, there is no need to open up any more;
seeing that we are leading a miserable soul, and one worn out with the
devious courses of this world, through the paths of peace, at the
command of Him who made that peace [1410] good to us!
Footnotes
[1408] Some editions read arcem = stronghold, instead of artem.
[1409] Or = wherein: ubi.
[1410] Instead of eam, the reading ea = those things, also occurs.
Chapter 13.--Of the Remedy for the Fourth Source of Weariness.
18. But in good truth it is a serious demand to make upon us, to
continue discoursing on to the set limit when we fail to see our
hearer in any degree moved; whether it be that, under the restraints
of the awe of religion, he has not the boldness to signify his
approval by voice or by any movement of his body, or that he is kept
back by the modesty proper to man, [1411] or that he does not
understand our sayings, or that he counts them of no value. Since,
then, this must be a matter of uncertainty to us, as we cannot discern
his mind, it becomes our duty in our discourse to make trial of all
things which may be of any avail in stirring him up and drawing him
forth as it were from his place of concealment. For that sort of fear
which is excessive, and which obstructs the declaration of his
judgment, ought to be dispelled by the force of kindly exhortation;
and by bringing before him the consideration of our brotherly
affinity, we should temper his reverence for us; and by questioning
him, we should ascertain whether he understands what is addressed to
him; and we should impart to him a sense of confidence, so that he may
give free expression to any objection which suggests itself to him. We
should at the same time ask him whether he has already listened to
such themes on some previous occasion, and whether perchance they fail
to move him now in consequence of their being to him like things well
known and commonplace. And we ought to shape our course in accordance
with his answer, so as either to speak in a simpler style and with
greater detail of explanation, or to refute some antagonistic opinion,
or, instead of attempting any more diffuse exposition of the subjects
which are known to him, to give a brief summary of these, and to
select some of those matters which are handled in a mystical manner in
the holy books, and especially in the historical narrative, the
unfolding and setting forth of which may make our addresses more
attractive. But if the man is of a very sluggish disposition, and if
he is senseless, and without anything in common with all such sources
of pleasure, then we must simply bear with him in a compassionate
spirit; and, after briefly going over other points, we ought to
impress upon him, in a manner calculated to inspire him with awe, the
truths which are most indispensable on the subject of the unity of the
Catholic Church, [1412] on that of temptation, on that of a Christian
conversation in view of the future judgment; and we ought rather to
address ourselves to God for him than address much to him concerning
God.
19. It is likewise a frequent occurrence that one who at first
listened to us with all readiness, becomes exhausted either by the
effort of hearing or by standing, and now no longer commends what is
said, but gapes and yawns, and even unwillingly exhibits a disposition
to depart. When we observe that, it becomes our duty to refresh his
mind by saying something seasoned with an honest cheerfulness and
adapted to the matter which is being discussed, or something of a very
wonderful and amazing order, or even, it may be, something of a
painful and mournful nature. Whatever we thus say may be all the
better if it affects himself more immediately, so that the quick sense
of self-concern may keep his attention on the alert. At the same time,
however, it should not be of the kind to offend his spirit of
reverence by any harshness attaching to it; but it should be of a
nature fitted rather to conciliate him by the friendliness which it
breathes. Or else, we should relieve him by accommodating him with a
seat, although unquestionably matters will be better ordered if from
the outset, whenever that can be done with propriety, he sits and
listens. And indeed in certain of the churches beyond the sea, with a
far more considerate regard to the fitness of things, not only do the
prelates sit when they address the people, but they also themselves
put down seats for the people, lest any person of enfeebled strength
should become exhausted by standing, and thus have his mind diverted
from the most wholesome purport (of the discourse), or even be under
the necessity of departing. And yet it is one thing if it be simply
some one out of a great multitude who withdraws in order to recruit
his strength, he being also already under the obligations which result
from participation in the sacraments; and it is quite another thing if
the person withdrawing is one (inasmuch as it is usually the case in
these circumstances that the man is unavoidably urged to that course
by the fear that he should even fall, overcome by internal weakness)
who has to be initiated in the first sacraments; for a person in this
position is at once restrained by the sense of shame from stating the
reason of his going, and not permitted to stand through the force of
his weakness. This I speak from experience. For this was the case with
a certain individual, a man from the country, when I was instructing
him catechetically: and from his instance I have learned that this
kind of thing is carefully to be guarded against. For who can endure
our arrogance when we fail to make men who are our brethren, [1413] or
even those who are not yet in that relation to us (for our solicitude
then should be all the greater to get them to become our brethren), to
be seated in our presence, seeing that even a woman sat as she
listened to our Lord Himself, in whose service the angels stand alert?
[1414] Of course if the address is to be but short, or if the place is
not well adapted for sitting, they should listen standing. But that
should be the case only when there are many hearers, and when they are
not to be formally admitted [1415] at the time. For when the audience
consists only of one or two, or a few, who have come with the express
purpose of being made Christians, there is a risk in speaking to them
standing. Nevertheless, supposing that we have once begun in that
manner, we ought at least, whenever we observe signs of weariness on
the part of the hearer, to offer him the liberty of being seated; nay
more, we should urge him by all means to sit down, and we ought to
drop some remark calculated at once to refresh him and to banish from
his mind any anxiety which may have chanced to break in upon him and
draw off his attention. For inasmuch as the reasons why he remains
silent and declines to listen cannot be certainly known to us, now
that he is seated we may speak to some extent against the incidence of
thoughts about worldly affairs, delivering ourselves either in the
cheerful spirit to which I have already adverted, or in a serious
vein; so that, if these are the particular anxieties which have
occupied his mind, they may be made to give way as if indicted by
name: while, on the other hand, supposing them not to be the special
causes (of the loss of interest), and supposing him to be simply worn
out with listening, his attention will be relieved of the pressure of
weariness when we address to him some unexpected and extraordinary
strain of remark on these subjects, in the mode of which I have
spoken, as if they were the particular anxieties,--for indeed we are
simply ignorant (of the true causes). But let the remark thus made be
short, especially considering that it is thrown in out of order, lest
the very medicine even increase the malady of weariness which we
desire to relieve; and, at the same time, we should go on rapidly with
what remains, and promise and present the prospect of a conclusion
nearer than was looked for.
Footnotes
[1411] Or = by the reverence which he feels for the man: humana
verecundia.
[1412] The text gives simply Catholicæ. One ms. has Catholicæ fidei =
the Catholic faith. But it is most natural to supply Ecclesiæ.
[1413] Instead of viros fratres, some mss. read veros fratres = our
genuine brethren.
[1414] Luke x. 39
[1415] Initiandi = initiated.
Chapter 14.--Of the Remedy Against the Fifth and Sixth Sources of
Weariness.
20. If, again, your spirit has been broken by the necessity of giving
up some other employment, on which, as the more requisite, you were
now bent; and if the sadness caused by that constraint makes you
catechise in no pleasant mood, you ought to ponder the fact that,
excepting that we know it to be our duty, in all our dealings with
men, to act in a merciful manner, and in the exercise of the sincerest
charity,--with this one exception, I say, it is quite uncertain to us
what is the more profitable thing for us to do, and what the more
opportune thing for us either to pass by for a time or altogether to
omit. For inasmuch as we know not how the merits of men, on whose
behalf we are acting, stand with God, the question as to what is
expedient for them at a certain time is something which, instead of
being able to comprehend, we can rather only surmise, without the aid
of any (clear) inferences, or (at best) with the slenderest and the
most uncertain. Therefore we ought certainly to dispose the matters
with which we have to deal according to our intelligence; and then, if
we prove able to carry them out in the manner upon which we have
resolved, we should rejoice, not indeed that it was our will, but that
it was God's will, that they should thus be accomplished. But if
anything unavoidable happens, by which the disposition thus proposed
by us is interfered with, we should bend ourselves to it readily, lest
we be broken; so that the very disposition of affairs which God has
preferred to ours may also be made our own. For it is more in
accordance with propriety that we should follow His will than that He
should follow ours. Besides, as regards this order in the doing of
things, which we wish to keep in accordance with our own judgment,
surely that course is to be approved of in which objects that are
superior have the precedence. Why then are we aggrieved that the
precedence over men should be held by the Lord God in His vast
superiority to us men, so that in the said love which we entertain for
our own order, we should thus (exhibit the disposition to) despise
order? For "no one orders for the better" what he has to do, except
the man who is rather ready to leave undone what he is prohibited from
doing by the divine power, than desirous of doing that which he
meditates in his own human cogitations. For "there are many devices in
a man's heart; nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord stands for ever."
[1416]
21. But if our mind is agitated by some cause of offense, so as not to
be capable of delivering a discourse of a calm and enjoyable strain,
our charity towards those for whom Christ died, desiring to redeem
them by the price of His own blood from the death of the errors of
this world, ought to be so great, that the very circumstance of
intelligence being brought us in our sadness, regarding the advent of
some person who longs to become a Christian, ought to be enough to
cheer us and dissipate that heaviness of spirit, just as the delights
of gain are wont to soften the pain of losses. For we are not (fairly)
oppressed by the offense of any individual, unless it be that of the
man whom we either perceive or believe to be perishing himself, or to
be the occasion of the undoing of some weak one. Accordingly, one who
comes to us with the view of being formally admitted, in that we
cherish the hope of his ability to go forward, should wipe away the
sorrow caused by one who fails us. For even if the dread that our
proselyte may become the child of hell [1417] comes into our thoughts,
as, there are many such before our eyes, from whom those offenses
arise by which we are distressed, this ought to operate, not in the
way of keeping us back, but rather in the way of stimulating us and
spurring us on. And in the same measure we ought to admonish him whom
we are instructing to be on his guard against imitating those who are
Christians only in name and not in very truth, and to take care not to
suffer himself to be so moved by their numbers as either to be
desirous of following them, or to be reluctant to follow Christ on
their account, and either to be unwilling to be in the Church of God,
where they are, or to wish to be there in such a character as they
bear. And somehow or other, in admonitions of this sort, that address
is the more glowing to which a present sense of grief supplies the
fuel; so that instead of being duller, we utter with greater fire and
vehemence under such feelings things which, in times of greater ease,
we would give forth in a colder and less energetic manner. And this
should make us rejoice that an opportunity is afforded us under which
the emotions of our mind pass not away without yielding some fruit.
22. If, however, grief has taken possession of us on account of
something in which we ourselves have erred or sinned, we should bear
in mind not only that a "broken spirit is a sacrifice to God," [1418]
but also the saying, "Like as water quencheth fire, so alms sin;"
[1419] and again, "I will have mercy," saith He, "rather than
sacrifice." [1420] Therefore, as in the event of our being in peril
from fire we would certainly run to the water in order to get the fire
extinguished, and we would be grateful if any person were to offer it
in the immediate vicinity; so, if some flame of sin has risen from our
own stack, [1421] and if we are troubled on that account, when an
opportunity has been given for a most merciful work, we should rejoice
in it, as if a fountain were offered us in order that by it the
conflagration which had burst forth might be extinguished. Unless
haply we are foolish enough to think that we ought to be readier in
running with bread, wherewith we may fill the belly of a hungry man,
than with the word of God, wherewith we may instruct the mind of the
man who feeds on it. [1422] There is this also to consider, namely,
that if it would only be of advantage to us to do this thing, and
entail no disadvantage to leave it undone, we might despise a remedy
offered in an unhappy fashion in the time of peril with a view to the
safety, not now of a neighbor, but of ourselves. But when from the
mouth of the Lord this so threatening sentence is heard, "Thou wicked
and slothful servant, thou oughtest to give my money to the
exchangers," [1423] what madness, I pray thee, is it thus, seeing that
our sin pains us, to be minded to sin again, by refusing to give the
Lord's money to one who desires it and asks it! When these and such
like considerations and reflections have succeeded in dispelling the
darkness of weary feelings, the bent of mind is rendered apt for the
duty of catechising, so that that is received in a pleasant manner
which breaks forth vigorously and cheerfully from the rich vein of
charity. For these things indeed which are uttered here are spoken,
not so much by me to you, as rather to us all by that very "love which
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that is given to us."
[1424]
Footnotes
[1416] Prov. xix. 21
[1417] Matt. xxiii. 15
[1418] Ps. li. 17
[1419] Ecclus. iii. 30
[1420] Hos. vi. 6
[1421] Fæno= hay.
[1422] Reading istud edentis; for which some editions give studentis =
of one who studies it.
[1423] Matt. xxv. 26, 27
[1424] Rom. v. 5
Chapter 15.--Of the Method in Which Our Address Should Be Adapted to
Different Classes of Hearers.
23. But now, perhaps, you also demand of me as a debt that which,
previous to the promise which I made, I was under no obligation to
give, namely, that I should not count it burdensome to unfold some
sort of example of the discourse intended, and to set it before you
for your study, just as if I were myself engaged in catechising some
individual. Before I do that, however, I wish you to keep in mind the
fact that the mental effort is of one kind in the case of a person who
dictates, with a future reader in his view, and that it is of quite
another kind in the case of a person who speaks with a present hearer
to whom to direct his attention. And further, it is to be remembered
that, in this latter instance in particular, the effort is of one kind
when one is admonishing in private, and when there is no other person
at hand to pronounce judgment on us; whereas it is of a different
order when one is conveying any instruction in public, and when there
stands around him an audience of persons holding dissimilar opinions;
and again, that in this exercise of teaching, the effort will be of
one sort when only a single individual is being instructed, while all
the rest listen, like persons judging or attesting things well known
to them, and that it will be different when all those who are present
wait for what we have to deliver to them; and once more, that, in this
same instance, the effort will be one thing when all are seated, as it
were, in private conference with a view to engaging in some
discussion, and that it will be quite another thing when the people
sit silent and intent on giving their attention to some single speaker
who is to address them from a higher position. It will likewise make a
considerable difference, even when we are discoursing in that style,
whether there are few present or many, whether they are learned or
unlearned, or made up of both classes combined; whether they are
city-bred or rustics, or both the one and the other together; or
whether, again, they are a people composed of all orders of men in due
proportion. For it is impossible but that they will affect in
different ways the person who has to speak to them and discourse with
them, and that the address which is delivered will both bear certain
features, as it were, expressive of the feelings of the mind from
which it proceeds, and also influence the hearers in different ways,
in accordance with that same difference (in the speaker's
disposition), while at the same time the hearers themselves will
influence one another in different ways by the simple force of their
presence with each other. But as we are dealing at present with the
matter of the instruction of the unlearned, I am a witness to you, as
regards my own experience, that I find myself variously moved,
according as I see before me, for the purposes of catechetical
instruction, a highly educated man, a dull fellow, a citizen, a
foreigner, a rich man, a poor man, a private individual, a man of
honors, a person occupying some position of authority, an individual
of this or the other nation, of this or the other age or sex, one
proceeding from this or the other sect, from this or the other common
error,--and ever in accordance with the difference of my feelings does
my discourse itself at once set out, go on, and reach its end. And
inasmuch as, although the same charity is due to all, yet the same
medicine is not to be administered to all, in like manner charity
itself travails with some, is made weak together with others; is at
pains to edify some, tremblingly apprehends being an offense to
others; bends to some, lifts itself erect to others; is gentle to
some, severe to others; to none an enemy, to all a mother. And when
one, who has not gone through the kind of experience to which I refer
in the same spirit of charity, sees us attaining, in virtue of some
gift which has been conferred upon us, and which carries the power of
pleasing, a certain repute of an eulogistic nature in the mouth of the
multitude, he counts us happy on that account. But may God, into whose
cognizance the "groaning of them that are bound enters," [1425] look
upon our humility, and our labor, and forgive us all our sins. [1426]
Wherefore, if anything in us has so far pleased you as to make you
desirous of hearing from us some remarks on the subject of the form of
discourse which you ought to follow, [1427] you should acquire a more
thorough understanding of the matter by contemplating us, and
listening to us when we are actually engaged with these topics, than
by a perusal when we are only dictating them.
Footnotes
[1425] Ps. lxxix. 11
[1426] Cf. Ps. xxv. 18
[1427] Ut aliquam observationem sermonis tui a nobis audire quæreres
Chapter 16.--A Specimen of a Catechetical Address; And First, the Case
of a Catechumen with Worthy Views.
24. Nevertheless, however that may be, let us here suppose that some
one has come to us who desires to be made a Christian, and who belongs
indeed to the order of private persons, [1428] and yet not to the
class of rustics, but to that of the city-bred, such as those whom you
cannot fail to come across in numbers in Carthage. Let us also suppose
that, on being asked whether the inducement leading him to desire to
be a Christian is any advantage looked for in the present life, or the
rest which is hoped for after this life, he has answered that his
inducement has been the rest that is yet to come. Then perchance such
a person might be instructed by us in some such strain of address as
the following: "Thanks be to God, my brother; cordially do I wish you
joy, and I am glad on your account that, amid all the storms of this
world, which are at once so great and so dangerous, you have bethought
yourself of some true and certain security. For even in this life men
go in quest of rest and security at the cost of heavy labors, but they
fail to find such in consequence of their wicked lusts. For their
thought is to find rest in things which are unquiet, and which endure
not. And these objects, inasmuch as they are withdrawn from them and
pass away in the course of time, agitate them by fears and griefs, and
suffer them not to enjoy tranquillity. For if it be that a man seeks
to find his rest in wealth, he is rendered proud rather than at ease.
Do we not see how many have lost their riches on a sudden,--how many,
too, have been undone by reason of them, either as they have been
coveting to possess them, or as they have been borne down and
despoiled of them by others more covetous than themselves? And even
should they remain with the man all his life long, and never leave
their lover, yet would he himself (have to) leave them at his death.
For of what measure is the life of man, even if he lives to old age?
Or when men desire for themselves old age, what else do they really
desire but long infirmity? So, too, with the honors of this
world,--what are they but empty pride and vanity, and peril of ruin?
For holy Scripture speaks in this wise: `All flesh is grass, and the
glory of man is as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the
flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for
ever.' [1429] Consequently, if any man longs for true rest and true
felicity, he ought to lift his hope off things which are mortal and
transitory, and fix it on the word of the Lord; so that, cleaving to
that which endures for ever, he may himself together with it endure
for ever.
25. "There are also other men who neither crave to be rich nor go
about seeking the vain pomps of honors, but who nevertheless are
minded to find their pleasure and rest in dainty meats, and in
fornications, and in those theatres and spectacles which are at their
disposal in great cities for nothing. But it fares with these, too, in
the same way; or they waste their small means in luxury, and
subsequently, under pressure of want, break out into thefts and
burglaries, and at times even into highway robberies, and so they are
suddenly filled with fears both numerous and great; and men who a
little before were singing in the house of revelry, are now dreaming
of the sorrows of the prison. Moreover, in their eager devotion to the
public spectacles, they come to resemble demons, as they incite men by
their cries to wound each other, and instigate those who have done
them no hurt to engage in furious contests with each other, while they
seek to please an insane people. And if they perceive any such to be
peaceably disposed, they straightway hate them and persecute them, and
raise an outcry, asking that they should be beaten with clubs, as if
they had been in collusion to cheat them; and this iniquity they force
even the judge, who is the (appointed) avenger of iniquities, to
perpetrate. On the other hand, if they observe such men exerting
themselves in horrid hostilities against each other, whether they be
those who are called sintoe, [1430] or theatrical actors and players,
[1431] or charioteers, or hunters,--those wretched men whom they
engage in conflicts and struggles, not only men with men, but even men
with beasts,--then the fiercer the fury with which they perceive these
unhappy creatures rage against each other, the better they like them,
and the greater the enjoyment they have in them; and they favor them
when thus excited, [1432] and by so favoring them they excite them all
the more, the spectators themselves striving more madly with each
other, as they espouse the cause of different combatants, than is the
case even with those very men whose madness they madly provoke, while
at the same time they also long to be spectators of the same in their
mad frenzy. [1433] How then can that mind keep the soundness of peace
which feeds on strifes and contentions? For just as is the food which
is received, such is the health which results. In fine, although mad
pleasures are no pleasures, nevertheless let these things be taken as
they are, and it still remains the case that, whatever their nature
may be, and whatever the measure of enjoyment yielded by the boasts of
riches, and the inflation of honors, and the spendthrift pleasures of
the taverns, and the contests of the theatres, and the impurity of
fornications, and the pruriency of the baths, they are all things of
which one little fever deprives us, while, even from those who still
survive, it takes away the whole false happiness of their life. Then
there remains only a void and wounded conscience, destined to
apprehend that God as a Judge whom it refused to have as a Father, and
destined also to find a severe Lord in Him whom it scorned to seek and
love as a tender Father. But thou, inasmuch as thou seekest that true
rest which is promised to Christians after this life, wilt taste the
same sweet and pleasant rest even here among the bitterest troubles of
this life, if thou continuest to love the commandments of Him who hath
promised the same. For quickly wilt thou feel that the fruits of
righteousness are sweeter than those of unrighteousness, and that a
man finds a more genuine and pleasurable joy in the possession of a
good conscience in the midst of troubles than in that of an evil
conscience in the midst of delights. For thou hast not come to be
united to the Church of God with the idea of seeking from it any
temporal advantage.
Footnotes
[1428] Idiotarum
[1429] Isa. xl. 6, 8; 1 Pet. i. 24, 25
[1430] Reading sive sintoe qui appellantur, for which there occur such
varieties of reading as these: sint athletæ qui appellantur = those
who are called athletes; or sint æqui appellantur; or simply sint qui
appellantur = whatever name they bear, whether actors, etc. The term
sintæ, borrowed from the Greek Sintai = devourers, spoilers, may have
been a word in common use among the Africans, as the Benedictine
editors suggest, for designating some sort of coarse characters.
[1431] Thymelici, strictly = the musicians belonging to the thymele,
or orchestra.
[1432] Reading incitatis favent, for which some mss. give incitati =
excited themselves, they favor them; and others have incitantes =
exciting them, they favor them.
[1433] Compare a passage in the Confessions, vi. 13.
Chapter 17.--The Specimen of Catechetical Discourse Continued, in
Reference Specially to the Reproval of False Aims on the Catechumen's
Part.
26. "For there are some whose reason for desiring to become Christians
is either that they may gain the favor of men from whom they look for
temporal advantages, or that they are reluctant to offend those whom
they fear. But these are reprobate; and although the church bears them
for a time, as the threshing-floor bears the chaff until the period of
winnowing, yet if they fail to amend and begin to be Christians in
sincerity in view of the everlasting rest which is to come, they will
be separated from it in the end. And let not such flatter themselves,
because it is possible for them to be in the threshing-floor along
with the grain of God. For they will not be together with that in the
barn, but are destined for the fire, which is their due. There are
also others of better hope indeed, but nevertheless in no inferior
danger. I mean those who now fear God, and mock not the Christian
name, neither enter the church of God with an assumed heart, but still
look for their felicity in this life, expecting to have more felicity
in earthly things than those enjoy who refuse to worship God. And the
consequence of this false anticipation is, that when they see some
wicked and impious men strongly established and excelling in this
worldly prosperity, while they themselves either possess it in a
smaller degree or miss it altogether, they are troubled with the
thought that they are serving God without reason, and so they readily
fall away from the faith.
27. "But as to the man who has in view that everlasting blessedness
and perpetual rest which is promised as the lot destined for the
saints after this life, and who desires to become a Christian, in
order that he may not pass into eternal fire with the devil, but enter
into the eternal kingdom together with Christ, [1434] such an one is
truly a Christian; (and he will be) on his guard in every temptation,
so that he may neither be corrupted by prosperity nor be utterly
broken in spirit by adversity, but remain at once modest and temperate
when the good things of earth abound with him, and brave and patient
when tribulations overtake him. A person of this character will also
advance in attainments until he comes to that disposition of mind
which will make him love God more than he fears hell; so that even
were God to say to him, `Avail yourself of carnal pleasures for ever,
and sin as much as you are able, and you shall neither die nor be sent
into hell, but you will only not be with me, he would be terribly
dismayed, and would altogether abstain from sinning, not now (simply)
with the purpose of not falling into that of which he was wont to be
afraid, but with the wish not to offend Him whom he so greatly loves:
in whom alone also there is the rest which eye hath not seen, neither
hath ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man (to
conceive),--the rest which God hath prepared for them that love Him.
[1435]
28. "Now, on the subject of this rest Scripture is significant, and
refrains not to speak, when it tells us how at the beginning of the
world, and at the time when God made heaven and earth and all things
which are in them, He worked during six days, and rested on the
seventh day. [1436] For it was in the power of the Almighty to make
all things even in one moment of time. For He had not labored in the
view that He might enjoy (a needful) rest, since indeed "He spake, and
they were made; He commanded, and they were created;" [1437] but that
He might signify how, after six ages of this world, in a seventh age,
as on the seventh day, He will rest in His saints; inasmuch as these
same saints shall rest also in Him after all the good works in which
they have served Him,--which He Himself, indeed, works in them, who
calls them, and instructs them, and puts away the offenses that are
past, and justifies the man who previously was ungodly. For as, when
by His gift they work that which is good, He is Himself rightly said
to work (that in them), so, when they rest in Him, He is rightly said
to rest Himself. For, as regards Himself, He seeks no cessation,
because He feels no labor. Moreover He made all things by His Word;
and His Word is Christ Himself, in whom the angels and all those
purest spirits of heaven rest in holy silence. Man, however in that he
fell by sin, has lost the rest which he possessed in His divinity, and
receives it again (now) in His humanity; and for this purpose He
became man, and was born of a woman, at the seasonable time at which
He Himself knew it behoved it so to be fulfilled. And from the flesh
assuredly He could not sustain any contamination, being Himself rather
destined to purify the flesh. Of His future coming the ancient saints,
in the revelation of the Spirit, had knowledge, and prophesied. And
thus were they saved by believing that He was to come, even as we are
saved by believing that He has come. Hence ought we to love God who
has so loved us as to have sent His only Son, in order that He might
endue Himself with the lowliness [1438] of our mortality, and die both
at the hands of sinners and on behalf of sinners. For even in times of
old, and in the opening ages, the depth of this mystery ceases not to
be prefigured and prophetically announced.
Footnotes
[1434] Cf. Matt. xxv. 34, 41
[1435] 1 Cor. ii. 9
[1436] Gen. ii. 1-3
[1437] Ps. cxlviii. 5
[1438] Humanitate, = humanity, also occurs instead of humilitate.
Chapter 18.--Of What is to Be Believed on the Subject of the Creation
of Man and Other Objects.
29. "Whereas, then, the omnipotent God, who is also good and just and
merciful, who made all things,--whether they be great or small,
whether they be highest or lowest, whether they be things which are
seen, such as are the heavens and the earth and the sea, and in the
heavens, in particular, the sun and the moon and other luminaries, and
in the earth and the sea, again, trees and shrubs and animals each
after their kind, and all bodies celestial or terrestrial alike, or
whether they be things which are not seen, such as are those spirits
whereby bodies are animated and endowed with life,--made also man
after His own image, in order that, as He Himself, in virtue of His
omnipotence, presides over universal creation, so man, in virtue of
that intelligence of his by which he comes to know even his Creator
and worships Him, might preside over all the living creatures of
earth: Whereas, too, he made the woman to be an helpmeet for him: not
for carnal concupiscence,--since, indeed, they had not corruptible
bodies at that period, before the punishment of sin invaded them in
the form of mortality,--but for this purpose, that the man might at
once have glory of the woman in so far as he went before her to God,
and present in himself an example to her for imitation in holiness and
piety, even as he himself was to be the glory of God in so far as he
followed his wisdom:
30. "Therefore did he place them in a certain locality of perpetual
blessedness, which the Scripture designates Paradise: and he gave them
a commandment, on condition of not violating which they were to
continue for ever in that blessedness of immortality; while, on the
other hand, if they transgressed it, they were to sustain the
penalties of mortality. Now God knew beforehand that they would
trangress it. Nevertheless, in that He is the author and maker of
everything good, He chose rather to make them, as He also made the
beasts, in order that He might replenish the earth with the good
things proper to earth. And certainly man, even sinful man, is better
than a beast. And the commandment, which they were not to keep, He yet
preferred to give them, in order that they might be without excuse
when He should begin to vindicate Himself against them. For whatever
man may have done, he finds God worthy to be praised in all His
doings: if he shall have acted rightly, he finds Him worthy to be
praised for the righteousness of His rewards: if he shall have sinned,
he finds Him worthy to be praised for the righteousness of His
punishments: if he shall have confessed his sins and returned to an
upright life, he finds Him worthy to be praised for the mercy of His
pardoning favors. Why, then, should God not make man, although He
foreknew that he would sin, when He might crown him if he stood, and
set him right if he fell, and help him if he rose, Himself being
always and everywhere glorious in goodness, righteousness, and
clemency? Above all, why should He not do so, since He also foreknew
this, namely, that from the race of that mortality there would spring
saints, who should not seek their own, but give glory to their
Creator; and who, obtaining deliverance from every corruption by
worshipping Him, should be counted worthy to live for ever, and to
live in blessedness with the holy angels? For He who gave freedom of
will to men, in order that they might worship God not of slavish
necessity but with ingenuous inclination, gave it also to the angels;
and hence neither did the angel, who, in company with other spirits
who were his satellites, forsook in pride the obedience of God and
became the devil, do any hurt to God, but to himself. For God knoweth
how to dispose of souls [1439] that leave Him, and out of their
righteous misery to furnish the inferior sections of His creatures
with the most appropriate and befitting laws of His wonderful
dispensation. Consequently, neither did the devil in any manner harm
God, whether in falling himself, or in seducing man to death; nor did
man himself in any degree impair the truth, or power, or blessedness
[1440] of His Maker, in that, when his partner was seduced by the
devil, he of his own deliberate inclination consented unto her in the
doing of that which God had forbidden. For by the most righteous laws
of God all were condemned, God Himself being glorious in the equity of
retribution, while they were shamed through the degradation of
punishment: to the end that man, when he turned away from his Creator,
should be overcome by the devil and made his subject, and that the
devil might be set before man as an enemy to be conquered, when he
turned again to his Creator; so that whosoever should consent unto the
devil even to the end, might go with him into eternal punishments;
whereas those who should humble themselves to God, and by His grace
overcome the devil, might be counted worthy of eternal rewards.
Footnotes
[1439] Rather "spirits." See the correction made in the Retractations,
ii. 14, as given above in the Introductory Notice.
[1440] The beatitatem is omitted by several mss.
Chapter 19.--Of the Co-Existence of Good and Evil in the Church, and
Their Final Separation.
31. "Neither ought we to be moved by the consideration that many
consent unto the devil, and few follow God; for the grain, too, in
comparison with the chaff, has greatly the defect in number. But even
as the husbandman knows what to do with the mighty heap of chaff, so
the multitude of sinners is nothing to God, who knows what to do with
them, so as not to let the administration of His kingdom be disordered
and dishonored in any part. Nor is the devil to be supposed to have
proved victorious for the mere reason of his drawing away with him
more than the few by whom he may be overcome. In this way there are
two communities--one of the ungodly, and another of the holy--which
are carried down from the beginning of the human race even to the end
of the world, which are at present commingled in respect of bodies,
but separated in respect of wills, and which, moreover, are destined
to be separated also in respect of bodily presence in the day of
judgment. For all men who love pride and temporal power with vain
elation and pomp of arrogance, and all spirits who set their
affections on such things and seek their own glory in the subjection
of men, are bound fast together in one association; nay, even although
they frequently fight against each other on account of these things,
they are nevertheless precipitated by the like weight of lust into the
same abyss, and are united with each other by similarity of manners
and merits. And, again, all men and all spirits who humbly seek the
glory of God and not their own, and who follow Him in piety, belong to
one fellowship. And, notwithstanding this, God is most merciful and
patient with ungodly men, and offers them a place for penitence and
amendment.
32. "For with respect also to the fact that He destroyed all men in
the flood, with the exception of one righteous man together with his
house, whom He willed to be saved in the ark, He knew indeed that they
would not amend themselves; yet, nevertheless, as the building of the
ark went on for the space of a hundred years, the wrath of God which
was to come upon them was certainly preached to them: [1441] and if
they only would have turned to God, He would have spared them, as at a
later period He spared the city of Nineveh when it repented, after He
had announced to it, by means of a prophet, the destruction that was
about to overtake it. [1442] Thus, moreover, God acts, granting a
space for repentance even to those who He knows will persist in
wickedness, in order that He may exercise and instruct our patience by
His own example; whereby also we may know how greatly it befits us to
bear with the evil in long-suffering, when we know not what manner of
men they will prove hereafter, seeing that He, whose cognizance
nothing that is yet to be escapes, spares them and suffers them to
live. Under the sacramental sign of the flood, however, in which the
righteous were rescued by the wood, there was also a fore-announcement
of the Church which was to be, which Christ, its King and God, has
raised on high; by the mystery of His cross, in safety from the
submersion of this world. Moreover, God was not ignorant of the fact
that, even of those who had been saved in the ark, there would be born
wicked men, who would cover the face of the earth a second time with
iniquities. But, nevertheless, He both gave them a pattern of the
future judgment, and fore-announced the deliverance of the holy by the
mystery of the wood. For even after these things wickedness did not
cease to sprout forth again through pride, and lusts, and illicit
impieties, when men, forsaking their Creator, not only fell to the
(standard of the) creature which God made, so as to worship instead of
God that which God made, but even bowed their souls to the works of
the hands of men and to the contrivances of craftsmen, wherein a more
shameful triumph was to be won over them by the devil, and by those
evil spirits who rejoice in finding themselves adored and reverenced
in such false devices, while they feed [1443] their own errors with
the errors of men.
33. "But in truth there were not wanting in those times righteous men
also of the kind to seek God piously and to overcome the pride of the
devil, citizens of that holy community, who were made whole by the
humiliation of Christ, which was then only destined to enter, but was
revealed to them by the Spirit. From among these, Abraham, a pious and
faithful servant of God, was chosen, in order that to him might be
shown the sacrament of the Son of God, so that thus, in virtue of the
imitation of his faith, all the faithful of all nations might be
called his children in the future. Of him was born a people, by whom
the one true God who made heaven and earth should be worshipped when
all other nations did service to idols and evil spirits. In that
people, plainly, the future Church was much more evidently prefigured.
For in it there was a carnal multitude that worshipped God with a view
to visible benefits. But in it there were also a few who thought of
the future rest, and looked longingly for the heavenly fatherland, to
whom through prophecy was revealed the coming humiliation of God in
the person of our King and Lord Jesus Christ, in order that they might
be made whole of all pride and arrogance through that faith. And with
respect to these saints who in point of time had precedence of the
birth of the Lord, not only their speech, but also their life, and
their marriages, and their children, and their doings, constituted a
prophecy of this time, at which the Church is being gathered together
out of all nations through faith in the passion of Christ. By the
instrumentality of those holy patriarchs and prophets this carnal
people of Israel, who at a later period were also called Jews, had
ministered unto them at once those visible benefits which they eagerly
desired of the Lord in a carnal manner, and those chastisements, in
the form of bodily punishments, which were intended to terrify them
for the time, as was befitting for their obstinacy. And in all these,
nevertheless, there were also spiritual mysteries signified, such as
were meant to bear upon Christ and the Church; of which Church those
saints also were members, although they existed in this life previous
to the birth of Christ, the Lord, according to the flesh. For this
same Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, the Word of the Father,
equal and co-eternal with the Father, by whom all things were made,
was Himself also made man for our sakes, in order that of the whole
Church, as of His whole body, He might be the Head. But just as when
the whole man is in the process of being born, although he may put the
hand forth first in the act of birth, yet is that hand joined and
compacted together with the whole body under the head, even as also
among these same patriarchs some were born [1444] with the hand put
forth first as a sign of this very thing: so all the saints who lived
upon the earth previous to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ,
although they were born antecedently, were nevertheless united under
the Head with that universal body of which He is the Head.
Footnotes
[1441] Gen. vi. 7
[1442] Jonah iii
[1443] Instead of pascunt the reading miscent, = mix, is also found.
[1444] Gen. xxv. 26, xxxviii. 27-30
Chapter 20.--Of Israel's Bondage in Egypt, Their Deliverance, and
Their Passage Through the Red Sea.
34. "That people, then, having been brought down into Egypt, were in
bondage to the harshest of kings; and, taught by the most oppressive
labors, they sought their deliverer in God; and there was sent to them
one belonging to the people themselves, Moses, the holy servant of
God, who, in the might of God, terrified the impious nation of the
Egyptians in those days by great miracles, and led forth the people of
God out of that land through the Red Sea, where the water parted and
opened up a way for them as they crossed it, whereas, when the
Egyptians pressed on in pursuit, the waves returned to their channel
and overwhelmed them, so that they perished. Thus, then, just as the
earth through the agency of the flood was cleansed by the waters from
the wickedness of the sinners, who in those times were destroyed in
their inundation, while the righteous escaped by means of the wood; so
the people of God, when they went forth from Egypt, found a way
through the waters by which their enemies were devoured. Nor was the
sacrament of the wood wanting there. For Moses smote with his rod, in
order that that miracle might be effected. Both these are signs of
holy baptism, by which the faithful pass into the new life, while
their sins are done away with like enemies, and perish. But more
clearly was the passion of Christ prefigured in the case of that
people, when they were commanded to slay and eat the lamb, and to mark
their door-posts with its blood, and to celebrate this rite every
year, and to designate it the Lord's passover. For surely prophecy
speaks with the utmost plainness of the Lord Jesus Christ, when it
says that "He was led as a lamb to the slaughter." [1445] And with the
sign of His passion and cross, thou art this day to be marked on thy
forehead, as on the door-post, and all Christians are marked with the
same.
35. "Thereafter this people was conducted through the wilderness for
forty years. They also received the law written by the finger of God,
under which name the Holy Spirit is signified, as it is declared with
the utmost plainness in the Gospel. For God is not defined [1446] by
the form of a body, neither are members and fingers to be thought of
as existent in Him in the way in which we see them in ourselves. But,
inasmuch as it is through the Holy Spirit that God's gifts are divided
to His saints, in order that, although they vary in their capacities,
they may nevertheless not lapse from the concord of charity, and
inasmuch as it is especially in the fingers that there appears a
certain kind of division, while nevertheless there is no separation
from unity, this may be the explanation of the phrase. But whether
this may be the case, or whatever other reason may be assigned for the
Holy Spirit being called the finger of God, we ought not at any rate
to think of the form of a human body when we hear this expression
used. The people in question, then, received the law written by the
finger of God, and that in good sooth on tables of stone, to signify
the hardness of their heart in that they were not to fulfill the law.
For, as they eagerly sought from the Lord gifts meant for the uses of
the body, they were held by carnal fear rather than by spiritual
charity. But nothing fulfills the law save charity. Consequently, they
were burdened with many visible sacraments, to the intent that they
should feel the pressure of the yoke of bondage in the observances of
meats, and in the sacrifices of animals, and in other rites
innumerable; which things, at the same time, were signs of spiritual
matters relating to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Church; which,
furthermore, at that time were both understood by a few holy men to
the effect of yielding the fruit of salvation, and observed by them in
accordance with the fitness of the time, while by the multitude of
carnal men they were observed only and not understood.
36. "In this manner, then, through many varied signs of things to
come, which it would be tedious to enumerate in complete detail, and
which we now see in their fulfillment in the Church, that people were
brought to the land of promise, in which they were to reign in a
temporal and carnal way in accordance with their own longings: which
earthly kingdom, nevertheless, sustained the image of a spiritual
kingdom. There Jerusalem was founded, that most celebrated city of
God, which, while in bondage, served as a sign of the free city, which
is called the heavenly Jerusalem [1447] which latter term is a Hebrew
word, and signifies by interpretation the `vision of peace.' The
citizens thereof are all sanctified men, who have been, who are, and
who are yet to be; and all sanctified spirits, even as many as are
obedient to God with pious devotion in the exalted regions of heaven,
and imitate not the impious pride of the devil and his angels. The
King of this city is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, by whom
the highest angels are governed, and at the same time the Word that
took unto Himself human nature, [1448] in order that by Him men also
might be governed, who, in His fellowship, shall reign all together in
eternal peace. In the service of prefiguring this King in that earthly
kingdom of the people of Israel, King David stood forth pre-eminent,
[1449] of whose seed according to the flesh that truest King was to
come, to wit, our Lord Jesus Christ, `who is over all, God blessed for
ever.' [1450] In that land of promise many things were done, which
held good as figures of the Christ who was to come, and of the Church,
with which you will have it in your power to acquaint yourself by
degrees in the Holy Books.
Footnotes
[1445] Isa. liii. 7
[1446] Or = circumscribed, definitus.
[1447] Cf. Gal. iv. 26
[1448] Hominem.
[1449] 1 Kings xi. 13
[1450] Rom. ix. 5
Chapter 21.--Of the Babylonish Captivity, and the Things Signified
Thereby.
37. "Howbeit, after the lapse of some generations, another type was
presented, which bears very emphatically on the matter in hand. For
that city [1451] was brought into captivity, and a large section of
the people were carried off into Babylonia. Now, as Jerusalem
signifies the city and fellowship of the saints, so Babylonia
signifies the city and fellowship of the wicked, seeing that by
interpretation it denotes confusion. On the subject of these two
cities, which have been running their courses, mingling the one with
the other, through all the changes of time from the beginning of the
human race, and which shall so move on together until the end of the
world, when they are destined to be separated at the last judgment, we
have spoken already a little ago. [1452] That captivity, then, of the
city of Jerusalem, and the people thus carried into Babylonia in
bondage, were ordained so to proceed by the Lord, by the voice of
Jeremiah, a prophet of that time. [1453] And there appeared kings
[1454] of Babylon, under whom they were in slavery, who on occasion of
the captivity of this people were so wrought upon by certain miracles
that they came to know the one true God who founded universal
creation, and worshipped Him, and commanded that He should be
worshipped. Moreover the people were ordered both to pray for those by
whom they were detained in captivity, and in their peace to hope for
peace, to the effect that they should beget children, and build
houses, and plant gardens and vineyards. [1455] But at the end of
seventy years, release from their captivity was promised to them.
[1456] All this, furthermore, signified in a figure that the Church of
Christ in all His saints, who are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem,
would have to do service under the kings of this world. For the
doctrine of the apostles speaks also in this wise, that `every soul
should be subject to the higher powers,' and that there `should be
rendered all things to all men, tribute to whom tribute (is due),
custom to whom custom,' [1457] and all other things in like manner
which, without detriment to the worship of our God, we render to the
rulers in the constitution of human society: for the Lord Himself
also, in order to set before us an example of this sound doctrine, did
not deem it unworthy of Him to pay tribute [1458] on account of that
human individuality [1459] wherewith He was invested. Again, Christian
servants and good believers are also commanded to serve their temporal
masters in equanimity and faithfulness; [1460] whom they will
hereafter judge, if even on to the end they find them wicked, or with
whom they will hereafter reign in equality, if they too shall have
been converted to the true God. Still all are enjoined to be subject
to the powers that are of man and of earth, even until, at the end of
the predetermined time which the seventy years signify, the Church
shall be delivered from the confusion of this world, like as Jerusalem
was to be set free from the captivity in Babylonia. By occasion of
that captivity, however, the kings of earth too have themselves been
led to forsake the idols on account of which they were wont to
persecute the Christians, and have come to know, and now worship, the
one true God and Christ the Lord; and it is on their behalf that the
Apostle Paul enjoins prayer to be made, even although they should
persecute the Church. For he speaks in these terms: `I entreat,
therefore, that first of all supplications, adorations, [1461]
intercessions, and givings of thanks be made for kings, for all men,
and all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable
life, with all godliness and charity.' [1462] Accordingly peace has
been given to the Church by these same persons, although it be but of
a temporal sort,--a temporal quiet for the work of building houses
after a spiritual fashion, and planting gardens and vineyards. For
witness your own case, too,--at this very time we are engaged, by
means of this discourse, in building you up and planting you. And the
like process is going on throughout the whole circle of lands, in
virtue of the peace allowed by Christian kings, even as the same
apostle thus expresses himself: `Ye are God's husbandry; ye are God's
building.' [1463]
38. "And, indeed, after the lapse of the seventy years of which
Jeremiah had mystically prophesied, to the intent of prefiguring the
end of times, with a view still to the perfecting of that same figure,
no settled peace and liberty were conceded again to the Jews. Thus it
was that they were conquered subsequently by the Romans and made
tributary. From that period, in truth, at which they received the land
of promise and began to have kings, in order to preclude the
supposition that the promise of the Christ who was to be their
Liberator had met its complete fulfillment in the person of any one of
their kings, Christ was prophesied of with greater clearness in a
number of prophecies; not only by David himself in the book of Psalms,
but also by the rest of the great and holy prophets, even on to the
time of their conveyance into captivity in Babylonia; and in that same
captivity there were also prophets whose mission was to prophesy of
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Liberator of all. And after
the restoration of the temple, when the seventy years had passed, the
Jews sustained grievous oppressions and sufferings at the hands of the
kings of the Gentiles, fitted to make them understand that the
Liberator was not yet come, whom they failed to apprehend as one who
was to effect for them a spiritual deliverance, and whom they fondly
longed for on account of a carnal liberation.
Footnotes
[1451] Or = community, civitas.
[1452] See Chapter xix.
[1453] Jer. xxv. 18, xxix. 1
[1454] Dan. ii. 47, iii. 29, vi. 26; 1 Esdr. ii. 7; Bel. 41
[1455] Jer. xxix. 4-7
[1456] Jer. xxv. 12
[1457] Rom. xiii. 1, 7
[1458] Matt. xvii. 27
[1459] Pro capite hominis, literally = "on" account of that head of
man, etc.
[1460] Eph. vi. 5
[1461] Instead of orationes; the better authenticated reading is
adorationes.
[1462] 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2
[1463] 1 Cor. iii. 9; cf. Jer. xxv. 12, xxix. 10
Chapter 22.--Of the Six Ages of the World.
39. "Five ages of the world, accordingly, having been now completed
(there has entered the sixth). Of these