For when you consider things beneath your- 9 Retract, i. 7, § 3: — " I found in many manuscripts the read- ing, ' Vanity of the vain.' But this is not in the Greek, which has ' Vanity of vanities.' I'his 1 saw afterwards. And I found that the best Latin manuscripts had vanities and not vain. But the, truths I have drawn from this false reading are self-evident."
Chap. XXIII.] OF THE MORALS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Do self to be admirable and desirable, what is this but to be cheated and misled by unreal # goods? The man, then, who is temperate in such mortal and transient things has his rule of life confirmed by both Testaments, that he should love none of these things, nor think them desirable for their own sakes, but should use them as far as is required for the purposes and duties of life, with the moderation of an employer instead of the ardor of a lover. These remarks on temperance are few in pro- portion to the greatness of the theme, but perhaps too many in view of the task on hand.
CHAP, 22, FORTITUDE COMES FROM THE LOVE OF GOD.
40. On fortitude we must be brief. The love, then, of which we speak, which ought with all sanctity to burn in desire for God, is called temperance, in not seeking for earthly things, and fortitude, in bearing the loss of them. But among all things which are pos- sessed in this life, the body is, by God's most righteous laws, for the sin of old, man's heaviest bond, which is well known as a fact, but most incomprehensible in its mystery. Lest this bond should be shaken and dis- turbed, the soul is shaken with the fear of toil and pain; lest it should be lost and de- stroyed, the soul is shaken with the fear of death. For the soul loves it from the force of habit, not knowing that by using it well and wisely its resurrection and reformation will, by the divine help and decree, be with- out any trouble made subject to its nuthority. But when the soul turns to God wholly in this love, it knows these things, and so will not only disregard death, but will even desire it, 41. Then there is the great struggle with pain. But there is nothing, though of iron hardness, which the fire of love cannot sub- due. And when the mind is carried up to God in this love, it will soar above all torture free and glorious, with wings beauteous and unhurt, on which chaste love rises to the em- brace of God. Otherwise God must allow the lovers of gold, the lovers of praise, the lovers of women, to have more fortitude than the lovers of Himself, though love in those cases is rather to be called passion or lust. And yet even here we may see with what force the mind presses on with unflagging energy, in spite of all alarms, towards that it loves; and we learn that we should bear all things rather than forsake God, since those men bear so much in order to forsake Him.
CHAP. 23, SCRIPTURE PRECEPTS AND EXAM- PLES OF FORTITUDE.
42. Instead of quoting here authorities from the New Testament, where it is said, " Tribu- : lation worketh patience; and patience, experi- I ence and experience, hope;'" and where, in addition to these words, there is proof and con- firmation of them from the example of those who spoke them; I will rather summon an ex- ample of patience from the Old Testament, against which the Manichoeans make fierce as- saults. Nor will I refer to the man who, in the midst of great bodily suffering, and with a dreadful disease in his limbs, not only bore human evils, but discoursed of things divine. Whoever gives considerate attention to the ut- terances of this man, will learn from every one of them what value is to be attached to those things which men try to keep in their power, and in so doing are themselves brought by passion into bondage, so that they become the slaves of mortal things, while seeking ig- norantly to be their masters. This man, in the loss of all his wealth, and on being sud- denly reduced to the greatest poverty, kept his mind so unshaken and fixed upon God, as to manifest that these things were not great in his view, but that he was great in relation to them, and God to him.^ If this mind were to be found in men in our day, we should not be so strongly cautioned in the New Testa- ment against the possession of these things in order that we may be perfect; for to have these things without cleaving to them is much more admiral:)le than not to have them at all.' 43. But since we are speaking here of bear- ing pain and bodily sufferings, I pass from this man, great as he was, indomitable as he was: this is the case of a man. But these Scriptures present to me a woman of am.azing fortitude, and I must at once go on to her case. This woman, along with seven chil- dren, allowed the tyrant and executioner to extract her vitals from her body rather than a profane word from her mouth, encouraging her sons by her exhortations, though she suffered in the tortures of their bodies, and was herself to un(,lergo what she called on them to bear.* What patience could be greater than this? And yet why should we be astonished that the love of God, implanted in her inmost heart, bore up against tyrant, and executioner, and pain, and sex, and natural affection? Had she not heard, " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints?"5 Flad she not heard, ".\ patient man is better than the mightiest? ''* Had she not heard, "All that is appointed 3 [It is interestiriK to observe how remote Augiistin was from at- tachin.i.' superior merit to voluntary poverty, or to other forms of asceticism as ends m themselves. What he prized was the ability to use without abusin.u;, to have without cleavmg to the good things which Cjod provides. — A. H. N.]
4 2 Mac. vii. 5 Ps, cxvi. 15. * Prov. xvi. 32.
54 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. XXV.
thee receive; and in pain bear it; and in abasement keep thy patience: for in fire are gold and silver tried V' ' Had she not heard, "The fire tries the vessels of the potter, and for just men is the trial of tribulation?"^ These she knew, and many other precepts of fortitude written in these l)Ooks, which alone existed at that time, by the same divine Spirit who writes those in the New Testament.
CHAP. 24. — OF JUSTICE AND PRUDENCE.
44. What of justice that pertains to God? As the Lord says, " Ye cannot serve two mas- ters," ^ and the apostle denounces those who serve the creature rather than the Creator,-* was it not said before in the Old Testament, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve? " ^ I need say no more on this, for these books are full of such passages. The lover, then, whom we are describing, will get from justice this rule of life, that he must with perfect readiness serve the God whom he loves, the highest good, the highest wisdom, the highest peace;* and as regards all other things, must either rule them as subject to himself, or treat them with a view to their subjection-. This rule of life, is, as we have shown, confirmed by the authority of both Testaments.
45. With equal brevity we must treat of prudence, to which it belongs to discern be- tween what is to be desired and what to be shunned. Without this, nothing can be done of what we have already spoken of. It is the part of prudence to keep watch with most anxious vigilance, lest any evil influence should stealthily creep in upon us. Thus the Lord often exclaims, " Watch; "^ and He says, "Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you."** And then it is said, " Know ye not that a little leaven leav- eneth the whole lump?"^ And no passage can be quoted from the Old Testament more expressly condemning this mental somno- lence, which makes us ins'ensible to destruc- tion advancing on us step by step, than those words of the prophet, " He who despiseth small things shall fall by degrees." '" On this topic I might discourse at length did our haste allow of it. And did our present task demand it, we might perhaps prove the depth of these mysteries, by making a mock of which profane men in their perfect ignorance fall, not certainly by degrees, but witli a headlong overthrow.
6 A name given by Ausrus^tin to the Holy Spirit, r\ xxx.
CHAP. 25, FOUR MORAL DUTIES REGARDING THE LOVE OF GOD, OF WHICH LOVE THE RE- WARD IS ETERNAL LIFE AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH.
46. I need say no more about right con- duct. For if God is man's chief good, whicii you cannot deny, it clearly follows, since to seek the chief good is to live well, that to live well is nothing else but to love God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind; and, as arising from this, that this love must be preserved entire and incorrupt, which is the part of temperance; that it give way before no troubles, which is the part of forti- tude; that it serve no other, which is the part of justice; that it be watchful in its inspec- tion of things lest craft or fraud steal in, which is the part of prudence. This is the one perfection of man, by which alone he can succeed in attaining to the purity of truth. This both Testaments enjoin in concert; this is commended on both sides alike. Why do you continue to cast reproaches on Scriptures of which you are ignorant? Do you not see the folly of your attack upon books which only those who do not understand them find fault with, and which only those who find fault fail in understanding? For neither can an enemy know them, nor can one who knows them be other than a friend to them.
47. Let us then, as many as have in view to reach eternal life, love God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind. For eternal life contains the whole reward in the promise of which we rejoice; nor can the reward precede desert, nor be given to a man before he is worthy of it. What can be more unjust than this, and what is more just than God? We should not then demand the re- ward before we deserve to get it. Here, perhaps, it is not out of place to ask what is eternal life; or rather let us hear the Be- stower of it: " This," He says, " is life eter- nal, that they should know Thee, the true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." " So eternal life is the knowledge of the truth. See, then, how perverse and pre- posterous is the character of those who think that their teaching of the knowledge of God will make us perfect, when this is the reward of those already perfect! What else, then, have we to do but first to love with full affec- tion Him whom we desire to know?'" Hence arises that principle on which we have all II John xvii. 3...■.
'- Retract, i. -. § 4: — "I should have seXAsincere affection rather than full; or it mijrht be thought that the love of (;od Vk-ill be no greater when we shall see Him face to face. Full, then, must be here understood as meaning that it cannot be greater while we walk by faith. T"here will be greater, yea, perfect fullness, but only by sight."
Chap. XXVII.] OF THE MOR.\LS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
55 along insisted, that there is nothing more wholesome in the Cathohc Church than using authority ' before argument.
CHAP. 26. LOVE OF OURSELVES AND OF OUR NEIGHBOR.
48. To proceed to what remains. It may be thought that there is nothing here about man himself, the lover. But to think this, shows a want of clear perception. For it is impossible for one who loves God not to love himself. For he alone has a proper love for himself who aims diligently at the attainment of the chief and true good; and if this is nothing else but God, as has been shown, what is to prevent one who loves God from loving himself? And then, among men should there be no bond of mutual love? Yea, verily; so that we can think of no surer step towards the love of God than the love of man to man.
49. Let the Lord then supply us with the other precept in-answer to the question about the precepts of life; for He was not satisfied with one as knowing that God is one thing and man another, and that the difference is nothing less than that between the Creator and the thing created in the likeness of its Creator. He says then that the second pre- cept is, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'' ^ Now you love yourself suitably when you love God better than yourself. What, then, you aim at in yourself you must aim at in your neighbor, namely, that he may love God with a perfect affection. For you do not love him as yourself, unless you try to draw him to that good which you are your- self pursuing. For this is the one good which has room for all to pursue it along with thee. From this precept proceed the duties of human society, in which it is hard to keep from error. But the first thing to aim at is, tnat we should be benevolent, that is, that we cherish no malice and no evil design against another. For man is the nearest neighbor of man.
50. Hear also what Paul says: " The love of our neighbor/' he says, " worketh no ill." ^ llie testimonies here made use of are very short, but, if I mistake not, they are to the point, and sufficient for the purpose. And every one knows how many and how weighty are the words to be found everywhere in these l)Ooks on the love of our neighbor. But as a man may sin against another in two ways, either by injuring him or by not helping him ' [By authority Augustin does not mean the authority of the Church or of Scripture, but he refers to the loving recognition of the authority of God as the condition of true discipleship. — A. H. X.)
when it is in his power, and as it is for these things which no loving man would do that men are called wicked, all that is required is, I think, proved by these words, "The love of our neighbor worketh no ill." And if we cannot attain to good unless we first desist from working evil, our love of our neighbor is a sort of cradle of our love to God, so that, as it is said, " the love of our neighbor work- eth no ill," we may rise from this to these other words, " We know that all things issue in good to them that love God."''
51. But there is a sense in which these either rise together to fullness and perfection, or, while the love of God is first in beginning, the love of our neighbor is first in coming to perfection. For perhaps divine love takes hold on us more rapidly at the outset, but we reach perfection more easily in lower things. However that may be, the main » point is this, that no one should think that while he despises his neighbor he will come to happiness and to the God whom he loves. And would that it were as easy to seek the good of our neighbor, or to avoid hurting him, as it is for one well trained and kind- hearted to love his neighbor! These things require more than mere good-will, and can be done only by a high degree of thoughtful- ness and prudence, which belongs only to those to whom it is given by God, the source of all good. On this topic — which is one, I think, of great difficulty — I will try to say a few words such as my plan admits of, resting all my hope in Him whose gifts these are.
CHAP. 27. ON DOING GOOD TO THE BODY OF OUR NEIGHBOR.
52. Man, then, as viewed by his fellow-, man, is a rational soul with a mortal and earthly body in its service. Therefore he who loves his neighbor does good partly to the man's body, and partly to his soul. What benefits the body is called medicine; what benefits the soul, discipline. Medicine here includes everything that either preserves or restores bodily health. It includes, there- fore, not only what belongs to the art of medical men, properly so called, but also food and drink, clothing and shelter, and every means of covering and protection to guard our l)odies against injuries and mishaps from without as well as from within. For hunger and thirst, and cold and heat, and all violence from without, produce loss of that health which is the point to be considered.
53. Hence those who seasonably and wisely supply all the things required for warding off 4 Rom. viii. 28.
5^ THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. XXVIII.
these evils and distresses ure called compas- sionate, although they may hav^e been so wise that no painful feeling disturbed their mind in the exercise of compasr:ion.' No doubt the word compassionate implies suffering in the heart of the man who feels for the sorrow of another. And it is equally true that a wise man ought to be free from all painful emo- tion when he assists the needy, when he gives food to the hungry and water to the thirsty, when he clothes the naked, when he takes the stranger into his house, when he sets free the oppressed, when, lastly, he extends his charity to the dead in giving them burial. Still the epithet compassionate is a proper one, although he acts with tranquillity of mind, not from the stimulus of painful feel- ing, but from motives of benevolence. There is no harm in the word compassionate when there is no passion in the case.
54. Fools, again, who avoid the exercise of compassion as a vice, because they are not sufficiently moved by a sense of duty without feeling also distressful emotion, are frozen into hard insensibility, which is very different from the calm of a rational serenity. God, on the other hand, is properly called com- passionate; and the sense in which He is so will be understood by those whom piety and diligence have made fit to understand. There is a danger lest, in using the words of the learned, we harden the souls of the un- learned by leading them away from compas- sion instead of softening them with the desire of a charitable disposition. As compassion, then, requires us to ward off these distresses from others, so harmlessness forbids the in- fliction of them.
CHAP. 28. ON DOING GOOD TO THE SOUL OF OUR NEIGHBOR. TWO PARTS OF DISCIPLINE, RESTRAINT AND INSTRUCTION. THROUGH GOOD CONDUCT WE ARRIVE AT THE KNOWL- EDGE OF THE TRUTH.
55. As regards discipline, by which the health of the mind is restored, without which bodily health avails nothing for security against misery, the subject is one of great difficulty. And as in the body we said it is one thing to cure diseases and wounds, which few can do properly, and another thing to meet the cravings of hunger and thirst, and to give assistance in all the other ways in which any man may at any time help another; so in the mind there are some things in which I Retract, i. 7. § 4: — " This does not mean that there are actual- ly in this life wise men such as are here spoken of. My words are not, 'although they are so wise,' but 'although they were so wise.' " [Augustin's ideal wise man was evidently the " Gnostic " of Clem- ent of Alexandria. The conception is Stoical and Neo-Platonic — A. H. N.]
the high and rare offices of the teacher are not much called for, — as, for instance, in ad- vice and exhortation to give to the needy the things already mentioned as required for the body. To give such advice is to aid the mind by discipline, as giving the things themselves is aiding the body by our resources. But there are other cases where diseases of the mind, many and various in kind, are healed in a way strange and indescribable. Unless His medicine were sent from heaven to men, so heedlessly do they go on in sin, there would be no hope of salvation; and, indeed, even bodily health, if you go to the root of the matter, can have com.e to men from none but God, who gives to all things their being and their well-being.
56. This discipline, then, which is the medicine of the mind, as far as we can gather from the sacred Scriptures, includes two things, restraint and instruction. Restraint implies fear, and instruction love, in the person benefited by the discipline; for in the giver of the benefit there is the love without the fear. In both of these God Himself, bv whose goodness and mercy it is that we are anything, has given us in the two Testaments a rule of discipline. For though both are found in both Testaments, still fear is promi- nent in the Old, and love in the New; which the apostle calls bondage in the one, and lib- erty in the other. Of the marvellous order and divine harmony of these Testaments it would take long to speak, and many pious and learned men have discoursed on it. The theme demands many books to set it forth and explain it as far as is possible for man. He, then, who loves his neighbor endeavors all he can to procure his safety in body and in soul, making the health of the mind the standard in his treatment of the body. And as regards the mind, his endeavors are in this order, that he should first fear and then love God. This is true excellence of conduct, and thus the knowledge of the truth is acquired which we are ever in the pursuit of.
57. The Manichseans agree with me as re- gards the duty of loving God and our neigh- bor, but they deny that this is,.taught in th'e Old Testament. How greatly they err in this is, I think, clearly shown by the passages quoted above on both these duties. But, in a single word, and one which only stark mad- ness can oppose, do they not see the unrea- sonableness of denying that these very two precepts which they commend are quoted by the Lord in the Gospel from the Old Testa- ment, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;" and the other, "Thou Chap. XXIX.] OF THE MORALS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
57 shalt love thy neighbor as thyself?" ' Or if they dare not deny this, from the light of truth being too strong tor them, let tliem deny that these precepts are salutary; let them deny, if they can, that they teach the best morality; let them assert that it is not a duty to love God, or to love our neighbor; that all things do not issue in good to them that love God; that it is not true that the love of our neigh- bor worketh no ill (a two-fold regulation of human life which is most salutary and excel- lent). By such assertions they cut themselves off not only from Christians, but from man- kind. But if they dare not speak thus, but must confess the divinity of the precepts, why do they not desist from assailing and malign- ing with horrible profanity _^the books from which they are quoted?
58. Will they say, as they often do, that although we find these precepts in the books, it does not follow that all is good that is found there? How to meet and refute this quibble I do not well see. Shall I discuss the words of the Old Testament one by one, to prove to stubborn and ignorant men their perfect agreement with the New Testament? But when will this be done? When shall I have time, or they patience? What, then, is to be done? Shall I desert the cause, and leave them to escape detection in an opinion which, though false and impious, is hard to disprove? I will not. God will Himself be at hand to aid me; nor will He suffer me in those straits to remain helpless or forsaken.
CHAP. 29. OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPT- I URES.
59. Attend, then, ye Manichaeans, if per- ijhance there are some of you of whom your superstition has hold so as to allow you yet to I escape. Attend, I say, without obstinacy, ' without the desire to oppose, otherwise your decision will be fatal to yourselves. No one can doubt, and you are not so lost to the truth as not to understand that if it is good, as all allow, to love God and our neighbor, whatever hangs on these two precepts cannot rightly be pronounced bad. What it is that langs on them it would be absurd to think of 'earning from me. Hear Christ Himself; lear Christ, I say; hear the Wisdom of God: ■'On these two commandments," He says, ■ iiang all the law and the prophets.""
60. What can the most shameless obstinacy I say to this? That these are not Christ's words? But they are written in the Gospel s His words. That the writing is false? Is ' Dent. vi. 5; I,ev. xix. iS; Matt. xxii. 37, 39. '.Matt. xxii. 40.
not this most profane blasphemy? Is it not most presumptuous to speak thus? Is it not m.ost foolhardy? Is it not most criminal? The worshippers of idols, who hate even the name of Christ, never dared to speak thus against these Scriptures. For the utter over- throw of all literature will follow, and there will be an end to all books handed down from the past, if what is supported by such a strong popular belief and established by the uniform testimony of so many men and so many times, is brought into such suspicion, that it is not allowed to have the credit and the authority of common history. In fine, what can you quote from any writings of which I may not speak in this way, if it is quoted against m)' opinion and my purpose? ^ 61. And is it not intolerable that they forbid us to believe a book widely known and placed now in the hands of all, wliile they insist on our believing the book which they quote? If any writing is to be suspected, what should be more so than one which has not merited notoriety, or which may be throug*hout a for- gery, bearing a false name? If you force such a writing on me against my will, and make a display of authority to drive me into belief, shall I, when I have a writing which I see spread far and wide for a length of time, and sanctioned by the concordant testimony of churches scattered over all the world, de- grade myself by doubting, and, worse degra- dation, by doubting at your suggestion? Even if you brought forward other readings, I should not receive them unless supported by general.agreement; and this being the case, do you think that now, when you bring forward nothing to compare with the text ex- cept your own silly and inconsiderate state- ment, mankind are so unreasonable and so forsaken by divine Providence as to prefer to those Scriptures not others quoted by you in^ refutation, but merely your own words? You ought to bring forward another manuscript with the same contents, but incorrupt and