39. I beseech you therefore also, my dearly beloved, whether studying these or other writings, so to read and so to learn as to bear in mind what hath been most truly said, "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth;" [1854] but charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Let knowledge therefore be used as a kind of scaffolding by which may be erected the building of charity, which shall endure for ever when knowledge faileth. [1855] Knowledge, if applied as a means to charity, is most useful; but apart from this high end, it has been proved not only superfluous, but even pernicious. I know, however, how holy meditation keeps you safe under the shadow of the wings of our God. These things I have stated, though briefly, because I know that this same charity of yours, which "vaunteth not itself," will prompt you to lend and read this letter to many.
[1731] Sancte accipiendum.
[1732] Pascha.
[1733] Rom. iv. 25.
[1734] Had Augustin not been obliged to take his Hebrew at second hand, he might have seen that the word chsph does not bear out his interpretation. Ex. xii. 13, 27.
[1735] John v. 24.
[1736] Transiret.
[1737] John xiii. 1.
[1738] Gal. v. 6.
[1739] Hab. ii. 4.
[1740] Rom. viii. 24, 25.
[1741] Col. ii. 12 and Rom. vi. 4.
[1742] Rom. vi. 6.
[1743] Eph. ii. 6.
[1744] Col. iii. 1, 2.
[1745] Col. iii. 3, 4.
[1746] 1 Cor. xv. 53.
[1747] Rom. viii. 23, 24, 10, 11.
[1748] Col. i. 18.
[1749] 2 Tim. ii. 17.
[1750] Rom. xii. 12.
[1751] 2 Cor. iv. 16.
[1752] Col. iii. 9, 10.
[1753] 1 Cor. v. 7.
[1754] Ex. xxiii. 15.
[1755] Sacramentum.
[1756] Sacramentum.
[1757] Jer. ix. 24.
[1758] Mundus.
[1759] Cloacis.
[1760] Wisd. xiii. 9.
[1761] Ecclus. xxvii. 12.
[1762] Wisd. v. 6.
[1763] Matt. v. 45.
[1764] Ps. x. 3, as rendered by Aug.
[1765] Wisd. v. 3, 4.
[1766] Ps. xi. 3; in the LXX. version, tou katatoxeusai en skotomene tous eutheis te kardia.
[1767] Col. iii. 4.
[1768] Ver. 39.
[1769] Ps. lxxii. 7, Septuagint version.
[1770] 1 Cor. xv. 26, 53, 54.
[1771] Rom. i. 25.
[1772] John i. 29.
[1773] Ezek. xliii. 19.
[1774] Rev. v. 5.
[1775] 1 Cor. x. 4.
[1776] 1 Pet. ii. 4.
[1777] Matt. x. 16.
[1778] Gal. iv. 1l.
[1779] Gen. i. 14.
[1780] Primam stolam.
[1781] Gen. ii. 3.
[1782] Jas. iv. 6.
[1783] Ps. xxxvii. 4.
[1784] Augustin interprets the "love of God" here as meaning our love to Him, and equivalent to delighting in Him.
[1785] Rom. v. 5.
[1786] Phil. ii. 13.
[1787] Gen. i. 31, ii. 2.
[1788] Matt. xxii. 10.
[1789] Rom. viii. 20.
[1790] Ex. xx. 7; Deut. v. 11.
[1791] Rom. v. 5.
[1792] Rom. viii. 24.
[1793] Figurate observandum præcipitur.
[1794] Ps. xlvi. 11.
[1795] Matt. xi. 28, 29.
[1796] Ex. xx. 1-17; Deut. v. 6-21.
[1797] Ex illo habere cæpit festivitatem suam.
[1798] 1 Cor. xv. 53.
[1799] Eccles. xi. 2; which Aug. translates, "Da illis septem, et illis octo."
[1800] Matt. xvi. 24.
[1801] Rom. viii. 13.
[1802] Gal. vi. 14.
[1803] Rom. vi. 6.
[1804] Rom. ii. 6, 7.
[1805] Eph. iii. 17-18.
[1806] Ps. cxix. 120; Septuagint version, katheloson ek tou phobou sou tas sarkas mou.
[1807] Phil. i. 23, 24.
[1808] Hab. ii. 4.
[1809] Rom. vi. 3, 4.
[1810] Rom. viii. 23, 25.
[1811] Ps. xciv. 19.
[1812] Rom. xii. 12.
[1813] 1 Cor. xv. 54, 26, 51--the last of these verses being rendered by Augustin here, not as in the English version, but as given above.
[1814] Luke xx. 36.
[1815] 2 Cor. v. 6, 7.
[1816] Phil. iii. 12, 13.
[1817] Rom. vi. 4.
[1818] In translating, we have ventured to take this title of Chap. xv. out of the place which the Benedictines have given to it, in the middle of a sentence of the preceding paragraph. There it almost hopelessly bewildered the reader. Here it prepares him for a new topic.
[1819] Ex. xxxiv. 28.
[1820] 1 Kings xix. 8.
[1821] Matt. iv. 2.
[1822] Rom. iii. 21.
[1823] Compare "octavus qui et primus," and the remarks on the meaning of the number 8 in § 23.
[1824] We give the original of this very obscure paragraph:--"Numero autem quadragenario vitam istam propter ea figurari arbitror, quia denarius in quo est perfectio beatitudinis nostræ, sicut in octonario, quia redit ad primum, ita in hoc mihi videtur exprimi: quia creatura, quæ septenario figuratur adhæret Creatori in quo declaratur unitas Trinitatis per universum mundum temporaliter annuntianda; qui mundus et a quatuor ventis delimatur et quatuor elementis erigitur, et quatuor anni temporum vicibus variatur. Decem autem quater in quadraginta consummantur, quadragenarius autem partibus suis computatus, addit ipsum denarium et fiunt quinquaginta tanquam merces laboris et continentiæ."
[1825] Sacramentum.
[1826] Ps. lxxxiv. 5.
[1827] Ex. xii. xix. xx. xxxi.
[1828] Luke xi. 20.
[1829] Matt. xii. 28.
[1830] Isa. vi. 3.
[1831] Isa. liii. 7.
[1832] 1 Cor. xiii. 5.
[1833] 2 Tim. iii. 8.
[1834] Ex. viii. 19.
[1835] Ex. xix. 10, 11.
[1836] John vii. 39.
[1837] Ps. cxxxii. 8.
[1838] 1 John xxi. 6, 11.
[1839] Ps. xii. 6.
[1840] Matt. xx. 9, 10.
[1841] The eighteenth in the English Bible.
[1842] 2 Sam. xxii. 2-51. The title of that book is in the LXX. the 2d book of Kings.
[1843] Rom. i. 3.
[1844] Acts ix. 4.
[1845] Such a triangle as this: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[1846] He refers to the significance of the standing upright as an emblem of resurrection.
[1847] Preaching. The word in the original is "disputatur,"--something much more lively and entertaining.
[1848] I have taken the liberty here of putting the beginning of the Chapter and paragraph a sentence further on than in the Benedictine edition, so as to finish in sec. 34 the remarks on psalm-singing.
[1849] 1 Tim. iv. 1-5.
[1850] Tit. i. 15.
[1851] Matt. xxii. 40.
[1852] 1 Tim. i. 5.
[1853] Rom. xiii. 10.
[1854] 1 Cor. viii. 1.
[1855] 1 Cor. xiii. 4, 8.