Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series • VOLUME 1
Augustine — Confessions & Letters
SECTION 41
Chapter VII.--Troubled by Restlessness and Grief, He Leaves His Country a Second Time for Carthage.
Chapter VII.--Troubled by Restlessness and Grief, He Leaves His Country a Second Time for Carthage. 12. O madness, which knowest not how to love men as men should be loved! O foolish man that I then was, enduring with so much impatience the lot of man! So I fretted, sighed, wept, tormented myself, and took neither rest nor advi…
858 wordsSECTION 42Chapter IX.--That the Love of a Human Being, However Constant in Loving and Returning Love, Perishes; While He Who Loves God Never Loses a Friend.
Chapter IX.--That the Love of a Human Being, However Constant in Loving and Returning Love, Perishes; While He Who Loves God Never Loses a Friend. 14. This is it that is loved in friends; and so loved that a man's conscience accuses itself if he love not him by whom he is beloved, or love not again him that loves him, expecting…
956 wordsSECTION 43Chapter XI.--That Portions of the World are Not to Be Loved; But that God, Their Author, is Immutable, and His Word Eternal.
Chapter XI.--That Portions of the World are Not to Be Loved; But that God, Their Author, is Immutable, and His Word Eternal. 16. Be not foolish, O my soul, and deaden not the ear of thine heart with the tumult of thy folly. Hearken thou also. The word itself invokes thee to return; and there is the place of rest imperturbable, …
1,484 wordsSECTION 44Chapter XIII.--Love Originates from Grace and Beauty Enticing Us.
Chapter XIII.--Love Originates from Grace and Beauty Enticing Us. 20. These things I knew not at that time, and I loved these lower beauties, and I was sinking to the very depths; and I said to my friends, "Do we love anything but the beautiful? What, then, is the beautiful? And what is beauty? What is it that allures and unite…
882 wordsSECTION 45Chapter XV.--While Writing, Being Blinded by Corporeal Images, He Failed to Recognise the Spiritual Nature of God.
Chapter XV.--While Writing, Being Blinded by Corporeal Images, He Failed to Recognise the Spiritual Nature of God. 24. But not yet did I perceive the hinge on which this impotent matter turned in Thy wisdom, O Thou Omnipotent, "who alone doest great wonders;" [329] and my mind ranged through corporeal forms, and I defined and d…
2,005 wordsSECTION 46Chapter XVI.--He Very Easily Understood the Liberal Arts and the Categories of Aristotle, But Without True Fruit.
Chapter XVI.--He Very Easily Understood the Liberal Arts and the Categories of Aristotle, But Without True Fruit. 28. And what did it profit me that, when scarce twenty years old, a book of Aristotle's, entitled The Ten Predicaments, fell into my hands,--on whose very name I hung as on something great and divine, when my rhetor…
1,135 wordsSECTION 47Book V.
Book V. ------------------------ He describes the twenty-ninth year of his age, in which, having discovered the fallacies of the Manichæans, he professed rhetoric at Rome and Milan. Having heard Ambrose, he begins to come to himself. ------------------------ Chapter I.--That It Becomes the Soul to Praise God, and to Confess …
2,270 wordsSECTION 48Chapter IV.--That the Knowledge of Terrestrial and Celestial Things Does Not Give Happiness, But the Knowledge of God Only.
[367] Ps. viii. 7, 8. [368] Deut. iv. 24. [369] John i. 3. [370] Ps. cxlvii. 5, Vulg. [371] 1 Cor. i. 30. [372] Matt. xvii. 27. [373] In Sermon 123, sec. 3, we have: "Christ as God is the country to which we go--Christ as man is the way by which we go." See note on Book iv. sec. 19, above. [374] Isa. xiv. 13. [375] Rev. …
1,371 wordsSECTION 49Chapter VI.--Faustus Was Indeed an Elegant Speaker, But Knew Nothing of the Liberal Sciences.
Chapter VI.--Faustus Was Indeed an Elegant Speaker, But Knew Nothing of the Liberal Sciences. 10. And for nearly the whole of those nine years during which, with unstable mind, I had been their follower, I had been looking forward with but too great eagerness for the arrival of this same Faustus. For the other members of the se…
721 wordsSECTION 50Chapter VII.--Clearly Seeing the Fallacies of the Manichæans, He Retires from Them, Being Remarkably Aided by God.
Chapter VII.--Clearly Seeing the Fallacies of the Manichæans, He Retires from Them, Being Remarkably Aided by God. 12. For when it became plain to me that he was ignorant of those arts in which I had believed him to excel, I began to despair of his clearing up and explaining all the perplexities which harassed me: though ignora…
1,091 wordsSECTION 51Chapter VIII.--He Sets Out for Rome, His Mother in Vain Lamenting It.
Chapter VIII.--He Sets Out for Rome, His Mother in Vain Lamenting It. 14. Thou dealedst with me, therefore, that I should be persuaded to go to Rome, and teach there rather what I was then teaching at Carthage. And how I was persuaded to do this, I will not fail to confess unto Thee; for in this also the profoundest workings of…
877 wordsSECTION 52Chapter IX.--Being Attacked by Fever, He is in Great Danger.
Chapter IX.--Being Attacked by Fever, He is in Great Danger. 16. And behold, there was I received by the scourge of bodily sickness, and I was descending into hell burdened with all the sins that I had committed, both against Thee, myself, and others, many and grievous, over and above that bond of original sin whereby we all di…
1,385 wordsSECTION 53Chapter X.--When He Had Left the Manichæans, He Retained His Depraved Opinions Concerning Sin and the Origin of the Saviour.
Chapter X.--When He Had Left the Manichæans, He Retained His Depraved Opinions Concerning Sin and the Origin of the Saviour. 18. Thou restoredst me then from that illness, and made sound the son of Thy hand-maid meanwhile in body, that he might live for Thee, to endow him with a higher and more enduring health. And even then at…
1,789 wordsSECTION 54Chapter XI.--Helpidius Disputed Well Against the Manichæans as to the Authenticity of the New Testament.
Chapter XI.--Helpidius Disputed Well Against the Manichæans as to the Authenticity of the New Testament. 21. Furthermore, whatever they had censured [420] in Thy Scriptures I thought impossible to be defended; and yet sometimes, indeed, I desired to confer on these several points with some one well learned in those books, and t…
1,027 wordsSECTION 55Chapter XIV.--Having Heard the Bishop, He Perceives the Force of the Catholic Faith, Yet Doubts, After the Manner of the Modern Academics.
Chapter XIV.--Having Heard the Bishop, He Perceives the Force of the Catholic Faith, Yet Doubts, After the Manner of the Modern Academics. 24. For although I took no trouble to learn what he spake, but only to hear how he spake (for that empty care alone remained to me, despairing of a way accessible for man to Thee), yet, toge…
1,639 wordsSECTION 56Chapter II.--She, on the Prohibition of Ambrose, Abstains from Honouring the Memory of the Martyrs.
Chapter II.--She, on the Prohibition of Ambrose, Abstains from Honouring the Memory of the Martyrs. 2. When, therefore, my mother had at one time--as was her custom in Africa--brought to the oratories built in the memory of the saints [438] certain cakes, and bread, and wine, and was forbidden by the door-keeper, so soon as she…
1,498 wordsSECTION 57Chapter III.--As Ambrose Was Occupied with Business and Study, Augustin Could Seldom Consult Him Concerning the Holy Scriptures.
Chapter III.--As Ambrose Was Occupied with Business and Study, Augustin Could Seldom Consult Him Concerning the Holy Scriptures. 3. Nor did I now groan in my prayers that Thou wouldest help me; but my mind was wholly intent on knowledge, and eager to dispute. And Ambrose himself I esteemed a happy man, as the world counted happ…
980 wordsSECTION 58Chapter IV.--He Recognises the Falsity of His Own Opinions, and Commits to Memory the Saying of Ambrose.
Chapter IV.--He Recognises the Falsity of His Own Opinions, and Commits to Memory the Saying of Ambrose. 5. As, then, I knew not how this image of Thine should subsist, I should have knocked and propounded the doubt how it was to be believed, and not have insultingly opposed it, as if it were believed. Anxiety, therefore, as to…
1,491 wordsSECTION 59Chapter V.--Faith is the Basis of Human Life; Man Cannot Discover that Truth Which Holy Scripture Has Disclosed.
Chapter V.--Faith is the Basis of Human Life; Man Cannot Discover that Truth Which Holy Scripture Has Disclosed. 7. From this, however, being led to prefer the Catholic doctrine, I felt that it was with more moderation and honesty that it commanded things to be believed that were not demonstrated (whether it was that they could…
1,064 wordsSECTION 60Chapter VI.--On the Source and Cause of True Joy,--The Example of the Joyous Beggar Being Adduced.
Chapter VI.--On the Source and Cause of True Joy,--The Example of the Joyous Beggar Being Adduced. 9. I longed for honours, gains, wedlock; and Thou mockedst me. In these desires I underwent most bitter hardships, Thou being the more gracious the less Thou didst suffer anything which was not Thou to grow sweet to me. Behold my …
816 wordsSECTION 61Chapter VII.--He Leads to Reformation His Friend Alypius, Seized with Madness for the Circensian Games.
Chapter VII.--He Leads to Reformation His Friend Alypius, Seized with Madness for the Circensian Games. 11. These things we, who lived like friends together, jointly deplored, but chiefly and most familiarly did I discuss them with Alypius and Nebridius, of whom Alypius was born in the same town as myself, his parents being of …
1,258 wordsSECTION 62Chapter VIII.--The Same When at Rome, Being Led by Others into the Amphitheatre, is Delighted with the Gladiatorial Games.
Chapter VIII.--The Same When at Rome, Being Led by Others into the Amphitheatre, is Delighted with the Gladiatorial Games. 13. He, not relinquishing that worldly way which his parents had bewitched him to pursue, had gone before me to Rome, to study law, and there he was carried away in an extraordinary manner with an incredibl…
1,419 wordsSECTION 63Chapter IX.--Innocent Alypius, Being Apprehended as a Thief, is Set at Liberty by the Cleverness of an Architect.
Chapter IX.--Innocent Alypius, Being Apprehended as a Thief, is Set at Liberty by the Cleverness of an Architect. 14. But this was all being stored up in his memory for a medicine hereafter. As was that also, that when he was yet studying under me at Carthage, and was meditating at noonday in the market-place upon what he had t…
1,419 wordsSECTION 64Chapter XI.--Being Troubled by His Grievous Errors, He Meditates Entering on a New Life.
Chapter XI.--Being Troubled by His Grievous Errors, He Meditates Entering on a New Life. 18. And I, puzzling over and reviewing these things, most marvelled at the length of time from that my nineteenth year, wherein I began to be inflamed with the desire of wisdom, resolving, when I had found her, to forsake all the empty hope…
1,012 wordsSECTION 65Chapter XII.--Discussion with Alypius Concerning a Life of Celibacy.
Chapter XII.--Discussion with Alypius Concerning a Life of Celibacy. 21. It was in truth Alypius who prevented me from marrying, alleging that thus we could by no means live together, having so much undistracted leisure in the love of wisdom, as we had long desired. For he himself was so chaste in this matter that it was wonder…
771 wordsSECTION 66Chapter XIII.--Being Urged by His Mother to Take a Wife, He Sought a Maiden that Was Pleasing Unto Him.
Chapter XIII.--Being Urged by His Mother to Take a Wife, He Sought a Maiden that Was Pleasing Unto Him. 23. Active efforts were made to get me a wife. I wooed, I was engaged, my mother taking the greatest pains in the matter, that when I was once married, the health-giving baptism might cleanse me; for which she rejoiced that I…
837 wordsSECTION 67Chapter XV.--He Dismisses One Mistress, and Chooses Another.
Chapter XV.--He Dismisses One Mistress, and Chooses Another. 25. Meanwhile my sins were being multiplied, and my mistress being torn from my side as an impediment to my marriage, my heart, which clave to her, was racked, and wounded, and bleeding. And she went back to Africa, making a vow unto Thee never to know another man, le…
1,008 wordsSECTION 68Book VII.
Book VII. ------------------------ He recalls the beginning of his youth, i.e. the thirty-first year of his age, in which very grave errors as to the nature of God and the origin of evil being distinguished, and the Sacred Books more accurately known, he at length arrives at a clear knowledge of God, not yet rightly apprehendi…
1,074 wordsSECTION 69Chapter II.--The Disputation of Nebridius Against the Manichæans, on the Question "Whether God Be Corruptible or Incorruptible."
Chapter II.--The Disputation of Nebridius Against the Manichæans, on the Question "Whether God Be Corruptible or Incorruptible." 3. It was sufficient for me, O Lord, to oppose to those deceived deceivers and dumb praters (dumb, since Thy word sounded not forth from them) that which a long while ago, while we were at Carthage, N…
1,107 wordsSECTION 70Chapter III.--That the Cause of Evil is the Free Judgment of the Will.
Chapter III.--That the Cause of Evil is the Free Judgment of the Will. 4. But I also, as yet, although I said and was firmly persuaded, that Thou our Lord, the true God, who madest not only our souls but our bodies, and not our souls and bodies alone, but all creatures and all things, wert uncontaminable and inconvertible, and …
823 wordsSECTION 71Chapter V.--Questions Concerning the Origin of Evil in Regard to God, Who, Since He is the Chief Good, Cannot Be the Cause of Evil.
Chapter V.--Questions Concerning the Origin of Evil in Regard to God, Who, Since He is the Chief Good, Cannot Be the Cause of Evil. 7. And I sought "whence is evil?" And sought in an evil way; nor saw I the evil in my very search. And I set in order before the view of my spirit the whole creation, and whatever we can discern in…
739 wordsSECTION 72Chapter VI.--He Refutes the Divinations of the Astrologers, Deduced from the Constellations.
Chapter VI.--He Refutes the Divinations of the Astrologers, Deduced from the Constellations. 8. Now also had I repudiated the lying divinations and impious absurdities of the astrologers. Let Thy mercies, out of the depth of my soul, confess unto thee [489] for this also, O my God. For Thou, Thou altogether,--for who else is it…
1,172 wordsSECTION 73Chapter VII.--He is Severely Exercised as to the Origin of Evil.
Chapter VII.--He is Severely Exercised as to the Origin of Evil. 11. And now, O my Helper, hadst Thou freed me from those fetters; and I inquired, "Whence is evil?" and found no result. But Thou sufferedst me not to be carried away from the faith by any fluctuations of thought, whereby I believed Thee both to exist, and Thy sub…
741 wordsSECTION 74Chapter IX.--He Compares the Doctrine of the Platonists Concerning the Logos With the Much More Excellent Doctrine of Christianity.
Chapter IX.--He Compares the Doctrine of the Platonists Concerning the Logos With the Much More Excellent Doctrine of Christianity. 13. And Thou, willing first to show me how Thou "resistest the proud, but givest grace unto the humble" [497] and by how great art act of mercy Thou hadst pointed out to men the path of humility, i…
2,217 wordsSECTION 75[501] John i. 1-5.
[501] John i. 1-5. [502] Ibid. i. 7, 8. [503] See note, sec. 23, below. [504] John i. 9. [505] Ibid. i. 10. [506] Ibid. i. 11. [507] Ibid. i. 12. [508] Ibid. i. 14. [509] Phil. ii. 6-11. [510] John i. 16. [511] Rom. v. 6. [512] Rom. viii. 32. [513] Matt. xi. 25. [514] Ibid. ver. 28. [515] Ibid. ver. 29. [516] Ps. …
781 wordsSECTION 76Chapter X.--Divine Things are the More Clearly Manifested to Him Who Withdraws into the Recesses of His Heart.
Chapter X.--Divine Things are the More Clearly Manifested to Him Who Withdraws into the Recesses of His Heart. 16. And being thence warned to return to myself, I entered into my inward self, Thou leading me on; and I was able to do it, for Thou wert become my helper. And I entered, and with the eye of my soul (such as it was) s…
969 wordsSECTION 77Chapter XI.--That Creatures are Mutable and God Alone Immutable.
Chapter XI.--That Creatures are Mutable and God Alone Immutable. 17. And I viewed the other things below Thee, and perceived that they neither altogether are, nor altogether are not. They are, indeed, because they are from Thee; but are not, because they are not what Thou art. For that truly is which remains immutably. [534] It…
857 wordsSECTION 78Chapter XIV.--Being Displeased with Some Part Of God's Creation, He Conceives of Two Original Substances.
Chapter XIV.--Being Displeased with Some Part Of God's Creation, He Conceives of Two Original Substances. 20. There is no wholeness in them whom aught of Thy creation displeased no more than there was in me, when many things which Thou madest displeased me. And, because my soul dared not be displeased at my God, it would not su…
2,113 wordsSECTION 79Chapter XVIII.--Jesus Christ, the Mediator, is the Only Way of Safety.
Chapter XVIII.--Jesus Christ, the Mediator, is the Only Way of Safety. 24. And I sought a way of acquiring strength sufficient to enjoy Thee; but I found it not until I embraced that "Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus," [551] "who is over all, God blessed for ever," [552] calling unto me, and saying, "I am the …
2,088 wordsSECTION 80Chapter XX.--He Rejoices that He Proceeded from Plato to the Holy Scriptures, and Not the Reverse.
Chapter XX.--He Rejoices that He Proceeded from Plato to the Holy Scriptures, and Not the Reverse. 26. But having then read those books of the Platonists, and being admonished by them to search for incorporeal truth, I saw Thy invisible things, understood by those things that are made; [562] and though repulsed, I perceived wha…
2,051 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.