Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series • VOLUME 1
Augustine — Confessions & Letters
SECTION 161
Chapter XXV.--He Explains the Fruits of the Earth (Ver. 29) of Works of Mercy.
Chapter XXV.--He Explains the Fruits of the Earth (Ver. 29) of Works of Mercy. 38. I would also say, O Lord my God, what the following Scripture reminds me of; yea, I will say it without fear. For I will speak the truth, Thou inspiring me as to what Thou willest that I should say out of these words. For by none other than Thy i…
1,379 wordsSECTION 162Chapter XXVII.--Many are Ignorant as to This, and Ask for Miracles, Which are Signified Under the Names Of "Fishes" And "Whales."
Chapter XXVII.--Many are Ignorant as to This, and Ask for Miracles, Which are Signified Under the Names Of "Fishes" And "Whales." 42. Therefore will I speak before Thee, O Lord, what is true, when ignorant men and infidels (for the initiating and gaining of whom the sacraments of initiation and great works of miracles are neces…
713 wordsSECTION 163Chapter XXX.--He Refutes the Opinions of the Manichæans and the Gnostics Concerning the Origin of the World.
Chapter XXX.--He Refutes the Opinions of the Manichæans and the Gnostics Concerning the Origin of the World. 45. And I heard, O Lord my God, and drank up a drop of sweetness from Thy truth, and understood that there are certain men to whom Thy works are displeasing, who say that many of them Thou madest being compelled by neces…
718 wordsSECTION 164Chapter XXXII.--Of the Particular Works of God, More Especially of Man.
Chapter XXXII.--Of the Particular Works of God, More Especially of Man. 47. Thanks to Thee, O Lord. We behold the heaven and the earth, whether the corporeal part, superior and inferior, or the spiritual and corporeal creature; and in the embellishment of these parts, whereof the universal mass of the world or the universal cre…
1,217 wordsSECTION 165Chapter XXXV.--He Prays God for that Peace of Rest Which Hath No Evening.
Chapter XXXV.--He Prays God for that Peace of Rest Which Hath No Evening. 50. O Lord God, grant Thy peace unto us, for Thou hast supplied us with all things,--the peace of rest, the peace of the Sabbath, which hath no evening. For all this most beautiful order of things, "very good" (all their courses being finished), is to pas…
1,954 wordsSECTION 166Letter I.
Letter I. (a.d. 386.) To Hermogenianus [1437] Augustin Sends Greeting. 1. I Would not presume, even in playful discussion, to attack the philosophers of the Academy; [1438] for when could the authority of such eminent men fail to move me, did I not believe their views to be widely different from those commonly ascribed to the…
883 wordsSECTION 167Letter II.
Letter II. (a.d. 386.) To Zenobius Augustin Sends Greeting. [1442] 1. We are, I suppose, both agreed in maintaining that all things with which our bodily senses acquaint us are incapable of abiding unchanged for a single moment, but, on the contrary, are moving and in perpetual transition, and have no present reality, that is…
2,365 wordsSECTION 168Letter IV.
[1444] The character of Nebridius, and the intimacy of friendship between him and Augustin, may be seen in the Confessions, b. ix. c. 3. [1445] Had Augustin been acquainted with the decimal notation, he would not have made this remark to Alypius; for in the decimal scale, when the point is inserted, fractional parts go on dimin…
713 wordsSECTION 169Letter V.
Letter V. (a.d. 388.) To Augustin Nebridius Sends Greeting. Is it true, my beloved Augustin, that you are spending your strength and patience on the affairs of your fellow-citizens (in Thagaste), and that the leisure from distractions which you so earnestly desired is still withheld from you? Who, I would like to know, are th…
748 wordsSECTION 170Letter VII.
Letter VII. (a.d. 389.) To Nebridius Augustin Sends Greeting. Chap. I.--Memory may be exercised independently of such images as are presented by the imagination. 1. I shall dispense with a formal preface, and to the subject on which you have for some time wished to hear my opinion I shall address myself at once; and this I d…
2,290 wordsSECTION 171Letter VIII.
Wherefore, my well beloved and most amiable brother, by the friendship which unites us, and by our faith in the divine law itself, [1457] I would warn you never to link yourself in friendship with those shadows of the realm of darkness, and to break off without delay whatever friendship may have been begun between you and them. …
1,544 wordsSECTION 172Letter X.
Letter X. (a.d. 389.) To Nebridius Augustin Sends Greeting, 1. No question of yours ever kept me so disturbed while reflecting upon it, as the remark which I read in your last letter, in which you chide me for being indifferent as to making arrangements by which it may be possible for us to live together. A grave charge, and …
887 wordsSECTION 173Letter XI.
Letter XI. (a.d. 389.) To Nebridius Augustin Sends Greeting. 1. When the question, which has long been brought before me by you with something even of friendly chiding, as to the way in which we might live together, was seriously disturbing my mind, and I had resolved to write to you, and to beg an answer from you bearing exc…
1,710 wordsSECTION 174Letter XII.
Letter XII. (a.d. 389.) Omitted, as only a fragment of the text of the letter is preserved. Letter XIII. (a.d. 389.) To Nebridius Augustin Sends Greeting. 1. I do not feel pleasure in writing of the subjects which I was wont to discuss; I am not at liberty to write of new themes. I see that the one would not suit you, and …
797 wordsSECTION 175Letter XIV.
Letter XIV. (a.d. 389.) To Nebridius Augustin Sends Greeting. 1. I have preferred to reply to your last letter, not because I undervalued your earlier questions, or enjoyed them less, but because in answering you I undertake a greater task than you think. For although you enjoined me to send you a superlatively long [1465] le…
1,271 wordsSECTION 176Letter XV.
Letter XV. (a.d. 390.) To Romanianus Augustin Sends Greeting. 1. This letter indicates a scarcity of paper, [1469] but not so as to testify that parchment is plentiful here. My ivory tablets I used in the letter which I sent to your uncle. You will more readily excuse this scrap of parchment, because what I wrote to him could…
1,252 wordsSECTION 177Letter XVII.
Letter XVII. (a.d. 390.) To Maximus of Madaura. 1. Are we engaged in serious debate with each other, or is it your desire that we merely amuse ourselves? For, from the language of your letter, I am at a loss to know whether it is due to the weakness of your cause, or through the courteousness of your manners, that you have pr…
1,628 wordsSECTION 178Letter XVIII.
Letter XVIII. (a.d. 390.) To Coelestinus Augustin Sends Greeting. 1. Oh how I wish that I could continually say one thing to you! It is this: Let us shake off the burden of unprofitable cares, and bear only those which are useful. For I do not know whether anything like complete exemption from care is to be hoped for in this …
996 wordsSECTION 179Letter XX.
Letter XX. (a.d. 390.) To Antoninus Augustin Sends Greeting. 1. As letters are due to you by two of us, a part of our debt is repaid with very abundant usury when you see one of the two in person; and since by his voice you, as it were, hear my own, I might have refrained from writing, had I not been called to do it by the ur…
797 wordsSECTION 180Letter XXI.
Letter XXI. (a.d. 391.) To My Lord Bishop Valerius, Most Blessed and Venerable, My Father Most Warmly Cherished with True Love in the Sight of the Lord, Augustin, Presbyter, Sends Greeting in the Lord. 1. Before all things I ask your pious wisdom to take into consideration that, on the one hand, if the duties of the office of…
1,531 wordsSECTION 181Letter XXII.
Letter XXII. (a.d. 392.) To Bishop Aurelius, Augustin, Presbyter, Sends Greeting. Chap. I. 1. When, after long hesitation, I knew not how to frame a suitable reply to the letter of your Holiness (for all attempts to express my feelings were baffled by the strength of affectionate emotions which, rising spontaneously, were by…
2,375 wordsSECTION 182Letter XXIII.
9. These things I have written, in order that, if they are not now necessary for your Holiness (your own thoughts suggesting to you other and more useful considerations of this kind, or your Holiness being above the need of such remedies), my disorders at least may be known to you, and you may know that which may move you to dei…
2,348 wordsSECTION 1835. Publish frankly, therefore, that you are doing what is right, if it be the case that you do not rebaptize; and write me to that effect, n
5. Publish frankly, therefore, that you are doing what is right, if it be the case that you do not rebaptize; and write me to that effect, not only without fear, but with joy. Let no Councils of your party deter you, my brother, from this step: for if this displease them, they are not worthy to have you among them; but if it ple…
1,206 wordsSECTION 184Letter XXIV.
Letter XXIV. This letter, written in 394 to Alypius by Paulinus, owes its place in the collection of Augustin's letters to the notice of the treatises written by Augustin against the Manichæans, and its connection with the following letter addressed by Paulinus to Augustin himself. It is obviously one of those which, in making …
1,750 wordsSECTION 185Letter XXVI.
Letter XXVI. (a.d. 395.) To Licentius [1505] from Augustin. 1. I have with difficulty found an opportunity for writing to you: who would believe it? Yet Licentius must take my word for it. I do not wish you to search curiously for the causes and reasons of this; for though they could be given, your confidence in me acquits me…
1,642 wordsSECTION 186Letter XXVII.
Letter XXVII. (a.d. 395.) To My Lord, Holy and Venerable, and Worthy of Highest Praise in Christ, My Brother Paulinus, Augustin Sends Greeting in the Lord. 1. O excellent man and excellent brother, there was a time when you were unknown to my mind; and I charge my mind to bear patiently your being still unknown to my eyes, bu…
2,279 wordsSECTION 187Letter XXVIII.
As you are now about to read much that I have written, your love will be much more gratefully esteemed by me, if, moved by compassion, and judging impartially, you correct and reprove whatever displeases you. For you are not one whose oil anointing my head would make me afraid. The brethren, not those only who dwell with us, an…
2,417 wordsSECTION 188Letter XXIX.
[1517] [The letters to Jerome, and Jerome's replies, are among the most interesting and important in this correspondence, especially those parts which relate to Jerome's revision of the Latin version of the Bible, and his interpretation of Gal. ii. 11-14. See Letters 40, 71, 72, 73, 75, 81, 82, 172, 195, 202. Augustin was inferi…
2,466 wordsSECTION 1899. Lest, however, any slight should seem to be put by us on those who, before our time, either tolerated or did not dare to put down such ma
9. Lest, however, any slight should seem to be put by us on those who, before our time, either tolerated or did not dare to put down such manifest excesses of an undisciplined multitude, I explained to them the circumstances out of which this custom seems to have necessarily risen in the Church,--namely, that when, in the peace …
1,327 wordsSECTION 190Letter XXX.
Letter XXX. (a.d. 396.) This letter of Paulinus was written before receiving a reply to his former letter, No. 27, p. 248. To Augustin, Our Lord and Holy and Beloved Brother, Paulinus and Therasia, Sinners, Send Greeting. 1. My beloved brother in Christ the Lord, having through your holy and pious works come to know you with…
825 wordsSECTION 191Letter XXXI.
Letter XXXI. (a.d. 396.) To Brother Paulinus and to Sister Therasia, Most Beloved and Sincere, Truly Most Blessed and Most Eminent for the Very Abundant Grace of God Bestowed on Them Augustin Sends Greeting in the Lord. 1. Although in my longing to be without delay near you in one sense, while still remote in another, I wishe…
2,310 wordsSECTION 192Letter XXXII.
[1544] Charitas. [1545] Letter XXX. p. 257. [1546] Matt. xi. 30. [1547] Paulinus was then at Nola, having gone thither from Barcelona in A.D. 393 or 394. He became Bishop of Nola in 409. [1548] Nobilitate siccitatis. [1549] This refers to the voluntary poverty which Paulinus and Therasia, though of high rank and great wealt…
1,849 wordsSECTION 193Letter XXXIV.
Letter XXXIV. (a.d. 396.) To Eusebius, My Excellent Lord and Brother, Worthy of Affection and Esteem, Augustin Sends Greeting. 1. God, to whom the secrets of the heart of man are open, knoweth that it is because of my love for Christian peace that I am so deeply moved by the profane deeds of those who basely and impiously per…
1,474 wordsSECTION 194Letter XXXV.
Letter XXXV. (a.d. 396.) (Another letter to Eusebius on the same subject.) To Eusebius, My Excellent Lord and Brother, Worthy of Affection and Esteem, Augustin Sends Greeting. 1. I did not impose upon you, by importunate exhortation or entreaty in spite of your reluctance, the duty, as you call it, of arbitrating between bis…
1,364 wordsSECTION 195Letter XXXVI.
Letter XXXVI. (a.d. 396.) To My Brother and Fellow-Presbyter Casulanus, Most Beloved and Longed For, Augustin Sends Greeting in the Lord. Chap. I. 1. I know not how it was that I did not reply to your first letter; but I know that my neglect was not owing to want of esteem for you. For I take pleasure in your studies, and ev…
2,428 wordsSECTION 196. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . We have no compunction in passing over about eight columns here of this letter, in which Augustin exposes, with a tedious minuteness and with a waste of rhetoric, other feeble and irrelevant puerilities of the Roman author whose work Casulanus had submitted to his review. Instead of accompanying him into the…
2,496 wordsSECTION 197Letter XXXVII.
Chap. XIV. 32. Since, therefore (as I have said above), we do not find in the Gospels or in the apostolical writings, belonging properly to the revelation of the New Testament, that any law was laid down as to fasts to be observed on particular days; and since this is consequently one of many things, difficult to enumerate, whi…
1,076 wordsSECTION 198Letter XXXVIII.
Letter XXXVIII. (a.d. 397.) To His Brother Profuturus Augustin Sends Greeting. 1. As for my spirit, I am well, through the Lord's good pleasure, and the strength which He condescends to impart; but as for my body, I am confined to bed. I can neither walk, nor stand, nor sit, because of the pain and swelling of a boil or tumou…
814 wordsSECTION 199Letter XXXIX.
Letter XXXIX. (a.d. 397.) To My Lord Augustin, a Father [1603] Truly Holy and Most Blessed, Jerome Sends Greeting in Christ. Chap. I. 1. Last year I sent by the hand of our brother, the subdeacon Asterius, a letter conveying to your Excellency a salutation due to you, and readily rendered by me; and I think that my letter wa…
2,239 wordsSECTION 200Letter XLI.
Chap. V. 8. I had written some time ago a letter to you on this subject, [1617] which was not delivered to you, because the bearer to whom it was entrusted did not finish his journey to you. From it I may quote a thought which occurred to me while I was dictating it, and which I ought not to omit in this letter, in order that, …
1,347 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.