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

CHAP. 26.-LOVE OF OURSELVES AND OF OUR of our neighbor worketh no ill." And if we

NEIGHBOR.

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 worketh no ill," we may rise from this to these other words, "We know that all things issue in good to them that love God." +

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 51. But there is a sense in which these himself who aims diligently at the attainment either rise together to fullness and perfection, of the chief and true good; and if this is or, while the love of God is first in beginning, nothing else but God, as has been shown. the love of our neighbor is first in coming to what is to prevent one who loves God from perfection. For perhaps divine love takes loving himself? And then, among men should hold on us more rapidly at the outset, but there be no bond of mutual love? Yea, verily; we reach perfection more easily in lower so that we can think of no surer step towards things. However that may be, the main the love of God than the love of man to man. point is this, that no one should think that 49. Let the Lord then supply us with the while he despises his neighbor he will come other precept in answer to the question about to happiness and to the God whom he loves. the precepts of life; for He was not satisfied And would that it were as easy to seek the with one as knowing that God is one thing good of our neighbor, or to avoid hurting and man another, and that the difference is him, as it. is for one well trained and kindnothing less than that between the Creator hearted to love his neighbor! These things and the thing created in the likeness of its require more than mere good-will, and can Creator. He says then that the second pre- be done only by a high degree of thoughtfulcept is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as ness and prudence, which belongs only to thyself." Now you love yourself suitably those to whom it is given by God, the source when you love God better than yourself. of all good. On this topic-which is one, I What, then, you aim at in yourself you must think, of great difficulty--I will try to say a few aim at in your neighbor, namely, that he may words such as my plan admits of, resting all love God with a perfect affection. For you my hope in Him whose gifts these are. do not love him as yourself, unless you try to draw him to that good which you are yourself 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 But the first thing to aim at is, that we should be benevolent, that is, that we cherish no malice and no evil design against another. For man is the nearest neighbor of

from error.

man.

CHAP. 27.-ON DOING GOOD TO THE BODY OF

OUR NEIGHBOR.

Therefore he

52. Man, then, as viewed by his fellowman, is a rational soul with a mortal and who loves his neighbor does good partly to earthly body in its service. 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 50. Hear also what Paul says: "The love of our neighbor," he says, "worketh no ill.'' 3 restores bodily health. It includes, thereThe testimonies here made use of are very medical men, properly so called, but also fore, not only what belongs to the art of short, but, if I mistake not, they are to the food and drink, clothing and shelter, and point, and sufficient for the purpose. And every one knows how many and how weighty are the words to be found everywhere in these books 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. N.] 2 Matt. xxii. 39. 3 Rom. xiii. 10.

every means of covering and protection to guard our bodies against injuries and mishaps

from without as well as from within. For violence from without, produce loss of that hunger and thirst, and cold and heat, and all 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.

But

these evils and distresses are called compas- the high and rare offices of the teacher are sionate, although they may have been so wise not much called for,-as, for instance, in adthat no painful feeling disturbed their mind vice and exhortation to give to the needy the in the exercise of compassion. No doubt things already mentioned as required for the the word compassionate implies suffering in body. To give such advice is to aid the mind the heart of the man who feels for the sorrow by discipline, as giving the things themselves of another. And it is equally true that a wise is aiding the body by our resources. man ought to be free from all painful emo- there are other cases where diseases of the tion when he assists the needy, when he gives mind, many and various in kind, are healed food to the hungry and water to the thirsty, in a way strange and indescribable. Unless when he clothes the naked, when he takes the His medicine were sent from heaven to men, stranger into his house, when he sets free the so heedlessly do they go on in sin, there oppressed, when, lastly, he extends his would be no hope of salvation; and, indeed, charity to the dead in giving them burial. even bodily health, if you go to the root of Still the epithet compassionate is a proper the matter, can have come to men from none one, although he acts with tranquillity of but God, who gives to all things their being mind, not from the stimulus of painful feel- and their well-being. ing, but from motives of benevolence. There is no harm in the word compassionate when there is no passion in the case.

56. This discipline, then, which is the medicine of the mind, as far as we can gather from the sacred Scriptures, includes two 54. Fools, again, who avoid the exercise of things, restraint and instruction. Restraint compassion as a vice, because they are not implies fear, and instruction love, in the sufficiently moved by a sense of duty without person benefited by the discipline; for in the feeling also distressful emotion, are frozen giver of the benefit there is the love without into hard insensibility, which is very different the fear. In both of these God Himself, by from the calm of a rational serenity. God, whose goodness and mercy it is that we are on the other hand, is properly called com- anything, has given us in the two Testaments passionate; and the sense in which He is so a rule of discipline. For though both are will be understood by those whom piety and found in both Testaments, still fear is promidiligence have made fit to understand. nent in the Old, and love in the New; which There is a danger lest, in using the words of the apostle calls bondage in the one, and libthe learned, we harden the souls of the un- erty in the other. Of the marvellous order learned by leading them away from compas- and divine harmony of these Testaments it sion instead of softening them with the desire would take long to speak, and many pious of a charitable disposition. As compassion, and learned men have discoursed on it. The then, requires us to ward off these distresses theme demands many books to set it forth from others, so harmlessness forbids the in- and explain it as far as is possible for man. fliction of them. 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

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.

thus the knowledge of the truth is acquired which we are ever in the pursuit of.

55. As regards discipline, by which the health of the mind is restored, without which bodily health avails nothing for security 57. The Manichæans agree with me as reagainst misery, the subject is one of great gards the duty of loving God and our neighdifficulty. And as in the body we said it bor, but they deny that this is taught in the

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

1 Retract. i. 7. ន 4:--" "This does not mean that there are actually 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 Clement of Alexandria. The conception is Stoical and Neo-Platonic. -A. H. N.]

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 madness can oppose, do they not see the unreasonableness of denying that these very two precepts which they commend are quoted by the Lord in the Gospel from the Old Testament, "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

shalt love thy neighbor as thyself?" Or if they dare not deny this, from the light of truth being too strong for them, let them 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 neighbor worketh no ill (a two-fold regulation of human life which is most salutary and excellent). By such assertions they cut themselves off not only from Christians, but from mankind. But if they dare not speak thus, but must confess the divinity of the precepts, why do they not desist from assailing and maligning 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.

Is it not

Is it not

not this most profane blasphemy?
most presumptuous to speak thus?
most 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 my
opinion and my purpose? 3

61. And is it not intolerable that they forbid us to believe a book widely known and placed now in the hands of all, while 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 throughout a forgery, 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, degrade myself by doubting, and, worse degradation, by doubting at your suggestion? Even if you brought forward other readings, I should not receive them unless supported

CHAP. 29.—OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPT- by general agreement; and this being the

URES.

case, do you think that now, when you bring forward nothing to compare with the text ex59. Attend, then, ye Manichæans, if per- cept your own silly and inconsiderate statechance there are some of you of whom your ment, mankind are so unreasonable and so superstition has hold so as to allow you yet to forsaken by divine Providence as to prefer to escape. Attend, I say, without obstinacy, those Scriptures not others quoted by you in without the desire to oppose, otherwise your refutation, but merely your own words? You decision will be fatal to yourselves. No one ought to bring forward another manuscript can doubt, and you are not so lost to the with the same contents, but incorrupt and truth as not to understand that if it is good, more correct, with only the passage wanting as all allow, to love God and our neighbor, which you charge with being spurious. For whatever hangs on these two precepts cannot example, if you hold that the Epistle of Paul rightly be pronounced bad. What it is that to the Romans is spurious, you must bring hangs on them it would be absurd to think of forward another incorrupt, or rather another learning from me. Hear Christ Himself; manuscript with the same epistle of the same hear Christ, I say; hear the Wisdom of God: apostle, free from error and corruption. You "On these two commandments," He says, say you will not, lest you be suspected of hang all the law and the prophets.' corrupting it. This is your usual reply, and 60. What can the most shameless obstinacy a true one. Were you to do this, we should say to this? That these are not Christ's assuredly have this very suspicion; and all words? But they are written in the Gospel men of any sense would have it too. See then as His words. That the writing is false?

1 Deut. vi. 5; Lev. xix. 18; Matt. xxii. 37, 39. 2 Matt. xxii. 45.

12

Is

3 [The strong testimony borne by Augustin against the perverse subjective criticism of the Manichaeans has an important application to the present time.-A., H. N.]

CHAP. 30.-THE

CHURCH APOSTROPHISED As
DOCTRINE OF THE

TEACHER OF ALL WISDOM.
CATHOLIC CHURCH.

62. But why say more on this? For who but sees that men who dare to speak thus against the Christian Scriptures, though they may not be what they are suspected of being, are at least no Christians? For to Christians

Thou

what you are to think of your own authority; blood. Without violation of the connections and consider whether it is right to believe of nature and of choice, thou bringest within your words against these Scriptures, when the the bond of mutual love every relationship of simple fact that a manuscript is brought for- kindred, and every alliance of affinity. Thou ward by you makes it dangerous to put faith teachest servants to cleave to their masters in it. from delight in their task rather than from the necessity of their position. Thou renderest masters forbearing to their servants, from a regard to God their common Master, and more disposed to advise than to compel. Thou unitest citizen to citizen, nation to nation, yea, man to man, from the recollection of their first parents, not only in society but in fraternity. Thou teachest kings to seek the good of their peoples; thou counsellest this rule of life is given, that we should love peoples to be subject to their kings. the Lord our God with all the heart, with all teachest carefully to whom honor is due, to the soul, and with all the mind, and our whom regard, to whom reverence, to whom neighbor as ourselves; for on these two com- fear, to whom consolation, to whom admonimandments hang all the law and the prophets. tion, to whom encouragement, to whom disciRightly, then, Catholic Church, most true pline, to whom rebuke, to whom punishment; mother of Christians, dost thou not only showing both how all are not due to all, and teach that God alone, to find whom is the how to all love is due, and how injury is due happiest life, must be worshipped in perfect purity and chastity, bringing in no creature 64. Then, after this human love has nouras an object of adoration whom we should be ished and invigorated the mind cleaving to required to serve; and from that incorrupt and thy breast, and fitted it for following God, inviolable eternity to which alone man should when the divine majesty has begun to disclose be made subject, in cleaving to which alone itself as far as suffices for man while a dweller the rational soul escapes misery, excluding on the earth, such fervent charity is produced, and such a flame of divine love is kindled, everything made, everything liable to change, everything under the power of time; without that by the burning out of all vices, and by confounding what eternity, and truth, and the purification and sanctification of the man, it becomes plain how divine are these words, keeps separate, or separating what a common majesty unites: but thou dost "I am a consuming fire," and, "I have also contain love and charity to our neighbor come to send fire on the earth." These two in such a way, that for all kinds of diseases utterances of one God stamped on both with which souls are for their sins afflicted, Testaments, exhibit with harmonious testithere is found with thee a medicine of prevail- mony the sanctification of the soul, pointing ing efficacy. forward to the accomplishment of that which

peace itself

to none.2

H. N.]

4

3 Deut. iv. 24. Retract. i. 7, 85:-" The Pelagians may think But they must not think so. For the fervor of charity which is fitted for

63. Thy training and teaching are childlike for children, forcible for youths, peace-rather than to the Catholic Church, no Christian could fail to 2 [If this apostrophe had been addressed to "Christianity ful for the aged, taking into account the age see in it one of the noblest tributes ever bestowed on the religion of of the mind as well as of the body. Thou which was far from realizing the ideal that he here sets forth. As Christ. Augustin identified Christianity with the organized body subjectest women to their husbands in chaste an apostrophe to ideal Christianity nothing could be finer.-A. and faithful obedience, not to gratify passion, but for the propagation of offspring, and for domestic society. Thou givest to men authority over their wives, not to mock the weaker sex, but in the laws of unfeigned love. Thou dost subordinate children to their parents in a kind of free bondage, and dost set parents over their children in a godly rule. Thou bindest brothers to brothers in a religious tie stronger and closer than that

of

1 [This view of the marriage relation seems to have been almost universal in the ancient Church. Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria are fond of dwelling upon it. For Augustin's views more fully stated see his De Bono Conjugali, 6. See also an interesting excursus on "Continence in Married Life" in CUNNINGHAM'S St. Austin, p. 168. sq.--A. H. N.]

that I have spoken of perfection as attainable in this life. following God, and of force enough to consume all vices, can have its origin and growth in this life; but it does not follow that it can here accomplish the purpose of its origin, so that no vice shall remain in the man; although this great effect is produced by this same fervor of charity, when and where this is possible, that as the laver of regeneration purifies from the guilt of all the sins which attach to man's birth, or come from his evil conduct, so this perfection may purify him from all stain from the vices which necessarily attend human infirmity in this world. So we must and gave himself for it; cleansing it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing' (Eph. v. 25-27). For in this world there is the washing of water by the word which purifies the Church. But as the whole Church, as long as it is here, says, 'Forgive us our debts,' it certainly is not while here without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but from that which it here receives, it is led on to the glory which is not here, and to perfection.

understand the words of the apostle: Christ loved the Church,

4 Luke xii. 49.