into my mind those true verses of Thy Am- had so lived as to praise Thy name both by her brose, for Thou art "Deus creator omnium, Polique rector, vestiens Diem decora lumine, Noctem sopora gratia; Artus solutos ut quies Reddat laboris usui, Mentesque fessas allevet, Luctusque solvat anxios."1 33. And then little by little did I bring back my former thoughts of Thine handmaid, her devout conversation towards Thee, her holy tenderness and attentiveness towards us, which was suddenly taken away from me; and it was pleasant to me to weep in Thy sight, for her and for me, concerning her and concerning myself. And I set free the tears which before I repressed, that they might flow at their will, spreading them beneath my heart; and it rested in them, for Thy ears were nigh me,—not those of man, who would have put a scornful interpretation on my weeping. But now in writing I confess it unto Thee, O Lord! Read it who will, and interpret how he will; and if he finds me to have sinned in weeping for my mother during so small a part of an hour, that mother who was for a while dead to mine eyes, who had for many years wept for me, that I might live in Thine eyes,-let him not laugh at me, but rather, if he be a man of a noble charity, let him weep for my sins against Thee, the Father of all the brethren of Thy Christ. 5 faith and conversation, yet dare I not say that from the time Thou didst regenerate her by baptism, no word went forth from her mouth against Thy precepts. And it hath been declared by Thy Son, the Truth, that "Whosoever shall say to his brother, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." And woe even unto the praiseworthy life of man, if, putting away mercy, Thou shouldest investigate it. But because Thou dost not narrowly inquire after sins, we hope with confidence to find some place of indulgence with Thee. But whosoever recounts his true merits to Thee, what is it that he recounts to Thee but Thine own gifts? Oh, if men would know themselves to be men; and that "he that glorieth" would "glory in the Lord! 198 35. I then, O my Praise and my Life, Thou God of my heart, putting aside for a little her good deeds, for which I joyfully give thanks to Thee, do now beseech Thee for the sins of my mother. Hearken unto me, through that Medicine of our wounds who hung upon the tree, and who, sitting at Thy right hand, "maketh intercession for us. I know that she acted mercifully, and from the heart 10 forgave her debtors their debts; do Thou also forgive her debts," whatever she contracted during so many clauses because, as no one dies in an animal body except in Adam, so no one is quickened a spiritual body save in Christ." sec. 68, note 1, below. See x. 4 For to have done so would have been to go perilously near to the heresy of the Pelagians, who laid claim to the possibility of at CHAP. XIII.—HE ENTREATS GOD FOR HER SINS, taining perfection in this life by the power of free-will, and without AND ADMONISHES HIS READERS TO REMEMBER HER PIOUSLY. the assistance of divine grace; and went even so far, he tells us (Ep. clxxvi. 2), as to say that those who had so attained need not utter the petition for forgiveness in the Lord's Prayer,-ut ei non sit jam necessarium dicere "Dimitte nobis débita nostra. Those in our own day who enunciate perfectionist theories,though, it is true, not denying the grace of God as did these,-may well ponder Augustin's forcible words in his De Pecc. Mer, et Rem. iii. 13: "Optandum est ut fiat, conandum est ut fiat, supplicandum indeed commanded to be perfect (Matt. v. 48); and the philosophy est ut fiat; non tamen quasi factum fuerit, confitendum, We are underlying the command is embalmed in the words of the proverb, "Aim high, and you will strike high." But he who lives nearest dan-to God will have the humility of heart which will make him ready to confess that in His sight he is a "miserable sinner." Some interesting remarks on this subject will be found in Augustin's De Civ. Dei, xiv. 9, on the text, "If we say we have no sin," etc. (1 John i. 8.) On sins after baptism, see note on next section. 5 Matt. xii. 36. 34. But, my heart being now healed of that wound, in so far as it could be convicted of a carnal affection,-I pour out unto Thee, O our God, on behalf of that Thine handmaid, tears of a far different sort, even that which flows from a spirit broken by the thoughts of the gers of every soul that dieth in Adam. And although she, having been "made alive" in Christ even before she was freed from the flesh, 1 Rendered as follows in a translation of the first ten books of the Confessions, described on the title-page as "Printed by J. C., for John Crook, and are to be sold at the sign of the 'Ship,' in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1660" : "O God, the world's great Architect, Who dost heaven's rowling orbs direct; Cloathing the day with beauteous light, And with sweet slumbers silent night; When wearied limbs new vigour gain From rest, new labours to sustain; When hearts oppressed do meet relief, And anxious minds forget their grief.' See x. sec. 52, below, where this hymn is referred to. Rom. viii. 7. 81 Cor. xv. 22. The universalists of every age have interpreted the word "all here so as to make salvation by Christ Jesus extend to every child of Adam. If their interpretation were true, Monica's spirit need not have been troubled at the thought of the danger of unregenerate souls. But Augustin in his De Civ. Dei, xiii. 23, gives the import of the word: "Not that all who die in Adam shall be members of Christ,-for the great majority shall be punished in eternal death,-but he uses the word all' in both 6 Matt. v. 22. 7 There is a passage parallel to this in his Ep. to Sextus (cxciv. "Merits 19). therefore would appear to be used simply in the and Ep. cv. That righteousness is not by merit, appears from Ep. sense of good actions. Compare sec. 17, above, xiii. sec. 1, below, cxciv.; Ep. clxxvii., to Innocent; and Serm. ccxciii. 82 Cor. x. 17. Rom. viii. 34. 10 Matt. xviii. 35. 11 Matt. vi. 12. Augustin here as elsewhere applies this petition in the Lord's Prayer to the forgiveness of sins after baptism. He does so constantly. For example, in his Ep. cclxv. he says: "We do not ask for those to be forgiven which we doubt not were forgiven in baptism; but those which, though small, are frequent, and spring from the frailty of human nature.' Again, in his Con. Ep. Parmen. ii. 10, after using almost the same words, he points out that it is a prayer against daily sins; and in his De Civ. Dei, xxi. 27, where he examines the passage in relation to various erroneous beliefs, he says it "was a daily prayer He [Christ] was teaching, and it was certainly to disciples already justified He was speaking. What, then, does He mean by your sins' (Matt. vi. 14), but those sins from which not even you who are justified and sanctified can be free?" See note on the previous section; and also for the feeling in the early Church as to sins after baptism, the note on i. sec. 17, above. years since the water of salvation. Forgivesins are forgiven"" by Him to whom no one her, O Lord, forgive her, I beseech Thee; is able to repay that price which He, owing "enter not into judgment" with her. Let nothing, laid down for us. Thy mercy be exalted above Thy justice, be- 37. May she therefore rest in peace with her cause Thy words are true, and Thou hast pro- husband, before or after whom she married mised mercy unto "the merciful;" which none; whom she obeyed, with patience bringing Thou gavest them to be who wilt "have mercy" forth fruit " unto Thee, that she might gain him on whom Thou wilt "have mercy," and wilt also for Thee. And inspire, O my Lord my "have compassion" on whom Thou hast had God, inspire Thy servants my brethren, Thy compassion. sons my masters, who with voice and heart and 36. And I believe Thou hast already done writings I serve, that so many of them as shall that which I ask Thee; but "accept the free- read these confessions may at Thy altar rememwill offerings of my mouth, O Lord." For ber Monica, Thy handmaid, together with she, when the day of her dissolution was near Patricius, her sometime husband, by whose at hand, took no thought to have her body flesh Thou introducedst me into this life, in sumptuously covered, or embalmed with spices; what manner I know not. May they with pious nor did she covet a choice monument, or desire affection be mindful of my parents in this transher paternal burial-place. These things she itory light, of my brethren that are under Thee entrusted not to us, but only desired to have our Father in our Catholic mother, and of my her name remembered at Thy altar, which she fellow-citizens in the eternal Jerusalem, which had served without the omission of a single the wandering of Thy people sigheth for from day; whence she knew that the holy sacrifice their departure until their return. That so my was dispensed, by which the handwriting that mother's last entreaty to me may, through my was against us is blotted out; by which the confessions more than through my prayers, be enemy was triumphed over, who, summing up more abundantly fulfilled to her through the our offences, and searching for something to prayers of many.1 bring against us, found nothing in Him in whom we conquer. Who will restore to Him 8 the innocent blood? Who will repay Him the price with which He bought us, so as to take us from Him? Unto the sacrament of which our ransom did Thy handmaid bind her soul by the bond of faith. Let none separate her from Thy protection. Let not the "lion" and the dragon" 10 introduce himself by force or fraud. For she will not reply that she owes nothing, lest she be convicted and got the better of by the wily deceiver; but she will answer that her 1 Ps. cxliii. 2. Jas. ii. 13. 3 Matt. v. 7. 4 Rom. ix. 15. 5 Ps. cxix. 108. • See v. sec. 17, above. ↑ Col. ii. 14. 11 Matt. ix. 2. 12 Luke viii. 15. 18 The origin of prayers for the dead dates back probably to the close of the second century. In note 1, p. 90, we have quoted from Tertullian's De Corona Militis, where he says, "Oblationes Monogamia, he speaks of a widow praying for her departed huspro defunctis pro natalitiis annua die facimus." In his De band, that he might have rest, and be a partaker in the first reFathers might be given, if space permitted, showing how, beginning surrection." From this time a catena of quotations from the with early expressions of hope for the dead, there, in process of time, arose prayers even for the unregenerate, until at last there was developed purgatory on the one side, and creature-worship worship will be seen from his Ep. to Maximus, xvii. 5. In his De the other. That Augustin did not entertain the idea of creatureDulcit. Quæst. 2 (where he discusses the whole question), he concludes that prayer must not be made for all, because all have not led the same life in the flesh. Still, in his Enarr. in Ps. cviii. 17, on he argues from the case of the rich man in the parable, that the departed do certainly "have a care for us." Aerius, towards the close of the fourth century, objected to prayers for the dead, chiefly on the ground (see Usher's Answer to a Jesuit, iii. 258) of their uselessness. In the Church of England, as will be seen by reference to Keeling's Liturgica Britannica, pp. 210, 335, 339, and 341, prayers for the dead were eliminated from the second Prayer Book; and to the prudence of this step Palmer bears testimony in his Origines Liturgica, iv. 10, justifying it on the ground that the re See his De Trin. xiii. 18, the passage beginning, "What then taining of these prayers implied a belief in her holding the doctrine is the righteousness by which the devil was conquered?" John xiv. 30. 10 Ps. xci. 13. of purgatory. Reference may be made to Epiphanius, Adv. Hær. 75; Bishop Bull, Sermon 3; and Bingham, xv. 3, secs. 15, 16, and xxiii. 3, sec. 13. BOOK X. HAVING MANIFESTED WHAT HE WAS AND WHAT HE IS, HE SHOWS THE GREAT FRUIT OF HIS CONFESSION; AND BEING ABOUT TO EXAMINE BY WHAT METHOD GOD AND THE HAPPY LIFE MAY BE FOUND, HE ENLARGES ON THE NATURE AND POWER OF MEMORY. THEN HE EXAMINES HIS OWN ACTS, THOUGHTS AND AFFECTIONS, VIEWED UNDER THE THREEFOLD DIVISION OF TEMPTATION; AND COMMEMORATES THE LORD, THE ONE MEDIATOR OF GOD AND MEN. CHAP. I.—IN GOD ALONE IS THE HOPE AND JOY | For when I am wicked, to confess to Thee is 66 OF MAN. This 1. LET me know Thee, O Thou who knowest me; let me know Thee, as I am known.1 Thou strength of my soul, enter into it, and prepare it for Thyself, that Thou mayest have and hold it without "spot or wrinkle."2 is my hope, therefore have I spoken;" and in this hope do I rejoice, when I rejoice soberly. Other things of this life ought the less to be sorrowed for, the more they are sorrowed for; and ought the more to be sorrowed for, the less men do sorrow for them. For behold, "Thou desirest truth,' seeing that he who does it "cometh to the light."5 This wish I to do in confession in my heart before Thee, and in my writing before many witnesses. but first Thou זיי naught but to be dissatisfied with myself; but when I am truly devout, it is naught but not to attribute it to myself, because Thou, O Lord, dost "bless the righteous; therefore, O my God, in Thy sight, is made. justifiest him "ungodly." justifiest him "ungodly." My confession, unto Thee silently, and yet not silently. For For neither do I give utterance to anything in noise it is silent, in affection it cries aloud. that is right unto men which Thou hast not heard from me before, nor dost Thou hear anything of the kind from me which Thyself saidst not first unto me. CHAP. III.-HE WHO CONFESSETH RIGHTLY UNTO GOD BEST KNOWETH HIMSELF. 3. What then have I to do with men, that they should hear my confessions, as if they were going to cure all my diseases? A people curious to know the lives of others, but slow to correct MADE BY THE WORDS OF THE FLESH, BUT OF their own. Why do they desire to hear from CHAP. II.-THAT ALL THINGS ARE MANIFEST TO THE SOUL, AND THE CRY OF REFLECTION. 2. And from Thee, O Lord, unto whose eyes the depths of man's conscience are naked," what in me could be hidden though I were unwilling to confess to Thee? For so should I hide Thee from myself, not myself from Thee. But now, because my groaning witnesseth that I am dissatisfied with myself, Thou shinest forth, and satisfiest, and art beloved and desired; that I may blush for myself, and renounce myself, and choose Thee, and may neither please Thee nor myself, except in Thee. To Thee, then, O Lord, am I manifest, whatever I am, and with what fruit I may confess unto Thee I have spoken. Nor do I it with words and sounds of the flesh, but with the words of the soul, and that cry of reflection which Thine ear knoweth. 11 Cor. xiii. 12. 2 Eph. v. 27. 3 Ps. cxvi. 10. 4 Ps. li. 6. • John iii. 20. Heb. iv. 13. me what I am, who are unwilling to hear from Thee what they are? And how can they tell, when they hear from me of myself, whether I speak the truth, seeing that no man knoweth what is in man, "save the spirit of man which is in him "p10 But if they hear from Thee aught concerning themselves, they will not be able to say, "The Lord lieth.' For what is it to hear from Thee of themselves, but to know themselves? And who is he that knoweth himself and saith, "It is false," unless he himself lieth? But because "charity believeth all things (amongst those at all events whom by union with itself it maketh one), I too, O Lord, also so confess unto Thee that men may hear, to whom I cannot prove whether I confess the truth, yet do they believe me whose ears charity openeth unto me. 7 Ps. v. 12. 8 Rom. iv. 5. 9 Ps. ciii. 3. 101 Cor. ii. 11. 111 Cor. xiii. 7. 11 6 4. But yet do Thou, my most secret Physi-proves me, is sorry for me; because whether it cian, make clear to me what fruit I may reap approves or disapproves it loves me. To such by doing it. For the confessions of my past will I declare myself; let them breathe freely at sins, which Thou hast "forgiven" and "cov- my good deeds, and sigh over my evil ones. My ered," that Thou mightest make me happy in good deeds are Thy institutions and Thy gifts, Thee, changing my soul by faith and Thy sac- my evil ones are my delinquencies and Thy rament,-when they are read and heard, stir up judgments. Let them breathe freely at the the heart, that it sleep not in despair and say, one, and sigh over the other; and let hymns "I cannot ;" but that it may awake in the love and tears ascend into Thy sight out of the fraof Thy mercy and the sweetness of Thy grace, ternal hearts-Thy censers. And do Thou, O by which he that is weak is strong," if by it he Lord, who takest delight in the incense of Thy is made conscious of his own weakness. As for holy temple, have mercy upon me according to the good, they take delight in hearing of the Thy great mercy," "for Thy name's sake ;" and past errors of such as are now freed from them; on no account leaving what Thou hast begun in and they delight, not because they are errors, me, do Thou complete what is imperfect in me. but because they have been and are so no 6. This is the fruit of my confessions, not of longer. For what fruit, then, O Lord my God, what I was, but of what I am, that I may conto whom my conscience maketh her daily con- fess this not before Thee only, in a secret exulfession, more confident in the hope of Thy tation with trembling, and a secret sorrow with mercy than in her own innocency,-for what hope, but in the ears also of the believing sons fruit, I beseech Thee, do I confess even to men of men,―partakers of my joy, and sharers of in Thy presence by this book what I am at this my mortality, my fellow-citizens and the comtime, not what I have been? For that fruit I panions of my pilgrimage, those who are gone have both seen and spoken of, but what I am before, and those that are to follow after, and at this time, at the very moment of making my the comrades of my way. These are Thy confessions, divers people desire to know, both servants, my brethren, those whom Thou wishwho knew me and who knew me not,-who est to be Thy sons; my masters, whom Thou have heard of or from me,-but their ear, is not hast commanded me to serve, if I desire to live at my heart, where I am whatsoever I am. They with and of Thee. But this Thy word were are desirous, then, of hearing me confess what little to me did it command in speaking, without I am within, where they can neither stretch eye, going before in acting. This then do I both in nor ear, nor mind; they desire it as those deed and word, this I do under Thy wings, in willing to believe, but will they understand? too great danger, were it not that my soul, under For charity, by which they are good, says unto Thy wings, is subject unto Thee, and my weakthem that I do not lie in my confessions, and ness known unto Thee. I am a little one, but she in them believes me. my Father liveth for ever, and my Defender is "sufficient "10 for me. For He is the same who begat me and who defends me; and Thou Thyself art all my good; even Thou, the Omnipotent, who art with me, and that before I am with Thee. To such, therefore, whom Thou commandest me to serve will I declare, not what I was, but what I now am, and what I still am. But neither do I judge myself." Thus then I would be heard. CHAP. IV.—THAT IN HIS CONFESSIONS HE MAY 5. But for what fruit do they desire this? Do they wish me happiness when they learn how near, by Thy gift, I come unto Thee; and to pray for me, when they learn how much I am kept back by my own weight? To such will I declare myself. For it is no small fruit, O Lord my God, that by many thanks should be given to Thee on our behalf, and that by many Thou shouldest be entreated for us. Let the fraternal soul love that in me which Thou teachest should be loved, and lament that in me which Thou teachest should be lamented. Let a fraternal and not an alien soul do this, nor that "of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood," but that fraternal one which, when it approves me, rejoices for me, but when it disap 1 Ps. xxxii. 1. 32 Cor. xii. 10. az Cor. i. II. 4 Ps. cxliv. 11. CHAP. V.-THAT MAN KNOWETH NOT HIMSELF WHOLLY. 12 7. For it is Thou, Lord, that judgest me; for although no "man knoweth the things of a In note 9, p. 79, we have seen how God makes man's sin its own punishment. Reference may also be made to Augustin's Con. Advers. Leg. et Proph. i. 14, where he argues that "the punishment of a man's disobedience is found in himself, when he in his turn Lib. Arb. v. 18, he says, God punishes by taking from him that cannot get obedience even from himself." And again, in his De which he does not use well, " et qui recte facere cum possit noluit amittat posse cum velit." See also Serm. clxxi. 4, and Ep. cliii. 6 Rev viii. 3. 7 Ps. li. 1. 10 2 Cor. xii. 9. 111 Cor. iv. 3. 12 1 Cor. iv. 4. 66 I love pleasant to the embracements of flesh. man, save the spirit of man which is in him," yet is there something of man which "the spirit of man which is in him" itself knoweth not. But Thou, Lord, who hast made him, knowest him wholly. I indeed, though in Thy sight I despise myself, and reckon "myself but dust and ashes,' yet know something concerning Thee, which I know not concerning myself. And assuredly now we see through a glass darkly," not yet "face to face." So long, therefore, as I be "absent" from Thee, I am more "present" with myself than with Thee; and yet know I that Thou canst not suffer violence; but for myself I know not what tempta- 9. And what is this? I asked the earth; tions I am able to resist, and what I am not and it answered, "I am not He;" and whatable. But there is hope, because Thou art soever are therein made the same confession. faithful, who wilt not suffer us to be tempted I asked the sea and the deeps, and the creeping above that we are able, but wilt with the temp-things that lived, and they replied, "We are tation also make a way to escape, that we may not thy God, seek higher than we." I asked be able to bear it." I would therefore confess the breezy air, and the universal air with its inwhat I know concerning myself; I will confess also what I know not concerning myself. And because what I do know of myself, I know by Thee enlightening me; and what I know not of myself, so long I know not until the time when "darkness be as the noonday "8 in Thy my sight. CHAP. VI.—THE LOVE OF GOD, IN HIS NATURE EXERCISE OF REASON. habitants answered, “Anaximenes" was deceived, I am not God." I asked the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars: "Neither," say they, "are we the God whom thou seekest." And I answered unto all these things which stand about the door of my flesh, "Ye have told me concerning my God, that ye are not He; tell me something about Him." And with a loud voice they exclaimed, "He made us." My questioning was my observing of them; and their beauty was their reply." And I directed my thoughts to myself, and said, "Who art thou?" And I answered, "A man.' And lo, in me there 8. Not with uncertain, but with assured consciousness do I love Thee, O Lord. Thou hast appear both body and soul, the one without, stricken my heart with Thy word, and I loved the other within. By which of these should I seek my God, whom I had sought through And also the heaven, and earth, and all that is therein, behold, on every side they say able to send messengers the beams of mine the body from earth to heaven, as far as I was that I should love Thee; nor do they cease to speak unto all, "so that they are without ex- for to it, as both president and judge, did all eyes? But the better part is that which is inner; cuse. But more profoundly wilt Thou have these my corporeal messengers render the anmercy on whom Thou wilt have mercy, and compassion on whom Thou wilt have compas-swers of heaven and earth and all things therein, sion,10 otherwise do both heaven and earth tell who said, "We are not God, but He made us. forth Thy praises to deaf ears. These things was my inner man cognizant of by But what is it that I love in loving Thee? Not corporeal knew all this-I, the soul, through the senses of the ministry of the outer; I, the inner man, beauty, nor the splendour of time, nor the radiance of the light, so pleasant to our eyes, nor my body. I asked the vast bulk of the earth of my God, and it answered me, "I am not the sweet melodies of songs of all kinds, nor He, but He made me." the fragrant smell of flowers, and ointments, and spices, not manna and honey, not limbs Thee. 10. Is not this beauty visible to all whose senses are unimpaired? Why then doth it not speak the same things unto all? Animals, the 11 Anaximenes of Miletus was born about 520 B. C. According to his philosophy the air was animate, and from it, as from a first prin. ciple, all things in heaven, earth, and sea sprung, first by condensation (UKvwois), and after that by a process of rarefaction (apaiwois). See Ep. cxviii, 23; and Aristotle, Phys. iii. 4. Compare this theory and that of Epicurus (p. 100, above) with those of modern physi cists; and see thereon The Unseen Universe, arts. 85, etc., and 117, etc. 12 In Ps. cxliv. 13, the earth he describes as "dumb," but as speaking to us while we meditate upon its beauty—Ipsa inquisitio interrogatio est. |