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ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
(cont) |
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by St Augustine of Hippo |
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Ch 7. The useless bondage of the
gentiles |
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And if ever any of them endeavoured to make it out that their
idols were only signs, yet still they
used them in reference to the worship and adoration of the
creature. What difference does it make
to me, for instance, that the image of Neptune is not itself to be
considered a god, but only as
representing the wide ocean, and all the other waters besides that
spring out of fountains? As it is
described by a poet of theirs, who says, if I recollect aright,
"Thou, Father Neptune, whose hoary
temples are wreathed with the resounding sea, whose beard is the
mighty ocean flowing forth
unceasingly, and whose hair is the winding rivers." This husk
shakes its rattling stones within a
sweet covering, and yet it is not food for men, but for swine. He
who knows the gospel knows
what I mean. What profit is it to me, then, that the image of
Neptune is used with a reference to
this explanation of it, unless indeed the result be that I worship
neither? For any statue you like to
take is as much god to me as the wide ocean. I grant, however,
that they who make gods of the
works of man have sunk lower than they who make gods of the works
of God. But the command
is that we should love and serve the One God, who is the Maker of
all those things, the images of
which are worshipped by the heathen either as gods, or as signs
and representations of gods. If,
then, to take a sign which has been established for a useful end
instead of the thing itself which it
was designed to signify, is bondage to the flesh, how much more so
is it to take signs intended to
represent useless things for the things themselves! For even if
you go back to the very things
signified by such signs, and engage your mind in the worship of
these, you will not be anything the
more free from the burden and the livery of bondage to the flesh.
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Ch 8. The Jews liberated from their
bondage in one way, the gentiles in another |
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12. Accordingly the liberty that comes by Christ took those
whom it found under bondage to
useful signs, and who were (so to speak) near to it, and,
interpreting the signs to which they were
in bondage, set them free by raising them to the realities of
which these were signs. And out of
such were formed the churches of the saints of Israel. Those, on
the other hand, whom it found in
bondage to useless signs, it not only freed from their slavery to
such signs, but brought to nothing
and cleared out of the way all these signs themselves, so that the
gentiles were turned from the
corruption of a multitude of false gods, which Scripture
frequently and justly speaks of as
fornication, to the worship of the One God: not that they might
now fall into bondage to signs of
a useful kind, but rather that they might exercise their minds in
the spiritual understanding of such.
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Ch 9. Who is in bondage to signs, and
who not |
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13. Now he is in bondage to a sign who uses, or pays homage
to, any significant object without
knowing what it signifies: he, on the other hand, who either uses
or honours a useful sign divinely
appointed, whose force and significance he understands, does not
honour the sign which is
seen and temporal, but that to which all such signs refer. Now
such a man is spiritual and free
even at the time of his bondage, when it is not yet expedient to
reveal to carnal minds those signs
by subjection to which their carnality is to be overcome. To this
class of spiritual persons
belonged the patriarchs and the prophets, and all those among the
people of Israel through whose
instrumentality the Holy Spirit ministered unto us the aids and
consolations of the Scriptures. But
at the present time, after that the proof of our liberty has shone
forth so clearly in the resurrection
of our Lord, we are not oppressed with the heavy burden of
attending even to those signs which
we now understand, but our Lord Himself, and apostolic practice,
have handed down to us a few
rites in place of many, and these at once very easy to perform,
most majestic in their significance,
and most sacred in the observance; such, for example, as the
Sacrament of baptism, and the
celebration of the body and blood of the Lord. And as soon as any
one looks upon these
observances he knows to what they refer, and so reveres them not
in carnal bondage, but in
spiritual freedom. Now, as to follow the letter, and to take signs
for the things that are signified by
them, is a mark of weakness and bondage; so to interpret signs
wrongly is the result of being
misled by error. He, however, who does not understand what a sign
signifies, but yet knows that
it is a sign, is not in bondage. And it is better even to be in
bondage to unknown but useful signs
than, by interpreting them wrongly, to draw the neck from under
the yoke of bondage only to
insert it in the coils of error.
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Ch 10. How we are to discern whether a
phrase is figurative |
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14. But in addition to the foregoing rule, which guards us against
taking a metaphorical form of
speech as if it were literal, we must also pay heed to that which
tells us not to take a literal form
of speech as if it were figurative. In the first place, then, we
must show the way to find out
whether a phrase is literal or figurative. And the way is
certainly as follows: Whatever there is in
the word of God that cannot, when taken literally, be referred
either to purity of life or soundness
of doctrine, you may set down as figurative. Purity of life has
reference to the love of God and
one's neighbour; soundness of doctrine to the knowledge of God and
one's neighbour. Every man,
moreover, has hope in his own conscience, so far as he perceives
that he has attained to the love
and knowledge of God and his neighbour. Now all these matters have
been spoken of in the first
book.
15. But as men are prone to estimate sins, not by reference to
their inherent sinfulness, but rather
by reference to their own customs, it frequently happens that a
man will think nothing blameable
except what the men of his own country and time are accustomed to
condemn, and nothing
worthy of praise or approval except what is sanctioned by the
custom of his companions; and thus
it comes to pass, that if Scripture either enjoins what is opposed
to the customs of the hearers, or
condemns what is not so opposed, and if at the same time the
authority of the word has a hold
upon their minds, they think that the expression is figurative.
Now Scripture enjoins nothing
except charity, and condemns nothing except lust, and in that way
fashions the lives of men. In the
same way, if an erroneous opinion has taken possession of the
mind, men think that whatever
Scripture asserts contrary to this must be figurative. Now
Scripture asserts nothing but the
catholic faith, in regard to things past, future, and present. It
is a narrative of the past, a prophecy
of the future, and a description of the present. But all these
tend to nourish and strengthen charity,
and to overcome and root out lust.
16. I mean by charity that affection of the mind which aims at the
enjoyment of God for His own
sake, and the enjoyment of ones self and one's neighbour in
subordination to God; by lust I mean
that affection of the mind which aims at enjoying one's self and
one's neighbour, and other
corporeal things, without reference to God. Again, what lust, when
unsubdued, does towards
corrupting one's own soul and body, is called vice; but what it
does to injure another is called
crime. And these are the two classes into which all sins may be
divided. But the vices come
first; for when these have exhausted the soul, and reduced it to a
kind of poverty, it easily slides
into crimes, in order to remove hindrances to, or to find
assistance in, its vices. In the same way,
what charity does with a view to one's own advantage is prudence;
but what it does with a view
to a neighbor's advantage is called benevolence. And here prudence
comes first; because no one
can confer an advantage on another which he does not himself
possess. Now in proportion as the
dominion of lust is pulled down, in the same proportion is that of
charity built up.
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Ch 11. Rule for interpreting phrases
which seem to ascribe severity to God and the saints |
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17. Every severity, therefore, and apparent cruelty, either
in word or deed, that is ascribed in
Holy Scripture to God or His saints, avails to the pulling down of
the dominion of lust. And if its
meaning be clear, we are not to give it some secondary reference,
as if it were spoken figuratively.
Take, for example, that saying of the apostle: "But, after thy
hardness and impenitent heart,
treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment
of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds: to
them who, by patient
continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and
immortality, eternal life; but unto them
that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey
unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that does evil, of
the Jew first, and also of the
Gentile." But this is addressed to those who, being unwilling to
subdue their lust, are themselves
involved in the destruction of their lust. When, however, the
dominion of lust is overturned in a
man over whom it had held sway, this plain expression is used:
"They that are Christ's have
crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts." Only that,
even in these instances, some words
are used figuratively, as for example, "the wrath of God" and
"crucified." But these are not so
numerous, nor placed in such a way as to obscure the sense, and
make it allegorical or
enigmatical, which is the kind of expression properly called
figurative. But in the saying addressed
to Jeremiah, "See, I have this day set thee over the nations, and
over the kingdoms, to root out,
and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down," there is no
doubt the whole of the
language is figurative, and to be referred to the end I have
spoken of.
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Ch 12. Rule for interpreting those
sayings and actions which are ascribed to God and the saints
and which yet seem to the unskilful to be wicked |
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18. Those things, again, whether only sayings or whether
actual deeds, which appear to the
inexperienced to be sinful, and which are ascribed to God, or to
men whose holiness is put before
us as an example, are wholly figurative, and the hidden kernel of
meaning they contain is to be
picked out as food for the nourishment of charity. Now, whoever
uses transitory objects less
freely than is the custom of those among whom he lives, is either
temperate or superstitious;
whoever, on the other hand, uses them so as to transgress the
bounds of the custom of the good
men about him, either has a further meaning in what he does, or is
sinful. In all such matters it is
not the use of the objects, but the lust of the user, that is to
blame. Nobody in his sober senses
would believe, for example, that when our Lord's feet were
anointed by the woman with precious
ointment, it was for the same purpose for which luxurious and
profligate men are accustomed to
have theirs anointed in those banquets which we abhor. For the
sweet odour means the good
report which is earned by a life of good works; and the man who
wins this, while following in the
footsteps of Christ, anoints His feet (so to speak) with the most
precious ointment. And so that
which in the case of other persons is often a sin, becomes, when
ascribed to God or a prophet, the
sign of some great truth. Keeping company with a harlot, for
example, is one thing when it is the
result of abandoned manners, another thing when done in the course
of his prophecy by the
prophet Hosea. Because it is a shamefully wicked thing to strip
the body naked at a banquet
among the drunken and licentious, it does not follow that it is a
sin to be naked in the baths.
19. We must, therefore, consider carefully what is suitable to
times and places and persons, and
not rashly charge men with sins. For it is possible that a wise
man may use the daintiest food
without any sin of epicurism or gluttony, while a fool will crave
for the vilest food with a
most disgusting eagerness of appetite. And any sane man would
prefer eating fish after the manner
of our Lord, to eating lentils after the manner of Esau, or barley
after the manner of oxen. For
there are several beasts that feed on commoner kinds of food, but
it does not follow that they are
more temperate than we are. For in all matters of this kind it is
not the nature of the things we
use, but our reason for using them, and our manner of seeking
them, that make what we do either
praiseworthy or blameable.
20. Now the saints of ancient times were, under the form of an
earthly kingdom, foreshadowing
and foretelling the kingdom of heaven. And on account of the
necessity for a numerous offspring,
the custom of one man having several wives was at that time
blameless: and for the same reason it
was not proper for one woman to have several husbands, because a
woman does not in that way
become more fruitful, but, on the contrary, it is base harlotry to
seek either gain or offspring by
promiscuous intercourse. In regard to matters of this sort,
whatever the holy men of those times
did without lust, Scripture passes over without blame, although
they did things which could not
be done at the present time, except through lust. And everything
of this nature that is there
narrated we are to take not only in its historical and literal,
but also in its figurative and
prophetical sense, and to interpret as bearing ultimately upon the
end of love towards God or our
neighbour, or both. For as it was disgraceful among the ancient
Romans to wear tunics reaching
to the heels, and furnished with sleeves, but now it is
disgraceful for men honorably born not to
wear tunics of that description: so we must take heed in regard to
other things also, that lust do
not mix with our use of them; for lust not only abuses to wicked
ends the customs of those among
whom we live, but frequently also transgressing the bounds of
custom, betrays, in a disgraceful
outbreak, its own hideousness, which was concealed under the cover
of prevailing fashions.
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