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ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
(cont) |
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by St Augustine of Hippo |
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Ch 13. Same subject, continued |
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21. Whatever, then, is in accordance with the habits of those with
whom we are either compelled
by necessity, or undertake as a matter of duty, to spend this
life, is to be turned by good and great
men to some prudent or benevolent end, either directly, as is our
duty, or figuratively, as is
allowable to prophets.
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Ch 14. Error of those who think that
there is no absolute right and wrong |
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22. But when men unacquainted with other modes of life than their
own meet with the record of
such actions, unless they are restrained by authority, they look
upon them as sins, and do not
consider that their own customs either in regard to marriage, or
feasts, or dress, or the other
necessities and adornments of human life, appear sinful to the
people of other nations and other
times. And, distracted by this endless variety of customs, some
who were half asleep (as I may
say)--that is, who were neither sunk in the deep sleep of folly,
nor were able to awake into the
light of wisdom--have thought that there was no such thing as
absolute right, but that every nation
took its own custom for right; and that, since every nation has a
different custom, and right must
remain unchangeable, it becomes manifest that there is no such
thing as right at all. Such men did
not perceive, to take only one example, that the precept,
"Whatsoever ye would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to them," I cannot be altered by any
diversity of national customs. And
this precept, when it is referred to the love of God, destroys all
vices; when to the love of one's
neighbour, puts an end to all crimes. For no one is willing to
defile his own dwelling; he ought
not, therefore, to defile the dwelling of God, that is, himself.
And no one wishes an injury to be
done him by another; he himself, therefore, ought not to do injury
to another.
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Ch 15. Rule for interpreting figurative
expressions |
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23. The tyranny of lust being thus overthrown, charity
reigns through its supremely just laws of
love to God for His own sake, and love to one's self and one's
neighbour for God's sake.
Accordingly, in regard to figurative expressions, a rule such as
the following will be observed, to
carefully turn over in our minds and meditate upon what we read
till an interpretation be found
that tends to establish the reign of love. Now, if when taken
literally it at once gives a meaning of
this kind, the expression is not to be considered figurative.
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Ch 16. Rule for interpreting commands and
prohibitions |
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24. If the sentence is one of command, either forbidding a
crime or vice, or enjoining an act of
prudence or benevolence, it is not figurative. If, however, it
seems to enjoin a crime or vice, or to
forbid an act of prudence or benevolence, it is figurative.
"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
man," says Christ, "and drink His blood, ye have no life in you."
This seems to enjoin a crime or a
vice; it is therefore a figure, enjoining that we should have a
share in the sufferings of our Lord,
and that we should retain a sweet and profitable memory of the
fact that His flesh was wounded
and crucified for us. Scripture says: "If thine enemy hunger, feed
him; if he thirst, give him drink;"
and this is beyond doubt a command to do a kindness. But in what
follows, "for in so doing thou
shalt heap coals of fire on his head," one would think a deed of
malevolence was enjoined. Do not
doubt, then, that the expression is figurative; and, while it is
possible to interpret it in two ways,
one pointing to the doing of an injury, the other to a display of
superiority, let charity on the
contrary call you back to benevolence, and interpret the coals of
fire as the burning groans of
penitence by which a man's pride is cured who bewails that he has
been the enemy of one who
came to his assistance in distress. In the same way, when our Lord
says, "He who loveth his life
shall lose it," we are not to think that He forbids the prudence
with which it is a man's duty to care
for his life, but that He says in a figurative sense, "Let him
lose his life"--that is, let him destroy
and lose that perverted and unnatural use which he now makes of
his life, and through which his
desires are fixed on temporal things so that he gives no heed to
eternal. It is written: "Give to the
godly man, and help not a sinner." The latter clause of this
sentence seems to forbid benevolence;
for it says, "help not a sinner." Understand, therefore, that
"sinner" is put figuratively for sin, so
that it is his sin you are not to help.
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Ch 17. Some commands are given to all in
common, others to particular classes |
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25. Again, it often happens that a man who has attained, or
thinks he has attained, to a higher
grade of spiritual life, thinks that the commands given to those
who are still in the lower grades
are figurative; for example, if he has embraced a life of celibacy
and made himself a eunuch for the
kingdom of heaven's sake, he contends that the commands given in
Scripture about loving and
ruling a wife are not to be taken literally, but figuratively; and
if he has determined to keep his
virgin unmarried, he tries to put a figurative interpretation on
the passage where it is said, "Marry
thy daughter, and so shalt thou have performed a weighty matter."
Accordingly, another of our
rules for understanding the Scriptures will be as follows,--to
recognize that some commands are
given to all in common, others to particular classes of persons,
that the medicine may act not only
upon the state of health as a whole, but also upon the special
weakness of each member. For that
which cannot be raised to a higher state must be cared for in its
own state.
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Ch 18. We must take into consideration
the time at which anything was enjoyed or allowed |
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26. We must also be on our guard against supposing that
what in the Old Testament, making
allowance for the condition of those times, is not a crime or a
vice even if we take it literally and
not figuratively, can be transferred to the present time as a
habit of life. For no one will do this
except lust has dominion over him, and endeavours to find support
for itself in the very Scriptures
which were intended to overthrow it. And the wretched man does not
perceive that such matters
are recorded with this useful design, that mere of good hope may
learn the salutary lesson, both
that the custom they spurn can be turned to a good use, and that
which they embrace can be used
to condemnation, if the use of the former be accompanied with
charity, and the use of the latter
with lust.
27. For, if it was possible for one man to use many
wives with chastity, it is possible
for another to use one wife with lust. And I look with greater
approval on the man who uses the
fruitfulness of many wives for the sake of an ulterior object,
than on the man who enjoys the
body of one wife for its own sake. For in the former case the man
aims at a useful object suited to
the circumstances of the times; in the latter case he gratifies a
lust which is engrossed in temporal
enjoyments. And those men to whom the apostle permitted as a
matter of indulgence to have
one wife because of their incontinence, were less near to God than
those who, though they had
each of them numerous wives, yet just as a wise man uses food and
drink only for the sake of
bodily health, used marriage only for the sake of offspring. And,
accordingly, if these last had
been still alive at the advent of our Lord, when the time not of
casting stones away but of
gathering them together had come, they would have immediately made
themselves eunuchs for
the kingdom of heaven's sake. For there is no difficulty in
abstaining unless when there is lust in
enjoying. And assuredly those men of whom I speak knew that
wantonness even in regard to
wives is abuse and intemperance, as is proved by Tobit's prayer
when he was married to his wife.
For he says: "Blessed art Thou, O God of our fathers, and blessed
is Thy holy and glorious name
for ever; let the heavens bless Thee, and all Thy creatures. Thou
merriest Adam, and gavest him
Eve his wife for an helper and stay. ... And now, O Lord. Thou
knowest that I take not this my
sister for lust, but uprightly: therefore have pity on us, O
Lord."
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