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ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
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by St Augustine of Hippo |
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Ch 32. In what way God uses man |
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35. But neither does He use after our fashion of using. For when
we use objects, we do so with a
view to the full enjoyment of the goodness of God. God, however,
in His use of us, has reference
to His own goodness. For it is because He is good we exist; and so
far as we truly exist we
are good. And, further, because He is also just, we cannot with
impunity be evil; and so far as we
are evil, so far is our existence less complete. Now He is the
first and supreme existence, who is
altogether unchangeable, and who could say in the fullest sense of
the words, "I AM THAT I
AM," and "Thou shalt say to them, I AM has sent me unto you;" So
that all other things that
exist, both owe their existence entirely to Him, and are good only
so far as He has given it to
them to be so. That use, then, which God is said to make of us has
no reference to His own
advantage, but to ours only; and, so far as He is concerned, has
reference only to His goodness.
When we take pity upon a man and care for him, it is for his
advantage we do so; but somehow or
other our own advantage follows by a sort of natural consequence,
for God does not leave the
mercy we show to him who needs it to go without reward. Now this
is our highest reward, that
we should fully enjoy Him, and that all who enjoy Him should enjoy
one another in Him.
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Ch 33. In what way man should be enjoyed |
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36. For if we find our happiness complete in one another, we
stop short upon the road, and place
our hope of happiness in man or angel. Now the proud man and the
proud angel arrogate this to
themselves, and are glad to have the hope of others fixed upon
them. But, on the contrary, the
holy man and the holy angel, even when we are weary and anxious to
stay with them and rest in
them, set themselves to recruit our energies with the provision
which they have received of God
for us or for themselves; and then urge us thus refreshed to go on
our way towards Him, in the
enjoyment of whom we find our common happiness. For even the
apostle exclaims, "Was Paul
crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" And
again: "Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth
the increase." And the angel
admonisheth the man who is about to worship him, that he should
rather worship Him who is his Master, and under whom he himself is
a fellow-servant.
37. But when you have joy of a man in God, it is God rather
than man that you enjoy. For you enjoy Him by whom you are made
happy, and you rejoice to have come to Him in whose presence you
place your hope of joy. And accordingly, Paul says to Philemon,
"Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord." For if he had
not added "in the Lord," but had only said, "Let me have joy of
thee," he would have implied that he fixed his hope of happiness
upon him, although even in the immediate context to "enjoy" is
used in the sense of to "use with delight." For when the thing
that we love is near us, it is a matter of course that it should
bring delight with it. And if you pass beyond this delight, and
make it a means to that which you are permanently to rest in, you
are using it, and it is an abuse of language to say that you enjoy
it. But if you cling to it, and rest in it, finding your happiness
complete in it, then you may be truly and properly said to enjoy
it. And this we must never do except in the case of the Blessed
Trinity, who is the Supreme and Unchangeable God.
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Ch 34. Christ the first way to God |
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38. And mark that even when He who is Himself the Truth and the
Word, by whom all things
were made, had been made flesh that He might dwell among us, the
apostle yet says: "Yea,
though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth
know we Him no more." For
Christ, desiring not only to give the possession to those who had
completed the journey, but also
to be Himself the way to those who were just setting out,
determined to take a fleshly body.
Whence also that expression, "The Lord created me in the beginning
of His way," that is, that
those who wished to come might begin their journey in Him. The
apostle, therefore, although still
on the way, and following after God who called him to the reward
of His heavenly calling, yet
forgetting those things which were behind, and pressing on towards
those things which were
before, had already passed over the beginning of the way, and had
now no further need of it; yet
by this way all must commence their journey who desire to attain
to the truth, and to rest in
eternal life. For He says: "I am the way, and the truth, and the
life;" that is, by me men come, to
me they come, in me they rest. For when we come to Him, we come to
the Father also, because
through an equal an equal is known; and the Holy Spirit binds, and
as it were seals us, so that we
are able to rest permanently in the supreme and unchangeable God.
And hence we may learn how
essential it is that nothing should detain us on the way, when not
even our Lord Himself, so far as
He has condescended to be our way, is willing to detain us, but
wishes us rather to press on; and,
instead of weakly clinging to temporal things, even though these
have been put on and worn
by Him for our salvation, to pass over them quickly, and to
struggle to attain unto Himself, who
has freed our nature from the bondage of temporal things, and has
set it down at the right hand of
His Father.
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Ch 35. The fulfilment and end of
Scripture is the love of God and our neighbour |
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39. Of all, then, that has been said since we entered upon the
discussion about things, this is the
sum: that we should clearly understand that the fulfilment and the
end of the Law, and of all Holy
Scripture, is the love of an object which is to be enjoyed, and
the love of an object which can
enjoy that other in fellowship with ourselves. For there is no
need of a command that each man
should love himself. The whole temporal dispensation for our
salvation, therefore, was framed by
the providence of God that we might know this truth and be able to
act upon it; and we ought to
use that dispensation, not with such love and delight as if it
were a good to rest in, but with a
transient feeling rather, such as we have towards the road, or
carriages, or other things that are
merely means. Perhaps some other comparison can be found that will
more suitably express the
idea that we are to love the things by which we are borne only for
the sake of that towards which
we are borne.
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Ch 36. That interpretation of
Scripture which builds us up in love is not perniciously deceptive
nor mendacious, even though it be faulty. The interpreter, however
should be corrected. |
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40. Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures,
or any part of them, but puts
such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this
twofold love of God and our
neighbour, does not yet understand them as he ought. If, on the
other hand, a man draws a
meaning from them that may be used for the building up of love,
even though he does not happen
upon the precise meaning which the author whom he reads intended
to express in that place, his
error is not pernicious, and he is wholly clear from the charge of
deception. For there is involved
in deception the intention to say what is false; and we find
plenty of people who intend to deceive,
but nobody who wishes to be deceived. Since, then, the man who
knows practices deceit, and the
ignorant man is practiced upon, it is quite clear that in any
particular case the man who is deceived
is a better man than he who deceives, seeing that it is better to
suffer than to commit injustice.
Now every man who lies commits an injustice; and if any man thinks
that a lie is ever useful, he
must think that injustice is sometimes useful. For no liar keeps
faith in the matter about which he
lies. He wishes, of course, that the man to whom he lies should
place confidence in him; and yet
he betrays his confidence by lying to him. Now every man who
breaks faith is unjust. Either, then,
injustice is sometimes useful (which is impossible), or a lie is
never useful.
41. Whoever takes another meaning out of Scripture than the writer
intended, goes astray, but
not through any falsehood in Scripture. Nevertheless, as I was
going to say, if his mistaken
interpretation tends to build up love, which is the end of the
commandment, he goes astray in
much the same way as a man who by mistake quits the high road, but
yet reaches through the
fields the same place to which the road leads. He is to be
corrected, however, and to be shown
how much better it is not to quit the straight road, lest, if he
get into a habit of going astray, he
may sometimes take cross roads, or even go in the wrong direction
altogether.
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Ch 37. Dangers of mistaken interpretation |
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For if he takes up rashly a meaning which the author whom he
is reading did not intend, he often
falls in with other statements which he cannot harmonize with this
meaning. And if he admits that
these statements are true and certain, then it follows that the
meaning he had put upon the
former passage cannot be the true one: and so it comes to pass,
one can hardly tell how, that, out
of love for his own opinion, he begins to feel more angry with
Scripture than he is with himself.
And if he should once permit that evil to creep in, it will
utterly destroy him. "For we walk
by faith, not by sight." Now faith will totter if the authority of
Scripture begin to shake. And then,
if faith totter, love itself will grow cold. For if a man has
fallen from faith, he must necessarily also
fall from love; for he cannot love what he does not believe to
exist. But if he both believes and
loves, then through good works, and through diligent attention to
the precepts of morality, he
comes to hope also that he shall attain the object of his love.
And so these are the three things to
which all knowledge and all prophecy are subservient: faith, hope,
love.
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