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ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
(cont) |
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by St Augustine of Hippo |
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Ch 38. Love never faileth |
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42. But sight shall displace faith; and hope shall be swallowed up
in that perfect bliss to which
we shall come: love, on the other hand, shall wax greater when
these others fail. For if we love by
faith that which as yet we see not, how much more shall we love it
when we begin to see! And
if we love by hope that which as yet we have not reached, how much
more shall we love it when
we reach it! For there is this great difference between things
temporal and things eternal, that a
temporal object is valued more before we possess it, and begins to
prove worthless the moment
we attain it, because it does not satisfy the soul, which has its
only true and sure resting-place in
eternity: an eternal object, on the other hand, is loved with
greater ardour when it is in possession
than while it is still an object of desire, for no one in his
longing for it can set a higher value on it
than really belongs to it, so as to think it comparatively
worthless when he finds it of less value
than he thought; on the contrary, however high the value any man
may set upon it when he
is on his way to possess it, he will find it, when it comes into
his possession, of higher value still.
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Ch 39. In what way man should be enjoyed |
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43. And thus a man who is resting upon faith, hope and love, and
who keeps a firm hold upon
these, does not need the Scriptures except for the purpose of
instructing others. Accordingly,
many live without copies of the Scriptures, even in solitude, on
the strength of these three graces.
So that in their case, I think, the saying is already fulfilled:
"Whether there be prophecies, they
shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether
there be knowledge, it shall vanish
away." Yet by means of these instruments (as they may be called),
so great an edifice of faith and
love has been built up in them, that, holding to what is perfect,
they do not seek for what is only
in part perfect--of course, I mean, so far as is possible in this
life; for, in comparison with the
future life, the life of no just and holy man is perfect here.
Therefore the apostle says: "Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of
these is charity:" because, when a man
shall have reached the eternal world, while the other two graces
will fail, love will remain
greater and more assured.
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Ch 40. Christ the first way to God |
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44. And, therefore, if a man fully understands that "the end of
the commandment is charity, out
of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith
unfeigned," and is bent upon making all his
understanding of Scripture to bear upon these three graces, he may
come to the interpretation of
these books with an easy mind. For while the apostle says "love,"
he adds "out of a pure heart," to
provide against anything being loved but that which is worthy of
love. And he joins with this "a
good conscience," in reference to hope; for, if a man has the
burthen of a bad conscience, he
despairs of ever reaching that which he believes in and loves. And
in the third place he says: "and
of faith unfeigned." For if our faith is free from all hypocrisy,
then we both abstain from loving
what is unworthy of our love, and by living uprightly we are able
to indulge the hope that our
hope shall not be in vain.
For these reasons I have been anxious to speak about the objects
of faith, as far as I thought it
necessary for my present purpose; for much has already been said
on this subject in other
volumes, either by others or by myself. And so let this be the end
of the present book. In the next
I shall discuss, as far as God shall give me light, the subject of
signs.
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