NPNF1-01. The Confessions and Letters of St. Au- gustine, with a Sketch of his Life and Work i Author(s): Schaff, Philip (1819-1893) (Editor) Publisher: Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library Description: With over twenty volumes, the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers is a momentous achievement. Originally gathered by Philip Schaff, the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers is a collection of writings by classical and medieval Christian theologians.The purpose of such a collection is to make their writings readily available.The entire work is divided into two series.The first series focuses on two classical Christian theologians--St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom. St. Augustine is one of the most influential and important Chris- tian thinkers of all time. In addition to reprinting his most popular two works--the Confessions and the City of God--these volumes also contain other noteworthy and im- portant works of St. Augustine, such as On the Holy Trinity, Christian Doctrine, and others. St. John Chrysostom was an eloquent speaker and well-loved Christian clergyman. St. John took a more literal interpretation of Scripture, and much of his work focused on practical aspects of Christianity, par- ticularly what is now called social justice. He advocated for the poor, and challenged abuses of authority.This particular volume in the series contains the Confessions and letters of St. Augustine.The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers is com- prehensive in scope, and provide keen translations of instruct- ive and illuminating texts from some of the greatest theolo- gians of the Christian church.These spiritually enlightening texts have aided Christians for over a thousand years, and remain instructive and fruitful even today! Tim Perrine CCEL Staff Writer Subjects: Christianity Early Christian Literature. Fathers of the Church, etc. Contents ii Title Page 1 Preface 2 Contents 5 Prolegomena: St. Augustin’s Life and Work 6 Literature 7 Sources 8 Biographies 10 Special Treatises on the System of Augustin 11 A Sketch of the Life of St. Augustin 13 Estimate of St. Augustin 19 The Writings of St. Augustin 26 The Influence of St. Augustin on Posterity, and His Relation to Catholicism and 39 Protestantism Chief Events in the Life of St. Augustin 49 The Confessions 51 Translator’s Preface 52 The Opinion of St. Augustin Concerning His Confessions 60 Commencing with the invocation of God, Augustin relates in detail the beginning 62 of his life, his infancy and boyhood, up to his fifteenth year; at which age he acknowledges that he was more inclined to all youthful pleasures and vices than to the study of letters. He Proclaims the Greatness of God, Whom He Desires to Seek and Invoke, 63 Being Awakened by Him. That the God Whom We Invoke is in Us, and We in Him. 64 Everywhere God Wholly Filleth All Things, But Neither Heaven Nor Earth 65 Containeth Him. The Majesty of God is Supreme, and His Virtues Inexplicable. 66 He Seeks Rest in God, and Pardon of His Sins. 67 He Describes His Infancy, and Lauds the Protection and Eternal Providence of 68 God. He Shows by Example that Even Infancy is Prone to Sin. 70 That When a Boy He Learned to Speak, Not by Any Set Method, But from the 72 Acts and Words of His Parents. iii Concerning the Hatred of Learning, the Love of Play, and the Fear of Being 73 Whipped Noticeable in Boys: and of the Folly of Our Elders and Masters. Through a Love of Ball-Playing and Shows, He Neglects His Studies and the 75 Injunctions of His Parents. Seized by Disease, His Mother Being Troubled, He Earnestly Demands Baptism, 76 Which on Recovery is Postponed—His Father Not as Yet Believing in Christ. Being Compelled, He Gave His Attention to Learning; But Fully Acknowledges 78 that This Was the Work of God. He Delighted in Latin Studies and the Empty Fables of the Poets, But Hated the 79 Elements of Literature and the Greek Language. Why He Despised Greek Literature, and Easily Learned Latin. 81 He Entreats God, that Whatever Useful Things He Learned as a Boy May Be 82 Dedicated to Him. He Disapproves of the Mode of Educating Youth, and He Points Out Why 83 Wickedness is Attributed to the Gods by the Poets. He Continues on the Unhappy Method of Training Youth in Literary Subjects. 85 Men Desire to Observe the Rules of Learning, But Neglect the Eternal Rules of 86 Everlasting Safety. He advances to puberty, and indeed to the early part of the sixteenth year of his 89 age, in which, having abandoned his studies, he indulged in lustful pleasures, and, with his companions, committed theft. He Deplores the Wickedness of His Youth. 90 Stricken with Exceeding Grief, He Remembers the Dissolute Passions in Which, 91 in His Sixteenth Year, He Used to Indulge. Concerning His Father, a Freeman of Thagaste, the Assister of His Son’s Studies, 93 and on the Admonitions of His Mother on the Preservation of Chastity. He Commits Theft with His Companions, Not Urged on by Poverty, But from 95 a Certain Distaste of Well-Doing. Concerning the Motives to Sin, Which are Not in the Love of Evil, But in the 96 Desire of Obtaining the Property of Others. Why He Delighted in that Theft, When All Things Which Under the Appearance 97 of Good Invite to Vice are True and Perfect in God Alone. He Gives Thanks to God for the Remission of His Sins, and Reminds Every One 99 that the Supreme God May Have Preserved Us from Greater Sins. In His Theft He Loved the Company of His Fellow-Sinners. 100 iv It Was a Pleasure to Him Also to Laugh When Seriously Deceiving Others. 101 With God There is True Rest and Life Unchanging. 102 Of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth years of his age, passed at Carthage, 103 when, having completed his course of studies, he is caught in the snares of a licentious passion, and falls into the errors of the Manichæans. Deluded by an Insane Love, He, Though Foul and Dishonourable, Desires to 104 Be Thought Elegant and Urbane. In Public Spectacles He is Moved by an Empty Compassion. He is Attacked by 105 a Troublesome Spiritual Disease. Not Even When at Church Does He Suppress His Desires. In the School of 107 Rhetoric He Abhors the Acts of the Subverters. In the Nineteenth Year of His Age (His Father Having Died Two Years Before) 108 He is Led by the ‘Hortensius’ Of Cicero to ‘Philosophy,’ To God, and a Better Mode of Thinking. He Rejects the Sacred Scriptures as Too Simple, and as Not to Be Compared 110 with the Dignity of Tully. Deceived by His Own Fault, He Falls into the Errors of the Manichæans, Who 111 Gloried in the True Knowledge of God and in a Thorough Examination of Things. He Attacks the Doctrine of the Manichæans Concerning Evil, God, and the 114 Righteousness of the Patriarchs. He Argues Against the Same as to the Reason of Offences. 117 That the Judgment of God and Men as to Human Acts of Violence, is Different. 119 He Reproves the Triflings of the Manichæans as to the Fruits of the Earth. 120 He Refers to the Tears, and the Memorable Dream Concerning Her Son, Granted 121 by God to His Mother. The Excellent Answer of the Bishop When Referred to by His Mother as to the 123 Conversion of Her Son. Then follows a period of nine years from the nineteenth year of his age, during 124 which having lost a friend, he followed the Manichæans—and wrote books on the fair and fit, and published a work on the liberal arts, and the categories of Aristotle. Concerning that Most Unhappy Time in Which He, Being Deceived, Deceived 125 Others; And Concerning the Mockers of His Confession. He Teaches Rhetoric, the Only Thing He Loved, and Scorns the Soothsayer, 126 Who Promised Him Victory. v Not Even the Most Experienced Men Could Persuade Him of the Vanity of 128 Astrology to Which He Was Devoted. Sorely Distressed by Weeping at the Death of His Friend, He Provides 131 Consolation for Himself. Why Weeping is Pleasant to the Wretched. 133 His Friend Being Snatched Away by Death, He Imagines that He Remains Only 134 as Half. Troubled by Restlessness and Grief, He Leaves His Country a Second Time for 135 Carthage. That His Grief Ceased by Time, and the Consolation of Friends. 136 That the Love of a Human Being, However Constant in Loving and Returning 137 Love, Perishes; While He Who Loves God Never Loses a Friend. That All Things Exist that They May Perish, and that We are Not Safe Unless 138 God Watches Over Us. That Portions of the World are Not to Be Loved; But that God, Their Author, 140 is Immutable, and His Word Eternal. Love is Not Condemned, But Love in God, in Whom There is Rest Through 141 Jesus Christ, is to Be Preferred. Love Originates from Grace and Beauty Enticing Us. 143 Concerning the Books Which He Wrote ‘On the Fair and Fit,’ Dedicated to 144 Hierius. While Writing, Being Blinded by Corporeal Images, He Failed to Recognise the 146 Spiritual Nature of God. He Very Easily Understood the Liberal Arts and the Categories of Aristotle, But 150 Without True Fruit. He describes the twenty-ninth year of his age, in which, having discovered the 153 fallacies of the Manichæans, he professed rhetoric at Rome and Milan. Having heard Ambrose, he begins to come to himself. That It Becomes the Soul to Praise God, and to Confess Unto Him. 154 On the Vanity of Those Who Wished to Escape the Omnipotent God. 155 Having Heard Faustus, the Most Learned Bishop of the Manichæans, He Discerns 157 that God, the Author Both of Things Animate and Inanimate, Chiefly Has Care for the Humble. That the Knowledge of Terrestrial and Celestial Things Does Not Give Happiness, 160 But the Knowledge of God Only. vi Of Manichæus Pertinaciously Teaching False Doctrines, and Proudly Arrogating 161 to Himself the Holy Spirit. Faustus Was Indeed an Elegant Speaker, But Knew Nothing of the Liberal 163 Sciences. Clearly Seeing the Fallacies of the Manichæans, He Retires from Them, Being 165 Remarkably Aided by God. He Sets Out for Rome, His Mother in Vain Lamenting It. 167 Being Attacked by Fever, He is in Great Danger. 169 When He Had Left the Manichæans, He Retained His Depraved Opinions 172 Concerning Sin and the Origin of the Saviour. Helpidius Disputed Well Against the Manichæans as to the Authenticity of the 175 New Testament. Professing Rhetoric at Rome, He Discovers the Fraud of His Scholars. 176 He is Sent to Milan, that He, About to Teach Rhetoric, May Be Known by 177 Ambrose. Having Heard the Bishop, He Perceives the Force of the Catholic Faith, Yet 178 Doubts, After the Manner of the Modern Academics. Attaining his thirtieth year, he, under the admonition of the discourses of Ambrose, 180 discovered more and more the truth of the Catholic doctrine, and deliberates as to the better regulation of his life. His Mother Having Followed Him to Milan, Declares that She Will Not Die 181 Before Her Son Shall Have Embraced the Catholic Faith. She, on the Prohibition of Ambrose, Abstains from Honouring the Memory of 183 the Martyrs. As Ambrose Was Occupied with Business and Study, Augustin Could Seldom 186 Consult Him Concerning the Holy Scriptures. He Recognises the Falsity of His Own Opinions, and Commits to Memory the 188 Saying of Ambrose. Faith is the Basis of Human Life; Man Cannot Discover that Truth Which Holy 191 Scripture Has Disclosed. On the Source and Cause of True Joy,—The Example of the Joyous Beggar Being 193 Adduced. He Leads to Reformation His Friend Alypius, Seized with Madness for the 195 Circensian Games. The Same When at Rome, Being Led by Others into the Amphitheatre, is 198 Delighted with the Gladiatorial Games. vii Innocent Alypius, Being Apprehended as a Thief, is Set at Liberty by the 201 Cleverness of an Architect. The Wonderful Integrity of Alypius in Judgment. The Lasting Friendship of 203 Nebridius with Augustin. Being Troubled by His Grievous Errors, He Meditates Entering on a New Life. 205 Discussion with Alypius Concerning a Life of Celibacy. 207 Being Urged by His Mother to Take a Wife, He Sought a Maiden that Was 209 Pleasing Unto Him. The Design of Establishing a Common Household with His Friends is Speedily 210 Hindered. He Dismisses One Mistress, and Chooses Another. 212 The Fear of Death and Judgment Called Him, Believing in the Immortality of 213 the Soul, Back from His Wickedness, Him Who Aforetime Believed in the Opinions of Epicurus. He recalls the beginning of his youth, i.e. the thirty-first year of his age, in which 215 very grave errors as to the nature of God and the origin of evil being distinguished, and the Sacred Books more accurately known, he at length arrives at a clear knowledge of God, not yet rightly apprehending Jesus Christ. He Regarded Not God Indeed Under the Form of a Human Body, But as a 216 Corporeal Substance Diffused Through Space. The Disputation of Nebridius Against the Manichæans, on the Question 218 ‘Whether God Be Corruptible or Incorruptible.’ That the Cause of Evil is the Free Judgment of the Will. 220 That God is Not Corruptible, Who, If He Were, Would Not Be God at All. 221 Questions Concerning the Origin of Evil in Regard to God, Who, Since He is 222 the Chief Good, Cannot Be the Cause of Evil. He Refutes the Divinations of the Astrologers, Deduced from the Constellations. 224 He is Severely Exercised as to the Origin of Evil. 227 By God’s Assistance He by Degrees Arrives at the Truth. 229 He Compares the Doctrine of the Platonists Concerning the Λόγος With the 230 Much More Excellent Doctrine of Christianity. Divine Things are the More Clearly Manifested to Him Who Withdraws into 236 the Recesses of His Heart. That Creatures are Mutable and God Alone Immutable. 238 Whatever Things the Good God Has Created are Very Good. 239 viii It is Meet to Praise the Creator for the Good Things Which are Made in Heaven 240 and Earth. Being Displeased with Some Part Of God’s Creation, He Conceives of Two 241 Original Substances. Whatever Is, Owes Its Being to God. 242 Evil Arises Not from a Substance, But from the Perversion of the Will. 243 Above His Changeable Mind, He Discovers the Unchangeable Author of Truth. 244 Jesus Christ, the Mediator, is the Only Way of Safety. 247 He Does Not Yet Fully Understand the Saying of John, that ‘The Word Was 248 Made Flesh.’ He Rejoices that He Proceeded from Plato to the Holy Scriptures, and Not the 251 Reverse. What He Found in the Sacred Books Which are Not to Be Found in Plato. 253 He finally describes the thirty-second year of his age, the most memorable of his 256 whole life, in which, being instructed by Simplicianus concerning the conversion of others, and the manner of acting, he is, after a severe struggle, renewed in his whole mind, and is converted unto God. He, Now Given to Divine Things, and Yet Entangled by the Lusts of Love, 257 Consults Simplicianus in Reference to the Renewing of His Mind. The Pious Old Man Rejoices that He Read Plato and the Scriptures, and Tells 259 Him of the Rhetorician Victorinus Having Been Converted to the Faith Through the Reading of the Sacred Books. That God and the Angels Rejoice More on the Return of One Sinner Than of 264 Many Just Persons. He Shows by the Example of Victorinus that There is More Joy in the Conversion 266 of Nobles. Of the Causes Which Alienate Us from God. 268 Pontitianus’ Account of Antony, the Founder of Monachism, and of Some Who 271 Imitated Him. He Deplores His Wretchedness, that Having Been Born Thirty-Two Years, He 275 Had Not Yet Found Out the Truth. The Conversation with Alypius Being Ended, He Retires to the Garden, Whither 277 His Friend Follows Him. That the Mind Commandeth the Mind, But It Willeth Not Entirely. 279 ix