CHRIS 11, 23. 19. 17. 30. 184 Keys given to a Penitent to be used mercifully. DE continue in unbelief, the Apostle most openly teaches. Now AGONE whereas the Luciferians understand this and rebaptize not, TIANO. We blame them not: but that they have willed themselves Rom. also to be cut off from the root, who but must perceive it to be a thing to be abhorred? And on this account especially, because this hath displeased them in the Church Catholic, which truly belongeth unto Catholic holiness. For no where ought the bowels of mercy to be so strong as in the Catholic Church, that, as a true mother, she neither proudly trample on her sons when in sin, nor hardly pardon them upon amendment. For not without cause among all the Apostles doth Peter sustain the person of this Church Catholic; for Mat. 16, unto this Church were the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven given, when they were given unto Peter: and when it is Jobn21, said unto him, it is said unto all, Lovest thou Me? Feed My sheep. Therefore the Church Catholic ought willingly to pardon her sons, upon their amendment, and confirmation Mat. 14, in godliness; when we see that Peter himself, bearing her person, both when he had tottered on the sea, and when with carnal feeling he had sought to call back the Lord from suffering, and when he had cut off the ear of the servant with the sword, and when he had thrice denied the Lord Himself, and when afterwards he had fallen into superstitious dissembling, had pardon granted unto him, and after amendment and strengthening attained at last unto the glory of the Lord's suffering. Therefore after the persecution which was brought about by means of the Arian heretics, after that peace, which truly the Church Catholic holds in the Lord, was by the rules also of this world restored, the Bishops who in that persecution had consented to the faithlessness of the Arians, many of them were amended and chose to return into the Catholic Church, condemning that which they had either believed or feigned to believe. These the Church Catholic received in her maternal bosom, like Peter after his tears for his denial, when admonished by the crowing of the cock, or as the same, after his evil dissembling, amended by the voice of Paul. This, their mother's charity, they proudly taking, and impiously blaming, because they have not Mat. 26, welcomed Peter rising after the cock-crowing, have deserved Is. 14, to fall with Lucifer, who arose in the morning. 75. All sin remissible. Widows may marry. True Resurrection.185 AGONE CHRIS 33. Nor let us hear them, who deny that the Church of DE God can remit all sins. Therefore they wretched, not understanding in Peter the Rock, and being unwilling to believe TIANO. that unto the Church have been given the keys of the xxxi. Kingdom of Heaven, have themselves lost them out of their hands. These are they who condemn as adulteresses their widows, if they marry again, and proclaim that they are more pure above the teaching of the Apostles. Who, if they 1 Tim. 5, 14. would recognise their own name, would call themselves. worldly' rather than pure. For in that they are unwilling, ''munif they have sinned, to receive correction, they have chosen 2 munnothing else than to be condemned with this world. For dos.' them, to whom they deny forgiveness of their sins, they guard not with any healthful discipline, but being sick they withdraw from them their medicine, and compel their widows to burn, as not allowing them to marry. For they are not to be esteemed more prudent than the Apostle Paul, who had 1 Cor. 7, rather that they should marry than burn. danos.' 9. tract. 1. 34. Nor let us hear them, who deny that there will be a xxxii. resurrection of the flesh, and make mention of that which the Apostle Paul says, Flesh and blood shall not inherit the 1 Cor. 15, 50Kingdom of God; not understanding what the Apostle 53. himself says, This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. For when this shall have taken place, it will no longer be flesh and blood, but an heavenly body. Which the Lord also promises, when He see Resays, They shall neither be given in marriage, nor marry. wives, but shall be equal to the Angels of God. For not Mat.22, any longer unto men, but unto God shall they live, when they shall have been made equal unto the Angels. Therefore flesh and blood shall be changed, and shall be made a heavenly and angelic body. For the dead also shall rise again uncorrupted, and we shall be changed; that both the one may be true, that the flesh shall rise again; and the other be true, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. 30. 35. With this simple and pure faith fed as with milk be xxxiii. we nourished in Christ; and, being little ones, seek we not the food of elders, but with most wholesome nourishments grow we in Christ, a good life and Christian righteousness. DE CHRIS 186 Perfect love conquers earthly desires and fears. being added, wherein is the love of God and of our neighbour AGONE perfected and confirmed: that each one of us may triumph in TIANO. himself over our enemy the devil and his angels, in Christ Whom he hath put on. Because perfect love hath neither the desire of this world nor the fear of this world; that is, neither desire, that it may obtain things temporal, nor fear, lest it lose things temporal. By which two doors the enemy enters in and reigns, whom we must drive forth, first by the fear of God, next by love. We ought therefore so much the more eagerly to seek a most open and clear knowledge of the truth, the more we find ourselves to make progress in love, and in its simplicity to have our heart purified, for it is Matt. 5, with the very inner eye that truth is seen: for, Blessed are the Eph. 3, pure in heart, for they shall see God. That, being rooted 17. 18. and grounded in love, we may be able to comprehend with 8. 19. all saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth; to know also the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled unto all the fulness of God: that, after these contests with an unseen enemy, since to Mat.11, them who are willing, and love, the yoke of Christ is easy, and his burthen light, we may win a crown of victory. 30. S. AUGUSTINE OF THE CATECHIZING OF THE UNLEARNED". Retr. ii. 14. There is also a book of mine on the catechizing of the unlearned,' so entitled. In which book where I have said, Nor did the Angel, who, with other spirits his servants, in pride left the obedience of God, and became the devil, in any wise harm God, but himself. For God knoweth how to order souls that leave Him:' it were more fitly said,' spirits that leave Him,' since angels were in question. This book begins, You have asked me, brother Deogratias.' DE CATE CHI RUDI You have asked me, brother Deogratias", to write you something which might be of use to you, on the subject of catechising the unlearned. For you have told me, that ZANDIS at Carthage, where you hold the office of a deacon, persons Bus. are often brought to you, to receive instruction in the first i. rudiments of the Christian Faith, in consequence of your being judged to possess a rich power of catechizing, the result both of knowledge in the Faith, and of sweetness of speech: but that you yourself on almost every occasion feel yourself to be in a strait, in what manner profitably to set forth that very doctrine, by the belief of which we are Christians; at what point to commence, and up to what point to carry on the narration; whether when the narration a Written about the year 400. Ben. b This Deogratias is perhaps the same with the Priest to whom St. Augustine writes about 406, in answer DE CATE CHI BUS. 188 The Catechiser often ill content with himself. is ended we ought to use any exhortation, or merely to add those precepts, by the future observance of which he whom ZANDIS we are addressing may understand that the Christian life and RUDI- profession is maintained. Then again you have confessed and complained that it hath often happened to you, that in a long and luke-warm discourse you grew to be worthless and wearisome to yourself, much more to him whom you were by your speech endeavouring to instruct, and to the rest who were present as hearers: and that this necessity hath compelled you to press upon me, by that love which I owe you, that I refuse not among my occupations to write you something on the present subject. ii. 1 sonan tibus. 2. I for my part am bound not only by that love and service which I owe to you as my friend, but also by that which I owe on all occasions to my mother the Church, if in any thing by help of mine, which by the bounty of our Lord I am enabled to render, that same Lord commands me to assist those whom He himself hath made my brethren, in no way to refuse, but rather to undertake it with a ready and devoted will. For the more widely I desire that the riches of our Lord may be dispensed abroad, the more is it my duty, if I perceive the stewards who are my fellowservants feeling any difficulty in dispensing it, to do all that lies in me, that they may be enabled to perform easily and readily what they desire strenuously and zealously. 3. But to return to that which respects your own opinion of yourself, I would not have you be moved because that frequently your discourse has appeared to you to be mean and wearisome. For it is possible, that it may not have appeared so to him whom you were instructing, but that because you felt desirous that something better should be heard, therefore, what you were saying appeared to you unworthy the ears of others. For I too am almost always displeased with my own discourse. For I am greedy of something better, the sense of which I often enjoy in my mind, before I commence setting it forth in actual' words; and then, when I find that I cannot express it adequately as I know it, I am grieved that my tongue hath not availed to prove sufficient for my heart. For all that |