Augustine of Hippo, Letters

1. Your life of eminent fortitude and fruitfulness towards the Lord our God has brought to us great joy. For “you have made choice of instruction from your youth upwards, that you may still find wisdom even to grey hairs;”1502 Ecclus. vi. 18. for “wisdom is the grey hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age;”1503 Wisd. iv. 9. which may the Lord, who knoweth how to give good gifts unto His children, give to you asking, seeking, knocking.1504 Matt. vii. 11. Although you have many counsellors and many counsels to direct you in the path which leads to eternal glory, and although, above all, you have the grace of Christ, which has so effectually spoken in saving power in your heart, nevertheless we also, as in duty bound by the love which we owe to you, offer to you, in hereby reciprocating your salutation, some words of counsel, designed not to awaken you as one hindered by sloth or sleep, but to stimulate and quicken you in the race which you are already running.

2. You require wisdom, my son, for stedfastness in this race, as it was under the influence of wisdom that you entered on it at first. Let this then be “a part of your wisdom, to know whose gift it is.”1505 Wisd. viii. 20. “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass: and He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.”1506 Ps. xxxvii. 5, 6. “He will make straight thy path, and guide thy steps in peace.”1507 Prov. iv. 27, LXX. As you despised your prospects of greatness in this world, lest you should glory in the abundance of riches which you had begun to covet after the manner of the children of this world, so now, in taking up the yoke of the Lord and His burden, let not your confidence be in your own strength; so shall “His yoke be easy, and His burden light.”1508 Matt. xi. 30. For in the book of Psalms those are alike censured “who trust in their strength,” and “who boast themselves in the multitude of their riches.”1509 Ps. xlix. 6, LXX. Therefore, as formerly you did not seek glory in riches, but most wisely despised that which you had begun to desire, so now be on your guard against insidious temptation to trust in your strength; for you are but man, and “cursed is every one that trusteth in man.”1510 Jer. xvii. 5. But by all means trust in God with your whole heart, and He will Himself be your strength, wherein you may trust with piety and thankfulness, and to Him you may say with humility and boldness, “I will love thee, O Lord, my strength;1511 Ps. xviii. 1. because even the love of God, which, when it is perfect, “casteth out fear,”1512 1 John iv. 18. is shed abroad in our hearts, not by our strength, that is, by any human power, but, as the apostle says, “by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.”1513 Rom. v. 5.

3. “Watch, therefore, and pray that you enter not into temptation.”1514 Mark xiv. 38. Such prayer is indeed in itself an admonition to you that you need the help of the Lord, and that you ought not to rest upon yourself your hope of living well. For now you pray, not that you may obtain the riches and honours of this present world, or any unsubstantial human possession, but that you may not enter into temptation, a thing which would not be asked in prayer if a man could accomplish it for himself by his own will. Wherefore we would not pray that we may not enter into temptation if our own will sufficed for our protection and yet if the will to avoid temptation were wanting to us, we could not so pray. It may, therefore, be present with us to will,1515 Rom. vii. 18. when we have through his own gift been made wise, but we must pray that we may be able to perform that which we have so willed. In the fact that you have begun to exercise this true wisdom, you have reason to give thanks. “For what have you which you have not received? But if you have received it, beware that you boast not as if you had not received it,”1516 1 Cor. iv. 7. that is, as if you could have had it of yourself. Knowing, however, whence you have received it, ask Him by whose gift it was begun to grant that it may be perfected. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do, of His good pleasure;”1517 Phil. ii. 12, 13. for “the will is prepared by God,”1518 Prov. viii. 35, LXX. and “the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delighteth in his way.”1519 Ps. xxxvii. 23. Holy meditation on these things will preserve you, so that your wisdom shall be piety, that is, that by God’s gift you shall be good, and not ungrateful for the grace of Christ.

4. Your parents, unfeignedly rejoicing with you in the better hope which in the Lord you have begun to cherish, are longing earnestly for your presence. But whether you be absent from us or present with us in the body, we desire to have you with us in the one Spirit by whom love is shed abroad in our hearts, so that, in whatever place our bodies may sojourn, our spirits may be in no degree sundered from each other.

We have most thankfully received the cloaks of goat’s-hair cloth1520 Cilicia. which you sent to us, in which gift you have yourself anticipated me in admonition as to the duty of being often engaged in prayer, and of practising humility in our supplications.

EPISTOLA CCXVIII . Palatinum adhortatur ut in christiana sapientia proficiat ac perseveret, id summopere cavens ne spem bene vivendi collocet in propriis viribus.

Domino dilectissimo, et desideratissimo filio PALATINO, AUGUSTINUS.

1. Conversatio tua fortior atque fructuosior ad Dominum Deum nostrum, magnum nobis attulit gaudium. Elegisti enim a juventute doctrinam, ut invenias usque ad canos sapientiam (Eccli. VI, 18). Cani sunt ergo sensus hominis, et senectutis aetas vita immaculata (Sap. IV, 9). Quam donet tibi Dominus petenti, 0990 quaerenti atque pulsanti, qui novit bona data dare filiis suis (Matth. VII, 11). Quamvis enim abundent tibi exhortatores et exhortationes ad viam salutis et gloriae sempiternae, maxime ipsa gratia Christi, quae tibi tam salubriter in corde tuo locuta est; tamen etiam nos pro dilectionis officio, quam tibi debemus, afferimus aliquid exhortationis in hac resalutatione nostra, qua te non pigrum vel dormientem excitemus, sed provocemus incitemusque currentem.

2. Sapere te oportet, fili, ut perseveres, quia sapuisti ut eligeres. Sit hoc ipsum sapientiae tuae, scire cujus donum hoc est. Revela ad Dominum viam tuam, et spera in eum: et ipse faciet, et deducet velut lumen justitiam tuam, et judicium tuum velut meridiem (Psal. XXXVI, 5). Ipse faciet rectos cursus tuos, et itinera tua in pace producet (Prov. IV, 27). Sicut sprevisti quod sperabas in saeculo, ne in abundantia divitiarum gloriareris, quas more filiorum saeculi hujus concupiscere coeperas; ita nunc ad tollendum jugum Domini et sarcinam ejus, in virtute tua non confidas; et illud lene erit, et haec levis (Matth. XI, 29, 30). Pariter quippe improbantur in Psalmo et qui confidunt in virtute sua, et qui in abundantia divitiarum suarum gloriantur (Psal. XLVIII, 7). Ergo divitiarum gloriam non jam habebas, sed quam habere cupiebas, prudentissime contempsisti. Cave ne tibi subrepat in tua virtute confidere; homo es enim, et maledictus omnis qui spem suam ponit in homine (Jerem. XVII, 5). Sed plane in Deo tuo toto corde confide, et ipse erit virtus tua, in qua pius gratusque confidas, cui dicas humiliter et fideliter, Diligam te, Domine, virtus mea (Psal. XVII, 2): quia et ipsa charitas Dei, quae perfecta foras mittit timorem (I Joan. IV, 18), non per vires nostras, id est humanas, diffunditur in cordibus nostris, sed sicut dicit Apostolus, per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis (Rom. V, 5).

3. Vigila ergo et ora, ne intres in tentationem (Marc. XIV, 38). Ipsa quippe oratio admonet te quod indigeas adjutorio Domini tui, ne spem bene vivendi in te ponas. Oras enim non jam ut accipias divitias et honores praesentis saeculi, aut aliquid vanitatis humanae, sed ne intres in tentationem: quod utique si homo sibi praestare posset volendo, non posceretur orando. Quapropter, ut non intremus in tentationem, si voluntas sufficeret, non oraremus; quae tamen si deesset, nec orare possemus. Adsit ergo ut velimus, oremus autem ut valeamus quod voluerimus, cum ipso donante recte sapuerimus. Quod bonum quoniam jam coepisti, est unde gratias agas Quid enim habes quod non accepisti? Si autem accepisti, cave ne glorieris quasi non acceperis (I Cor. IV, 7), hoc est, quasi ex te ipso habere potueris. Sciens autem unde acceperis, ab illo pete ut perficiatur, a quo datum est ut inciperetur. Cum timore itaque et tremore tuam salutem operare. Deus est enim qui operatur in te et velle, et perficere, pro bona voluntate (Philipp. II, 12, 13): quoniam praeparatur voluntas a Domino (Prov. VIII, 35, sec. 0991 LXX), atque ab ipso gressus hominis diriguntur, et viam ejus volet (Psal. XXXVI, 23). Haec cogitatio sancta servabit te, ut sapientia tua pietas sit; id est, ut ex Deo sis bonus, et Christi gratiae non ingratus.

4. Desiderant te parentes tui, fideliter congratulantes meliori spei tuae quam in Domino habere coepisti. Nos autem te sive absentem corpore sive praesentem, in uno spiritu habere cupimus, per quem diffunditur charitas in cordibus nostris, ut quolibet loco fuerit caro nostra, nullo modo separata possit esse anima nostra. Gratissime accepimus cilicia quae misisti, ubi nos de frequentanda et servanda humilitate orationum prior ipse monuisti.