Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Doctrine

59. But whatever may be the majesty of the style, the life of the speaker will count for more in securing the hearer’s compliance. The man who speaks wisely and eloquently, but lives wickedly, may, it is true, instruct many who are anxious to learn; though, as it is written, he “is unprofitable to himself.”302 Ecclus. xxxvii. 19. Wherefore, also, the apostle says: “Whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached.”303 Phil. i. 18. Now Christ is the truth; yet we see that the truth can be preached, though not in truth,—that is, what is right and true in itself may be preached by a man of perverse and deceitful mind. And thus it is that Jesus Christ is preached by those that seek their own, and not the things that are Jesus Christ’s. But since true believers obey the voice, not of any man, but of the Lord Himself, who says, “All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do: but do not ye after their works; for they say and do not;”304 Matt. xxiii. 3. therefore it is that men who themselves lead unprofitable lives are heard with profit by others. For though they seek their own objects, they do not dare to teach their own doctrines, sitting as they do in the high places of ecclesiastical authority, which is established on sound doctrine. Wherefore our Lord Himself, before saying what I have just quoted about men of this stamp, made this observation: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.”305 Matt. xxiii. 2. The seat they occupied, then, which was not theirs but Moses’, compelled them to say what was good, though they did what was evil. And so they followed their own course in their lives, but were prevented by the seat they occupied, which belonged to another, from preaching their own doctrines.

60. Now these men do good to many by preaching what they themselves do not perform; but they would do good to very many more if they lived as they preach. For there are numbers who seek an excuse for their own evil lives in comparing the teaching with the conduct of their instructors, and who say in their hearts, or even go a little further, and say with their lips: Why do you not do yourself what you bid me do? And thus they cease to listen with submission to a man who does not listen to himself, and in despising the preacher they learn to despise the word that is preached. Wherefore the apostle, writing to Timothy, after telling him, “Let no man despise thy youth,” adds immediately the course by which he would avoid contempt: “but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”306 1 Tim. iv. 12.

CAPUT XXVII. Obedientius audiri cujus vita dictioni respondet.

59. Habet autem ut obedienter audiatur, quantacumque granditate dictionis majus pondus vita dicentis. Nam qui sapienter et eloquenter dicit, vivit autem nequiter, erudit quidem multos discendi studiosos, quamvis animae suae sit inutilis (Eccli. XXXVII, 22), sicut scriptum est. Unde ait et Apostolus: Sive occasione, sive veritate, Christus annuntietur (Philipp. I, 18). Christus autem veritas est, et tamen etiam non veritate annuntiari veritas potest: id est, ut pravo et fallaci corde, quae recta et vera sunt, praedicentur. Sic quippe annuntiatur Jesus Christus ab eis qui sua quaerunt, non quae Jesu Christi. Sed quoniam boni fideles non quemlibet hominum, sed ipsum Dominum obedienter audiunt, qui ait, Quae dicunt, facite; quae autem faciunt, facere nolite: dicunt enim, et non faciunt; ideo audiuntur utiliter, qui etiam utiliter non agunt. Sua enim quaerere student, sed sua docere non audent, de loco scilicet superiore sedis ecclesiasticae, quam sana doctrina constituit. Propter quod ipse Dominus priusquam de talibus, quod commemoravi, diceret, praemisit, Super cathedram Moysi sederunt (Matth. XXIII, 2, 3). Illa ergo cathedra, non eorum sed Moysi, cogebat eos bona dicere, etiam non bona facientes. Agebant ergo sua in vita sua; docere autem sua, cathedra illos non permittebat aliena.

60. Multis itaque prosunt dicendo quae non faciunt; sed longe pluribus prodessent faciendo quae dicunt. Abundant enim qui malae vitae suae defensionem ex ipsis suis praepositis et doctoribus quaerant, respondentes corde suo, aut etiam si ad hoc erumpunt, ore suo, atque dicentes: Quod mihi praecipis, cur ipse non facis? Ita fit ut eum non obedienter audiant, qui se ipse non audit, et Dei verbum quod eis praedicatur, 0119 simul cum ipso praedicatore contemnant. Denique Apostolus scribens ad Timotheum, cum dixisset, Nemo adolescentiam tuam contemnat; subjecit unde non contemneretur, atque ait: Sed forma esto fidelium in sermone, in conversatione, in dilectione, in fide, in castitate (I Tim. IV, 12).