On the Morals of the Catholic Church.
Chapter 1.—How the Pretensions of the Manichæans are to Be Refuted. Two Manichæan Falsehoods.
Chapter 2.—He Begins with Arguments, in Compliance with the Mistaken Method of the Manichæans.
Chapter 5.—Man’s Chief Good is Not the Chief Good of the Body Only, But the Chief Good of the Soul.
Chapter 8.—God is the Chief Good, Whom We are to Seek After with Supreme Affection.
Chapter 10.—What the Church Teaches About God. The Two Gods of the Manichæans.
Chapter 12.—We are United to God by Love, in Subjection to Him.
Chapter 13.—We are Joined Inseparably to God by Christ and His Spirit.
Chapter 14.—We Cleave to the Trinity, Our Chief Good, by Love.
Chapter 15.—The Christian Definition of the Four Virtues.
Chapter 16.—Harmony of the Old and New Testaments.
Chapter 17.—Appeal to the Manichæans, Calling on Them to Repent.
Chapter 19.—Description of the Duties of Temperance, According to the Sacred Scriptures.
Chapter 20.—We are Required to Despise All Sensible Things, and to Love God Alone.
Chapter 21.—Popular Renown and Inquisitiveness are Condemned in the Sacred Scriptures.
Chapter 22.—Fortitude Comes from the Love of God.
Chapter 23.—Scripture Precepts and Examples of Fortitude.
Chapter 24.—Of Justice and Prudence.
Chapter 26.—Love of Ourselves and of Our Neighbor.
Chapter 27.—On Doing Good to the Body of Our Neighbor.
Chapter 29.—Of the Authority of the Scriptures.
Chapter 30.—The Church Apostrophised as Teacher of All Wisdom. Doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Chapter 31.—The Life of the Anachoretes and Cœnobites Set Against the Continence of the Manichæans.
Chapter 32.—Praise of the Clergy.
Chapter 33.—Another Kind of Men Living Together in Cities. Fasts of Three Days.
Chapter 35.—Marriage and Property Allowed to the Baptized by the Apostles.
Chapter 18.—Only in the Catholic Church is Perfect Truth Established on the Harmony of Both Testaments.
33. I could, according to the little ability I have, take up the points separately, and could expound and prove the truths I have learned, which are generally more excellent and lofty than words can express; but this cannot be done while you bark at it. For not in vain is it said, "Give not that which is holy to dogs."45 Matt. vii. 6. Do not be angry. I too barked and was a dog; and then, as was right, instead of the food of teaching, I got the rod of correction. But were there in you that love of which we are speaking, or should it ever be in you as much as the greatness of the truth to be known requires, may God vouchsafe to show you that neither is there among the Manichæans the Christian faith which leads to the summit of wisdom and truth, the attainment of which is the true happy life, nor is it anywhere but in the Catholic teaching. Is not this what the Apostle Paul appears to desire when he says, "For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant unto you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man: that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the height, and length, and breadth, and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God?"46 Eph. iii. 14-19. Could anything be more plainly expressed?
34. Wake up a little, I beseech you, and see the harmony of both Testaments, making it quite plain and certain what should be the manner of life in our conduct, and to what all things should be referred. To the love of God we are incited by the gospel, when it is said, "Ask, seek, knock;"47 Matt. vii. 7. by Paul, when he says, "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend;"48 Eph. iii. 7. by the prophet also, when he says that wisdom can easily be known by those who love it, seek for it, desire it, watch for it, think about it, care for it. The salvation of the mind49 [Animi not mentis.—A.H.N.] and the way of happiness is pointed out by the concord of both Scriptures; and yet you choose rather to bark at these things than to obey them. I will tell you in one word what I think. Do you listen to the learned men of the Catholic Church with as peaceable a disposition, and with the same zeal, that I had when for nine years I attended on you:50 From his 19th to his 28th year. there will be no need of so long a time as that during which you made a fool of me. In a much, a very much, shorter time you will see the difference between truth and vanity.