Works Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Confessiones

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Confessiones

Caput 12

Procede in confessione, fides mea; dic domino tuo: sancte, sancte, sancte, domine deus meus, in nomine tuo baptizati sumus, pater et fili et spiritus sancte, in nomine tuo baptizamus, pater et fili et spiritus sancte, quia et apud nos in Christo suo fecit deus caelum et terram, spiritales et carnales ecclesiae suae, et terra nostra antequam acciperet formam doctrinae, invisibilis erat et incomposita, et ignorantiae tenebris tegebamur, quoniam pro iniquitate erudisti hominem, et iudicia tua multa abyssus. sed quia spiritus tuus superferebatur super aquam, non reliquit miseriam nostram misericordia tua, et dixisti: fiat lux; paenitentiam agite, appropinquavit enim regnum caelorum. paenitentiam agite; fiat lux. et quoniam conturbata erat ad nos ipsos anima nostra, conmemorati sumus tui, domine, de terra Iordanis et de monte aequali tibi, sed parvo propter nos, et displicuerunt nobis tenebrae nostrae, et conversi sumus ad te, et facta est lux. et ecce fuimus aliquando tenebrae, nunc autem lux in domino.

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The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

Chapter XII.--Allegorical Explanation of Genesis, Chap. I., Concerning the Origin of the Church and Its Worship.

13. Proceed in thy confession, say to the Lord thy God, O my faith, Holy, Holy, Holy, O Lord my God, in Thy name have we been baptized, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in Thy name do we baptize, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 1 because among us also in His Christ did God make heaven and earth, namely, the spiritual and carnal people of His Church. 2 Yea, and our earth, before it received the "form of doctrine," 3 was invisible and formless, and we were covered with the darkness of ignorance. For Thou correctest man for iniquity, 4 and "Thy judgments are a great deep." 5 But because Thy Spirit was "borne over the waters," 6 Thy mercy forsook not our misery, 7 and Thou saidst, "Let there be light," "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 8 Repent ye, let there be light. 9 And because our soul was troubled within us, 10 we remembered Thee, O Lord, from the land of Jordan, and that mountain 11 equal unto Thyself, but little for our sakes; and upon our being displeased with our darkness, we turned unto Thee, "and there was light." And, behold, we were sometimes darkness, but now light in the Lord. 12

  1. Matt. xxviii. 19. ↩

  2. He similarly interprets "heaven and earth" in his De Gen. ad Lit. ii. 4. With this compare Chrysostom's illustration in his De Paenit. hom. 8. The Church is like the ark of Noah, yet different from it. Into that ark as the animals entered, so they came forth. The fox remained a fox, the hawk a hawk, and the serpent a serpent. But with the spiritual ark it is not so, for in it evil dispositions are changed. This illustration of Chrysostom is used with an effective but rough eloquence by the Italian preacher Segneri, in his Quaresimale, serm. iv. sec. ↩

  3. Rom. vi. 17. ↩

  4. Ps. xxxix. 11. ↩

  5. Ps. xxxvi. 6. ↩

  6. Gen. i. 3. ↩

  7. See p. 47, note 10, above. ↩

  8. Matt. iii. 2. ↩

  9. "His putting repentance and light together is, for that baptism was anciently called illumination, as Heb. vi. 4, Ps. xlii. 2."--W. W. See also p. 118, note 4, part 1, above, for the meaning of "illumination." ↩

  10. Ps. xlii. 6. ↩

  11. That is, Christ. See p. 130, note 8, part 2, above; and compare the De Div. Quaest., lxxxiii. 6. ↩

  12. Eph. v. 8. ↩

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