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Confessiones (CSEL)
Caput 30
In hac diversitate sententiarum verarum, concordiam pariat ipsa veritas, et deus noster misereatur nostri, ut legitime lege utamur, praecepti fine, pura caritate. ac per hoc, si quis quaerit ex me, quid horum Moyses, tuus ille famulus, senserit, non sunt hi sermones confessionum mearum, si tibi non confiteor, nescio; et scio tamen illas veras esse sententias exceptis carnalibus, de quibus quantum existimavi locutus sum. quos tamen bonae spei parvulos haec verba libri tui non territant alta humiliter et pauca copiose; sed omnes, quos in eis verbis vera cernere ac dicere fateor, diligamus nos invicem, pariterque diligamus te, deum nostrum, fontem veritatis, si non vana, sed ipsam sitimus, eundemque famulum tuum, scripturae huius dispensatorem, spiritu tuo plenum, ita honoremus, ut hoc eum te revelante, cum haec scriberet, adtendisse credamus, quod in eis maxime et luce veritatis et fruge utilitatis excellit.
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The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books
Chapter XXX.--In the Great Diversity of Opinions, It Becomes All to Unite Charity and Divine Truth.
41. In this diversity of true opinions let Truth itself beget concord; 1 and may our God have mercy upon us, that we may use the law lawfully, 2 the end of the commandment, pure charity. 3 And by this if any one asks of me, "Which of these was the meaning of Thy servant Moses?" these were not the utterances of my confessions, should I not confess unto Thee, "I know not;" and yet I know that those opinions are true, with the exception of those carnal ones concerning which I have spoken what I thought well. However, these words of Thy Book affright not those little ones of good hope, treating few of high things in a humble fashion, and few things in varied ways. 4 But let all, whom I acknowledge to see and speak the truth in these words, love one another, and equally love Thee, our God, fountain of truth,--if we thirst not for vain things, but for it; yea, let us so honour this servant of Thine, the dispenser of this Scripture, full of Thy Spirit, as to believe that when Thou revealedst Thyself to him, and he wrote these things, he intended that which in them chiefly excels both for light of truth and fruitfulness of profit.
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See p. 164, note 2, above. ↩
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1 Tim. i. 8. ↩
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See p. 183, note, above; and on the supremacy of this law of love, may be compared Jeremy Taylor's curious story (Works, iv. 477, Eden's ed.): "St. Lewis, the king, having sent Ivo, Bishop of Chartres, on an embassy, the bishop met a woman on the way, grave, sad, fantastic, and melancholy, with fire in one hand, and water in the other. He asked what those symbols meant. She answered, My purpose is with fire to burn Paradise, and with my water to quench the flames of hell, that men may serve God without the incentives of hope and fear, and purely for the love of God.'" ↩
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See end of note 17, p. 197, below. ↩