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Confessiones (PL)

CAPUT III. De Fausto manichaeo, et de philosophorum caecitate qui per creaturas Creatorem non cognoverunt.

3. Proloquar in conspectu Dei mei annum illum undetrigesimum aetatis meae. Jam venerat Carthaginem quidam Manichaeorum episcopus, Faustus nomine, magnus laqueus diaboli: et multi implicabantur in eo per illecebram suaviloquentiae; quam ego tametsi laudabam, discernebam tamen a veritate rerum, quarum discendarum avidus eram; nec quali vasculo sermonis, sed quid mihi scientiae comedendum apponeret nominatus apud eos ille Faustus, intuebar. Fama enim de illo praelocuta mihi erat quod esset honestarum omnium doctrinarum peritissimus, et apprime disciplinis liberalibus eruditus. Et quoniam multa philosophorum legeram, memoriaeque mandata retinebam, ex eis quaedam comparabam illis Manichaeorum longis fabulis: et mihi probabiliora ista videbantur, quae dixerunt illi, qui tantum potuerunt valere, ut possent aestimare saeculum, quanquam ejus Dominum minime invenerint. Quoniam magnus es, Domine, et humilia respicis; excelsa autem a longe cognoscis

4. Mente enim sua quaerunt ista, et ingenio quod tu dedisti eis: et multa invenerunt et praenuntiaverunt ante multos annos defectus luminarium solis et lunae, quo die, qua hora, quanta ex parte futuri essent; et non eos fefellit numerus, et ita factum est ut praenuntiaverunt: et scripserunt regulas indagatas, et leguntur hodie, atque ex eis praenuntiatur quo anno et quo mense anni, et quo die mensis, et qua hora diei, et quota parte luminis sui defectura sit luna vel sol; et ita fiet ut praenuntiatur. Et mirantur haec homines et stupent qui nesciunt ea, et exsultant atque extolluntur qui sciunt; et per impiam superbiam recedentes et deficientes a lumine tuo, tanto ante solis defectum futurum praevident, et in praesentia suum [Col. 0708] non vident. Non enim religiose quaerunt unde habeant ingenium quo ista quaerunt. Et invenientes quia tu fecisti eos, non ipsi dant tibi se ut serves quod fecisti, et quales se ipsi fecerant occidunt se tibi, et trucidant exaltationes suas sicut volatilia, et curiositates suas sicut pisces maris, quibus perambulant secretas semitas abyssi, et luxurias suas sicut pecora campi; ut tu, Deus ignis edax, consumas mortuas curas eorum recreans eos immortaliter.

5. Sed non noverunt viam, Verbum tuum, per quod fecisti ea quae numerant, et ipsos qui numerant, et sensum quo cernunt quae numerant, et mentem de qua numerant; et sapientiae tuae non est numerus ¹. Ipse autem Unigenitus factus est nobis sapientia, et justitia, et sanctificatio ²; et numeratus est inter nos, et solvit tributum Caesari ³. Non noverunt hanc viam, qua descendant ad illum a se, et per eum ascendant ad eum. Non noverunt hanc viam, et putant se excelsos esse cum sideribus et lucidos; et ecce ruerunt in terram, et obscuratum est insipiens cor eorum. Et multa vera de creatura dicunt, et Veritatem, creaturae artificem, non pie quaerunt, et ideo non inveniunt: aut si inveniunt, cognoscentes Deum, non sicut Deum honorant, aut gratias agunt; sed evanescunt in cogitationibus suis, et dicunt se esse sapientes, sibi tribuendo quae tua sunt, ac per hoc student perversissima caecitate etiam tibi tribuere quae sua sunt, mendacia scilicet in te conferentes, qui veritas es, et immutantes gloriam incorrupti Dei in similitudinem imaginis corruptibilis hominis, et volucrum, et quadrupedum, et serpentum, et convertunt veritatem tuam in mendacium; et colunt, et serviunt creaturae potius quam Creatori ⁴.

6. Multa tamen ab eis, ex ipsa creatura, vera dicta retinebam; et occurrebat mihi ratio per numeros et ordinem temporum, et visibiles attestationes siderum, et conferebam cum dictis Manichaei, quae de his rebus multa scripsit copiosissime delirans; et non mihi occurrebat ratio nec solstitiorum et aequinoctiorum, nec defectuum luminarium, nec quidquid tale in libris saecularis sapientiae didiceram. Ibi autem credere jubebar, et ad illas rationes numeris et oculis meis exploratas non occurrebat, et longe diversum erat.

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The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

Chapter III.--Having Heard Faustus, the Most Learned Bishop of the Manichaeans, He Discerns that God, the Author Both of Things Animate and Inanimate, Chiefly Has Care for the Humble.

3. Let me lay bare before my God that twenty-ninth year of my age. There had at this time come to Carthage a certain bishop of the Manichaeans, by name Faustus, a great snare of the devil, and in any were entangled by him through the allurement of his smooth speech; the which, although I did commend, yet could I separate from the truth of those things which I was eager to learn. Nor did I esteem the small dish of oratory so much as the science, which this their so praised Faustus placed before me to feed upon. Fame, indeed, had before spoken of him to me, as most skilled in all becoming learning, and pre-eminently skilled in the liberal sciences. And as I had read and retained in memory many injunctions of the philosophers, I used to compare some teachings of theirs with those long fables of the Manichaeans and the former things which they declared, who could only prevail so far as to estimate this lower world, while its lord they could by no means find out, ¹ seemed to me the more probable. For Thou art great, O Lord, and hast respect unto the lowly, but the proud Thou knowest afar off." ² Nor dost Thou draw near but to the contrite heart, ³ nor art Thou found by the proud, ⁴ --not even could they number by cunning skill the stars and the sand, and measure the starry regions, and trace the courses of the planets.

4. For with their understanding and the capacity which Thou hast bestowed upon them they search out these things; and much have they found out, and foretold many years before,--the eclipses of those luminaries, the sun and moon, on what day, at what hour, and from how many particular points they were likely to come. Nor did their calculation fail them; and it came to pass even as they foretold. And they wrote down the rules found out, which are read at this day; and from these others foretell in what year and in what month of the year, and on what day of the month, and at what hour of the day, and at what quarter of its light, either moon or sun is to be eclipsed, and thus it shall be even as it is foretold. And men who are ignorant of these things marvel and are amazed, and they that know them exult and are exalted; and by an impious pride, departing from Thee, and forsaking Thy light, they foretell a failure of the sun's light which is likely to occur so long before, but see not their own, which is now present. For they seek not religiously whence they have the ability where-with they seek out these things. And finding that Thou hast made them, they give not themselves up to Thee, that Thou mayest preserve what Thou hast made, nor sacrifice themselves to Thee, even such as they have made themselves to be; nor do they slay their own pride, as fowls of the air, ⁵ nor their own curiosities, by which (like the fishes of the sea) they wander over the unknown paths of the abyss, nor their own extravagance, as the "beasts of the field," ⁶ that Thou, Lord, "a consuming fire," ⁷ mayest burn up their lifeless cares and renew them immortally.

5. But the way--Thy Word, ⁸ by whom Thou didst make these things which they number, and themselves who number, and the sense by which they perceive what they number, and the judgment out of which they number--they knew not, and that of Thy wisdom there is no number. ⁹ But the Only-begotten has been "made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification," ¹⁰ and has been numbered amongst us, and paid tribute to Caesar. ¹¹ This way, by which they might descend to Him from themselves, they knew not; nor that through Him they might ascend unto Him. ¹² This way they knew not, and they think themselves exalted with the stars ¹³ and shining, and lo! they fell upon the earth, ¹⁴ and "their foolish heart was darkened." ¹⁵ They say many true things concerning the creature; but Truth, the Artificer of the creature, they seek not with devotion, and hence they find Him not. Or if they find Him, knowing that He is God, they glorify Him not as God, neither are they thankful, ¹⁶ but become vain in their imaginations, and say that they themselves are wise, ¹⁷ attributing to themselves what is Thine; and by this, with most perverse blindness, they desire to impute to Thee what is their own, forging lies against Thee who art the Truth, and changing the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things, ¹⁸ --changing Thy truth into a lie, and worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator. ¹⁹

6. Many truths, however, concerning the creature did I retain from these men, and the cause appeared to me from calculations, the succession of seasons, and the visible manifestations of the stars; and I compared them with the sayings of Manichaeus, who in his frenzy has written most extensively on these subjects, but discovered not any account either of the solstices, or the equinoxes, the eclipses of the luminaries, or anything of the kind I had learned in the books of secular philosophy. But therein I was ordered to believe, and yet it corresponded not with those rules acknowledged by calculation and my own sight, but was far different.