Werke Augustinus von Hippo (354-430) Confessiones

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The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

Chapter XXXI.--About to Speak of the Temptations of the Lust of the Flesh, He First Complains of the Lust of Eating and Drinking.

43. There is another evil of the day that I would were "sufficient" unto it. 1 For by eating and drinking we repair the daily decays of the body, until Thou destroyest both food and stomach, when Thou shall destroy my want with an amazing satiety, and shalt clothe this corruptible with an eternal incorruption. 2 But now is necessity sweet unto me, and against this sweetness do I fight, lest I be enthralled; and I carry on a daily war by fasting, 3 oftentimes "bringing my body into subjection," 4 and my pains are expelled by pleasure. For hunger and thirst are in some sort pains; they consume and destroy like unto a fever, unless the medicine of nourishment relieve us. The which, since it is at hand through the comfort we receive of Thy gifts, with which land and water and air serve our infirmity, our calamity is called pleasure.

44. This much hast Thou taught me, that I should bring myself to take food as medicine. But during the time that I am passing from the uneasiness of want to the calmness of satiety, even in the very passage doth that snare of concupiscence lie in wait for me. For the passage itself is pleasure, nor is there any other way of passing thither, whither necessity compels us to pass. And whereas health is the reason of eating and drinking, there joineth itself as an hand-maid a perilous delight, which mostly tries to precede it, in order that I may do for her sake what I say I do, or desire to do, for health's sake. Nor have both the same limit; for what is sufficient for health is too little for pleasure. And oftentimes it is doubtful whether it be the necessary care of the body which still asks nourishment, or whether a sensual snare of desire offers its ministry. In this uncertainty does my unhappy soul rejoice, and therein prepares an excuse as a defence, glad that it doth not appear what may be Sufficient for the moderation of health, that so under the pretence of health it may conceal the business of pleasure. These temptations do I daily endeavour to resist, and I summon Thy right hand to my help, and refer my excitements to Thee, because as yet I have no resolve in this matter.

45. I hear the voice of my God commanding, let not "your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness." 5 "Drunkenness," it is far from me; Thou wilt have mercy, that it approach not near unto me. But "surfeiting" sometimes creepeth upon Thy servant; Thou wilt have mercy, that it may be far from me. For no man can be continent unless Thou give it. 6 Many things which we pray for dost Thou give us; and what good soever we receive before we prayed for it, do we receive from Thee, and that we might afterwards know this did we receive it from Thee. Drunkard was I never, but I have known drunkards to be made sober men by Thee. Thy doing, then, was it, that they who never were such might not be so, as from Thee it was that they who have been so heretofore might not remain so always; and from Thee, too was it, that both might know from whom it was. I heard another voice of Thine, "Go not after thy lusts, but refrain thyself from thine appetites." 7 And by Thy favour have I heard this saying likewise, which I have much delighted in, "Neither if we eat, are we the better; neither if we eat not, are we the worse;" 8 which is to say, that neither shall the one make me to abound, nor the other to be wretched. I heard also another voice, "For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content, I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound . . . I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." 9 Lo! a soldier of the celestial camp--not dust as we are. But remember, O Lord, "that we are dust," 10 and that of dust Thou hast created man; 11 and he "was lost, and is found." 12 Nor could he do this of his own power, seeing that he whom I so loved, saying these things through the afflatus of Thy inspiration, was of that same dust. "I can," saith he, "do all things through Him which strengtheneth me." 13 Strengthen me, that I may be able. Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt. 14 He confesses to have received, and when he glorieth, he glorieth in the Lord. 15 Another have I heard entreating that he might receive,--"Take from me," saith he, "the greediness of the belly;" 16 by which it appeareth, O my holy God, that Thou givest when what Thou commandest to be done is done.

46. Thou hast taught me, good Father, that "unto the pure all things are pure;" 17 but "it is evil for that man who eateth with offence;" 18 "and that every creature of Thine is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with, thanksgiving;" 19 and that "meat commendeth us not to God;" 20 and that no man should "judge us in meat or in drink;" 21 and that he that eateth, let him not despise him that eateth not; and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth. 22 These things have I learned, thanks and praise be unto Thee, O my God and Master, who dost knock at my ears and enlighten my heart; deliver me out of all temptation. It is not the uncleanness of meat that I fear, but the uncleanness of lusting. I know that permission was granted unto Noah to eat every kind of flesh 23 that was good for food; 24 that Elias was fed with flesh; 25 that John, endued with a wonderful abstinence, was not polluted by the living creatures (that is, the locusts 26 ) which he fed on. I know, too, that Esau was deceived by a longing for lentiles, 27 and that David took blame to himself for desiring water, 28 and that our King was tempted not by flesh but bread. 29 And the people in the wilderness, therefore, also deserved reproof, not because they desired flesh, but because, in their desire for food, they murmured against the Lord. 30

47. Placed, then, in the midst of these temptations, I strive daily against longing for food and drink. For it is not of such a nature as that I am able to resolve to cut it off once for all, and not touch it afterwards, as I was able to do with concubinage. The bridle of the throat, therefore, is to be held in the mean of slackness and tightness. 31 And who, O Lord, is he who is not in some degree carried away beyond the bounds of necessity? Whoever he is, he is great; let him magnify Thy name. But I am not such a one, "for I am a sinful man." 32 Yet do I also magnify Thy name; and He who hath "overcome the world" 33 maketh intercession to Thee for my sins, 34 accounting me among the "feeble members" of His body, 35 because Thine eyes saw that of him which was imperfect; and in Thy book all shall be written. 36

  1. Matt. vi. 34. ↩

  2. 1 Cor. xv. 54. ↩

  3. In Augustin's time, and indeed till the Council of Orleans, A.D. 538, fasting appears to have been left pretty much to the individual conscience. We find Tertullian in his De Jejunio lamenting the slight observance it received during his day. We learn, however, from the passage in Justin Martyr, quoted in note 4, on p. 118, above, that in his time it was enjoined as a preparation for Baptism. ↩

  4. 1 Cor. ix. 27. ↩

  5. Luke xxi. 34. ↩

  6. Wisd. viii. 21. ↩

  7. Ecclus. xviii. 30. ↩

  8. 1 Cor. viii. 8. ↩

  9. Phil. iv. 11-14. ↩

  10. Ps. ciii. 14. ↩

  11. Gen. iii. 19. ↩

  12. Luke xv. 32. ↩

  13. Phil. iv. 13. ↩

  14. In his De Dono Persev. sec. 53, he tells us that these words were quoted to Pelagius, when at Rome, by a certain bishop, and that they excited him to contradict them so warmly as nearly to result in a rupture between Pelagius and the bishop. ↩

  15. 1 Cor. i. 31. ↩

  16. Ecclus. xxiii. 6. ↩

  17. Titus i. 15. ↩

  18. Rom. xiv. 20. ↩

  19. 1 Tim. iv. 4. ↩

  20. 1 Cor. viii. 8. ↩

  21. Col. ii. 16. ↩

  22. Rom. xiii. 23. ↩

  23. He here refers to the doctrine of the Manichaeans in the matter of eating flesh. In his De Mor. Manich. secs. 36, 37, he discusses the prohibition of flesh to the "Elect." From Ep. ccxxxvi. we find that the "Hearers" had not to practice abstinence from marriage and from eating flesh. For other information on this subject, see notes, pp. 66 and 83. ↩

  24. Gen. ix. 3. ↩

  25. 1 Kings xvii. 6. ↩

  26. Matt. iii. 4. ↩

  27. Gen. xxv. 34. ↩

  28. 2 Sam. xxiii. 15-17. ↩

  29. Matt. iv. 3. ↩

  30. Num. xi. ↩

  31. So all God's gifts are to be used, but not abused; and those who deny the right use of any, do so by virtually accepting the principle of asceticism. As Augustin, in his De Mor. Ecc. Cath. sec. 39, says of all transient things, we "should use them as far as is required for the purposes and duties of life, with the moderation of an employer instead of the ardour of a lover." ↩

  32. Luke v. 8. ↩

  33. John xvi. 33. ↩

  34. Rom. viii. 34. ↩

  35. 1 Cor. xii. 22. ↩

  36. Ps. cxxxix. 16; he similarly applies this passage when commenting on it in Ps. cxxxviii. 21, and also in Serm. cxxxv. ↩

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Confessiones

Caput 31

Est alia malitia diei, quae utinam sufficiat ei. reficimus enim cotidianas ruinas corporis edendo et bibendo, priusquam escas et ventrem destruas, cum occideris indigentiam satietate mirifica, et corruptible hoc indueris incorruptione sempiterna. nunc autem suavis est mihi necessitas, et adversus istam suavitatem pugno, ne capiar, et cotidianum bellum gero in ieiuniis, saepius in servitutem redigens corpus meum, et dolores mei voluptate pelluntur. nam fames et sitis quidam dolores sunt: urunt et sicut febris necant, nisi alimentorum medicina succurrat. quae quoniam praesto est ex consolatione munerum tuorum, in quibus nostrae infirmitati terra et aqua et caelum serviunt, calamitas deliciae vocantur. Hoc me docuisti, ut quemadmodum medicamenta sic alimenta sumpturus accedam. sed dum ad quietem satietatis ex indigentiae molesta transeo, in ipso transitu mihi insidiatur laqueus concupiscentiae. ipse enim transitus voluptas est. et non est alius, qua transeatur, quo transire cogit necessitas. et cum salus sit causa edendi ac bibendi, adiungit se tamquam pedisequa periculosa iucunditas et plerumque praeire conatur, ut eius causa fiat, quod salutis causa me facere vel dico vel volo. nec idem modus utriusque est: nam quod saluti satis est, delectatione parum est, et saepe incertum fit, utrum adhuc necessaria corporis cura subsidium petat an voluptaria cupiditatis fallacia ministerium suppetat. ad hoc incertum hilarescit infelix anima, et in eo praeparat excusationis patrocinium, gaudens non adparere, quod satis sit moderationi valetudinis, ut obtentu salutis obumbret negotium voluptatis. his temptationibus cotidie conor resistere, et invoco dexteram tuam et ad te refero aestus meos, quia consilium mihi de hac re nondum stat. Audio vocem iubentis dei mei: Non graventur corda vestra in crapula et ebrietate. ebrietas longe est a me: misereberis, ne adpropinquet mihi. crapula autem nonnumquam subrepsit servo tuo: misereberis, ut longe fiat a me. nemo enim potens esse continens, nisi tu des. multa nobis orantibus tribuis, et quidquid boni antequam oraremus accepimus, a te accepimus; et ut hoc postea cognosceremus, a te accepimus. ebriosus numquam fui, sed ebriosos a te factos sobrios ego novi. ergo a te factum est, ut hoc non essent qui numquam fuerunt. a quo factum est, ut hoc non semper essent qui fuerunt, a quo etiam factum est, ut scirent utrique, a quo factum est. audivi aliam vocem tuam: Post concupiscentias tuas non eas et a voluptate tua vetare. audivi et illam ex munere tuo, quam multum amavi: Neque si manducaverimus, abundabimus, neque si non manducaverimus, deerit nobis; hoc est dicere: nec illa res me copiosum faciet nec illa aerumnosum. audivi et alteram: Ego enim didici, in quibus sum, sufficiens esse, et abundare novi et penuriam pati novi. omnia possum in eo, qui me confortat. ecce miles castrorum caelestium. non pulvis, quod sumus. sed memento, domine, quoniam pulvis sumus, et de pulvere fecisti hominem, et perierat et inventus est. nec ille in se potuit, quia idem pulvis fuit, quem talia dicentem adflatu tuae inspirationis adamavi: Omnia possum, inquit, in eo, qui me confortat. conforta me, ut possim, da quod iubes et iube quod vis. iste se accepisse confitetur et quod gloriatur in domino gloriatur. audivi alium rogantem, ut accipiat: Aufer, inquit, a me concupiscentias ventris. unde adparet, sancte deus, te dare, cum fit quod imperas fieri. Docuisti me, pater bone: Omnia munda mundis, sed malum esse homini qui per offensionem manducat; et omnem creaturam tuam bonam esse nihilque abiciendum, quod cum gratiarum actione percipitur; et quia esca nos non conmendat deo, et ut nemo nos iudicet in cibo aut potu; et ut qui manducat non manducantem non spernat, et qui non manducat, manducantem non iudicet. didici haec, gratias tibi, laudes tibi, deo meo, magistro meo, pulsatori aurium mearum, inlustratori cordis mei: eripe me ab omni temptatione. non ego inmunditiam obsonii timeo, sed inmunditiam cupiditatis. scio Noe omne carnis genus, quod cibo esset usui, manducare permissum, Elian cibo carnis refectum, Iohannem mirabili abstinentia praeditum animalibus, hoc est lucustis in escam cedentibus, non fuisse pollutum: et scio Esau lenticulae concupiscentia deceptum, et David propter aquae desiderium a se ipso reprehensum, et regem nostrum non carne, sed pane temptatum. ideoque et populus in heremo non quia carnes desideravit, sed quia escae desiderio adversus dominum murmuravit, meruit inprobari. In his ergo temptationibus positus, certo cotidie adversus concupiscentiam manducandi et bibendi: non enim est quod semel praecidere et ulterius non attingere decernam, sicut de concubitu potui. itaque freni gutturis temperata relaxatione et constrictione tenendi sunt. et quis est, domine, qui non rapiatur aliquantum extra metas necessitatis? quisquis est, magnus est, magnificet nomen tuum. ego autem non sum, quia peccator homo sum. sed et ego magnifico nomen tuum, et interpellat te pro peccatis meis, qui vicit saeculum, numerans me inter infirma membra corporis sui, quia et inperfectum eius viderunt oculi tui, et in libro tuo omnes scribentur.

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