Letter CLXIX.
(a.d. 415.)
Bishop Augustin to Bishop
Evodius.
Chap. I.
1. If acquaintance with the treatises which
specially occupy me, and from which I am unwilling to be turned
aside to anything else, is so highly valued by your Holiness, let
some one be sent to copy them for you. For I have now finished
several of those which had been commenced by me this year before
Easter, near the beginning of Lent. For, to the three books on the
City of God, in opposition to its enemies, the worshippers
of demons, I have added two others, and in these five books I think
enough has been said to answer those who maintain that the
[heathen] gods must be worshipped in order to secure prosperity in
this present life, and who are hostile to the Christian name from
an idea that that prosperity is hindered by us. In the sequel I
must, as I promised in the first book, answer those who think that the
worship of their gods is the only way to obtain that life after
death with a view to obtain which we are Christians. I have
dictated also, in volumes of considerable size, expositions of
three Psalms, the 68th, the 72d, and the 78th. Commentaries on the
other Psalms—not yet dictated, nor even entered on—are eagerly
expected and demanded from me. From these studies I am unwilling to
be called away and hindered by any questions thrusting themselves
upon me from another quarter; yea, so unwilling, that I do not wish
to turn at present even to the books on the Trinity, which I have
long had on hand and have not yet completed, because they require a
great amount of labour, and I believe that they are of a nature to
be understood only by few; on which account they claim my attention
less urgently than writings which may, I hope, be useful to very
many.
2. For the words, “He that is ignorant shall
be ignored,” were not
used by the apostle in reference to this subject, as your letter
affirms; as if this punishment were to be inflicted on the man who
is not able to discern by the exercise of his intellect the
ineffable unity of the Trinity, in the same way as the unity of
memory, understanding, and will in the soul of man is discerned. The apostle said these words with a wholly different design. Consult the passage and you will see that he was speaking of those things which might be for the edification of the many in faith and holiness, not of those which might with difficulty be comprehended by the few, and by them only in the small degree in which the comprehension of so great a subject is attainable in this life. The positions laid down by him were,—that prophesying was to be preferred to speaking with tongues; that these gifts should not be exercised in a disorderly manner, as if the spirit of prophecy compelled them to speak even against their will; that women should keep silence in the Church; and that all things should be done decently and in order. While treating of these things he says: “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him know the things which I write to you, for they are the commands of the Lord. If any man be ignorant, he shall be ignored;” intending by these words to restrain and call to order persons who were specially ready to cause disorder in the Church, because they imagined themselves to excel in spiritual gifts, although they were disturbing everything by their presumptions conduct. “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him know,” he says, “the things which I write to you, for they are the commands of the Lord.” If any man thinks himself to be, and in reality is not, a prophet, for he who is a prophet undoubtedly knows and does not need admonition and exhortation, because “he judgeth all things, and is himself judged of no man.” Those persons, therefore, caused confusion and trouble in the Church who thought themselves to be in the Church what they were not. He teaches these to know the commandments of the Lord, for he is not a “God of confusion, but of peace.” But “if any one is ignorant, he shall be ignored,” that is to say, he shall be rejected; for God is not ignorant—so far as mere knowledge is concerned—in regard to the persons to whom He shall one day say, “I know you not,” but their rejection is signified by this expression.