Manichæism set asideauthority,byappeal to notionsof fitness.345

They pretended not of course to any historical evidence; "Ye should produce," says S. Augustine, "some other copy, which should contain the same, only uncorrupted and more faithful, where those things only should be missing, which ye censure as interpolated. I will not,' sayest thou, lest I should be thought to have corrupted them myself."' For this are ye wont to say." (Aug. de mor. Eccl. Cath. §. 61.) "When ye hear objected to you 'prove,' ye have recourse not to truer copies, or the majority of MSS. or more ancient MSS. or those of the original tongue, but ye say, I thence prove that this is his, the other not, because this is for me, that against me.' Art thou then the rule of truth?" (c. Faust. xi. 2. cp. xxxii. 16. de Util. Cred. §. 7. Ep. 82. §. 6.) They proceeded entirely upon internal evidence, or what has in modern times been called, the principles of "higher criticisın." "The Paraclete, promised by the New Testament, teaches us in like manner what we ought to receive out of the same, what to reject." (Faustus, xxxii. 6.) "With good reason," (says he again in language only a little more unveiled than that of modern days,) "with good reason do we never without sound judgment and discretion give our minds to Scriptures [of this sort, so inconsistent and varying], but surveying all, and comparing one with another, weigh, whether each thing could have been said by Christ or no." (Faustus, xxxiii. 3.) "I, (says he again in a passage just preceding one already quoted,) am fore-armed against the binding force of this passage by the Manichæan faith, which first of all has persuaded me not to believe whatever has been written in the name of the Saviour; but to examine whether they be true, sound, undefiled; for there are many tares &c." (Faustus, xviii. 3.) "See you not," answers S. Augustine in golden words," that ye are destroying altogether the whole authority of Scripture, so that every one's judgment is to decide for him, what in Scripture he shall approve, what disapprove; in other words, he is not for his faith to subject himself to the authority of Scripture, but to subject Scripture to himself, and not therefore approve of a thing, because it stands written in that so high authority, but therefore judge it to be rightly written, because himself approves of it." Nor less striking the warning; "If then thou hast submitted to an authority, utterly unknown and phrenzied, so as to believe a thousand fabulous phantoms, because they are written in those books, which, by a miserable error, thou hast judged right to believe in, why not rather submit to the Evangelical authority, so founded, so established, so gloriously spread abroad, and commended to us by the most certain successions [of Bishops"] from the Apostles' times to our own, that you may believe, may see, may learn that all those things also, which offend thee, offend thee through a vain and perverse imagination." (c. Faust. xxxii. 19.)

I

d Successiones certissimas. The meaning is altogether determined by a passage shortly following; (c. Faust. xxxiii. end.) "These things being so, who can be blinded with such phrenzy, as to say that the Church of the Apostles, the

agreement of brethren, so faithful, so numerous, could not guarantee that their writings should be faithfully transmitted to posterity, whereas they have preserved their Chairs by a most certain succession down to the present Bishops ?"

NOTE.

346 Principles fixed in S. Aug.'s mind through his Manichæan errors.

This might unhappily be too closely paralleled in modern times; it may be more useful to set down two principles, which were forcibly brought out in S. Augustine's mind by his own acquaintance with Manichæism. 1. That in order to understand the things of God, one must first believe them. "True religion can no ways be entered upon, unless those things be believed, which each shall afterwards attain and perceive, if he conduct himself well- and be worthy, nor altogether, without a grave weight of authority." (de Util. Cred. c. 9.) "Nor doth any one become fit to find out God, unless he first believe, what he shall afterwards know." (de Lib. Arb. ii. §. 6.) "Faith is to believe what as yet you see not, of which faith the reward is to see what you believe." (Serm. 43. init.) " Understand, that you may know, is my word; believe, that you may understand, is God's word." (ib. fin.) "Art thou not convicted of pride when thou sayest, Let me first see, so will I believe?' The Light would fain shew itself. To whom? To the blind it cannot, he sees not. Whence sees he not? His eye being weighed down with many sins. Let these iniquities be removed, sins parted with, the weight removed from the eye, the wounds healed, the caustic command be employed as an ointment. First do what is enjoined thee; heal the heart, cleanse the heart. 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' (in Ps. xxxix. 13.) "Further to behold and fully to know the substance of God, Who without change in Himself maketh things changeable, and without any motion in time createth things of time, is difficult; and therefore is the purifying of our mind necessary, whereby That Ineffable may in an ineffable way be seen; which before we have attained, we are nourished, and are led by easy stages, where we may be rendered fit and capable of receiving it." (de Trin. 1. i. §. 3.)

2. The unlovingness of this sceptical habit of mind, which receives nothing but what is demonstrated to it, and suspects every thing, which is at variance with its own preconceived opinions. "If this belief be removed from human affairs, who sees not what disturbance, and what horrible confusion would follow? For what mutual affection could there be, since affection itself is invisible, if I am not to believe what I see not? If then human society cannot exist, unless we believe what we cannot see, since all harmony would be destroyed, how much more is credit to be given to divine things, although they are not seen; which if it be not given, violence is done not to the friendship of some few men, but to the very height of religion, whence must needs follow the very height of misery." (de fide rerum quæ non videntur, §. 4. cf. Conf. vi. §. 7.)

The same was said much earlier by Tertullian; "On which [the Baptism of John] they could not answer consistently, in that they understood not,

because they believed not," (utpote non intelligentes, quia nec credentes.) De Bapt. c. 10.

CHIEF EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF S. AUGUSTINE,

(as given, nearLY, IN THE BENEDICTINE.)

INDEX.

a For this Index, (with the exception of the part relating to the Manichæans,)
the Editors are indebted to the care and pains of the Rev. J. A. Ashworth, B.A.
Chaplain of Christ Church, who also made use, with judgment, of the excellent
Benedictine Index to the 1st vol. of the Works of S.