confessions and enchiridion [176]
ought to be compared with particular interest in their _similarities_ as well as their significant differences. Cf. also K.E. Kirk, The Vision of God (London, 1932), pp. 319-346. [215] 1 Tim. 2:5. [216] Rom. 9:5. [217] John 14:6. [218] An interesting reminder that the Apollinarian heresy was condemned but not extinct. [219] It is worth remembering that both Augustine and Alypius were catechumens and had presumably been receiving doctrinal instruction in preparation for their eventual baptism and full membership in the Catholic Church. That their ideas on the incarnation, at this stage, were in such confusion raises an interesting problem. [220] Cf. Augustine's The Christian Combat as an example of "the refutation of heretics." [221] Cf. 1 Cor. 11:19. [222] Non peritus, sed periturus essem. [223] Cf. 1 Cor. 3:11f. [224] Rom. 7:22, 23. [225] Rom. 7:24, 25. [226] Cf. Prov. 8:22 and Col. 1:15. Augustine is here identifying the figure of Wisdom in Proverbs with the figure of the Logos in the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel. In the Arian controversy both these references to God's Wisdom and Word as "created" caused great difficulty for the orthodox, for the Arians triumphantly appealed to them as proof that Jesus Christ was a "creature" of God. But Augustine was a Chalcedonian before Chalcedon, and there is no doubt that he is here quoting familiar Scripture and filling it with the interpretation achieved by the long struggle of the Church to affirm the coeternity and consubstantiality of Jesus Christ and God the Father. [227] Cf. Ps. 62:1, 2, 5, 6. [228] Cf. Ps. 91:13. [229] A figure that compares the dangers of the solitary traveler in a bandit-infested land and the safety of an imperial convoy on a main highway to the capital city. [230] Cf. 1 Cor. 15:9. [231] Ps. 35:10. [232] Cf. Ps. 116:16, 17. [233] Cf. Ps. 8:1. [234] 1 Cor. 13:12. [235] Matt. 19:12. [236] Rom. 1:21. [237] Job 28:28. [238] Prov. 3:7. [239] Rom. 1:22. [240] Col. 2:8. [241] Virgil, Aeneid, VIII, 698. [242] Ps. 144:5. [243] Luke 15:4. [244] Cf. Luke, ch. 15. [245] 1 Cor. 1:27. [246] A garbled reference to the story of the conversion of Sergius Paulus, proconsul of Cyprus, in Acts 13:4-12. [247] 2 Tim. 2:21. [248] Gal. 5:17. [249] The text here is a typical example of Augustine's love of wordplay and assonance, as a conscious literary device: tuae caritati me dedere quam meae cupiditati cedere; sed illud placebat et vincebat, hoc libebat et vinciebat. [250] Eph. 5:14. [251] Rom. 7:22-25. [252] The last obstacles that remained. His intellectual difficulties had been cleared away and the intention to become a Christian had become strong. But incontinence and immersion in his career were too firmly fixed in habit to be overcome by an act of conscious resolution. [253] Treves, an important imperial town on the Moselle; the emperor referred to here was probably Gratian. Cf. E.A. Freeman, "Augusta Trevororum," in the British Quarterly Review (1875), 62, pp. 1-45. [254] Agentes in rebus, government agents whose duties ranged from postal inspection and tax collection to espionage and secret police work. They were ubiquitous and generally dreaded by the populace; cf. J.S. Reid, "Reorganization of the Empire," in Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. I, pp. 36-38. [255] The inner circle of imperial advisers; usually rather informally appointed and usually with precarious tenure. [256] Cf. Luke 14:28-33. [257] Eph. 5:8. [258] Cf. Ps. 34:5. [259] Cf. Ps. 6:3; 79:8. [260] This is the famous Tolle, lege; tolle, lege. [261] Doubtless from Ponticianus, in their earlier conversation. [262] Matt. 19:21. [263] Rom. 13:13. [264] Note the parallels here to the conversion of Anthony and the agentes in rebus. [265] Rom. 14:1. [266] Eph. 3:20. [267] Ps. 116:16, 17. [268] An imperial holiday season, from late August to the middle of October. [269] Cf. Ps. 46:10. [270] His subsequent baptism; see below, Ch. VI. [271] Luke 14:14. [272] Ps. 125:3. [273] The heresy of Docetism, one of the earliest and most persistent of all Christological errors.