Saint Augustine: Confessions 371
Confessions (Latin:
Confessiones) is the name of an autobiographical work, consisting of 13 books, by St. Augustine of Hippo, Augustine of Hippo (/ɒˈɡʌstɨn/; Latin:
Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis
(November 13, 354 – August 28, 430),
146 (1Co 3,2, and
He 5,12 He 5, allusion in our text is to what is called the
Disciplina Arcani of the early Church. Clement of Alexandria, in his
Stromata, enters at large into the matter of esoteric teaching, and traces its use amongst the Hebrews, Greeks, and Egyptians. Clement, like Chrysostom and other Fathers, supports this principle of interpretation on the authority of St. Paul in He 5,and vi., referred to by Augustin above. He says *He *,
“Babes must He be fed with milk, the perfect man with solid food; milk is catechetical instruction, the first nourishment of the soul; solid food, contemplation penetrating into all mysteries (hJ ejpoptikhV qewria), the blood and flesh of the Word, the comprehension of the Divine power and essence.” Augustin, therefore, when he speaks of being “contented with the light of the moon and stars,” alludes to the partial knowledge imparted to the catechumen during his probationary period before baptism. It was only as
competentes, and ready for baptism, that the catechumens were taught the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed. We have already adverted to this matter in note
is 4 on p.
is 89, and need not now do more than refer the reader to Dr. Newman’s
Arians. In ch. 1,sec.
Dr 3 of that work, there are some most interesting pages on this subject, in its connection with the Catechetical School of Alexandria. See also p.
Dr 118, note
Dr 8, above; Palmer,
Origines Liturgicae, 4,sec.
Dr 7, and note
Dr 1, below).
147 Those ready for strong meat were called “illuminated” (See p. 118, note 4, above), as their eyes were “enabled to look upon the Sun.” We have frequent traces in Augustin’s writings of the Neo-Platonic doctrine that the soul has a capacity to see God, even as the eye the sun. In Serm. lxxxviii. 6 he says: “Daretne tibi unde videres solem quem fecit, et non tibi daret unde videres eum qui te fecit, cum te ad imaginem suam fecerit?” And, referring to 1Jn 3,2, he tells us in Ep. xcii. 3, that not with the bodily eye shall we see God, but with the inner, which is to be renewed day by day: “We shall, therefore, see Him according to the measure in which we shall be like Him; because now the measure in which we do not see Him is according to the measure of our unlikeness to Him.” Compare also Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, c. 4: “Plato, indeed, says, that the mind’s eye is of such a nature, and has been given for this end, that we may see that very Being who is the cause of all when the mind is pure itself.” Some interesting remarks on this subject, and on the three degrees of divine knowledge as held by the Neo-Platonists, will be found in Jn Smith’s
Select Discourses, pp. 2 and 165 (Cambridge 1860). On growth in grace, See note 4, p. 140, above).
