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Confessions

Blessed Augustine, NPNF I.1

d1
Book 1, Argument
Book 1, He Proclaims the Greatness of God, Whom He Desires to Seek and Invoke, Being…
Book 1, 2. That the God Whom We Invoke is in Us, and We in Him
Book 1, Everywhere God Wholly Filleth All Things, But Neither Heaven Nor Earth Containeth…
Book 1, 4. The Majesty of God is Supreme, and His Virtues Inexplicable
Book 1, 5. He Seeks Rest in God, and Pardon of His Sins
Book 1, He Describes His Infancy, and Lauds the Protection and Eternal Providence of God
Book 1, 7. He Shows by Example that Even Infancy is Prone to Sin
Book 1, That When a Boy He Learned to Speak, Not by Any Set Method, But from the Acts and…
Book 1, Concerning the Hatred of Learning, the Love of Play, and the Fear of Being…
Book 1, Through a Love of Ball-Playing and Shows, He Neglects His Studies and the…
Book 1, Seized by Disease, His Mother Being Troubled, He Earnestly Demands Baptism, Which…
Book 1, Being Compelled, He Gave His Attention to Learning; But Fully Acknowledges that…
Book 1, He Delighted in Latin Studies and the Empty Fables of the Poets, But Hated the…
Book 1, 14. Why He Despised Greek Literature, and Easily Learned Latin
Book 1, He Entreats God, that Whatever Useful Things He Learned as a Boy May Be Dedicated…
Book 1, He Disapproves of the Mode of Educating Youth, and He Points Out Why Wickedness…
Book 1, He Continues on the Unhappy Method of Training Youth in Literary Subjects
Book 1, Men Desire to Observe the Rules of Learning, But Neglect the Eternal Rules of…
Book 2, Argument
Book 2, 1. He Deplores the Wickedness of His Youth
Book 2, Stricken with Exceeding Grief, He Remembers the Dissolute Passions in Which, in…
Book 2, Concerning His Father, a Freeman of Thagaste, the Assister of His Son’s Studies,…
Book 2, He Commits Theft with His Companions, Not Urged on by Poverty, But from a Certain…
Book 2, Concerning the Motives to Sin, Which are Not in the Love of Evil, But in the…
Book 2, Why He Delighted in that Theft, When All Things Which Under the Appearance of…
Book 2, He Gives Thanks to God for the Remission of His Sins, and Reminds Every One that…
Book 2, 8. In His Theft He Loved the Company of His Fellow-Sinners
Book 2, It Was a Pleasure to Him Also to Laugh When Seriously Deceiving Others
Book 2, 10. With God There is True Rest and Life Unchanging
Book 3, Argument
Book 3, Deluded by an Insane Love, He, Though Foul and Dishonourable, Desires to Be…
Book 3, In Public Spectacles He is Moved by an Empty Compassion. He is Attacked by a…
Book 3, Not Even When at Church Does He Suppress His Desires. In the School of Rhetoric…
Book 3, In the Nineteenth Year of His Age (His Father Having Died Two Years Before) He is…
Book 3, He Rejects the Sacred Scriptures as Too Simple, and as Not to Be Compared with…
Book 3, Deceived by His Own Fault, He Falls into the Errors of the Manichæans, Who…
Book 3, He Attacks the Doctrine of the Manichæans Concerning Evil, God, and the…
Book 3, 8. He Argues Against the Same as to the Reason of Offences
Book 3, That the Judgment of God and Men as to Human Acts of Violence, is Different
Book 3, He Reproves the Triflings of the Manichæans as to the Fruits of the Earth
Book 3, He Refers to the Tears, and the Memorable Dream Concerning Her Son, Granted by…
Book 3, The Excellent Answer of the Bishop When Referred to by His Mother as to the…
Book 4, Argument
Book 4, Concerning that Most Unhappy Time in Which He, Being Deceived, Deceived Others;…
Book 4, He Teaches Rhetoric, the Only Thing He Loved, and Scorns the Soothsayer, Who…
Book 4, Not Even the Most Experienced Men Could Persuade Him of the Vanity of Astrology…
Book 4, Sorely Distressed by Weeping at the Death of His Friend, He Provides Consolation…
Book 4, 5. Why Weeping is Pleasant to the Wretched
Book 4, His Friend Being Snatched Away by Death, He Imagines that He Remains Only as Half
Book 4, Troubled by Restlessness and Grief, He Leaves His Country a Second Time for…
Book 4, That His Grief Ceased by Time, and the Consolation of Friends
Book 4, That the Love of a Human Being, However Constant in Loving and Returning Love,…
Book 4, That All Things Exist that They May Perish, and that We are Not Safe Unless God…
Book 4, That Portions of the World are Not to Be Loved; But that God, Their Author, is…
Book 4, Love is Not Condemned, But Love in God, in Whom There is Rest Through Jesus…
Book 4, 13. Love Originates from Grace and Beauty Enticing Us
Book 4, Concerning the Books Which He Wrote “On the Fair and Fit,” Dedicated to Hierius
Book 4, While Writing, Being Blinded by Corporeal Images, He Failed to Recognise the…
Book 4, He Very Easily Understood the Liberal Arts and the Categories of Aristotle, But…
Book 5, Argument
Book 5, That It Becomes the Soul to Praise God, and to Confess Unto Him
Book 5, On the Vanity of Those Who Wished to Escape the Omnipotent God
Book 5, Having Heard Faustus, the Most Learned Bishop of the Manichæans, He Discerns that…
Book 5, That the Knowledge of Terrestrial and Celestial Things Does Not Give Happiness,…
Book 5, Of Manichæus Pertinaciously Teaching False Doctrines, and Proudly Arrogating to…
Book 5, Faustus Was Indeed an Elegant Speaker, But Knew Nothing of the Liberal Sciences
Book 5, Clearly Seeing the Fallacies of the Manichæans, He Retires from Them, Being…
Book 5, 8. He Sets Out for Rome, His Mother in Vain Lamenting It
Book 5, 9. Being Attacked by Fever, He is in Great Danger
Book 5, When He Had Left the Manichæans, He Retained His Depraved Opinions Concerning Sin…
Book 5, Helpidius Disputed Well Against the Manichæans as to the Authenticity of the New…
Book 5, Professing Rhetoric at Rome, He Discovers the Fraud of His Scholars
Book 5, He is Sent to Milan, that He, About to Teach Rhetoric, May Be Known by Ambrose
Book 5, Having Heard the Bishop, He Perceives the Force of the Catholic Faith, Yet…
Book 6, Argument
Book 6, His Mother Having Followed Him to Milan, Declares that She Will Not Die Before…
Book 6, She, on the Prohibition of Ambrose, Abstains from Honouring the Memory of the…
Book 6, As Ambrose Was Occupied with Business and Study, Augustin Could Seldom Consult…
Book 6, He Recognises the Falsity of His Own Opinions, and Commits to Memory the Saying…
Book 6, Faith is the Basis of Human Life; Man Cannot Discover that Truth Which Holy…
Book 6, On the Source and Cause of True Joy,—The Example of the Joyous Beggar Being…
Book 6, He Leads to Reformation His Friend Alypius, Seized with Madness for the…
Book 6, The Same When at Rome, Being Led by Others into the Amphitheatre, is Delighted…
Book 6, Innocent Alypius, Being Apprehended as a Thief, is Set at Liberty by the…
Book 6, The Wonderful Integrity of Alypius in Judgment. The Lasting Friendship of…
Book 6, Being Troubled by His Grievous Errors, He Meditates Entering on a New Life
Book 6, 12. Discussion with Alypius Concerning a Life of Celibacy
Book 6, Being Urged by His Mother to Take a Wife, He Sought a Maiden that Was Pleasing…
Book 6, The Design of Establishing a Common Household with His Friends is Speedily…
Book 6, 15. He Dismisses One Mistress, and Chooses Another
Book 6, The Fear of Death and Judgment Called Him, Believing in the Immortality of the…
Book 7, Argument
Book 7, He Regarded Not God Indeed Under the Form of a Human Body, But as a Corporeal…
Book 7, The Disputation of Nebridius Against the Manichæans, on the Question “Whether God…
Book 7, 3. That the Cause of Evil is the Free Judgment of the Will
Book 7, That God is Not Corruptible, Who, If He Were, Would Not Be God at All
Book 7, Questions Concerning the Origin of Evil in Regard to God, Who, Since He is the…
Book 7, He Refutes the Divinations of the Astrologers, Deduced from the Constellations
Book 7, 7. He is Severely Exercised as to the Origin of Evil
Book 7, 8. By God’s Assistance He by Degrees Arrives at the Truth
Book 7, He Compares the Doctrine of the Platonists Concerning the Λόγος With the Much…
Book 7, Divine Things are the More Clearly Manifested to Him Who Withdraws into the…
Book 7, 11. That Creatures are Mutable and God Alone Immutable
Book 7, 12. Whatever Things the Good God Has Created are Very Good
Book 7, It is Meet to Praise the Creator for the Good Things Which are Made in Heaven and…
Book 7, Being Displeased with Some Part Of God’s Creation, He Conceives of Two Original…
Book 7, 15. Whatever Is, Owes Its Being to God
Book 7, Evil Arises Not from a Substance, But from the Perversion of the Will
Book 7, Above His Changeable Mind, He Discovers the Unchangeable Author of Truth
Book 7, 18. Jesus Christ, the Mediator, is the Only Way of Safety
Book 7, He Does Not Yet Fully Understand the Saying of John, that “The Word Was Made…
Book 7, He Rejoices that He Proceeded from Plato to the Holy Scriptures, and Not the…
Book 7, What He Found in the Sacred Books Which are Not to Be Found in Plato
Book 8, Argument
Book 8, He, Now Given to Divine Things, and Yet Entangled by the Lusts of Love, Consults…
Book 8, The Pious Old Man Rejoices that He Read Plato and the Scriptures, and Tells Him…
Book 8, That God and the Angels Rejoice More on the Return of One Sinner Than of Many…
Book 8, He Shows by the Example of Victorinus that There is More Joy in the Conversion of…
Book 8, 5. Of the Causes Which Alienate Us from God
Book 8, Pontitianus’ Account of Antony, the Founder of Monachism, and of Some Who…
Book 8, He Deplores His Wretchedness, that Having Been Born Thirty-Two Years, He Had Not…
Book 8, The Conversation with Alypius Being Ended, He Retires to the Garden, Whither His…
Book 8, That the Mind Commandeth the Mind, But It Willeth Not Entirely
Book 8, He Refutes the Opinion of the Manichæans as to Two Kinds of Minds,—One Good and…
Book 8, In What Manner the Spirit Struggled with the Flesh, that It Might Be Freed from…
Book 8, Having Prayed to God, He Pours Forth a Shower of Tears, And, Admonished by a…
Book 9, Argument
Book 9, He Praises God, the Author of Safety, and Jesus Christ, the Redeemer,…
Book 9, As His Lungs Were Affected, He Meditates Withdrawing Himself from Public Favour
Book 9, He Retires to the Villa of His Friend Verecundus, Who Was Not Yet a Christian,…
Book 9, In the Country He Gives His Attention to Literature, and Explains the Fourth…
Book 9, At the Recommendation of Ambrose, He Reads the Prophecies of Isaiah, But Does Not…
Book 9, He is Baptized at Milan with Alypius and His Son Adeodatus. The Book “De…
Book 9, Of the Church Hymns Instituted at Milan; Of the Ambrosian Persecution Raised by…
Book 9, Of the Conversion of Evodius, and the Death of His Mother When Returning with Him…
Book 9, He Describes the Praiseworthy Habits of His Mother; Her Kindness Towards Her…
Book 9, A Conversation He Had with His Mother Concerning the Kingdom of Heaven
Book 9, 11. His Mother, Attacked by Fever, Dies at Ostia
Book 9, 12. How He Mourned His Dead Mother
Book 9, He Entreats God for Her Sins, and Admonishes His Readers to Remember Her Piously
Book 10, Argument
Book 10, 1. In God Alone is the Hope and Joy of Man
Book 10, That All Things are Manifest to God. That Confession Unto Him is Not Made by the…
Book 10, 3. He Who Confesseth Rightly Unto God Best Knoweth Himself
Book 10, 4. That in His Confessions He May Do Good, He Considers Others
Book 10, 5. That Man Knoweth Not Himself Wholly
Book 10, The Love of God, in His Nature Superior to All Creatures, is Acquired by the…
Book 10, That God is to Be Found Neither from the Powers of the Body Nor of the Soul
Book 10, 8. Of the Nature and the Amazing Power of Memory
Book 10, Not Only Things, But Also Literature and Images, are Taken from the Memory, and…
Book 10, Literature is Not Introduced to the Memory Through the Senses, But is Brought…
Book 10, 11. What It is to Learn and to Think
Book 10, 12. On the Recollection of Things Mathematical
Book 10, 13. Memory Retains All Things
Book 10, Concerning the Manner in Which Joy and Sadness May Be Brought Back to the Mind…
Book 10, 15. In Memory There are Also Images of Things Which are Absent
Book 10, 16. The Privation of Memory is Forgetfulness
Book 10, God Cannot Be Attained Unto by the Power of Memory, Which Beasts and Birds…
Book 10, A Thing When Lost Could Not Be Found Unless It Were Retained in the Memory
Book 10, 19. What It is to Remember
Book 10, We Should Not Seek for God and the Happy Life Unless We Had Known It
Book 10, 21. How a Happy Life May Be Retained in the Memory
Book 10, 22. A Happy Life is to Rejoice in God, and for God
Book 10, 23. All Wish to Rejoice in the Truth
Book 10, 24. He Who Finds Truth, Finds God
Book 10, 25. He is Glad that God Dwells in His Memory
Book 10, 26. God Everywhere Answers Those Who Take Counsel of Him
Book 10, 27. He Grieves that He Was So Long Without God
Book 10, 28. On the Misery of Human Life
Book 10, 29. All Hope is in the Mercy of God
Book 10, Of the Perverse Images of Dreams, Which He Wishes to Have Taken Away
Book 10, About to Speak of the Temptations of the Lust of the Flesh, He First Complains…
Book 10, 32. Of the Charms of Perfumes Which are More Easily Overcome
Book 10, He Overcame the Pleasures of the Ear, Although in the Church He Frequently…
Book 10, Of the Very Dangerous Allurements of the Eyes; On Account of Beauty of Form,…
Book 10, Another Kind of Temptation is Curiosity, Which is Stimulated by the Lust of the…
Book 10, A Third Kind is “Pride” Which is Pleasing to Man, Not to God
Book 10, 37. He is Forcibly Goaded on by the Love of Praise
Book 10, 38. Vain-Glory is the Highest Danger
Book 10, Of the Vice of Those Who, While Pleasing Themselves, Displease God
Book 10, The Only Safe Resting-Place for the Soul is to Be Found in God
Book 10, 41. Having Conquered His Triple Desire, He Arrives at Salvation
Book 10, 42. In What Manner Many Sought the Mediator
Book 10, That Jesus Christ, at the Same Time God and Man, is the True and Most…
Book 11, Argument
Book 11, By Confession He Desires to Stimulate Towards God His Own Love and That of His…
Book 11, He Begs of God that Through the Holy Scriptures He May Be Led to Truth
Book 11, He Begins from the Creation of the World—Not Understanding the Hebrew Text
Book 11, 4. Heaven and Earth Cry Out that They Have Been Created by God
Book 11, God Created the World Not from Any Certain Matter, But in His Own Word
Book 11, He Did Not, However, Create It by a Sounding and Passing Word
Book 11, 7. By His Co-Eternal Word He Speaks, and All Things are Done
Book 11, That Word Itself is the Beginning of All Things, in the Which We are Instructed…
Book 11, 9. Wisdom and the Beginning
Book 11, The Rashness of Those Who Inquire What God Did Before He Created Heaven and Earth
Book 11, They Who Ask This Have Not as Yet Known the Eternity of God, Which is Exempt…
Book 11, 12. What God Did Before the Creation of the World
Book 11, 13. Before the Times Created by God, Times Were Not
Book 11, Neither Time Past Nor Future, But the Present Only, Really is
Book 11, 15. There is Only a Moment of Present Time
Book 11, 16. Time Can Only Be Perceived or Measured While It is Passing
Book 11, 17. Nevertheless There is Time Past and Future
Book 11, 18. Past and Future Times Cannot Be Thought of But as Present
Book 11, 19. We are Ignorant in What Manner God Teaches Future Things
Book 11, 20. In What Manner Time May Properly Be Designated
Book 11, 21. How Time May Be Measured
Book 11, He Prays God that He Would Explain This Most Entangled Enigma
Book 11, 23. That Time is a Certain Extension
Book 11, That Time is Not a Motion of a Body Which We Measure by Time
Book 11, 25. He Calls on God to Enlighten His Mind
Book 11, 26. We Measure Longer Events by Shorter in Time
Book 11, 27. Times are Measured in Proportion as They Pass by
Book 11, Time in the Human Mind, Which Expects, Considers, and Remembers
Book 11, That Human Life is a Distraction But that Through the Mercy of God He Was Intent…
Book 11, Again He Refutes the Empty Question, “What Did God Before the Creation of the…
Book 11, 31. How the Knowledge of God Differs from that of Man
Book 12, Argument
Book 12, The Discovery of Truth is Difficult, But God Has Promised that He Who Seeks…
Book 12, Of the Double Heaven,—The Visible, and the Heaven of Heavens
Book 12, Of the Darkness Upon the Deep, and of the Invisible and Formless Earth
Book 12, From the Formlessness of Matter, the Beautiful World Has Arisen
Book 12, 5. What May Have Been the Form of Matter
Book 12, He Confesses that at One Time He Himself Thought Erroneously of Matter
Book 12, 7. Out of Nothing God Made Heaven and Earth
Book 12, Heaven and Earth Were Made “In the Beginning;” Afterwards the World, During Six…
Book 12, That the Heaven of Heavens Was an Intellectual Creature, But that the Earth Was…
Book 12, He Begs of God that He May Live in the True Light, and May Be Instructed as to…
Book 12, 11. What May Be Discovered to Him by God
Book 12, From the Formless Earth God Created Another Heaven and a Visible and Formed Earth
Book 12, Of the Intellectual Heaven and Formless Earth, Out of Which, on Another Day, the…
Book 12, 14. Of the Depth of the Sacred Scripture, and Its Enemies
Book 12, He Argues Against Adversaries Concerning the Heaven of Heavens
Book 12, He Wishes to Have No Intercourse with Those Who Deny Divine Truth
Book 12, 17. He Mentions Five Explanations of the Words of Genesis I. I
Book 12, 18. What Error is Harmless in Sacred Scripture
Book 12, 19. He Enumerates the Things Concerning Which All Agree
Book 12, 20. Of the Words, “In the Beginning,” Variously Understood
Book 12, 21. Of the Explanation of the Words, “The Earth Was Invisible.”
Book 12, He Discusses Whether Matter Was from Eternity, or Was Made by God
Book 12, 23. Two Kinds of Disagreements in the Books to Be Explained
Book 12, Out of the Many True Things, It is Not Asserted Confidently that Moses…
Book 12, It Behoves Interpreters, When Disagreeing Concerning Obscure Places, to Regard…
Book 12, What He Might Have Asked of God Had He Been Enjoined to Write the Book of Genesis
Book 12, The Style of Speaking in the Book of Genesis is Simple and Clear
Book 12, The Words, “In the Beginning,” And, “The Heaven and the Earth,” Are Differently…
Book 12, Concerning the Opinion of Those Who Explain It “At First He Made.”
Book 12, In the Great Diversity of Opinions, It Becomes All to Unite Charity and Divine…
Book 12, Moses is Supposed to Have Perceived Whatever of Truth Can Be Discovered in His…
Book 12, First, the Sense of the Writer is to Be Discovered, Then that is to Be Brought…
Book 13, Argument
Book 13, 1. He Calls Upon God, and Proposes to Himself to Worship Him
Book 13, 2. All Creatures Subsist from the Plenitude of Divine Goodness
Book 13, Genesis I. 3,—Of “Light,”—He Understands as It is Seen in the Spiritual Creature
Book 13, All Things Have Been Created by the Grace of God, and are Not of Him as Standing…
Book 13, He Recognises the Trinity in the First Two Verses of Genesis
Book 13, Why the Holy Ghost Should Have Been Mentioned After the Mention of Heaven and…
Book 13, 7. That the Holy Spirit Brings Us to God
Book 13, That Nothing Whatever, Short of God, Can Yield to the Rational Creature a Happy…
Book 13, 9. Why the Holy Spirit Was Only “Borne Over” The Waters
Book 13, 10. That Nothing Arose Save by the Gift of God
Book 13, That the Symbols of the Trinity in Man, to Be, to Know, and to Will, are Never…
Book 13, Allegorical Explanation of Genesis, Chap. I., Concerning the Origin of the…
Book 13, 13. That the Renewal of Man is Not Completed in This World
Book 13, That Out of the Children of the Night and of the Darkness, Children of the Light…
Book 13, Allegorical Explanation of the Firmament and Upper Works, Ver. 6
Book 13, 16. That No One But the Unchangeable Light Knows Himself
Book 13, Allegorical Explanation of the Sea and the Fruit-Bearing Earth—Verses 9 and 11
Book 13, 18. Of the Lights and Stars of Heaven—Of Day and Night, Ver. 14
Book 13, 19. All Men Should Become Lights in the Firmament of Heaven
Book 13, Concerning Reptiles and Flying Creatures (Ver. 20),—The Sacrament of Baptism…
Book 13, Concerning the Living Soul, Birds, and Fishes (Ver. 24)—The Sacrament of the…
Book 13, He Explains the Divine Image (Ver. 26) of the Renewal of the Mind
Book 13, That to Have Power Over All Things (Ver. 26) is to Judge Spiritually of All
Book 13, Why God Has Blessed Men, Fishes, Flying Creatures, and Not Herbs and the Other…
Book 13, He Explains the Fruits of the Earth (Ver. 29) of Works of Mercy
Book 13, In the Confessing of Benefits, Computation is Made Not as to The “Gift,” But as…
Book 13, Many are Ignorant as to This, and Ask for Miracles, Which are Signified Under…
Book 13, He Proceeds to the Last Verse, “All Things are Very Good,”—That Is, the Work…
Book 13, Although It is Said Eight Times that “God Saw that It Was Good,” Yet Time Has No…
Book 13, He Refutes the Opinions of the Manichæans and the Gnostics Concerning the Origin…
Book 13, We Do Not See “That It Was Good” But Through the Spirit of God Which is in Us
Book 13, 32. Of the Particular Works of God, More Especially of Man
Book 13, 33. The World Was Created by God Out of Nothing
Book 13, He Briefly Repeats the Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis (Ch. I.), and…
Book 13, 35. He Prays God for that Peace of Rest Which Hath No Evening
Book 13, The Seventh Day, Without Evening and Setting, the Image of Eternal Life and Rest…
Book 13, 37. Of Rest in God Who Ever Worketh, and Yet is Ever at Rest
Book 13, Of the Difference Between the Knowledge of God and of Men, and of the Repose…