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The Orthodox Library

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The Confessions

Book XII, Chapter XXX: In the Great Diversity of Opinions, It Becomes All to Unite Charity and Divine Truth.

Saint Augustine of Hippo · Historical English edition; series volume first published 1886 · 226 words
Historical English translation. Original wording is not automatically translated.

Chapter XXX.—In the Great Diversity of Opinions, It Becomes All to Unite Charity and Divine Truth.

41. In this diversity of true opinions let Truth itself beget concord; and may our God have mercy upon us, that we may use the law lawfully, the end of the commandment, pure charity. And by this if any one asks of me, “Which of these was the meaning of Thy servant Moses?” these were not the utterances of my confessions, should I not confess unto Thee, “I know not;” and yet I know that those opinions are true, with the exception of those carnal ones concerning which I have spoken what I thought well. However, these words of Thy Book affright not those little ones of good hope, treating few of high things in a humble fashion, and few things in varied ways. But let all, whom I acknowledge to see and speak the truth in these words, love one another, and equally love Thee, our God, fountain of truth,—if we thirst not for vain things, but for it; yea, let us so honour this servant of Thine, the dispenser of this Scripture, full of Thy Spirit, as to believe that when Thou revealedst Thyself to him, and he wrote these things, he intended that which in them chiefly excels both for light of truth and fruitfulness of profit.

Edition and rights

NPNF1-01. The Confessions and Letters of St. Augustine, with a Sketch of his Life and Work. Historical English edition; series volume first published 1886.

J. G. Pilkington, translator of the Confessions

Ancient work and historical English translation: public domain in the United States (published before 1931). Copyright rules vary by country. This is a historical source transcription, not an official Church edition. Modern website material is not reproduced.

Historical footnotes and publisher introductions are omitted. Author-written openings are retained. Paragraph whitespace is normalized. Transcriptions can contain errors; this is not a critical edition. Attribution follows the historical edition, not universal scholarly agreement.

Digitization provenance (not an external reading link): https://www.ccel.org/ccel/s/schaff/npnf101.xml

Source section: vi.XII.XXX · Text SHA-256: 9c27d35b9df251d30a06a1771e4c443a22df19d1ed055c5393f99fc98931a84f