Whom ye have both received this gift, and 1 Ep. 150, ada Probam. Vol. I. p. 503.
THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
hope for the rewards of this gift, that ye be mindful to set me also in your prayers with all your household Church. Forsooth it hath come to pass in most proper order, that I should write unto your Mother now aged a letter concerning prayer; unto her, forsooth, it chiefly pertains by praying to contend on your behalf, who is less full of care for herself than for you; and that for you rather than for her I should compose this little work concerning widowed continence; because unto you it remaineth to overcome, what her age hath already overcome. But the holy virgin your child, if she desire aught concerning her profession from our labors, she hath a large book on Holy Virginity to read. Concerning the reading of which I had also admonished you, forasmuch as it contains many things necessary unto either chastity, that is, virginal and widowed, which things on this account I have here partly touched on lightly, partly altogether passed over, because I there discussed them more fully.
to fear lest haply all receive it, and some one of lesser goods, that is, married life, be wanting in the body of Christ. For if all shall have heard, and all shall have received, we ought to understand that this very thing was predestinated, that married goods already suffice in the number of those members which so many have passed out of this life. For neither now, if all shall have been continent, will they give the honor of the continent to those who have already borne into the garners of the Lord the fruit thirty-fold, if that be understood of married good. Therefore all these goods will have there their place, although from this time no woman wish to be married, no man wish to marry a wife. Therefore without anxiety urge on whom ye can, to become what ye are; and pray with watchfulness and fervor, that by the help of the Right Hand of the Most High, and by the abundance of the most merciful grace of the Lord, ye may both persevere in that which ye are, and may make advances unto that which ye shall be.
May you persevere in the grace of Christ. 29. Next I entreat you, by Him, from}. Whom ye have both received this gift, and 1 Ep. 150, ada Probam. Vol. I. p. 503.
SU AUGUSTIN:
OWN LEY lN:G
[DE MENDACIO.]
TRANSLATED BY
REV, H. BROWNE, M.A.,
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[DE MENDACIO.]
This book appears from its place in the Retractations to have been written about A. D. 395, as it is the last work named in the first book, which contains those which he wrote before he was Bishop. Some editions represent it as addressed to Consentius, but not the
Mss. The latter are probably right, as his other work on the subject was written in answer to the inquiries of Consentius on the case of the Priscillianists many years later.— ened. Ed.
etractations, Book I. last Chapter.
I have also written a Book on Lying, which though it takes some pains to understand, contains much that is useful for the exercise of the mind, and more that is profitable to morals, in inculcating the love of speaking the truth. This also I was minded to remove from my works, because it seemed to me obscure, and intricate, and altogether troublesome ; for which reason I had not sent it abroad. And when I had afterwards written another book, under this title, Agazust Lying, much more had I determined and ordered that the former should cease to exist ; which however was not done. Therefore in this retractation of my works, as I have found this still in being, I have ordered that it should remain ; chiefly because therein are to be found some necessary things which in the other are not. Why the other has for its title, Against Lying, but this, Of Zyzng, the reason is this, that throughout the one is an open assault upon lying, whereas great part of this is taken up with the discussion of the question for and against. Both, however, are directed to the same object. This book begins thus: °* Magna guestio est de Mendacio."
I, THERE is a great question about Lying,|from the course of the discussion, It is, which often arises in the midst of our every |indeed, very full of dark corners, and hath day business, and gives us much trouble, that] many cavern-like windings, whereby it oft we may not either rashly call that a lie which|eludes the eagerness of the seeker; so that is not such, or decide that it is sometimes|at one moment what was found seems to slip right to tell a lie, that is, a kind of honest, | out of one's hands, and anon comes to light well-meant, charitable lie. This question we|again, and then is once more lost to sight. will painfully discuss by seeking with them} At last, however, the chase will bear down that seek: whether to any good purpose, we|more surely, and will overtake our sentence. need not take upon ourselves to affirm, for| Wherein if there is any error, yet as Truth is the attentive reader will sufficiently gather|that which setteth free from all error, and