15. Eccles. V. 8.
284 ST. AUGUSTINE that even some who were dedicated to God as Ifis handmaids have been by these heretics re-baptized, with what floods of tears ought this great calamity to be bewailed by us! Men are saying, moreover, —^perhaps it is an unfounded slander,—that one wife does not satisfy your passions, and that you have been defiled by consorting with some other women as concubines.
What shall I say regarding these evils—so patent to all, and so great in magnitude as well as number—of which you have been, directly or indirectiy, the cause since the time of your being married? You are a Christian, you have a conscience, you fear God; consider, then, for yourself some things which I prefer to leave unsaid, and you will find for how great evils you ought to do penance; and I beheve that it is to afford you an opportunity of doing this in the way in which it ought to be done, that the Lord is now sparing you and delivering you from all dangers. But if you will listen to die counsel of Scripture, I pray you, "make no tarrying to turn to the Lord, and put not off from day to day." ^^ You allege, mdeed, that you have good reason for what you have done, and that I cannot be a judge of the sufficiency of that reason, because I cannot hear both sides of the question ;i^ but, whatever be your reason, the nature of which it is not necessary at present either to investigate or to discuss, can you, in the presence of God, affirm that you would ever have come into the embarrassments of your present position had you not loved the good things of this world, which, being a servant of God, such as we knew you to be formerly, it was your duty
15. Eccles. V. 8. 16. See note on Letter CLXXXIX.